Vol 15, No.03 March 2015

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ARTICLES

THE YOGYAKARTA STATEMENT

. GENOCIDE IN KASHMIR: INDIA’S SHAME

BY ANDRE VLTCHEK..................................P 8

.INTEGRITY: CASTING ASPERSIONS BY CHANDRA MUZAFFAR.........................P4

. ISIS DESTROYS ANCIENT SITES NEAR MOSUL

BY SANDY ENGLISH...................................P 14

.AUSTRALIA’S SOVEREIGNTY SEVERELY COMPROMISED FOR

US-ISRAELI DESIGNS

BY DAUD BATCHELOR................................P 16

. DEAR SYRIA: FROM ONE REFUGEE TO ANOTHER

BY RAMZY BAROUD.............................P 18

. WEALTH OF THE WORLD’S 400 RICHEST

BILLIONAIRES ROSE $92 BILLION IN 2014

BY ANDRE DAMON...............................P 19

STATEMENT

. THE REAL AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

BY ALFRED W. MCCOY.......................P21

.INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: ITS SIGNIFICANCE

FOR ARAB AND PALESTINIAN WOMEN

BY MAZIN QUMSIYEH.............................P17

. SAUDIS SAID TO AID ISRAELI PLAN TO BOMB

BY ROBERT PARRY......................................P 5

A high-level summit of Buddhist and Muslim

leaders was held at Yogyakarta and the

Borobudur Temple, Indonesia on the 3rd and

4th of March 2015. It was themed “Overcoming

Extremism and Advancing Peace with Justice.”

Hosted by the Indonesian Buddhist Association

(WALUBI) and the Indonesian Council of

Ulama (MUI), it was organized the

International Forum on Buddhist Muslim

Relations (BMF). The BMF’s core comprises

the International Network of Engaged

Buddhists (INEB); the International

Movement for a Just World (JUST);

Muhammadiyah Indonesia; and Religions for

Peace New York.

The Summit adopted a Statement — the

YOGYAKARTA STATEMENT — which is

published below.

We, Buddhist and Muslim leaders, recognize

that our followers have developed together a

harmonious relationship, which has become

the foundation for building peace and

prosperity in many parts of the world.

Buddhism and Islam share in their respective

scriptures and other canonical texts the

importance of holistic and positive peace,

which encompasses the notions of inner

peace, peace among humans, and peace

with nature.

We reaffirm that Islam and Buddhism are

religions of mercy and compassion

committed to justice for all humankind. Both

traditions respect the sacredness of life and

inherent dignity of human existence, which

is the foundation of all human rights

without any distinction as to race, color,

language, or religion.

We reject the abuse of our religions in

support of discrimination and violence.

Buddhism and Islam have been misused

by some for their own political purposes

to fuel prejudice and stereotyping and to

incite discrimination and violence. We

categorically reject such abuse and pledge

to counter extremist religious

interpretations and actions with our

authentic primary narratives of peace.

We also recognize the need to strengthen

governmental measures to prevent

religiously motivated discrimination and

violence. Based on universally accepted

international legal instruments such as

Article 20 of the International Covenant

on Civil and Political Rights and the United

Nations Human Rights Council

Resolution 16/18, we call on all states to

take measures to fulfill their

responsibilities to protect their citizens

from religious and racial hatred, and

incitement to discrimination and violence

in the name of religion. Freedom of

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expression includes the obligation to respect

each other.

We reaffirm our fundamental common

values shared by our respective scriptures

and other canonical texts as follows:

I.Religious Diversity and Peaceful Co-

Existence

Buddhism

“All religions should reside everywhere, for

all of them desire self-control and purity of

heart.” “Contact (between religions) is good.

One should listen to and respect the

doctrines professed by others. Beloved-of-

the-Gods, King Piyadasi, desires that all

should be well-learned in the good doctrines

of other religions.” “You are true to your

own beliefs if you accord kindly treatment

to adherents of other faiths. You harm your

own religion by harassing followers of other

creeds.” (Edicts of Emperor Ashoka, 269-

232 BC)

Islam

“O humankind! We [Allah] have created you

from a single [pair] of a male and a female

and have made you into nations and tribes,

so that you may come to know one

another.” (The Qur’an 49:13). It reminds

humanity that they belong to one family,

with the same set of parents, a diverse family

as it may be. This is a reminder that diversity

in unity and unity within diversity are

possible.

This is further reinforced by the assertion

that diversity is part of the divine plan and is

in fact a way of testing human beings. “If

God had so willed He would have made

you a single people, but (His Plan is) to test

you in what he hath given you: So strive as

in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is

to God.” (The Qur’an, 5: 48)

11. Universal Mercy and Compassion

Islam

It is significant that every one of the 114

chapters of the Qur’an — except one —

begins with the proclamation “In the name

of God, the Compassionate and the

Merciful.” Compassion and Mercy are

among the most exalted of God’s attributes.

This is why the Qur’an says “And [thus,

O Muhammad], We have not sent you,

but as mercy to all the worlds” (The Qur’an

21:107).

Buddhism

“Let your love flow outward through the

universe, To its height, its depth, its broad

extent, A limitless love,without hatred or

enmity.” Just as a mother would protect

her only child at the risk of her own life,

even so,cultivate a boundless heart towards

all beings. Let your thoughts of boundless

love pervade the world.” (Sutta Nipata 149-

150)

111. Universal Justice

Buddhism

One who, while himself seeking happiness,

oppresses with violence other beings who

also desire happiness, will not attain

happiness hereafter. (Dhammapada 131)

While being completely law-abiding, some

people are imprisoned, treated harshly and

even killed without cause so that many

people suffer. Therefore your aim should

be to act with impartiality. It is because of

these things — envy,anger, cruelty, hate,

indifference, laziness or tiredness — that

such a thing does not happen. Therefore

your aim should be: “May these things not

be in me.” And the root of this is non-anger

and patience. (Edicts of Emperor Ashoka,

269-232 BC)

Islam

“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for

justice as witnesses to God, even as against

yourselves, or your parents, Or your kin,

and whether it be (against) rich or poor;

for God can best protect both. Follow not

the lusts (of your hearts), lest you swerve,

and if you distort (justice) or decline to do

justice, verily God is well acquainted with

all you do.” (The Qur’an, 4: 135)

“We sent aforetime Our apostles with Clear

Signs And sent down with them The Book

and the Balance Of Right and Wrong, that

men May stand forth in Justice. (The Quran,

57: 25)

IV. Human Dignity and Non-Violence

Islam

“Now, indeed, We have conferred dignity

on the children of Adam and borne them

over land and sea, and provided for them

sustenance out of the good things of life,

and favoured them far above most of Our

creation.”(The Qur’an, 17: 70).

“…if anyone slays a human being, …it shall

be as though he had slain all humankind;

whereas, if anyone saves a life, it shall be

as though he had saved the lives of all

humankind” (The Qur’an 5:32)

Buddhism

“Whoever settles a matter by violence is

not just. The wise calmly considers what

is right and what is wrong.Whoever guides

others by a procedure that is non-violent

and fair is said to be a guardian of truth,

wise and just.”(Dhammapada 256-57)

“Even though he be well-attired, yet if he is

poised, calm, controlled and established in

the holy life, having set aside violence

towards all beings - he, truly, is a holy man,

a renunciate, a monk.(Dhammapada 142)

V. Living in Harmony with the

Environment.

Buddhism

As the bee derives honey from the flower

without harming its colour or fragrance —

So should the wise interact with their

surroundings. (Dhammapada 49)

One day a deity asked the Buddha, “Whose

merit grows day and night, who is the

righteous, virtuous person that goes to the

realm of bliss?” Answered the Buddha, the

merit of those people who plant groves,

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parks, build bridges, make ponds, dwelling

places etc. grows day and night, and such

religious persons go to heaven. (Vanaropa

Sutta)

Islam

For the true servants of the Most Gracious

are only those who walk gently on earth —

(The Qur’an 25:63) What this means is

that by reducing one’s ecological footprint

one is being faithful to God.

And there are on earth many tracts of land

close by one another (and yet widely

differing from one another ); and( there are

on it) vineyards, and fields of grain, and

date-palms growing in clusters from one

root or standing alone,(all) watered with the

same water: and yet, some of them have

We favoured above others by way of the

food (which they provide for man and

beast). Verily, in all this there are messages

indeed for people who use their reason. (The

Qur’an 13:4). This is a clear call to respect

the environment as God’s creation.

VI. Pluralism, Tolerance, and Religious

Freedom

Islam

“There is no compulsion in religion…” (The

Qur’an 2:256) “Will you then compel

mankind, against their will,to believe? No

soul can believe, except by the Will of God.”

(The Qur’an 10.99-100) There are many

examples of the Prophet’s tolerance of other

faiths. Islam recognizes that there are a

plurality of religions on this earth, and gives

the right to individuals to choose the path

which they believe to be true. Religion is

not to be, and was never, forced upon an

individual against their own will.

Buddhism

“Let him not therefore think himself better

(than others or) low or equal (to others);

questioned by different people,let him not

adorn himself. (Sutta Nipata 918) The

Buddha says, “To be attached to a certain

view and to look down upon others’ views

as inferior—this the wise men call a fetter.”

(Sutta Nipata 798)

Guiding his disciple called Upali on how to

treat the follower of another religion, the

Buddha clearly stated that he was to treat

him with the same respect. Throughout

his life the Buddha urged people to respect

all religious people in spite of the differences

of opinion between them.

VII. Rejection of Hate, Hate Speech,

Retaliation, and the Importance of Self-

Introspection

Buddhism

“They insulted me; they hurt me; they

defeated me; they cheated me. In those

who do harbor such thoughts, hate will

never cease. They insulted me; they hurt

me; they defeated me; they cheated me. In

those who do not harbor such thoughts,

hate will cease. For hate is never conquered

by hate. Hate is conquered by love. This is

an eternal law. (Dhammapada 3-5)

Bad words blaming others.Arrogant words

humiliating others.From these behaviors.

Come hatred and resentment. ...Hence

conflicts arise, rendering in people malicious

thoughts. (Dhammapada, 8)

“Do not look at the faults of others, or what

others have done or not done; observe what

you yourself have done and have not done.”

(Dhammapada 4.7)

Islam

“O you who believe! Stand out firmly for

Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let

not the hatred of others to you make you

swerve to wrong and depart from justice.

Be just: that is next to piety and fear Allah,

for Allah is well acquainted with all that you

do.” (The Qur’an 5:8)

Based upon our shared core values

mentioned above,

We commit ourselves, through the

facilitation of the core group of the

International Forum on Buddhist Muslim

Relations (BMF: International Network of

Engaged Buddhists, InternationalMovement

for a Just World, Muhammadiyah and

Religions for Peace), to implementing the

agreed upon action plan and working to

further strengthen BMF to:

• serve as a platform for intra-religious

and inter-religious initiatives in education &

advocacy;

• enable rapid reaction/ solidarity visits/

early warning/ conflict prevention in the

event of conflict;

• develop and provide tools and materials

for constructive engagement and strategic

common action, and;

• develop the effective use of media for

positive messaging, particularly via social

& alternative media.

We appeciate our Indonesian hosts,

Indonesian Buddhist Association (WALUBI)

and theIndonesian Council of Ulama (MUI)

for their warm hospitality and their offering

us a criticalopportunity to dialogue among

ourselves.

Partial List of Signatories

Bangladesh

1.Most Ven. Mahathero

Sreemathsatyapriyorev, Chief Priest of

Cox’s Bazar,Buddhist

2. H.E. Mr. Hasanul Haq Inu, Minister of

Information, the Government of

Bangladesh, Muslim

3. Ven. Bhikkhu Sunandapriyarev, Joint

General Secretary, Bangladesh Buddhist

Federation, Buddhist

Indonesia

4. Prof. Dr. Din Syamsuddin, Chairman,

Ulama Council of Indonesia (MUI) and

Chairman, Muhammadiyah, Muslim

5. Mr. Muhyidin Junaidi, Vice Chairman,

Ulama Council of Indonesia (MUI),Muslim

6. Prof. Dr. Philip K. Wijaya, Secretary

General, Buddhist Association of Indonesia

(WALUBI), Buddhist

7. Mr. Arief Harsono, Vice President,

Buddhist Association of Indonesia

(WALUBI), Buddhist

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8. Drs. H. Slamet Effendy Yusuf, M.Si, Vice

Chairman, Nahdlatul Ulama

9. Mr. Ahmad Suaedy, Executive Director,

Wahid Institute, Muslim

Malaysia

10. Ven. K Sri Dhammaratana, Chief Priest,

Kuala Lumpur, Buddhist

11. Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President,

International Movement for a Just

World,Muslim

Myanmar

12. Most Ven. Ashin Ariawonthar Biwontha,

Mandalay, Buddhist

13. Al Haj U Aye Lwin, Chief Convener,

Islamic Center of Myanmar, Muslim

Sri Lanka

14. Ven. Dr. Bellanwila Wimalaratana

Anunayaka Thera, President, SriLankan

Council of Religions for Peace, Buddhist

15. H.E. Mr. Rauf Hakeem, Minister of

Urban Development, Water and Supply and

Drainage, Government of Sri Lanka:

National Leader, Muslim Congress of Sri

Lanka,Muslim

16. Mr. Moulavi Athambawa, Vice-

President, Sri Lankan Council of Religions

forPeace, Muslim

17. Mr. Harsha Kumara Navaratne,

Chairman, Sewa lanka

Foundation;Chairman, Sewa lanka

Foundation, Buddhist

Thailand

18. Dr. Ismail Lutfi Japakiya, Rector,

Yala University, Muslim (represented

by Dr. Sukree Langputeh)

19. Ven. Phrakhruudomthammathon,

Narathiwat Province, Southern

Thailand,Buddhist

20. Dr. Parichart Suwanbubbha,

Director, Institute of Human Rights

and Peace Studies, Mahidol University,

Buddhist (represented by Dr.

Suphatmet Yunyasit)

BMF Core Group Representatives

International Network of Engaged

Buddhists (INEB)

21. Mr. Somboon Chungprampree,

Executive Secretary, International

Network of Engaged Buddhists, Buddhist

International for a Just Movement World

(JUST)

22. Mr. Hassanal Noor Rashid, Program

Coordinator, International Movementfor

a Just World, Muslim

Muhammadiyah

23. Dr. Alpha Amirrachman, Executive

Director, Centre for Dialogue and

Cooperation among Civilisations (CDCC-

Muhammadiyah)

Religions for Peace

24. Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, Deputy

Secretary General, Religions for Peace

International

International Forum on Buddhist-Muslim

Relations (BMF)

25. Mr. Vidya KV Soon, Interim

Secretary, International Forum on

Buddhist-Muslim Relations (BMF)

4 March 2015.

STATEMENT

INTEGRITY: CASTING ASPERSIONS

By Chandra Muzaffar

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Like many other Malaysians, I am deeply

concerned about allegations in the media

hurled at the Malaysian Prime Minister and

his family which have cast serious

aspersions on their integrity.

Some of these allegations have been

circulating for a while but they have now

re-surfaced in a more trenchant form. The

New York Times has played a big role in

this.

Why have they re-appeared at this time?

The NYT article entitled “Jho Low, Well

Connected in Malaysia, Has an Appetite

for New York” by Louise Story and

Stephanie Saul was dated February 8,

2015 — two days before the Federal

Court announced its verdict in the Anwar

Ibrahim case. Is this a coincidence? Or

was it a mischievous attempt to pile

pressure upon the powers-that-be in

Kuala Lumpur so that the Court would

be compelled to make a decision in

favour of Anwar? The five member

Federal Court panel, needless to say,

guided by the principles of law and the

canons of justice, upheld the earlier

decision of the Court of Appeal and found

Anwar guilty of sodomy.

It is valid to ask whether pressures were

brought to bear upon the Judiciary in view

of what transpired in 2012. It would be

recalled that on January 8 2012, an editorial

in the Washington Post warned bluntly

that, “If the verdict fails that test (Malaysia’s

commitment to democracy and the rule

of law) there should be consequences for

Mr. Najib’s relations with Washington.”

This was a day before the Kuala Lumpur

High Court was scheduled to pronounce

its verdict in Anwar’s sodomy trial. On

January 9, Anwar was acquitted by the

High Court. It could of course have been

a mere coincidence.

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A R T I C L E S

Nonetheless, it is a fact that sections of

the American and British media, leading

US and British based human rights

NGOs, and even some British and US

leaders had made vociferous demands in

the months preceding the 2012 verdict

for Anwar’s release. I had argued in a

couple of newspaper articles at that time

that this was part of their push for regime

change in Malaysia. Even before 1998,

when Anwar was sacked from the

government and UMNO, there were

already moves in some circles in the West

to fast-track Anwar as a replacement for

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who

they regarded as a ‘thorn in their flesh.’ In

contrast, Anwar was then described as

“the darling of the West.”

But why is there still a desire for regime

change when the present Prime Minister,

Dato Sri Najib, has gone out of his way

to strengthen ties with Washington and

London and even with their allies in West

Asia? Part of the explanation lies in Najib’s

unwavering support for the Palestinian

cause, demonstrated through actual

deeds, which has always incensed the

Israeli regime and its Zionist and Christian

Zionist backers in the US. Perhaps

another equally important reason for

Washington’s uneasiness with Kuala

Lumpur is Najib’s warm relationship with

Beijing which has gone beyond trade,

investments, education and culture to

embrace issues of security and military

cooperation. This may be why regime

change is still on the agenda of those who

see themselves as the rulers of the world.

Those of us who are vehemently opposed

to regime change instigated and

orchestrated by outsiders are very much

aware of how the vulnerabilities and

shortcomings of the wielders of power in

a particular country can be so easily

exploited by both external and internal

forces to bring down a leader. Allegations

about the unexplained wealth of individuals

linked to the Prime Minister, their opulent

lifestyles, a controversial naval

procurement and the questionable

operations of a sovereign wealth fund, are

bound to create distrust and to erode the

confidence of the people in the ruling elite.

It is quite conceivable that some of these

allegations are utterly baseless but unless

there is an honest endeavour to explain

the whole situation, public perceptions will

be formed quickly to the detriment of the

Prime Minister and his family.

The coming parliamentary session starting

March 9 affords an opportunity to the

Prime Minister to provide a

comprehensive response to the issues

raised through various media outlets. At

the same time, he should of his own volition

invite the Malaysian Anti-Corruption

Commission (MACC) to conduct a

thorough investigation into the allegations

made against him, his family and his friends.

The MACC should leave no stone

unturned. The Prime Minister should also

seize the opportunity to expedite the

introduction of long awaited reforms in the

fight against corruption such as a law

requiring all elected legislators to declare

their assets and liabilities and those of their

close family members to the public and

another prohibiting relatives of federal and

state officials exercising executive powers

from bidding for government contracts

and projects. Most of all, there should be

a sincere attempt to jettison the lavishness

and extravagance that has become

synonymous with a section of the elite.

A tangible demonstration of such a

change in attitudes and values is what

the people expect at this time — not

the targeting of individuals and groups

who are trying to point out elite

misdemeanours that may have a

devastating impact upon the nation’s

future.

16 February 2015

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar is the

President of the International

Movement for a Just World (JUST).

continued from page 4

ARTICLES

SAUDI SAID TO AID ISRAELI PLAN TO BOMB IRANBy Robert Parry

As the Obama administration is

rushing to complete a nuclear

agreement with Iran and reduce

regional tensions, the Israeli media is

reporting on a deal with Saudi Arabia

to let Israeli warplanes transit Saudi

airspace en route to bombing Iran.

According to an Israeli media report,

Saudi Arabia has agreed to let Israeli

warplanes fly over Saudi territory to

save fuel while attacking Iranian

nuclear sites, the latest indication of

how the two former enemies have

developed a behind-the-scenes alliance

that is reshaping geopolitics in the

Middle East.

“The Saudi authorities are completely

coordinated with Israel on all matters

related to Iran,” a European official in

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A R T I C L E S

Brussels told Israel’s Channel 2 in a

report broadcast on Tuesday and

described in other Israeli media outlets.

Riyadh’s only condition was that Israel

make some progress in peace talks with

the Palestinians, a stipulation that may

be mostly cosmetic so the Saudis can

save face with other Arab states

without really interfering with an Israeli

flyover to strike Iran.

Disclosure of this Israeli-Saudi military

cooperation comes as the United States

and five other world powers rush to

finish an agreement with Iran to curtail

but not eliminate its nuclear program,

which Iran says is only for civilian

purposes. Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appear

before the U.S. Congress on March 3

to undercut President Barack Obama’s

negotiations.

The reported Saudi permission for

Israeli warplanes to take a shorter

route to bomb Iran also suggests that

Netanyahu may be laying the

groundwork for his own plans to attack

the Iranian nuclear sites if the

international negotiations are

successful. Netanyahu has denounced

a possible deal as an “existential threat”

to Israel.

In recent years, Israel and Saudi Arabia

have quietly begun cooperating on a

range of mutual interests with the goal

of blunting Iran’s regional influence.

For instance, they have sided with

rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian

President Bashar al-Assad, an Iranian

ally, even if the victors might be

Islamist radicals affiliated with al-Qaeda

or the Islamic State.

Elements of the Saudi royal family have

long been known to support Islamist

militants, including forces associated

with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Earlier this month, the New York

continued from page 5Times reported that convicted al-Qaeda

operative Zacarias Moussaoui identified

leading members of the Saudi

government as financiers of the

terrorist network.

According to the story, Moussaoui said

in a prison deposition that he was

directed in 1998 or 1999 by Qaeda

leaders in Afghanistan to create a digital

database of the group’s donors and that

the list included Prince Turki al-Faisal,

then Saudi intelligence chief; Prince

Bandar bin Sultan, longtime Saudi

ambassador to the United States;

Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent

billionaire investor; and many leading

clerics.

“Sheikh Osama wanted to keep a

record who give money,” Moussaoui

said in imperfect English — “who is

to be listened to or who contributed to

the jihad.” Moussaoui also said he

discussed a plan to shoot down

President George W. Bush’s Air Force

One with a Stinger missile with a staff

member at the Saudi Embassy in

Washington, at a time when Bandar

was the ambassador to the United

States and considered so close to the

Bush family that his nickname was

“Bandar Bush.”

Moussaoui claimed, too, that he passed

letters between Osama bin Laden and

then Crown Prince Salman, who

recently became king upon the death

of his brother King Abdullah.

While the Saudi government denied

Moussaoui’s accusations, Saudi and

other Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms have

been identified in recent years as

financial backers of Sunni militants

fighting in Syria to overthrow Assad’s

largely secular regime, with al-Qaeda’s

Nusra Front the major rebel force

benefiting from this support.

Shared Israeli Interests

The Israelis also have found

themselves on the side of these Sunni

militants in Syria because the Israelis

share the Saudi view that Iran and the

so-called “Shiite crescent” – reaching

from Tehran to Beirut – is the greatest

threat to their interests.

In September 2013, Israel’s

Ambassador to the United States

Michael Oren, then a close Netanyahu

adviser, told the Jerusalem Post that

Israel favored the Sunni extremists

over Assad. “The greatest danger to

Israel is by the strategic arc that

extends from Tehran, to Damascus to

Beirut. And we saw the Assad regime

as the keystone in that arc,” Oren told

the Jerusalem Post in an interview.

“We always wanted Bashar Assad to

go, we always preferred the bad guys

who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad

guys who were backed by Iran.” He

said this was the case even if the “bad

guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.

In June 2014, speaking as a former

ambassador at an Aspen Institute

conference, Oren expanded on his

position, saying Israel would even

prefer a victory by the brutal Islamic

State over continuation of the Iranian-

backed Assad in Syria. “From Israel’s

perspective, if there’s got to be an evil

that’s got to prevail, let the Sunni evil

prevail,” Oren said.

That hostility toward Assad’s regime

has taken a tactical form with Israeli

forces launching attacks inside Syria

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that benefit Nusra Front. For instance,

on Jan. 18, 2015, Israel attacked

Lebanese-Iranian advisers assisting

Assad’s government in Syria, killing

several members of Hezbollah and an

Iranian general. These military advisers

were engaged in operations against

Nusra Front.

Meanwhile, Israel has refrained from

attacking Nusra militants who have

seized Syrian territory near the Israeli-

occupied Golan Heights. One source

familiar with U.S. intelligence

information on Syria told me that Israel

has a “non-aggression pact” with

Nusra forces, who have even received

medical treatment at Israeli hospitals.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have found

themselves on the same side in other

regional struggles, including support

for the military’s ouster of the elected

Muslim Brotherhood government in

Egypt, but most importantly they have

joined forces in their hostility toward

Shiite-ruled Iran.

I first reported on the growing

relationship between Israel and Saudi

Arabia in August 2013 in an article

entitled “The Saudi-Israeli

Superpower,” noting that the

complementary strengths of the two

countries made their alliance a

potentially powerful influence in the

world. Israel could wield political and

media clout while the Saudis could use

their oil, money and investments.

At the time, the story was met with

much skepticism, but, increasingly, the

secret alliance has gone public. On Oct.

1, 2013, Israeli Prime Minister

Netanyahu hinted at it in his United

Nations General Assembly speech,

which was largely devoted to

excoriating Iran over its nuclear

program and threatening a unilateral

Israeli military strike.

Amid the bellicosity, Netanyahu

dropped in a largely missed clue about

the evolving power relationships in the

Middle East, saying: “The dangers of

a nuclear-armed Iran and the

emergence of other threats in our

region have led many of our Arab

neighbors to recognize, finally

recognize, that Israel is not their

enemy. And this affords us the

opportunity to overcome the historic

animosities and build new relationships,

new friendships, new hopes.”

The next day, Israel’s Channel 2 TV

news reported that senior Israeli

security officials had met with a high-

level Gulf state counterpart in

Jerusalem, believed to be Prince

Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador

to the United States who was then head

of Saudi intelligence.

Even the MSM

The reality of this unlikely alliance has

now even reached the mainstream U.S.

media. For instance, Time magazine

correspondent Joe Klein described the

new coziness in an article in the Jan.

19, 2015 issue.

He wrote: “On May 26, 2014, an

unprecedented public conversation took

place in Brussels. Two former high-

ranking spymasters of Israel and Saudi

Arabia – Amos Yadlin and Prince Turki

al-Faisal – sat together for more than

an hour, talking regional politics in a

conversation moderated by the

Washington Post’s David Ignatius.

“They disagreed on some things, like

the exact nature of an Israel-Palestine

peace settlement, and agreed on others:

the severity of the Iranian nuclear

threat, the need to support the new

military government in Egypt, the

demand for concerted international

action in Syria. The most striking

statement came from Prince Turki. He

said the Arabs had ‘crossed the

Rubicon’ and ‘don’t want to fight Israel

anymore.’”

Israel and Saudi Arabia also have

collaborated in efforts to put the

squeeze on Russia’s President Vladimir

Putin, who is deemed a key supporter

of both Iran and Syria. The Saudis

have used their power over oil

production to drive down prices and

hurt Russia’s economy, while U.S.

neoconservatives – who share Israel’s

geopolitical world view – were at the

forefront of the coup that ousted

Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor

Yanukovych a year ago.

Saudi hostility toward Russia also

surfaced in 2013 when Bandar met

Putin and delivered what Putin viewed

as a crude threat to unleash Chechen

terrorists against the Sochi Winter

Olympics if Putin did not reduce his

support for the Syrian government.

According to a leaked diplomatic

account of a July 31, 2013 meeting in

Moscow, Bandar informed Putin that

Saudi Arabia had strong influence over

Chechen extremists who had carried

out numerous terrorist attacks against

Russian targets and who had since

deployed to join the fight against the

Assad regime in Syria.

As Bandar called for a Russian shift

toward the Saudi position on Syria, he

reportedly offered guarantees of

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protection from Chechen terror attacks

on the Olympics. “I can give you a

guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics

in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next

year,” Bandar reportedly said. “The

Chechen groups that threaten the security

of the games are controlled by us.”

Putin responded, “We know that you

have supported the Chechen terrorist

groups for a decade. And that support,

which you have frankly talked about just

now, is completely incompatible with the

common objectives of fighting global

terrorism.”

Bandar’s Mafia-like threat toward the

Sochi games – a version of “nice

Olympics you got here, it’d be a shame

if something terrible happened to it” –

failed to intimidate Putin, who

continued to support Assad. But Putin

became obsessed with security at

Sochi, distracting him from the

worsening crisis in Ukraine where

Yanukovych was ousted in a neocon-

orchestrated coup on Feb. 22, 2014, a

day before the Olympic torch was

extinguished.

Now, with Obama nearing a possible

agreement to rein in but not end Iran’s

nuclear program – against the wishes

of the Israeli-Saudi tag team – the leak

in the Israeli media suggests that

Netanyahu with the support of Saudi

Arabia’s royal family may be

contemplating his own bombing

campaign against Iran.

26 February 2015

Robert Parry is an American

investigative journalist best known for

his role in covering the Iran-Contra

affair for the Associated Press (AP)

and Newsweek, including breaking the

Psychological Operations in Guerrilla

Warfare (CIA manual provided to the

Nicaraguan contras) and the CIA and

Contras cocaine trafficking in the US

scandal in 1985.

Source : consortiumnews.com

GENOCIDE IN KASHMIR: INDIA’S SHAME

By Andre Vltchek

Welcome to Kashmir! It is deep winter. The

mountains are covered with snow and the

naked trees above the lakes at sunset, look

melancholic and magnificent, precisely like

a completed Chinese brush painting.

Welcome to a nation overrun by the

700,000-strong security forces of the

occupying power – India. Welcome to the

continuous presence of barbed wire, of

military columns, and ‘security checks’.

Welcome to a brutality unimaginable almost

anywhere else on earth!

Welcome to a land of joint military exercises

conducted by the United States, Israel and

India.

Kashmir! Still beautiful but scarred. Still

proud but bleeding and thoroughly

exhausted… Still standing, still resisting, still

free and independent, at least in its heart!

Four kids are standing near the Grand

Mosque in Srinagar. They are edgy; they

appear to be ready to jump, to run, and to

fight, also ready to run and retreat if

necessary. It all depends on the

circumstances.

“They are raping our sisters and mothers!”

screams one youth. I am shown teargas

canisters, similar to those used in so many

other parts of the world to disperse

protesters. They are usually fired into the

air. Here they are fired by the security forces

directly at people’s heads – with the intention

to kill.

In this Kashmiri Intifada, the police, army

and paramilitary use slings, guns, teargas

canisters, everything that is available, to

suppress rebellion.

It also uses video cameras; it films stone-

throwing protesters and then it detains them,

“disappears” them, and sometimes uses

savage torture methods in order to subdue

them.

Young men in this neighborhood are

routinely detained, and most of them have

at least once, been brutalized.

I am photographing empty gas canisters

in their hands, always pointing my lenses

away from their faces. But kids actually

want to pose: they are not afraid, anymore.

Ironically, it is 26th January, the Indian

Republic Day.

“We are going later today! To fight them!

Come with us!”

They use Arabic words. They point their

fingers towards the sky. They are smiling,

pretending that they are brave and ready

to die, to martyr themselves. But I know

that they are scared. I have been in this for

many years… I can sense how frightened

they are.

They are good kids. They are desperate,

cornered, but good.

I promise. I say I will come. Later: as

always, I keep my word.

***

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A R T I C L E Scontinued from page 8

A few days later, in New Delhi, in his

comfortable, old-fashioned apartment, the

great Indian Kashmiri independent

documentary film director, Sanjay Kak, talks

to me about the Indian colonialism, in both

Kashmir and the Northeast.

We both agree that all over the world, there

is very little knowledge about the horrors

of the occupation of Kashmir, and almost

no knowledge at all about the occupation

of the Northeast. In unison, the mass media

in India and in the West, censors the

information about the true nature of

oppression, killing, torture and rapes.

It is because India has betrayed BRICS and

moved closer and closer to the Empire,

towards the West, signing military pacts

with it, while spreading market-oriented

gospel. Now it can count on having ‘special

status’, like Indonesia. No matter what it

does, it will easily get away with it!

Mr. Kak also says that these days it is

“difficult to compete in the market-place of

global sorrow.”

When I mention the involvement of both

the United States and Israel in joint exercises

with India, in Kashmir, as well as in the

training of Indian police and army officers

deployed in Kashmir, Sanjay Kak replies:

“When it comes to brutality, Indian forces

could actually teach both Israelis and the

United States quite a few things.”

A friend of Sanjay Kak, an Indian writer

and activist, Arundhati Roy, explained in

March 2013, on “Democracy Now”:

“Today Kashmir is the most densely

militarized zone in the world. India has

something like 700,000 security forces

there. And in the ’90s, early ’90s, the fight

became—turned into an armed struggle,

and since then, more than 70,000 people

have died, maybe 100,000 tortured, more

than 8000 disappeared. I mean, we all talk

a lot about Chile, Pinochet, but these

numbers are far greater.”

***

In Kashmir itself, I work closely with

“Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil

Society” – with both its President,

ParvezImroz, and with Parvaiz Matta, a

human rights researcher. Both men became

my good friends.

JKCCS actually believes that since the 90’s,

more than 70,000 people have lost their lives

in Kashmir, mostly civilians. The

organization is openly calling what occurs

in Kashmir – genocide.

Mr. ParvezImroz wrote for this essay:

“The army since 1989 has resorted to war

crimes as they have been given the legal

impunity and seldom have any armed

personnel for crimes against humanity have

been punished. The militarization in Jammu

and Kashmir has affected all aspects of life

and unfortunately the Indian media and civil

society, with some exceptions, have been

also extending the moral and political

impunity to the army who they believe are

fighting trans-border terrorism. The

systematic disappearance, mass graves,

torture has been completely ignored by the

Indian and international media.”

“In order to suppress the freedom struggle

in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian

government has resorted to systematic and

institutional repression. More than 700,000

armed forces have been pressed into

service to neutralize the armed struggle and

to control the people of Jammu and Kashmir

who are seeking the right of self-

determination which government of India

had promised before the United Nations in

the 1948 and 1949 resolutions. The

repression of the Indian state has been part

of their policy. In this lie culpable even the

judiciary who as a wing of the State has

served the interests of the executive and

not the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“The international institutions and

particularly the western civil society and

governments after 9/11 and because of

Islamophobia and other interests are

completely ignoring the situation in Jammu

and Kashmir.”

In Kashmir, no matter where I go, no matter

where I drive, there are constant, powerful

reminders of the occupation: from the

almost grotesque presence of the military,

police and paramilitary forces, to mass

graves. Army barracks are lined up along

all the major roads. Military and police trucks

drive on them in all directions, on all the

major and secondary roads. There are

countless roadblocks and checkpoints.

But it is not just the direct and brutal force

that is bleeding and destroying Kashmir.

Parvaiz Matta explains that this enormous

Indian security force has managed to

infiltrate and divide local society. Spies and

snitches have been inserted. Brave resistance

fighters were discredited as informers.

Resistance movements have been broken,

divided, and so have entire communities,

even families.

There is great sense of insecurity.

Interrogators telephone formerly detained,

alleged resistance figures, and tell them: “We

will soon get your sister.”

The brutality of the torture here is

unimaginable by any standards. I have

investigated and reported on countless

warzones, all over the world and countless

times, I was entrusted with hair-raising

stories of savagery. However, what I

learned in Kashmir exceeds the most terrible

practices.

In modern history, the cruelty of Indian

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A R T I C L E S

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forces in Kashmir can only be compared

to the Indonesian atrocities of 1965 and to

its genocide in East Timor, as well as in

Papua, or to the brutality of the Rwandese

and Ugandan forces in the Democratic

Republic of Congo. Or to the Empire’s direct

extermination campaign in Indochina.

Not surprisingly, both India and Indonesia

are the West’s client states, promoted as

examples of ‘democracy’ and ‘tolerance’.

***

“India is deprived, hegemonic and violent”,

I am told at the house of ParvezImroz,

outside of Srinagar city.

In the highly traditional Kashmiri custom,

several people sit on the floor, legs stretched,

old-fashioned heaters placed under the

blankets. We are drinking tea.

When it comes to this meeting, I can only

identify two men in this essay from the

JKCCS, by their real names. The rest are

those who are working on behalf of their

abused land, but their positions in the

international organizations and press

agencies would be compromised, were they

to go publicly on the record.

They all helped me a lot, guiding me,

explaining the situation, supplying me with

contacts and information. They were willing

to speak on condition of anonymity, and it

is clear where their hearts and allegiances

were:

“Indians are very moralistic, when it comes

to Palestine… Although, even that is

changing, after this administration of Prime

Minister Modi is moving India closer and

closer towards the West. US and Israel here

are deeply involved in ‘anti-terrorist training’.

Countless military and police officers are

receiving their education in the US,

European Union, and Israel. Police officers

are being flown abroad. The army is

performing regular exercises with the US

and Israeli forces, mainly in the area of

Ladakh, near Pakistan.”

“Ladakh is actually extremely popular

among Israelis. 20,000 to 30,000 come

here, every year, as tourists, or in some

double capacity.”

“The ideas and methods of Israeli

settlements are widely used in Kashmir. But

they are ‘improved’ here. The Indian state

is fine-tuning Israeli policies of apartheid.”

Everybody here agrees that the brutality

factor is much higher in Kashmir than in

Palestine:

“The brutality of Israeli forces is not hidden:

it is all in the open. Every action against the

Palestinian people is well documented. Israeli

actions are constantly criticized from

abroad, even at home. Huge blocks of

countries, even the EU, are demanding

independence for Palestine. Kashmir is

different: our Intifada is hidden from the

rest of the world. At least 8,000 of our

people have already died. Hundreds of

thousands have been tortured. But there is

almost total silence coming from abroad.”

The similarities between Palestinian and

Kashmiri resistance and their aim for

independence and statehood, are striking.

One of the most famous films made by my

friend Sanjay Kak from New Delhi, is called

“Jashn-e-Azadi – How We Celebrate

Freedom”, and it is exactly about the topic.

Sanjay also edited a book: Until My Freedom

Has Come – The New Intifada in Kashmir

(2011).

***

Kupwara. Mass graves dot the hill.

When we arrive, the town itself is totally

shut down. It is the 21st anniversary of the

massacre of local people by Indian forces.

Around 27 people were slaughtered here,

more than two decades ago, as they

demanded the end of the Indian occupation.

“Here, many people were ‘disappeared’; they

were killed in so-called staged battles. It

happened on several occasions”, explains

Parvaiz Matta. “Countless bodies arrived

mutilated at the local hospitals: some with

no legs, a clear result of torture.”

There are rusting stretchers resting against

a tree. I am told that they were used to

shuttle bodies from the hospital to this mass

grave. And the bodies kept arriving, being

carried by security forces from the forest.

The mass graves are all over the hill, some

right next to a public school, which sits at

the summit.

“The security forces described the bodies

as being those of ‘unidentified foreign

terrorists’, I am told. But ‘foreign’ is already

a form of identification, isn’t it?”

There are 7000 unmarked and mass graves

in Kashmir, I am told…

***

The 700,000-strong security forces are

fighting between 200 and 300 active

Mujahedin, resistance fighters.

The ‘fighting’ mainly consists of murdering

innocent bystanders and villagers in the

remote areas. These corpses are then

passed off as the corpses of the

Mujahedeen, ‘killed in combat’. That

consequently ‘justifies’ huge military

operations and budgets.

The ‘fighting’ also includes torturing anyone

who is suspected or ‘accused’ of belonging

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to, or supporting the Mujahedeen; therefore

anyone whom the security forces decide

to identify as such.

The ‘signature’ torture in Kupwara, consists

of cutting off legs or fingers. Torture tools

and methods here, in this area, which is

very near the Pakistani border, are very

elaborate.

The chests of victims are burned with red-

hot coins, and electric current administered

through the penis. The testicles of victims

are burned. Bottles of alcohol are inserted

into the rectum of men who are then hung

upside down from the ceiling. Wooden

rollers are used to destroy legs. Nails are

hammered into the feet of prisoners. Those

who have half-moon tattoos, have them

removed by red-hot pliers.

When a woman gets arrested, it is almost

certain that her torture will include gang

rape.

Sodomizing male prisoners is also common,

all over Kashmir.

All of this, of course, could not pass as

anything ‘spontaneous’. There is clearly a

pattern. The security forces are trained to

do what they are doing. A new, extremely

brutal group has been created by the state.

It is called SOG, and it mainly consists of

the children of police and military personnel

killed in battles with the Mujahedeen. It is

easy to imagine the type of methods it uses.

“Most cases of torture and rape are not

documented”, explained Parvaiz. “But my

organization alone has already managed to

amass documentation on around 5,000

instances of torture. For instance, a father

had his head chopped off in front of his

horrified family…”

I make him stop, at least for a few minutes.

I need to at least have a short time to digest

what I see around me, as well as what I am

told.

We drive further, towards the Pakistani

border. It is all really lush here – lush and

stunningly beautiful. Tall mountains covered

by snowcaps, pristine lakes and meadows.

I ask our driver to stop; I need some fresh

air. I need to see this magnificence, in order

to regain strength, before we proceed

towards a place that I dread visiting, but

which I have to visit nevertheless.

We are heading towards two villages: Kunan

and Poshpora.

Here, on 23rd February 1991, the armed

forces of India surrounded Kunan, and

arrested all men older than the age of 13.

They arrived with the tools of torture, in

their vehicles, and the torture that they

administered, was horrible.

We park the car and I am led into one of the

houses.

It is a traditional, neat and extremely clean

house. We take off our shoes. Two men

are already waiting in the main room, resting

their backs against the wall and soft pillows.

A third man arrives shortly after.

We are not here to discuss torture. It is

mass rape I am supposed to hear about.

But first, the men recall their own suffering.

One of them begins:

“It was February and it was late at night;

cold outside, winter. It all began at 11 PM

and did not stop until 4 AM, early in the

morning. All the men were taken out, into

the bitter cold. They stripped us naked, and

forced us to stand in an ice-cold stream.

There was snow, 3 feet tall all around. They

tortured 100 of us; of the men… 40 to 50

were severely tortured. They used electric

current, and also, they put red chilly into

the water and forced our heads down into

it.”

There are no women in the room; no

women at all that could be spotted around

the house.

Another old man began speaking, while I

averted my eyes. It was all extremely

uncomfortable, and I knew what a great

effort and determination it took for these

men to speak about that horrible night,

almost a quarter of century ago.

“Women and girls were left in the houses.

They were alone and defenseless. The

soldiers, around 200 of them, entered the

houses, mostly 5-10 per house. They were

carrying bottles of alcohol with them – they

were drunk. It was all planned like this!”

Now the men spoke over each other:

“Women were raped. All of them… And

not only women, but also small girls, from

6 to 13 years of age… Their clothes were

torn off, they were insulted, humiliated, then

raped.”

Soldiers were screaming at women: ‘You

are bloody helping the militants, aren’t you?’

And this was done by Indian troops, and in

India, so often; even rape does not end with

the act itself. The brutality of the act is

regularly indescribable; it includes the

insertion of sharp objects, of rusty bars, of

anything.

“Many of our women bled profusely. Some

were unconscious for 4 or 5 days,” these 3

husbands whose wives survived that terrible

night told me.

“One of the women delivered a baby, just 4

days earlier. The baby was hugging her

mom when the soldiers entered. They first

killed the baby, then gang-raped the mother.”

“They tortured and raped a minor, a girl.

They broke her leg. She died later…”

“Some women have undergone treatment

for many years, as their rectums were

severely damaged”.

5 women died as a result of what took

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place that night.

There were two cops, from the village, who

tried to assist the injured women. Later, they

were willing to come forward and to testify.

One of them was shot dead – murdered.

I am told that 40 women came forward

and gave testimonies. These were married

women. Minor, unmarried girls, had kept

their identity secret. But even so, almost no

young woman from Kunan could get

married, afterwards. The stigma was too

great and no villager from the area wanted

to marry a rape victim.

Parvaiz explained that the rapes are still

taking place in the deep provinces, in the

frontier areas, where the people are at the

mercy of the military. “Still, rape is used as

a weapon of war”, he said.

For the Kunan onslaught, not one soldier

has been punished, so far.

Before we left, the husbands of the rape

victims, explained:

“This happened at the beginning… Then

many other, terrible events took place. We

tried to play by the rules, using the Indian

legal system. But after almost a quarter of a

century, there has been no justice. Here,

the law only protects those guilty ones. This

militarization of Kashmir ruined our lives!

Now, we just want to be freed by destiny!

This was all a terrible trauma for us. Even

children from other villages are mocking

our women and girls: “Oh, you come from

that village where all the women were

raped!”

It was a humbling experience, facing those

tough Kashmiri men, who decided to open

themselves up to me.

After they spoke, we walked from Kunan

to Poshpora Village. Metaphorically, the ice

was broken. I was allowed to photograph

villagers, both men and women. I was

accepted.

As we began driving towards Srinagar,

there was a long silence inside the car. Then

I broke it:

“Parvaiz?”

“Hmmm?”

“The fact that they mock the girls and

women…” I began…

I knew he was thinking the same.

“Would you marry a rape victim?” He asked.

“If I were to be in love with her, yes, of

course I would.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I said.

“This is where our culture has failed”, he

said. And this is when I knew, that he would

do the same.

I told him about the mass rape in the city of

Ermera, in East Timor. The Indonesian

forces did it – exactly the same scenario as

in the Kashmiri village of Kunan.

I was then working illegally in East Timor.

I was detained and tortured. Nobody ever

got punished for the rape or for the killings.

Many people directly responsible for the

genocide in East Timor are now governing

Indonesia.

***

As we passed Kupwara, the mood in the

car significantly improved.

“I did not want to tell you, but chances

were that before reaching Kupwara, we

could have been stopped, interrogated and

then…”

I got the point.

But now ‘it was fine’.

The further we drove away from Kupwara,

the safer it was getting; by now we would

have many arguments for justifying our trip.

I photographed a few military and

paramilitary camps, through the windshield.

Then I asked our driver to stop. I needed to

take a piss. He pushed the brakes right next

to some beautiful Kashmiri apple orchard.

I stepped out from the car and walked

towards the first tree; the fresh air and

beautiful countryside, and stuff like that…

Then I spotted him: a soldier, semi-

camouflaged, holding his machinegun,

ready. I pissed towards him, defiantly. Then

I saluted him, mockingly. He did not even

smile, just stood there, like an idiot, under

the apple tree.

I was wondering whether there are more

Indian security personnel in Kashmir, or

apple trees?

I visited Mr. Hassan Bhat in Sopore City,

known for its resistance fighters.

Mr. Bhat used to be one of them, but he

was captured and tortured savagely, on

several occasions, and he gave up on active

duty.

The security forces killed both his sons.

Just like that, both died by the time they

reached the age of 15.

One son had gone to a local store, in 2006,

to buy milk, and a security agent shot him

through the chest, from his speeding police

car. Another boy died in 2010, when some

kids got engaged in stone-throwing, and he

was caught in the middle of it, when he got

scared, and jumped into the river. Police

began shooting tear gas canisters at anyone

who was in the water. They hit him with

one of those, and he died.

“I know the perpetrators, I know the

officer who was in charge”, said Mr. Bhat.

He tried to file a complaint, but the police

refused to register the case.continued next page

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“The officer-in-charge was going to join

the UN Peacekeepers”, said Parvaiz. “India

often sends people who fought in Kashmir,

to the UN. It is a huge money-making

scheme for the country… But my

organization identified him, and supplied the

UN with detailed evidence on his crimes.

After that, his application got rejected.”

I actually saw the Indian UN “Peacekeepers”

in action, in Goma, in the Democratic

Republic of Congo, where even the former

UNHCR head, Ms. Masako Yonekawa,

complained to me about the many illegal

activities perpetrated by the Indian

‘peacekeeping contingent’.

Then, Mr. Bhat and I stood by the shore of

the River Jhelum.

“It flows all the way to Pakistan,” he sighed.

Mr. Bhat, despite all those horrors that he

has survived, is a kind, gentle man.

I asked him whether he thinks that Kashmir

will be able to, at some point, gain its

independence.

“80% of Kashmiri people want freedom”,

he said. “80% is a lot of people, don’t you

think?”

I am being shown where, in 1993, an entire

area had been destroyed, by the BSF (Border

Security Forces). Back then, 53 people died.

Later we go, in the middle of the night, to a

house where a battle took place between

the Indian forces and the Mujahedeen, just

a few days earlier.

Sopore is still fighting.

But there is fear. It is cold; it is an omnipresent

fear.

I am told by many, that now, people are

afraid of even protesting against the scarcity

of basic supplies. One could easily disappear.

I am told that here, the Indian forces are

trying to hook young people on alcohol and

drugs, in order to keep them away from

the resistance.

But others say: in this city, in Sopore, people

are determined. They resist. They are active

here. This city produces big people! People

that never surrender! Indian forces call it

“Little Pakistan”.

Can the huge oppressive force really be

defeated, and if yes, then how?

This is when, even in Sopore; even in the

middle of the night, in front of a house that

recently witnessed a real battle, everyone

gets realistic:

“Only international pressure can help!”

At some point, one gets exhausted, almost

numb, after listening to detailed and well-

documented accounts of extra-judicial

killings, disappearances, torture and rapes.

At one point I was presented with evidence

about a man who was detained, questioned

and when he appeared defiant, both of his

feet were chopped off. He survived. When

still in detention, sometime later, the security

forces cut off substantial parts of his flesh,

from different parts of his body; cooked it,

and forced him to eat it, for several days.

He survived… The case is documented and

HR organizations are demanding justice. No

one has been punished.

***

There is genocide: terrible, outrageous and

unreported by the cowardly media and the

intellectuals, in both India and the West.

People, who dare to speak and write about

the plight of Kashmir, are intimidated,

deported, and even physically attacked.

Arundhati Roy is periodically threatened with

sedition charges, lawsuits and life

imprisonment.

Others, like the legendary radio host David

Barsamian, got deported from India, no

explanation given.

In October 2011, a senior Supreme Court

advocate Mr. Prashant Bhushan (who

drafted the Lokpal Bill), was brutally beaten

in his chambers at the Supreme Court after

he made comments on Kashmir. Mr.

Bhushan’s spoke on human rights violations

and militarization in Kashmir.

***

There are tourists in Kashmir, not only

Indian, but foreigners as well. They go

skiing and snowboarding in Gulmarg, or

hiking to Ladakh. There are Europeans and

Israelis, some North Americans.

Many locals call it “horror tourism in

Rapistan”.

I encountered several couples, high in the

mountains, in Gulmarg: red cheeks from

too much fresh air at the high altitude. I

talked to a British couple enjoying skiing, a

German couple on vacation… They had

no clue about what was happening in

Kashmir. When I pressed them a bit: “But

you must have noticed all those bunkers,

military convoys and checkpoints”, their

simple reply was: “Yes… Well, India has to

do something about the terrorism problem,

right?”

It is a well-documented fact that the Empire

is counting on several countries, all over

the world, for acting on its behalf, spreading

terror in the ‘neighborhood’, often

brutalizing even its own people. These

countries are, for instance, Rwanda, Uganda

and Kenya in Africa, Honduras and

Columbia in Latin America, Israel, Saudi

Arabia and Qatar in the Middle East,

Indonesia, Thailand and now India in

Southern Asia.

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continued next page

Most of the brutal lackey states are

christened as ‘democracies’, as tolerant, as

the examples worth following.

These countries are promoted as ‘Lands

of Smiles’, or as ‘cultures of non-violence’.

It is all farcical, but somehow, not many

people seem to be laughing.

It is because they don’t know. It is

because brutality and cynicism still pays.

And this approach should stop! Brutal

crimes against humanity have to be

exposed. Countries that are murdering

thousands of innocent people have to be

shamed publicly and dealt with,

internationally. It goes without saying that

a state that is serving the Empire,

torturing and raping those who are

longing for independence, while in the

same time spitting on its own poor,

should never have place in an

organization like BRICS!

I went back to the area of the Grand

Mosque in Srinagar, on 26th January, as

I promised. I followed the kids. A few

streets away, after 2 pm, fighting

erupted.

It was all raw and tough, and it clearly

resembled Palestine.

The only great difference was that other

than me there were no witnesses, to

describe the courage of local youth, as

well as the oppression of the Kashmiri

people by the Indian state.

Two days later I took the longest cable

car in Asia, at Gulmarg. I wanted to

see ‘what was up there’. There is, of

course, a military base!

On the way down, the electricity

collapsed and our gondola froze,

suspended in midair. The door would

not close, and there were holes, all over.

It was India, after all. I could have

frozen to death, if the stuff did not begin

moving a few minutes later.

India is facing some of the most serious

challenges on Earth: from illiteracy to

deep poverty. 700,000 security forces

cost billions of dollars, annually,

pragmatically speaking. Even if the

Indian elites, government and military

do not care about the Kashmiri people

and their plight, they should care at least

about their own poor!

Holding Kashmir against its will brings no

benefits to India and its people. It is definitely

undemocratic and brutal… and absolutely

unnecessary!

Welcome to Kashmir! Its beauty is fabled.

Its lakes, mountain ranges, deep valleys

and rivers are proud and striking. Its people

warm, welcoming, but strong.

Kashmir is bleeding. Its valleys are divided

by barbed wire. Its women are raped. Its

men tortured and humiliated. The cries of

Kashmiri people are muted. The world

knows almost nothing about their plight,

about their suffering.

700,000-man security force fighting

around 300 men! And they cannot win.

Why? The answer is simple: It is because

no brutal force on earth could ever defeat

those who are fighting for the survival of

their land, for something so dear, so

beloved!

08 February, 2015

Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker

and investigative journalist.

Source: Counterpunch.org

ISIS DESTROYS ANCIENT SITES NEAR MOSULBy Sandy English

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

has reportedly used heavy equipment to

demolish the site of the ancient Assyrian

capital of Nimrud, 18 miles south of Mosul,

Iraq’s second largest city. Reports describe

ISIS militiamen trucking away statues and

tablets from the site and the demolition of

the area since last Thursday. The

fundamentalist group considers pre-Islamic

artifacts to be idolatrous and worthy of

destruction.

Nimrud, built over 3,000 years ago, was

the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire after

883 BC. The Neo-Assyrian Empire, whose

rulers spoke a language distantly related to

Arabic and Hebrew, ruled Mesopotamia, the

ancient name for Iraq and parts of Syria,

from about 900 BC to 600 BC.

The site along the Tigris River contained

monumental statues, frescos, temples,

private dwellings and a ziggurat, the stepped

pyramid characteristic of Mesopotamian

civilizations. Nimrud boasted some of the

most extensive carvings in ivory of any site

in the world, most of which had been

removed and placed in museums in Iraq

and Britain.

A week earlier, the Islamic State released

video showing men smashing statues with

sledgehammers in the Nineveh Museum,

about 20 miles from the site of Nimrud.

Nineveh was the capital of the Neo-

Assyrian Empire after 705 BC.

In recent weeks, ISIS has also set off

incendiary devices around Mosul Central

Library. Estimates of the books and

manuscripts destroyed range from 8,000

to 10,000. Bookshops on the central Al-

Nujaifi Street have been burned, and ancient

Christian monasteries have been vandalized.

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Over the weekend, the Associated Press

reported that residents near Hatra, 68 miles

southwest of Mosul, saw ISIS fighters

removing artifacts form the 2,000-year-old

city. Hatra was built during the Seleucid

Empire in the second or third century BC

and changed hands over the next several

hundred years, belonging in turn to the

Parthians, the Romans and Araba, one of

the first pre-Islamic Arab kingdoms.

Next to the tremendous loss of life, the

destruction of the past is one of the most

grievous products of the conflict that was

initiated by the American invasion of Iraq in

2003. A whole people is being cut off from

its historical roots and the study of the

Mesopotamian past by historians has

suffered a serious blow.

The plunder of Iraq began on April 10, 2003,

when American occupation forces in

Baghdad, in spite of warnings by

archaeologists, allowed the National

Museum to be looted of tens of thousands

of historical artifacts of great artistic and

scientific value. Only about half the artifacts

have been recovered. The American military,

in violation of cultural heritage regulations,

fired on the museum.

In that first month of the occupation, dozens

of other museums and libraries were burned

or looted, including the Mosul Museum,

where the 2,000-year-old statue of Parthian

King Saqnatroq II was stolen.

In 2003-2004, American troops occupied

the site of ancient Babylon, where they dug

ditches across excavated areas, filling

sandbags with ancient bricks labeled with

cuneiform writing of the Mesopotamian

civilization. The occupation forces built a

heliport, and vibrations from American

aircraft caused the bases of temples to

collapse.

“The damage to Babylon is both extensive

and irreparable,” Columbia University

archeologist Zainab Bahrani said in 2007.

“The occupation has resulted in a

tremendous destruction of history, well

beyond the museums and libraries that were

looted and destroyed at the fall of Baghdad.

At least seven historical sites have [like

Babylon] been used by US and coalition

forces since 2003, one of them being in the

historical heart of Samarra, where the Askari

shrine built by Nasr al Din Shah was

bombed in 2006.”

The destruction and looting of Iraqi

archaeological sites has been going on

nonstop ever since. Iraq’s archeological

sites and tells—unexcavated mounds of

earth that cover formerly inhabited areas—

have been dug up with earth-moving

equipment and the spoils have been sold on

the antiquities market for private gain.

In 2010, the New York Times noted the

collusion of the police with antiquities thieves

in southern Iraq, areas controlled by Shia

sectarian militias. One of the great cultural

crimes brought on by the American

occupation of Iraq was the bombing of al-

Mutinabbi Street, Baghdad’s historic street

of booksellers, on March 5, 2007.

Both Nimrud and Nineveh were plundered

several times during the American

occupation. Before ISIS’s destruction last

week, the advanced state of decay of the

Nimrud site was causing archaeologists

great concern.

The American and European media have

expressed “shock” and “outrage” over

ISIS’s cultural destruction. Irina Bokova,

director of the United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESO) said, “We cannot remain silent.

The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage

constitutes a war crime.”

The Iraqi government, somewhat more

forthrightly, has used the ISIS vandalism

to call for stepped-up intervention by the

American and coalition air forces in Iraq.

But the corporate-controlled media,

UNESCO, and the miserable servants of

the US in the Iraq government conceal the

essential causes and nature of this

barbarism, and omit even naming the force

that is chiefly responsible for the destruction

of the past: American imperialism.

This exercise in unbridled hypocrisy

assumes that the people of the world have

forgotten the destruction of Iraqi, and now

Syrian, heritage sites, museums and libraries

as the result of 12 years of almost

continuous imperialist military intervention

in the region.

Over a million Iraqis have died as a result of

the American invasion and occupation, and

the sectarian fighting stoked up by US

imperialism. Tens of millions remain

internally displaced and mired in poverty.

The utilities infrastructure and the Iraqi health

care system have been destroyed and have

yet to recover. The World Socialist Web

Site has accurately defined this process as

“sociocide,” “the deliberate and systematic

murder of an entire society.”

The same is true for the devastation wrought

by right-wing political movements such as

ISIS, and the destruction of Iraq’s cultural

heritage. Just as there was no presence of

Al Qaeda in Iraq before the American

invasion, there was no plunder of the

country’s archaeology or cultural

institutions.

Those above all responsible for the

destruction of Nimrud, Nineveh and Hatra

bear the names of Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz,

Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell. One must add

to this list Barack Obama, who continued

the occupation for nearly three years and

has now launched a new war in Iraq and

Syria that can only lead to the further

destruction of the region’s historical and

cultural legacy, in addition to more civilian

deaths and an increase in the number of

refugees.

In a more direct sense, the vandalism of

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ISIS is an American production. In its

eagerness to implement regime-change in

Syria, the CIA, working with American allies

among the Gulf monarchies, as well as

Turkey and Jordan, armed the Islamists

fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The American-stoked civil war in Syria led

to the widespread destruction of antiquities.

Last year, the UN found that 24

archaeological sites have been completely

destroyed, 189 severely or moderately

damaged, and a further 77 possibly

damaged. All six of Syria’s World Heritage

sites have been damaged.

09 March, 2015

Sandy English is a writer for the World

Socialist Web Site.

Source: WSWS.org

AUSTRALIA’S SOVEREIGNTY SEVERELY COMPROMISED FOR US-ISRAELI DESIGNS

By Daud Batchelor

As Australia’s international standing has

risen, the country’s sovereignty is being

dangerously subsumed by the United States,

itself controlled by powerful elites:the

disproportionately influential military-

industrial complex and Zionist

lobbies.Australia’s sovereignty is being

compromisedby the political elite within the

ruling Liberal Party and Labour Party

caucus. Former Prime Minister Malcolm

Fraser presciently warned that the

relationship was becoming dangerous and

we “have effectively ceded to America the

ability to decide when Australia goes to

war”.

External threats facing Australia include a

commercial takeover of critical resources,

primarily by China. The second is inordinate

influence by the US, our “friendly” ally

under the ANZUS Treaty. Evidence

suggests some US covert involvement in

removing former PMs Gough Whitlam and

Kevin Rudd. Near neighbours, Indonesia

and Malaysia,have no expansionist aims.

Our defences should not be overly strained

but Australia increased its ‘defence’ budget

32% since 2003 with the target to achieve

2% of GDP. Fighting distant wars of

questionable merit and overinflating

domestic terrorism sucks funds from needy

domestic programmes and puts Australia

into massive debt paralleling the United

States itself.

John Howard dramatically changed

Australia’s defence policy to project military

power globally. The 9/11 attacks occurring

while PM Howard visited President Bush

Jr cemented a tight alliance. Howard offered

virtually a blank cheque for Australia’s

military to support future US

engagements.Significantly, many since

Mearsheimer and Walt’s exposure have

chronicled the excessive influence Israeli

lobbies e.g. AIPAC,have over US foreign

policies.Israeli is set not only on protecting

itself but creating a Greater Israel involving

fragmentation of neighbouring Arab states

- the Yinon Plan of the World Zionist

Organization. Australia is locked into

engagements of the US resulting from

certain US-Zionist strategies. The US

domineering worldview is inculcated

whenever American forces and agencies

meet counterparts in the Australian Defence

Forces, ASIO and Australian Federal Police.

Impacts on Australia’s foreign polices result

from the powerful Murdoch media

oligopoly, which champions Israel, and the

Zionist-led Lowy Institute for International

Policy, which has a snug relationship with

the ADF, ASIO and AFP, all Institute

members. The Institute’s Board of Directors

includes Martin Indyk, former Israeli

government propagandist. Great concern

is that Allan Gyngell, founding Executive-

Director of the Lowy Institute, is now

Director-General of Australia’s Office of

National Assessments. Gyngell leads a

supposedly independent organisation

providing key analyses on which Cabinet

relies to decide foreign policies. Zionists can

well influence key decisions. Abuse is of

grave concern given faulty ONA reports

claiming WMDs in Iraq used to incite

Australia’s participation in the infamous

2003 invasion.Former ONA officer, Andrew

Wilke, resigned claiming pre-invasion

pressures to exaggerate reports.

Former Foreign Minister, Bob Carr,

explained that the pro-Israel lobby enjoys

such a “very unhealthy level” of influence

in dictating Australia’s foreign policy

through party donations and MP trips to

Israel. The Australia/Israel and Jewish

Affairs Council had a direct line into the

PM’s office and aggressively lobbied

politicians. Politicians have been drawn

deeply into Israel’s global strategy: a visit to

Israel is essential for any aspiring PM.

Australia has developed arguably the

harshest anti-terrorism legislation and

supports illegal Israeli settlements.Australia

with only the US recently voted against a

proposal in the Security Council demanding

Israel ends its Palestinian occupation.Israel

defies UN resolutions and commits war

crimes violating Geneva conventions and

international law. Despite this, the

government strongly supports Israel. In the

2008-09 and 2014 Gaza wars, Israel killed

3,500 Palestinians, 75% civilians, while the

fewer Israeli fatalities were overwhelmingly

soldiers. Israel attacked densely-habited

areas causing slaughter and damage to

hospitals, schools and UN shelters.Ban Ki-

moon and European nations condemned

Israel’s disproportionate response and

targeting of civilians.Israel could well face

charges in the International Criminal Court.

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Legitimate concerns questioning Australia’s

involvement in distant wars unrelated to

Australia’s security raise the spectre of

‘blowback’ in supporting American global

hegemony and destruction of Muslim

lands.Emergence of ISIS is directly linked

to failed Australian-American strategies in

Iraq. The government’s embrace of

America’s pro-Israel anti-Muslim agenda is

against Australia’s best interests in ignoring

our peaceful Muslim neighbours -

Indonesia, and Malaysia, successful liberal

democracies on whom Snowdon showed

Australian and US governments

aggressively spy. Such conduct could drive

these friendly neighbours closer to China

and Russia to our detriment.

Prior to expanding anti-terrorist laws deemed

by many to be targeting the preponderantly

peaceful Muslim community, massive AFP

raids were conducted in NSW and

Queensland. Their scale implied citizens

were under imminent attack by numerous

terrorists. Was this to forestall opposition

to the government’s retrenchment of citizen

rights? Numbers arrested were low and

prosecutions will likely be few.Bernard

Keane commented, “Australians are less safe

now then a few weeks ago because of

decisions taken, primarily for political ends,

by the Abbott government, namely to

intervene in a conflict in Iraq and Syria that

has nothing to do with Australia’s national

interests”. Apart from the Martin Place

shootings, there have been no fatalities in

Australia by Muslim hands since1915 when

Britain invaded Turkey.PM Abbott over-

emphasises terrorism in Australia while

neglecting family violence that causes 80

deaths annually.Samuel Makinda warned

that with the expanded anti-terror legislation,

politicians have legislated away citizens’

rights. Alerting Australians that it was now

a “police state”, Gideon Polya, estimated

there were “only 6 Australian deaths by

terrorists (none Muslim) in the last 36 years.

Yet the major Australian parties ... have

committed $125 billion in terms of long-

term accrual cost to the Islamophobic War

on Terror.”

Australia’s subservience to the US and Israeli

lobbies should change and stop fighting their

wars and blowing out Australia’s finances.

With a forecasted A$40 billion budget

shortfall, either the government will raise

taxes, diminish services, or increase debt.

In the absence of military threats at home,

our main concern should be economic

security. Australians should consider an

alternative from heightened militarism in this

Gallipoli centenary honouring our heroes,

who spoke little wishing not to glorify war

for imperialism’s sake. Let us resist the

insidious takeover of our independence to

chart our own course and further peace

and stability of Australia and harmonious

relations amongst our own citizens and

neighbouring countries.

26 February 2015

Dr Daud Batchelor, political analyst,

whose grandfathers/father fought to protect

Australia’s security. He is a JUST member.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR ARAB AND

PALESTINIAN WOMEN.By Mazin Qumsiyeh

Today is International Women’s Day . The

mainstream media misses the point

intentionally. They highlight certain women

(some who make the lives of women

everywhere difficult, people like Hilary

Clinton, Condoleeza Rice, Angela Markel

etc) and they fail to give credit to those who

change things or to even explain to us the

origin of this day. Having an annual dedicated

day for women (action) was proposed by

Clara Zetkin of Germany to attendees at

the International Conference of Working

Women in 1910. Inspired by women

socialist movements for fair working

conditions in the USA in 1908 and 1909,

movements grew of women demanding

their rights (until then they did not even have

a right to vote). The first women’s day on

8 March 1911 launched demonstration and

marches for women workers’ rights (right

to vote, right to fair work condition, right

to live free from oppression, right to life,

against wars etc). After a long struggle

and many lives lost along the way, the UN

finally recognized 8 March as an

“International” (I prefer global) women’s

day in 1977, 66 years after it was launched

by brave socialist women. Thus women’s

day is about actions against injustice not

about Hilary Clinton!

The First Arab Women’s Congress of

Palestine gathered about 200 women and

was held on 26 October 1929 in Jerusalem.

The demands were rights of women and

against the Balfour Declaration, against the

racist idea of Zionism, for self-

determination, and for full equality (gender,

religion etc). They elected a 14 member

Executive Committee headed by Matiel E.

T. Mogannam. Mogannam wrote a book

titled “The Arab Women and the Palestinian

Problem” published 1937. Moghannam

explained how Palestinian women in the

1920s were innovative in many ways:

lobbying the colonial power, writing in

newspapers, and holding the first

demonstration in human history that used

automobiles with 120 cars in 1928 (gathered

from all over Palestine to drive in the streets

of Jerusalem). See my book on “Popular

Resistance in Palestine: A history of hope

and empowerment” (http://qumsiyeh.org/

popularresistanceinpalestine/)

The struggle of women here continues

unabated. Many people like me believe

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18

sincerely that had women been in charge

here, we would have had a free Palestine

by now. My mother who is 82 years old

showed us by example what giving and

self-sacrifice and love of people and land

means. My wife and three sisters are

likewise examples of what we all should

aspire to do: kind, dedicated, and hard-

working human beings. Like millions before

them and millions contemporary with them,

these women make life livable while many

men (and a few women) engage in hurting

others and pushing for conflicts and war.

Words are too mediocre and inadequate to

express our feelings but I simply want to

say to all the women working for peace

and justice: thank you and to pledge that

we will work with you for more

progressive change in our societies.

Donate to the Palestine Museum of Natural

History and our institute of biodiversity and

sustainability. New campaign launched

through Indiegogo

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/

palestine-museum-of-natural-history/x/

10068075

More at http://palestinenature.org

8 March 2015

Mazin Butros Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian

scientist and author and the director of the

Palestine Museum of Natural History.

DEAR SYRIA: FROM ONE REFUGEE TO ANOTHER

By Ramzy Baroud

Whenever the word ‘refugee’ is uttered, I

think of my mother. When Zionist militias

began their systematic onslaught and

‘cleansing’ of the Palestinian Arab population

of historic Palestine in 1948, she, along with

her family, ran away from the once peaceful

village of Beit Daras.

Back then, Zarefah was six. Her father died

in a refugee camp in a tent provided by the

Quakers soon after he had been separated

from his land. She collected scrap metal to

survive.

My grandmother Mariam, would venture

out to the ‘death zone’ that bordered the

separated and newly established state of

Israel from Gaza’s refugee camps to collect

figs and oranges. She faced death every

day. Her children were all refugees, living

in shatat – the Diaspora.

My mother lived to be 42. Her life was

tremendously difficult. She married a

refugee, my dad, and together they brought

seven refugees into this world - my

brothers, my sister and myself. One died

as a toddler, for there was no medicine in

the refugee camp’s clinic.

No matter where we are, in time and place,

we carry our refugee ID cards, our

undefinable nationalities, our precious status,

our parents’ burden, our ancestors’ pain.

In fact, we have a name for it. It is called

waja’ - ‘aching’ - a character that unifies

millions of Palestinian refugees all across

the globe. With our refugee population now

dominated by second, third or even fourth

generation refugees, it seems that our waja’

is what we hold in common most. Our

geographies may differ, our languages, our

political allegiances, our cultures, but

ultimately, we meet around the painful

experiences that we have internalized

throughout generations.

My mother used to say – ihna yalfalastinieen

damitna qaribeh – tears for us Palestinians

are always close by. But our readiness to

shed tears is not a sign of weakness, far

from it. It is because throughout the years

we managed to internalize our own exile,

and its many ramifications, along with the

exiles of everyone else’s. The emotional

burden is just too great.

We mask the unbearable aching somehow,

but it is always close to the surface. If we

hear a single melody by Marcel Khalifeh or

Sheikh Imam, or a few verses by Mahmoud

Darwish, the wound is as fresh as ever.

Most of us no longer live in tents, but we

are reminded of our refugee status every

single day, by the Israeli occupation, by the

Gaza siege and the internally-displaced

Palestinians in Israel, by the Iraq war and

the displacement of the already displaced

Palestinians there, by the despicable living

conditions of Palestinian refugees in

Lebanon, and throughout the Middle East.

But for us, Syria has been our greatest waja’

in years. Aside from the fact that most of

Syria’s half a million Palestinian refugees

are on the run again , living the pain of

displacement and loss for the second, third,

or even fourth time. Nine million Syrian

refugees are now duplicating the Palestinian

tragedy, charting the early course of the

Palestinian Nakba, the catastrophe of 1948.

Watching the destitution of the Syrian

refugees is like rewinding the past , in all of

its awful details. And watching Arab states

clamor to aid the refugees with ample words

and little action feels as if we are living Arab

betrayal all over again.

I watched my grandparents die, followed

by my parents and many of my peers. All

of them died refugees, carrying the same

status and the same lost hope of return.

The most they ever received from the

‘international community’ was a few sacks

of rice and cheap cooking oil. And of

course, numerous tents.

With time our refugee status morphed from

being a ‘problem’ to an integral part of ourcontinued next page

continued from page 18

identities. Being a ‘refugee’ at this stage

means insisting on the Right of Return for

Palestinian refugees as enshrined in

international law. That status is no longer

just a mere reference to physical

displacement but also to a political, even a

national identity.

Political division may, at times, dominate

Palestinian society, but we will always be

united by the fact that we are refugees with

a common cause: going home. While for

the Palestinians of Yarmouk near

Damascus, being a refugee is a matter of

life and death – often by starvation – for the

larger Palestinian collective, the meaning of

the word has become more involved: it has

been etched onto our skin forever.

But what can one say by way of advice to

the relatively new refugees of Syria,

considering that we are yet to liberate

ourselves from a status that we never

sought?

There can be only reminders and a few

warnings:

First, may your displacement end soon. May

you never live the waja’ of displacement to

the extent that you embrace it as a part of

your identity, and pass it on from one

generation to another. May it be a kind of

fleeting pain or passing nightmare, but never

a pervasive everyday reality.

Second, you must be prepared for the

worst. My grandparents left their new

blankets in their village before they fled to

the refugee camps because they feared they

would have been ruined by the dust of the

journey. Alas, the camps became home, and

the blankets were confiscated as the rest of

Palestine was. Please remain hopeful, but

realistic.

Third, don’t believe the ‘international

community’ when they make promises.

They never deliver , and when they do, it is

always for ulterior motives that might bring

you more harm than good. In fact, the term

itself is illusory, mostly used in reference to

western countries which have wronged you

as they have us.

Fourth, don’t trust Arab regimes. They lie.

They feel not your pain . They hear not

your pleas, nor do they care. They have

invested so much in destroying your

countries, and so little in redeeming their

sins. They speak of aid that rarely arrives

and political initiatives that constitute mostly

press releases. But they will take every

opportunity to remind you of their virtues.

In fact, your victimhood becomes a

platform for their greatness . They thrive at

your expense, thus will invest to further

your misery.

Fifth, preserve your dignity. I know, it is

never easy to maintain your pride when you

sleep in a barren street covered in cardboard

boxes. A mother would do whatever she

can to help her children pass into safety.

No matter, you must never allow the wolves

awaiting you at every border to exploit your

desperation. You must never allow the Emir,

or his children or some rich businessman

or sympathetic celebrity to use you as a

photo-op. Do not ever kneel. Don’t ever

kiss a hand. Don’t give anyone the

satisfaction to exploit your pain.

Sixth, remain united. There is strength in

unity when one is a refugee. Don’t allow

political squabbles to distract you from the

greater battle at hand: surviving until the day

you return home, and you will.

Seventh, love Syria. Yours is an unparalleled

civilization. Your history is rife with triumphs

that were ultimately of your own making.

Even if you must leave to distant lands ,

keep Syria in your hearts. This too shall

pass, and Syria shall redeem its glory, once

the brutes vanquish. Only the spirit of the

people shall survive. It is not wishful

thinking. It is history.

Dear Syrian refugee, it has been 66 years

and counting since my people’s

dispossession began. We are yet to return,

but that is a battle for my children, and their

children to fight. I hope yours ends soon.

Until then, please remember the tent is just

a tent, and the gusts of cold wind are but of

a passing storm.

And until you return home to Syria, don’t

let the refugee become who you are, as

you are so much more.

29 January, 2015

- Ramzy Baroud –

www.ramzybaroud.net - is an

internationally-syndicated columnist, a

media consultant, an author of several books

and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com.

Source: Countercurrents.org

WEALTH OF THE WORLD’S 400 RICHEST BILLIONAIRES ROSE $92BILLION IN 2014

By Andre Damon

The wealthiest 400 people in the world saw

their combined net worth grow by $92

billion last year, hitting $4.1 trillion. The

bonanza for the super-rich was

underwritten by governments and central

banks around the world, which fueled

surging stock markets and record corporate

profits by pumping hundreds of billions into continued next page

the financial markets.

The figures were provided by the

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D A R T I C L E S

19

Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which was

initiated in 2012 and tracks the wealth of

the 400 richest people in the world.

The combined net worth of these 400

individuals is greater than the gross

domestic product of Germany, the fourth

largest economy in the world. The average

net worth of each of the billionaires grew

by $240 million, to $10.25 billion.

Since the 2008 financial crash, which

triggered multi-trillion-dollar bank bailouts

and the infusion into the financial system

of trillions more in virtually free cash, the

wealth of the super-rich has nearly doubled.

The net worth of the Forbes list of the 400

richest Americans increased from $1.27

trillion in 2009 to $2.29 trillion in 2014.

Over the past year, global stock markets

have continued to soar. The American

Nasdaq index has shot up by 14.1 percent.

The Japanese Nikkei is up by 7.1 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed

above 18,000 for the first time on December

26, after hitting a record 17,000 in July 2014

and 16,000 in November 2013.

The Dow is up by 155 percent over its

level in March 2009, when it was below

6,000. US corporate profits have likewise

hit record highs, reaching $1.8 trillion in

the fourth quarter of 2014, up from $671

billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Investor Warren Buffett, the world’s second

richest man, according to the Bloomberg

list, saw his wealth grow to $74.5 billion,

up by $13.7 billion, or more than 22 percent,

in the past year. Buffett’s wealth has more

than doubled since 2009.

Bloomberg noted that “dozens of operating

businesses the 84-year-old chairman bought

over the past five decades churned out

record profit” over the past year. Buffett’s

business model has been to buy traditional

industries such as railroads and food

producers, then ruthlessly cut costs, making

billions in the process. Buffett’s businesses

have profited handsomely from the ongoing continued next page

continued from page 19fall in labor costs, which have been dropping

year after year since 2008 as a result of

falling wages and cuts in benefits for

workers.

Commentators did not hesitate to ascribe

the growth in the wealth of the super-rich

to the continuing infusion of cash by global

central banks. This week, European Central

Bank President Mario Draghi indicated that

the bank would pursue additional stimulus

measures, which markets predicted could

mean the initiation of US-style “quantitative

easing,” where the central bank essentially

prints money to buy state bonds in addition

to private securities.

Two of the three billionaires who made the

most in 2014 reside in China, which is

experiencing a stock market bubble, with

the country’s FTSE Xinhua 200 index up

by 49.49 percent over the past year. Jack

Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, saw his

wealth shoot up by $25.1 billion this year,

to $28.7 billion, following the September

initial public offering of shares in the Chinese

Internet trading company he heads.

The wealth of Wang Jianlin, chairman and

founder of the Chinese conglomerate Dalian

Wanda, nearly doubled over the past year,

hitting $25.3 billion, after his company held

an initial public offering for its commercial

properties division last year. Of the six

billionaires whose wealth more than

doubled, five live in China.

Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, saw his

wealth grow by $9.1 billion, to $87.6 billion.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s net worth grew

by $5.7 billion, to $49.4 billion. The wealth

of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

increased $10.6 billion to $35.3 billion.

Zuckerberg’s wealth has grown nearly 18-

fold since 2009, when it stood at $2 billion.

The financial sector made up a significant

share of the Bloomberg list. In addition to

Buffett, billionaire investors George Soros

and Carl Icahn featured prominently, with

$26.1 and $23.6 billion, respectively.

The soaring wealth of the super-rich comes

amid growing warnings over the

implications of rising social inequality. Last

month, the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development (OECD)

published a report noting: “Today, the richest

10 percent of the population in the OECD

area earn 9.5 times the income of the poorest

10 percent; in the 1980s this ratio stood at

7:1 and has been rising continuously ever

since.”

The OECD reported that the gap between

the top 10 percent and the bottom ten

percent had reached “around 10 to 1 in Italy,

Japan, Korea, Portugal and the United

Kingdom, between 13 and 16 to 1 in Greece,

Israel, Turkey and the United States, and

between 27 and 30 to 1 in Mexico and

Chile.”

The obscene enrichment of the world’s

billionaires and multi-millionaires is

accompanied by—and dependent on—the

growth of unemployment and poverty

around the world. According to a report

issued by the International Labor

Organization last year, the number of people

worldwide without work has hit 200 million

for the first time ever. The figure marked a

5 million increase in one year, surpassing

2009’s record high of 198 million.

According to a separate report by the

OECD, some 12 percent of the world’s

population, or 860 million people, lives in

poverty. Some 805 million people were

chronically under nourished between 2012

and 2014, according to the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization.

The ever-greater enrichment of the world’s

financial elite is not the byproduct of a

general growth in the real economy and

development of the productive forces, let

alone a broader rise in living standards. On

the contrary. The real economy is stagnating

or declining, the productive infrastructure

of the US and other industrialized countries

is being starved of investment and allowed

to rot, and the living standards of the broad

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D A R T I C L E S

20

mass of people are falling.

Today’s financial oligarchs generally make

their fortunes on the basis of social plunder

and economic parasitism, much of it

borderline illegal or outright criminal.

Increasingly, the meager benefits and

savings of workers—in the form of

pensions and other benefits—are being

stolen by the corporate-financial elite by

means of corporate and municipal

bankruptcies and other pseudo-legal forms

of swindling.

The Bloomberg report on the super-rich is

one more demonstration of the failure of

capitalism and the necessity for the working

class to overthrow it and replace it with

socialism.

03 January, 2015

Andre Damon is the National Secretary of

the International Youth and Students for

Social Equality.

Source: WSWS.org

continued from page 20

THE REAL AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

By Alfred W. McCoy

“The sovereign is he who decides on

the exception,” said conservative

thinker Carl Schmitt in 1922,

meaning that a nation’s leader can

defy the law to serve the greater

good. Though Schmitt’s service as

Nazi Germany’s chief jurist and his

unwavering support for Hitler from

the night of the long knives to

Kristallnacht and beyond damaged

his reputation for decades, today his

ideas have achieved unimagined

influence. They have, in fact, shaped

the neo-conservative view of

presidential power that has become

broadly bipartisan since 9/11. Indeed,

Schmitt has influenced American

politics directly through his

intellectual protégé Leo Strauss who,

as an émigré professor at the

University of Chicago, trained Bush

administration architects of the Iraq

war Paul Wolfowitz and Abram

Shulsky.

All that should be impressive enough

for a discredited, long dead

authoritarian thinker. But Schmitt’s

dictum also became a philosophical

foundation for the exercise of

American global power in the quarter

century that followed the end of the

Cold War. Washington, more than any

other power, created the modern

international community of laws and

treaties, yet it now reserves the right

to defy those same laws with

impunity. A sovereign ruler should, continued next page

said Schmitt, discard laws in times

of national emergency. So the United

States, as the planet’s last

superpower or, in Schmitt’s terms,

its global sovereign, has in these years

repeatedly ignored international law,

following instead its own unwritten

rules of the road for the exercise of

world power.

Just as Schmitt’s sovereign

preferred to rule in a state of endless

exception without a constitution for

his Reich, so Washington is now well

into the second decade of an endless

War on Terror that seems the sum of

its exceptions to international law:

endless incarceration, extrajudicial

killing, pervasive surveillance, drone

strikes in defiance of national

boundaries, torture on demand, and

immunity for all of the above on the

grounds of state secrecy. Yet these

many American exceptions are just

surface manifestations of the ever-

expanding clandestine dimension of

the American state. Created at the

cost of more than a trillion dollars

since 9/11, the purpose of this vast

apparatus is to control a covert

domain that is fast becoming the main

arena for geopolitical contestation in

the twenty-first century.

This should be (but seldom is

considered) a jarring, disconcerting

path for a country that, more than

any other, nurtured the idea of, and

wrote the rules for, an international

community of nations governed by

the rule of law. At the First Hague

Peace Conference in 1899, the U.S.

delegate, Andrew Dickson White, the

founder of Cornell University, pushed

for the creation of a Permanent Court

of Arbitration and persuaded Andrew

Carnegie to build the monumental

Peace Palace at The Hague as its

home. At the Second Hague

Conference in 1907, Secretary of

State Elihu Root urged that future

international conflicts be resolved by

a court of professional jurists, an idea

realized when the Permanent Court

of International Justice was

established in 1920.

After World War II, the U.S. used its

triumph to help create the United

Nations, push for the adoption of its

Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, and ratify the Geneva

Conventions for humanitarian

treatment in war. If you throw in

other American-backed initiatives like

the World Health Organization, the

World Trade Organization, and the

World Bank, you pretty much have

the entire infrastructure of what we

now casually call “the international

community.”

Breaking the Rules

Not only did the U.S. play a crucial

A R T I C L E S

21

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D

role in writing the new rules for that

community, but it almost immediately

began breaking them. After all,

despite the rise of the other

superpower, the Soviet Union,

Washington was by then the world

sovereign and so could decide which

should be the exceptions to its own

rules, particularly to the foundational

principle for all this global

governance: sovereignty. As it

struggled to dominate the hundred

new nations that started appearing

right after the war, each one invested

with an inviolable sovereignty,

Washington needed a new means of

projecting power beyond

conventional diplomacy or military

force. As a result , CIA covert

operations became its way of

intervening within a new world order

where you couldn’t or at least

shouldn’t intervene openly.

All of the exceptions that really matter

spring from America’s decision to join

what former spy John Le Carré called

that “squalid procession of vain

fools, traitors. . . sadists, and

drunkards,” and embrace espionage

in a big way after World War II. Until

the creation of the CIA in 1947, the

United States had been an innocent

abroad in the world of intelligence.

When General John J. Pershing led

two million American troops to

Europe during World War I, the U.S.

had the only army on either side of

the battle lines without an intelligence

service. Even though Washington

built a substantial security apparatus

during that war, it was quickly scaled

back by Republican conservatives

during the 1920s. For decades, the

impulse to cut or constrain such

secret agencies remained robustly

bipartisan, as when President Harry

Truman abolished the CIA’s

predecessor, the Office of Strategic

Services (OSS), right after World

continued from page 21 War II or when President Jimmy

Carter fired 800 CIA covert

operatives after the Vietnam War.

Yet by fits and starts, the covert

domain inside the U.S. government

has grown stealthily from the early

twentieth century to this moment. It

began with the formation of the FBI

in 1908 and Military Intelligence in

1917. The Central Intelligence

Agency followed after World War II

along with most of the alphabet

agencies that make up the present U.S.

Intelligence Community, including the

National Security Agency (NSA), the

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),

and last but hardly least, in 2004, the

Office of the Director of National

Intelligence. Make no mistake: there

is a clear correlation between state

secrecy and the rule of law — as one

grows, the other surely shrinks.

World Sovereign

America’s irrevocable entry into this

covert netherworld came when

President Truman deployed his new

CIA to contain Soviet subversion in

Europe. This was a continent then

thick with spies of every stripe: failed

fascists, aspirant communists, and

everything in between. Introduced to

spycraft by its British “cousins,” the

CIA soon mastered it in part by

establishing sub rosa ties to networks

of ex-Nazi spies, Italian fascist

operatives, and dozens of continental

secret services.

As the world’s new sovereign,

Washington used the CIA to enforce

its chosen exceptions to the

international rule of law, particularly

to the core principle of sovereignty.

During his two terms, President

Dwight Eisenhower authorized 104

covert operations on four continents,

focused largely on controlling the

many new nations then emerging

from centuries of colonialism.

Eisenhower’s exceptions included

blatant transgressions of national

sovereignty such as turning northern

Burma into an unwilling springboard

for abortive invasions of China,

arming regional revolts to partition

Indonesia, and overthrowing elected

governments in Guatemala and Iran.

By the time Eisenhower left office in

1961, covert ops had acquired such

a powerful mystique in Washington

that President John F. Kennedy

would authorize 163 of them in the

three years that preceded his

assassination.

As a senior CIA official posted to the

Near East in the early 1950s put it,

the Agency then saw every Muslim

leader who was not pro-American as

“a target legally authorized by statute

for CIA political action.” Applied on

a global scale and not just to Muslims,

this policy helped produce a distinct

“reverse wave” in the global trend

towards democracy from 1958 to

1975, as coups — most of them U.S.-

sanctioned — allowed military men

to seize power in more than three-

dozen nations, representing a quarter

of the world’s sovereign states.

The White House’s “exceptions” also

produced a deeply contradictory U.S.

attitude toward torture from the early

years of the Cold War onward.

Publicly, Washington’s opposition to

torture was manifest in its advocacy

of the U.N. Universal Declaration of

Human Rights in 1948 and the

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D A R T I C L E S

22

Geneva Conventions in 1949.

Simultaneously and secretly,

however, the CIA began developing

ingenious new torture techniques in

contravention of those same

international conventions. After a

decade of mind-control research, the

CIAactually codified its new method

of psychological torture in a secret

instructional handbook, the

“KUBARK Counterintelligence

Interrogation” manual, which it then

disseminated within the U.S.

Intelligence Community and to allied

security services worldwide.

Much of the torture that became

synonymous with the era of

authoritarian rule in Asia and Latin

America during the 1960s and 1970s

seems to have originated in U.S.

training programs that provided

sophisticated techniques, up-to-date

equipment, and moral legitimacy for

the practice. From 1962 to 1974, the

CIA worked through the Office of

Public Safety (OPS), a division of the

U.S. Agency for International

Development that sent American

police advisers to developing nations.

Established by President Kennedy in

1962, in just six years OPS grew into

a global anti-communist operation

with over 400 U.S. police advisers.

By 1971, it had trained more than a

million policemen in 47 nations,

including 85,000 in South Vietnam

and 100,000 in Brazil.

Concealed within this larger OPS

effort, CIA interrogation training

became synonymous with serious

human rights abuses, particularly in

Iran, the Philippines, South Vietnam,

Brazil , and Uruguay. Amnesty

Internationaldocumented widespread

torture, usually by local police, in 24

of the 49 nations that had hosted

OPS police-training teams. In

tracking torturers across the globe,

Amnesty seemed to be following the

trail of CIA training programs.

Significantly, torture began to recede

when America again turned resolutely

against the practice at the end of the

Cold War.

The War on Terror

Although the CIA’s authority for

assassination, covert intervention,

surveillance, and torture was

curtailed at the close of the Cold War,

the terror attacks of September 2001

sparked an unprecedented expansion

in the scale of the intelligence

community and a corresponding

resurgence in executive exceptions.

The War on Terror ’s voracious

appetite for information produced, in

its first decade, what the Washington

Post branded a veritable “fourth

branch” of the U.S. federal

government with 854,000 vetted

security officials, 263 security

organizations, over 3,000 private and

public intelligence agencies, and 33

new security complexes — all

pumping out a total of 50,000

classified intelligence reports annually

by 2010.

By that time, one of the newest

members of the Intelligence

Community, the National Geospatial-

Intelligence Agency, already had

16,000 employees, a $5 billion

budget, and a massive nearly $2

billion headquarters at Fort Belvoir,

Maryland — all aimed at coordinating

the flood of surveillance data pouring

in from drones, U-2 spy planes,

Google Earth, and orbiting satellites.

According to documents

whistleblower Edward Snowden

leaked to theWashington Post, the

U.S. spent $500 bill ion on its

intelligence agencies in the dozen

years after the 9/11 attacks, including

annual appropriations in 2012 of $11

billion for the National Security

Agency (NSA) and $15 billion for the

CIA. If we add the $790 billion

expended on the Department of

Homeland Security to that $500

billion for overseas intelligence, then

Washington had spent nearly $1.3

trillion to build a secret state-within-

the-state of absolutely unprecedented

size and power.

As this secret state swelled, the

world’s sovereign decided that some

extraordinary exceptions to civil

liberties at home and sovereignty

abroad were in order. The most

glaring came with the CIA’s now-

notorious renewed use of torture on

suspected terrorists and its setting up

of its own global network of private

prisons, or “black sites,” beyond the

reach of any court or legal authority.

Along with piracy and slavery, the

abolition of torture had long been a

signature issue when it came to the

international rule of law. So strong

was this principle that the U.N.

General Assembly voted unanimously

in 1984 to adopt the Convention

Against Torture. When it came to

ratifying it, however, Washington

dithered on the subject until the end

of the Cold War when it finally

resumed its advocacy of international

justice, participating in the World

Conference on Human Rights at

Vienna in 1993 and, a year later,

ratifying the U.N. Convention Against

Torture.

Even then, the sovereign decided to

continued from page 23

continued next page

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D A R T I C L E S

23

reserve some exceptions for his

country alone. Only a year after

President Bill Clinton signed the U.N.

Convention, CIA agents started

snatching terror suspects in the

Balkans, some of them Egyptian

nationals, and sending them to Cairo,

where a torture-friendly autocracy

could do whatever it wanted to them

in its prisons. Former CIA director

George Tenet later testified that, in

the years before 9/11, the CIA

shipped some 70 individuals to

foreign countries without formal

extradition — a process dubbed

“extraordinary rendition” that had

been explicitly banned under Article

3 of the U.N. Convention.

Right after his public address to a

shaken nation on September 11,

2001, President George W. Bush

gave his staff wide-ranging secret

orders to use torture, adding (in a

vernacular version of Schmitt’s

dictum),”I don’t care what the

international lawyers say, we are

going to kick some ass.” In this spirit,

the White House authorized the CIA

to develop that global matrix of

secret prisons, as well as an armada

of planes for spiriting kidnapped

terror suspects to them, and a

network of allies who could help

seize those suspects from sovereign

states and levitate them into a

supranational gulag of eight agency

black sites from Thailand to Poland

or into the crown jewel of the

system, Guantánamo, thus eluding

laws and treaties that remained

grounded in territorially based

concepts of sovereignty.

Once the CIA closed the black sites

in 2008-2009, its collaborators in this

global gulag began to feel the force

of law for their crimes against

humanity. Under pressure from the

Council of Europe, Poland started an

ongoing criminal investigation in 2008

into its security officers who had

facilitated the CIA’s secret prison in

the country’s northeast. In

September 2012, Italy’s supreme

court confirmed the convictions of

22 CIA agents for the illegal rendition

of Egyptian exile Abu Omar from

Milan to Cairo, and ordered a trial for

Italy’s military intelligence chief on

charges that sentenced him to 10

years in prison. In 2012, Scotland

Yard opened a criminal investigation

into MI6 agents who rendered Libyan

dissidents to Colonel Gaddafi’s

prisons for torture, and two years

later the Court of Appeal allowed

some of those Libyans to file a civil

suit against MI6 for kidnapping and

torture.

But not the CIA. Even after the

Senate’s 2014 Torture Report

documented the Agency’s abusive

tortures in painstaking detail, there

was no move for either criminal or

civil sanctions against those who had

ordered torture or those who had

carried it out. In a strong editorial on

December 21, 2014, the New York

Times asked “whether the nation will

stand by and allow the perpetrators

of torture to have perpetual

immunity.” The answer, of course,

was yes.Immunity for hirelings is one

of the sovereign’s most important

exceptions.

As President Bush finished his

second term in 2008, an inquiry by

the International Commission of

Jurists found that the CIA’s

mobilization of allied security

agencies worldwide had done serious

damage to the international rule of

law. “The executive… should under

no circumstance invoke a situation

of crisis to deprive victims of human

rights violations… of their… access

to justice,” the Commission

recommended after documenting the

degradation of civil liberties in some

40 countries. “State secrecy and

similar restrictions must not impede

the right to an effective remedy for

human rights violations.”

The Bush years also brought

Washington’s most blatant

repudiation of the rule of law. Once

the newly established International

Criminal Court (ICC) convened at

The Hague in 2002, the Bush White

House “un-signed” or “de-signed”

the U.N. agreement creating the court

and then mounted a sustained

diplomatic effort to immunize U.S.

military operations from its writ. This

was an extraordinary abdication for

the nation that had breathed the

concept of an international tribunal

into being.

The Sovereign’s Unbounded Domains

While Presidents Eisenhower and

Bush decided on exceptions that

violated national boundaries and

international treaties, President

Obama is exercising his exceptional

prerogatives in the unbounded

domains of aerospace and

cyberspace.

Both are new, unregulated realms of

military conflict beyond the rubric of

international law and Washington

believes it can use them as

Archimedean levers for global

dominion. Just as Britain once ruled

from the seas and postwar America

exercised its global reach via

airpower, so Washington now sees

aerospace and cyberspace as special

realms for domination in the twenty-

first century.

Under Obama, drones have grown

from a tactical Band-Aid in

Afghanistan into a strategic weapon

A R T I C L E SI N T E R N A T I O N A L M O V E M E N T F O R A J U S T W O R L D

24

continued from page 23

continued next page

for the exercise of global power.

From 2009 to 2015, the CIA and the

U.S. Air Force deployed a drone

armada of over 200 Predators and

Reapers, launching 413 strikes in

Pakistan alone, killing as many as

3,800 people. Every Tuesday inside

the White House Situation Room, as

the New York Times reported in

2012, President Obama reviews a

CIA drone “kill list” and stares at the

faces of those who are targeted for

possible assassination from the air.

He then decides, without any legal

procedure, who will live and who will

die, even in the case of American

citizens. Unlike other world leaders,

this sovereign applies the ultimate

exception across the Greater Middle

East, parts of Africa, and elsewhere

if he chooses.

This lethal success is the cutting edge

of a top-secret Pentagon project that

will, by 2020, deploy a triple-canopy

space “shield” from stratosphere to

exosphere, patrolled by Global Hawk

and X-37B drones armed with agile

missiles.

As Washington seeks to police a

restless globe from sky and space,

the world might well ask: How high

is any nation’s sovereignty? After the

successive failures of the Paris flight

conference of 1910, the Hague Rules

of Aerial Warfare of 1923, and

Geneva’s Protocol I of 1977 to

establish the extent of sovereign

airspace or restrain aerial warfare,

some puckish Pentagon lawyer might

reply: only as high as you can enforce

it.

President Obama has also adopted

the NSA’s vast surveillance system

as a permanent weapon for the

exercise of global power. At the

broadest level, such surveillance

complements Obama’s overall

defense strategy, announced in 2012,

of cutting conventional forces while

preserving U.S. global power through

a capacity for “a combined arms

campaign across all domains: land,

air, maritime, space, and

cyberspace.” In addition, it should be

no surprise that, having pioneered the

war-making possibili t ies of

cyberspace, the president did not

hesitate to launch the first cyberwar

in history against Iran.

By the end of Obama’s first term, the

NSA could sweep up billions of

messages worldwide through its agile

surveillance architecture. This

included hundreds of access points

for penetration of the Worldwide

Web’s fiber optic cables; ancillary

intercepts through special protocols

and “backdoor” software flaws;

supercomputers to crack the

encryption of this digital torrent; and

a massive data farm in Bluffdale,

Utah, built at a cost of $2 billion to

store yottabytes of purloined data.

Even after angry Silicon Valley

executives protested that the NSA’s

“backdoor” software surveillance

threatened their multi-trillion-dollar

industry, Obama called the

combination of Internet information

and supercomputers “a powerful

tool.” He insisted that, as “the

world’s only superpower,” the

United States “cannot unilaterally

disarm our intelligence agencies.” In

other words, the sovereign cannot

sanction any exceptions to his

panoply of exceptions.

Revelations from Edward Snowden’s

cache of leaked documents in late

2013 indicate that the NSA has

conducted surveillance of leaders in

some 122 nations worldwide, 35 of

them closely, including Brazil’s

president Dilma Rousseff, former

Mexican president Felipe Calderón,

and German Chancellor Angela

Merkel. After her forceful protest,

Obama agreed to exempt Merkel’s

phone from future NSA surveillance,

but reserved the right, as he put it,

to continue to “gather information

about the intentions of

governments… around the world.”

The sovereign declined to say which

world leaders might be exempted

from his omniscient gaze.

Can there be any question that, in the

decades to come, Washington will

continue to violate national

sovereignty through old-style covert

as well as open interventions, even

as it insists on rejecting any

international conventions that restrain

its use of aerospace or cyberspace

for unchecked force projection,

anywhere, anytime? Extant laws or

conventions that in any way check

this power will be violated when the

sovereign so decides. These are now

the unwritten rules of the road for

our planet. They represent the real

American exceptionalism.

24 February, 2015

Alfred W. McCoy is professor of

history at the University of

Wisconsin-Madison. A TomDispatch

regular, he is the author of Torture

& Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of

Coercive Interrogation, among other

works.

Copyright 2015 Alfred W. McCoy

Source: TomDispatch.com

continued from page 24

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