I remember when you couldn't throw a stick without hitting someone who didn't want to SAVE DARFUR. And boy did they need hitting with a stick. All those high school and college students activated by OBAMA 08 lined up to add Darfur to their extracurriculars. Why? The usual manipulative pictures and imperialist propaganda. Sudanese refugees needed saving. Bleeding Hearts' Burden. George Clooney was showered with activist laurels for playing Hollywood's ambassador to Darfur. Soon enough pacifists were calling for military intervention, a "no-fly zone" but enforced with force. Denied, the US provided the military intervention covertly, and ultimately the southern fossil fuel rich portion of Sudan was lopped off for the multinational profiteers.
Tag: Darfur
Colo. Springs peaceniks, Unitarians and NAACP fall for latest Africom campaign
They fell for Darfur and Kony (and Obama!) and now the Colorado Springs social justice community confirms that the city's national repution for dim-bulbedness doesn't reflect just its conservatives. Even the dissenting voice in this belly of the US military-judeo-christian-racist beast, is pro-imperial, toe-the-line, neoliberal dumbass. They're against war and injustice, they even understand illegal war, but cloak it in terms of "intervention" and they stand beside their warmonger neighbors cheerleading for US aggression in Sudan, Libya, Syria, and wherever Pax Americana dictates we bomb in Africa. Where the local armed-forces community might be slow on the uptake regarding a Democratic president's pandering to transnational corporate needs, the Springs peacekeeping Left will lead the way. On Monday, the usual shepherds of non-confrontational conformity held a vigil for the Lost Girls of Sudan -pardon- Nigeria, echoing the White House call to #bringbackourgirls. Unlike authentic antiwar vigils, this action got press, quelle surprise, from the media war machine! Congratulations AFRICOM-dupes! Nevermind non-American girls lost to US collateral malfeasance, no official hashtag for them, ergo no Springs peacenik campaign that would give a conscience indigestion. Would we care more if the 267 kidnapped schoolgirls were not black? (!) If they were white they wouldn't be from a country we're trying to destabilize.
With Daniel Pearl Act, US warns others to respect press freedoms, of WSJ only
President Obama signed off on the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, surrounded by friends and colleagues of the former WSJ reporter who was slain in pursuit of al-Qaeda, while infiltrating Pakistan as if working for one of America's loudest War-on-Islam propaganda drummers wasn't pushing it. Taking the theme of don't-kill-journalists at face value however, are there provisions in the act to exclude the US and its allies? Because our forces have intimidated or outright killed I think what amounts to the high score of journalists in our war zones. If we're concerned exclusively with reporters who've been decapitated, I'm sure those victims of our high caliber overkill outnumber Daniel Pearl too. No, I suppose we're only talking about protecting our journalists, the embeds, the only ones of which we approve. What have embeds proven to be but the new Army Press Corps? This is the same indemnity we claim for our soldiers. Try to shoot one of those and we obliterate entire clans based on rumors of who did it. If we capture someone alive, we put them on trial for combating us illegally. We dismiss laws of war that spell out that belligerents may only shoot at opponents shooting back. If they're unarmed, or surrendering, or leaving the battle unarmed, or eating dinner with their family, they are not fair game. But we do it, and when journalists try to document our crimes we kill them. Daniel Pearl worked for the WSJ. It's the leading Neocon pro-war mouthpiece, only just ahead of the NY Times and the Washington Post, among newspapers with authority. If Pearl's tracking of al-Qaeda didn't help US intelligence outright, his reports were certainly serving the war propaganda machine. When the Jewish community highlights the plot line that Pearl was killed because he was a Jew, it unveils a purposeful vaguarity the Israeli lobby likes to pretend is a distinction between American Jews and Zionists. The argument has it that all Jews may or may not support Israel, and yet critics of Zionism are accused of being anti-Semitic. Because, I'll assert, AIPAC, the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal are determined to behave as if they have everyone's support. Was Daniel Pearl a Zionist, he worked for it, and aimed to assail its declared arch-enemy under the pretext of journalist objectivity. You can't make the same accusation of the independent journalists being silenced wherever our military is operating. In our own country America is even keeping its own photo-journalists from being able to document the oil spill in the gulf. The Daniel Pearl Act mandates that reports of inhibitions to journalists, especially if they are suspected of being systemic, be investigated and condemned with all the ensuing world police bells and whistles. I think that language smacks of the mandate to label "genocide" only where the US sees it. Darfur, for example. Or the Balkans. Examples with which few fellow nations agree. To justify our interviention. Never Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and of course I could go on. This ACT
Can Clinton charm Obama into freeing civilians falsely accused in Guantanamo?
You'd think the international community could have thought to do it. Ambassadorship 101: send convivial fat man to make entreaties. The US has enjoyed outrageous success springing its non-combatant innocent- trespasser media-propagandists from Iran and North Korea. The so-called axes of evil have granted special pardons to accommodate air-brained Americans, lest our public opinion start crying for blood. Evil has more grace than the US has shown for its innocent detainees in Guantanamo, which it force-feeds through hunger-strikes as they protest indefinite and wrongful internment. But when our enemies release their captives, we call it saving face. Now of course Iran is faced with the capture of three more itinerants, hikers Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Joshua Fattal. And lo, Bauer is now revealed to be a journalist for New American Media. Easily confused with Laura Ling and Euna Lee's "Current Media LLC?" [UPDATE 1: NOW TWO of the hikers are known to be journalists, having reported about Genocide in Darfur and the Golan Heights, among other US State Dept approved stories. UPDATE 2: NOW media mouthpieces are expressing fears that delicate information carried by Laura Ling and Euna Lee about North Korea escape routes was uncovered by their NK captors. Meaning... uh, Ling and Lee were actually working against NK interests after all?] The three --how improbable-- Berkeley grads were apprehended where the US military has long admitted to be operating special forces. Are we to expect that all US commandos do not have a media-ready cover? What are the Delta Forces but American recreation nuts, crazy for outdoor hardship and manly games with knives and balaclavas? Only Burma stand obstinate, determined that Mormon-playing-idiot John Yettaw, is more a bumbling Hasenfus than an Aung San Suu Kyi groupie. The bumbling, epileptic ideologue archetype serves America well when its intelligence agents are apprehended. Was Yettaw trying to spring Suu Kyi, or was he there to trip the wires and send the iconic freedom worker to prison?
If others can kill, Israel wants permit too
June 6th is the 42nd anniversary of Israel's seizure of Gaza. At right is a UK newspaper ad placed by the Anti-Defamation League, one of Israel's myriad damage control engines, when UK students were calling to boycott Israel over its attacks in Gaza. 400,000 killed in Sudan, so Israel should get a pass on its 1,300 victims in Gaza? It sounds like the IDF expects allowances to be made for its periodic ethnic cleansing, permits maybe, like polluters trade carbon credits. The US Humane Society euthanizes 5.4 million dogs every year, no doubt it's just a double standard to demonize Israel for bagging their 1,300 in Gaza. Where there are fingers pointing at Sudan, there are Zionists diverting attention from their final Palestinian solution. No one's crying GENOCIDE in Darfur, calling for military intervention against the Muslim regime but Israel, the US and George Clooney. I just read an eyewitness recollection of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, published on this 20th anniversary, by a reporter who went on to fault China less for its human rights transgressions than for Chinese investments in Sudan and Iran. Sudan? IRAN? What was an evocative historical account began to smell of Zionist agitation... Of course the WSJ columnist turned out to be a "conservative" who also labels those who stand up for Palestinian rights as anti-Semites.
Darfur, the Israeli lobby & US Democrats
What does it mean for Africa when right wing end-of-the- world-is-near evangelical Christians join forces with the Robert F. Kennedy Center For Human Rights? What does it mean for African Americans when Bush, Obama, and nearly all last year's presidential candidates from both parties encourage the continuation of an African civil war rather than a political settlement between the parties? What does it mean when 21st century PR firms employ FaceBook, slick viral marketing and millions of dollars to create a simple, satisfying, feel-good excuse for military intervention on the African continent? --from Is There a Save Darfur Industrial Complex? But Save Darfur has gotten into hot water with aid groups helping the refugees of the conflict. In February it began a high-profile advertising campaign that included full-page newspaper ads, television spots and billboards calling for more aggressive action in Darfur, including the imposition of a no-flight zone over the region. Aid groups and even some activists say banning flights could do more harm than good, because it could stop aid flights. Many aid groups fly white airplanes and helicopters that may look similar to those used by the Sudanese government, putting their workers at risk in a no-flight zone. Sam Worthington, the president and chief executive of InterAction, a coalition of aid groups, complained to Mr. Rubenstein by e-mail that Save Darfur’s advertising was confusing the public and damaging the relief effort. “I am deeply concerned by the inability of Save Darfur to be informed by the realities on the ground and to understand the consequences of your proposed actions,” Mr. Worthington wrote. He noted that contrary to assertions in its initial ads, Save Darfur did not represent any of the organizations working in Darfur, and he accused it of “misstating facts.” He said its endorsement of plans that included a no-flight zone and the use of multilateral forces “could easily result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals.” Another aid group, Action Against Hunger, said in a statement last week that a forced intervention by United Nations troops without the approval of the Sudanese government “could have disastrous consequences that risk triggering a further escalation of violence while jeopardizing the provision of vital humanitarian assistance to millions of people.” Aid groups also complain that Save Darfur, whose budget last year was $15 million, does not spend that money on aid for the long-suffering citizens of the region. from the New York Times June 2, 2007 Darfur Advocacy Group Undergoes a Shake-Up 'The "Save Darfur (Coalition) was created in 2005 by two groups concerned about genocide in the African country - the American Jewish World Service and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum... 'The coalition has a staff of 30 with expertise in policy and public relations. Its budget was about $15 million in the most recent fiscal year... from The Washington Post at http://www.overbrook.org/newsletter/06_07/pdfs/AJWS_Washington_Post.pdf Hillary Clinton on Darfur as she calls for more Pentagon intervention and wars abroad. This is a woman that has no problem with genocide when committed
UCSB Hillel students Rebecca Joseph, Tova Hausman highlight poor education
Today's university campuses have to deal with College Republicans, ACTA and NeoMcCarthyists. The latest uneducable creeps shopped their leftist-professor- horror-story to the Anti-Defamation League, to brand their teacher's criticism of Israel as "anti-Semitic." UCSB senior Rebecca Joseph and junior Tova Hausman both took exception to Professor William Robinson's Sociology Listserv email comparing Israel's mop up operation in Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. Below are the words they cut and pasted together to accuse Robinson. The literacy level of these two students is probably on par for Twilight fans, but definitely unbecoming for the University of California system. The first letter is reputedly from a college senior. Rebecca Joseph's opening argument was plagiarized from the internet, but she continues to scold Professor Robinson for straying from her idea of what makes a university professor. The second complaint from UCSB junior Tova Hausman copies the first letter's form, but adds the accusation of sexual misconduct for leaving her feeling raped. Is it unfair to put simple college students under national scrutiny like this? From their own words they show themselves to be rather helpless. But what to do when students, or some unscrupulous backers, are taking aim at a respected tenured professor? It's serious business. Organizations like ACTA and Hillel are out to enforce a veritable Right Wing PC rectitude. As if it's politically incorrect to make fun of uneducated on campus! Keeping educators silenced was easier during the Bush administration, but the dampers are still on Academic Freedom. Ward Churchill may have won his case in court against the University of Colorado, but opinionated faculty are still few and far between. The latest attack against William Robinson attempts to reinforce more of the same. Probably by now Hillel is wishing they'd coaxed a better educated pair of students to face off against Robinson. The administrators who received the complaint letters should have earmarked the girls for a remedial English refresher in anticipation of their graduation. But let's look beyond the cheap shots. The accusations inarticulated here are scurrilous where they are not outright illogical. You be the judge. First Student Complaint Here's the first complaint received by UCSB, from Rebecca Joseph, Vice-president of the Santa Barbara campus Orthodox Jewish Chabad. Interestingly, UCSB has a number of pro-Israel action groups: Hillel, Jewish Awareness Movement on Campus, American Students for Israel, Stand With Us, AIPAC and the Israeli Palestinian Film Festival (which judging by the lineup runs films only by un-self-critical Israelis and sympathetic Palestinians). Here is Rebecca Joseph's complaint, uncorrected. To Whom It May Concern: On Monday, january 19, at 1:02 pm, I received an email from Professor Robinson for the course Sociology of Globalization (Soc 130SG). The subject of the email was "Parallel images of Nazis and Israelis." This email compared the aggression of the Nazis to the Jews in Germany, to that which is going on between Palestine and Israel today. Professor Robinson wrote the first three paragraphs including the following: "Gaza is Israel's Warsaw..." In addition to his few words, he attached
UN says Darfur conflict now much less deadly than before
Even as inter-fighting between former rebel groups in Southern Sudan has recently killed hundreds (See SUDAN: Fresh clashes in Jonglei State "worrisome" - UN official.) , the UN has just come out with a report that states that the fighting inside Darfur has become much less deadly than before. That's bad news for Israel and the US whose governments both want the option to militarily intervene against Sudan's central government at will and in total disregard to international law. See Darfur is now a "low-intensity conflict": U.N Sudan is a huge country (as big as all of Western Europe together) and one that is destitute in most regions. That simply gives other more powerful countries, a big eye toward dividing it up like has been already been done in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long term this division can only hurt the peoples of the region though, so hopefully the Sudanese peoples can come together some, but this will most likely only happen if foreign powers ae kept out of the conflicts inside Sudan? That's unfortunately a big IF since so many want to make US intervention against Sudan's central government a cause celebre.
Yuppie Feminist Brigade comes to life on behalf of US Imperialism in Afghanistan
It's impossible to make this yuppie humanitarian interventionist lunacy up on our own, and since we at Not My Tribe have talked so much about Greg Mortenson and his Three Cups of Tea, why not take a quick look at Jay Leno's wife's new "cause celebre." See: Jay and Mavis Leno turn serious about the plight of Afghan women. Move over Darfur. Move over Tibet. There's a new 'In' thing for yuppie America to focus its tears on. And the new team has on board CNN's Christiane Amanpour, former National Organization for Women President Eleanor Smeal, knuckle chinned Jay Leno and wife, and wait!!! ...where's Madelyn Albright? It must just be a matter of time before she and the President's wife come into the act, too! Whooppee! The Imperial Yuppie Feminist Brigade is now coming to life to save women in Afghanistan! Move over Greg Mortenson! Humanitarian interventionism tied now to terrorist extermination by Pentagon drone! Isn't this all so sweet? I know that the Muslim women of occupied Afghanistan must just be so happy about this 'aid'. Bombs away! Bombs away with NOW, Ms. Magazine, and the 'Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission' propaganda drops on dumb-founded America, too! Hollywood America appeals to Shopping Mall America to CARE!
Who’s actually getting expelled from Sudan?
Thirteen supposedly non-governmental agencies (NGOs) just got expelled from Sudan. See Sudan Protects and Welcomes Aid Groups ...Who and what are these groups that got thrown out of Sudan then? One of the groups is Mercy Corps, funded by some very big corporations in America. See their website's list of big donors... Corporate, Foundation and Non-Profit Partners ... Amongst them, I see Wells Fargo, The Mellon Foundation, the Mormon Charities, The Bill Gate's Foundation, The National Association for Business Women (Tajikistan), The Schwab Fund, YMCA (Lebanon)!, the Bayer Corporation, one of the CIA's very own airlines called Evergreen International Aviation, Inc., JP Morgan, Nike, PacTrust, US Bank, Washington Mutual, and the list just goes on and on and on. InterAction, another group that got kicked out also calls itself a NGO, but look where the funding actually comes from? U.S. International Affairs Budget ...follow the link to the United States State Department! This is a US government agency that was working inside Sudan to help overthrow the regime there! The government of Sudan is correct in calling these supposed agencies SPIES. They are. See Iran and Hamas back Sudan's Bashir for more information about the expulsion of the US from Sudan.
Current slaughter in Sri Lanka is part of the spread of war into the greater region
The struggle for justice for the Tamil community in both India and Sri Lanka has taken place for many long decades and at a great loss of live, and like the struggle for justice in Kashmir, has seen the entire world hardly take the slightest notice. The Tamil people have failed to create a celebrity cause like Darfur and Tibet have become here in the US. Instead, they have fallen victim to slaughter by State Terrorism much like the peoples of Kashmir, Peru (with the suppression of the Sendero Luminoso by the US-Peruvian governments), and Colombia (with it s decades long death squad massacres promoted by the US-Colombian government) have also suffered tens of thousands of casualties. And how many peoples in Africa have suffered similarly without anybody batting an eye in either Europe or the English speaking countries? The Tamil have probably lost 100,000 in their struggle for self determination of their communities in Sri Lanka alone. Now, the world government enablers of the Sri Lanka slaughter have stepped in with their typical show of humanitarianism at the last moment in the ongoing slaughter with pleas to help the civilians! Sri Lanka Tigers urged to end war What a sad situation. However, these same countries that are 'urging and end to war' in Sri Lanka are actively part of the US's spread of war into Afghanistan, Pakistan, and into possibly the entire Indian sub-continent, if the US manages to heat up more the Pakistan-India conflicts with its so-called Global War on Terrorism, a war against shadows that merely serves to feed the US military-industrial complex's welfare-guzzling operations. Though the American population is hardly aware of this fact, the US and Indian governments have been increasingly allying their special interests together against what both governments conceive of as common political enemies in Asia. Neither governments are actually concerned at all about this conflict in Sri Lanka, as long as the slaughter is not of such a proportion as to detract from their goals of aggressively pursuing regional conflicts in other arenas of the area. India, for example, must have good enough press to be able to quietly fight 'pirates' for the US in the Indian Ocean region that extends to Somalia. Tens of thousands of deaths in nearby Sri Lanka certainly will not help things here for India. And certainly might make it look nastier for the US's military public relation's team as the Pentagon pops civilians in Pakistan on a weekly basis. One thing for the world to keep in mind, is that the more slaughter that occurs in the Indian sub-continent region, the more unstable becomes the nuclear caches of India and Pakistan, too. It ups the ante about how much bloodshed could possibly be effective or not in achieving sectarian goals. Meanwhile, let us wish the best for the Tamil people who are suffering so because
They wanted to ‘Save Darfur’ but are promoting using White Phosphorous on Gaza instead!
It seems that many of those who wanted to 'Save Darfur' are now actually out there supporting Israel and its daily bombardment of Gaza's civilian population with thousands of half-ton explosives, cluster bomblets, and White Phosphorus shells, many if not most, made in the USA! What a puzzle? U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is one of those notables since he's been a long time Zionist and demander of increased US military aggression against Sudan, but the group of newly gung-ho genocide advocates against the Palestinians also includes Hillel, the largest Jewish student group around the world. They fairly recently made 'Saving Darfur' the major focus of their political work. Now they have returned to the 'Saving the Jewish State' theme by killing Palestinians which is their #1 cause once again. See their website for the position Hillel Endorses JCPA Support for Israel. Now check out their 'Save Darfur' campaign for calling for military intervention by principally the US and Britain into Africa. Never Forget. Save Darfur and never save Iraq, Afghanistan, or Somalia, let alone Gaza? OK, let's go on over to another US group advocating vocally to 'Save Darfur', the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum down in Miami, Florida of all places. What are they up to? Just check on CONSCIENCE at their website to see if they have located any problems in the world today other than Darfur? Oops, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Congo, Gaza are all missing! Gaza civilians not a problem for them.... ??? Neither are Armenians, Native Americans, nor Black African slaves. What holocausts? I guess there was only one with maybe an add on of Darfur? I'm surprised, in fact. Well they are worried about the Chechens, too, it seems. Just to be fair... There are many others out there who wanted to 'Save Darfur'. Some of them are the local peace do-nothings at the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission here in Colorado Springs allied with United for Justice and Peace nationally, which has had many a member concerned about 'Saving Darfur'. So much so that they actually held a rally or two to show their desire for more intervention by the US government. I remember seeing some of them in tears even. Today I'm not sure where they have disappeared to? White phosphorus and Gaza just not their thing I guess? Neither is Somalia, Congo, Afghanistan, nor really even Iraq! Funny group of people. They never really seem to get it together to demonstrate for anything other than themselves? Always fundraising though. Got some money for their office people? Staff salaries are always important! They may or may not show
UN Ambassador speaks of the hidden genocide against the Somali people
The UN envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, has said there is a "hidden genocide" taking place in the country. Left unsaid is that it is the United States of America that is responsible for this genocide, but at least the reality of the massacre was broadcast to the world so that hopefully some action might be taken, Somalia facing 'hidden genocide' What does it say about the character of the American people what they have done to Somalia? Here in Colorado Springs, there is a group of pacifist liberal voters for the Democratic Party organized in the so-called Pikes Peak Justice and Peace commission. They have agitated through public rallies for more US military intervention into Africa despite being nominally a 'Peace' organization. They have done this saying that more US intervention into Africa was necessary to stop genocide from taking place! So one asks what have they said about this genocide against the people in Somalia where their own US government has been responsible for? What have they done to stop it? The answer to both these questions is that they have totally ignored what was going on. It has been of no interest to them. Something very similar to this has taken place on the national level at the United for Peace and Justice 'Peace'crat group, and all their local affiliates. What does that say about the character of the American liberal community? It really says to the general public that their supposed 'protestations' for 'Peace' should be taken with a big grain of salt. It also says that when these same people get onto the band wagon talking about genocide in regions of Sudan where the US government is itching to get further involved for multiple reasons all having absolutely nothing to do with stopping any sort of mayhem, that one should also weigh their inaction about not caring the least about people in Congo and Somalia, not to mention the continent of Africa as a whole. After all, the US government has been responsible for the destruction that is now causing this genocide in Somalia, but the liberal 'Peace'crat voice is on MUTE. The best we in the US can do to stop world genocides from taking place, is simply to understand the negative role ALL Us government intervention plays in creating world war zones. Their is not a positive role the US military has to play as long as we have a government run by the military-industrial-government complex. To call on this complex to do nice and decent things is just absolutely the worst thing to do. The call should be to eliminate this monstrous danger to the world, not advocate for its use somewhere or other. UN Ambassador Abdallah's voice will be ignored by the Powers that caused the hidden and silent genocide to
What comes after the donkey eats the carrot?
No doubt about it, the American ruling class has decided to rewire the circuits once again. But what comes after? What comes after the big CHANGE? Certainly a Black man and his relatively young Black wife in the White House are going to look pretty world wide. What better way to promote The Empire than this? Especially when one considers that the other possibility was having Sarah Palin in there with her Clod... I meant Todd. The entire world is going to breathe a big sigh of relief.... at least initially. However... We have to ask ourselves how long will this relief actually last? We might ask ourselves, just how long did Colin Powell's and Ricardo Sanchez's presence provide relief for American image in Iraq? A couple of years maybe? But then those alarming breakdowns in US image began to occur, Black and Brown faces not withstanding. For example, who is moaning about losing the pretty little Black face of Condaleeza Rice from the international scene? Not too many. Yes, the Republican Elephant already had a whole lot of dark skin covering for the US imperialists' image worldwide. Now it is the Donkey's time. They'll have White donkeys out there, too (like Joe Biden for one) but the Black ones are the ones that certainly will stand out. Everybody will be asking themselves, just what will the Black donkey bray out next? There'll be a lot of curiosity at first, but then folk will notice that this donkey is about the same as the White donkeys. Obama is most likely to begin with a blast of rhetoric and action about 'winning' the 'Global War on Terrorism' and by that, he will mean that he will be advancing the frontlines against the Chinese and Russians' national interests. He will send more US troops into Afghanistan, and, Joseph Biden, Zionist leader and African 'specialist' on 'Darfur' will be mobilizing those US troops under AFRICOM command to save people (just like the Iraqis and Afghans were supposedly saved from themselves previously) in the exotic lands of Fureigners (foreign Fur-people of the Dar-land). Joe is a great humanitarian and no doubt about it, that Barack Hussein is, too. They will be 'saving' people almost everywhere, just like the Republicans did before them. And like the Republicans they will claim that this is what makes America so great! On the home front it will be like a Hollywood cop movie, where Black cop and White cop move together in gunfire and action! Evil racist creeps (US Right Wingers) will snarl and growl in response, and it'll all look good and bang-bang at first, but then it will begin to be noticed by some that the movie has no plot.
The Scamble for Africa- Darfur, Intervention, and the USA
Those interested in Darfur might want to check this book, 'The Scramble for Africa', out some when it comes out? Especially with the Biden, Obama gang headed towards the White House soon. Certainly this is a timely release for this book. *** Book of the Month for** **October 2008* *THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA* *Darfur -- Intervention and the USA* *Steven Fake and Kevin Funk* *As massive human suffering continues to engulf the Darfur region of Sudan, the crisis has garnered a rhetorical circus of saber-rattling and hand wringing from Western politicians, media, and activists. Yet such bluster has not halted the violence.* *In a careful yet scathing indictment of this constellation of holier-than-thou government leaders, corporate media outlets, and spoon-fed NGOs, Steven Fake and Kevin Funk reveal the myriad ways in which the West has failed Darfur.* *Praise for Scramble for Africa:* *"A devastating critique of the 'humanitarian' response of the United States to the Darfur crisis. Well-researched, easy to read, and utterly convincing, a crucial book for anyone concerned about achieving a morally and politically acceptable U.S. foreign policy." --Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of Law Emeritus, Princeton University* *"Sudan has been a nightmare for many. It still is. The outside world is responsible as well. This book shows why. The authors avoid easy answers, and provide a quality analysis with compelling arguments to revise Western policies." --Jan Pronk, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission for the United Nations Mission in Sudan, 2004-06 * *"Explosive, masterful, and impeccably fair. Consider it the thinking person's guide to Darfur." -John Ghazvinian, author of **Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil* *STEVEN FAKE and KEVIN FUNK are activists and political commentators whose writings have been published in such media as **Foreign Policy in Focus, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, ZNet**, and **Black Commentator**.* *344 pages, bibliography, index Paperback ISBN: 978-1-55164-322-9 $19.99 Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-55164-323-6 $39.99* *For more information on **The Scramble For Africa**, our October Book of the Month selection, including additional testimonials and Table of Contents, see **http://www.blackrosebooks.net/darfur.htm* * * *The Scramble For Africa will be launched in the Boston area on October 28th. For more information see http://www.blackrosebooks.net/events.htm* *To Order This Book, Call Toll Free 1-800-565-9523* *Independent Publishing for Independent Minds* *What others are saying about Scramble for Africa* "Kevin Funk and Steven Fake have written a devastating critique of the 'humanitarian' response of the United States to the Darfur crisis, while offering a genuine humane alternative that would lessen the ordeal, if not bring it to an end. Well-researched, easy to read, and utterly convincing, a crucial book for anyone concerned about achieving a morally and politically acceptable U.S. foreign policy." *–Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of Law Emeritus, Princeton University, and since 2002, Visiting Distinguished Professor, Global Studies, UCSB* "Sudan has been a nightmare for many. It still is. The outside world is responsible as well. This book shows why. The authors avoid easy answers, and provide a quality analysis with compelling arguments to revise Western policies." *–Jan Pronk, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of Mission for the United Nations Mission in Sudan, 2004-06* "At a time when everyone from George Clooney to George Bush is an instant expert on Darfur, Kevin Funk and Steven Fake have given us what we so urgently need: a clear, sober assessment of the conflict and
US liberal radicals silent about ‘self determination’ now that South Ossetia and Abkhazia want it
One of the most aggravating things about American (and British) liberals has been how they consistently line up with the US government shouting 'Self-Determination! Self Determination!' every time the Pentagon uses some small nationality against another government. When Australia wanted to split East Timor off of Indonesia, this was their shout. When the US and the Western Europeans wanted to carve up Greater Yugoslavia into nation-lets under their control this was their call. We hear their call again against China as the US government wants to use Tibet to propagandize for the Pentagon and against the Chinese. We hear it in Africa as they use the issue of the fighting in Darfur to move against Sudan. Liberal radicals are always using the issue of 'self determination' to support US militarism while pretending to be doing the exact complete opposite. That is why their silence is so deafening now about keeping quiet about 'self determination' for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Apparently the liberal interventionist American Left is only for 'self determination' when the Pentagon calls for it? This is a sad illustration about the liberal Left's own lack of self examination and their pro US nationalism and pro imperialism that hides behind liberal human rights rhetoric. Some even hide behind Marxism to justify what positions for the Pentagon they take! What about the Ossetians? Once again the Libertarian Right is more honest than the pseudo Marxists and Left liberal 'Progressive' community is. They ask the question about the Ossetians when the phonys remain silent. While the pro Democratic Party liberals/radicals are out cheerleading Barack it is antiwar.com that keeps us informed about the dangerous buildup for war involving Russia and the US. And unfortunately, this constant misuse of the issue of 'self determination' in support of State Department propaganda is often used by many even to the Left of the Democratic Party, too. Shameful. But now they are all silent when it comes to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Who should cast stones at the Chinese?
Activist hung this FREE TIBET banner in Beijing. To whom is it addressed? It's in English. I'll say it again. I would leave criticism of the Chinese over Darfur, Burma and Tibet, to advocates with some moral authority. Perhaps activists from countries not actively engaged in genocide. How unbecoming really, of Americans, Canadian and Brits to point the finger at China for its links to the deaths of Sudanese, Burmese and Tibetans, while we have the blood of over a million Iraqis and Afghans on our hands! Our OWN hands! Westerners also have the blood of countless millions of African AIDS victims to whom we refuse our medicines. How ever in the world IS IT OUR PLACE to admonish China, when we are not stepping up to arrest our own governments?! Do you know who is behind the FREE TIBET and SAVE DARFUR efforts? The Western governments! Those "grass-roots" efforts are fully funded. They are media endorsed. Look at this Canadian TV coverage. They offer up the protest group website! Since when have you known mainstream media to publicize activist websites?! The Tibet/Darfur campaigns are aimed at US/UK audiences, to mobilize English speaking populations against China, our chief rival to Western empire.
Beijing extracurricular Olympic schedule
I have a last-minute, refocused interest in a safe and not-too-disrupted Beijing Olympics. It's already been unofficially eventful. Here's a time line of the counter-Olympics leading-up to the Opening Ceremonies. The Gazette is in Beijing. So are we! OC -5: Marie arrives in Beijing! OC -4: Sixteen Chinese policemen killed in Kashgar by Uighur separatists. Two Japanese journalists beaten by police for covering story. OC -3: Earthquake hits Sichuan Province hours after Olympic torch passes. OC -2: Four US-UK protesters unfurl TIBET banner as torch arrives at Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium. / Four US cyclists cause furor by stepping off the plane wearing US-issued breathing masks. / Visa revoked for TEAM DARFUR Olympian alumni. Yay! OC -0: FREE TIBET demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. American Tourists stabbed. Assailant jumps to death. Official account. Chinese witnesses not at liberty to tell what they actually saw. OC +1: Tibet activists ejected from Honk Kong equestrian arena. Protester sets himself on fire in Ankara.
Save Congo
A spin off group from Human Rights Watch reports that over 2,000 women were reported raped in one province of East Congo alone. Over 2,000 raped last month in Congo's east -report In Kivu, there are over 1,000,000 refugees from the war there, and the United Nations and African Union have already arrived, implemented a peace treaty under their direction, and yet the bloodshed goes on. Who brokered this deal? Why it was the European Union, the United States, the African Union, and the United Nations. See DR Congo: Peace Process Fragile, Civilians at Risk This is the same sort of 'response' that the group Save Darfur has called for in Darfur, Sudan, so it is instructive to see the failure of these military responses from imperialist countries located outside of Africa, in yet another locale, East Congo. Military solutions even while disguised as 'humanitarian interventions' under the direction of the UN are prescriptions for failure, and East Congo underlines this. The United Nations is completely under the control of the United States and its gang of allies, and none of them are willing to take the steps to actually help any African country out. Instead, the name of the game for them is CONTROL. We need to Save Congo, as well as Save Darfur. The only way we are ever going to do it is to break the military control that the US and Europeans use to strangle the African continent. It is truly a tragic situation, and the solution must come in form of releasing the control of imperialism on the region, not increasing it by calling for troops to be sent in. As a side note, the issue of women being raped in Darfur is one of the big drawing cards for emotional responses to do something that the Save Darfur groups always make. Where are they though when it comes to the Congo conflict? It seems that their focus on rape is as selective as can be, and is reminsicent of when Americans became concerned about babies in Kuwait which they once used to justify the beginning of the US assaults on Iraq. Women are being raped in Darfur, so the imperialist knights must rush in to save them! But we have the knights in place in East Congo, and women are still being raped. Go figure?
Troubles in Peacekeeping Land, Darfur
UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- Rwanda has warned that it will withdraw its 3,000 peacekeepers from a U.N.-backed mission in the Darfur region of Sudan if the United Nations refuses to retain an alleged Rwandan war criminal as its second-highest-ranking commander there, according to U.S. and U.N. officials... Rwanda Threatens Darfur Pullout if U.N. Removes General Yes, How embarrassing to have war criminals in charge of 'UN peacekeeping', however there is no word yet if Americans will need to get rid of war criminals George W. Bush and Dick Cheney before the US can continue to direct 'peacekeeping' in Darfur? What do you think? Notice also how according to this Washington Post reportage the US government is asking that the war criminal remain in place as a 'peacekeeper' general. Amazing stuff! Wonder what the group 'Save Darfur' has to say about this affair? Remember, too, that the United Nations 'International Criminal Court' just charged the Sudanese president, Bashir, with being a war criminal. And now just days later, the press learns that the United Nations troops in Darfur have a war criminal general leading a portion of its command! How easy it is for certain war criminals to lead 'peacekeeping missions'. The UN has certainly stamped with its approval war criminal Bush's 'peacekeeping' in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Americans are stealing babies from Guatemala after all
DNA tests have proven for the first time that a baby adopted in the US, was in fact stolen from a mother in Guatemala. Adopted Guatemala baby 'stolen' How many others have been stolen previously, but never were tracked down? Indigenous women in rural areas were always at risk in Guatemala of having their babies stolen, simply because it was so profitable for the criminals involved and because the mothers were so powerless. This is reminiscent of another recent case of imperialist kidnapping, where a French agency was trying to steal children out of Chad, saying that they were 'Lost Children' from the war in Darfur. Chad Charges French Charity With Kidnapping When there is such a power imbalance like these between the US and Guatemala, between France and Chad, and between the US and Iraq and Afghanistan, abuses like this will be rampant. Children should be treasured and not destroyed by war, poverty, disease, and other forms of criminality that help make the rich richer, and make the poor suffer in silence. What type of world is this where atrocities like kidnapping babies from their mothers goes virtually unnoticed? I have seen it for myself, and it was happening directly inside the US.
Today US government is now set to declare war on Sudan
The US and French have moved their troops into Chad and Darfur (around 10,000 UN troops are there now) and this weekend the US is set to use the United Nations once again to set up a war against yet another sovereign nation! In a crime scene that is reminiscent of how the US government once gave Saddam Hussein the go ahead and permission to attack Kuwait and then later used this Iraqi attack as an excuse to attack Iraq itself, the US is planning to use Sudan's permission to allow UN troops into Darfur as its beachhead in furthering its attack on the country of Sudan as a whole. President Bashir of Sudan will be accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor in a day or two ahead. This is what the pro-war 'Save Darfur' campaign has wanted all along, to give liberal ideological support for US- Euroepan aggression behind a cloud of 'humanitarian' interventionist rhetoric. They have succeeded in their goal 100% but have not succeeded in doing anything other than bringing another disguised US occupation to yet another African country. Instead of helping save Somalia, they have helped enslave Sudan. We cannot be sure exactly how this coming declaration of US war on Sudan will unfold? What can be known with certainty is, that the US criminalization of another official enemy head of state in their 'international' kangaroo court can only be nothing more nor less than a US declaration of war on Sudan's government. None of this is for any benefit to the people of Darfur themselves, just like using the Kurds in Iraq has done nothing much to help out the Kurdish nation as a whole. Newsweek in their July commentary DARFUR-A Thin Coat of Blue More than six months after the United Nations formed a peacekeeping force in Darfur, little has happened on the ground gave an honest accounting of what UN troops in Darfur has meant to the people there. Instead of helpers, the area are getting nothing more than US mercenary pawns in the US government's grand plan of obtaining total global control for its well established Empire. The US antiwar movement is totally unprepared to today honestly analyze how their own stupidity and national jingoistic mindset has helped get its own government into yet more of African territory. It is a very sad situation. We should never promote 'humanitarian interventionism' when our own government is nothing more than just pirates and gangsters. To do so as many 'peace' activists did is criminal.
NATO, Ukraine’s Orange Counter-Revolution
Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko is a US puppet who wants to push Ukraine into NATO, although less than 30% of the Ukraine public backs the idea. NATO head pledges to forge consensus on Ukraine NATO is an offensive war alliance, led by the US government, whose main current goal in the world is to dominate China and Russia. Why doesn't the US 'Peace' community talk about NATO more and oppose the alliance for war? The answer is simple. The Democratic Party is thoroughly supportive of NATO, and the leadership of all these liberal church fed 'peace' groups is thoroughly tied into Democratic Party dope pushing, so you won't see them talk about NATO much at all, except perhaps to call on NATO to militarily intervene in Darfur and Kosovo, and even to occupy these areas. Absent is any call for NATO to get out of Afghanistan, too. The so-called Ukraine 'Orange Revolution' is in fact a counter-revolutionary, counter democracy movement largely funded from Western Europe, the US, and Canada. It is an anti-Russian movement, despite the fact that many Russians live in Ukraine itself. We need to watch these scoundrels as they try to get the US to take over Ukraine militarily through NATO. We need to demand that NATO be eliminated, not spread further throughout the world. The US Antiwar Movement must open its eyes and ears! The time to do so about NATO is upon us.
European troops in North Africa are regionalizing Darfur conflict, not ending it
French imperialist troops in Chad, backed by the US and UN, are helping regionalize and spread the Darfur fighting, rather than helping stop it. Since the entrance of these troops into the region, we have seen attacks on both the capital of Chad, and also on the capital of Sudan. See CHAD: STATE OF REBELLION section of BBC's reporting. Worse, the regionalization by US and European backed troops of the North African conflicts, threatens to also destabilize the peace accords in Southern Sudan, and also to spread new wars into the Horn of Africa, where the US has effectively destabilized peace for Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Somalia! The UN now admits that it has helped create, working alongside the US, a greater humanitarian crisis in Somalia than currently exists in Darfur. Plus, the UN and US have hardly definitively settled down the conflicts of Eastern Congo, Burundi, Uganda, and Rwanda. None of this has stopped the liberal bleeding heart imperialist community from demanding more US/ UN/ French/ British action in Africa. The entire US and British antiwar communities are riddled with these pro-war folk posing themselves off as Gandhian pacifists, who just want to stop genocides.... by calling in the troops! This is the real desert cooked up by a supposed 'peace community' that is in love with hugging the cops, hugging 'the troops', and hugging the Democratic Party politicians. They hug the supposed 'Green' corporations and Pentagon, too! In the Colorado Springs area, these folk have all but totally taken over the PPJPC (Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission) non-profit corporation, hiding themselves behind Jesus in the mean time. All the antiwar community faces a real battle against these pro-war forces inside the 'peace' community, masquerading as pacifists. Their real program is to glue the antiwar movement to the Democratic Party Right, immobilize public protest, and to defang and derail all activity outside of small little gatherings of the most conservative of liberals. Meanwhile, the Darfur conflict is becoming further spread, the Iraq-Afghanistan conflict is being further spread, and the American public has lost all desire to fight against the Rightward shift of its corporate elites. What a mess! And the greatest impediment to moving forward from this impasse, is once again folk posing themselves off as being 'liberals'. Very sad....
US and European governments foment multiple regional wars across Africa
Darfur conflict stokes Chad-Sudan tensions This article speaks of just one such regional war that the US and Europeans are lighting up in Africa, but neglects to speak of the French and US governments' roles in this conflict. Plus, more importantly, it fails to give the context of how the US and Europeans are also behind multiple other regional conflicts in Africa, such as In Kenya, Zimbabwe, Somali-Ethiopia-Eritrea, Eastern Congo-Rwanda-Burundi-etc., and the list goes on and on. What should Americans do to help stop these conflicts? The simple answer to that last question is that we should build a Movement to get the US and Europeans out of other countries' affairs, rather than into them, as many foolish liberals have been constantly doing. We do not need or want our US public tax dollars going for a supposedly humanitarian imperialism, coated with a syrupy vocabulary of supposed concern for Africans. Charity needs to start at home, and liberals that want to run around the planet with the Pentagon intervening everywhere are just short of brain dead, in our opinion. No More Militarism! No more Wars! It's time to break multinational corporate power, not cheer it on. Help the people of Darfur, Sudan, and Chad by getting the Europeans and US out of their affairs and allowing them to develop their own economies without multinational corporate control.