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Today's
Stories
July
8, 2004
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
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Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
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as Model Apostate
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Israel's
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CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
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Prison Bitch
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True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
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The
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Impeach
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Click
Here for More Stories.
|
July
8, 2004
The
Venezuelan Referendum
Beware
Jimmy Carter!
By
JAMES PETRAS
On August 14, 2004, Venezuelan voters
will decide on a referendum, which has the utmost world historic
and strategic significance. What is at stake is nothing less
than the future of the energy world, the relations between the
US and Latin America (particularly Cuba), and the political and
socio-economic fate of millions of Venezuela's urban and rural
poor. If Chavez is defeated and if the Right takes power, it
will privatize the state petroleum and gas company, selling it
to US multinationals, withdraw from OPEC, raise its production
and exports to the US, thus lowering Venezuelan revenues by half
or more. Internally the popular health programs in the urban
"ranchos" will end along with the literary campaign
and public housing for the poor. The agrarian reform will be
reversed and about 500,000 land reform recipients (100,000 families)
will be turned off the land. This will be accomplished through
extensive and intensive state bloodletting, jailing and extrajudicial
assassination, and intense repression of pro-Chavez neighborhoods,
trade unions and social movements. The apparently "democratic"
referendum will have profoundly authoritarian, colonial and socially
regressive results if the opposition wins.
Regionally, an anti-Chavez
outcome will tighten the grip of US and Europe on Latin America's
oil resources; the denationalization of the petroleum industry
in the post-Chavez period will follow in the footsteps of Lula's
privatization of Petrobras in Brazil, Gutierrez' privatization
in Ecuador and the continuity of private foreign ownership in
Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. Control of Venezuela's oil will
heighten US control over world oil, decrease its dependence on
the Mid East, especially with high intensity conflict in Iraq
now, Saudi Arabia and Iran in the future. Equally important
the US will eliminate the strongest opponent of ALCA--the free
trade treaty--and pave the way for direct US control over the
rules and regulations for trade and investment in the hemisphere.
Strategically the US takeover of Venezuelan oil will have grave
consequences on the Cuban economy as Washington will abruptly
end exports and its client regime will likely break relations.
Direct colonial control over Iraq and Venezuela, two of the
top suppliers of oil will increase US global power over its competitors,
while serving as an "object lesson" to potential opposition
regimes.
The "referendum"
in Venezuela emerges as a major clash between the US and OPEC,
US imperialism and Latin American nationalists, neo-liberalism
and social nationalism, between US-backed authoritarian ruling
elites and endogenous socially conscious urban workers, unemployed,
small business people, landless rural workers and small peasants.
These historical confrontations find their specific focus in
the referendum. The events leading up to the referendum speak
eloquently of the crass US intervention, the violent tactics
of the elites, the rule or ruin strategy of the opposition, the
unbridled totalitarian propaganda of the privately owned mass
media. The opposition has backed a violent military coup (which
was defeated); it organized a bosses' lockout that almost destroyed
the economy (which ended in defeat); it organized a contingent
of over 130 Colombian military and paramilitary forces with the
aid of active Venezuelan officers to sow violence--that was aborted
by Venezuelan intelligence. Equally ominous, in the campaign
to secure signatures for the referendum, fraudulent identity
cards were massively produced and distributed, tens of thousands
of deceased, incapacitated and coerced had their signatures forged
and thousands of signatures were written by a single hand. Opposition
corruption and fraud was rife but the official international
observers urged the Chavez government to accept them and proceed
to the referendum. More ominously among the key voices that
made their presence felt were the ubiquitous Jimmy Carter and
Jose Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch.
The Unknown
History of James Carter
The two faces of imperial power
include the iron fist military intervention and the "soft
sell" of electoral frauds, intimidating diplomacy and democratic
blackmail. Jimmy Carter is "the quiet American" of
Graham Greene fame, who legitimates voter fraud, blesses corrupt
elections, certifies murderous rulers, encourages elections,
in which the opposition is funded by the US state and semi-public
foundations, and the incumbent progressive regime suffers repeated
violent disruption of the economy.
Behind the simple and humane
façade, Carter has a strategy to reverse progressive
regimes and undermine insurgent democrats. Carter and his "team"
from his Center probe and locate weaknesses among insecure democrats,
particularly those under threat by US-backed opponents and thus
vulnerable to Carter's appeals to be "pragmatic" and
"realistic"--meaning his barely disguised arguments
to accept fraudulent electoral results and gross US electoral
intervention. Carter is a quiet master in mixing democratic
rhetoric with manipulation of susceptible democrats who think
he shares their democratic politics. The international mass
media feature his self-promoted overseas trips to conflictual
countries and above all his phony "human rights" record.
The mass media provide Carter with the appearance of democratic
credentials.
In fact, his frequent political
interventions have been dedicated to sustaining dictators, legitimizing
fraudulent elections and pressuring popular democratic candidates
to capitulate before US-backed opponents. Carter has deliberately
and systematically worked over the past quarter of a century
to undermine progressive regimes and candidates and promote their
pro-imperialist opponents.
Today in Venezuela, faced with
a referendum of dubious validity, backed by the most rancid reactionaries,
Carter once again poses as a "neutral monitor" while
working with the anti-Chavez opposition to first legitimate the
referendum then to provide opportunities for its favorable outcome.
Carter has said absolutely nothing about strenuous US funding
of the opposition--a blatant violation of any democratic, electoral
process -- activities which would be felonious in his own country,
the USA. He calls for "fair reporting" by the hysterically
anti-Chavez mass media, knowing full well that, with a wink of
his eye, they have free rein to provide exclusively favorable
coverage of the opposition and uniformly negative disinformation
about Chavez. In exchange Carter secured from Chavez a promise
to avoid compulsory national chain broadcasts. Carter refuses
to recognize that the electoral playing field is not equal, yet
under the guise of "free press" he defends the right
of the media oligarchs to voice venomous lies, denying the electorate
the right to hear both sides. Carter refuses to recognize the
intimidating effects of US military maneuvers in the Caribbean,
the belligerent statements of undersecretary of state of Latin
American Affairs Noriega against Chavez and the hyperactivity
of the US Ambassador Shapiro in support of the anti-Chavez forces.
Above all Carter ignores the plots, fraudulent practices and
paramilitary activities leading up to and beyond the referendum.
Focusing on enforcing the Government's compliance with electoral
procedures and ignoring the highly prejudicial context of the
election, Carter is fulfilling his role of a "set-up man"
for either an electoral victory of the opposition or in the event
of a defeat, for a post-election pretext for violent coup. Carter's
history provides an extremely useful context for substantiating
these observations and affirmation.
Carter Certifies
a Stolen Election: Dominican Republic 1990
In 1993, I spent several hours
interviewing Juan Bosch, the Dominican Republic's most notable
democratic political leader. He told me that in the aftermath
of the presidential elections of 1990, which he legally won,
his opponent, the rightist, pro-US Juan Balaguer, engaged in
massive theft, witnessed by poll watchers. Jimmy Carter headed
the mission "monitoring" the election. Bosch presented
Carter with a wealth of documents and testimony, witnesses and
photos of Balaguer supporters dumping ballots in the river.
Carter acknowledged the corruption and fraud, but urged Bosch
to accept the results "to avoid a civil war". Bosch
accused Carter of covering up to gain a US client. He led a
march of 500,000 in protest. Carter certified Balaguer as the
product of a "free election" and left. Balaguer proceeded
to repress, pillage and privatize basic services.
Haiti I:
Carter the Smiling Blackmailer
In 1990, Bertrand Aristide,
a very popular former priest was leading in the polls with over
70% against a US-backed former World Bank functionary, Marc Bazin
with barely 15% of popular support. Jimmy Carter, the self-styled
neutral electoral monitor, set up a meeting with Aristide in
which he demanded that Aristide withdraw from the elections in
favor of the unpopular US candidate in order to avoid a "bloodbath".
Carter did everything in his power to frighten Aristide and
deny the populace its right to choose its president. Carter
must have known in advance from his contacts with President Bush
(Senior) that Washington was intent on preventing Haiti from
taking an independent road. Eight months after Aristide's accession
to the Presidency, a coup, backed by the US took place. Aristide
was ousted and replaced and Carter's preferred candidate, Marc
Bazin, was appointed Prime Minister, backed by a paramilitary
terrorist group called FRAPH that instituted a "bloodbath"
killing more than 4,000 Haitians. Carter and Bush, the quiet
diplomat and the President with the iron fist worked in tandem,
when the first failed, the latter stepped in.
Haiti II:
General Cedras--Sunday School Teacher--1991-94
With Aristide out of the way,
the US-backed regime proceeded to massacre thousands of Haitian
supporters of the former elected President. The key member of
the governing junta was General Cedras. With thousands of Haitians
fleeing his brutal regime and heading for Florida, Jimmyb Carter
spoke in defense of the bloody General Cedras, "I believe
and trust in General Cedras." Later Carter gushed, "I
believe he would be a worthy Sunday school teacher." Carter
later certified the respectability of the disreputable dictator
on his way to exile--after emptying the treasury. President
Clinton convoked a meeting with Aristide in Washington. A Congressional
aide privy to the meeting told me that Clinton's aide handed
Aristide a neo-liberal program and list of cabinet ministers
and told him his return to Haiti was contingent on accepting
Washington's dictates. After many hours of psychological pressure,
threats and arguments, Aristide capitulated. Clinton allowed
him to return. Carter welcomed the return of "democracy"
-US style.
Ten years later when Aristide
refused to comply with threats from the US to privatize public
utilities and break relations with Cuba (which was providing
hundreds of doctors and nurses for Haiti's public health system),
the US sponsored a paramilitary attack, followed by a US invasion.
Aristide, the elected President, was kidnapped by US forces
and flown--virtually blindfolded--to the Central African Republic.
Carter did not protest the gross US intervention but questioned
Aristide's election. Carter's criticism of Aristide (at a time
when Aristide was a prisoner in the Central African Republic)
provided a fig leaf of legitimacy for the US invasion, kidnapping,
occupation and establishment of a murderous puppet regime. The
US intervention in Haiti was seen in Washington as a "dress
rehearsal" for an invasion of Venezuela.
Nicaragua
1979: Part I--Carter and Somoza
In June 1978, President Jimmy
Carter sent a private letter to the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio
Somoza lauding Somoza for the "human rights initiatives"
while he criticized Somoza publicly. Carter had made "human
rights" a centerpiece of his interventionist propaganda
( Morris Morley, Washington, Somoza and the Sandinistas,
1994, pp 115-116). This two-faced policy occurred during one
of the bloodiest periods of Somoza's rule when he was bombing
cities sympathetic to the revolution. Carter's rhetorical declaration
of concern for human rights was for public consumption, his private
assurances to Somoza encouraged the dictator to continue his
scorched earth policy.
Nicaragua
May 1979 : Part II--Carter Proposes Intervention
In June 1993 the Foreign Minister
under the late Panamanian President Torrejos told me of President
Carter's briefest regional meeting. It took place less in May
1979 less than two months before Somoza was overthrown. Carter
convened a meeting of foreign ministers of several Latin American
countries who were opposed to Somoza's dictatorship. President
Carter entered and immediately tabled a proposal to form an "Inter-American
Peace Force", a military force of US and Latin American
troops to invade Nicaragua to "end the conflict" and
support a diverse coalition. The purpose, according to the former
Panamanian minister present, was to prevent a Sandinista victory,
preserving Somoza's National Guard and replace Somoza with a
pro-US conservative civilian junta. Carter's proposal was rejected
unanimously as unwarranted US intervention. Carter in a pique
ended the meeting abruptly. Carter's attempt to throttle a popular
revolution to preserve the Somocista state and US dominance clearly
belied his pretensions of being a "human rights" President.
His legacy of using "Human Rights" to project imperial
military power became standard operating procedure for Reagon,
Clinton and both Bush presidencies.
Afghanistan:
Carter Finances the Invasion of Islamic Terrorists
In the late 1970's Afghanistan
was ruled by a nationalist secular regime allied with the Soviet
Union. The regime promoted gender equality, free universal education
for women and men, agrarian reform including the redistribution
of feudal estates to poor peasants, the separation of religion
and the state and adopted an independent foreign policy with
a Soviet tilt. Beginning at least as early as 1979, the US,
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia orchestrated a massive international
recruiting campaign of Islamic fundamentalist to engage in a
"Jihad" against the "atheistic communist regime."
Tens of thousands were recruited, armed by the US, financed
by Saudis Arabia and trained by the CIA and Pakistani Intelligence.
Pakistan opened its frontiers to the flood of armed invaders.
Internally the displaced Mullahs, horrified by the equality
and education of women, not to speak of the expropriation of
their huge land holdings, joined the Jihad en masse.
The Carter Presidency (and
not Reagan) was responsible for the organization, financing,
training of the Islamic uprising and the terror campaign which
followed. Zbig Brzesinski later wrote of the US--Afghanistan
campaign as one of the high points in US Cold War diplomacy--it
provoked Soviet intervention on behalf of the secular Afghan
ally. Even when confronted with the consequences of the total
devastation of Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban and Al Queda
and 9/11, Carter's former National Security Adviser, Brzesinski
replied that these were marginal costs in comparison with a war
which successfully hastened the fall of the Soviet Union. President
Carter's intervention in Afghanistan initiated the Second Cold
War, which was pursued with even greater intensity by Reagan.
Carter backed a series of surrogate wars in Angola, Mozambique,
Central American, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Carter was clearly
an advocate and practitioner of the worst kind of imperial intervention
and a master of public relations: he was an early practitioner
of "Humanitarian Imperialism"--humane in rhetoric and
brutally imperialist in practice.
The Carter
Factor: Venezuela 2002-2004
Nowhere and at no time does
Jimmy Carter, the kindly-appearing human rights rhetorician,
pose a more dangerous threat to democratic freedoms and national
independence than he does today in Venezuela. With the ardent
backing of the violence-prone opposition, Carter has frequently
intervened in Venezuelan politics, presenting himself as a neutral
mediator. At every step of the way Carter has moved to legitimate
an opposition engaged in coups, uprisings, paramilitary terrorists
and bosses lockouts devastating the economy. Carter convinced
President Chavez to "reconcile" with the elite leaders
and supporters of a violent coup which briefly overthrew his
elected government. He continually pressured the elected President
to negotiate and "share power" with an opposition even
after he had won six national elections. Carter refused to recognize
Chavez' electoral victories and constitutional mandates--instead
he supported the opposition's demand for new unscheduled elections
and then promoted the "referendum". Carter endorsed
the referendum results pronounced by the opposition--even though
there were gross electoral violations. He then exercised pressure
on the National Electoral Council to accelerate its examination
of votes--urging them to get on with the referendum. Carter
never acknowledged hundreds of thousands of instances of voter
fraud (as he refused to do in the case of Juan Bosch's stolen
victory earlier) and fraudulent identity cards. Carter was acting
in Venezuela as the "Quiet American"--one espousing
high ideals while engaged in dirty tricks. The historical record
is abundantly clear--Carter cannot be trusted to act as a "neutral
observer". He has been and is today a partisan of US imperial
interests and is not merely an "observer" but an active,
insidious partner of US clients. He continues to defend and
promote any political opposition or regime, any ruler or "coordinator"
which will defeat popular movements and progressive governments.
Carter is not a democrat! He
is a lifelong partisan of the US Empire. He is especially dangerous
as the Venezuela referendum approaches. The US is illegally
providing millions of dollars to the anti-Chavez opposition via
the National Endowment for Democracy and other "foundations".
And the Carter Institute will be there to legitimate fraud and
deceit: to question the questions for the referendum and the
election if Chavez wins. Carter is especially likely to take
advantage of some opportunist politicos who surround Chavez and
are prone to make concessions to secure "democratic legitimacy"
from the presence of this envoy of Empire. Carter fits into
the larger strategy of US-backed coups and lockouts, paramilitary
violence and support of Colombia's military threat.
No one in the Chavez regime
intent on an honest referendum can permit this pious hypocrite
to play any role in Venezuela.
An Afternote:
Other Human Rights Mercenaries
The US imperial state is mobilizing
all of its organizational resources to defeat Chavez. In addition
to Carter, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the National Endowment for
Democracy and a small army of NGOs (local and international),
are active on behalf of the US-orchestrated anti-Chavez campaign.
"Human Rights" Director Vivanco is among the most
blatant early interveners: Shortly after President Chavez concurred
with the National Electoral Council decision to convoke the referendum,
Vivanco announced a "report" in which he declared that
Venezuela "was suffering a constitutional crisis that could
affect its already fragile institutions". He accused the
Chavez government of "purging and taking over the judiciary".
He called for the "intervention of the US-dominated Organization
of American States".
To force the Chavez government
to conform to his declaration, Vivanco demanded that the World
Bank and IMF suspend aid directed at "modernizing"
the judicial system. Over the past 3 years, HRW has followed
the State Department's lead in attacking Chavez democratic credentials--overlooking
his participation (and victory) in six free electoral contests
and his generous acceptance of the dubious signatures backing
the referendum. HRW totally ignored the vast voter fraud by
the opposition, echoing the line of the opposition. HRW leaders
are rife with former US officials including its recent recruitment
of Marc Garlasco, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official,
as a senior military analyst.
HRW played a major role in
demonizing Yugoslavia's President Milosovic, supported the US
invasion of the Balkans and was silent over US war crimes, including
the bombing of civilian targets, the KLA's assassination of over
2,000 Serb civilians and the ethnic purge of 200,000 non-Albanians
from Kosovo. During the peace negotiations between President
Pastrana and the FARC, which the US opposed and was keen on disrupting,
Mr. Vivanco and HRW issued a "report" claiming that
the FARC was violating all the terms of the peace negotiations--something
no other human rights group on the ground in Colombia claimed--in
order to pressure Pastrana to break negotiations and resume the
military campaign, which he subsequently did. HRW, like the
Carter Center, has already intervened on the side of the authoritarian
US-backed opposition. It has smeared the independence of the
courts to pressure it to conform to the opposition, it has rejected
the democratic deliberations of the Venezuelan Congress and its
vote on judicial reform, it has openly declared the government
as illegitimate and it has already called for a US-backed intervention
via the OAS.
Watch out for the humanitarian
interventionists! Their presence is extremely dangerous for
the integrity of the electorate and Venezuelan independence.
James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at
Binghamton University, New York, owns a 50 year membership in
the class struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless
in brazil and argentina and is co-author of Globalization
Unmasked (Zed). He can be reached at: jpetras@binghamton.edu
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