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VIDEO - NSA Uses Private Firms for Massive Unchecked Domestic Surveillance

Guest blogged by David Edwards of Veredictum.com http://veredictum.com

2/27/2006 @ 7:51am PT...

Video in Streaming Flash format and Windows Media format and Audio in MP3 format at Source URL: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002471.htm

Thanks to a heads-up from Larisa at The Raw Story, we were able to captured this broadcast of CNBC's Tim Russert show. Russert interviewed James Risen and Robert O'Harrow, Jr. The video contains about 24 minutes of clips from CNBC's Saturday broadcast.

James Risen broke the NSA warrantless domestic spying story for the New York Times. He also has a new book out, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA And The Bush Administration. Risen is known to have sources within various intelligence agencies and has recieved information from several NSA whistleblowers. One of those whistleblowers, Russell Tice, recently testified before congress that NSA domestic surveillance programs may be much more widespread than the "limited" program that the Bush Adminstration has admitted. Tice has said that some programs could be monitoring "millions of Americans".

Robert O'Harrow, Jr. is an award-winning reporter for the Washingon Post with an expertise data mining and privacy issues. His recent book, No Place to Hide: Behind the Scenes of Our Emerging Surveillance Society, describes "a surveillance society that's less centralized and more a joint public/private venture".

Together, Risen and O'Harrow paint a picture of an enormous partnership between U.S. intelligence agencies and private data collection firms. Spying agencies like the NSA can leverage its' massive computing power to mine data collected by these private firms. The result is a mind-boggling domestic surveillance capability with access to nearly any information imaginable. Phone calls, email, video as well as finicial, criminal and other personal records can all be searched at the same time. The NSA's powerful computers can mine the data to find otherwise imperceptible links for profiling groups and individuals.

Russert calls it a "sobering" discussion. The interview only scratches the surface of how extensive the scope of Big Brother's monitoring of Americans may be. The surveillance programs are a dramatic departure from what the public has come to believe. It's easy to see why the Bush Administration has avoided legislation and oversight.

It's quite possible that the American people would not stand for Bush's spying policies if they had a sense of the true nature of the government's surveillance.


ALSO SEE...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/27/1519235

Total Information Awareness Lives On Inside the National Security Agency

Video & Audio at Source URL: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/27/1519235

More than two years ago Congress halted plans for a controversial plan called Total Information Awareness to create the world's largest surveillance database to track your phone calls, purchases, Internet usage, reading material, banking transactions. The National Journal has now revealed the program has quietly continued inside the NSA.

In 2003, lawmakers voted to shut down Total Information Awareness - a program that developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States.

Months earlier New York Times columnist William Safire had warned about the dangers of the program. In a column headlined "You Are A Suspect" Safire wrote:

"If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:

"Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend -- all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as 'a virtual, centralized grand database.'

"To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you -- passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance -- and you have the supersnoop's dream: a "Total Information Awareness" about every U.S. citizen.

"This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It is what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks."

Following public outcry, the program was halted primarily because of privacy concerns, but also because its main advocate was John Poindexter, known for his involvement with the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.

It now appears that the project "was stopped in name only" and that TIA is in fact continuing. The National Journal reports that TIA was moved from the Pentagon's research-and-development agency - known by its acronym DARPA - to another group, which builds technologies primarily for the NSA. The names of key projects were changed, apparently to conceal their identities, but their funding remained intact, often under the same contracts.

The issue resurfaced earlier this month when, during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon questioning John Negroponte, the head of Domestic Security, Robert Mueller, the head of the FBI and General Michael Hayden, the former head of the NSA, about the project.

We are joined by Shane Harris, the reporter for the National Journal who wrote the story "TIA Lives On".

TRANSCRIPT...

AMY GOODMAN: The issue resurfaced earlier this month when, during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon asked John Negroponte, the head of Domestic Security; Robert Mueller, the head of the FBI; and General Michael Hayden, the former head of the NSA, about the project.

SEN. RON WYDEN: Is it correct that when John Poindexter's program, Operation Total Information Awareness, was closed, that several of Mr. Poindexter's projects were moved to various intelligence agencies?

JOHN NEGROPONTE: I don't know the answer to that question.

SEN. RON WYDEN: Do any of the other panel members know this? The press has reported intelligence officials saying that those programs run by Mr. Poindexter -- I and others on this panel led the effort to close it. We want to know if Mr. Poindexter's programs are going on somewhere else. Can anyone answer that? Mr. Mueller?

ROBERT MUELLER: I have no knowledge of that, sir.

SEN. RON WYDEN: Any other panel members?

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN: Senator, I would like to answer you in closed session.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Michael Hayden, the former head of the NSA, saying he would like to answer in closed session, being questioned by Oregon's Senator Ron Wyden. As we turn now to Washington to Shane Harris, he is the reporter who broke the story for the National Journal. It’s called "TIA lives On." We welcome to Democracy Now! Shane.

SHANE HARRIS: Hi, thanks for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, why don't you just start off by telling us how you learned about what is happening here, where TIA is now living?

SHANE HARRIS: Right. Well, I have been following TIA and some other related kind of data mining work for a number of years. When TIA started up in 2002, it was a fairly big story for folks who were covering intelligence and homeland security, and when it went away, there was always sort of a general awareness, if you will, that there were some components of the project that had lived on, but no one was really willing to say where they had gone. That information actually was, according to informed sources that I have, was classified, and I recently just came into possession of some documents that really helped spell out where these projects went, when they moved, and what the names were changed to. So, sort of confirming what people generally knew, but in a very specific context this way.

AMY GOODMAN: So, tell us exactly how TIA originated, where it was, and now how it has been broken up, and the different areas within the NSA it is.

SHANE HARRIS: Right. Well, TIA was sort of the brainchild of two people: John Poindexter, whom you mentioned in your introduction, of course, was Reagan's National Security Adviser; he and a colleague, a man named Brian Sharkey, brought this idea for a system of systems that would bring together data mining tools and analysis tools to help the government predict and preempt terrorist attacks, this really right after the 9/11 attacks. The Pentagon was pretty keen on this idea. Both Poindexter and Sharkey had worked on similar projects for the Pentagon before, as contractors and as officials.

And in early 2002, the Pentagon created at DARPA something called the Information Awareness Office and put Poindexter in charge of it, and this office really was meant to build TIA and to look into things like data mining, pattern recognition, software that can translate something from Arabic into English text automatically and kind of tie all these together in a sort of big prototype, which was called at the time “TIA,” and that office was in charge of it.

When news broke that this had been going on for several months, the controversy was sort of fanned, not only by the privacy concerns that are raised by something like this, but also by Poindexter, at least being the titular head and the brainchild of all this, and the program was then shut down, essentially, in name only. In the 2004 Defense Authorization Act, this being the bill that authorizes the government to spend money on defense programs, TIA and most of its components were specifically eliminated under DARPA, and there was sort of a loophole that was left open that funding could continue for certain projects out of the National Foreign Intelligence Program, which is the black budget of the intelligence community.

At that point the project sort of went behind that black curtain, and no one was really sure where they had gone, but what my reporting now has confirmed is that really quickly after Congress shut down TIA at DARPA, a new sponsor came forward, this new sponsor being this Research and Development Office that’s actually housed at NSA headquarters, not far from outside of Washington here, and picked up the projects, changed their names to conceal their identities, kept the same contractors that were working under TIA in place, kept the same language, the same specifications, and really just continued the work, and presumably has expanded significantly from where it was three years ago.

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Shane Harris of National Journal. I wanted to read from a William Safire column from a couple of years ago. The conservative columnist in The New York Times writes, "If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you: Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every website you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend — all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as a ‘virtual centralized grand database.’

“To this computerized dossier on your private life from commercial sources, add every piece of information that government has about you — passport application, driver's license and bridge toll records, judicial and divorce records, complaints from nosy neighbors to the F.B.I., your lifetime paper trail plus the latest hidden camera surveillance — and you have the supersnoop's dream: a ‘Total Information Awareness’ about every U.S. citizen.

“This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario. It’s what will happen to your personal freedom in the next few weeks if John Poindexter gets the unprecedented power he seeks."

Those are the words of the conservative columnist who had once worked for Richard Nixon, William Safire. Shane Harris of the National Journal, given what you understand of the components of this, though the public understands TIA was done away with, the components of this that live on?

SHANE HARRIS: What components are living on? Yeah, essentially there are two main pieces, the first being the most important. It was something called the Information Awareness Prototype System, which is, essentially, a long name for the heart of TIA. It was the hardware, if you will, the architecture that was going to tie together what Bill Safire is really describing there in his piece, this thing that would sit at the center and collect them all. That piece lives on. It was renamed "Basketball," a rather innocuous-seeming name. My reporting could find no indication of why "Basketball" was chosen as the name for this. That continued at the NSA research office under the direction of a SAIC Corporation, which is an intelligence and defense contractor, which was working on the original prototype system.

The second piece that I found that continued was something called Genoa II. This was not TIA, per se; it was a connected program trying to build analysis tools, software, all kinds of different things that would eventually feed into TIA. So it was really sort of a key component in tandem with it. That was continued under the name Topsail, also at the same place where Basketball went. Research continued on that with, as well, some of the same contractors, and apparently new contractors were brought in, as well.

So what you have here is sort of the heart or core architecture of TIA and one of the biggest, most important application or tool pieces. When you put these two together, you really would have the bulk of what TIA was, before Congress effectively killed it or thought they had killed it.

AMY GOODMAN: Shane Harris, 18 Democratic Congress members are calling for a special counsel to investigate eavesdropping by the NSA. How does this whole issue of Americans being spied on that is currently raging -- there will be a hearing on tomorrow -- relate to Total Information Awareness?

SHANE HARRIS: Right. That is sort of the key question now. TIA, as it was -- as it existed under DARPA when Poindexter was in charge, was running at the same time as the NSA eavesdropping program that the President has authorized to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants. So officials at both agencies were aware of each other's work. That much, we know. Whether or not NSA actually took some of the experimental tools -- the searching retrieval, the data mining tools that TIA was developing -- took those and applied that to the information, the data that it was getting from U.S. citizens from their phone calls and their e-mails, that remains uncertain.

But certainly, what is known is at the time, the people who were running the NSA program, who have ultimately built the technology that’s at the core of the NSA program, were very much aware of what was going on under TIA. In fact, what was going on under Total Information Awareness was not classified. There were -- Poindexter had given speeches about this. There were conferences where DARPA had invited contractors to come in and learn about TIA and sort of pitch their ideas and compete for contract work under the program.

Whether or not, though, those tools were taken and applied, not sure. I interviewed Poindexter's number two from TIA, a guy named Dr. Robert Popp, and asked him specifically did NSA analysts or anyone else at NSA take these TIA tools and use them as part of this domestic surveillance program. And his response was, he said he could tell me that under Total Information Awareness, under that program, which he and Poindexter were in charge of, he knew that they had not taken those tools and used them in the domestic surveillance. However, what they did on their own time, he could not speak to that. He wasn't sure.

AMY GOODMAN: And what has come of John Poindexter?

SHANE HARRIS: John Poindexter now lives outside Washington and is a private consultant. I did contact him for this story. He was unwilling to comment about former TIA programs on the record for this.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned SAIC, that was also involved with running the media in Iraq, though they lost that contract and it went to the Melbourne, Florida based company, Harris Corporation. Is Harris involved with this?

SHANE HARRIS: I have not seen any documents on Harris Corporation's involvement, but SAIC was probably the most significant contractor in the whole TIA program. And it’s important to note that at the time that TIA was started up, the wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC that was the main contractor for the program was a company called Hicks & Associates. Hicks & Associates is headed by a number of former defense and intelligence officials, and one of the top executives there was a guy named Brian Sharkey, Brian Sharkey being the friend of John Poindexter who helped pitch this idea to the Pentagon after 9/11. And so, this is a fairly closed community of people and of experts with officials in the Defense Department and at contractors, primarily SAIC in this case.

AMY GOODMAN: And is there any word among those in Congress, in the House or the Senate, that they are going to be looking into this, since, of course, the general perception of the public is that TIA is over, Total Information Awareness was over in all its forms?

SHANE HARRIS: Right. Well, the story broke on Friday, so I personally haven't heard anything for what Congress plans, but certainly Senator Wyden -- you played the clip from the hearing from a few weeks back -- appears to be, by his line of questioning, interested in exactly what happened to these programs and, of course, you played the part where General Michael Hayden said that he would respond to the questions in closed sessions, and all I can presume is that he answered Senator Wyden's question about whether programs live on in the affirmative.

AMY GOODMAN: Shane Harris, I want to thank you very much for joining us from the National Journal. He broke the story on Total Information Awareness living on. We will link to it at DemocracyNow.org. Thank you.

SHANE HARRIS: Thank you.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0602i.asp

Trust the President?

by Jacob G. Hornberger

February 27, 2006

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that there are Americans who say, “Trust the president” with respect to spying on Americans, monitoring their conduct, and recording their telephone conversations without a judicially issued warrant. After all, there were those who said, “Trust the president,” when the president and his associates were scaring American grown-ups half to death with the imminent prospect of Saddam Hussein coming to the United States and exploding “mushroom clouds” over American cities. Throughout history, there have been segments of the populace in every society who, mostly out of fear, have said, “Trust our ruler. He will take care of us.”

But as the Framers understood, no one can be trusted with omnipotent power. No one. Not even “good” people.

Consider President Bush’s promise that he’ll employ his power to spy on Americans and record their telephone conversations only against genuine “terrorists” and not against ordinary, law-abiding Americans. One big problem with the president’s promise is that who exactly a “terrorist” is constitutes a very subjective determination. And given the paranoia and fear that inevitably afflict government officials in times of “crisis,” the scale defining “terrorism” inevitably slides toward people who simply oppose the policies of the government, especially as the fruits of such policies turn rotten and bitter.

Ask yourself: Why do government officials monitor anti-war protests and demonstrations? How likely is it that a person who is planning a terrorist attack is going to be speaking at or demonstrating at a public anti-war rally, where he knows that cops, secret agents, and cameras are all over the place?

The problem is that, as their policies begin to fail, the increasingly paranoid and fearful government officials come to believe that their “enemies” include those who are exposing the lies and false realities generated by the government. In the mind of the government official, telling the truth about government policy decreases morale and empowers the enemy.

Thus, people who oppose the government’s policies and tell the truth about such policies increasingly become part of the “problem.” They become a “threat,” one that can more easily be monitored and targeted than genuine terrorists can be.

Remember what the president said early on: In the war on terrorism, you’re either with us or against us. At some point, federal officials ask themselves the troubling question, “Where do those who expose and oppose federal policies fall within that equation?” And inevitably they arrive at the wrong answer to that question.

Thus, the most likely reason that the president isn’t going to the secret, rubberstamp FISA court to secure his warrants is that he and his minions know that they’re targeting Americans for whom not even the rubberstampers on the FISA court would approve a warrant. That is, they’re spying on and monitoring innocent Americans who aren’t “terrorists” but who oppose the president’s war on Iraq or his “war on terrorism”. After all, since the secret FISA court rubberstamps virtually all warrant requests anyway, why else would the president not go through the motions of securing the rubberstamp?

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that all this spying and other violations of civil liberties are just part and parcel of the U.S. Empire and its interventionist policies. That is, the policies, including the president’s invasion and war of aggression against Iraq, generate the anger and hatred that produce the terrorist counterstrikes, which then provide the president with the excuse to claim and exercise omnipotent power to fight the terrorists.

That’s why the ultimate solution to all this is not simply to force the president to obey the law with respect to search warrants but instead to abandon the imperial, militarist, interventionist, warlike course that has guided U.S. foreign policy for decades. As James Madison pointed out and as Americans are discovering, war is the greatest threat to our liberty because it encompasses all the other threats, including out-of-control government spending, violations of privacy and civil liberties, overgrown bureaucracies, and sometimes even conscription.

Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Bush_aint_Hitler...__hes_Hirohito_0226.html

Bush ain't Hitler... he's a Hirohito

Katie McKy - Raw Story Columnist

Published: February 26, 2006

We understand something new through something familiar. To comprehend Bush, many compare him to Hitler. Here and abroad, he's been deemed America's Hitler. It follows then, that neocons would be considered neonazis-and they sometimes are.

But neither comparison is apt. Hitler is without peer. About 35,000,000 deaths can be attributed to Hitler and his swarm. Another 20,000,000 died due to his allies. Cities were leveled. That man(iac) attacked in every possible direction. If he could have declared war on the Earth's core and clouds, he would have. And the centerpiece of Hitler's horror was the institutionalization of genocide in the concentration camps.

Bush lacks full equivalencies. His wars aren't world war. He only attacks to the east: the Middle East. And Gitmo isn't Auschwitz.

Behind a podium, Bush also can't compare to Hitler. Hitler mesmerized. At best, Bush amuses. At worst, he leaves liberals and moderates wondering why anyone voted for a man that believes the people of Greece are "Grecians."

There are also formative differences. Hitler endured peril. He fought in WWI. Then Hitler rioted and was imprisoned. Bush was swaddled. He didn't attend the finest schools by merit. He was excused from the Guard by privilege.

Hitler was a scrapper. Bush ain't. He's a silver-spooned softie.

He's America's Hirohito. Until 1946, Hirohito was believed to be a God...and treated accordingly. As a God, he was exempt from suffering. Tokyo would burn and Nagasaki would smolder, but Hirohito spent the war in silk. His exemption from suffering was not a ubiquitous aspect of power in the 1940s. Even Tojo, the Japanese Prime Minister during WWII, was a veteran. And FDR's sons all served.

But Bush, like Hirohito, was exempted from war. And like Hirohito, he has an anachronistic notion of leadership. Hirohito believed that his authority was divine. As an alleged descendent of the Sun Goddess, Hirohito was born to lead. As a descendent of George, Sr., GW also believes that he was born to lead, but like Hirohito, he carries no credentials other than lineage. Both rose by dint of monarchy rather than meritocracy. Bush wouldn't stand before the spotlights if he weren't a Bush (His social equivalent is the equally vacuous Paris Hilton, but that's another analogy.).

Like Hirohito, Bush has an anachronistic notion of leadership. Both bark at subordinates and delegate authority, which makes them clueless in a crunch. Consider the current port brouhaha: Bush was out of the loop. Hirohito was often out of the loop too. When he contracted the cancer that killed him, he wasn't informed. Divinity doesn't bother with mortality, 'cause that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, they like it.

So, neither is a William Wallace, as depicted by Mel Gibson. Neither was the first to charge. And neither manages to be a MacArthur. For all his faults, when Douglas "I shall return" MacArthur waded ashore in '44, that was real peril. There were bullets in the air. MacArthur was not pretending to be a warrior, ala Bush. Doug waded into harm's way.

And as an old soldier, MacArthur did not merely fade away, as he promised. From the wisdom that one can garner by witnessing war, MacArthur urged JFK to avoid a build-up of troops in Vietnam and to attend to pressing domestic affairs instead.

But Hirohito and GW lack such war weary wisdom: they never endured war. And with Powell ejected, Bush even lacks such a war weary confidant.

Hirohito and Bush also eluded deprivation-and failure with consequences. Eventually, GW claimed the blame for New Orleans, but that meant nothing. He still reigns. He's still rich. And he's still supported by 40% of Americans.

40%. That 40% would have blended into Japan's 1946 populace. Many Japanese wept when Hirohito conceded that he wasn't divine. The belief that he knew best was precious to them. And the belief that Bush knows best is precious to 40% of the country...and precious to Bush. That Bush knows best has been disproved, but Bush has a faith-based relationship with his supporters. It isn't theological faith. It's secular faith...and it's adolescent. To be all grown-up, citizens must shed the notion that those with authority, those with trim suits and red ties, those that stand behind podiums, have a clue what to do. And they must put down such childish devices as the Jews du jour, whether they're Muslims or queer folks or liberals. And grown-up citizens must not expect our emperor to purr that the Union "is confident and strong" when we're borrowing billions and billions of dollars and sucking money from schools to occupy Iraq.

Teddy Roosevelt said, "The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants...Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth...Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile."

Emperor Bush doesn't understand this. Like Emperor Hirohito, he is distracted from his designated service by his dreams of empire. And his base still believes that Bush knows best-by his birth.

So, he ain't Hitler. Hitler wanted lebensraum: living space. Bush, like Hirohito, wants resources and he wants to maintain the status quo: an America powered by oil. In his quest for more oil and more money and more power, Bush has forgotten that he promised to serve us and to protect the Constitution.

Unfortunately, MacArthur is dead. He can no longer stride into the Oval Office and spend 3 hours, as he did with JFK, urging Bush to be a president and not an emperor, to attend to his country, rather than build an empire.


Katie McKy is the author of It All Began With a Bean, which answers a child's true query: "What would happen if everyone in the world passed gas at once?" Her work can be found regularly on Raw Story. You can visit her online at KatieMcKy.com.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12079.htm

Iran And "The International Community"

By Brkic Sulejman

02/26/06 "ICH" -- -- Here we go again! Now it’s Iran. Bush, again mumbling something about Iran’s being a threat to the world, the same crap as about Iraq. But this time, the west European countries (the ”traditional” allies) are at it, too.

Isn’t it strange how all these countries, the USA, Israel, England, France, Germany…with all their weapons of mass destruction, feel so easily threatened? Why shouldn’t Iran be a nuclear power? The U.S, England, France, Israel, Russia, China, Japan (yes! Japan, too), India and Pakistan are.

These idiots are the cause of nuclear proliferation. If they are so concerned about the safety of the world they should lead by example and dismantle their nuclear weapons.

When the U.S, Israel, England France and Germany talk about the safety of the world being their main reason to object to Iran’s possessing nuclear technology, what world are they talking about? They are the only ones (as always) who feel threatened. I don’t hear about Thailand, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Vietnam, Zambia… feeling threatened. I mean, really, what world is in question? The world comprised of the U.S, England, Israel, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, and Japan? The world of GREED?

The O.E.C.D world? The world made up of the G7 the E.U the IMF, World Bank, WTO, N.A.T.O, the UN Security Council, NAFTA, Wall Street, OIL interests, cheap OIL. Is this the world we hear so much about? Because, if this is the world the West is worried about, then it is a world of SHAME that is in question, a world of deceit, greed, wars, theft, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism... An opulent white world born out of mainly colored peoples slave work, sweat and blood and their natural resources. If this is the world that is in danger then it might as well be done away with!

We hear again words of shame, words like ”the UN Security Council”, “UNSC resolutions”, “International community”… I thought all this didn’t exist anymore. I thought the UN was finally dead, the coup de grâce being the (another) illegal US-UK-led war against the Iraqi people in order to rob them of their OIL. But let’s face it, the UN was never very much alive. Actually, there never was a UN. All there was was the(UN) Security Council, a band of criminals bent on tearing the natural resources of the world at any cost.

Although I am far from being a fan of the ruling Mullahs in Teheran, I still remember the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, a friend of the West, which means “the International Community” and oppressor of the Iranian people, a vicious dictator who was propped up and kept in power by the West, robbed his people blind and made himself and the West even richer and who eventually gave birth to the Mullahs. So, I urge Iran not to put its fate into the hands of “the International Community”. When you hear “International Community” on the news, what countries pop up in your mind? Albania, Burkina Faso, Burundi…? Of course not! The countries that pop up in our mind are usually the US and whoever follows (pretty much the same faithful dogs : Israel, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan…) or G7, EU, NATO, W.B., IMF, WTO… it’s always the same gangsters anyway.

This ”International Community” that is so worried about the safety of the “world”, that claims the higher moral ground, a higher sense of justice and is so vociferous in its proclamations of being the defender of democratic values, human rights and protector of the “civilized” world, this ”International Community” is the same one that has betrayed millions of people around the real world in need of human rights, democracy, justice…

Millions have been killed, tortured, oppressed, persecuted, exploited…as a result of the criminal policies of our angelic ”International Community”, because what mattered and still matters the most today is the economic interests of this ”International Community” of SHAME!

Here are just a few names, a few peoples that were let down by our ”International Community”, the savior of the “world”: East Timor (200 000 killed), El Salvador (75000 killed), Chile (between 10000 and 30000 killed), these murders (in Chile) started on September 11, 1973 with a coup against the democratically elected president Salvador Allende, orchestrated by the U.S and welcome by “the International Community” and brought to power the fascist general Augusto Pinochet. Although this tragedy took place on a September 11, too, ”the International Community” seems to have a very selective memory when it comes to remember the victims of its criminal policies.

Vietnam (between 2 and 3 million killed), Laos, Cambodia, The Kurds, the Palestinians (robbed of their land and kept in huge prison camps by the only ”democracy” in the middle East: Israel), Rwanda(close to 1 million) Zaire (the Congo), Sabra and Chatila (between 2 and 3 thousand Palestinians killed), San Su Kyi, Lumumba, Leila Zana, Nelson Mandela, the Tibetans, 1.6million Iraqis, including 600 000 Iraqi children, who were killed by US-imposed, West European-backed (read ”International Community”), wrapped in the UN flag economic sanctions. For about 12 years, since the end of the Gulf War up to the current illegal war again against Iraq, the Iraqi people kept dying (600 000 children) like flies under the watchful eye of the humanists that comprise the “ International Community”.

And many more millions of others.

Now, just a few more words about N.Mandela. Mandela, a black South African man, had actually to fight in his own country for the liberation of his people against a white minority racist regime! : APARTHEID. He was labeled as a terrorist, arrested and thrown into jail and left to rot there right up to 1990! Meanwhile, our alrighteous ”International Community” kept doing very profitable business with apartheid, that white minority racist regime that lasted until 1994. That was 12 years ago! Bravo the ”International Community”!

When Mandela, at last, was to be released from prison in 1990, guess who was opposed to his release? No less than the current vice president of the United States of America: Dick Cheney (although, I’m sure he was not the only one). Mandela himself in an interview with the U.S. Magazine, Newsweek revealed this fact, published on Wednesday, 11 September 2002. Excerpts of this interview can also be found on BBC news world edition, Wednesday, 11 September 2002.

And let’s not forget Srebrenica, a place located where I come from : Tito’s Yugoslavia. Now that area is called Bosnia and Herzegovina. In July1995, between 7800 and8000 men and boys were executed, slaughtered by the Serb military and paramilitary forces during the 1992 – 1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in an area that was under the protection of the “United Nations. Srebrenica was even declared a “safe area” , a “haven”. This massacre took place in the heart of Europe, it was the worst massacre since the end of World War2.

It occurred right under the noses of the leaders of the three European countries that are these days so concerned about the safety of the “world”, so much so that they are even considering supporting a military action, undertaken by the U.S.A and its proxy Israel against Iran to stop it from developing nuclear technology. The three European countries I have in mind are: France, England and Germany, all members of the UN ”Security Council” of which two are permanent, France and England. These hypocrites want to protect the “world” when they couldn’t even stop 7800 to 8000 men and boys from being killed in a small town (located on their doorstep) like Srebrenica. Maybe the people of Srebrenica should have applied for EU membership before the massacre in order to get better protection.

When the ”International Community” threatens Iran to force it to give up its nuclear program in order to make the world safer, I wonder if its thoughts of safety include the Chechens, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Sudanese in Darfur, the campesinos and the Indios being massacred in Colombia by death squads backed by the cheap – natural resources - hungry U.S. and its west European vassals and Japan (read: ”International Community”) …or the 30 000 daily deaths caused by hunger due to economic policies of the ”International Community”…Will all these peoples and many other oppressed ones feel safer once they find out that Iran has agreed to get rid of its nuclear technology? Who or What will really be safer? The flow of cheap OIL to the West and Japan (the ”International Community”)?

In light of this record of atrocities approved of by ”the International Community”, Iran should really speed up the development of its nuclear technology in order to defend itself against these vultures.

Iran shouldn’t either count too much on the anti-war “movements” in the West or here in Japan. I mean, take a look at Iraq. Close to 200 000 Iraqis killed for OIL so far! You see any outrage? But two bombs go off in London or two buildings go down in New York with some collateral damage, then and only then there is outrage! ”The International Community” goes into uproar, it is the end of the (white) world (of privilege), (white) civilization is in danger, “democracy” and “peace” are under fire. Yeah, sure, the anti – war “movements” in the West and here in Japan, we’ll do our usual thing, just like with Iraq, get in the streets, parade, shout slogans “No war! Peace now! Don’t attack Iran!”, we’ll walk, dance, sing “Blowing in the wind”, carry banners (some with very “aggressive” messages). It will be very colorful, joyful… hell, it might even be better than Le Cirque du Soleil, and all of these “protests” will of course be non-violent! Peaceful, superpeaceful, ultra-peaceful! And then, if our governments despite our strongest objections don’t back off and submit to our will and attack Iran all the same, well, we’ll just have to… go home, I guess, and wait for the next war, as usual.

Therefore Iran should really hurry and develop whatever it needs to protect itself from us, I mean, ”the International Community”.

"...It is very obvious that this capitalistic nation is concerned merely with the financial interests of big corporations and nothing else matters, not even the very health and life of the American people. Its top priority is to cater to special interests..."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12079.htm

American Government: Heading Toward Disintegration and Collapse

By Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.

02/26/06 "ICH" -- -- In several of his writings and interviews, former U. S. President Jimmy Carter stated that he is very much concerned at the direction the United States is moving. He said emphatically that this is not the United States he always knew. Many are increasingly beginning to convince themselves that the present United States government could be viewed as the worst in the history of the American nation. Democracy has ceased to exist for all practical purposes and we have a situation today where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

Government Deterioration

Several scholars and organizations are becoming increasingly worried as they see their government deteriorating from day to day. They feel upset as they watch the American government openly spying on the public, especially on those with peaceful reputation. Besides, they are taken by surprise to see the great curtailing of free speech and the increasing of censorship of the news media covering the radio, press and television. Peaceful dissenters are being punished and at times put in jail, even if they were religious women and clergymen.

Moreover, to turn insult into injury, the press at times is secretly paid to write articles that would justify governmental actions even if they constitute blatant violations of human rights, as it has been found even with the foreign press reporters. The waging of an ongoing war in both Iraq and Afghanistan has now drained the financial assets of the U.S. government to the very detriment of the American people. As a result, millions of Americans suffer from lack of health care benefits, while their health deteriorates even to the point of death.

The destruction of the infrastructure of Iraq along with the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent civilian Iraqis, amounting to women, children, the elderly and the sick, along with pregnant women as well, has been minimized. The lies told to the American people on how the Iraqis have been “liberated” from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, need to be challenged. A national referendum in Iraq needs to be conducted and all Iraqis from age of 15 to 95 must be allowed to participate under proper international supervision.

This referendum should consist of one question: Do you feel you were better off under Saddam Hussein when you still had your own homes, enjoyed the presence of your parents, spouses and children as well as friends? ……... Or, do you feel you are better off now under American domination with your homes destroyed, your parents, spouses and/or children killed or maimed, as well as with several of your friends killed or maimed for life? The whole world would be interested to hear directly what the Iraqis themselves have to say without any interference or manipulation from the outside.

Belligerent and Dangerous Policies

Very often the same questions are raised over and over again: When is the United States going to learn that in a war every one is a loser and no one a winner? Was not the Vietnam War experience enough? Is American diplomacy going to be always one based on guns, bullets, military involvements and wars instead of healthy dialogues and respect for others? It is very obvious that the United States would not hesitate to wage a war against Iran unless it brings this Asian nation under American political control. Why should the USA demand Iran not to have one nuclear weapon when this American nation has already more than 70,000 nuclear weapons and it is still manufacturing more?

In accordance with the philosophy of this American government, the United States can launch a pre-emptive strike against any nation on earth even without warning. Would it not then be natural for every country to equip itself with the most devastating weapons possible as way of counteraction against the United States? Moreover, since the United States manufactures and sells more weapons than all the nations of the world combined, it means that this American nation pollutes our air and water very badly with toxic wastes that is causing two millions of people incur cancer every year in the USA alone. Why is it that when the whole world wanted to take drastic action to curb air and water pollution from our planet, the USA was virtually the only dissenter?

It is very obvious that this capitalistic nation is concerned merely with the financial interests of big corporations and nothing else matters, not even the very health and life of the American people. Its top priority is to cater to special interests. This explains why the present U.S. government especially continues to cut significantly the budget on health care and education as to spend more and more money on corporate interests, generally headed by the weapons industry, the construction companies and the oil enterprises. In fact, every year the budget for the military and the waging of wars keeps on going higher and higher, while the budget on the vital needs of the people keeps on going lower and lower.

All of this explains why the American people in general and of the whole world at large tend to feel overwhelmed and powerless. But there is always hope. We learn from history that when good and evil struggle against each other, initially evil tends to take the upper hand until all of a sudden it disintegrates and collapses. Regardless of the vicious governments nations might have had, people always ended up getting what they viewed as positive and constructive. Like U.S. President Eisenhower said in his farewell address to the U.S. Congress, “all people of all countries want peace, only their government wants war.”

Looking for a Hopeful Future

We should look with hope into a positive and constructive future where people could live together peacefully, where education and health care will be available for every human being, and where the protection of the environment will become a top governmental priority. People everywhere need to unite in generating positive and constructive energy until peace, as well as harmony, respect and justice will become a tangible reality for everyone. We need to become more involved in public affairs. We must do our best to replace every single politician by a statesman. Some historians described a politician as one who takes interest in one group to the exclusion of others, while they described a statesman as one who takes interest in all people without exception.

The current belligerent American government will one day be replaced. The question is when. It may still take quite a time until the change is effected and by then only God knows how many people, both American and non American alike, would have suffered unnecessarily. The present turmoil in so many global areas is bound to continue as long as the USA and other major powers continue to use violence to solve some of the crucial problems the world faces. We know that violence begets violence and more violence begets more violence. The military, by its very nature, is structured merely for destructive purposes, even though once in a while it might have been used to help in some natural disasters for a very brief period.

At this stage of history, which has become characterized by so much violence, suffering and death, the United States needs a president that has the mind, the courage, the determination, the wisdom, the understanding, the compassion, and the common sense of both U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the sooner the better. The nation and the whole world, as a matter of fact, need a new direction where the vital needs of the people will occupy top priority in every governmental endeavor.

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., President International Association of Educators for World Peace. Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education, Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament. Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University.