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CounterPunch
August
29, 2002
Bush's Bizarro
World
by Wayne Madsen
Superman comic book fans will fondly recall the
topsy-turvy Bizarro world, a planet shaped like a cube where
everything happened backwards and nothing made any sense. Welcome
now to the Bush world, where the revered Dalai Lama of Tibet
may now be branded by the United States as a "fellow traveler"
of terrorists or, worse yet, an "enemy combatant."
On August 27, Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage, a shadowy ex-Special Forces officer who has
been linked to everything from heroin smuggling in Burma's Golden
Triangle to smuggling weapons to the Iranian regime of Ayatollah
Khomeini, met with senior Chinese officials in Beijing. According
to Reuters, Armitage, representing the world's second largest
totalitarian regime, told the leadership of the world's largest
one that the State Department had added a new group to its list
of foreign terrorist organizations: the movement seeking independence
for western China's Sinkiang region, an area that Chinese Uighur
(pronounced "wee-ger") Muslims regard as East Turkestan
or Uighurstan.
The only problem with this designation,
obviously designed to please the Chinese regime prior to the
upcoming October summit in Washington between Chinese Vice President
Hu Jintao and President Bush, is that the new "terrorist
group" is a member of the same non-government organization
as the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile, the Unrepresented
Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), officially recognized
by the United Nations as an international human rights organization.
UNPO has its headquarters on Eisenhowerlaan (named for  a
notorious fifties "pinko" U.S. President) in The Hague
and regional headquarters in Washington, DC and Tartu, Estonia.
In fact, Erkin Alptekin, East Turkestan's exiled leader serves
as Secretary General of UNPO, and thus, represents the Dalai
Lama and other ethnic and tribal leaders of 52 members of the
organization. The Director General of UNPO, hardly a terrorist,
is Karl von Habsburg of the former Austro-Hungarian royal family.
Last September 12, Alptekin, America's newest "terrorist,"
stated in a letter to President Bush, "UNPO is greatly shocked
and saddened by the immense destruction, injury, and loss of
life which have occurred in New York, Washington DC and elsewhere
in the United States, as a result of deadly acts of terrorism."
But now Alptekin's movement has been tossed into the same category
as Al Qaeda and Hamas and its Tibetan and Chechen allies now
risk similar treatment at the hands of a U.S. administration
that could be legitimately ruled by any psychiatrist as clinically
insane.
East Turkestan is represented internationally
by a number of organizations, now being linked by Armitage to
terrorism. They include the Eastern Turkestan National Congress,
based in Munich, Germany, and affiliated groups in Istanbul,
Turkey; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Almaty, Kazakhstan; and New York.
With Armitage's announcement, all these Uighur groups face sanctions
and deportation.
Under the terms of the USA Patriot Act
and other U.S. criminal statutes, the State Department's arbitrary
designation of a group as a "foreign terrorist organization"
has severe ramifications. People who contribute to such organizations
and financial institutions who handle transactions for such organizations
can face criminal prosecution. Anyone who contributes money,
lodging, expert assistance, transportation or other "material
support" to such organizations can face long prison terms
and seizure of their assets. Resident aliens in the United States
can be deported, or worse, be declared enemy combatants and wind
up on a one-way flight to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In fact, this
writer once contributed money to UNPO.
Last October, UNPO foresaw moves against
it like the one announced by Armitage in Beijing. It stated in
a press release: "UNPO is committed towards promoting the
legitimate aspirations of its Members through non-violent programs
and solutions. However, we strongly believe that renewed restrictive
and repressive measures, including the use of force against people
striving to preserve their distinct identity and protect their
right to self-determination, will, and have served no other purpose
than endangering fundamental freedoms, destabilizing society,
and perpetuating violence . . . UNPO furthermore strongly condemns
any such action being deliberately disguised under the pretext
of the need for legitimate measures against terrorist groups.
There are many notable examples where these same governments
in the past, unequivocally supported so- called freedom fighters
striving for self-determination, while they are now practicing
double standards against Chechens, Uighurs, Tibetans, and other
UNPO Members seeking the same freedoms."
As has already been seen with the illegal
detentions of foreigners and U.S. citizens by the Ashcroft Justice
Department and the seizure of files and assets from various organizations
and associations, it does not take much for the feds to train
their sights on any organization over which they get gas pains
and nervous tics, regardless of any hard evidence. In Bush's
binary Bizarro world of "If you're not with me, you're against
me," just the mere appearance of disloyalty or opposition
to the grand scheme of his administration's corporate puppet
masters will earn someone or some group a penetrating spotlight
by dozens of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
UNPO's web site states: "UNPO offers
an international forum for occupied nations, indigenous peoples,
minorities, and even oppressed majorities who currently struggle
to regain their lost countries, preserve their cultural identities,
protect their basic human and economic rights and safeguard the
natural environment."
Considering the fact that Bush boycotted
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,
it appears that the "protection of basic human and economic
rights" and safeguarding "the natural environment"
is what has put a bee in the bonnet of people like Armitage and
other corporate shills in the administration. Before his job
at State, Armitage headed the <U.S.-Azerbaijan> Chamber
of Commerce. His raison d'etre was and remains - oil, the mainstay
of Azerbaijan's economy. Many of UNPO's members are at the front
lines of fighting exploitative multinational companies over land
and water rights. And this is what places them in danger of being
branded "terrorists." Just a brief overview of UNPO
membership illustrates the battle lines: Muslims in Aceh province
in northwest Sumatra are battling Indonesian army forces fronting
for Exxon Mobil, which has extensive installations in the province.
The United States is considering resuming military aid to Indonesia
to put down that rebellion and another involving UNPO member
West Papua, an illegally annexed province fighting Indonesia
and the U.S. mining company Freeport McMoran for control of its
copper and other natural resources. UNPO member Cabinda, an Angolan
enclave fighting for independence against Angola, is now being
attacked by U.S. mercenaries in the pay of oil companies like
Chevron, on whose board Condoleezza Rice once sat.
Even native Americans are no longer safe
from renewed Federal subjugation. One of the members of UNPO
is the Sioux Lakota Nation, the scene of past bloody battles
between encroaching Federal troops and FBI agent and the Sioux.
With a mere stroke of a pen, the State Department can label the
Lakota Sioux or native Hawaiians as linked to "terrorists"
in East Turkestan, Chechnya, or Burma (Myanmar) - and they can
have their assets frozen and their leadership tossed into jails
or large capacity "detention centers" now being advanced
by two Bush appointees on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.
Bush's war against minorities and downtrodden
people everywhere is a true act of evil. He has become what he
blathers on and on about when referring to al Qaeda and Sadaam
Hussein . It can only be hoped that Secretary of State Colin
Powell will rein in his underlings and caution them against future
excesses. If he is unable or unwilling to do so, he owes it to
his nation and its Constitution to resign from his office.
Wayne Madsen
is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist.
He wrote the introduction to Forbidden
Truth.
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
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to Subscribers:
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Groups Target Blacks Brave Enough to Talk About Justice in the
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August 29,
2002
Chris Floyd
The Secret
Sharers:
The CIA and the Murder of Frank Olson
August 28,
2002
William Ring
War on Iraq:
The Brightest Scenario
August 27,
2002
Sam Bahour
The Violence
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Wenonah Hauter
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Wanted:
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