Imperialism And Resistance

Full text via Press TV

Muslim American activist, Imam Abdul Alim Musa

Press TV: Why, especially the media, have come out not saying this a terrorist act and also, at the same time, how is the media is trying to categorize this in a different picture saying that this was a “cowardly criminal act” as it has been put by the FOXNews?

Musa: First of all, we have to ask the question “What has happened in America?” Well, you have to look at the American people. First of all what has happened recently is that big banks have kept the government afloat after they have made hundreds and thousands of mistakes. …just the last few weeks, they have given a hundred million dollars in bonuses. Yet the American people themselves have lost their homes and have lost their residual wealth. Therefore, many people are on the edge. This person had enmity towards IRS and the whole government. He would not just go after IRS. There is a whole government installation. Probably the FBI is there. Probably the CIA is there. Probably all the American institutions. But we see this happening in America is the American people are feeling oppressed. And they feel like that there is no one to help them. And when I say the American people, I mean the standard American. Therefore, when the IRS began to press this person probably for a certain amount of income, yet they let the big companies go scot-free then he feels that his rights as an American citizen are being violated and he did not want to take this out on the American people. He wanted to take it out on the American system. Now, the reason that the government and the press and the corporations do not put this out as an act of terrorism is because of what is known in America is ‘copycat-ism’. That means that many Americans feel frustrated. Many Americans are on the verge. They do not want this to become a trend in America. So, therefore, what they do is they list it as a regular crime. If it was a person with a Muslim name, it would be categorized as terrorism. But they don’t want the world to think about the American citizens, the American people as being that upset with their government that they would go to this, what they call, extreme and crash a plane into a building. If it was us, it would be called terrorism.

Press TV: You have introduced another angle to this and that is because of what is happening within the states in terms of financial turmoil which has caused many job losses and at the same time it has exerted the pressure that it has on this particular man. That this could be symbolic of what may happen if it does happen in the future in terms of his demographic makeup and that is why America along with their media, off course, is deeming this not to be a terrorist act. Is that a correct conclusion from your statements?

Musa: That is a correct conclusion. Exactly what we are saying is this that inside of America there are millions of people who are on the verge. They feel that the government is not responsive to them, the average American citizen. They feel like the government is responsive to big corporations and to big companies. And when they see their jobs going overseas and they see their children not being able to go to university, this is pushing the Americans back to their original nature. This is why Americans rebelled against Great Britain. You have got to remember they had a sign during the Revolutionary War: “Don’t tread on me.” And the reason that they fought the Revolutionary War was taxation without representation.

Hallinan: Well, there is a great deal of anger…a great deal of fear right now in this country. The economy vaguely looks like it is making recovery but unemployment is still up and people are talking now about unemployment being long term. The whole growth of the kind of right wing with the teabag movement and everything…it represents a reflection of tremendous unease, tremendous fear that is sort of underneath it. The fact that it explodes into violence…you know…that is kind of Americans apple pie. It’s been a traditional heartfelt American culture for a long long time. This guy flew that airplane into the IRS building specifically because he was angry at an IRS tax code that had been passed in order to give IBM enormous corporate breaks that was passed by a former, the late Senator (Patrick) Moynihan from New York and it was that particular code that he was angry at. So, I think what you are finding here is that you are looking at a country in which fear and uncertainty are kind of part of everyday life now and this is subject to manipulation. It is a little scary.

Press TV: Would this not be a right time for all this to be set aside because eventually the American public is smart enough now to realize that this was an act of terrorism. Therefore, this should be pointed out to that effect.

Musa: You have to realize what we are trying to say. The American people are upset at their government. If they see the Supreme Court last month pass a new law that corporations can give as much money to a political campaign as they like. That means that corporations can control any candidate because you and I, as American citizens, cannot give millions and millions of dollars. Therefore, the American people see their freedoms that they have fought for eroded and they see Corporate America, Media America…look, media is part of the Corporate America; and the media is not going to say anything that is against Corporate America. Now, the government is coming under the control of both. Under the control of the media, under the control of, definitely, of corporate America. So they are not going to classify it as terrorism because they do not want the world to think that there are citizens inside of America, especially white Americans, are so upset at the government. That may be one incident. There are many other incidents that show that the American people are upset. One book I was just looking at yesterday, What happened to my America? This is the average white American male on a best-seller list What they are saying is “what happened to my freedoms? What happened to my ability to earn a good living? What happened to my ability to send my children to college?” This is what they are saying. “What happened to my right to own weapons without being spied upon?” This is the people are saying. And it is not just that one person. This feeling is growing throughout America. It is growing most amongst middle white America. One more point that I have to make is that you have to remember that one percent of the people of America owns most of America; one percent of the people of America owns most of America! That means the middle class is shrinking. The poor class is expanding, and the rich class is controlling both.

“If you want to know where they are all being kept,” said Todd Winstrom, “they’re down in the hole.”

Winstrom, a staff attorney for Disability Rights Wisconsin, was talking about what happens to mentally ill offenders when they enter his state’s prison system. Without treatment options—and without anyplace else to put them—these prisoners quickly end up in solitary confinement, where they may remain for months or years.

Since solitary confinement has been shown to cause severe psychological trauma in prisoners without underlying psychiatric conditions, it would be difficult to imagine a more damaging place to incarcerate the mentally ill.

click here to read more

Click here for details of this case

partial translation:

Listen to the words of the mother:

My lovely children, have we forgotten from whose community we are from?

Today is a day of great happiness, I am a very fortunate mother to whom Allah has given a daughter who has given such a strong slap to America – remember today’s day, today is the beginning of America’s downfall (inshallah, inshallah, chant: the one who is an ally of America is a traitor).

Maybe that judge was thinking we would be grieving in our homes today, that we would cry and faint – tell that judge – that today her mother has become alive! Today all of my illnesses are gone, today my daughter has taken off America’s mask. This America talks about justice? It is thanks to Allah that my daughter has shown the true face of America.

partial translation: “Listen to this news, I could not believe this, but then I verified it! The New York Times says, the New York Times says a lot of lies, but I don’t think they lie about the internal politics, or the government of the US. Listen to this: The US forces said they suspended the evacuation of the victims of the earthquake in Haiti to the US, because of a dispute about who would pay for the treatment of… suspended… This is imperialism, this is Capitalism…each ill person who comes, an injured person, how much does this fracture cost? How much does this operation cost? A pregnant woman, how much does the cesarean cost? … This is Capitalism”

The Heritage Foundation (la) is just one of the extremist “think tanks” that provides US imperialism (la) with its ideological and “intellectual” foundation and justification. It is not surprising that even in the face of one of the most massive disasters in living memory, with a loss of life expected to surpass over a 100,000, this extremist organization would want the US empire to use the suffering of the people of Haiti for its own nefarious purposes: to further the cause of US imperialism.

Here is the full text of a statement put out by the Heritage Foundation:

Today, the United States began surveying the damage inflicted by a devastating earthquake in Haiti this week. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake should address long-held concerns over the fragile political environment that exists in the region.

The U.S. government response should be bold and decisive. It must mobilize U.S. civilian and military capabilities for short-term rescue and relief and long-term recovery and reform. President Obama should tap high-level, bipartisan leadership. Clearly former President Clinton, who was already named as the U.N. envoy on Haiti, is a logical choice. President Obama should also reach out to a senior Republican figure, perhaps former President George W. Bush, to lead the bipartisan effort for the Republicans.

While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in dangerous and rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally.

Meanwhile, the U.S. must be prepared to insist that the Haiti government work closely with the U.S. to insure that corruption does not infect the humanitarian assistance flowing to Haiti. Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue. Congress should immediately begin work on a package of assistance, trade, and reconstruction efforts needed to put Haiti on its feet and open the way for deep and lasting democratic reforms.

The U.S. should implement a strong and vigorous public diplomacy effort to counter the negative propaganda certain to emanate from the Castro-Chavez camp. Such an effort will also demonstrate that the U.S.’s involvement in the Caribbean remains a powerful force for good in the Americas and around the globe.

In his book American Holocaust, the US scholar David Stannard documents the greatest acts of genocide the world has ever experienced(1). In 1492, some 100m native peoples lived in the Americas. By the end of the 19th Century almost all of them had been exterminated. Many died as a result of disease. But the mass extinction was also engineered.

When the Spanish arrived in the Americas, they described a world which could scarcely have been more different from their own. Europe was ravaged by war, oppression, slavery, fanaticism, disease and starvation. The populations they encountered were healthy, well-nourished and mostly (with exceptions like the Aztecs and Incas) peacable, democratic and egalitarian. Throughout the Americas the earliest explorers, including Columbus, remarked on the natives’ extraordinary hospitality. The conquistadores marvelled at the amazing roads, canals, buildings and art they found, which in some cases outstripped anything they had seen at home. None of this stopped them from destroying everything and everyone they encountered.

The butchery began with Columbus. He slaughtered the native people of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) by unimaginably brutal means. His soldiers tore babies from their mothers and dashed their heads against rocks. They fed their dogs on living children. On one occasion they hung 13 Indians in honour of Christ and the 12 disciples, on a gibbet just low enough for their toes to touch the ground, then disembowelled them and burnt them alive. Columbus ordered all the native people to deliver a certain amount of gold every three months; anyone who failed had his hands cut off. By 1535 the native population of Hispaniola had fallen from 8m to zero: partly as a result of disease, partly as a result of murder, overwork and starvation.

Following news release/action alert from the United Farm Workers says a great deal about the sate of America at this time. Soon to become a numerical minority, the White/Anglo power structure (and their lackeys) still wants to hold on to its not so glorious past. The euro/white centric history has become a relic of the past amongst vast numbers of peoples of colors within the US, while public schools and, often, the teachers seriously lag behind. While I am not able to find specific figures on Latino/Hispanic enrollment in Texas public schools, they are probably now in the majority – as their raw numbers are quickly reaching majority status statewide.

We urgently need your help to stop the Texas state Board of Education from erasing Cesar Chavez and all Hispanic historical figures from public school text books. Since Texas is such a major textbook purchaser, such a move could have a nationwide impact.

This Wednesday, Jan. 13, the state board will take a preliminary vote to adopt new standards for social studies texts. These new standards would eliminate all Hispanics since the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th Century. Cesar Chavez, arguably the most important Hispanic civil rights leader of the 20th Century, is among the historical figures to be eliminated. One of Lowe’s so called “experts” said that Chavez “lacks the stature…and contributions” and should not be “held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation.” Also eliminated are a number of key Texas history makers such as Irma Rangel, the first Hispanic woman elected to the state Legislature.

Board members and their appointees have complained about an “over representation of minorities” in the current social studies standards. This is ironic as Hispanics will soon comprise the majority of all Texas public school students.

Following are the 60 groups that the Islamic Republic recently identified as those involved in the US’s soft/psyop/counter-revolution operations.

This is an invaluable list, and a quick web search can turn up significant important background material on these groups. For those interested in doing further research, the web site: http://www.sourcewatch.org/ is also an excellent resource, you can learn a lot by looking at the board of directors/advisors, and checking their affiliations.

Eva Golinger has done an immense amount of superb research on some of these groups, and their activities in Venezuela against the Bolivarian Revolution. Check her book: The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention In Venezuela.

I do have some questions about some of the groups listed, they seem to be a bit too large, and it might have been better if more specific departments had been identified, eg: the entire Yale University — (Maybe they included that particular university ’cause that’s where Bush supposedly “studied” something.) I would think that Harvard U would’ve been a better candidate for this list.

It also seems to me that Iran might not need to disallow any contact with these groups. I think another, perhaps more effective, strategy would be to expose the organizations, and use the media to talk about how they work to subvert countries who have an independent (of the USA) policy. Then expose those who are working for them, and their agendas.

via:

http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1467725&Lang=P

I’ll be updating this entry over the next few days with additional information on these organizations – Eva Golinger’s recent article mentions three of these groups also active in Venezuela (marked with an * in the list).

But now, four other entities share USAID’s multimillion dollar pie in Caracas: International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), Freedom House, and the PanAmerican Development Foundation (PADF). Of the 64 groups funded from 2002-2004 with approximately $5 million annually, today the OTI funds more than 533 organizations, political parties, programs and projects, mainly in opposition sectors, with an annual budget surpassing $7 million. Its presence has not only remained, but has grown. Obviously this is due to one very simple reason: the original objetive has still not been obtained; the overthrow or removal of President Hugo Chávez.

1 – Soros Foundation, or The Open Society Institute

2 – Woodrow Wilson Center

(Following from an article written in 2007 – currently the Woodrow Wilson Center’s board is filled with Obama appointees, including the current US (War) Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton)

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (sounds nice don’t it?). This “center for scholars” is, infact, a US government outfit – its trustees are all appointed by the President of the US (i.e. Bush). Infact, both the Chairman and Vice-Chairman raised major funds (over $100,000 for Bush and Co.’s electoral campaigns) . The other trustees either belong to major corporations, or, are affiliated with the US government, including the US Secretary of State: Condoleezza Rice. The president and director of this center is Lee H. Hamilton who is on Bush’s Homeland Security Advisory Council.

3 – Freedom House *

.. (a) high percentage of its funding comes from the US State Department — an average of 95% between 2000 and 2003 — its list of trustees, is a Who’s Who of neoconservatives from government, business, academia, labor, and the press.

4 – National Endowment for Democracy NED

NED received funds from the U.S. government and distributes funds to four other organizations – one created by the Republican Party, another by the Democratic Party, one created by the business community and one by the “labor” movement (N.B.: the names of these organizations have changed over time):
International Republican Institute (IRI)

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Private Enterprise (CIPE)
AFL-CIO’s American Center for International Labor Solidarity

The close alignment of the NEDs activities with US foreign policy interests comes as no surprise, especially when you consider the revolving doorways between the US Government and the NED Board of Directors, some of the most notable of which include:
“…former US Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger (Nixon) and Madeleine Albright (Clinton), former US Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci (Reagan), former National Security Council Chair Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter), former NATO Supreme Allied Command in Europe, General Wesley K. Clark (Clinton), and the current head of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz (George W. Bush). Another notable, Bill Brock, served as a US Senator, a US Trade Representative, and US Secretary of Labor, and then Chairman of the Board of NED.” [5]

What the NED does in foreign countries, through its recipient organizations the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), would be rightly illegal in the United States. The NED injects “soft money” into the domestic elections of foreign countries in favor of one party or the other. Imagine what a couple of hundred thousand dollars will do to assist a politician or political party in a relatively poor country abroad. It is particularly Orwellian to call US manipulation of foreign elections “promoting democracy.” How would Americans feel if the Chinese arrived with millions of dollars to support certain candidates deemed friendly to China? Would this be viewed as a democratic development?

5 – National Democratic Institute NDI

This is one of the four groups that receives its funding from the US government funded NED (see above). The NDI is the Democratic Party’s imperial “democracy promotion” group (i.e. the liberal imperialists) its board of directors is chaired by the notorious Madeline Albright.

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.

- The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), organizations that receive funding from the U.S. State Department, are planning on sending delegations to observe the November 29 elections in Honduras, according to a statement issued by Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The IRI is a group that has supported the ouster of democratically elected presidents in Haiti and Venezuela in recent years. Both groups are apparently planning to assist with observation of the elections, despite the fact that the electoral process will be effectively controlled by thousands of military troops and police officers – the same forces who have committed innumerable human rights violations, including killings, rapes, beatings and thousands of detentions, since the June 28 coup d’etat.

6 – National Republican Institute NRI (Also active in Venezuela against President Chavez)

7 – Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe (headquarters in Warsaw) IDEE

8 – Center democratic Eastern Europe (headquarters in Warsaw) EEDC

9 – Ford Foundation

10 – Surveying Rockefeller Foundation

11 – Hoover Institution Stanford University

12 – Dutch Institute Hyvvs

13 – Mnaz England

14 – United Nations Association USA

15 – Carnegie Foundation

16 – Vyltvn Park, England

17 – organization Search for Common areas

18 – Population Council

19 – Washington Institute for Middle East issues near

20 – Aspen Institute

21 – American Institute Ayntrprayz

22 – New America Foundation

23 – Smith Richardson Foundation

24 – Germain Marshall Fund U.S. (with offices in Germany, Belgium and …)

25 – International Center for peaceful solution

26 – Memorial Foundation

27 – Yale University

28 – Center Mrdyn

29 – Foundation for Democracy in Iran

30 – International Republican Institute *

31 – National Democratic Institute *

32 – Institute of American initiative

33 – Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe

34 – Center Kmkrsany U.S.

35 – International Center for Private Business

36 – Center for American workers, international solidarity

37 – International Center for Democracy transfer

38 – Community organization Democracy

39 – Albert Einstein Institute

The Albert Einstein Institution: Non-Violence According to the CIA

The Albert Einstein Institute and Venezuela

40 – World Movement for Democracy

41 – network of young democracy activists

42 – Department of Information and communication technologies democracy

43 – International parliamentary movement for democracy

44 – Institute of Democracy Network Search

45 – Institute of Riga

46 – Institute Brkmn

47 – Council on Foreign Relations United States

48 – Association of German foreign policy

49 – Institute Israelite Mmry

50 – Center for Democracy Studies, UK

51 – Meridian Institute

52 – Yale University, and all affiliated centers and institutes

53 – National Defense University

54 – Iran Human Rights Documentation Center Documentation

55 – Center for American Flta active in Central Asia and Caucasus

56 – Risk Committee

57 – Brookings Institute

58 – Saban Center affiliated to the Brookings

59 – Human Rights Watch

60 – New America Foundation

Kerry not welcome in Iran

via Aporrea

Tehran: Parlamento rechaza solicitud de visita del senador estadounidense John Kerry

Senado John Kerry no es bienvenido en Iran

Teherán, 31 de diciembre de 2010.- El parlamento iraní no es proclive a aceptar la solicitud del senador estadounidense John Kerry para visitar Irán, afirmó hoy el diputado y miembro del comité directivo de la Cámara, Hosian Subhaniniya.

En declaraciones a la agencia local de noticias laboral Ilna, Sobhaniniya apuntó como principales razones la política de doble rasero de Washington y su postura ante los disturbios del pasado domingo en Teherán, en los que murieron ocho personas, según cifras oficiales.

“La propuesta de Kerry para que una delegación del Congreso visite Teherán ha sido tratada en el Comité de Seguridad Nacional y Política Exterior, pero debido a la reciente injerencia de EEUU y su defensa de los alborotadores en Ashura, la perspectiva es de no aprobarla”, afirmó.

“El doble rasero de EEUU se ha manifestado cuando el presidente, Barack Obama, ha defendido a los alborotadores en Ashura mientras el jefe del Comité de Asuntos Exteriores del Congreso habla de visitar Irán”, agregó.

Fuerzas de Seguridad y grupos de oposición iraní se enfrentaron el pasado domingo en Teherán en una jornada violenta en la que la acción de la Policía ha sido criticada tanto por Estados Unidos como por la Unión Europea en su conjunto y asociaciones pro derechos humanos.

Estados Unidos e Irán rompieron sus lazos diplomáticos en abril de 1980, poco después de que se consolidara la revolución que desalojó del poder al último Sha de Persia, Mohamad Reza Pahlevi, y en plena crisis por el asalto de estudiantes revolucionarios a la embajada de Washington en Teherán.