Towards a global perspective . . .

I’ve thought for a long time that the red line that would indicate an intolerable assault on Asia and her assets runs through Iran.   However, at the moment I’m not so sure.  What I mean is, that a war with Iran, once initiated, would eventually draw in all of the Middle East, and then China and Russia.   I still believe that is true.  And God knows, the current game of chicken in the Persian Gulf is certainly looking very threatening.    With two American Carrier Groups including several French and British ships and, most likely, a couple of Israeli nuclear subs, along with a third US Carrier outfitted as a Forward Operating Base, the risk of an accident alone is enough to set one’s nerves on edge.  Meanwhile the Iranians are conducting joint exercises in the straight of Hormuz with Oman.   It is, after all, the Persian Gulf.  The Western fleets are purportedly there to keep the Gulf free for oil traffic.   I would argue that filling the Gulf with warships is is not conducive to peaceful trade relations.

But, while all eyes are on Iran, and we are deafened by the din of Iranophobic threats and tirades, the situation in Syria continues to boil, in fact, has begun to boil over.   Read the rest of this entry »

Cries for war with Iran are again rising. In November, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), under a new Director and heavily pressured by the US State Department, released a report implying that Iran is developing nuclear weapons (while stating that it isn’t).  Iran’s civilian nuclear program is heavily monitored by the IAEA, which has repeatedly confirmed that the level of enrichment is consistent with civilian uses and no nuclear materials have been diverted. The information on which this report is based is no different than the last report from Mohammed El Baradei’s IAEA in 2009.

A dangerous situation has emerged through the cyclical threats and accusations against Iran.  Due to US sanctions, Iran has started trading actively on a basket of currency.   This is a serious blow to the petrodollar.     The US struck Iraq shortly after Saddam Hussein began to sell oil in Euros.   NATO bombed Libya after Muamar Qaddhafi began selling oil in other currencies, and began lobbying the African Union for an ‘African’ Central Bank to support an African currency based on gold (which there is plenty of in Africa) and which would be use for all intra African trade.   Now Iran is selling oil and gas to India in rupees, and to China in renmibi.  They are trading with Russia in rubles.   What are we to expect?

Obama has eased the level of tensions a little the last couple of days, but this remains a very dangerous situation.  Iran is surrounded by US bases and military forces in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is targeted by US missiles in Europe and Israel. Repeated upgrades of international sanctions have left Iran without parts to repair their aging civilian airlines or high tech medical equipment readily available in western countries. Despite its vast oil reserves, Iran imports refined petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil, because sanctions have made it impossible to repair the oil refineries destroyed during the Iran-Iraq War.  Read the rest of this entry »

There have been conference calls all week regarding the elevation of tensions around Iran.   The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) has issued a statement which you can read here.   Code Pink has issued a statement you can read here.   Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Middle East Task Force will meet later this week.  An ad hoc group including representatives of most of the national anti war movement, including World Can’t Wait, UNAC, Antiwar.com, Workers World Party, American Iranian Friendship Committee, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Code Pink  and ANSWER Coalition among others, held an ad hoc conference Tuesday Evening where we decided to call for National actions on February 4, to oppose the dangerous escalation of calls for war on Iran and the ongoing provocations towards Iran.   Our slogan is:

“No War on Iran!  No Sanctions on Iran! 

        No Intervention in Iran!  No Assassinations in Iran! “

Everyone who opposes the ongoing oppression of the Iranian people should come out February 4 against the war on Iran. Everyone who does not want to see a devastating new war that will result in the deaths of thousands of Americans and millions in Southwest Asia, and perhaps initiate a new world war, should heed this call.

This is a very dangerous moment.  Recent provocations against Iran have been extreme. Iran is targeted by US forces, missile installations and drone bases in the Persian Gulf, in Northern Iraq, in Israel and Turkey, in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Monarchies, and even in Europe. What could possibly require this kind of buildup to war? Read the rest of this entry »

I recently learned that my uncle, Francis Bello, was a life long member of Fellowship of Reconciliation. He was also a war resister during World War II, and worked in a chemical factory during the war rather than engage in combat. After the war, Uncle Frank was a respected mainstream journalist associated, first, with Fortune, and later with Scientific American magazine. So, when my cousin sent me a copy of this truly radical speech made in 1946, I was very surprised.   Read the rest of this entry »

War is coming.  Perhaps Ron Paul could avert it if he were elected. But its a big if, and a long shot.   His economic policies will, I believe, throw the country into a deep depression.  But, it would be better than losing a huge world war, and then having the depression.  Unfortunately, it appears that  our current officials are doing everything in their power to start one.  Perhaps the powers that be think that they have to move now before it is too late.  They didn’t imagine that the ‘third world’ after the fall of the ‘second world’, with Russia and China in the lead would develop so much economic and military strength as quickly as they have.  But now they see the writing on the wall.   They even have supply routes into South America.  It is already too late.

But can they let go of their dream of total power?  The dream is hubris.  It is megalomania.  It is toxic. However, it  is propagated through the population of this country, and indeed has been promoted throughout the world for decades, as a kind of glamor, backed up by the big stick of a new world war with nukes, and now robotic weapons.  Freedom, justice and prosperity backed up by the arsenal from Hell.    While we watch the Arab world burn in the name of  freedom, justice and democracy, and the EU collapse under the weight of the banking cartels, unable to save themselves from the obligations they took on in the name of peace and prosperity, Russia, China, India are growing stronger and more confident.  Most of South America has set boundaries and begun a regional project to assert their independence and bring prosperity to the majority of the people.

It’s over.   Read the rest of this entry »

ProPublica just released a comprehensive investigation of David Coleman Headley’s involvement with the U.S. Government, and in the Mumbai Massacre, aptly titled “The American Behind India’s 9/11 And how the US Botched Chances to Stop Him“.   The first part of the title is right on; the second part, an undignified prostration to the official storyline.   This case has all the trappings of the FBI sting operations using provocateurs to induce Muslims within the U.S. to commit crimes.  The singular exception is that Headley’s handlers actually let the event unfold, and many people were killed. No fake bombs and half completed weapons here; no explosives in the underwear or the soles of traveler’s shoes.

Shades of Luis Posada Carriles!   The raid actually went off without interference, even though the government had the plans and connections in hand far in advance, and their own agent had done all the reconnaissance and planning.  In fact he had bragged about it to his family and friends all along the way.   Even after the fact, they refused to go after him.  He was allowed to plead for his life at trial, and receive a life sentence (I wonder if it is life without parole?) and immunity for his faithful wife who knew the details all along.  You have only to look at the assassination of Anwar al Awlaki to see, by contrast, what happens to provocateurs who aren’t on the home team.

If Headley were a rogue agent, he would have been apprehended long before the attack on Mumbai.  If all they wanted was the intelligence, they could have interrupted the flow of events and saved all those people.  It’s no wonder that Pakistani Officials are unwilling to pursue individuals implicated by Headley’s testimony in the U.S.

Iran is, and has been for many years, surrounded by US Military installations.  We talk about the U.S. strategy to encircle China, but you rarely hear about the way in which Iran is, and has been encircled by U.S. military bases for many years.  When they you hear that Iran is a threat to the United States, you picture a us, here in the U.S. as potential victims.  When you hear the term ‘containment’ in relation to Iran, you think, perhaps, that something needs to be done.  After all, we have bases and military trainers and other military reprpresentatives in dangerous countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.    But wait, if those countries have bases, isn’t Iran pretty well contained?

Here is a map of Iran, showing the surrounding U,S. bases around 2008.   Click on the image below to open a dynamic version of the map, where you can zoom in for a better look, and a key to the various symbols and the names of the bases.  Base names and locations from GlobalSecurity.org.  If you zoom in really close on most of the air bases, you can see the runway.

U.S. Bases Surrounding Iran circa 2008

Now, a new military initiative is rapidly being deployed across the Middle East, Southwest Asia and Africa, around the world, and even here on the U.S. mainland.   New bases are being built and old ones converted to host Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAV); recently re-designated as  Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPA); commonly referred to as Drones.  The largest and most used in the region at this time are named Predator and Reaper.   The MQ9 Reaper can carry several Hellfire Missiles and laser guided 500 lb. bombs.  These Drones fly so high that they can virtually hover over a target for hours, piloted by a computer operator from his office or home here in the U.S,.   Unfortunately, misinterpretation of evidence based on cultural discrepancies, pilot impatience, inaccurate target identification before the Drone is called and other similar issues make civilian casualties in the context of Drone strikes a regular occurrence.  The image below shows some of the sites known to be used for drone bases.   Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, the US Attorney General announced that they had foiled and unlikely plot by the Iranian government to murder the Saudi Ambassador, here in Washington DC.   The information released amounted to a highly circumstantial case with no clear evidence to support the involvement of the Iranian government, or the precise objective of the plan.   The Iranian American at the center of the plot is not someone any reasonable person would choose to carry out a serious act of espionage, there was an FBI/DEA informant involved from the beginning.   In the recorded conversations between the two men, the informant consistently takes the lead in formulating an agenda, and the conversations do not clearly lay out the plan that is the basis for charges.   Apparently, the case is entirely based on the testimony of the central character and an informant/provocateur.

Numerous experts on Iran stood up to say that the story presented seemed highly unlikely.   Even so, the government has proceeded as if the charges are a conviction.   Even as we at FOR, and members of other anti war, pro peace organizations are formulation our concerns about this unexpected event, and the upwelling of anti-Iran propaganda and saber rattling, it appears they have taken the situation to the next level.   With US troops on the verge of leaving Iraq and the wild celebrating over the NATO supported ‘victory’ over Muammar Qaddafi’s regime in Libya, this is cause for serious concern.   The pairing of these significant events in Iraq and Libya right now is, or should be, illuminating.  Who can look at Libya, recently the most prosperous and egalitarian state in Africa, now in ruins, and not see the reflection of Baghdad after Shock and Awe had accomplished their mission?  Who can look at the barbaric torture and murder of Muammar Qaddhafi, after a US Drone strike had delivered him neatly into the hands of the ‘rebels’, and not remember the equally barbaric execution of Saddam Hussein at the hands of his enemies?   And who can watch the gleeful pronouncements of victory by Nicholas Sarkozy, David Cameron and Hillary Clinton without remembering George Bush’s premature pronouncement of victory in Iraq in November of 2004, before the war had even warmed up?

But apparently those in the halls of power have already forgotten the dark days of the past.  Every day, for them, is a new day, unencumbered by the cold lessons of earlier ventures.   This is very bad news for Iran.  And it’s bad news for us as well.   As people begin taking to the streets to demand social justice and economic equity in this country, an occupational vacuum ready to close with a Bang! in Iraq, Pakistan and India ready to kiss an make up to join China and Russia’s circle of trade and security, and a whirring maelstrom reminiscent of the Night on Bald Mountain evolving from the Arab Spring, a new (old) boogie man is being blown up like the giant Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters with a Whooooosh! to come stomping through town, boom boom boom . . . .   Call out the National Guard!   Pay attention!

So, in that light, we can read today’s headline “Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil“.  Read the rest of this entry »

The US is winding out over the Palestinian initiative to, one way or the other, join the United Nations.   Since the US has insisted that they will veto the Palestinian attempt to join the UN as a full member, thereby attaining status as a ‘nation’, the Palestinians have also requested to join other groups under the UN umbrella, including UNESCO.   According to NPR this morning, the US is now threatening to stop paying their dues to this organization.  The US has also said that they will cancel any financial aid destined for Palestine.  If they weren’t so sad, these pathetic efforts to block the pittance currently delegated to the beleaguered Palestinian people, and to withdraw support from United Nations working bodies, would engender a smirk.

All US financial aid has been withdrawn from Gaza since a US initiative to unseat the popular elected Hamas government in Palestine failed.   I believe they have already withdrawn the pitiful charity given to the West Bank, a tiny fraction of the 3 billion given to the wealthy state off Israel yearly, because they refused to withdraw their bid for UN membership.   Of course, Palestine has yet to receive recognition as a state.   And, Israel spends more money suffocating the people of Palestine than feeding them.  Now, if UNESCO accepts Palestine as a member state, then the US will stop paying their dues.   Since, as was pointed out on NPR, we quit paying for 20 years in the past, and somehow they got by, I think they’ll do without us now.

Like I say, it’s pretty much laughable.  But the NPR report did not stop there.  Some are concerned, they say, that if we don’t pay our dues, we will not obtain the services of these organizations.   You might say, we won’t control them any more.    What if, they ask, the Palestinians are allowed to join the IAEA?       How sad for the world.   If we bite off our nose to spite our face, we might just return control of world organizations to . . . well . . . the world.

Project SALAM has been tracking instances of FBI stings against innocent Muslims that have put more than a hundred men in prison for crimes they did not commit.  In many cases, the men did nothing at all except talk to an FBI agent provocateur, and in a few cases, they actually attempted to carry out the plot defined for them by the provocateur using resources supplied by the provocateur.    In no case did the convicted parties come up with the idea for the crime they are accused of on their own.   In most cases they were poor, uneducated individuals who agreed to the agent’s plan for a price.   In some cases, such as that of Yassin Aref of Albany, the individual was targeted for obscure reasons, and the sting  merely created an appearance of complicity in the appearance of a crime.  But, despite the fact that there was no crime, and Yassin was unaware of even the fabricated crime he was being targeted with, he is serving a 15 year sentence.

These unfortunate men are serving their sentences in Federal Communication Management Facilities (CMUs), which means they are in solitary for the duration.    Yassin, whose stated crime was that he happened to be in the room while the agent discussed an illegal weapons sale with another man, had been targeted because someone wrote his name in a list in Northern Iraq, where he lived before coming to the US as a refugee.    Because he  was the named client in a Project SALAM suit claiming the CMUs violate the civil rights of those incarcerated there,  he was released into the general prison population about a year ago in a bid by the state to undermine the case.   However he remains in a federal facility half way across the country from his wife and 4 young children.   The rest remain incarcerated in CMUs, labeled as terrorists until a broader case can be assembled.

Even after following several of these internal cases of FBI sting operations where crimes were manufactured and criminals targeted or drafted for reasons to convince the public that the War On Terror has substance, I must say I was shocked by the case of David Coleman Headley, which clearly indicates US involvement in the infamous Mumbai attacks. Read the rest of this entry »