US Support for Emerging Dictatorship in Iraq May Have ‘Catastrophic’ Effects

US Support for Emerging Dictatorship in Iraq May Have ‘Catastrophic’ Effects

by John Glaser

April 10, 2012 Overall violence in Iraq has gone down since the last U.S. troops finally withdrew in December, but Washington’s avid support for the emerging dictator in Baghdad has troubling implications for Iraqis. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has demonstrated an increasingly authoritarian rule as he consolidates power over the country’s institutions and security forces. He has marginalized his political opponents through force and coercion, which has stoked sectarian tensions and even threatened a break-up of the nation. And Obama is supporting all of it. Maliki, a Shiite, ordered the arrest of his Sunni Vice President Hashemi just as the last U.S. troops left Iraq. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq expressed approval in January of this quest to detain Iraq’s vice president on trumped up terrorism charges, despite a virtual consensus that it was a blatant attempt to eliminate a political rival. Maliki also betrayed an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize the Sunnis and turn the military into a sectarian force and ended up arresting hundreds of former Baath Party members on charges that they were involved in a coup plot. Because of the turmoil, Sunni and Kurdish blocs in the Iraqi parliament committed themselves to a boycott, and later threatened secession. Alaa Mekki, a senior lawmaker with the mostly Sunni Iraqiya bloc, said of the U.S., "Their goal of a united, democratic Iraq is now under threat because of what we describe as the dictatorship attitude." Angered Kurds and Sunnis say their disenfranchisement has never been greater. According to Ayad Allawi, the secular Shi’ite leader of the opposition Iraqiya bloc in parliament, Maliki’s security forces have detained and brutally tortured more than 1,000 political opponents in secret prisons and denied them access to legal counsel. "Information has reached us that is beyond doubt regarding the brutal torture of our detainees in an attempt to extract false confessions from them, confessions referring to the general secretary himself," Allawi wrote President Jalal Talabani. "They are being made to confess that he has ordered armed demonstrators onto the streets to carry out violence." Allawi co-authored article in the New York Times in December, along with fellow Iraqiya members Osama al-Nujaifi (Iraq’s parliament speaker) and Finance Minister Rafe al-Essawi, warning that Maliki is taking the nation down the path of "sectarian autocracy." In September, Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a statement accusing Maliki of "building a new dictatorship." That same month, Iraq’s head of the Integrity Commission Raheem Uqaili resigned and wrote an open letter accusing the Maliki regime of unutterable corruption and power grabs. Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq warned in a CNN interview that Maliki is "going towards dictatorship." The Obama administration has kept largely quiet about Maliki’s behavior, aside from about $2 billion in annual aid and tens of billions in military assistance. While this keeps the halls of power in Washington and the oil corporations happy, even the best case scenarios are damning, for Iraqi citizens as well as the geopolitics of the region. "Maliki is heading towards an incredibly destructive dictatorship, and it looks to me as though the Obama administration is waving him across the finishing line," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at the London School of Economics. "Meanwhile, the most likely outcomes, which are either dictatorship or civil war, would be catastrophic because Iraq sits between Iran and Syria."

Israelis use Muslim cemetery as a car park

Israelis use Muslim cemetery as a car park

Middle East Monitor

April 10, 2012 The old Muslim cemetery in Ashkelon has been turned into a car park by the Israeli municipality. Reports in the Hebrew media have revealed that the facility provides parking spaces for a new commercial market built nearby. One resident told Maariv newspaper that the municipality had been informed about this abuse of the cemetery, and a complaint has been filed, "but nothing has been done about it". Member of Parliament Ahmed Tibi condemned the use of the cemetery as a car park. The Knesset member said, "If the Jewish cemeteries in France, for example, were used as car parks, Israel would have shaken the world. What is happening now in Al-Magdal Cemetery is a great offence to Muslim sensibilities." He urged the municipality to put an end to shoppers parking in the cemetery.

How BBC views Gaza through a Zionist looking glass

How BBC views Gaza through a Zionist looking glass

Amena Saleem

April 11, 2012 Watching, reading or listening to a BBC report on Israel’s occupation of Palestine is like stepping through the Zionist looking-glass and witnessing not the reality of the situation, but Israel’s totally distorted version of it. In this inverted world, presented to us by a broadcaster with a huge global reach, we were recently told that the besieged people of Gaza have become accustomed to the relentless violence and deprivation of Israel’s occupation and siege, while the residents of southern Israel continue to feel anxiety and dread when crude rockets are fired into their neighborhood. These extraordinary claims are made in two juxtaposed articles published on one page recently on BBC Online ("Gaza-Israel clashes: The view from each side," 13 March 2012). They perfectly encapsulate the BBC’s general attitude towards reporting on the occupation — reporting which, with sad regularity, lacks truth, honesty and integrity. Published just after Israel had bombed Gaza continuously for four days, killing 27 Palestinians including children as young as seven, the headline for the article about Gaza reads, "Gazans 'inured’ to conflict." This incredible opinion — that the people of Gaza have become used to the mass killings visited on them by Israeli airstrikes, to the destruction of their homes by F16s, to the suffering caused by near-total blockade, to the restrictions on their freedom and movement, to the daily terror of drones flying overhead — is that of the BBC’s correspondent in Gaza, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. No evidence An experienced journalist, Wingfield-Hayes provides no evidence for his article from official sources such as the United Nations or Palestine Trauma Centre, which produce factual reports on the high levels of mental health problems amongst the population. Nor does he interview any Palestinians in Gaza on whether they have become habituated to the Israeli bombs which fall on their homes and incinerate members of their families in order to back up his headline-making claim. Instead, the basis for his assertion is that, while Israeli warplanes fly overhead as he sits in a building in Gaza City, "down below on the streets the cars kept passing, the shops stayed open, pedestrians kept walking home with their groceries." And so, because people continue trying to survive amidst the destruction, the BBC presents them as being "inured" to the violence and injustice that is rained down on them on a daily basis. This public broadcaster, paid for by the UK taxpayer, denies the Palestinians even the luxury of sharing the same human feelings of terror, frustration and longing for freedom that everyone else on the planet is allowed to possess. Described as being "inured" to a situation no sentient human being could become used to, they are, essentially, deemed less than human. Making the siege invisible Wingfield-Hayes also renders invisible Israel’s five-year siege, with not even a brief description of the desperate situation currently facing Palestinians in Gaza, as supplies of fuel and cooking gas near exhaustion, electricity is available only six hours in every 24, hospitals cancel operations, schools and universities close, and families resort to candles for light and ancient clay ovens, lit with straw and wood, to cook food. Is this because reporting honestly on the siege and its effects might elicit sympathy, even understanding, for the Palestinians and clash with the image Israel wants the media to project of a terrorist population threatening its security? Was a desire to present Israel’s singular view of international law also the reason behind the article’s original claim that the occupation of Gaza had ended in 2005? A written complaint from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign directing the BBC’s Middle East editor to UN resolutions on the matter resulted in a paragraph being added to say that Israel still maintains control over Gaza’s borders and airspace. Astonishing and inept Nevertheless, Wingfield-Hayes’ extraordinary questioning of an unfortunate Palestinian in Gaza remains in the modified article. "What do you mean when you say you are struggling against the occupation?" he demands of a man who does not have the freedom to move beyond an area of land measuring 25 miles by 4 miles, whose every aspect of life, including whether he will be allowed enough food to keep his family alive, is controlled by Israel. "After all Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005," Wingfield-Hayes insists. This is quite astonishing and, taking into account Wingfield-Hayes’ failure to mention the siege which dominates this man’s life, journalistically inept. The subconscious message this article is sending out, by denying the desperate reality in Gaza in favor of groundless, unsupported theories put forward by the journalist, is that Palestinians in Gaza are ok, there’s nothing to worry about, you can look away. This is in stark contrast to the article which runs parallel to it, headlined "Israel’s Iron Dome hopes." In this piece, the BBC’s Kevin Connolly tells us how "normal life" in southern Israel is "severely disrupted" during periods of rocket fire. He provides us with emotive descriptions of the "anxiety" of the Israelis as they go through "grimly familiar rituals" on hearing "the mournful howling" of sirens and describes a young man running in fear for shelter. We learn about "that familiar sense of dread" experienced by the residents of southern Israel and their hopes that the Iron Dome missile shield will become an "instrument of deliverance" from Gaza’s rockets. These are clearly not people, Connolly is saying, who are inured to conflict. So why, according to the BBC, do they still feel dread and anxiety and not the Palestinians? Are the Palestinians simply hardier, or are the F16s, Apache helicopters, armored tanks and drones deployed against them just not as frightening as the homemade rockets which terrify the Israelis? Leaving Wonderland Connolly’s article focuses on the image of the Israeli state defending itself from the besieged, refugee population of Gaza. As with Wingfield-Hayes’ contribution to "the view from each side," there is absolutely no mention of the fact that Israel illegally occupies Gaza, has held it under tight siege for six years, committed a massacre of 1,400 people there during three weeks in 2008-09, shoots from remote-controlled watchtowers at Palestinian children collecting rubble and from gunboats at fishermen trying to catch fish to feed their impoverished families, and no mention at all that Israel violates international law every single day of the year in relation to Gaza and the Palestinians. Connolly talks about the levels of "military balance" between the Israelis (funded to the tune of $3 billion a year in military aid by the US) and the Palestinians (a people with no state and no army). Wingfield-Hayes implies, when he interviews a man whose house has been reduced to rubble by an airstrike, that the Palestinians have brought their collective punishment upon themselves by standing up to Israel and refusing to accept their occupation. As a BBC journalist who has been asked to step through the Zionist looking-glass, he does not of course tell his audience that, under the Geneva convention, collective punishment is illegal or that international law allows an occupied people to resist their occupation. To do this would mean leaving Wonderland and stepping back through the looking-glass and into reality. This is something that the BBC, with its twisted, fact-free reporting of the occupation loaded in favor of Israel, seems incapable of doing. After all, this is the same organization which has declared that "Palestine doesn’t exist" while simultaneously warning that to claim it isn’t free is a contentious issue. And with the BBC’s reach extending into every corner of the globe, this inability — or unwillingness — is something that should concern us all. Amena Saleem is active with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK and keeps a close eye on the media’s coverage of Palestine as part of her brief. She has twice driven on convoys to Gaza for PSC. More information on PSC is available at www.palestinecampaign.org.

Justice for Rachel Corrie Delayed

Justice for Rachel Corrie Delayed

by Stephen Lendman

April 11, 2012

Delay may end up denial. More on that below.

On March 16, 2003, an Israeli bulldozer driver murdered Rachel in cold blood.Trying to stop a Rafah refugee camp home demolition, eye witnesses said she climbed atop the giant Caterpillar tractor, spoke to the driver, climbed down, knelt 10 - 20 meters in front in clear view, and blocked its path with her body. With activists screaming for it to stop, the soldier-operator deliberately crushed her to death. To be sure, he ran over her twice.

Rachel's family wants justice. So should everyone. The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice (RCFPJ) supports it. Its mission and guiding principles state: The Foundation continues what Rachel began. It reflects "her vision, spirit, and creative energy...." It supports "build(ing) understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities." "The foundation encourages and supports grassroots efforts in pursuit of human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice, which we view as pre-requisites for world peace." Its guiding principles include: challenging injustice and resisting oppression; teaching justice and peacemaking skills; advancing "human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice for all....;" seeking creative ways to achieve these goals; and committing to people and places the way Rachel did, especially those most disadvantaged and repressed.

Rachel was 23 when murdered. She believed in nonviolent direct action. She supported oppressed Palestinians. It became her life's struggle. She gave it doing what's right. What greater sacrifice than that!

In her own words, she said: "I’m here for other children. I’m here because I care. I’m here because children everywhere are suffering and because forty thousand people die each day from hunger. I’m here because those people are mostly children. We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs. We have got to understand that they are us. We are them. My dream is to stop hunger by the year 2000. My dream is to give the poor a chance. My dream is to save the 40,000 people who die each day. My dream can and will come true if we all look into the future and see the light that shines there. If we ignore hunger, that light will go out. If we all help and work together, it will grow and burn free with the potential of tomorrow." Her dedication and humility came out in comments like "I can't be Picasso. I can't be Jesus. I can't save the planet single-handedly. I can wash dishes." From Occupied Palestine, he emailed often. Her comments showed dedication. They're inspirational for others. They reflect a spirit vital to be kept alive. The Foundation, Rachel's family, friends, and kindred spirits do it. What better life's mission than supporting peace and justice. Rachel died for it. It bears repeating. What greater sacrifice than that!

Rachel's Family Lawsuit

In 2005, representing Rachel's family, attorney Hussein abu Hussein sued the State of Israel. It bears full responsibility for her death. On March 10, 2010, oral testimonies began. Fifteen court hearings were held. Twenty-three witnesses testified. They included four International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists with Rachel when she died. They saw what happened close up. Over 2,000 court transcript papers were produced. US embassy officials attended each hearing. So did Rachel's family members, as well as numerous international legal and human rights organization observers. On July 11, 2011, proceedings concluded. Judge Oded Gershon scheduled dates for both sides to present written summations and closing arguments. He also set April 23, 2012 for his ruling. Multiple delays along the way postponed it. Rescheduling hasn't been set. The longer it's delayed, the more likely justice will be denied. Whatever the ruling, Rachel's lost life can't be restored. In her absence, her inspirational spirit motivates others to continue her important work. Helping others and pursuing justice defines it. The Rafah City/Rafeh refugee camp Rachel Corrie Clinic and Children's Center performs vital services in her name. The Rachel Corrie Memorial web site provides information about her and what everyone can do. The best way to honor her is follow her example. Support peace and justice issues. What's more important than those. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre

The Sabra and Shatila massacre

By Eva Bartlett

(March 28) April 11, 2012 Two days before Land Day and the GMJ, we visit Sabra and Shatila. An impoverished Beirut neighbourhood and Palestinian refugee camp in the same vicinity, Sabra and Shatila are known for the savage massacre of Palestinian refugees and poor Lebanese Shiites (internally displaced from southern Lebanon by the Israeli occupational brutalities) which killed anywhere from over 3000 children, men and women—the assassins killed out of the sight of media and covered their tracks with mass graves, so the precise numbers of martyred are not known.       From September 16 to 18, 1982, Phalangists, a Christian Lebanese militia aided, trained, and supported by the Zionist state and by, slaughtered victims locked into the camp area by surrounding Israeli occupation forces. "It was a killing spree," X, a Lebanese, tells me. He outlines the basics of the massacre and events leading up to it. After the withdrawal of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) resistance fighters from Lebanon, via an American-mediated agreement under which the Lebanese pledged to protect the camps, camp residents were no longer allowed weapons to defend themselves. The September massacre was allegedly an attack to avenge the killing of Bashir Gemeyel, but the Palestinians weren’t guilty of his assassination, and the Phalange and Zionist leaders knew this. "It was a part of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians," he says, pointing out the complicity of the Israeli occupying army in Lebanon. "They surrounded the area, closed off the exits, and lit flares during the night to aid the attacking Phalange assassins." Badil notes that an Israeli General "provided Lebanese Forces Intelligence with aerial photographs to arrange entry into the camps." An excerpt from American journalist Janet Lee Stevens, provides a glimpse into the horror of the slaughter: I saw dead women in their houses with their skirts up to their waists and their legs spread apart; dozens of young men shot after being lined up against an alley wall; children with their throats slit, a pregnant woman with her stomach chopped open, her eyes still wide open, her blackened face silently screaming in horror; countless babies and toddlers who had been stabbed or ripped apart and who had been thrown into garbage piles. In the makbara Shuhada Sabra wa Shatila (Sabra and Shatila martyr’s cemetery), a large sign attempts to honour the murdered, when nothing can ever do so. Although a cemetery, it is without gravestones, save a sole marble marker on which is written: the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, 1982.          The grass is tall and trees sway gently in the breeze of the football-sized area, and as I note this I am told that, in fact, children used the plot as a football field until recent years, not knowing that the Phalange had covered thousands of massacred bodies with earth in this plot, attempting to cover their atrocities. "But there were still many corpses in camp streets," X tells me and independent journalists’ accounts corroborate this. Sabra and Shatila are names I’ve heard over the past few years but, shamefully, knew little about other than that they were massacres. But with so many Israeli-instigated massacres, it is far too easy to lose track, to let them become numbers and statistics. They may be numbers, in the tens of thousands, but they are entire families, they are elderly, they are women raped before being slaughtered, they are unborn children savagely snuffed with the stab of a knife or the bombing of a building. I drift off on my own, away from the group which has come to march for Al Quds and which are also learning about or remembering these unforgettable massacres. Standing on this plot of bloodied land, the bodies of so many more victims of Zionist savagery, and trying to grasp the enormity of the 1982 massacre, I come to the signs—with their photos of the lifeless bodies of slaughtered children—commemorating still more massacres of Palestinians and Lebanese, from the Israeli occupation of much of Lebanon, to the Israeli assault on Lebanon in 2006. Qana 1986 and 2006, Marwaheen 2006, Chiah ("Sheyah") 2006… As I research later, the massacres are more and still more. During the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, 34 days of bombing from warplanes, war helicopters, UAVs, tanks and warships, over 1100 were killed. Throughout, the IOF committed massacres throughout Lebanon. Rweiss (southern Beirut), 'Aitaroun, Mansouri, Marja’youn, Dweir, Zebqine, …bombing of homes, cars, bridges on or near which were cars, and the UN post in Khiam prison, killing 4 UN observers. Qana, a village in the south—where it is believed Jesus Christ spent time—is known as the 'town of massacres’. The village suffered massacres in 1996 and 2006, the former killing 106 civilians and injuring 110 more. "It has a big cemetery, but not all of the martyred were buried there because many were blown to pieces," X says. "The IOF bombed indiscriminately, bombed anything that moved. People were afraid to flee their homes for safer areas." On April 18, 1996, Israeli occupation forces waged their sadistically-dubbed "Grapes of Wrath" attacks on Lebanon. Badil reports: Approximately 800 civilians were sheltering in a United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in the village of Qana, South Lebanon. They had assumed – incorrectly – that since international law strictly prohibits the targeting of civilian structures and UN facilities they would be safe under UNIFIL’s protection. Just after 2 PM on April 18, a barrage of proximity-fuse shells crashed directly into the pre-fabricated building. Minutes later 106 people lay dead, many burned and dismembered beyond recognition. "Israeli officials tried to deny the massacre, claimed it was an error. But they knew where the UN locations were," X says. "The UN had already confirmed their locations. There were only civilians in the compounds. A month after the massacre, reporters confirmed this:  UN officials had told Israel repeatedly that up to 9,000 civilians were taking refuge in their compounds. In that period, by the peacekeepers’ count, Israeli fire hit or came dangerously near U.N. installations or mobile units 242 times. and: The Lebanese refugee women and children and men lay in heaps, their hands or arms or legs missing, beheaded or disembowelled. There were well over a hundred of them. A baby lay without a head. The Israeli shells had scythed through them as they lay in the United Nations shelter, believing that they were safe under the world’s protection. In front of a burning building of the UN’s Fijian battalion headquarters, a girl held a corpse in her arms, the body of a grey- haired man whose eyes were staring at her, and she rocked the corpse back and forth in her arms, keening and weeping and crying the same words over and over: "My father, my father." A Fijian UN soldier stood amid a sea of bodies and, without saying a word, held aloft the body of a headless child. On 30 July 2006, the IOF bombed a 3 level home in Qana, claiming Hezbollah resistance were hiding in it, a claim proven false. The bombing massacred 27 civilians, among them16 children. Two weeks earlier, on July 15—in the first days of Israel’s war on Lebanon—a combination of an IOF warship strike and an IOF helicopter attack massacred 23 civilians (among them 14 children and 7 women, 2 of whom were pregnant) fleeing their village, Marwaheen, in southern Lebanon. In Chiah, Beirut, southern Lebanese were among the massacred on August 7, 2006, when the IOF bombed the multi-level building they’d taken sanctuary in—having fled the heavy bombing of the south. "Those families who escaped death in the south found it in Beirut," X tells me of the 39 martyred in the Chiah bombing. ********* We leave the martyrs’ cemetery and walk through the narrow lanes typical of a Palestinian refugee camp. The UN Reliefs Works Agency (UNRWA) reports on Shatila refugee camp that, "environmental health conditions in Shatila are extremely bad. Shelters are damp and overcrowded, and many have open drains. The sewerage system needs considerable expansion."        The truths of refugee camp hardship reveal themselves in the leaking pipes and puddles of water flooding alleyways and streets, in the tangles of electrical wires dangerously low overhead, in the shoddy cement-block houses too small for their families and too closely layered for privacy, and in the stench of sewage and garbage yet to be collected, services in the camp being far below sub-par. In these drab conditions families live and children play—making toys out of street findings, playing in the lanes. A beautiful elderly Palestinian woman allows me to photograph her, posing with her gracious smile and immense dignity. I speak with an elderly Palestinian refugee outside his shop. He is fluent in English and, with a charismatic smile, answers my questions about life in the camp. My name is Ismail. I was born in 1950 in Baalbec (Lebanon). Now I am working in my shop (a small grocery store). My family is from a small village about 2 km from Haifa. My familoy was expelled from there. They were farmers, we had only a small bit of land, 8.5 dunams, near the seashore. The situation in the camp is very bad. Too much garbage in the street. The water is very bad, we are using salt water as utility water. We get plenty of skin diseases. The electricity is not good. We can’t work outside. If anybody passes away, we don’t have any place to bury them now. We have to take him out of Beirut, because this is a rule of the Lebanese government nowadays. Things are getting worse. Before, the UN was giving service to all the refugee camps. Nowadays very few people can take benefit from the UN. Even if someone gets sick, he can’t go to the hospital. He will die. His words don’t convey the extent of the difficulty of refugee camp life, which I learn more of in later visits to Beirut and Trablus (Tripoli) camps. Since the original purpose of our visit to Lebanon is to participate in the Global March to Jerusalem, I ask if he’s been there. I haven’t been to Al Quds. I hope I’ll go there some day, to pray in Al Aqsa. (They—the Israelis) won’t let me go back to my native country.

Amira Hass explains why Israel’s U.S. model of ethnic cleansing failed

Amira Hass explains why Israel’s U.S. model of ethnic cleansing failed, and why ‘Jewish regime’ will ‘crumble’

Philip Weiss

April 11, 2012 It is very common these days to hear supporters of Israel seek to justify ethnic cleansing by saying that You did it-- you Americans. Amira Hass has a fabulous piece up at Haaretz that takes on this model head on. She exposes the Israeli desire to defeat the Palestinian people, as the U.S. defeated the Native Americans, and then only have to deal with the "remnant" (a reference to Eastern European Jewry after the Holocaust). And she explains why this is not possible, and why we are now in the endgame of "the Jewish regime" because Israel did not want a two-state solution. Read this amazing true line: "The question was, and is, how much more bloodshed, suffering and disasters will be needed until the Jewish regime of discrimination and separation, which we have created here over the past 64 years, crumbles." This is a frankly anti-Zionist piece, written by a child of Holocaust survivors. Amira Hass is thirsting for the DeKlerk to lead her society out of its racist dead-end. I cannot imagine it being published in the New York Times. A sad reflection on our discourse.   But happily, and to our relief, the Palestinians are one people (unlike the hundreds that were in America ) and the process of Jewish settlement did not wipe them out. We are in a different age and a different region. Thinking big makes us forget that, unlike the model we admire and seek to emulate, we are a minority in the region. And the region is evolving and demanding a change in the rules of the game that have been so convenient for the United States and Israel. The real question is not whether the solution is "two states" or "one state." History in any case does not recognize end points - every stage leads to another. Visions are also not lacking. The visions must develop and change during the struggle for equality and justice, otherwise they will become gulags. The question was, and is, how much more bloodshed, suffering and disasters will be needed until the Jewish regime of discrimination and separation, which we have created here over the past 64 years, crumbles. The Palestinians provided us, the Israelis, a ladder that would have saved us the kind of suffering and loss that we have caused them. A ladder that we could have climbed to a historic rung where we could have been accepted in the region as neighbors who also have roots in this place and rights - not only as aggressive invaders. But successive Israeli governments, with the backing of their voters, have knocked the ladder over. They knew only too well why they must thwart the two-state solution (in its original, pre-1967 borders format ). It would have led to different ways of living together and sharing the land. But the basic logic of these ways of life requires giving up Jewish hegemony and superiority.

Iraq snapshot - April 11, 2012

Iraq snapshot - April 11, 2012

The Common Ills

Wednesday, April 11, 2012.  Chaos and violence continues, Iraq's LGBT community gets some attention, Martin Kobler talks about Camp Ashraf, did two bodyguards of Tareq al-Hashemi die, and more.   As pointed out in yesterday's snapshot,  Omar Ali (Liberation) notes A.N.S.W.E.R.'s San Francisco chapter held a teach-in the afternoon of March 25th at the First Unitarian Chuch on Franklin.  The topic of the teach-in was the Iraq War.  Speakers included Dr. Jess Ghannam, Nazila Bargshady, Dr. Henry Clark, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Richard Becker and Gloria La Riva. Ali notes, "The teach-in was well attended by progressives from many different movements and communities.  The diversity of the attendees demonstrates the sense of unity of different strata of the working class of this country in opposition to the war against the Iraqi masses.   We included some of Iraq War veteran and March Forward co-founder Mike Prysner's speech in yesterday's snapshot.  A number of e-mails state that the video with Omar Ali streams visually but there's no audio. I didn't know that.  I was using my own notes of Mike's speech.  Since there are problems with the stream, we'll note some more of his speech (I didn't take notes during the other speeches)    Mike Prysner: Families would come to us whose children had been killed, whose children's limbs had been blown off, who came to us begging for some kind of monetary compensation because they were left with absolutely nothing. I saw literally thousands of detainees who did absolutely nothing except be a military age male who happened to live in a village that was picked at random to be raided one night and who was brought into detention facilities to be tortured and humiliated.  You know, for me personally, as I said earlier, I wanted to go to this war.  I believed very much in it.  I believed very much in the military and our country. But all of the lies and indoctrination that we were being fed couldn't match reality because I had other teachers beyond the president and the military commanders and those were the Iraqi people.  And there are several people who will always be burned in my memory, they're the ones who taught me the truth and taught me which side I was on.  It was men who were urinating themselves, pleading through sandbags on their heads in detention facilities.  It was a father who was shot through the neck and as he was dying saying over and over, "I just want to see my family, I just want to see my family."  And the number one person, the one that really did it for me was -- I have a little sister who's now 18 so she was about 8 at the time I deployed.  I got her name tattooed on my arm before I -- before I left. Her name's Rachel.  And we were ordered at this one point to kick these families out of their home for whatever reason.  And there was this 8-year-old girl who looked exactly like my sister and it was my job to drag her out of her house as she was crying, as her parents were crying, as her siblings were crying, arrest the males in her family, put them on a truck and send them to those detention facilities.  And I couldn't stop looking at her face because it was my sister's face.  And I realized that this girl was exactly like my sister, that man who was shot was exactly like my father and that these people were just like my family.  And so what happened was, I couldn't stop seeing that everything that we were doing to the Iraqi people, I was doing to my own family.  Because they are our family, they're our brothers and sisters.  And so this was the breaking point for myself and so many others.  And the daily violence, the daily abuse, the daily humiliation all by an unwanted foreign invader, led to a widespread popular uprising against the occupation.  And no rank-in-file soldier who has been to Iraq can say that they don't understand why the Iraqi people stood up and fought back. In fact, that's the main factor why the majority of US troops ended up opposing the war: Because it was clear that the resistance of the Iraqi people was justified. But the US government had a plan for the popular rebellion too.  They used the tactics of divide and conquer and shredded a once united country.  And in it's wake, they left a country completely destroyed. And it's difficult to overstate the level of suffering and destruction that the Iraqi people now deal with.  And anyone believing the lie that the war in Iraq was somehow out of care for the Iraq people, one just has to look to the wave of the war within the US military to see how true that is, to see how much this government cares about its own soldiers -- let alone Iraqis.  Today, in the wake of the Iraq War, there's an epidemic of suicides in the US military -- where, for the past three years more active-duty soldiers are killing themselves than are being killed in combat. This is a staggering, shocking number. Thousands already have been abandoned and left to die alone with the guilt and trauma of what they've been sent to do, hundreds of thousands of families thrown into chaos by loved ones they no longer recognize.  Suicide and suicide attempts are at such a staggering record breaking rate, they can only call it an emergency situation.  You can only call it a crisis that this government has refused to respond to in any meaningful way.  I've traveled to different bases that have high rates of suicides and the numbers are staggering.  Among veterans there's 950 suicide attempts a month.  But when you see these peoples' faces -- I mean, I met people who jumped out of their window in the middle of the night because they heard voices speaking in Arabic every time they turned the lights off. I've met people who can't eat because they can't hold their utensils because they shake so bad.  And these same people, when the go to the doctors in the army and say "I need help," they're told that they're fine and that they have to go on other deployments.  And they can go a million times a day to every doctor, every chaplain, every leader that they have in their chain of command and they'll be told the same thing. It will always be written into the history of this war that during this time the US government allowed a wave of preventable suicides through it's US military and did absolutely nothing to stop it but not only did nothing to stop it but actively tried to deny soldiers their access to treatment, to deny them compensation. This is what they're doing now as they try to save precious tax dollars -- you know the same people who spared no expense writing blank checks for new weapons systems.  And of course if you can witness the truly shocking, devestating effects of the war on US troops, one can only imagine the level of psychological trauma experienced by Iraq's entire population who didn't do just one tour or two tours but lived 20 years under constant bombing and nine years of brutal occupation.  None will bear the scars of the war deeper than the Iraqi people.   The Iraqi people have suffered and the suffering continues to this day.  In many ways, that's due to the fact that the US government refused to utilize trained people and instead put thugs in power to scare the people with the hopes that a scared people couldn't fight back against the empire.  The thugs get bored and consumed with their self-hatred so they lash out at others.  Sometimes it's women, sometimes it's Christians, sometimes it's the LGBT community, sometimes it's . . . Anyone who isn't in the thug class is at risk of targeting in Iraq.  Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project has released a video on being gay in Iraq which the Huffington Post has posted to their site.  There is no closed caption but here's a transcript of the video.     Ahmed's Story: Surviving Persecution Against LGBT in Iraq   War and sectarian violence in Iraq forced thousands to flee for their lives and seek refuge elsewhere.    These people are stranded, unable to return to Iraq without risking their lives.   Ahmed had to flee Iraq as after the war intolerance towards homosexuality increased.    Neighboring countries fail to provide adequate protection to the growing number of refugees in Ahmed's situation.   For the safety of Ahmed and his family, identities have been concealed.   Ahmed: I was studying medicine in Baghdad University but after the war everybody starts to express every hatred he has. I don't support Saddam [Hussein -- ruler the US overthrew with the Iraq War] and I don't like him but at least there was law somehow.  Sadly, my ex-boyfriend that I met four years ago and I was devoted to him for four years, I gave him my life, I gave him everything.  He was the first boyfriend for me. He lost his job and he started to ask me for money, okay? Immediately, I started to give him, I give him everything I have.  But then he started to ask for more and more.  I told him, "My love, I cannot any more because my parents are suspecting.  You know, I may lose my parents.  He said, "I don't care about your parents." I had a lot of private pictures between me and him.  He said, "You remember the photos we had?"  I said, "Yes."  He said, "Imagine that I will send the CDs to your uncles."  I said, "No, you're joking."  One day my sister called me.  She said, "You have to flee Baghdad now. I have just received a call."  She said that six of my uncles -- I have eight uncles -- they received a small envelope under the main gates of their houses.  A letter was written with the CD: "Your son is one of Baghdad's biggest gay bitches."  They made a meeting, those uncles, and they decided they want to make an 'honor' killing. And they want to shoot me in front of people. I said, "Are they serious?"  She said, "Sure they are serious. You have to flee now.  I prefer that you live in a far place rather than seeing your name on a rock on a grave." I said, "Do you hate me?"  She said, "No, no.  Just please, for God's sake, you have to flee."   Ahmed was able to escape to a neighbouring country, where he joined other family members.   Ahmed:  I had a kind of stable, calm life.  You know, I lived with my mom and dad, they loved me so much.  I have my own friends and I had a boyfriend there.There was a small shop called Sense for perfumes and I liked some of their perfumes. I went there and I am paying.  At that moment, I felt a hand is grabbing my hair and two hands grabbing and pulling my hands.  I looked at them.  I was shocked.  The religious police. They say, "You're a f**.  Is that how a man has to look like?"  Then we went to the high court. The judge, he said, "You know, you are accused for being a homosexual.  I want to tell you something, you don't deserve to live and you are a shame for your family, for the Iraqi nation, or for the Muslim nation.  God, he took a lot of time.  More than you deserve." In that jail, a police man entered.  He said, "I know your story and I feel sorry for you."  I was so happy.  I said, "At last there is a good guy here." He said, "I want you to stand up."  I said, "Okay."  I stood up. He said, "I want to make sure.  Are you really f**got?"  Then he said, "Yeah, it seems that you are."  Okay, then he tried with me. I refused.  I refused. I refused.  I clenched and clenched and spass-ed my muscles so as he won't be able to rape me fully. He was so mad.  And he said, "You bitch.  I will turn your days to hell in this jail.   Ahmed's parents were able to get him a conditional release from jail, prior to his trial.    They then contacted IRAP.   With the help of the Iraqi Refugees Assistance Project, Ahmed is now living safely and openly in the United States.   In Iraq, however, violence against the LGBT community is resurging.   Support the work of IRAP and help others like Ahmed.   Visit RefugeeRights.org to donate.   Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project.     Imagine living in Iraq today and being gay (or just being thought to be gay).  Huffington Post notes, "As Reuters reports, death squads have been targeting two separate groups -- gay men, and those who dress in a distinctive, Western-influenced style called 'emo,' which some Iraqis mistakenly associate with homosexuality, since the start of this year."    Near the start of last month,  Trudy Ring (SheWired) reported: A recent wave of violence in Iraq has resulted in the kidnapping, torture, and killing of about 40 people perceived to be gay or lesbian, with the murder weapon sometimes being a concrete block to the head. The killings began in early February after an unidentified group put up posters with death threats against "adulterous individuals" in largely Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and Basra, reports the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. The threats listed the targets' names and ages, and gave them four days to change their behavior or face divine retribution. Some of the murders have been carried out by smashing the victims' skulls with concrete blocks or pushing them off roofs of tall buildings, says a report from two other groups, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq and Iraqi LGBT.     Again, imagine living in Iraq today and being gay (or just being thought to be gay).  And, yes, it was better for Iraq's LGBT community under Saddam Hussein.  As it was for Christians and for women and for minority groups in general.    Of course, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared last month, "To those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, let me say -- you are not alone. Your struggle for an end to violence and discrimination is a shared struggle. Any attack on you is an attack on the universal values the United Nations and I have sworn to uphold."   What pretty words.  What a shame his Special Envoy to Iraq spits on those words, betrays Iraq's LGBT community, stays silent as they're targeted and killed, ignores the persecution.     As we noted yesterday, the Special Envoy Martin Kobler appeared Tuesday before the United Nations Security Council where he yammered away for approximately 20 minutes and also handed in a written report/statement which was 17 pages long.  Though he was supposedly concerned about violence and targeted groups and though he made his focus the first three months of the year, he couldn't bring himself to mention the targeting of Iraq's LGBT community.  He could talk about the so-called 'honor' killings but not in relation to gay men or lesbians.  Ban Ki-moon assured the world's LGBT community just last month that they were not alone.  Just yesterday, his Special Envoy to Iraq, made clear that, in fact, Iraq's LGBTs are very much alone.  Martin Kobler made very clear that the United Nations, as represented by him in Iraq, will gladly and always look the other way while thugs go on killing sprees.  One of the slogan of the United Nations is, "It's your world." But apparently that doesn't apply for LGBTs.  Someone with the UN to address whether Ban Ki-moon was lying or if Martin Kobler just doesn't understand how offensive what he did yesterday was?   Also smelling up the room was US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice who didn't say a word about the exclusion and silence despite the fact that she presided over the Security Council hearing.  The White House is aware, see this White House announcement,  that this is LGBT Pride Month.  But Barack mouths a lot of pretty words he apparently doesn't mean.  This was made clear today when the White House announced they would not issue an executive order barring discrimination against LGBTs on the part of contractors awarded State Dept or Defense Dept contracts.   Byron Tau (POLITICO) reports:     Obama is under pressure from some gay activists to endorse same-sex marriage -- and his refusal to address discrimination through executive order is unlikely to help him among those in the community who are hoping for a more forceful stance on equality from the White House. "I don't know if the White House is politically homophobic, actually homophobic, or just afraid of doing anything that might risk some attention," Heather Cronk, the managing director of GetEQUAL. "He's not going to have hoards of gay folks running over and voting for Romney," Cronk said, admitting that Obama stands little chance of losing votes to Republicans over the issue. "The problem [is] that the White House is making a calculation."     And making it clear that they aren't that 'gay friendly,' let alone the fierce advocate for gay rights Michelle used to insist Barack was.    As shameful as Kobler's silence on the targeting of Iraq's LGBTs is the Iranian press' refusal to be honest about what happened yesterday in the hearing.  Fars News Agency and the Islamic Republic News Agency are among the outlets focusing on remarks read out loud by Iraq's Ambassador to the UN Hamid al-Bayati while ignoring Kobler's remarks.  al-Bayati can demand that the Iranian dissidents who have been housed in Iraq since 1986 leave and imply that this is the case and he can state that the government of Iraq cannot  keep these MEK in Iraq.  That's in contrast to remarks made by Kobler who stated that Iraq may have to learn to be flexible with regards to the departure of the MEK.  Only the Iranian press even seemed to care about the issue, this despite it being a signficant especially with regards to the US government which gave the dissidents of Camp Ashraf protected persons status under the Geneva coventions.  We're going to include Kobler's full remarks on Camp Ashraf since they've been ignored near completely by the press.   UN Special Envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler:  Madam President, a year ago on 8th of April 2011, the tragic incidents in Camp Ashraf led to the death of dozens of Camp Ashraf residents and hundreds injured. In an effort to reach a peaceful and durable solution, UNAMI and the government of Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding on 25th of December 2011.  The government of Iraq agreed to extend the deadline for the closure of the camp.  From mid-February until now, almost 1,200 residents of Camp New Iraq were safely relocated to the temporary transient location in Camp Hurriyah, near Baghdad. UN monitors are deployed to monitor both the relocation and the situation in Camp Hurriyah around the clock. The UNHCR has a team at Camp Hurriyah to carry out the verfication and the ajudication. I wish to make it clear that this memorandum of understanding concerns voluntary relocation and its implementation is based firmly on all sides acting peacefully and in good faith.  It should be noted that on 8th of April an incident took place at Camp Iraq during the prepartion for the fourth transfer of residents. A confrontation developed. UN monitors now report that the situation has returned to calm.  Both sides have no resumed cooperation in preparation for the next trasfer. I would love to have reported that another 400 group of residents have moved to Camp Hurriyah. These incidents have  momentarily interrupted the relocation but as we speak, UN monitors are at Camp Hurriyah and in Camp Liberty -- in Camp New Iraq and, I'm pleased to report, that the next 400 residents will move immediately once the loading of personal belongings is completed.  This is a sign of good will of the residents. And I will continue to be actively engaged that an understanding is reached on the remaining issues. With this move, half of the residents of Camp New Iraq will have been relocated to Camp Hurriyah.  I would like to take this opportunity to make the following four remarks.  First, I would like to commend the Iraqi authorities, particularly Prime Minister al-Maliki for his advisers and the commanding general and the many Iraqi police men and the Iraqi army for their patience and cooperation in ensuring the safe and secure relocation of the first three groups of the residents.  I encourage them to pursue the relocation of the remaining residents in a manner that guarantees the residents human rights, safety and security.  And avoid everything which can be seen as provocative.  We will do everything possible to assist the government of Iraq to relocate the remaining residents. There are, however, still major obstacles ahead which might require flexability on the deadline. Second, I would also like to highlight that the Camp residents, despite initial difficulties, have shown goodwill and cooperation recently in the relocation process. The residents have indeed come a long way. It is difficult to abandon a place where one has lived for more than two decades. And I do encourage the residents to continue to show good will and continue to work in a cooperative spirit.  Third, and most importantly, I reiterate my call to member states to accept the residents. Now that the UNHCR has begun its work, it is high time for the international community to accept eligable candidates and fund the relocation process.  The support of the international community is urgently needed. I welcome the joint UNHCR - UNAMI resettlement conference  which took place last month on March 23rd. More than 30 member-states participated; however, no country has committed to accept residents. A donors appeal meeting also took place the same day seeking to raise $39 million US dollars fund for the Ashraf Project.   Only one member-state made a concrete pledge and this falls far behind what we had hoped.  Without international support, the process cannot succeed.  Last, but not least, I would like to thank my colleagues in UNAMI, UNHCR and the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights for the hard work and support.  The Ashraf file placed a heavy burden on the mission.  I could count on the support of most of my colleagues. My admiration goes to the monitoring staff at Camp Hurriyah and the UNHCR staff in particular -- those who accompanied the convoys under truly dangerous conditions.  As stated by the Secretary-General in his report  the process is still fragile and incidents of violence cannot be excluded.  We must, therefore, remain vigilant.      Again, Kobler speaking to the UN Security Council yesterday.    On the hearing, AP, Trend News Agency, Antiwar.com (Margaret Griffis) rushed to tell you that Special Envoy Martin Kobler declared 613 Iraqis were killed in the first three months of the year.  Those are not UN numbers, the United Nations doesn't keep its own count.  Those are the official numbers from the Iraqi government.  For a more reliable and independt The independent Iraq Body Count has a different number. IBC says 295 civilians died in March, 278 in February and 458 in January. That's 1031. That's over 400 more than what Kobler offered. (418 more, check my math -- always.)  If you're going to run with a number Kobler gave, it's probaby a good idea to provide another number so that readers can compare and contrast. The press also missed that Kobler states the ongoing political crisis is resulting in violence.  UN Special Envoy Martin Kobler: [. . .] the tensions that have arisen between the main party blocs in Iraq which have developed into a political impasse. I have therefore Iraqi political parties and leaders to work together in the spirit of partnership towards finding common ground that will resolve their differences. In this regard, Iraqiya's decision to end its boycott of the Council of Ministers and Council of Representatives was the right step. President [Jalal] Talabani suggested holding a National Conference as a way forward to bring about an end to the stalemate. Unfortunately, until today, there was no agreement on the agenda. An inclusive forum is needed, however, as a first step to end the political impasse. I call on all Iraqi leaders to sit together to address all their differences in a meaningful way. UNAMI stands ready to continue supporting these efforts. [. . .] I'm concerned that Iraq's political situation is heightening communal tensions in the country and leading to an increase in the number of attacks on civilians.  Not only was Kobler's remarks on the political crisis ignored so were those by US Ambassador to Iraq Susan Rice in her press briefing  (mainly on Syria, she dismissed the topic of Iraq quickly) who noted Martin Kobler  had spoken of the political crisis, "SRSG Kobler and Council members noted the importance for Iraq to resolve political differences and to address the concerns of all political blocs in an inclusive forum." On the topic of violence, Reuters reports that Diyala Province saw multiple home bombings today in an organized attack by unknown assailants which left 5 people dead and another six injured.   Meanwhile the day started with confusion and ends that way.  This morning BBC News and Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) were among those reporting that Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi stated two more of his bodyguards had died in the custody of Nouri's security forces.    In a later report,  Yacoub notes that Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council is maintaining there have not been any deaths. Al Rafidayn was reporting the denial several hours prior to AP. They also note that al-Hashemi is calling for Parliament to investigate. Someone needs to and doesn't appear that the press did since the story is no more clearer this evening than it was this morning.     In the US, peace activist Cindy Sheehan refuses to pay her taxes as a protest against empire and the perpetual war.  As a result of her activism, the US government now wants to take her to court.  She notes: Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:30am US Court, 501 I St. Sacramento, Ca 95814 Peace Activist and Gold Star Mother, Cindy Sheehan, is a conscientious war tax resister and the US Attorney, on behalf of the IRS, has summoned her to court to produce requested documents. This hearing date is just a few days after Tax Day where millions of Americans will help fund the war machine with their hard earned money. Cindy is calling for a rally before the hearing in Sacramento, Ca and wants everyone who can make it to be there to support her and show opposition to the war machine, the wars, and other oppressions. CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT     The Green Party of Michigan notes:         Ecological Wisdom • Social Justice • Grassroots Democracy • Non-Violence ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Green Party of Michigan www.MIGreens.org   News Release April 11, 2012   For More Information, Contact: Media Coordinator: Jennifer La Pietra (508)280-1360   Green Party of Michigan Concerned About Consent Agreement   (Detroit) - On April 4th, the Detroit City Council approved a consent agreement by a vote of 5-4. The close vote emphasizes the controversial nature of the final agreement, its measures clearly unfair to citizens of Detroit, and especially union workers.   The Green Party of Michigan has long supported unions and works to assure that the people's voice is heard in government, encouraging groups which are in line with our stated goals. John Anthony La Pietra, Platform Committee Chair explains: "We endorse the sharp criticisms of the consent agreement expressed on Monday in a letter to City Council members by Concerned Citizens for Democracy. The Green Party of Michigan believes in grassroots democracy as one of its key values -- that's why we oppose the anti-democratic power grabs of Public Act 4 and this coercive contract on Detroit."   One of the most unsettling of the measures include the ability of the city to void contracts, which could prove detrimental to the unions which are the heart of many of Detroit's industries, clearly a measure not desired by the numerous union workers in the city. The agreement also calls for the city to slash costs, unfortunately, with no assistance from the state. While re-examining expenditures and emphasizing efficiency is important for recovery on any level, cuts called for by this agreement will have to be made by the average struggling citizen.   The threatened alternative of an emergency manager could be even worse than a consent agreement, so a well-reasoned consent agreement which places more power in the hands of the citizens it affects would pave a road to recovery. For weeks, Detroit's residents watched press releases anxiously, hoping that the unjust Emergency Manager Law would not be implemented in their city as has been the case in surrounding communities. However, as the debts continued to mount, a record-making financial collapse began to seem disturbingly possible. And without adequate financial support, the consent agreement could slide down the slippery slope and put the city under an emergency manager anyway. What makes this consent agreement worrisome is the similarity between the emergency manager and the appointed "financial advisory board" (along with other bureaucrats appointed by the mayor). Even though the consent agreement states explicitly that its goal is to improve finances while maintaining a safe, secure environment, maintaining public services and attracting business, the financial advisory board's main goal is improving finances. Maintaining, or especially growing, a city requires an influx of funds - not a reduction. The consent agreement is self-defeating.   A city in such financial straits undoubtedly needs a boost to get it started down the path to financial solvency. The expectation that Detroit will be able to live under the strict budgetary constraints and pay down its debts at the same time seems unreasonable. Flint's emergency manager realized the same of his situation as he prepared a budget proposal for the city. It included a request for $20 million in bonds backed by the state. Detroit leaders should have insisted on a similar commitment.   The timing of the back and forth agreement authorship between Governor Snyder and Mayor Bing is far from coincidental. This consent agreement could not have come too quickly for the governor as a successful petition drive is very near to making the implementation of an Emergency Manager a moot threat. Even despite a feeble challenge to the type size on the petition, there is every likelihood that it will pass. If it does, the Emergency Manager Law will be suspended until Michiganders can vote on it. The governor undoubtedly knows that support for his law is very slim, so he is using it while he can. Art Myatt, Green Party of Michigan Vice-Chair, sums up the reasons why the consent agreement isn't in the city's best interest: "It looks to service the city's budget at the expense of the city's people and the city's employees, and to preclude the possibility of the affected population interfering with the process by way of local elections." ###

The AIDS Hoax

April 12, 2012

Prof.  Peter Duesberg, left, says AIDS is really a cancer caused  by a recreational drug used by gays, and is exacerbated by
the popular AZT treatment. 




There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around about AIDS. The notion that AIDS is a money-making hoax is rarely discussed.

by David Douthit
(henrymakow.com)

This is the story of Peter Duesberg. Duesberg is a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkley. He is a cancer researcher who has formulated a theory that HIV does not cause AIDS.

According to Duesberg what is known as AIDS was originally caused by the use of Alkyl Nitrate in the homosexual communities. Alkyl Nitrate is a recreational drug that creates some euphoria, and also loosens the anal spincter making anal sex easier.
Hence its use by homosexuals. Alkyl Nitrate, like some other nitrates, causes Karposi Sarcoma, a virulent cancer. When homosexuals in the late 70's and early 80's started surfacing with Karposi Sarcoma the possibility of a new epidemic disease was proposed.

Causes for the new disease were explored. HIV, a retrovirus present in many of the homosexual community that had Karposi Sarcoma was identified and labeled the possible cause of AIDS.

The extremely toxic cancer drug AZT was resurrected from oblivion, because it had been banned for chemotherapy cancer use.

AZT was approved for treatment of HIV infection. AZT itself causes many disease conditions commonly associated with AIDS. Merely detecting HIV infection was cause for "treatment" with AZT.

Once AZT treatment was initiated a whole myriad of AIDS symptoms surfaced, not just Karposi Sarcoma. Lots of money was made from causing more disease conditions, which of course had to be treated with other expensive drugs as well.

AFRICA

Africa has suffered from many tropical diseases like malaria, and malnutrition because of wars, revolutions, and famine. These conditions  were labeled as AIDS, even though HIV positive test results were not  obtained in most cases.

The AIDS figures were always greatly inflated by this sleight of hand. This resulted in huge amounts of money allotted for AIDS research. Many "researchers" and pharmaceutical companies profited greatly.

Duesberg contends that HIV is a harmless retrovirus. That is why a person may be infected with HIV for years and never experience any symptoms associated with AIDS, until of course treatment with AZT is initiated.

Doctors will then say, "good thing we started treatment just in time as symptoms started to surface."

Huge sums were made from the AIDS hoax. It could never be "cured", just treated indefinitely at a high cost, and AZT caused many more disease conditions.
Duesberg's theory was totally ostracized by the scientific community, and personal attacks were made. It was the classic kill-the-messenger approach. Duesberg wrote a book "Inventing the AIDS Virus" that details his theory.

Duesberg's theory has never received much press even in conspiracy circles. I believe that is because it is probably the closest to the truth.

I wrote this article for anyone infected with HIV, which could be almost anyone homosexual or heterosexual, so that they could have necessary information before starting any AZT regime for "treatment".

I am not a homosexual, but I certainly do not wish any harm to come to anyone. Promoting the theory that AIDS is really an epidemic disease is the exact MO of the "Powers That Be" to keep the population in a perpetual fear state.

I know for a fact that drugs used to treat "Autism" actually cause many of the symptoms labeled "Autism". I have witnessed it with my own two eyes. That is going to be the topic of one of my subsequent articles.

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First response from BG:

Re: 4/12/12:  "The AIDS Hoax":

http://www.henrymakow.com/the_aids_hoax.html 

The comment by "R" 4/12/12 re what his wife learned 30 years ago from the gay activists THEMSELVES is a jewel of a truth worth shouting from the rooftops.  He also mentioned:

"...making the general public feel guilty and "DOUBLE-MINDED" (the mental state of all who come to consciously accept that which they instinctively hate)."  (caps added)

I remember well the progression from single-mindedness to the double-mind in the AIDS Scam:

1.  First, the general opinion was basically that, "If you live a life of debauchery, you will reap what you sow." (Gal. 6:7) [1]

2.  Then the fear propaganda re AIDS/HIV was poured on thick & we began hearing of care agencies, schools, businesses, whatever, refusing to allow HIV &/or AIDS people in their midst.

3.  Step 2 was necessary so they could then turn the tide & begin "shaming" everyone with such (purposely manufactured) "fears" & calling them cruel, heartless, haters, etc.

4.  Then they threw in a few celebrity case stories to seal the sentiment that "Not everybody is bad who gets AIDS" (Rock Hudson, that famous basketball guy, etc.)

5.  Then, Politically Correct Public Acceptance (consensus) is reached... the "Six Step Attitudinal Change Plan" was complete.[2]

You may recall that Texe Marrs did an article with a great photo two years ago (2010) re "THE ILLUMINATI DOCTRINE of the DOUBLE MIND."[3]  

***

"Natural Hygiene" is a movement that originated in the 1700-1800's USA when a few early pioneers/doctors scattered about began rebelling against the idea of druggery after they observed their own patients getting well without the latest "cure-all."  Instead they proposed bed rest, fasting, fruits/veggies, fresh air & sunshine, etc.  (That's another whole fascinating story in itself for another time).

For now, two early books re AIDS that I had heard about through "Natural Hygiene" circles in the late 1980's-early 1990's:

1987:

Roger's Recovery from AIDS: How One Man Defeated the Dread Disease (Paperback)

by Bob L. Owen, Ph.D.,D.Sc.,C.R. re the AIDS patient, Roger Cochran, MD. 

  (8)

Release date: September 1987:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0937831018

...And... The Great AIDS Hoax  by TC Fry

Release date: February 1990:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1558300058/ref=aw_cr_d_books

***