A letter written by Humayun Gauhar to his son living in USA. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
"It’s not easy to comprehend the collapse of an empire or a superpower. When termites are eating away at their vitals for years one cannot see it. People are too much in thrall of their power, wealth and panoply. Thus when the collapse comes it seems sudden, and takes people by surprise. “I went to sleep last night and when I woke up next morning the Soviet Union was gone.” The most powerful war machine ever built couldn’t save it. Remember the British Empire on which “the sun would never set”? It set so firmly that only six decades later Britain is not only bankrupt, it has become America’s appendage, a third rate power and could itself disintegrate soon with Scotland seceding. The history of the world is replete with the demise of civilizations, empires and superpowers. The graveyards of nations are full of their bones."
My dear Muhammad Ali -
I told you that it’s a funny world getting funnier. Many American analysts are saying that America’s real economic collapse could come by the end of this year. “It will come to known as The Crash of 09,” they say. Others, especially a Russian political analyst, are predicting its physical collapse too. There’s no doubt that the country is up the dirtiest of imaginable creeks without a paddle. But what’s amazing is that America remains mired in stunning denial, continuing to make bad situations worse with useless bailout plans and messing around with the world instead of facing up to the reality that its time as a hyper-power is up, that’s its economic system has failed and that its only recourse is to end its adversarial doctrine and get out of its lost wars as painlessly and honorably as possible. There’s no point in going on flogging dead horses. The only sensible thing that survival demands is to craft a new moral economic and financial system and a moral foreign policy.
The deep recession verging on depression that we have seen so far was caused by the crash in the US housing market. Since other developed industrialized nations, especially of Europe, were aping the shenanigans of unchecked and poorly regulated American bankers and financiers, the collapse of their markets, banks and economies followed like dominoes. Iceland was the first to officially declare bankruptcy. Its GDP is only about $6.5 billion but its banks had lent something like $65 billion while its regulators were asleep on the wheel. Britain has not declared bankruptcy officially but we all know that it is bankrupt for all intents and purposes and none of its banks and financial institutions has any legs left.
However, this is only the aperitif. Wait for the crash of US commercial real estate, which analysts think happen by autumn this year.
Shops are closing down and there’s no one to rent them. Companies are retrenching and freeing up a lot of office space or closing down entirely and vacating even more precious office space with no one to rent it again. Huge skyscrapers are becoming ghost-scrapers. All this expensive commercial real estate is mortgaged to the hilt. With no rental income coming in, the loans against them will become difficult to service and there will be fearsome default. There’s insurance and re-insurance here also and the amounts involved are mind-boggling. No bailout plan would come even close to coping. When the commercial real estate collapse comes, all hell will break loose. And if multinationals like General Motors and Ford call it a day, it won’t just be thousands upon thousands of people unemployed (though its heartless to use the word ‘just’ here). Two entire towns will be become ghost towns. That’s terrible. If you count the number of people wives, children and parents who are dependent on those incomes, it becomes worse than terrible. It becomes absolutely and totally unconscionable, while corrupt and greedy bankers and the likes of Bernie Madoff have made off with billions perhaps trillions of dollars and are still doing so because “our contracts say so.”
Then there is Professor Igor Nikolavich Panarin whom I came across in a December 2008 article by Andrew Osborne of the Wall Street Journal no less, not some fly-by-night rag. If he has got it right, next year will come to be known as ‘The Collapse of 2010' for that is when the USA will disintegrate into six separate entities. Those six entities, says Prof. Panarin, are The California Republic, The Central North American Republic, Atlantic America, The Texas Republic, Hawaii and Alaska going back to Russia.
With millions of Chinese living on America’s western seaboard (The People’s Daily’s circulation there alone is over five million) The California Republic, Prof. Panarin thinks, will either be part of China or come under Chinese influence. The Central North American Republic will be part of Canada or under Canadian influence, Atlantic America may join the European Union, The Texas Republic will be part of Mexico or under Mexican influence and Hawaii will go either to Japan or China.
Prof. Panarin is a former KGB analyst and a Russian professor of political science, Dean of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy in Moscow and author of several books on geopolitics. Thus one can hardly call him a fruitcake. Actually, he first made this prediction not after the economic meltdown that started last year but in Linz, Austria, in September 1998 in front of 400 delegates at a conference devoted to information warfare and the use of data to get an edge over a rival. Of course it was received with consternation. “When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise,” he says. Later, many delegates asked him to sign copies of the map. Its like when the French political scientist Emmanuel Todd made his famous forecast in 1976 about the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before it actually did and many people laughed. But Todd had the last laugh.
Prof. Panarin doesn’t say that America’s collapse is a forgone conclusion. “There’s a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur,” he says. But if it comes it will be driven by three factors “mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the US will break into six pieces. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the US. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the Union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The US will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.” All we Pakistanis thus have to do is hang in there and soon America will not be meddling in our affairs any more, what to talk of General Patraeus’s adviser David Kilcullen saying that Pakistan could fall apart in five or six months.
It’s not easy to comprehend the collapse of an empire or a superpower. When termites are eating away at their vitals for years one cannot see it. People are too much in thrall of their power, wealth and panoply. Thus when the collapse comes it seems sudden, and takes people by surprise. “I went to sleep last night and when I woke up next morning the Soviet Union was gone.” The most powerful war machine ever built couldn’t save it. Remember the British Empire on which “the sun would never set”? It set so firmly that only six decades later Britain is not only bankrupt, it has become America’s appendage, a third rate power and could itself disintegrate soon with Scotland seceding. The history of the world is replete with the demise of civilizations, empires and superpowers. The graveyards of nations are full of their bones.
That there may be something to what Prof. Panarin says is borne out by the fact that the late Bush administration made contingency plans to impose martial law in case of economic collapse or massive and violent social unrest with blood on the streets. His predictions seem plausible, even probable, if all the dire scenarios come right, as they have thus far. According to Rand Clifford the US has already made plans to “round up insurgent US citizens” and detain them in what are called “Rex 84? camps. Plus they have made “safe facilities” for members of Congress and their families. A report by the Phoenix Business Journal says that, “A new report by the US Army and War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.” The Journal’s story quote from the War College report: “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.” It needs saying that the military regularly makes plans for the most dire of situations, however seemingly unlikely.
Let Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and an early supporter of Barack Obama have the last word. The US is “going to have millions and millions of unemployed people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there’s public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in Americahell there could even be riots.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13067
Deep Recession in America: The Crash of 2009, The Collapse of 2010
A letter written by Humayun Gauhar to his son living in USA. Here is an excerpt from the letter:
"It’s not easy to comprehend the collapse of an empire or a superpower. When termites are eating away at their vitals for years one cannot see it. People are too much in thrall of their power, wealth and panoply. Thus when the collapse comes it seems sudden, and takes people by surprise. “I went to sleep last night and when I woke up next morning the Soviet Union was gone.” The most powerful war machine ever built couldn’t save it. Remember the British Empire on which “the sun would never set”? It set so firmly that only six decades later Britain is not only bankrupt, it has become America’s appendage, a third rate power and could itself disintegrate soon with Scotland seceding. The history of the world is replete with the demise of civilizations, empires and superpowers. The graveyards of nations are full of their bones."
My dear Muhammad Ali -
I told you that it’s a funny world getting funnier. Many American analysts are saying that America’s real economic collapse could come by the end of this year. “It will come to known as The Crash of 09,” they say. Others, especially a Russian political analyst, are predicting its physical collapse too. There’s no doubt that the country is up the dirtiest of imaginable creeks without a paddle. But what’s amazing is that America remains mired in stunning denial, continuing to make bad situations worse with useless bailout plans and messing around with the world instead of facing up to the reality that its time as a hyper-power is up, that’s its economic system has failed and that its only recourse is to end its adversarial doctrine and get out of its lost wars as painlessly and honorably as possible. There’s no point in going on flogging dead horses. The only sensible thing that survival demands is to craft a new moral economic and financial system and a moral foreign policy.
The deep recession verging on depression that we have seen so far was caused by the crash in the US housing market. Since other developed industrialized nations, especially of Europe, were aping the shenanigans of unchecked and poorly regulated American bankers and financiers, the collapse of their markets, banks and economies followed like dominoes. Iceland was the first to officially declare bankruptcy. Its GDP is only about $6.5 billion but its banks had lent something like $65 billion while its regulators were asleep on the wheel. Britain has not declared bankruptcy officially but we all know that it is bankrupt for all intents and purposes and none of its banks and financial institutions has any legs left.
However, this is only the aperitif. Wait for the crash of US commercial real estate, which analysts think happen by autumn this year.
Shops are closing down and there’s no one to rent them. Companies are retrenching and freeing up a lot of office space or closing down entirely and vacating even more precious office space with no one to rent it again. Huge skyscrapers are becoming ghost-scrapers. All this expensive commercial real estate is mortgaged to the hilt. With no rental income coming in, the loans against them will become difficult to service and there will be fearsome default. There’s insurance and re-insurance here also and the amounts involved are mind-boggling. No bailout plan would come even close to coping. When the commercial real estate collapse comes, all hell will break loose. And if multinationals like General Motors and Ford call it a day, it won’t just be thousands upon thousands of people unemployed (though its heartless to use the word ‘just’ here). Two entire towns will be become ghost towns. That’s terrible. If you count the number of people wives, children and parents who are dependent on those incomes, it becomes worse than terrible. It becomes absolutely and totally unconscionable, while corrupt and greedy bankers and the likes of Bernie Madoff have made off with billions perhaps trillions of dollars and are still doing so because “our contracts say so.”
Then there is Professor Igor Nikolavich Panarin whom I came across in a December 2008 article by Andrew Osborne of the Wall Street Journal no less, not some fly-by-night rag. If he has got it right, next year will come to be known as ‘The Collapse of 2010' for that is when the USA will disintegrate into six separate entities. Those six entities, says Prof. Panarin, are The California Republic, The Central North American Republic, Atlantic America, The Texas Republic, Hawaii and Alaska going back to Russia.
With millions of Chinese living on America’s western seaboard (The People’s Daily’s circulation there alone is over five million) The California Republic, Prof. Panarin thinks, will either be part of China or come under Chinese influence. The Central North American Republic will be part of Canada or under Canadian influence, Atlantic America may join the European Union, The Texas Republic will be part of Mexico or under Mexican influence and Hawaii will go either to Japan or China.
Prof. Panarin is a former KGB analyst and a Russian professor of political science, Dean of the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy in Moscow and author of several books on geopolitics. Thus one can hardly call him a fruitcake. Actually, he first made this prediction not after the economic meltdown that started last year but in Linz, Austria, in September 1998 in front of 400 delegates at a conference devoted to information warfare and the use of data to get an edge over a rival. Of course it was received with consternation. “When I pushed the button on my computer and the map of the United States disintegrated, hundreds of people cried out in surprise,” he says. Later, many delegates asked him to sign copies of the map. Its like when the French political scientist Emmanuel Todd made his famous forecast in 1976 about the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before it actually did and many people laughed. But Todd had the last laugh.
Prof. Panarin doesn’t say that America’s collapse is a forgone conclusion. “There’s a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur,” he says. But if it comes it will be driven by three factors “mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the US will break into six pieces. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the US. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the Union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The US will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.” All we Pakistanis thus have to do is hang in there and soon America will not be meddling in our affairs any more, what to talk of General Patraeus’s adviser David Kilcullen saying that Pakistan could fall apart in five or six months.
It’s not easy to comprehend the collapse of an empire or a superpower. When termites are eating away at their vitals for years one cannot see it. People are too much in thrall of their power, wealth and panoply. Thus when the collapse comes it seems sudden, and takes people by surprise. “I went to sleep last night and when I woke up next morning the Soviet Union was gone.” The most powerful war machine ever built couldn’t save it. Remember the British Empire on which “the sun would never set”? It set so firmly that only six decades later Britain is not only bankrupt, it has become America’s appendage, a third rate power and could itself disintegrate soon with Scotland seceding. The history of the world is replete with the demise of civilizations, empires and superpowers. The graveyards of nations are full of their bones.
That there may be something to what Prof. Panarin says is borne out by the fact that the late Bush administration made contingency plans to impose martial law in case of economic collapse or massive and violent social unrest with blood on the streets. His predictions seem plausible, even probable, if all the dire scenarios come right, as they have thus far. According to Rand Clifford the US has already made plans to “round up insurgent US citizens” and detain them in what are called “Rex 84? camps. Plus they have made “safe facilities” for members of Congress and their families. A report by the Phoenix Business Journal says that, “A new report by the US Army and War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.” The Journal’s story quote from the War College report: “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.” It needs saying that the military regularly makes plans for the most dire of situations, however seemingly unlikely.
Let Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and an early supporter of Barack Obama have the last word. The US is “going to have millions and millions of unemployed people really facing dire straits. And we’re going to be having that for some period of time before things hopefully improve. And at the same time there’s public awareness of this extraordinary wealth that was transferred to a few individuals at levels without historical precedent in Americahell there could even be riots.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13067
Peru's Fujimori jailed for 25 years
Al-Jazeera.net
April 7, 2009
Peru's former president has been jailed for 25 years after being found
guilty of crimes against humanity and other charges.
Alberto Fujimori, 70, said he would appeal against the verdict after he was
found to have ordered massacres and kidnappings during the 1990s "dirty war"
against the Shining Path rebel group following a 15-month trial.
The former president - already serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse
of power in an unrelated case - was sentenced after the verdict was read to
a packed courtroom in Lima, the capital, on Tuesday.
Al Jazeera's Mariana Sanchez, reporting from the trial, said the families of
the victims were satisfied with the verdict.
Gisela Ortiz, whose brother was killed at La Cantuta University in 1992 as
Fujimori's squads hunted for presumed left-wingers, said: "For the first
time, the Peruvian justice system rose to the occasion in this historic
fight against impunity."
Human rights groups also welcomed the verdict.
"After years of evading justice, Fujimori is finally being held to account
for some of his crimes," said Maria McFarland, a senior Americas researcher
at Human Rights Watch, who was in the courtroom for the announcement.
Protest call
Fujimori could still be pardoned by Alan Garcia, the current Peruvian
president, if he loses his appeal, our correspondent said.
Fujimori's daughter, Keiko, a congresswoman considering a run for the
presidency in 2011, called for peaceful protests against what she said was
an "unjust" verdict.
"They've won the battle but not the war," she told the AFP news agency.
The sentence, and Fujimori's age, mean he will almost certainly spend the
rest of his life in prison.
It marks the first time a democratically elected Latin American leader has
been found guilty of rights abuses.
Fujimori, who had repeatedly denied the charges, appeared calm in live
televised pictures of the courtroom, listening intently as the verdict was
read out and pausing frequently to take notes.
Outside the base where the trial was held, supporters and opponents of
Fujimori fought each other on the street with sticks, fists and rocks before
being dispersed by riot police.
About 30 relatives of victims had clashed with about 500 Fujimori
supporters, although no injuries were reported.
Massacres
The verdict related to two massacres, the first committed on November 3,
1991 when a group of armed and masked soldiers burst into a party in the
Lima suburb of Barrios Altos, killing 15 people, including an eight-year-old
boy.
Several months later, nine university students and their professor were
rounded up by the same "La Colina" squad, taken to a deserted area of the
city and executed with shots to the back of their heads.
Fujimori was also found guilty in relation to the kidnapping of a Peruvian
journalist working for a Spanish newspaper and a businessman, both critics
of his government.
Fujimori fled to Tokyo in 2000 while still president amid a deepening
corruption scandal involving his then intelligence chief, Vladimiro
Montesinos, and sent his resignation letter by fax from his hotel.
Japan considered Fujimori, whose parents were Japanese, a national and
refused to extradite him.
He stayed there for the next five years before flying to Chile in 2005,
where he was arrested as he prepared a new presidential bid.
Two years later he was extradited to Peru and found guilty in December 2007
on charges of abuse of power over the illegal removal of sensitive audio and
video tapes from Montesinos's apartment.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/04/20094723910202868.html
News Update from Citizens For Legitimate Government
08 Apr 2009
http://www.legitgov.org/
All items are here:
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
CLG: Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment: Universities Possible Terror Portals -- 2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment, Commonwealth of Virginia, Department of State Police, Virginia Fusion Center State - Federal - Local - Private, March 2009 --Posted by Lori Price 08 Apr 2009 The Lowlights: Virginia's network of colleges and universities also represent a potential avenue of entry for terrorist operatives and a possible forum for recruitment of sympathizers... In addition to reviewing information directly reported to the VFC, surveys were sent to all Virginia local law enforcement agencies to determine the extent of terrorism activities throughout the state. Information of interest included not only event-specific data, but also suspicious traffic stops or activities consistent with pre-operational attack planning. Assessments of the overall threat posed by specific terror and extremist groups or movements were completed utilizing the Project SLEIPNIR: Revised Long Matrix for Criminal Extremism utilized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Those who wish to be added to the list can go here:http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg and add your name. Those who wish to unsubscribe can go here: http://lists.people-link.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/legitgov. If your email provider has marked this newsletter as spam, please mark it as 'not spam' and do not delete from a spam or 'junk' folder, as such actions trigger false spam complaints against the CLG. If you have any inquiries/issues with your subscription, please write: signup at legitgov dot org.
CLG Managing Editor: Lori Price. Copyright © 2009, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.
Bangladesh: revolt and fallout
Liz Philipson, UK
A bloody mutiny within Bangladesh's border-security force needs to be seen in the light of the complex divisions and suspicions of the country's post-independence era. The test for Sheikh Hasina's new democratic government is severe, says Liz Philipson.
Bangladesh has experienced a rare switchback-ride from hope to fear in the first weeks of 2009. The largely peaceful general election of 29 December 2008 on a 70% voter turnout gave an astonishing landslide victory to the Awami League (AL) led by Sheikh Hasina over the Bangladesh National Party of her bitter rival Begum Khaleda Zia. The end of the army-backed "caretaker" government that had been established in October 2006 was greeted with joy by democratic forces within and outwith the country (see Jalal Alamgir, "Bangladesh: a verdict and a lesson", 13 February 2009).
The new government was scarcely into its stride, however, when the mood swung in an alarming and wholly unforeseen way, with the mutiny on 25-26 February 2009 of a large section of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) - the paramilitary force charged with the defence of Bangladesh's borders. The country marked the thirty-eighth anniversary of its founding on 26 March 2009 still shaken by and coming to terms with a complex incident that illustrates the challenges of rooting democracy securely within Bangladesh.
What made the mutiny even more shocking was that it began not in some remote border-post but in the BDR headquarters in Dhanmondi, a posh residential area of the capital, Dhaka. From there it spread across the country to twelve other BDR camps. In the process, thousands of BDR jawans rose against their army commanders (who are drawn from the regular army), killing many of them and members of their families. The commander of the BDR was one of the victims. The final death-toll remains unclear; several mass graves have been found, and scores more bodies may still be missing.
The news of the mutiny spread tension and insecurity throughout Bangladeshi society, but it was only after state forces had regained control of the situation that the scale of the killing became clear. A retired army major is quoted as saying "not even in the war of independence [1971] and the coups that followed have we ever lost such a big number of army officers".
Sheikh Hasina initially offered an amnesty to the jawans if they laid down their weapons. When the extent of the slaughter (if not the precise figures) became known the amnesty was withdrawn; some hundreds of BDR are in custody and security forces are hunting BDR on the run. The prime minister's handling of the affair has come under criticism, especially her decision to open negotiations with the mutineers and thus allegedly risk the lives of the army officers; others praise her response to the situation as having averted a potentially even greater disaster. These reactions, like much else in Bangladesh, tend largely to divide according to party political loyalties.
The mutiny also refocused attention on the already frosty relations between the army and politicians in Bangladesh. The period of "caretaker" government under military control from 2006-08 saw only the latest in a series of struggles by the political parties to retrieve governing authority; the army had jailed many political leaders and their followers, and sought to push both Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia into exile. This made Sheikh Hasina's handling of the mutiny even more sensitive; the fact that the head of the armed forces pledged support for the government helped to ease the situation.
Behind the crisis
Why did the mutiny happen? And why did it happen now? It has been characterised by some observers as an incident involving guns that somehow got out of hand; but this seems implausible and few if any in Bangladesh believe this. Most Bangladeshis are also sceptical about the official version: that the mutiny was sparked by BDR frustration at their remuneration package (which is much inferior to that enjoyed by the army) as well as their exclusion from lucrative United Nations postings that army personnel are routinely offered.
It is true that the brief negotiations between the government and the mutineers (when some army officers were believed to be being held as live hostages) did centre on improvement to BDR terms and conditions. But the suggestions about the background to the mutiny in Bangladesh's cities and villages (and in the drawing-rooms of Dhanmondi) are both different and various. They evoke fissures and conspiracies that have bedevilled contemporary Bangladesh - the polarisation and criminalisation of politics, terrorism, fundamentalism, militarism, and regional geopolitics. There is also a persistent notion (fuelled by the questioning of Abdur Razzak, a leading member of the Jamaat-e-Islami [JI]party on 30 March 2009) that this was an attempt to undermine the new government before it had become fully established.
The curtain of fear
The roots of many political problems in Bangladesh have developed from the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan (see Willem van Schendel, A History of Bangladesh [Cambridge University Press, 2009]). The issue still rouses intense emotions; the Awami League government has begun to act on its election pledge of prosecuting of those accused of war crimes during that period (many of whom are associated with Jamaat-e-Islami).
India supported the Bangladesh cause in 1971; indeed it is doubtful whether independence would have been achieved without Indian assistance. Since then party alignments in this area too have come to polarise, with the Awami League continuing to be closer to India while the Bangladesh National Party is perceived as having become closer to Pakistan. As a result, the AL sees Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as the source of hostility to it, while the BNP views the Indian foreign-intelligence service's Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) similarly. There is no doubt that both these agencies are active within Bangladesh and maintain complex relations with sections of the Bangladeshi security forces, including some parts of the army. The traces of suspicion enter the media and the mentality of the political class and sections of the public: articles are published accusing India or Pakistan of involvement in the BDR massacre, while Sheikh Hasina herself insists that "outsiders" were involved and that "we have to unearth all these conspiracies".
Bangladesh's history subsequent to the independence war has been steeped in political violence, coups and counter-coups and military governments. This has helped create a political culture of swirling rumour and suspicion that often makes connections between apparently disparate events (see Shafiq Alam, "Bangladesh seeks answers over its bloody birth", AsiaOne News, 25 March 2009). For example, the use of grenades in an assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina in 2004 during her address to a party rally managed to kill twenty people and injure 200. The event was surrounded by speculation: about a possible link to religious fundamentalism, and to the fact that the trial of those who in 1975 killed her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was at last about to begin.
A little later, there were strong rumours that the grenades were the same as those from a huge illegal arms-shipment that mysteriously disappeared after confiscation at Chittagong earlier in 2004 (and was subsequently linked to the United Liberation Front of Assam [Ulfa] in India's unsettled northeast state). Moreover, it was alleged that grenades from this shipment were involved in an attack in the same year which killed three people and injured scores of people (including the British ambassador); leaders of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) movement have been tried for this attack. By a circuitous route, a rumour has it that more grenades from this shipment were found inside the BDR headquarters.
The corroded polity
There are also more straightforward political rivalries at play in the background to the BDR mutiny. In 1990 the democratic parties in Bangladesh cooperated to oust General Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh under martial law (1982-86) and then as president (1986-90). However that cooperation quickly ebbed away: for the next fifteen years the AL and the BNP alternated in government and fought bitter political battles. During this time, parliamentary politics yielded to frequent opposition boycotts and street protests - often violent.
The hallmark of Bangladeshi politics became corruption and criminality. During the last BNP government, Begum Zia's son Tariq Raman acquired the reputation of a godfather of an extensive network of graft and crime (he is now in exile). There is also a local, Bangladeshi dimension of the growing links between criminality and politics throughout south Asia, amid fears that the dramatic outbreaks of violence in various countries of the region may have roots in transnational networks of organised crime or religious militancy.
In the post-1990 period, both the AL and the BNP made electoral alliances with JI, thus increasing the JI's profile and influence. The BNP also brought the JI into its 2001 cabinet. A series of explosions perpetrated by the JMB raised fears over links between Islamic parliamentary parties and Islamic militant groups, which had a negative impact on the JI. However, the JI remained the best-organised party in the country and the only one with a long-term strategy (though its leader and a former minister, Nizami, was arrested on corruption charges in May 2008; and the party did badly in the December elections).
Bangladeshis in general believe that there are many questions still to be answered about links between militant Islamic groups and established politicians and the security services, both of which have been accused of assisting these groups on certain occasions.
The BNP/JI coalition government was accused by then Awami League opposition of "fixing" both the caretaker government and the election commission and other official bodies. When the interim government took office in October 2006, violence had erupted on the streets and Dhaka became ungovernable (see "Bangladesh's fraying democracy", 25 June 2006). In December, President Iajuddin Ahmed announced a national state of emergency, an overnight curfew, and the postponement of the elections scheduled for 22 January. He also stepped down as temporary prime minister of Bangladesh.
The military-backed caretaker government that then took office was initially welcomed as bringing order, and its fierce anti-corruption drive was particularly popular. However, it also banned political activity, jailed thousands of political activists and attempted to force both Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia into exile. Once again, activists from the two major parties found common cause in opposing a military government.
After the storm
The democratic election of December 2008 returned Bangladesh to its status as a functional, constitutional democracy. However, even then, it was clear that the challenges for the victorious Sheikh Hasina were formidable. Bangladesh is far from a tabula rasa. The AL administration inherits all the violence, criminality and political schisms and opacity that have bedevilled the country since independence. The BDR massacre was the first major test of the new government and the immediate crisis was managed well. However, both the army and the government investigation commissions are yet to report. It may be important that these two commissions are in broad agreement and that their conclusions are generally credible to Bangladeshis who seek the truth out of fear for the future of their country.
But to endure the BDR storm is only the first hurdle. To govern well will require Sheikh Hasina and her ministers to break with the same old ways of corruption, nepotism and impunity. If the foundation laid at the election is to consolidate the functioning democracy and develop practical democracy for Bangladeshis, there must be change throughout the system. Some analysts see the AL as a party that has been shaken by the events of the last two years; others fear that the size of its majority will obscure the need to learn lessons.
It is too early for any balance-sheet of the new political dispensation. But there have already been parliamentary walkouts, and the Awami League has restricted the powers of the election commission that managed to deliver one of the most peaceful elections Bangladesh has known. The signs are mixed. Bangladesh remains suspended between past and future.
-----------------------------
Liz Philipson is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics. Her work specialises in south Asian issues and focuses on conflict analysis, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/bangladesh-revolt-and-fallout
Concocted Plan Of Attack On White House Finalized
Pakistan’s enemies are preparing to deliver a decisive blow. Pakistan has suffered grievously on all counts and its very foundations have been jolted in the seven years of America’s occupation of Afghanistan. It is most unfortunate that in this gory plan, some of the political parties friendly to India, western sponsored NGOs, intellectuals and writers have also contributed towards disinformation campaign and bringing bad name to Pakistan.
By Asif Haroon Raja
Sunday, 5 April 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan—I have been forewarning about the sinister designs of adversaries of Pakistan wanting to harm Pakistan for the last three years. What I had penned in 2006 about the dangerous ramifications of Indo-U.S.-Afghan nexus based in Kabul has come true.
Under the garb of friendship, Pakistan has been gradually and systematically weakened from within and destabilized through covert means employed by RAW, RAM [or NDS, the Karzai puppet intelligence], CIA duly complemented by Mossad and MI-6.
In the last seven years Pakistan has suffered grievously on all counts and its very foundations have been jolted. Mumbai episode on 26 November was the starting point for executing the final destructive phase against Pakistan. Sudden flurry of CIA controlled drone attacks and terrorist attacks in various parts of Pakistan are clear cut indications that our adversaries are now all set to deliver the decisive hammer.
It is most unfortunate that in this gory plan, some of the political parties friendly to India, western sponsored NGOs, intellectuals and writers have also contributed towards disinformation campaign and bringing bad name to Pakistan. They have been more distressed on the peace deals signed in Swat and Bajaur and are writing copiously to paint the Islamists as demons and the main threat to existence of Pakistan. A willful effort is being made to derail Swat peace accord and to prevent Zardari from counter signing the peace deal. One of the means adopted was to display a video footage of a 17-year girl publicly lashed by the bearded Taliban. The footage was repeatedly flashed on all TV channels throughout the day till late night on 4 April with a sinister purpose to defame the Taliban and Sharia laws. I will comment on its veracity separately but my sources have revealed that it was a fake video. A foreign funded NGO had furnished the clip to all concerned while majority of private electronic media channels funded from abroad played it up with vivacity and zest. The women activists of MQM have taken the lead in condemning the incident by staging protest marches in Karachi. It is a classic case of painting white with a black brush.
The U.S. and western media as well as the U.S. think tanks have been playing upon the theme of threat of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates to security of Pakistan as well as to U.S.A. George Bush had declared in July last year that any future attack on the U.S. homeland would come from FATA. The tribal belt was declared as the nursery of terrorists where terrorists and suicide bombers were indoctrinated, trained and launched into Afghanistan to target U.S.-Nato-Afghan forces. Giving strength to Karzai’s allegation of cross border terrorism, the U.S. sprinkled spice to this sizzling theme by adding that certain elements within the army and the ISI were linked with the Taliban and assisting them in movement across the border. FATA was declared as the most dangerous place and the hub centre of terrorism. After the Mumbai attacks, India shamelessly joined the propagandists and alleged that Pakistan is the epicenter of terrorism and that the ISI was linked with Lashkar-e-Taiba that had executed the Mumbai carnage. The purported document provided to Pakistan is full of glaring loopholes but India is insisting that Pakistan must accept the trash as well-cooked piece of evidence and act.
Cockeyed and baseless allegations hurled by U.S.A, India and Afghanistan in unison under a timed program have been made without furnishing any proof. Complaints of Pakistan against other agencies are ignored. Not a single story of massive sabotage and subversion undertaken against Pakistan from the Afghan soil has ever been published in the western and Indian newspaper. On the contrary any terrorist attack taking place in India or a western state was invariably pasted on Pakistani extremists and the ISI. It was hoped that the new U.S. administration under Obama would put an end to negative propaganda warfare based on pack of lies to discredit Pakistan and its institutions but it has decided to adopt the old policy of Pakistan bashing. Obama too has projected FATA as the safe haven and main headquarters of Al-Qaeda and its leadership. He reiterated fears of Bush by asserting that Al-Qaeda based in FATA is planning to attack homeland of U.S.A and has accordingly framed the new Af-Pak strategy to destroy Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Obama and his team are brimming with confidence and exuberance to implement the new plan at the earliest.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Baitullah Mehsud who had never been targeted or condemned by U.S. and the West suddenly came in their bad books after he announced his allegiance to Mullah Omar and accepted him as the supreme leader in first week of March. He had probably taken this step in the light of Pak army having scored moral victories in Bajaur and Swat and compelling the militants to ink peace deals. The new Af-Pak strategy worked out by Obama Administration to conjointly round up the irreconcilable Islamist extremists on both sides of the Durand Line might also have prompted him to achieve unity between Afghan and Pak Taliban and confront the new challenge jointly. Till this announcement, Mullah Omar led Taliban and Baitullah led Taliban were different entities and there was no nexus between them. In fact, Omar had conveyed his displeasure to Baitullah not to operate under the name of Taliban and bring a bad name to his outfit. Likewise, Gulbadin Hikmatyar leading Hizb-e-Islami operates independently in eastern and northeastern Afghanistan and also around Kandahar and Kabul. The U.S. has announced $5 million award for Baitullah’s head and drones have targeted his exclusive domain within South Waziristan (Jandola to Sarwakai), inhabited by Mehsuds, for the first time. Coming months will prove whether he has actually fallen from grace or it is a put up show to hoodwink Pakistan. Unlike Omar, Osama or Zawahiri who remain underground, Baitullah has exposed himself on number of occasions and has been giving interviews to the media men. The ISI had twice provided six figure grid reference of his location to CIA, but it is strange that the U.S. took no interest. The drones reconnoitering every inch of the tribal belt have surprisingly failed to spot him. The U.S. has now agreed to carryout joint operation against him to get hold of him.
Series of militant attacks took place in March at a time when peace deal with militants had been inked in Swat and Bajaur, Qazi courts have started functioning in Malakand Division, blatant bloodshed and destruction in the war torn regions have ended and there is an overall atmosphere of reconciliation and peace.. The suicide attacks in Jamrud on a mosque during Friday prayers on 27 March killing over 50 and injuring 120; suicide attack on a military convoy in Bannu killing 5 soldiers and 2 civilians and injuring 9 and a bloody clash in lower Dir on 29 March in which some senior officials were killed, together with a drone attack in Orakzai Agency on 01 April and suicide hit and a drone attack in North Waziristan on 4 April are aimed at disrupting peace in the Frontier province. Two terrorists attack in Lahore on 3rd and 30th March in Lahore were undertaken by the terrorists to give a loud message that terrorism has entered the heartland of Punjab. Another terrorist attack in posh locality of Islamabad on a FC camp on 4 April killing eight security personnel and a suicide attack on Imambargah in Chakwal on 5 April killing 24 people are links of the same chain. Prior to each attack, the intelligence agencies had forewarned the security forces about entry of RAW agents in Lahore and in Islamabad. More attacks are expected in coming days.
Baitullah who had throughout this period remained in the background and was media shy suddenly came on the centre stage and claimed responsibility for most terrorist attacks which took place recently. These claims were made in spite of an unknown group calling itself Fidayeen-e-Islam owning up the responsibility for the attack on Police Training School in Lahore on 30 March and the mosque in Jamrud on 27th March. The reason given for Baitullah’s offensive posture was the continuing drone attacks in FATA which in his view were taking place with connivance of the government. To the surprise of many he brazenly stated what the two American presidents had earlier predicted that his group was planning a terrorist attack on White House that would amaze the world. He asserted that his men would teach a lesson to the Americans. The only thing he has not revealed is the date and time of attack, which I reckon should also have been made public to make the story more thrilling. The people were still pondering over the statement of Baitullah when he hurled another salvo on 4 April by claiming responsibility for the terrorist attack by a gunman on an immigration centre in a small U.S. city on 3 April killing 13 people and then killed himself. He said that his accomplice has managed to escape and would hit another target soon. Investigations revealed that the gunman was Vietnamese origin which lay to rest the boastful claim of Baitullah.
Unless Baitullah is a nitwit and weird, why on earth should he disclose his hostile intentions before hand and alert the prey he intends to hit. Prior disclosure may stand to reason if the attacker uses it as a ploy to frighten the adversary which he never intends to target. The Taliban based in Pakistan and Afghanistan are local based and have so far not demonstrated any capability to strike a target outside their respective spheres of influence. It is only the mythical Al-Qaeda which possesses the long arm to hit out anywhere in the world. Even so-called Al-Qaeda operatives have not been able to strike any target in U.S.A after 9/11 because of the massive fool proof security arrangements laid around U.S.A. Therefore it will be childish to take Baitullah’s threat seriously.
If he is really serious to perform the miraculous act of attacking the most secured fortress of White House, logically he should not have divulged his intentions beforehand. By doing so he has alerted the already highly sensitive U.S. leadership suffering from acute paranoia and given them a just cause to hone their weapons more feverishly and preemptively destroy their deadly foes in their home ground and thus nip the evil in the bud. Till now the threat perception highlighted by U.S.A was based on assumptions. Now that their adversary has come out in the open with his future hostile intentions and brandished his sword and specified the target within U.S.A, it gives a ready made excuse to belligerent U.S. to once again put the Bush policy of preemption into action.
It is incomprehensible as to why Baitullah should send his suicide squads across the seven seas to teach U.S.A a lesson when he has host of lucrative targets within his immediate reach in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and easy reach in Middle East or Europe. Even South Korea which has a large concentration of U.S. military is much closer than U.S.A. His affiliate Al-Qaeda has already hit targets in Turkey, Spain, UK and Indonesia and is active in Africa. Possible reasons that come to one’s mind are: One, the incident would not become as earth shaking as 9/11 if it is committed outside U.S.A. Two, after announcement of head money, Baitullah has felt that his days are numbered and in desperation has thrown caution to the wind without comprehending its implications. Three, he has suddenly become extrovert and bigheaded and wants to gain publicity and fame.
Those who believe that he is CIA man now argue that he has deliberately given this statement to allay this impression. They say that when Clinton had visited Islamabad in March 2000 and had refused to shake hands or have a photo session with Gen Musharraf, it was purposely done to convey a message that he was in bad books of U.S.A where as in actuality he was not and it was a ploy to build up his image among the Pakistanis. After all, plan of attacking and occupying Afghanistan had been finalized way back in 1997. For Afghan venture someone like Gen Musharraf totally dedicated to the U.S. cause and anti-Islamist extremists fitted well into U.S. scheme of things. Nawaz Sharif had defied U.S. pressure and carried out nuclear tests; he had introduced Sharia laws in Lower House and was generally soft towards rightist religious parties. He was certainly not the right choice and therefore had to be got rid of to promote U.S. agenda with the active assistance of friendly and pliable president holding all state powers.
Approaching days would prove whether Baitullah is planted or genuine but one thing is certain; the concocted plan of attack on White House or an equally sensitive target in Washington has been finalized by vested groups to make it a justifiable excuse to attack Pakistan. If the U.S. hopes to win war in Afghanistan by undermining premier institutions of Pakistan, it is sadly mistaken. All its high sounding plans would come to a naught and it would have to exit in disgrace. If it commits the blunder of attacking Pakistan as suggested to it by India and Israel, it would undoubtedly cause massive destruction to this already badly mauled country but in the process it would sink in the third quagmire. Pakistan has relatively better means to defend itself when pushed against the wall. Its already depleting economy would not be able to sustain war on three fronts and would perish in this region. Another crop of Islamists would rise from the debris of ruined Pakistan to carry forward the message of Allah that God is Great and none else.
The writer is a Rawalpindi based security, defense and political freelance analyst. Email: ah.raja@yahoo.com
THE NUKE SCAM
Corporate media are going wild, tripping over one another, to headline that President Obama is going to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The British Reuters headline is "Obama sets out plan for nuclear-free world."
What a wonderful thing that would be, but this is a cruel hoax intended to make Obama's regime and the National Security State more acceptable in world opinion. The USA currently is one of the most despised nations on the planet after wars based on lies, torture, false imprisonment and other international criminal activity has been outed in the world press. This is clearly a scam.
If Obama got rid of the warheads, there would be no need for the launch and delivery vehicles, the strategic submarines, strategic bombers and ICBMs. The ruling Nuclear Mafia would lose hundreds of billions of dollars over time, and this, they will not allow. Obama's reelection campaign would not get financed.
In the speech, Obama actually tipped off his real plan when he said "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we intend to go forward with a missile defense system" in Eastern Europe. Such a Star Wars system as this will cause nuclear weapons to proliferate, and Obama knows it. The Nuclear Mafia is depending on Star Wars to spur a new Cold War with Russia, its only function.
Iran has no ICBM nor does it have nuclear weapons. There is no evidence it is working on a nuclear weapon.
The US Star Wars in Eastern Europe, by its location, is actually a threat to Russian deterrence. Obama's top advisers know this. Russia and China have announced they will increase their nuclear arsenal in response to such a system. The Nuclear Mafia will use such an increase to convince Congress to fund more nukes, and more launch and delivery systems. That is the obvious real plan at this time.
END THE CUBAN BLOCKADE
Al Jazeera has a story about American Members of Congress, led by the courageous Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who have travelled to Cuba to encourage that diplomatic relations be normalized.
Barbara Lee was the only Member of Congress to vote against the invasion of Afghanistan, resulting in the famous peace movement chant, "Barbara Lee speaks for me."
Vice President Joe Biden said a week ago that the United States would not lift the Cuban embargo.
In June, when leftists take control of the government of El Salvador and change government policy, the US will be the only nation in the Western hemisphere without Cuban diplomatic relations.
OBAMA WALL STREET CORRUPTION
Glenn Greenwald has an excellent summary of the conflicts of interest leading to what appears to be massive corruption in the Obama regime on behalf of the Wall Street bailout. If you read this piece, you will know more about it than you would know reading every corporate media article on the subject, including the NY Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, US News and World Report, and everything on TV "news."
When Bill Clinton moved into the White House progressives asked, "Why doesn't he investigate the Reagan/Bush bunch for apparent crimes? The massive human rights abuses in Latin America, the "October Surprise" of 1980 (so well-documented by Robert Parry), including covertly trading arms to a nation on the State Department terrorist list.
It didn't happen. Clinton pretended that everything was rosy.
Now crimes of the previous administration are being ignored again. No government in the history of the nation has ever committed as many serious crimes as the recent Bush regime and in the following piece, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern asks why the Obama regime is not investigating --Jack
Cowardice in the Time of Torture
by Ray McGovern
I used to take a certain pride by association with prominent Bronxites who have "made it." Cancel that for Attorney General Eric Holder and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
You might think that as African-Americans, they would be especially outraged by torture, given what blacks have suffered at the hands of white torturers in this country and abroad.
Why is it that they seem to value more their admittance into a privileged white-dominated ruling class than doing the right thing? How else to explain their stunning reluctance to hold torturers accountable and thus remove the stain of torture from our nation's soul and reputation?
One might say that Attorney General Holder is proving himself to be part of that "nation of cowards" that he called the United States in a different context, i.e. our unwillingness to address the issue of race. What about when the victims of torture are Muslims? Where's Holder's courage then?
Surely, I was not the only one stunned by former Vice President Dick Cheney's public admission that he helped authorize waterboarding of detainees. But, on reflection, there seems to have been a method to his madness; and, so far at least, the method seems to be working.
Have Holder and Colin Powell forgotten from their days growing up in the Bronx the typical reaction of bullies when caught in the act? "Okay, so waddaya gonna do ‘bout it!" It was an attempt at intimidation, and it was generally effective with those who felt not quite up to the challenge.
Looks very much as if Cheney sized up Holder correctly. During his confirmation hearings, Holder manfully agreed with Sen. Patrick Leahy that waterboarding, which subjects a person to the panicked gag reflex of drowning, is torture.
But Holder has been out to lunch since then, no doubt leaving Cheney and his torture-friendly friends smirking at having been correct in taking the measure of the new Attorney General. Call it chutzpah, intimidation, bullying - whatever; it does seem to be working.
Cheney endorsing waterboarding; Holder labeling it torture; and - Hello? Anyone home? Deafening silence.
Never mind that Holder, like President Barack Obama, took a solemn oath to faithfully execute the laws of the land. Why are they still afraid of Dick Cheney, whom even the neo-con editors of the Washington Post in 2005 branded "Vice President for Torture?"
Ain't Misbehavin'
Holder seems to be taking his cue from the pitiable Colin Powell, now traversing the country giving lucrative speeches on leadership. Powell knew he was welcome into the club, or in this case the White House, only as long as he toed the line and was willing to offer up what was left of his reputation to the Bush/Cheney war effort.
True, in one brief spurt of behind-the-scenes assertiveness, Powell insisted that arch-prevaricator (and former CIA director) George Tenet sit behind him during Powell's unforgettable/unforgivable speech at the UN on Feb. 5, 2003.
Could he have been so unaware as to think this might somehow shame the shameless Tenet into coming clean with the intelligence?
No way; and he knew it.. Powell had already confided to then-British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that the case against Iraq was what in the Bronx we call a "crock."
I know Powell. In the early 1980s, when he wore but one star as military assistant to the Secretary of Defense - and I was a CIA intelligence briefer - I used to do him the courtesy of pre-briefing him, to the extent I could, on what I was about to discuss during my early-morning one-on-ones with his boss, Casper Weinberger. I found Powell to be anything but naïve.
He and I had a good bit in common - growing up at about the same time a mile from each other in the Bronx, "Distinguished Military Graduates" commissioned via Army R.O.T.C. - he from City College in 1958, I from Fordham in 1961.
Initially, I was blissfully unaware of the many times he had compromised himself - in doing Weinberger's bidding on Iran-Contra, for example. And so in 1989, I took a certain pride by association when Powell made it to the very top as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
That pride dissipated quickly as I watched Powell bend to those who were bent on launching a war of aggression on Iraq. Republican elder statesman James Baker, who was secretary of state under George H.W. Bush, has referred to Powell as the one person who could have stopped that war. Baker is right.
Caving on Torture
More to the point, Colin Powell betrayed the U.S. Army and the nation on the issue of torture.
When he got a whiff of the tortured reasoning for torture - being urged on the President by the likes of Alberto Gonzales and David Addington to somehow make torture "legal" - Powell took the coward's way out.
He had his lawyer get in touch with the Mafia-type lawyers in the White House to ask them please, could they please ask the President to reconsider his decision to exempt al-Qaeda and the Taliban from the protections of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Powell's gentle demurral appears in a MEMORANUM FOR THE PRESIDENT, dated Jan. 25, 2002, drafted by Addington but signed by Gonzales.. They included Powell's argument in a paragraph at the bottom of a list of "negative" consequences of ignoring Geneva:
"A determination that Geneva does not apply to al Qaeda and the Taliban could undermine U.S. military culture which emphasizes maintaining the highest standards of conduct in combat, and could introduce an element of uncertainty in the status of adversaries."
Powell got that right. Too bad he did not have the courage of his convictions. Too bad he lacked the guts to confront the President directly. Too bad, for he is perhaps the one person who could have stopped the torture and the debasement of the Army to which he owed so much.
Rather than put into play the wide respect he still enjoyed, in order to stop a war he knew to be illegal, Powell decided to trade in that respect for the equivalent of 30 pieces of silver.
As the Executive Summary of the Senate Armed Services Committee report on torture, released on Dec. 12, 2008, indicates, President Bush threw in his lot with the early opinions of Addington and Gonzales.
(What most folks don't realize is that this was long before everyone's favorite bête noire John Yoo and associates served up their ex post facto "justifications.")
Incorporating Addington's language, the President signed an executive order on Feb. 7 that, in the words of the Senate committee, "opened the door" to torture.
Powell not only acquiesced in this but also allowed himself to be sucked into a series of discussions in the White House Situation Room regarding which torture techniques might be most appropriate to apply to which "high-value" detainee.
Those are the sessions that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft referred to in commenting, "history will not be kind" to us.
What brings this painful flashback to mind is Rachel Maddow's interview with Colin Powell on April 2. Not surprisingly, he danced around her questions about the White House seminars on torture. Most telling of all, however, Powell could not bring himself to admit, even now, that waterboarding is torture.
Doubling Down
On April 3, former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, the fabulous fabricator of the fabled Saddam-al-Qaeda connection, upped the ante in the "so-wattaya gonna-do-‘bout-it" challenge, and held up to ridicule the timidity of Holder and the President.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Feith pretended to be shocked at the temerity of a Spanish court that seems to be on the verge of bringing criminal charges against Feith, Gonzales, Addington, John Yoo, and two other lawyers who served up the desired opinions on how the White House could make an end-run around domestic and international law and approve the systematic torture of detainees.
Disregarding the provisions of international law that clearly do apply, Feith makes liberal use of reductio ad absurdum to "prove" that Spain has no jurisdiction to put Americans on trial for torture.
More important, Feith is so cocksure of himself that he throws down the gauntlet at the feet of the new administration: "If President Barack Obama and the prosecutors see a crime to be prosecuted, they can act."
What, I wonder, gives Feith such confidence that he will not one day rue having said that? Has it been his watching of a long line of timid officials - both Republicans and Democrats - who lack the courage of their convictions?
Clearly, the Cheneys and Feiths of this world are betting on Obama being cut of the same cloth. The President will prove them right if it turns out that his oft-repeated "No one is above the law" proves to be just rhetoric.
And it will remain just rhetoric, if Obama delays much longer in ordering the reluctant Holder to appoint a nonpartisan, independent special prosecutor to bring the torturers to justice and end this shameful chapter in American history once and for all.
© 2009 ConsortiumNews
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. During his career as a CIA analyst, he prepared and briefed the President's Daily Brief and chaired National Intelligence Estimates. He is a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
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