January 25, 2008
Breaching The Gaza Wall: Two Articles:
(note: It was not tens of thousands as the BBC newscaster said tonight but 350,000 - or more - Palestinians, trapped in Gaza in a modern sequel of the seige of the Warsaw Ghetto, or Leninigrad - who broke through more than a wall of cement and barbed wire and poured into Egypt to taste an ever so brief moment of freedom. It was perhaps the most intelligent thing Hamas (if it was indeed Hamas) has organized since seizing power in Gaza - massive peaceful civil disobedience to draw attention to nothing short of a crime against humanity committed by Israel - and supported to the hilt by the Bush Administration - against the Palestinian people in Gaza, victims of one of the most chilling examples of collective punishment since World War II, and this unfolding for months before the eyes of an uncaring hostile world. With this peaceful, mass mobilization to tearh down the Gaza wall, once again the Palestinian people - for a moment at least - took their destiny in their own hands, far more effectively than lobbing a thousand katusha missiles into Israel.
And what now?
1. Tear down all the walls - that are suffocating both Gaza and the West Bank
2. Israel should open negotiation with all the Palestinians - this must included Hamas. The United States should encourage and support the expansion of the negotiating process.
3. There is no military solution that is in the interest of either people.
The alternative - which I expect - is yet another horrific wave of repression against Gaza Palestinians. But this need not be.
Below are two statements - one by the national office of the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL's statement is one of the more startling examples of selective memory I have seen for some time. Israel right or wrong (mostly the latter) no matter what. You'd think that it was the Palestinians who are occupying Israel and laying seige on Tel Aviv and not the contrary! Not a shred of sympathy, human compassion for the the Palestinians. I've seen a similar one from Barack Obama - pathetic - and although I haven't seen what Hillary Clinton's campaign is saying, I would be most surprised if it were any different from Obama's. Nothing, no political expediency, no humanitarian concern for innocent Israelis (we are all concerned about them too) - can justify these kind of rationalizations for Israeli injustices, for what the current Israeli government is doing to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with full support of the Bush Administration - without which this strange and awful dance of human suffering would not be possible
Indeed the sense comes through that Bush gave Olmert the green light to tighten the screws on Gaza during his recent Middle East trip. And now Condoleeza Rice - whose legacy in the Middle East can be summed up by her encouragement to Israel two years ago to continue the war in Lebanon `to create a new Middle East', now this same diplomat who, from the first day she became Secrertary of State, really hasn't had a clue as to how end the conflict in Iraq, how to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this same graduate of the University of Denver where her father was once a dean, calls on Israel and Egypt to once again tighten the Gaza screws ....
The second statement is, once again, by Uri Avnery - a different kind of Israeli - whose voice will continue to resonate long after the likes of Abe Foxman, Ehud Olmert George Bush and Condoleeza Rice have left the scene. Two profoundly different Jewish voices, on that recognizes the suffering of others, the other, completely tone deaf to the cries of the oppressed.
Read them both.
ADL Statement on the Breaking of the Gaza Wall
Uri Avnery: Worse Than A Crime
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January 23, 2008
The Deal: PERA, Governor Ritter, AIPAC and the Legislature (note see Jan 22, 21, 19, 6, 3 for more coverage of this issue)
A deal, made at the end of last week, was announced yesterday, widely reported in the local press.It was between Colorado's state pension fund (PERA), Governor Ritter, the Jewish Community Relations Council (in which the main moving force seemed to be AIPAC) and some legislators. It would result in PERA scrutinizing companies that have more than $20 million invested in Iran's energy sector. Under certain conditions future investments in such funds might be divested.
The agreement capped a campaign to get the state legislature to pass a divestment bill that started around six months ago with a bi-partison op ed in the Rocky Mountain News that called on the legislature to mandate PERA to divest from companies doing business with Iran. This initiative - part of a national political agenda spearheaded by AIPAC over the past few years - was in response from a call to the country's Jewish citizens and organization from Israeli right-wing politican Binjamin Netanyahu. The divestment campaign began by targetting Sudan last year and moved on to Iran in the current legislative session.
Observing this process closely it is interesting how limited is the focus. This divestment campaign doesn't focus mutual funds themselves, companies that invest in Iran's energy sector, only state pension funds. As such it turns out to be yet another attack on public employees and public sector financing and as such is an integral part of the Bush Administration's attempt to weaken and undermine people working in and for government. It is instructive how willing Democrats have been to join their Republican colleagues in what is little more than a political feeding frenzy at the expense of public sector employees and their retirement funds. (for the full article - click here)
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January 22, 2008
Responses to `Divestment Wars: Fighting for the Moral High Ground (Part One)'
"Your position should not reinforce those who think PERA should NOT disinvest from companies doing business in Sudan. The situations are not the same. Supporting divestment from companies doing business in the Sudan may be the moral high ground. PGMM, a union pension fund that I know well, has done this in the Netherlands. Ridiculous argument not to disinvest by those supposedly worrying about the impact on PERA. Used to cover up another agenda -- which I may not agree with but let's be honest. Ill bet Gordon and Romanoff would not be pleased to see an organized effort for PERA to disinvest from Israel."
this from a long time - and very effective - Colorado trade unionist
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"Divesting from Iran is a waste of time when the USA is buying $billions worth of gas from the Iranians. Much more effective would be for the USA to develop other sources of energy. In addition, our auto manufacturers should be producing autos that average 30 mpg or more. I drive a Toyota Corolla. As a Jew and as an American I unequivocally support the State of Israel. The Arab and Muslim world are against Israel and seek its annihilation. It does not surprise me that nations around the world would seek divestment from Israel as a means to weaken and isolate the Jewish homeland. The struggle to survive is never ending for the State of Israel. God bless Israel. God bless America. P.S. Thank you for sending material to me."
this from a friend in Denver's Jewish Community...
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January 21, 2008 (3)
Divestment Wars: Fighting for the Moral High Ground (Part One)
(note: also see January 3, 6, 19 entry on the legislative campaign get the state pension fund, PERA, to divest from Iran-related companies.)
Before Iran-Divestment: Divest from Israel...
Five years before neo-cons and AIPAC launched their campaign to get the nation's state pension funds to divest from companies doing business with Iran, the `divestment movement' here in the United States had a distinctly different tone and tenor to it as exemplified by the following opening to a petition:
"We. the undersigned are appalled by the human rights abuses against Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, the continual military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli armed forces and settlers, and the forcible eviction from and demolition of Palestinian homes, towns and cities. We find the recent attacks on Israeli citizens unacceptable and abhorrent. But these should not and do not negate the human rights of the Palestinians"
It is quotes like these that seemed to have shaken Abe Foxman, ADL Executive Director, Alan Deshowitz, the good folks at AIPAC and the Rabbical Council of America to their very foundations.
Thus began the text of the Joint Harvard-MIT Petition for Divestment from Israel which sent shock waves through the university, academia as a whole and the nation. The movement was riggered in large measure by the opening of the Second Intifada and the fading hope that the Oslo Peace Process would preduce any tangible results. The call for Harvard to divest its investments in companies doing business with Israel, coupled by a campaign to cut military aid to Israel, shook Israel's supporters throughout the country to their core. The university Israel-divestment campaign had begun two years earlier across the country in Berkeley California. A national divestment conference there had attracted 450 participants nationwide. By December, 2002, some eight months after the major Israeli military incursion into the West Bank and Gaza, Operation Defensive Shield, more than 50 universities throughout the country had active Israel-divestment movements. (for the full article click here)
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January 21, 2008 (2)
Strangling Gaza: Some Links
Ida Audeh: Israel's War Crimes in the Gaza Strip (click here)
Richard Falk: Slouching Towards A Palestinian Holocaust (click here)
Norman Finkelstein's Blog (a collection of articles on Gaza) (click here)
Stephen Zunes: Still No Peace (click here)
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January 21, 2008 (1)
Are American Jews Starting to Distance Themselves from Zionism?
Norman Finkelstein in the Netherlands
(note: I hardly think that American Jews are starting to distance themselves from Zionism although there are now some fissures in the movement that weren't there before. That said, for all he has suffered - he is a victim of a witch hunt, of character assassination and what I would call genuine political purge - combined with the fact that if one reads Finkelstein carefully he has a first class political mind - I will try to keep up with his activities from time to time. His ideas, writings deservel attention and support. This piece appeared in Counterpunch. It came to me via Irving Greenbaum of Boulder. r.p)
By JELLE BRUINSMA
January 5 / 6, 2008
On the 5th and 6th of December Norman Finkelstein toured the Netherlands and gave three speeches. I attended all of them, and in the meanwhile had the opportunity to ask Finkelstein some questions. What follows is a summary of his speeches and the interview.
The topic of his first speech, in Amsterdam, was 'The coming break-up of American Zionism.'
In a surprisingly optimistic lecture he talked about the demise of the Israel-lobby, that began after the first Intifada. Ever since it has become more and more difficult to reconcile liberal values with Israel and American Jewry is forced to choose. Historians, human-rights organizations and the International Court of Justice have all rendered an overwhelmingly negative verdict on Israel's record. Now that Israel's record has caught up with it, American Jewry is slowly choosing to distance itself from Israel. (for the full article click here)
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January 20, 2008
Scott Ritter in Denver
Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, who had the courage to argue before the war that Iraq had destroyed all its weapons of mass destruction, came through Colorado. He spoke in Boulder on Friday to a large crowd (this relayed by a Boulder friend) and then dipped down to Denver yesterday where he spoke at the Oriental Theater in our neighborhood in Northwest Denver. Much of the organizing for this was done by Joanne Cole, business manager for KGNU. In Boulder KGNU partnered with the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, in Denver with our little generally geriatric-but-spry peace group, Activate for 08-Northwest Denver Neighbors for Peace.
The gamble was that Ritter's name would be enough of a draw to bring out the masses so to speak. I was a little nervous because an hour before the event we'd sold a whopping 14 tickets. But like magic, 15 minutes before the scheduled start people started pouring in and I would guess that somewhere around 175 people were in the room to hear the Ritter talk. (for the completel entry - click here)
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January 19, 2008
Colorado's Iran Pension Fund Divestment Campaign Runs Into Road Bump: People on State Pensions Successfully (to date) Organize Against It. (Also see Jan 3, Jan 6 blog entriess on the same subject below)
1.
A Short-lived Victory - Facing Public Opposition, Iran-Pension Fund Divestment Supporters Change Tactics
It was a bitter cold morning on January 16 when `Friends of PERA’ – a lobbying group watchdogging the interests of state pension fund recipients (present and future) in Colorado - held its meeting. But that didn’t stop a large crowd – 60 or 70 people, some from as far away as Steamboat Springs – some 150 or so miles across two major mountain passes – from making the trek.
The news seemed hopeful at first and was greeted by clapping and cheers marking the end of one stage of a campaign and the beginning of another, somewhat murkier phase.
It was announced that a bill to be sponsored by State Representative Joe Rice (D-Littleton) and State Senator Steve Ward (R-Littleton) to introduce a pro-Iran-divestment bill had died. Both Rice and Ward are both active duty military (Ward with the Marines, Rice with the Army) officers in Iraq. The initial deadline for submitting bills has passed with no bill introduced. It is possible to introduce late bills but Sandy Green, CRSEA president had received word that that the initiative was unlikely. So the lobbying effort spearheaded by Friends of PERA and the Colorado Retired State Educators Association to oppose legislation in the state legislature mandate PERA to divest from companies doing business in Iran had struck a chord. The proposed bill seemed dead in the water.
The First Time She Was Called `A Dog', `The Wrong Profession' (for the full article click here)
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January 17, 2008
Bush's Middle East Trip: A Man Out of his League (Again)
(note: The four articles below give a more accurate flavor for what George Bush's Middle East trip was about. They can be summed up as followed: 1. no progress - not even a hint of it - on the follow up from the Annapolis Middle East peace conference in late November. 2. Bush essentially failed - except in Israel where he was lobbied to pursue the military option against Iran - to strengthen his anti-Iranian front in the Arab countries (although this might still not stop him from attacking Iran before his presidency ends) 3. He sold an enormous amount of weapons to everyone 4. His Saudi visit (the Palast piece) was more about getting Saudi commitments to continue servicing both US public and private debt than anything else. And...he looked like a bigger fool this time - dancing with the Saudi king, making an ass of himself in a speech to the Israelis that Condoleeza Rice had to ask him to cut short his remarks...than previously although he didn't seem to care. There is also Avnery's piece on Bush's Israel stop-over below - January 12 entry)
Fool's Dance: Bush of Arabia (click here) by David Barsamian
The Flow: George Bush in Saudi Arabia (click here) by Greg Palast
The End of the Road for George Bush (click here) by Chris Hedges
Bloody Reality Bears No Relation to the Delusions of this President (click here) by Robert Fisk
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January 13, 2008
Fear Not The Decline of the Dollar...For Soon It Will Be Replaced By .................. Bush Money
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January 12, 2008
Avnery on the Emptiness of Bush's Visit to Israel
(note: below are a few quotes on George Bush's vacuous visit to Israel by Israeli political commentator Uri Avnery. For the entire article - excellent as usual, and funny too - click here)
"BEFORE ANNAPOLIS, during Annapolis and after Annapolis, nothing at all was done to promote the Two-State Solution. The negotiations were about to begin - any moment now - a year ago, and now they are again about to begin - any moment now. Yes, the "core issues" - borders, Jerusalem, refugees - will be addressed. Sure. Any moment now."
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"After that, Bush had dinner with Israeli cabinet ministers. He cordially shook the hand of Minister Rafael Eitan, the former spymaster who controlled the Israeli spy in Washington, Jonathan Pollard, whom Bush refuses to pardon. (Eitan would be arrested the moment he set foot on American soil.) He spoke cordially with the ultra-rightist Minister Avigdor Liberman, urging him to support Olmert. Throughout the dinner, he talked and talked, until Condi sent him a discreet note suggesting that he shut up. Bush, in high spirits, read the note out loud."
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"But in the meantime,...all over the occupied territories, the settlements are being enlarged. The existing outposts remain untouched, new ones spring up from time to time. Around them, a well choreographed dance has evolved, a kind of formal ballet executed by the settlers and the army. The settlers set up a new outpost, the army removes it, the settlers return and set it up again, the army dismantles, and so forth. In the meantime the outpost gets bigger and bigger. The government connects it to the electricity and water systems and builds a road. And the army, of course, protects it day and night. We cannot leave good Jews at the mercy of the evil Palestinian terrorists, can we?
Bush knows all this and still continues to blabber that "the illegal outposts must be removed". And so it continues: the voice is Jacob's voice, the hands are the hands of Esau.
BUT ONE cannot fool all of the people all of the time, to quote another American President who was slightly more intelligent than the present incumbent."
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January 11, 2008 (2)
A Response to the PERA Iran Divestment Pieces (Jan 3, Jan 6 entries)
(note: Jay Jurie, who wrote this, teaches City Planning at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. We cut our political teeth together in the student anti-war movement at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the unforgettable Spring of 1970. The email is about the Colorado State Legislature's probable legislation to made the state pension fund, called PERA to divest from companies doing business with Iran. I am working against this measure)
"A couple thoughts about your PERA blog article.
First and foremost, I believe it incumbent upon PERA and similar pension trust funds to maintain their fiduciary responsibility and solvency. I've very much got a personal interest at stake here, my now-90 year old father has largely been dependent on PERA for the 28 years since his retirement.
Parenthetically, there has been a recent scandal here in Florida because a state-managed fund in which local governments invest their revenues was found to have been significantly involved in the subprime market. There was literally a "run on the bank," and this particular crisis is not yet over ("ain't capitalism wonderful?").
Back to the main subject: if a public trust fund can "keep its eye on the ball," secondary investment decisions can be like the proverbial double-edged sword. Neither you nor I may want a divestment in Iran rider attached to the fund, but some years ago I supported similar initiatives to divest from apartheid South Africa. In such instances, it's the nature of the politics in play: not divestment per se that's at issue, but divestment from what."
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January 11, 2008 (1)
(note: there are more comments from people who attended the Michael Lerner talk on Sunday. Scroll down to January 8 entries)
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January 10, 2008 (3)
(note: a student newspaper of the University of Denver is collecting memoires from their teachers and staff for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. They asked us if we remembered what we were doing when MLK Jr. was assassinated. While I can't remember where I put my keys or wallet most days, that day I remember well. My contribution follows)
Mourning MLK Jr in Tunis, Tunisia
I remember the day in April of 1968 when I heard that Martin Luther King Jr. had just been assassinated. I was finishing the second year as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunis, Tunisia. I’d stay on for another six months after my traditional tour ended.
I had just walked into L’Institute Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes, or, as we Peace Corps Volunteers called it `Bourguiba School’, an annex of the University of Tunis where government workers took intensive language training in English, French, German and (for foreigners) Arabic. The two hour lecture ahead was primary on my mind when several colleagues told me that King had been assassinated. The grief and confusion was not felt only by the Americans in the room. The impact was devastating, emotionally shattering to all of us in the teachers’ lounge - Tunisian and American alike.
The students I taught in Tunisia, who taught me far more than I ever taught them, had greatly admired King. We had talked often about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and his role, about the power of pacifism as a tool for social justice. They took his vision of pacifism seriously, so seriously that in his name, a few months prior to King’s death, they had - in an extraordinary show of courage - came out in force during a visit of Vice President Hubert Humphrey to protest the Vietnam War which they opposed as much as any American kid about to be drafted.
But this was Tunis, and not New York or Denver. After parading with anti-war slogans for a few minutes they quickly dispersed from Tunis’ central square disappearing from sight down a series of nearby streets and allies - gone with the wind - but leaving their banners and leaflets on the ground. Five minutes later, after they had all gone, the Tunisian police showed up, and angry they were that the students had evaded their billy club. I watched this unfold with utter amazement.
The Tunisian police and security forces made up for it the next three nights with nothing short of a police riot in the area of the university that resulted in two deaths, many wounded and hundreds of students arrests. The great French philosopher, Michel Foucault, who was teaching at the University of Tunis at the time and who had supported the students in their efforts, was arrested, taunted mercilessly for his homosexuality and expelled from the country.
The university was closed down for several weeks. A number of university students I had known simply `disappeared’, forever, this five years before Pinochet came to power in Chile and a decade before the Argentinian junta made disappearing people into a fine science.
But two months later when King died, in his honor, they (the tunisian students) did it again! ...`in honor of the great one’ as a I remember a student telling me. And King’s picture appeared in many places for several weeks until the police, once again in a rage, unable to find `the culprits', tore them down. And in Tunis - 4500 miles from Memphis Tennesse, people wept for Martin Luther King Jr as if he were their own, and he was, for he belongs to all of us, to the world.
Rob Prince/Peace Corps Tunisia -
1966-1968
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January 10, 2008 (2)
Paul Rogers on Iran and Pakistan
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January 10, 2008 (1)
More on the New Hampshire Primary
Politics of the Past or Vague Hope for the Future?
A friend with a definite way with words put the contest between Clinton and Obama this way `it's a contest between the politics of the past and a vague hope for the future' - a little sharp perhaps but not far off the mark. Time will only tell whether the differences between the two are genuine or yet another illusion.
But for now, it appears the primary season will be more interesting than has been, at least on the Democratic Party side. I'll probe the McCain phenomenon and the Republican Party dilemma in a few days. I would only mention here that those who count them out as dead in the water for 2008 should recall the past two presidential elections in which two strong - and generally liberal and intelligent Democratic Party candidates (one who just won a Nobel Prize) who should have beaten a sweetie pie like George Bush handily, esssentially handed the presidency over to the latter on a silver platter.
Yes, more than likely it was the shinnanigans in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004 that tipped the balance, but I put a good deal of the `credit' for the loss on the Democratic Leadership Council's strategy of grasping defeat out of the jaws of victory. And it could happen again. Nothing is assured. No Democratic strategist has been anything close to Karl Rove's match - he might be a darth vader type - but he's shrewd, has a political program and knows how to deliver for the Republican Party base. The DLC has been kicking the Democratic Party base - Labor, Minorities, Environmentalists, Women, the Poor - in the teeth for several decades now and frankly show no sign of letting up. Not a healthy situation.
The day before the New Hampshire Primary I was talking to a number of my colleagues at work. Three of them - none of them slouches - were enthoused by Obama's Iowa victory and `were sure' it would carry over to New Hampshire. We know it didn't, although I wouldn't call Obama's showing there `a defeat'. Far from it. He's in the running and it looks like he will be engaged in quite a contest in the period ahead with Hillary Clinton.
What We Need: A Good Open Fight Over Issues
And a genuine contest - in which the issues between the two candidates will become more clearly defined as they slug it out with one another - is what the country needs, especially concerning US Middle East foreign policy (the whole thing not just Iraq), Healthcare and Education Reform, undoing the Patriot Act's attack on civil rights just to name a few. It seems clear from the result of these first two primaries with their very large voter turn out that the nation will be (finally!) mobilized and that while one could argue that all US presidential elections in the past 20 years have been turning points - that this one is very important, and finally the nation understands it.
Perhaps too late?
Yes. It will be very difficult to under the structural changes in the US political body that have been forced down the throat of this nation the past seven years. One can see how little has changed since the election of a Democratic Congress. No progress on Iraq, free health care for children vetoed, impeachment proceeding against Bush and Cheney taken off the table before they could get off the ground and saber rattling against Iran still, despite the NIE Report, in full gear.
Despite one shock after another - and this going back for decades now - there is no mass based alternative party to the left of the Democrats to challenge the status quo, the Greens having, despite a generally fine political platform, too narrow a constituency and support base to mount much of a challenge, or even to significantly goose the Democrats to moving a few notches left.
Concerning the immediate future...
As mentioned below, Hillary Clinton will be a formidable candidate for Barack Obama to defeat. I don't listen to too many polls. I believe despite whatever they are saying that he is still pretty much still the underdog. Hillary has spent a good deal of time and political energy preparing for this run. Not only has she amassed a huge war chest (so has Obama) of more than $100 million but she has, with the help of hubby Bill, behind-the-scenes politican extraordinaire, been carefully lining up support from within the Democratic Party and carefully working the Democratic Party organization nationwide.
I believe that it is this - and not some cheap p.r. stunt of shedding a few tears - that turned the tide in New Hampshire. A commentator on `Democracy Now' yesterday from that state - and pretty clearly a Clinton supporter - explained Cinton's victory very well last night along these lines. Hillary had put together a strong state organization - working especially the unions (absolutely critical vote getters and vote-turner-outers) and the mainstream Democratic Party structures long and hard.
Disciplined and undaunted by the Iowa set back (an indication of their political maturity) and whipped into shape by an increasingly partisan Bill Clinton - they didn't miss a beat in New Hampshire - and pulled off an impressive win. It wasn't impressive in the sense of the margin of victory, but as a political comeback it certainly showed some resilience. The main consequence: Hillary has not been knocked out, far from it, she's still the candidate to beat.
Hillary: Working Old Structures Like A Pro
I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton's.
Over the past 16 years, since 1992 her politics has moved consistently and dramatically to the right. Maybe others can forgive her for voting for the Patriot Act and approving Bush's war against Iraq. I can't. Her positions on the Middle East appear to be scripted by AIPAC and she has bought into the Bush Administration's sabre rattling against Iran. I do not believe for a second that those plans to attack Iran have been shelved nor that she has in any serious way, discouraged the little sweetie pie in the White House from letting the bombs fly against Teheran.
On domestic policy - she appears nothing less than bought off by the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. I would expect no substantial health care program from her, etc. etc. Her policy compass has been set by the Democratic Leadership Council - that sorry body that has in great measure, moved Democratic Party policy far away from the party's base, constituency and historic support for the majority of the American people. Worse - they're proud of it.
Hillary Clinton's greatest asset is her ability to work the old structures of the Democratic Party - to cut deals for support. Obama will not defeat her on that playing field where I expect she'll consolidate her support even more in the weeks and months to come. If Obama tries to beat Hillary at her own game he'll lose. Period - and New Hampshire will be on the opening salvo.
Obama's Playing Field:
Instead, he has to define his own playing field more clearly and build upon that base. Obama' strength will be in his ability to bring in the disaffected, youth - those elements that traditionally vote in low numbers because they don't care or they have long ago given up on the Democratic Party (not without reason).
And to do that, he has to offer them - as he repeated ad nauseum two nights ago - hope. But to give them - his potential constituency - hope he must offer a viable and genuine alternative beyond a commitment of appearing on Oprah once a month. He needs to sharpen his focus on the issues with concrete programs rather than slogans. To date he's offered more rhetoric than concrete ideas. He could pull this thing out, but not easily.
He should learn from Mike Miles! (our Coloradoan who made a run for the US Senate and gave Ken Salazar something of a scare a few years back). Maybe Barack should give Mike a call before it's too late.
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January 9, 2008
Blog News: Prince a bust in China
What can be said at present is that it is easier to read this blog in Israel - where a hand full of friends get it with no problem - than in China. Got a note from another former student (see just below) with China contacts informing me that this irrelevant blog is being fire-walled there. I happen to agree with this decision of the Chinese government, think it a very prudent thing to do on their part. I wonder how many other places are being denied access to these something-less-than pearls of wisdom? How many other countries deny access?
The blog is now six months old.
It has received 17,000 hits over that time period, not a large but still something approaching a respectable number. While I can tell the number of times each day people read it, I don't know who they are or where they are from. My intention is to keep writing, for a while anyway. I know that warms the heart of many, and just for that reason alone, I'll continue.
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January 8, 2008 (3)
A Recent Graduate of D.U., Former Student on Hillary and Barack
"I very much enjoyed reading your commentary on the Iowa caucus. As an Obama supporter, I have to say that I celebrated his win. Yes, he is young, and he might not have the 30 years + of experience, but as a young person, quite frankly, I'm very frustrated at our leadership with so called "experience". What I see in Obama is the change and although it is a six letter word, we most definitely need an entirely new leadership. I want someone who can address education (not just bridging the gap for k-12, but increasing federal funding for colleges),the economy, healthcare, the political and social situation here and abroad). He is a person who sees that not only does the United States hold tremendous power, but that we are extremely vulnerable as we have seen and will continue to see. I sit here tonight watching him give his concession speech in New Hampshire and I still hold hope that as he moves on to South Carolina, Nevada, and even here in Colorado that the outcome will be different. I'm watching!"
(Note: The Democratic presidential race just got interesting.
The key thing is that Clinton despite all her money, political connections and her husband's savvy did not walk away in Iowa and New Hampshire. Yes Clinton won tonight, but barely and Obama beat her decisively in Iowa. Had Hillary won these first two contests decisively the Democratic Party race for the presidential nomination would have been all but over. Now we have a contest - and I believe a choice.
It is not between `experience' and `inexperienced youth' so much as it is between someone so tied to the old way of doing politics (and owing so many political favors) and a newcomer - bright, energetic and definitely a leader whose program and vision for America is, from what I can tell, much more in line with both the base of Democratic Party - both here and nationwide - and the pulse of the nation, both domestically and on foreign affairs.
These past few years I have been struck between the grassroots `progressivism' of Colorado Dems - the state party platform that few elected leaders take seriously is a fine and under- utilized document ...between that grassroots and the high rolling and long entrenched state party leadership. So it is with the nation. Colorado had Mike Miles, the nation has Obama. Miles got further than the party's old guard thought - and scared them for a while.
You can be sure that just like Howard Dean's run four years ago scared both Republicans and many Democratic-Leadership-Council Dems, that Barack Obama's current run for the presidency is making some of these same elements quite nervous, the main reason being that he doesn't owe as many favors as does Hillary and therefore might - and I do emphasize the word `might' be able to nudge the country in new and more human directions - out of Iraq, reinstituting those civil rights the Congress gave up after September 11, 2001, putting some breaks on a financial sector run wild, dismantling and replacing `No Child Left Behind' with a more humane and less business-oriented national educational policy, etc etc.
What is shaping up is a primary season where Americans have a choice. Of course as mentioned below, it will be an active campaign. Hillary and Bill Clinton are formidable political operatives (he I believe more than she, but she is no slouch). Never forget how Clinton came back to win his second term in office when it looked very much like he'd be a one term president. And he engineered this comeback largely on his own. So expect a dog fight and those who support Obama better get off their hind quarters and work like they never have.)
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January 8, 2008 (2)
Three Interesting Articles:
a. Gerard Prunier on background on the current crisis in Kenya
(note - on Prunier: he wrote one of the better books on the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Something else related to Kenya, a Denver connection - the current Bush Administration special envoy to Africa, Jendaye Fraser - a close associate of Condoleeza Rice - taught at the University of Denver's Graduate School of International Studies for several years in the 1990s. She's in the news today)
b. Immanuel Wallerstein on the significance of the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas
(note: this is a very interesting piece on the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, a movement that has greatly influenced global social movements since it emerged in 1994)
c. Foreign Policy In Focus: Religion and Foreign Policy
(note: this is a nice piece about the role of religion in foreign policy. This subject came up in a recent class discussion on global social movements)
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January 8, 2008 (1)
Feedback on Entry on Michael Lerner's Mosque Talk
(note: what follows are a few responses to my entry of yesterday)
`When there is communication, anything's possible. Even if there isn't agreement, it's HUGE that a mosque invited a rabbi to speak in the U.S., that he was introduced and responded in conciliatory terms, and that a large and diverse crowd came to listen. Even if there's never agreement, it opens up the possibility that people on each side will cease to see the other as monsters. If a couple of them struck up conversations, and discovered they have something in common, that their kids go to the same school or that they work out in the same gym or whatever, that is momentous. When we live in a country whose government has so divided and polarized us, we have no choice but to take matters into our own hands, though it takes courage to make something like this happen' -
(this from a former college classmate of mine, Jewish woman, who for a spell in the 1970s wrote for the Denver Post. now lives in Washington DC)
===
`sorry I couldn't attend. I'm not surprised at what you say' -
(this from a recently transplanted New Yorker, now living in Boulder, active in Progressive Democrats of America)
===
`I did hear several times today on KCFR a short bit of audio from the talk (yes, I'd agree it was lacking in passion, "flat") and mention that he's hoping for "spiritual progressives" to protest at the Democratic Convention.'
(this from a Jefferson County first class photographer who just honored her 13 year old dog with a Bar Mutzvah [seriously - I attended])
===
`always interesting to read your thoughts and especially this one, as it echoes back to my last experience with Michael Lerner. Thank you for remembering the conference and some of its consequences. I'm sorry I wasn't in Denver for this event; it sounds momentous, even if Michael's words were less than exciting'
(this from a Washington DC lawyer who was one of the key organizers of a Jewish peace conference in Boulder several years back)
===
"The main thing I heard from the good Rabbi was that if you are on the right hand of God, you are tribal, self preserving, nationalistic (my word), and lacking in compassion. On the left hand, you are more global, concerned for the marginalized, caring and compassionate. In short, you are SPIRITUAL. This describes those who have become counter culture, which is a good thing, but who are also narcissistic in their self understanding."
" My observation is that people on the right hand of God are spiritual. They, like US, have spiritual experiences; they may have PEAK experiences! They may be quite caring and compassionate towards those who suffer and DESERVE their compassion. The honestly, as do WE believe God affirms their belief; that their tribe, their nation, their sense of self is Divinely preferred even! The caveat is that they are not willing to transcend their ethnocentrism in interpreting their spiritual experiences, personal and collective."
"Recognizing the narcissism of the left hand stretches me. It requires my own critical self analysis. It takes me to the place of saying, if the right hand is spiritual as well, what can I really claim as different?"
(this from a local Protestant minister}
===
`The boy is totally, I mean totally, about ego. I am glad he does what he does, but impossible is just not the word.'
(this from a wayword friend)
===
"I was there and echo your thoughts.
He wasn't as inspiring as I'd hoped, although I do agree with his basic message.
What was inspiring was the turnout and diverse audience. I think that shows
there is interest and motivation for further communication and joint efforts."
"Did you stay for the Q&A? He did address the Middle East, although
that wasn't part of his formal talk. Nothing new, but I think he did a good
job of expressing his point of view, basically calling for mutual compassion
and agreeing with Geneva Accords."
(this from a local (and very fine) Jewish sculptress and Kucinich supporter.)
===
`Yes. Michael was accepted well, despite his yammering to promote “The Left Hand of God” which made the sunset prayers a couple of minutes late (not good PR, but tolerated). There were at least 250 or so (I’m not good at counting), more very well-dressed Muslims than jeans-and-tee-shirted Jews, but close to even, all mixed in together in the large hall which was full. The Colorado Muslims liked meeting him and us, and we them. The new young Imam for Colorado spoke briefly before Michael spoke. A man chanted in Arabic (sounded just like Jewish chanting) and a woman read English translation. When it was time they invited us to remove our shoes and join them in the prayers (but I was talking with folks and didn’t look into the mosque itself). Good food was served by our hosts (but I couldn’t taste it because of my health restrictions). I clicked especially with one of their community and lay-leaders, a Palestinian who was expelled from his native Jerusalem at eighteen, loves America where he is a successful businessman in restoration construction (rebuilding from flood and fire). In a very few minutes of close face-to-face conversation (pushed together by the milling crowd eating and talking) he implied the long difficult process of shedding bitterness, and heard his first anti-Zionist American Jew. Not my first Palestinian friend, but healthier and less angry than the others. Thanks for reminding me to e-mail him; I have little enough to offer, maybe a poem. It is enough, perhaps, to acknowledge that we live together.
Correction re: Michael’s tolerability: at least some were furious at his egotistic intrusion into the sunset prayers, a timing set exactly by Allah in the movements of the universe.'
(this from someone I don't know, who was in attendance, who kindly forwarded it to me)
===
"Thought the event was fine, good ritual and symbolism -- very impressed with Islamic chanting -- didn't stay for the questioning, but find Lerner a good cheerleader but not much of an analyst of contemporary realities -- danger is it turns people on and sets them up for disillusionment and dropping out -- far rather a much more realistic analysis of the challenges and the small possible hopes as we struggle against the powers (mean that word in both biblical and political sense) -- maybe I'm too cynical -- what did you think?"
(this from
a local friend of the Catholic faith)
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January 7, 2008 (2)
Rabbi Michael Lerner Gives Talk At Denver Mosque
Rabbi Michael Lerner Speaks in Denver's Abu Baker Mosque, Islamic Center of Denver (January 6, 2008)
Trying To Be Positive About Michael Lerner
I have been thinking about Michael Lerner's talk yesterday at Denver's Abu Bakr Mosque on Parker Road and trying to find a way to write about it in a positive manner. Believe it or not I'd liked to be able to do that. I am not sure if it was `a first' or `historic' - having a rabbi speak at a mosque in Denver - but it was definitely some kind of landmark event. The evidence that it was at least a special event is reflected in the size of audience - I don't know the number but there might have been as many as 500 people in attendance - and from the obviously warm and open way both the mosque's new imam greeted both the audience and Lerner himself. A friendly and thoughtful message to the participants from Colorado's Governor Ritter is also suggestive that something unique was taking place.
The passage chosen from the Koran, read before Lerner's speech was chosen to make the audience with its fair number of Jews, Christians and non-believers - feel comfortable. It emphasized inclusiveness and the unifying themes of the three Abrahamic traditions. Lerner himself acknowledged the event's symbolic signficance. (for the full text - click here)
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January 6, 2008 (2)
Targeting Iran: PERA, The Center for Security Policy, Conflict Security Advisory Group (2)
1, It's Big: Gold in Them Thar Hills
It’s called Colorado PERA. For many who do not participate, either by paying in or receiving pension benefits, it’s an obscure term people hardly read about. The acronym stands for Public Employees Retirement Association. It is Colorado’s state pension fund which state employees and the state pay into in lieu of Social Security.
And it is big.
According to its website in 2006, PERA is the 25th largest public pension fund in the United States, managing some $40 billion in assets making it the largest single economic entity in the Rocky Mountain region. Founded in 1931 and operating under the authority of the state legislature, in 2006 it was paying benefits of roughly $2.18 billion to more than 73,000 recipients. 182,400 public employees from more than 400 state-related enterprises and agencies were paying in.
In this age of the privatization of everything with the country still strong in the grips of what might be called the `Milton Friedman delusion’, PERA has become a target of all kinds of initiatives, scams, and cynical maneuvers - coming mostly from legislators - to politicize its activities and undermine its mission.
Put simply...there is simply too much gold in them thar hills and it is too tempting a target for financial vultures and those with political agendas to leave well enough alone. As a result, PERA participants, both those paying in and those receiving benefits have had to be on guard to take care that the state legislature doesn’t undermine the system. Every session - including the one coming up - there are PERA-related bills - not one but many - which need careful perusal. One result is that two PERA-member lobbying groups have come into existence, a smaller one of 400 called Friends of PERA was formed to follow unfriendly ballot initiatives. It joins the much larger and politically influential Colorado Retired School Employees Association CRSEA with its 8000 members (make that 8001 - I'm signing up today) to watchdog the retirement pensions of more than a quarter million Coloradoans.
Together the two have some political muscle. With its 28 `local units’ - as they are called - in every corner of Colorado, CRSEA can mobilize its members for political campaigns as effectively as any group that I know of in the state. Although smaller, Friends of PERA seems, given my brief exposure to it, to compensate for its size with a great deal of political acumen.
2.Retirement just isn’t what it used to be
Retirement just isn’t what it used to be. No lounging around for Don Schaeffer and Sandy Green.
Don Schaefer is an alert former PERA employee who previously spent time in the military. He’s a board member of Friends of PERA. Sandy Green taught fifth grade for 28 years in Mapleton’s (n. of Denver) school district and is now the president of CRSEA. Neither of them thought they’d have to spend so much time in retirement, defending the integrity of their pension fund, but that is exactly how they spend a good deal of their time. Two days ago, at Common Grounds, my occasional northwest Denver `office' (shared with hundreds of coffee addicts) the two of them were kind enough to meet with me.
Green and Schaefer - and good many of the 8500 PERA members they represent are strongly against the current colorado state legislative initiatve that would mandate PERA to divest from companies doing business with Iran. They appear to be committed to fighting even the introduction of such a bill in the legislature, .if introduced to killing it in committee and if it gets out of committee to launching a full scale campaign to defeat it in the legislature. Not that it means that much in the general scheme of things, but I will rally my forces too (wife, two daughters, dog and Common Grounds coffee mates) to help in the effort.
Green's and Schaefer's case against PERA divesting from Iran gravitates around a number of points, laid out in a leaflet Friends of PERA has recently produced. The Iran divestment issue is followed rather closely on their website . The leaflet cites five major arguments against the Iran divestment plan:
While one might take issue with one or another of these points, the overall impact is clear: the legislature and the supporters of the intiative are playing politics with the pension funds of Colorado state employees in a big way.
3. The Genocide Issue
Interestingly enough, although there have been newspaper articles and op eds from legislators calling for legislation for PERA to divest from Iran and, although the legislative session will soon open and several legislators have declared themselves sponsors in advance, to date no particular bill on this subject to be seen. Could this be because, already feeling the pinch of opposition, the sponsors what to hold back the bill as long as possible? Perhaps. But they'll have to show their hand before long.
And the fight is already on.
Besides the fact that PERA members in their great majority oppose such legislation, the opposition stems in part from the fact that this is the second time in several years that such an initiative has been introduced. A measure to have PERA divest from companies doing business with Sudan passed in the last session mandating state institutions to divest from companies with interests in the Sudan. Although many Colorado institutions were involved, PERA is by far the largest one influenced because of the size of its assets. One reason that Sudan investment took place was that the situation in its Dhafur province was defined as a genocide.
While PERA accepted this logic, and the legislature pushed it, it was not without considerable debate. When do crimes against humanity become genocide? And it is a highly selective and politicized use of the term genocide at best. If used to describe the situation in Dhafur, why not Bosnia, Congo,...and one of the more glaring examples never mentioned - the US occupation of Iraq which has caused up to 1 million deaths and lead to the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since the 1940s?
While the Sudan divestment measure did pass the Colorado legislature and has since been implemented, it was done with reluctance and resistance from what might be called the PERA community, that insists that a rather high standard of genocide be proven before divestment measures be taken. But within months of the Sudan divestment measure, a new legislative initiative, to divest from Iran was undertaken. It was spearheaded, as mentioned earlier in the legislature by Ken Gordon and Joan Fitz-gerald and seemingly part of a national coordinated effort.
4. Who's Pushing This?
In yesterday's entry (Jan 6, 2008) I gave some evidence of the role of Colorado's mainstream Jewish Community in nothing short of mobilizing for this bill. Their efforts to this end are active, almost militant. They have unfortunately bought into the myth of the Iranian threat, and as they have so often done in the past, confused US and Israeli foreign policy concerns in an `Israel -right-or-wrong' (but when has Israel ever been `wrong' in their eyes?) manner.
There are other players though.
One is the Center for Security Policy (CSP). Google its website and the unmistakable face of Frank Gaffney, its president and CEO will smile back at you. One of the major architects of the war on terrorism, the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and for Israel to take the hardest line possible towards the Palestinians and its neighbors, Gaffney is a five star neo-con who has been pushing the United States for a more aggressive posture internationally (successfully it seems) for decades.
CSP's favorite political flavor is extreme militarism and reaction, and is little more than a bunch of right-wing military people and political analysts. Richard Perle, William Bennett, Douglas Feith among others serve on its national security advisory board. Henry Kissinger and Norman Podheretz (perhaps the father of the Jewish move toward what used be called `Cold War Liberalism' and who very much wants the US to attack Iran) are members of its `Board of Regents'. A rather elaborate organization - its banquets must be impressive - it's structure, meant to impress on paper, includes a board of directors, an advisory council, a board of regents, a military committee. I could only find one Colorado name among this cast of stars - a real shortcoming that John Andrews must be genuinely concerned about - that of Dr. Dennis Showalter of Colorado College in Colorado Springs.
CSP is pushing the divestment issue nationally and hard. You can follow the national divestment campaign rather closely on the website too by clicking on the link `Divest Terror'. Once there an internet surfer is greeted with a rather racist picture (interesting how they are all Third World figures) that includes the latest list of Third World leaders to be compared to Hitler: Osama Bin Laden (of course), Bashir Assad of Syria, Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir from Sudan, Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and last but not least, Fidel Castro of Cuba. Perhaps Castro was just thrown in for good measure. You'd think because he's ill CSP might give Fidel a break, but no, hardly. Search the website far and wide but you won't find mention of Augusto Pinochet, the Argentinian junta cabal from the 1970s or the former Israeli prime minister now in a comma who has been indicted for crimes against humanity by the World Court for the 1982 massacres of Palestinians at Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps.
Another organization that is having nothing short of a field day on this divestment campaign is called the Conflict Security Advisory Group (CSAG) that offers its clients `terror free investing'. They are very hopeful that the Colorado legislation passed as they stand to make a bundle of money off of it. Since state legislatures, pension funds and the like actually don't have much of a clue which companies invest in Iran or not, they must turn to a research organization specializing in such ventures, the CSAG being one. At least it claims to have the best information on the subject and is more than willing to share such information - for a hefty fee of course. They do the research, PERA would pay the bills. I'm going to look into their operations a bit more closely in the weeks ahead.
Other well oiled groups are involved although exactly how isn't entirely clear. Take for example the sponsors of the still yet to be revealed legislation, Joe Rice (D-Littleton) and Steve Ward (R-Littleton). Although both hope to return to Colorado for the opening of the legislature, both are for the moment, actively deployed with the US military in Iraq where they serve in the military, Ward as a marine colonel, Rice as an army lieutenant colonel. Both are key point people in trying to persuade the state legislature that Iran is actively involved in supplying Iraqi opposition forces (that is opposing the US occupation) with the new generation of remote explosives that are doing so much damage to the US occupation forces there.
Other than claims from US military sources like Rice and Ward, no credible evidence implicating Iran in these activities has been offered. But as the connection between Iran and nuclear weapons has been pretty much undermined a new rationale - otherwise known as an excuse - for a US attack on Iran had to be constructed. No doubt the colonel and the lieutenant colonel will make a big impression on Colorado legislators, who in the main want to believe them. They represent what might be called `the military lobby' in the legislature.
To be continued...
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January 6, 2008 (1)
Mainstream Jewish Community, Christian Right in Colorado Pushing State Pension Fund (PERA) to Divest From Iran (1- some background)
A Rabbi's Epiphany
When they heard that legislation to make PERA divest from companies doing business with Iran is proposed by Joe Rice (D-Littleton) and Bill Ward (R-Centennial), four PERA members, Jewish all, went to their rabbi to complain. Wasn't this politicizing the retlrement fund, a tricky business at best? No fans of the current regime in Iran, still, the four wondered if this wasn't playing Russian Roulette with their retirement fund. The rabbi agreed. At first. He'd look into it and lobby the local state reps against such a bill. But an hour later, he called back. He'd changed his mind, couldn't do it and that he'd probably support the bill.
Obviously, the good rabbi had communicated with either his higher spiritual advisors - or more likely, simply made a telephone call. It resulted in nothing short of an epiphany, and a change of heart. Of course precisely to whom the good man spoke will be one of the great (or maybe not so great) unsolved mysteries of the upcoming legislative session. But then, even God has been known to be fickle.
Perhaps it's simply a coincidence that one of the main community organizations spearheading the divestment campaign that targets Iran is the Jewish Community Relations Council that includes such active and well funded organizationas the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado, AIPAC, The American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Rocky Mountain Rabbinical Council.
Targeting Iran
Targeting Iran - or getting the United States to bomb it - has been a priority both of Israel and its more zealous supporters here in the United States for some time. A somewhat strange political coalition, suggesting the adage that `politics makes strange bedfellows' remains vaiid, of pro-Israeli Jewish groups, Christian fundamentalist rapturists (the other main lobbying group supporting the Colorado bill), a sprinkling of right-wing military meshugenahs - frontmen for more substantially endowed military contractors - along with the neo-cons in power in the White House still seem intent to pull off a major military offensive against Iran before the end of the current Bush Administration's tenure in office. (see attached link).
They have taken this position despite considerable grass roots opposition to such a misguided venture and a growing body of evidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons program and that the perceived threat it is said to represent to Israel - or the United States - is either overblown or, more likely, completely non-existent. Indeed much of the hyperbole we are hearing and reading about concerning Iran resembles the kind of talk and propaganda that preceded the US invasion and occupation of Iraq: exaggeration and outright falsehoods that would lead a person to believe that it is Iran that has 200 nuclear warheads with delivery systems and not Israel, that it is Iran that is threatening Washington DC instead of the reverse.
The Sanctions/Divestment Campaign Against Iran
The idea of building a national campaign - it far exceeds the boundaries of Colorado - to get states to divest from companies doing business with Iran - originated in the fertile and generally reactionary mind of former Israeli Prime Minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. It is a form of economic warfare meant to weaken Iran, to keep Iran in the news and as a prelude to a desired US miltary attack against that country.
While it is certainly true that, for his own political reasons (embarrassing the Saudis being primary among them) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ratcheted up Iran's war of words against Israel - and made a series of bigoted, asinine statements concerning holocaust denial - there are no Iranian plans to attack Israel to say nothing of the United States. A US (and/or Israeli) military attack on Iran needs a certain amount of support from public opinion in both countries. Without exagerating the Iran threat - and both the US and Israel have found this difficult - military action, still far from being off the table, is a more complicated affair.
Of course, look how times have changed. In the 1970s and early 1980s when an international movement developed to impose sanctions against apartheid South African which included divestment, Israel, in support of its strategic ally, was adamently opposed. Now, with broad support from neo-cons, christian fundamentalists and its Jewish-American constituency, it has found the divestment issue more to its liking. Among other things (like hurting the targets economically) it takes the pressure and attention off of Israel for its now 40 year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The starting point of the divestment campaign is that Iran poses an imminent threat to the international community. A recent press release from Colorado's Jewish Community Relations Council - which forms the ideological basis for the proposed legislation says as much. I quote from its opening paragraph:
"Iran poses an imminent threat to the International Community. Iran is in a class by itself desrving divestment. Iran has been repeatedly identified by the US State Department as the chief state sponsor of terrorism in the world and is fast approaching the capability to produce nuclear weapons". It goes on to state `No other country is so singularly menacing to the U.S., our interests and our allies'.
There is hardly an ounce of truth in this statement but this is the type of literature that is being circulated to Colorado legislators hoping to get them to support a bill, still hidden from view, to mandate the state retirement fund, PERA, to divest its funds from companies doing business with Iran. Among those pushing the bill, as they have many other lop-sided pro-Israeli legislative initiatives are Ken Gordon, Andrew Romanoff and Joan Fitz-gerald.
Perhaps thinking he's come up with `show-stopper' logic, Romanoff, in some public meetings throughout the state where he's supported the proposed legislation, has argued `it's 1939'. But his audiences, made up of public sector retirees, are not buying his arguments. Romanoff picked up this little show stopper from Netanyahu. It is Netanyahu that first tried to compare Iran with Germany in 1939, claiming in a recent election campaign that if he were elected prime minister he'd bomb Iran. Netanyahu's `it's 1939' approach has been picked up by others, including Romanoff, who has been using this powerful - but in accurate - image to garner support for the proposed divestment bill.
This sort of thing has been going on for several years actually. The last two national annual meetings of AIPAC in Washington DC were nothing less than anti-Iranian orgies that included giving Vice President Cheney the floor to spew his warmongering logic. A statewide meeting of AIPAC early last year, picked up the theme. According to several participants who attended the state AIPAC meeting early last spring, the anti-Iranian drum beat remained `something approaching shrill'. One of them was so put off by the proceedings that he responded by joining a local Jewish peace group.
Shortly thereafter, in September, to prepare the groundwork for the upcoming legislation, state senators Ken Gordon and Joan Fitzgerald (the former who just failed in his bid to become state secretary of state, the latter who is running for Congress right now) printed an op-ed - a kind of opening shot to prepare public opinion for the divestment campaign. The piece was co-authored (or at least signed) by two republican legislators as well, Andy Mc Elhany (R-Colo Springs) and Josh Penry (R-Grand Junction) giving the initiative the semblance of bi-partisanship. Penry apparently has political aspirations to run for higher office.
The National Picture
This campaign which specifically targets Iran's energy sector is national in scope, well funded and organized. Targeting in Iran in Colorado is not unique. Three states have already passed divestment legislation - California, Illinois and Florida. The California legislation is more biting. Along with Colorado, other bills are being considered in Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Seven other states (Georgia, Maine, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin) are considering legislation similar to Colorado's (this according to the Jewish Community Relations Council hand out). In Louisiana, Missouri and Ohio.
To be continued..
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January 5, 2008
Brief Thoughts on the Iowa Caucases:
Just got off the phone with an old friend, Cathy Schuster, liberal Dem from way back who spent some years in Iowa and therefore is aware of the usually unappreciated progressive chemistry of Iowa Dems where a kind of labor-farm alliance has held strong. The state is also the home of one of the most liberal of the liberal arts colleges in the nation, Grinnell College, from which one of my daughters graduated now - can it be? - nine years ago.
No doubt, Iowa was a blow to Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations and it was heartening for the `anyone-but-hillary dem ' elements within the party to see Obama win and Edwards come in second pushing Hillary into a humiliating (but not humiliating enough) third place. It probably makes the Republicans a little nervous as she is, easily their favorite choice of a Democratic presidential hopeful because they think her beatable and have collected more dirt on her over the past 20 years than they have on Edwards or Obama.
From another perspective, of course, it gives hope for change and for that alone the nation - and the world (that is watching unable to participate but which will be affected by the outcome) - should take heart. If Hillary is smart - and by the way, in case you have forgotten - she is, very much so - she'll reshape `her message' to address the Obama and Edwards supporters she's going to run into time and again in the months ahead.
Obama's campaign struck a chord among young people and minorites. With Oprah's help he also cut into Hillary's base among women to a certain extent. Edwards more and more, is speaking for working and middle class Americans. His campaign has captured their decades of anger and frustration with mainstream (read - Democratic Leadership Conference DLC) Democratic Party leadership that has kicked them around for the past twenty years or so. If Oprah used her magic to open doors for Obama, literally thousands of trade unionists from all over the country converged on Iowa - several thousand from the United Steelworkers of America alone - to boost Edwards' campaign.
Hillary has tried - as is well known - to package her considerable political experience and paint Obama as a young inexperienced upstart. She'd like to simply ignore Edwards as if his campaign didn't exist. She'll have trouble doing this in the aftermath of Iowa. As for her experience, it is of course genuine, but Obama and Edwards can turn that asset into a liability without much effort by simply arguing that she brings along with her a great deal of political baggage - both hers and that of the great Cuban cigar juggler, her husband, Billie Boy. She seems to be following the DLC script, the same one that morphed two probable Democratic presidential victories into defeats.
Hillary's main problem is that she has raised too much money and as much as any candidate in the running is beholden to a broad array of special interests from whose grip she will escape only with great difficulty - even if she wanted to. They include the telecommunications industry, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, military contractors and Israel's overzealous supporters within the party. She just can't run away from the more than one hundred million dollars they've invested in her.
Coloradoans For Hillary
She's got some powerful local players in her corner too - Diana De Gette, Wellington Webb, Ken Gordon, Dottie Lamm, Jim Lyons, Paula Sandoval, Andrew Romanoff, Pat Schroeder, some of the boys and girls from Norm Brownstein of Brownstein, Farber, Hyatt and Schreck- so much so that it is fair to say that in August 2008, Denver will be more or less Hillary friendly territory - at least in the convention hall. Hedging his bets as usual, early on, Brownstein contributed not only to Clinton but to Richardson and Christ Dodd as well.
Early on (April 2007), Webb and Brownstein were among Clinton's most generous contributors. The name of US Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), whose fortunes have never been too far removed from Brownstein and Farber influence has been floated as a possible vice presidential running mate for Clinton
With her enormous war chest and husband Bill - one of the most sophisticated political strategists in modern times (this doesn't mean I agree with him or even supported him as a president - I didn't) behind her and considerable support garnered through 2-3 years of backroom deals and hard bargaining - Hillary is, in my book, still very much the front runner. This won't change either regardless of the New Hampshire results a few days from now.
For Obama and Edwards it's still very much of an uphill battle, perhaps not of Sisyphean proportions anymore but still no easy going. The set back Hillary suffered in Iowa is not yet much more than a pin prick. To think she's either down or out is little more than wishful thinking.
How all this would play out in terms of a change in US policy towards Iran, a speedy withdrawal from Iraq and a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue based on more serious principles and fairer negotiating strategy than that developed recently at Annapolis remains to be seen. Expect the least in all this from Hillary. That Obama or Edwards might approach these issues in a more principled manner is open to question.
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January 3, 2008 (3)
`Jews on First' Website Analyzes Huckabee Victory in Iowa
Thanks to Vicki Armstrong for sending me this link. Vicki and I share a common experience: peace corps in Africa 1966-68. She was, if I remember correctly, in Guinea, myself Tunisia. In any case, it is to a website called `Jews On First' (how do they come up with these names?) which watchdogs the Christian Right. It seems the folks running this kosher website are a little worried about the plans the Christian Right has for us yids after the rapture and that maybe, maybe the alliance between many mainstream Jewish groups, especially orthodox Jewish trends and Christian Right wackos in support of Israel is not the healthiest thing for Jews...Which reminds me of what I heard this morning from two fellow PERA (Colorado state retirement pension plan) recipients: that this very same alliance is coordinating an effort to get the state legislature here to pass legislation that would mandate PERA to divest with companies doing business with Iran. The proverbial `we' are going to try to stop that misguided and cynical legislative effort (led once again by Colorado Democratic liberals Ken Gordon and Andrew Romanoff). But, as they say, that another story...one which blog readers will become intimately familiar with as I delve into the issue in the next few days.
Ah...off the track again am I? Yes...but back to the subject. Mike Huckabee is the Christian Right's man on the move and a convinced rapturist. This article by one Rev. Stan Moody fills in the details. Click here for the article. Also you might want to explore the website abit. The articles I perused were quite interesting. Don't have a clue as to who these folks are, don't care. Some Jews who are doing God's work....but who's on second?
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January 3, 2008 (2)
Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons Inspector To Speak in Boulder (January 18) and in Denver (January 19)
4700 Walnut St Boulder CO 80301 www.kgnu.org
303-449-4885
For Immediate Release: January 3rd 2008
Contact: Joanne Cole 303-449-4885 joanne@kgnu.org/
Former Chief UN weapons inspector SCOTT RITTER will speak in Boulder and Denver!
Friday January 18th at the Unity Church Boulder Folsom & Valmont at 7pm.
Saturday January 19th at the Oriental Theatre Denver 44th & Tennyson at 4pm.
Join us as we welcome former UN weapons inspector SCOTT RITTER to the Front Range. Currently on a national tour, Scott will address the question: What mainstream media is not telling us about Iran, Iraq & US foreign policy? Ritter is the author of Iraq Confidential and Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change.
SCOTT RITTER was one of UNSCOM¹s most senior weapons inspectors in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, after having served for eight years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. As a Marine, he conducted arms inspections in the former Soviet Union, and provided analysis of Iraq¹s missile capacity to General Schwarzkopf in the 1991 Gulf War. In addition to appearing at public forums, Ritter is meeting with legislators, journalists, and high school students to stimulate a national dialogue about global engagement in general, and how to deal with Iran and Iraq in particular.
These lectures and book signings are fundraising events for hosted by KGNU Community Radio, Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center U.S. Tour of Duty. Northwest Denver Neighbors For Peace. A book sale and signing will immediately follow each presentation.
A suggested donation of $10-20 is asked. Tickets are for sale in advance by calling 303-449-4885 (KGNU) during business hours. Tickets will be available at the door as well.
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January 3, 2008 (1)
RETIREMENT PLANNING FOR 2008
(note: The next few entries will be about proposed state legislation to pressure PERA - the state retirement plan here in Colorado - to divest from companies doing business with Iran. It is part of a cynical national effort to put pressure on Iran from those who would like to see the US attack it militarily, little more. But before we discuss more serious things, I enclose this, sent to me by one of my old Peace Corps Tunisia (66-68) friends Phil Jones. In my family there are a number of people whose portfolios shrank in a few months by 1000% or more when the stock market bubble burst a few years back. They had invested heavily in most of the stocks below - against my advice (which was to stay away from the stock market)
If you had purchased $1000.00 of
Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1000.00.
With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.
But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the
beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling, you would have had
$214.00.
So, based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily
and recycle.
It's called the 401-Keg Plan.
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January 2, 2008 (2)
Two Pieces on Pakistani Crisis
Barnett Rubin on Pakistani Crisis
Robert Fisk on Bhutto Assassination
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January 2, 2008 (1)
Scott Keating Memorial December 29, 2007. First Mennonite Church: Tom Mutz's Eulogy (2)
It was summer 1969. Scott, Mary and
I dropped mescaline and headed for the Cinerama on Colorado Blvd to see 2001:
a Space Odyssey. In true traditional fashion, Scott had fasted for 24 hours
before ingesting the drug. Remember the Cinerama? The curved screen that reached
nearly to the floor of the coliseum-like auditorium? The plush, reserved seating?
The smokers' pavillions off to either side (a more civilized time)?
We settled into our seats in a row maybe half way down the theater and toward
the middle of the row. Nice, light buzz of anticipatory conversation in the
mostly full theater. The friendly voice of authority "There will be no
smoking...of anything...in the auditorium" brought a ripple of giggles.
The lights went down and the film began. The ape wields the bone tool. The space
ship docks to the space station to strains of The Blue Danube. The monolith
on the moon. The astronauts aboard Discovery 1. The ominous final scene of the
first half with HAL reading the lips of the astronauts plotting it's/his neutralization.
(for the full text click here)
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January 1, 2008
Scott Keating Memorial December 29, 2007. First Mennonite Church: Tom Mutz's Eulogy (1)
(note: I'm told Tom Mutz now lives in Slovenia. He sent two pieces to Scott's Memorial. Both pearls, both were read by Charlie Samson. The first - the one below - was read at the Mennonite Church where the service - I guess one could call it a service - took place. The second, which I'll reproduce here tomorrow was read at the Mercury Cafe at the party that followed the service. I'm going to share this one with my students at D.U. in a class on global social movements. Besides the personal aspect, it is fine social history)
You probably remember that after the Ohio National Guard murdered the four students at Kent State on May 4th, 1970, college campuses across the country erupted in protest. At the University of Denver protests began on May 6th and by the 8th, the campus was shut down and a tent city/shanty town with 1500 inhabitants had been erected on the lawns just south of Evans Ave. Scott, Mary and I along with others from our various circles (Dick Drennen, Susan Simons, Steve Levine and on and on) got involved with what the students were calling Woodstock West. Lots of good fellowship, decent food, great dope, homemade music and good politics around the fires in the camp.
The campers policed themselves and the camp "police" called themselves after Wavy Gravy. The police of the helmeted persuasion moved on the protesters early on the morning of May 11th. Lines of state troopers with two foot long billyclubs sealed off Evans at Race St. and University Blvd while the Denver police began a sweep into the shanty town. Scotty and I were among those who went from tent to shanty waking people up. The cops tore down the tents and knocked over the makeshift shanties. (I have one nice memory of a cop approaching a shanty whose main support was a length of four by four. He took his nightstick in both hands and gave the upright a tremendous clout. The four by was anchored to the ground somehow and it was like smacking a cement post. The cop vibrated away from the shanty). (for the full text, click here)
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December 31, 2007
Email from David Barsamian in Kashmir (mostly). Kashmir 2 : The Other Occupation
(note:a few points
From the email:
"This is short-cut history.
New Delhi's legal claim to Kashmir is based on the so-called accession to India
by the Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh in 1947 in defiance of the preference of the
majority to be part of Pakistan. A war over the territory resulted in one-third
taken by Pakistan. This is called Azad Kashmir. The rest, including the central
valley where the city of Srinagar is located, was taken by India. Nehru, though
born in Allahabad in North India, was of Kashmiri Brahmin origin. He had promised
to Kashmiris and the outside world that a plebiscite would be held to determine
their desires. He never followed through and over time New Delhi consolidated
its hold. India talks about Kashmir as an integral part of the Indian Union
and will not entertain any alternative.
In an interesting chronological parallel Palestine was divided in 1948. The Palestinians revolted against Israeli rule in 1987. In Kashmir, the years are 1947 and 1989. Kashmiris told me they were inspired by the intifada in Palestine. As I traveled around Kashmir, I've been to Palestine twice, there were some similarities between the occupations, although the massive Israeli colonies, euphemistically called settlements, do not have their equivalent in Kashmir. Also note that India, is moving close to Israel in terms of military, intelligence-sharing and economic arenas. "They" know how to deal with rebellious Muslims. The Washington-New Delhi connection is rapidly developing." (for the full article, click here)
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December 30, 2007 (2)
Scott Keating Memorial December 29, 2007. First Mennonite Church: Chris Kendall's Eulogy
December 29, 2007
Hello. Thank you for coming. There is no formal program in the program, because the program is us. It is in the collective memory of the people in this room, and a good many who could not be here, that the story of Scott Keating resides. I will make a few remarks of my own and then open the floor to anyone who wishes to speak. Don’t be shy. Tell what you know.
We have been prepared for this day a long time, which is as much as to say, not prepared at all. For my part, I could have spent the time more profitably by talking Scott into writing this for me. I did try. He often told me that I was to write his eulogy, and as often I told him I’d deliver it if he’d write it. He must have thought I was joking. (for the full text, click here)
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December 30, 2007 (1)
Email from David Barsamian in Kashmir (mostly). Kashmir: The Other Occupation
(note: a few points.
Dec 29/Saturday/Delhi
Books To Be Published
- Just back from almost back to back interviews with Vandana Shiva and Arundhati Roy. A bit tired and under the weather and had several technical lapses with Roy. Got through it but neither of us were particularly thrilled with the results. May have print value rather than broadcast. Let's see. The Shiva interview will work for radio. The exciting news is that my book with Roy - "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile" will be published here by Penguin in early 2008. I may come back for that book launch. And Daanish Books based just outside of Delhi may soon publish "Targeting Iran."
- On Dec 28/Friday/Delhi I interviewed the documentary film maker Sanjay Kak, His Jashn-e Azaadi (Celebration of Freedom) is a very important work on Kashmir, a topic vastly underreported in the U.S. and elsewhere and when there is media attention the lens is Indian framed and designed. (for info on the film-see 1. www.indiepix.net)
Kashmir Trip
- I was in Kashmir Dec 24-27.
- It was my first visit since 1968 when I went with my guruji Debu Chaudhuri. Prior to that I was there in 1966 during my "traveling" days. At that time I had only a vague awareness of the politics, culture and history of the area but I loved the Central Asian feel, Buddhist-influenced architecture and Soofiana kalam, Sufi-inspired music.
- The first time I saw the valley was when the bus I was traveling on from Pathankot came out of the tunnel. At once an unforgettable majestic panorama. Snow-capped mountains surrounding the valley floor. Rivers, lakes and streams. And tall, willowy poplar trees lining the roads. Until this trip I had mistakenly called them chinar only to learn they are poplar (pres in Kashmiri).
100s of Abu Ghraibs...
- The scale of the Indian military presence in Kashmir is staggering. There are between 600-700,000 security forces in Kashmir. The ratio is about 1 soldier for every 12 Kashmiris. Arriving at the airport was almost like enetering another country minus passport being stamped. Armed troops, roadblocks, checkpoints, bunkers, towers, barbed wire, garrisons literally everywhere. From the streets of the capital of Srinagar, Residency Road for example, where my hotel was located to remote rural areas, gun-toting soldiers were to be seen. Military convoys rule the road. Civilian cars must pull over and wait until, as my companion called them "sahib ki ghariyan" - the vehicles of the masters - pass. They point their machine guns at you and make threatening hand and facial gestures. This happened to me many times in a full day tour of parts of the valley not far from the border aka LOC-Line of Control with Pakistan.
- To collapse a lot of history, in 1947, when India was partitoned into India and Pakistan, by all logic of geography and religion, Kashmir should have become part of Pakistan. Through a series of maneuvers India persuaded the Hindu maharaja, king, Har Singh to opt for India. He did this against the wishes of the majority Muslim population. A war ensued between India and Pakistan. The defacto borders after the end of fighting left India with two-thirds of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan with one-third. That Pakistani area is called Azad (free) Kashmir. A war broke out again in 1965 and since then there have been on-again, off-again-skirmishes, cross-border raids, etc.
- The most serious military action took place in 1999 when Gen Pervez Musharraf launched an offensive in the Kargil sector of Kashmir. He did in this in the earlier part of that year, months later he overthrew Nawaz Sharif. Much of the valley has been turned into Bantustans. Huge military bases are are connected by strips of land. There are also guardposts and camps on hills. Water is appropriated for military use depriving farmers of much needed irrigation for their crops as well as for drinking. In addition, high ground water sources are frequently polluted by the army thus contaminating drinking water.
- Kashmir is called jannat-e benazir, heaven without equal. (Yes, the same Benazir as in Bhutto.) For many residents, the heaven part is remote. The decades-long occupation and repression have turned it into a hell. Everyone seems to have a story of killings-some 70,000, disappearances some 7,000, extrajudicial executions, imprisonment, torture, sexual molestation and rape.
- One journalist told me there are "100s of Abu Ghraibs" in Kashmir. He then showed me cigarette burns on his wrists when he was held captive. Because of a large number of disappeared, macabre terms such as half-widows and half-orphans have been coined to describe those in the limbo status of not knowing the fate of their loved ones. A local-based human rights group has documented the instance of assaults on women. One technique employed is to arrest or disappear a man. Then when the women go to inquire about the fate of their menfolk they are sexploited.
- As in most conservative cultures the number of women coming forward and reporting incidents is far lower than the actual number. Since 11 Sept, India has skillfully wedded its occupation and repression of Kashmir in the discourse of terrorism. The Indian govt has converted Kashmir into a battlefield which is covered with a carpet of force and propaganda. Few Indian intellectuals/liberals have anything to say in terms of challenging the official story. The idea of secularism is twisted to justify occupation. For the right-wing hanging on to Kashmir is an article of faith. In classic colonial style, Kashmiris are spoken for by people who magically know what they want and what is best for them. The Kashmiris I was able to talk with seemed to favor independence rather then joining with Pakistan. There is no way I can judge how widespread this sentiment is.
- One thing everyone agreed upon
is the occupation must end. I will try and write more soon.
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Email from David Barsamian in Pakistan on the Assassination of Benazeer Bhutto
1- Pakistan is showing characteristics
of a state that is falling apart.
The military basically is in control. The intelligence agenies exercise
enormous power. The assassination was predictable. Since I arrived here on 30
November I have been telling people that Benazeer will be killed. It did not
take a genius to see that. A major attempt was made on her life on 18 Oct in
Karachi when over 140 people were killed. The political situation is highly
unstable and has been for some time. Musharraf sacked the Supreme Court Chief
Justice in March. Since then he has taken more autocratic measures supposedly
to curb extremists but in fact aimed at the moderate opposition, lawyers, judges
and the media.
2 - Al Qaida and the Taliban could
not operate in Pakistan without at
least the collusion of the military and the intelligence agencies who have
long had ties with them. The Taliban is literally a creature of the latter.
Much of the jihad was birthed in Islamabad and funded by Saudi Arabia through
the madarsa network of Islamic seminaries. US has never acknowledged its central
role in the creation of these groups. In order to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan,
a Faustian bargain was struck by Washington. The chickens, as Malcolm X used
to say, have come and are coming home to roost. No doubt there are jihadi elements
operating inside of Pakistan. Bhutto was a hope for Washington because she was
on record as saying that if she came to power she would allow the US military
to enter Pakistan. Najam Sethi, the noted Pakistani journalist in Lah