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By Sara Flounders

23 Apr 2019 – The very corporations that are responsible for the problem are denying global warming, with immediate consequences for the whole world.

Carbon emissions from the burning of oil, gas and methane are heating the planet, creating a crisis of rising sea levels, droughts, extreme weather, poisoned ground water and polluted air that puts all life at risk.

Is that problem reversible?

The United States and China are the largest consumers of coal and oil. The choices made by the leaders of the two largest industrialized economies are having an impact on climate and on air quality for everyone.

But the decisions being made in these two countries are going in totally different directions. Their choices reveal a lot about the different social and political bases of each country.

In China, dramatic changes in major population centers show that it is possible, if decisive actions are taken, to restore the environment and dramatically improve the quality of life.

The Trump administration, on the other hand, is not only ignoring the consequences of global warming, but actively and aggressively denying it. Meanwhile, he’s pushing forward with coal mining, fracking and other methods of oil extraction, doing away with Environmental Protection Act clean air regulations and opening up drilling in pristine areas of Alaska’s Arctic preserves.

While this is immediately profitable for a few, it has dangerous consequences for the planet and all life forms. Regardless of who is president, U.S. policy is set by the needs of the largest oil, gas and industrial corporations to maximize profit. U.S. policies are set by the relentless drive for wars to defend their empire. The Pentagon is the world’s biggest polluter, the largest user of oil and many more dangerous chemicals. Their wars have created the worst environmental devastation and humanitarian disasters.

Trump’s actions embolden other arrogant climate deniers. The extreme right-wing president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has decided to more forward with massive clear-cutting of trees in the Amazon region, the world’s largest tropical rainforest.

Capitalist media on China’s choices

It is especially noteworthy that major capitalist business publications are concerned with the implications of China’s drive for sustainable energy.

Their worry is not about the survival of the planet. It is whether China will get an economic advantage over Wall Street.

As a Jan. 11 headline in Forbes business magazine put it, “China is set to become the world’s renewable energy superpower.” Journalist Dominic Dudley cited a report issued that day by the Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation, which laid out the geopolitical implications of the changing energy landscape.

The commission’s report, said Dudley, showed that China had become “the world’s largest producer, exporter and installer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles.”

“The report argues that the geopolitical and economic consequences of the rapid growth of renewable energy could be as profound as those that accompanied the shift from biomass to fossil fuels two centuries ago,” wrote Dudley. It will “change patterns of trade and the development of new alliances. It could also spark instability in some countries that have grown dependent on oil and gas revenue.”

However, Olaf Grimsson, chair of the commission that wrote the report, added that this shift is also bringing “energy independence to countries around the world.”

An article in the Economist magazine of March 15, 2018, had already reported that China,

“[T]hrough a combination of subsidies, policy targets and manufacturing incentives” had “spent more on cleaning up its energy system than America and the EU combined.”

Back on Jan. 5, 2017, an article in the London-based Financial Times titled “Wave of spending tightens China’s grip on renewable energy” quoted Tim Buckley, director of the U.S.-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, who cautioned Wall Street: “As the U.S. owned the advent of the oil age, so China is shaping up to be unrivalled in clean power leadership today.”

A report from the same institute released a year later confirmed yet again that China continues to lead the world in clean energy investment.

China’s socialist revolution made the difference

Learning more about what China is doing to clean the environment and understanding why it is structurally and politically able to do so should open the eyes of environmental activists about what is possible.

To evaluate the historic significance of these gains, it is first important to understand that China is coming from a position of great poverty and semicolonial underdevelopment.

The revolution in China, led by Mao Zedong and the Communist Party, triumphed in 1949 after a generation of armed struggle. It ended 150 years of foreign occupation and civil war, which had produced uncontrollable droughts and famines.

U.S. corporate power had sided with the corrupt landlord and military grouping around Gen. Chiang Kai-shek as their best option for continued Western domination of China. After its defeat on the mainland, this grouping, with U.S. assistance, militarily occupied the island of Taiwan.

After 1949 the U.S., in an effort to economically strangle the revolutionary determination of the People’s Republic of China, imposed a total embargo on all trade and investment. This blockade lasted until the 1972 visit of President Richard Nixon to China, which normalized political relations — but China was still cut off from world trade and economic development.

Special economic zones: a compromise

In 1979, in an effort to gain access to modern technology and world markets, the Chinese government, then led by Deng Xiaoping, created four Special Economic Zones to attract Western corporations dominating the world economy to invest in China.

Western corporations surged into these zones. Their goal was to set up assembly factories and maximize profits through cheap labor costs by employing what had been a largely peasant population in zones with few regulatory restrictions. They also dreamed of overturning the Chinese government.

These corporations gave little thought or planning to their impact on the environment.

The British-controlled colony of Hong Kong sits at the tip of the Pearl River Delta just south of China. Especially attractive to foreign investors was a Special Economic Zone established in a rural area of China north of Hong Kong, where land was easily available and close to a world-class seaport.

These investors used the same tactics in China that had been used a century or two earlier when building thousands of capitalist factories created the crowded, polluted, industrial cities of London, Manchester, Chicago and Buffalo.

After opening up to foreign investment in the 1980s, China surged through 35 years of uneven rapid industrialization. Tens of millions of Chinese peasants, a floating migrant population, flooded into the newly created economic zones. They worked incredibly long hours for six months to two years and were then sent home when orders declined.

Even as capitalist private enterprises flourished in socialist China, state-owned industries in essential economic areas also gained strength through joint ventures and government investments. The contradictions and dangers were enormous.

This compromise policy of opening up to foreign capital, allowing the growth of Chinese capitalists and modernizing state-owned industries, is called “building socialism with Chinese characteristics.”

North of Hong Kong, the primarily agricultural area of the Pearl River Delta and Guangdong Province careened through an unprecedented growth spurt. In 30 years, it became the largest contiguous urban region in the world, according to the World Bank.

Its population in the 2015 census was 108 million. The zone had a staggering growth rate of 40 percent a year from 1981 to 1993. The Pearl River Delta is now the biggest economic hub in the country.

The city of Shenzhen in the Delta grew from a population of 30,000 in 1979 to a megacity today of 20 million, with the largest migrant population in China. It became a polluted factory town of sweatshops spewing out clouds of dark toxic smoke.

Shenzhen’s economic output ranks third, after Beijing and Shanghai, among 659 Chinese cities. It has the second-busiest container terminal in mainland China and the third busiest in the world.

Just north of Shenzhen, the city of Guangzhou, formerly known by its European name of Canton, became China’s most polluted city.

Over the years, factory production in the megacities of the Pearl River Delta went from predominantly labor-intensive consumer goods like toys and clothing to light industry, then heavy industry like machinery, chemical products and autos. Now it is focused on producing high-tech electronic equipment.

While the hundreds of factories and power plants drove economic growth forward, they also polluted the air, water and soil to the tipping point.

Turning point

Five years ago, on March 4, 2014, China made a serious national decision. The 3,000 delegates to the National People’s Congress voted to reassert greater national control over development through conscious plans to reduce poverty, increase social programs and benefits, combat extreme pollution and build a sustainable environment.

This was a break from China’s 35-year policy of stressing economic growth ahead of the environment and of health and social benefits for the working class.

An article titled “Four years after declaring war on pollution, China is winning” ran in the March 12, 2018, New York Times: “To reach these targets, China prohibited new coal-fired power plants in the country’s most polluted regions, including the Beijing area. Existing plants were told to reduce their emissions. If they didn’t, coal was replaced with natural gas. Large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, restricted the number of cars on the road. The country also reduced its iron- and steel-making capacity and shut down coal mines.”

Shenzhen and Guangzhou: cities reimagined

Today, some of the most interesting and radical changes undertaken through environmental experiments are in the Pearl River Delta, which has become a new model of urbanization due to extensive state planning and spending.

“Science is so important,” says Tonny Xie of the Clean Air Alliance of China. “If you have better planning, you will have better air.” (BBC World News, March 7, 2017)

Shenzhen in five years’ time has become one of the most livable cities in China, with extensive parks, tree-lined streets and the largest fleet of electric buses in the world (16,000), along with all-electric cabs. The city aims to have 80 percent of its new buildings green certified by 2020. It is now full of apartment blocks, office towers and modern factories with advanced equipment manufacturing, robotics, automation and giant tech startups.

Once-smoggy Guangzhou, after extensive clean up and rebuilding, is now considered China’s most livable city. The Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Corridor is a creative plan for future development.

All the cities of the Pearl River Delta are well connected by high-speed trains and modern highways. The world’s longest bridge-tunnel sea crossing connects Shenzhen, Macau and Hong Kong.

Even the World Economic Forum says the world can learn from China’s example. Some 90 percent of the world’s estimated 385,000 electric buses are in China today. Only 1.6 percent of the world’s electric city buses are in Europe, and less than 1 percent are in the U.S.

In just four years since the launch of its war on pollution, Chinese cities by 2018 had already cut concentrations of fine particulates in the air on average by 32 percent.

150 coal plants eliminated

Other decisions in the war on pollution included the dramatic decision to stop or delay work on over 150 planned or under-construction coal plants.

A newly formed Ministry for Ecology and Environment has broad powers and responsibilities to oversee all water-related policies, from ocean water to groundwater. It oversees policies on climate change that were once scattered among different departments.

It is important in a crisis to understand the problem and evaluate the direction in which developments are going. The changes happening in major population centers of China show that it is possible, if decisive actions are taken, to restore the environment.

The problem in the U.S. that holds back and even reverses programs to mitigate pollution and climate change is that this highly developed country is dominated by a decaying capitalist system and ruling class desperate to maximize its quarterly profits at the expense of any long-term planning.

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Sara Flounders has traveled twice to Syria in solidarity delegations during the U.S. war against that country. She is co-director of the International Action Center and helps coordinate the United National Antiwar Coalition, the Hands Off Syria Campaign, and the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases.

29 April 2019

Source: www.transcend.org

By Ramakrishnan

It is 60 years since a so-called Government-in-Exile, also called as Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), was founded on April 28, 1959, with its Headquarters in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, India. The 14th Dalai Lama (born as Lhamo Thondup on 6 July 1935), then aged 24, had just arrived in NEFA a month earlier on March 30, 1959, and soon became CTA’s defacto leader. Hundreds of stories appeared during the last few weeks in the Indian media, as also in the West, as part of an orchestrated campaign, to mark the event with a view to use Tibet as a stick to beat China with, and to keep the issue burning to perpetuate turmoil in Eastern Asia. Already West Asia has been in turmoil created by US and NATO for long. Certain basic facts were totally suppressed in all the stories on Tibet and Dalai Lama. We seek to briefly recall some of those events in this series. But before that we shall see the context in which these things need to be re-viewed.

*** ***

At a time when there is need to pursue peace in the world, more so in South Asia, there are jingoistic advocates in India who once again prescribe using the so-called Tibet card . Typical is the case of Brahma Chellaney, a right-wing geostrategist, who wrote :

“ India’s ASAT test should not obscure the fact that March 31 marked the 60th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s entry into India …. He entered India as tens of thousands died in China’s brutal suppression of an uprising against its occupation of Tibet….Today, Tibet remains at the centre of the India-China divide, fuelling territorial disputes, diplomatic tensions and riparian feuds.

“ The Dalai Lama is a strategic asset for India, yet current Indian policy doesn’t reflect that….

“ …If Tibet is at the heart of the China-India divide, water is at the centre of the Tibet-India bond. To help curb China’s territorial and riparian revisionism, India must subtly reopen Tibet as an outstanding issue. By recalibrating its Tibet policy, India could elevate Tibet as a broader strategic and environmental issue that impinges on international security and climatic and hydrological stability. More than ASAT ( anti-satellite weapon ) and other weapons, India needs political will and clarity to deter China.” (The Hindustan Times, April 1, 2019)

Even so-called Leftwing Liberals are no different. For instance, Ramachandra Guha recently wrote :

“ But what should India do in the meanwhile? I think our love and regard for the Dalai Lama should be affirmed not merely by the Indian public but by the Indian government as well. For one thing, he should be awarded the Bharat Ratna, which he deserves more — far more — than many past recipients. For another, on this, the 60th anniversary of his arrival in India, the president of the republic should host an official reception in his honour, with the prime minister as well as leaders of Opposition parties in attendance.

“ I made this second suggestion on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, and passed it on to someone who works with the president as well as to someone who is close to the prime minister. …For the Government of India to publicly honour the Dalai Lama would be proper and just. It would also be strategically astute. …The time for such (China ) appeasement has now passed. China’s continuing support for Pakistan’s terrorist actions against India surely calls for firmer action on our part…. ( Ramachandra Guha for The Telegraph India, March 30, 2019)

The above views need a separate discussion, but that is later on. In one word, what both prescribed above would only help to further strain India-China ties. It is in this context the question of Tibet and Dalai Lama assumes importance.

*** ***

The young Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and had arrived at a place in the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) that has been a centre of a territorial dispute between India and China, and was one of the political divisions in British India and later the Republic of India. It was much later on 20 January 1972 that NEFA was named as the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh, later given the status of State on as late as 20 February 1987. It was all as per a script written and executed by the notorious CIA: The Indian government immediately took measures to welcome and ensure the protection of Dalai Lama and his party. PN Menon (who had served as India’s Consul General in Lhasa) was also sent along with Assistant Political Officer (APO) to Chuthangmu, a tiny Assam Rifles outpost near Tawang, to do the same. See photo below .

The CTA claims to represent the people of the entire Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Qinghai province, as well as two Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures and one Tibetan Autonomous County in Sichuan Province, one Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and one Tibetan Autonomous County in Gansu Province and one Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province – all of which is termed “Historic Tibet” by the CTA. The media in India and across the Western world is full of news stories and commentaries pouring out sympathy for the Tibetans allegedly oppressed by People’s Republic of China (PRC). Mark the prefix ‘autonomous’ for all the regions. Already they are all autonomous, at least formally.

The foundational truth of US meddling and manipulation, allowed and joined by Indian state, is lost in the flood of information on Tibet, to be precise disinformation. Tibet and Dalai Lama have been a major stumbling bloc between India and China, and need to be re-viewed.

It is a brazen violation of international law, and of Panch Sheel, that India hosts and sustains a so-called Government in Exile, CTA, for 60 years and media is full of stories based on falsehood. This is a case of post-truth that began 60 years ago. It is formally claimed that Dalai Lama the monk etc are given asylum on condition that they should not indulge in any political activity. However, the CTA is complete with a Cabinet including Lobsang Sangay – Sikyong , President, and Ministers for Home, Finance, Education, Security, Information & International Relations, Health etc. They have their official print and electronic media. All this, brazenly operating from Indian soil, even while mouthing Panch Sheel.

Despite all the orchestrated sympathy across the media world, the fact is not a single country recognizes the CAT. Not USA, nor any power in the West, nor India. Not only now, but never was it recognized by any country, nor by UNO. Thus it is not love for Tibetans but meant to harass China.

*** ***

Who runs this show, and who funds this fraud?

The funding is huge as acknowledged by pro-CTA agencies. Tsewang Namgyal, who currently serves on the Board of The Tibet Fund writes:

“ Central Tibetan Administration serves as the backbone of the Tibet movement. Tibet’s freedom is dependent on the financial viability of the institution. CTA is currently heavily dependent on foreign aid. If we assume that since 1959 CTA received financial assistance from foreign governments, NGOs and individuals to the amount of US$10 million annually that would be approximately US$530 million for the last 53 years. The numbers are huge even in Western standards. Considering that we are heavily dependent on outside financial support… I believe the solution lies in the development of our private sector while also incorporating operational and strategic considerations….”

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=33499

Of course, it was not $ 10 million per annum, but much more. Like in other matters, Trump originally proposed to cut down Tibet funding, but did not do that. See this latest Report of February 20, 2019:

President Trump “ signed the ‘Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019’ on 15 February which sanctioned the fiscal year 2019 funding for several government departments through September 30, 2019. The Appropriation bill included (not less than) $8 million for the TAR and other Tibetan communities in China; $6 million for Tibetan community in India and Nepal; and $3 million to strengthen the capacity of Tibetan institutions and governance in exile. In addition to the total $17 million listed here, there are also other Tibetan programs from the US government.

“…President Dr Lobsang Sangay of the CTA said: “We remain grateful to the US government and the Congress for their generous and continued financial assistance…”

The funding specifies : “ not less than $8,000,000” for NGOs to support activities like education, and environmental conservation in TAR etc. And “not less than $6,000,000” for the resilience of Tibetan communities in India and Nepal … and to assist in education and development of the next generation of Tibetan leaders from such communities: Provided, that such funds are in addition to amounts made available in subparagraph (A) for programs inside Tibet.”

(https://tibet.net/2019/02/us-government-approves-usd-17-million-in-funding-for-tibetans-in-exile-and-tibet-2019/)

See this earlier report by PTI Washington dated May 26, 2017. It mentions decades-old American policy of providing financial assistance to the community for safeguarding their distinct identity: “The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in. … Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US …observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally driven. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi expressed concern over the Trump proposal to cut down funding,” Drew Hammill, spokesman for Pelosi, told PTI.”

Why this Tibetan cause? See the next sentence : “We will continue to engage diplomatically with allies and partners to advance our US national interests and shared policy priorities,” the official said.

It is a bipartisan policy. It tells of “Pelosi, who early this month led a high powered Congressional delegation to Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama,” in Dharamshala, having said : “ if the US does not speak out for human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to talk about it elsewhere in the world,” Hammill told PTI: “That includes critical funding through the State Department for important efforts, like those in support of a genuinely autonomous Tibet, that advance and protect America’s interests in the world.”

It is not a new program: “The move to abolish Tibet fund is expected to be widely opposed in the Congress. The US policy towards Tibet is currently driven by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 which was signed by the last Republican President George W Bush.”

The Act, among other things, includes US government assistance for NGOs , Voice of America and Radio Free Asia Tibetan-language broadcasting into Tibet; and assistance for Tibetan refugees in South Asia. It also calls for a scholarship program for Tibetans living outside Tibet; and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) human rights and democracy programmes relating to Tibet. (PTI dated May 26, 2017)

https://www.firstpost.com/world/trump-administration-makes-tough-choices-proposes-zero-aid-to-tibetans-wants-other-countries-to-follow-suit-3482781.html

The above were all instruments used earlier to topple USSR. Before this Act of 2002, as we shall see below, it was CIA that funded CTA etc. In addition to this, the USAID manages provision of this support out of its India office. According to a 2015 CRS (USA) report, in 2014, the total financial assistance to the Tibetan cause was more than $24 million. The funding originates with the US government and is being routed through USAID. This level of aid was officially and openly extended every year for decades. This is apart from official as well as clandestine funding by governments and several agencies including NGOs of USA , Europe, Australia etc. It is an under-statement as per Wikipedia : “However, according to Michael Backman, these sums are “remarkably low” for what the organisation claims to do, and it probably receives millions more in donations. The CTA does not acknowledge such donations or their sources.” It is not a small sum, given that the Tibetan exile community is small in numbers. Besides USA and West, India provides bulk of funding, besides logistical and infrastructural support to CTA, which not a single country recognizes.

Obviously it is meant only to harass China , PRC. See how CTA is linked up with the interests of imperialists and their India compradors: “…it will be still critical to align our interests with our foreign government supporters like India and the United States. ” (Tsewang Namgyal, cited above)

USA which butchered millions of people for decades across the world through perpetual wars seeks to work for human rights in China! And NATO and India forces join forces in these crimes.

*** ***

Wikileaks about The Dalai Lama

Wikileaks brought out many skeletons in the US cup-board, and sections of Indian media reported them too. But little was published with respect to Tibet-Dalai lama-CIA-India nexus. A rare report is : The curious case of Establishment 22 , published in the Hindustan Times dated Nov 15, 2009. In it journalist Amitava Sanyal revealed that although Establishment 22 was ‘supposed to be a group of volunteers’, in practice the Tibetan children weren’t given a choice. How the Indian state worked with CIA , from the days of progressive, secular Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi to Rightist Hindutva vadis Vajpayee and Modi can be understood from the Report. Also can be seen how the Indian state used these dubious armed forces to suppress domestic dissent in India. Given below are extracts from it :

For 47 years, India has kept secret an elite regiment of Tibetan commandos. They fought gallantly in the big wars, but their valour cannot be openly recognized.

It’s not easy to find Radug Ngawang’s house among the maze of narrow lanes in Majnu ka Tilla, the bustling Tibetan settlement by the Yamuna in north Delhi. As we get closer, some people offer us directions. After all, the 83-year-old Ngawang is known within the community as one of the handful of bodyguards who accompanied the Dalai Lama when he fled to India in 1959. What they probably don’t know is that he was also an elite commando trained and armed by the CIA. And that for a decade and a half he was first a soldier and then leader of a top-secret Indian regiment that was raised exactly 47 years ago yesterday. Ngawang was a founding member of what, in grand government euphemism, is known as Establishment 22.

The story of this still-secret regiment, however, reads like a set of Catch 22 situations. Though it was raised to fight the Chinese army in Tibet, it has fought in several theatres of war except that one. It’s so classified a set-up that even the army may not know what it’s up to — it reports directly to the prime minister via the directorate general of security in the cabinet secretariat…all school-passing Tibetan children not making a certain grade are still expected to join it.

Jawaharlal Nehru took the decision to raise the force on his birthday in 1962. It was also the day the war with China resumed on the eastern front after a brief lull. On the advice of Intelligence Bureau founder-director Bhola Nath Mullick and World War II veteran Biju Patnaik, Nehru ordered the raising of a Tibetan guerrilla force that could engage the Chinese in the uber-tough terrains of the Himalayas.

Sitting in his house on the Yamuna, Ngawang says that it was early 1963 when the first batch of about 12,000 Tibetans was brought to Chakrata, 100 km from Dehradun. Former armyman Sujan Singh Uban was the first inspector-general tasked with turning these rugged highlanders into fierce fighters — with substantial help from the CIA. The group took its intriguing name after the 22 Mountain Regiment that Uban had fought for during WWII.

Since then, the regiment — also called the Special Frontier Force (SFF) — has participated with exemplary skill in Operation Eagle (securing Chittagong hills during the Bangladesh War of 1971…Operation Bluestar (clearing Amritsar’s Golden Temple in 1984), Operation Meghdoot (securing the Siachen glacier in 1984) and Operation Vijay (war with Pakistan at Kargil in 1999). Some reports later claimed that SFF’s mandate had been changed to include anti-terrorist operations. ( though officially denied.)

The total number of soldiers, though, has changed — swelling to about 20,000 around 1970 and then whittling down to below 10,000. It’s difficult to know the exact count at present because of the tight lid of secrecy. The lid was, however, blown in 1978. Indian newspapers reported that an electronic intelligence machine passed on by the CIA and mounted atop Nanda Devi in 1965 to track Chinese missile tests had gone missing. The bigger worry was over the plutonium generator that powered the machine. As Prime Minister Morarji Desai assured a worried Parliament on nuclear safety, the mention of SFF, that had mostly manned the operation, slipped out.

(Hindustan Times dated Nov 15, 2009)

Child conscripts

For a more personal sense of how it feels for a Tibetan orphan to be forced into conscription we can read Tashi Dhundup’s account on the Tibetan blog ‘Where Tibetans Write’:

“While at school at the Central School for Tibetans in Mussoorie, my classmates and I used to sing a song that went, “Chocho mangmi la madro, haapen bholo yoki rae”, which translates to “O brother don’t go to the army, they will make you wear those loose half-pants”. Although we sang this song in every grade, it was only years later that the true meaning of those words finally dawned on me. Each year as the seniors graduated, we would see trucks waiting at the school gate – Indian Army trucks, all set to cart many of the graduating students off to the barracks for training. At the time I was confused, and wondered why these new graduates were not simply going home.” It is clear that for the Tibetan Children, particularly the orphans entrusted to the Tibetan Children’s Village schools, graduation was not a time of celebration. Having been sent to the army, these orphans were then sent into war with the Dalai Lama’s consent. In the 1971 war in East Pakistan,190 of these Tibetan ‘soldiers’ were injured and 56 were killed. Funding for schools meets this purpose !

A document which is a MUST-READ for anyone who thinks they know, or would like to know, the truth about the Dalai Lama is the US State Department publication ‘Foreign Relations of the United States 1964 – 1968 Volume XXX’. Part of it is document 342, a memorandum from the CIA to the 303 committee from 26 January 1968 (See image below). Following are a few glimpses of the same. Below is an image of a document about CIA links. There are such reports aplenty, brought out by Wikileaks, and those de-classified by USA.

The document clearly states that:

The Tibetan paramilitary unit, a remnant of the 1959 resistance force, is dispersed in 15 camps. The Tibetan leadership views the force as the paramilitary arm of its “government-in-exile”. The CIA, together with its Indian equivalent the RAW, and the Tibetan Resistence fighters Chushi Gangdruk, formed ‘Establishment 22’ in 1962. There can be no doubt that it is ‘Establishment 22’ that the CIA are here referring to as the ‘paramilitary arm of the Tibetan Government in Exile’.

Furthermore, although nominally part of the Indian army, history shows who really commands Establishment 22. In 1971, when a war with Pakistan loomed, Indira Gandhi, the PM, sent a letter asking if Establishment 22 would go to war for India: “We cannot compel you to fight a war for us… It would be appreciated if you could help us fight the war for liberating the people of Bangladesh.” It was only when the Dalai Lama gave his consent that the force was mobilised and began operations against Pakistan… Clearly, Establishment 22 is the Dalai Lama’s secret army, supplied with fresh recruits from the Tibetan orphans as revealed in the Wikileaks cables.

See Michael Backman’s excellent article on the Dalai Lama’s Nepotism, and also his book ‘The Asian Insider’: the Dalai Lama appointed his elder sister, Tsering Dolma, to manage the funds donated for the welfare of the Tibetans orphans. A western visitor to the orphanage described the conditions she found there:

‘Some one thousand refugees, mainly children, lived there. Two hundred boys slept in one room, arranged with bunk beds all around the walls and with mattresses covering the floor…The girls slept in smaller rooms in similar conditions. Overcrowding was rife and of course infections spread like wildfire. Tibetan children were used to the relatively germ-free conditions of the Tibetan plateau and were vulnerable to the diseases of the Indian plains especially while travelling across them to reach Dharamsala. They had no immunity to the diseases of a hot climate. Many children died during a measles outbreak and from hepatitis from infected water. Most children suffered from scabies, eye and ear infections, worms, dysentery. Many got pneumonia and other respiratory infections.’

She found Dalai Lama’s sister’s attitude to the orphans heartbreaking: ‘Mrs Tsering Dolma was most concerned lest Westerners who occasionally visited showed too much affection to the children.’

See this on his Nazi Connections:

“Throughout his life the Dalai Lama has had close associations with many Nazis, including Bruno Beger, who was convicted for his ‘scientific research’ at Auschwitz; and Miguel Serrano, head of the Nazi Party in Chile and the author of several books that elevate Hitler to a god-like status. As a child he was under the tutelage of Heinrich Harrer – a former sergeant in the SS, Hitler’s most loyal soldiers – who for some years in Tibet before the Chinese occupation taught the young Dalai Lama about the outside world….Heinrich Harrer … became the Western guru of Tibet’s young 14th Dalai Lama … The 85 year old Austrian has been confronted with a terrible secret from his past: that he was a member of Hitler’s SS.”

(http://transmissionsmedia.com/the-dark-side-of-dalai-lama/)

Wikileaks on Shift in Dalai Lama’s strategy

See this report by Jason Burke in Delhi, dated 16 Dec 2010 in theguardian.com titled : WikiLeaks cables: Dalai Lama called for focus on climate, not politics, in Tibet. How environmental issues, like human rights, are made part of imperialist global strategy can also be seen in this.

“ The Dalai Lama told US diplomats last year that the international community should focus on climate change rather than politics in Tibet because environmental problems were more urgent, secret American cables reveal. The exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader told Timothy Roemer, the US ambassador to India, that the “political agenda should be sidelined for five to 10 years and the international community should shift its focus to climate change on the Tibetan plateau” during a meeting in Delhi last August…

“ Roemer speculated, in his cable to Washington reporting the meeting, that “the Dalai Lama’s message may signal a broader shift in strategy to reframe the Tibet issue as an environmental concern”. In their meeting, the ambassador reported, the Dalai Lama criticised China’s energy policy, saying dam construction in Tibet had displaced thousands of people and left temples and monasteries underwater….

“ The cables also reveal the desperate appeals made by the Dalai Lama for intervention by the US during unrest in Tibet during spring 2008. As a heavy crackdown followed demonstrations and rioting, he pleaded with US officials to take action that would “make an impact” in Beijing. At the end of one 30-minute meeting, a cable reports that the Dalai Lama embraced the embassy’s officials and “made a final plea”…..

The US officials concluded that “while the [government of India] will never admit it”, New Delhi’s “balancing act with India’s Tibetans [would] continue for the foreseeable future, with the caveat that a rise in violence – either by Tibetans here or by the Chinese security forces in Tibet – could quickly tip the balance in favour of the side with greater public support”.

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/16/wikileaks-dalai-lama-climate-change)

**** ****

Anti-China political activities are common

It is claimed that Dalai Lama is not an official of CTA and that he relinquished all political activities since a few years. He was however defacto in-charge of CTA althrough, with proxies. For instance : Notable past members of the Cabinet include Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama’s eldest brother (see photo below), who served as Chairman of the Cabinet and as Minister of Security, and Jetsun Pema, the Dalai Lama’s younger sister, who served variously as Minister of Health and of Education.

See this Report of Times of India, 31 March 2017, how brazenly anti-China political activity is carried on in India :

“ DEHRADUN: Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, who is in Dehradun on a five-day official visit, interacted with members of the substantial Tibetan community in the region, and visited schools run by the community on Friday. Sangay, who is referred to as Sikyong (political head) of the community…explained the Tibetan Kashag’s (cabinet’s) flagship, five-fifty strategy to resolve the Tibet issue.

“The five-fifty is a win-win strategy as it calls for renewed efforts to seek genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people in the next five years while strategising to strengthen and sustain the Tibetan movement over the next fifty years,” Sangay said.”

The activity is there in South India too as can be seen here :

“ In early December 2012, I had an opportunity to visit the Tibetan settlements of Bylakuppe and Mundgod in south India (both in Karnataka). I had a day-long meeting with Mr. Pema Delek (Chairman of FTCI), Mr. Tashi Wangdu (CEO of FTCI) and few of their colleagues in Byllakuppe. I was impressed by their dedication. However, it appears that their structure did not encourage accountability, irrespective of how well and poorly the management performed. ” (Tsewang Namgyal, cited above)

Dalai Lama has been claiming he is not working for independence from china but only wanted some form of autonomy. The anti-China strategic objectives, however, can be seen in this Report :

“ From a pure financial standpoint, I believe with all our efforts, it is likely that CTA will still be dependent on foreign aid and support. Our exile population is relatively small with a large segment made up by monks and nuns… CTA by itself will find it extremely challenging to generate enough income to support itself. Nor should it try, as then CTA would lose focus from its core mission. While remaining grateful to outside support for their generosity, I believe we Tibetans should also feel confident that our contribution to the world, especially in the promotion of peace is priceless. In other words, the US$500 million + investment in CTA has paid off many, many times.

“ Finally, for CTA to achieve her strategic goal to bring freedom to Tibet, it is critical that our interests are aligned with the Chinese people as much as possible. Here, I give much credit to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay and the current leadership for their efforts….Unless we are able to garner greater understanding and support from the Chinese people, it will be extremely difficult to achieve our goal whether genuine autonomy within China or independence. We should always remember that finally our goal is not for CTA to become financially sustainable or increase the number of supporters but to bring freedom to Tibet at the earliest.”

(Tsewang Namgyal, cited above. He is an MBA graduate from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and holds a BA from Dickinson College. He currently serves on the Board of The Tibet Fund.)

**** ****

This is a continuation of CIA’s decades-old program to destabilize China.

Those well versed with USA’s regime change policy across the world can see its real import. CIA’s role is well known to Indians but they do not speak of its role within India. Dalai Lama’s arrival in India was a fall-out of such a conspiracy against PRC. It was not a non-violent Buddhist monk who arrived in India. See this extract from a Wikipedia article :

CIA’s Tibetan program was a nearly two decades long covert operation consisting of “political action, propaganda, paramilitary and intelligence operations” based on U.S. Government arrangements made with brothers of the Dalai Lama, who himself was not initially aware of them. The goal of the program was “to keep the political concept of an autonomous Tibet alive within Tibet and among several foreign nations”.

“ Although it was formally assigned to the CIA alone, it was nevertheless closely coordinated with several other U.S. government agencies such as the Department of State and the Department of Defense.

“ Previous operations had aimed to strengthen various isolated Tibetan resistance groups, which eventually led to the creation of a paramilitary force on the Nepalese border consisting of approximately 2,000 men. By February 1964, the projected annual cost for all CIA Tibetan operations had exceeded US$1.7 million.

“ The program ended after President Nixon visited China to establish closer relations in 1972. The Dalai Lama criticized this decision, saying it proved wholeheartedly that the US never did it to help the people of Tibet.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_Tibetan_program)

Did the program really come to an end? We have seen above Trump’s Tibet funding; that it had not ended as mentioned by Wikipedia here but continued also in OTHER ways and forms. The objective was not to help Tibet, but to make use of that issue to counter China and communism. India was roped into the world strategy of USA. And the means were not non-violent.

“ Chinese-Indian relations also played an important role in framing the CIA’s operations. Due to Tibet’s geographic location between the two countries, it was strategically important. The CIA released numerous reports assessing relations…. Following the month-long Sino-Indian War of 1962, the CIA developed a close relationship with Indian foreign intelligence services in both training and supplying agents in Tibet.

“ The CIA worked to strengthen the Tibetans against the Chinese communist efforts. To do so, the United States planned to issue asylum to the Dalai Lama and his supporters. Some resistance fighters took their own lives when captured by the Chinese to avoid torture. The Tibetan resistance was promised weaponry and resources from the West to continue their resistance against the Chinese. …” (same source)

*** ***

Thus dalai Lama’s arrival in India was very much a part of US global Strategy.

The Dalai Lama was part of a CIA-backed armed revolt against PRC. China tried to go slow on reforms, but CIA was bent on precipitating the crisis. The Wikipedia in a well-annotated article says:

“ In a memorandum from July 1958, the CIA described the growing resistance to the Chinese in Tibet. The memo noted, “During the past two and one half years, resistance has hardened and grown despite Chinese countermeasures that include military force as well as partial withdrawal of Chinese cadres and postponement of ‘reforms’ and other programs leading toward socialization” In the early 1950s, the CIA inserted paramilitary teams from the Special Activities Division (SAD) to train and lead Tibetan resistance fighters against the People’s Liberation Army of China….

“ With the help of Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama’s brother was exiled to India and initiated contact with the Americans. Gyalo reached out to the Americans who were intrigued with the opportunity to create a ‘running sore for the reds,’ as a part of its global anti-communist campaign. These contacts made by the Dalai’s brother eventually led to a more than two decade long campaign against the Chinese government supported by the CIA. His American contacts enabled Tibetans to go over first to Saipan and then to the U.S. for training. They were trained for five months on combat maneuvers. These teams selected and then trained Tibetan soldiers in the Rocky Mountains of the United States; as well as at Camp Hale in Colorado. The SAD teams then advised and led these commandos against the Chinese, both from Nepal and India. In addition, (CIA-linked) SAD Paramilitary Officers were responsible for the Dalai Lama‘s clandestine escape to India, narrowly escaping capture by the Chinese government….”

“India had provided a link for United States’ support to the Tibetan resistance.”

**** ****

The CIA had helped an armed revolt against China .

“ In 1955, a group of local Tibetan leaders secretly plotted an armed uprising, and rebellion broke out in 1956, with the rebels besieging several Chinese government agencies, killing hundreds of Chinese government staff, and killing many Han Chinese people. In May 1957, a rebel organization and rebel fighting force were established and began exterminating communist officials, discombobulating communication lines, and bombarding institutions and Chinese army troops deployed in the region. … It was in the shared interest of both Tibet and the United States to limit the power of the Chinese within Tibet’s borders. Americans thought that this would be a great opportunity to prevent the spread of Communism throughout Southeast Asia. Starting in 1956, the CIA initiated a large scale clandestine operation against the communist Chinese. During December 1956, the Dalai Lama had left Tibet to attend a Buddhist celebration in India.

“…Because they viewed Chinese as a direct threat to their religion, they viewed animal life as more sacred than the life of the Chinese communists against whom they rebelled. In late 1958… the CIA trained more Tibetans at Camp Hale with a total of 259 Tibetans trained over five years in tactics representative of guerrilla warfare. The CIA established a secret military training camp called Camp Hale, located near Leadville, Colorado, where the Tibetans were trained to sabotage operations against the Communist Chinese. One of the reasons for the location of Camp Hale was its elevation–10,000 feet above sea level. The altitude preference was thought to mimic the terrain and climate of the Himalayas. The camp shut down in 1966, despite the conclusion of program training occurring already in 1961.” (Same source)

(The author is a political commentator. He contributed a few articles to countercurrents.org)

30 April 2019

Source: countercurrents.org

By Satya Sagar

In the times we live in, where smoke and mirrors are the world’s two chief weapons of war, fiction is a better guide to contemporary events than ‘facts’ presented by governments and media. A case in point are the horrific Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, that killed over 250 and maimed scores of people, and has sparked fears of the dreaded Islamic State’s growing presence in the region.

If you really want to know what the story is, forget searching the mainstream narrative. It is far better to watch the popular Netflix serial Sacred Games – which depicts a deadly mix of the Mumbai mafia, ambitious ‘patriotic’ politicians and religious extremists causing violence and mayhem.

For, as details emerge and reactions from key players follow, the terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka follow a pattern from several other similar operations over the last couple of decades. Yes, a handful of fanatics do carry out the actual attacks, but they are pawns in the hands of other very powerful forces, who monitor and even aid their actions, for various political and strategic purposes.

As of now, evidence in the public domain seems to show that the Easter Sunday attacks, were the work of a handful of home-grown Islamic radicals belonging to the National Thowheeth Jama’ath. Their claimed motive for the attack, which targeted churches and hotels frequented by foreign visitors, was to ‘avenge’ the massacre of Muslims at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand by a white supremacist.

However, it is difficult to believe this tiny group acted entirely on their own, unnoticed by those in authority or power and were not manipulated for goals that had nothing to do with what they themselves had in mind.

To begin with, given the fact that the Christchurch killings took place on 15 March,how likely is that within a month, a group of Muslim religious extremists in faraway Sri Lanka had put together enough explosives, scouted target locations, convinced eight people to become suicide bombers and carried out the well-coordinated attacks? Obviously preparations for the Sri Lanka bombings must have been done over several years if not more, as also pointed out in parliament by the former Sri Lankan Army Chief turned politician Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.

If the plan was hatched several years ago the question arises, whether at that time, the original target would still have been churches? Why would they be a target for Muslim extremists, given there was hardly any history of animosity between the Muslim and Christian communities in Sri Lanka? If at all the two religious minorities would have had many reasons to be supportive of each other, as both have been battling hate campaigns and violence from Sinhala chauvinists and Buddhist extremist organizations since 2009, when Sri Lanka’s four decade long civil war against the Tamil separatist group LTTE ended.

So, was it then a target chosen by the terrorists or their handlers only in the last month or so – as a reaction to the Christchurch massacre in mid-March? That is of course possible and if true would indicate their willingness to be part of an abstract ‘global jihad’ and the extent of brainwashing the suicide bombers, mostly educated and from well-off families, had undergone.

Or was it the case that those handlingthe bombers were not aiming any message at the world in general but trying to shape politics in South Asia itself – in particular Sri Lanka and neighbouring India – both countries where ‘national security’ and ‘anti-terrorism’ have become key issues determining who will win or lose national elections? It is the timing of these bombings makes them quite suspicious.

The blasts happened bang in the middle of the Indian elections – where incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is busy mobilizing votes for reelection, whipping up fear of terrorism and promising tougher security measures as his major planks. Modi has already used the Easter Sunday bombings repeatedly in his election speeches, citing them as an example of why India needs a ‘strong leadership’ to provide security to ordinary citizens. Since 22nd April the Indian media too has been awash with stories of how a bunch of Islamic terrorists are threatening peace all over South Asia, further feeding into the ruling BJP’s propaganda about India being under siege from Muslim ‘infiltrators and extremists’.

Sri Lanka itself is scheduled for a general election before end of 2019 – one in which Gothabaya Rajapaksa, former Defence Minister is likely to be a frontrunning candidate. He and his brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, are both venerated by Sinhala nationalists for their ‘tough on terrorism’ position and for leading the country to victory against the LTTE.

Not surprisingly within a week of the Easter Sunday bombings Gothabaya has already announced that, if elected President, he would stop the spread of Islamist extremism by rebuilding the intelligence service and increasing surveillance of citizens. Several Sri Lankan commentators have noted Gothabaya as the biggest beneficiary of the terrorist attack – in political terms- as they have hugely boosted his chances of becoming the next President.

One does not have to be a crazy conspiracy theorist to suspect the mainstream narrative of what the Easter Sunday bombings were all about. A very obvious reason suspicion is the truly strange fact that Sri Lanka’s topmost political leaders and security officials did nothing to stop the bombings despite having very detailed information about these Islamist radicals, their identities, intentions and targets.

Not only did Sri Lanka’s Muslim community leaders repeatedly warn national authorities about the extremist activities of National Thowheeth Jama’ath and its leader Zahran Hashim, but Indian and other intelligence agencies tipped off top security officials in Colombo about the group’s plans along with specific sites they were targeting. Indian intelligence itself is believed to have got their information after interrogating alleged Islamic State sympathisers in September 2018 arrested from Coimbatore.

Though, they need not have interrogated anyone at all and instead just followed the incendiary YouTube videos that Zahran Hasmim, the leader of the suicide squad, was posting – many of them while based in different parts of southern India. Very strangely he was never apprehended by Indian intelligence at all and later when they tipped off their Sri Lankan counterparts about possible terrorist attacks– there was no follow up either. They could have easily gone public with the information they had, when there was no obvious action being taken. So, what exactly were they waiting for – the bombs to go off?

Another explanation for the terrible security lapse is that it was just sheer incompetence on the part of Sri Lanka’s security forces lulled into complacency after successful wiping out of the LTTE, once the world’s most deadly armed movement anywhere, a decade ago.It has also been suggested by several commentators, was the security screw-up due to infighting between Sri Lanka’s top politicians – President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Since October 2018 Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, former political rivals who became allies in 2015 to win the national elections, have turned foes again and engaged in a bitter battle for control over the government. Sirisena sought to replace Wickremesinghe as PM by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, someone he had publicly broken away from back in 2014. The coup was however foiled by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, which ruled Wickremesinghe was the legitimate PM, as per the country’s Constitution.

For the last six months the President and PM of the country have been ostensibly working at cross purposes and plotting their strategy for the next general elections. After the Easter Sunday bombings Wickremesinghe claimed that intelligence information about possible terrorist attacks, that was given to Sirisena in early April this year, was hidden from him.

Was the Sri Lankan PM suggesting that the Sri Lankan President knew about the terrorist plot but allowed it to go ahead? What would be Sirisena’s possible motive to do that – unless he was trying to help his mentors Mahinda and Gothabaya Rajapaksa in their bid to return to power through elections later this year?[1]

All this may sound very diabolical, but one should remember that we are talking about people who conducted one of the most brutal wars against their own citizens in recent history anywhere – one which saw thousands killed, journalists and dissidents abducted, tortured and murdered. Over 40,000 Tamils taking refuge in government-sponsored ‘No Fire Zone’ at Mullaivaikal in northern Sri Lanka, were deliberately shelled and killed by Sri Lankan armed forces just in the last few weeks of the war in 2009. After the defeat of the LTTE, many thousand Tamil youth also disappeared without trace while scores of prisoners of war were summarily executed.

Significantly, just a day after the Easter Sunday bombings Mahinda Rajapaksa blamed the security failure on the Sri Lankan government ‘succumbing’ to global pressure to ensure accountability for the 2009 war crimes.

“From the moment this government came into power in January 2015, they have been persecuting the members of the armed forces and the intelligence services that ended that war” said Rajapaksa claiming the incumbent government was paying a heavy price for running the country ‘according to the dictates coming from foreign countries’.

The ‘global pressure’ he was referring to was of course Resolution 30/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council passed in March 2015, following a UN investigation, calling upon the Sri Lankan government to set up a transitional justice mechanism to address allegations of various atrocities and human rights abuses committed by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. At that time, the newly elected President Sirisena, supported the UNHRC Resolution and pledged cooperation – facing strong criticism from the Rajapaksa brothers and Sinhala chauvinist groups.

Four years down the line it is clear that Sirisena was basically warding off international scrutiny by pretending to play along, while stalling for time. As of date virtually none of the measures sought as part of the transitional justice mechanism have been implemented. Instead, Sri Lanka has brazenly refused to comply with Resolution 30/1, which required Sri Lanka to appoint international judges, defence lawyers, prosecutors and investigators to ensure the credibility of the justice process apart from establishing a Truth Commission, an Office of Missing Persons as also an Office for Reparations.

What is important to note here is that – despite their political rivalry – both President Sirisena and PM Wickremesinghe have been completely united in their resolve to block all international effort to punish any Sri Lankans involved in war crimes or crimes against humanity. Since 2009, many of the top army and naval officers involved in the Mullaivaikal massacre- venerated as war heroes by Sinhala chauvinists- have been rewarded with plum diplomatic and other postings.

Incidentally, on 7 April, just two weeks prior to the Easter Sunday bombings Gothabaya Rajapaksa, a dual US-Sri Lanka citizen, was served notices charging him in two cases of torture and murder during war time. Gothbaya was in Pasadena, California and on his way to attend an event organized to “Meet the future president” by former Sri Lankan consul in Los Angeles Malraj de Silva.

While the first case was filed by International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), an NGO, on behalf of a Tamil torture victim the other was by Ahimsa Wickrematunge, daughter of well-known Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was shot in broad daylight by gunmen in January 2009. It is widely believed that Lasantha was killed after he exposed a controversial fighter aircraft deal implicating Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in a kickback scheme.

The two notices were, an indication of how the noose is tightening around the Rajapaksas for their past crimes. The terrorist attacks took place just two weeks later on 22 April, changing both the national and global discourse on Sri Lanka.Overnight, the story was nolonger about a country run by war criminals who need to brought to justice but one of a beleaguered nation threatened by global jihadists –none less than the biggest villain of them all – the Islamic State or Daesh itself.

The sheer number of long-term objectives that have been achieved with the Easter Sunday bombings on behalf of Sri Lanka’s nationalists and Buddhist chauvinists – who believe the entire country belongs only to them, all others being second-class citizens – is staggering. If one stone can be used to kill two birds as the saying goes, then a few terrorist bombs seem to have knocked off an entire flock of winged creatures.

Firstly the country’s Christians – harassed for long by Buddhist extremists- have been directly hit. Their churches destroyed and many community members killed and they are not likely to raise their heads to demand any of their rights for a long time to come.

The blame for these attacks has been squarely put on extremist Muslims (which is factually correct, as per information we have now) making it easier to put the entire community under permanent siege. Already the Sri Lankan government has ordered a house-to-house search for terrorists – no prizes for guessing whose houses- and banned the wearing of the veil in public by Muslim women. The fate of Sri Lanka’s Muslims as second-class citizens, a status accorded to the country’s Tamil population for long, seems to firmly sealed now.

At the latest UNHRC meeting in March 2019 Sri Lanka was censured for its failure to take any effective steps towards providing justice to the victims of the 2009 massacre but still managed to find enough international support to extend its deadline for compliance by another two years. The 22nd April attacks are now likely to be used by Sri Lanka to scuttle the entire transitional justice process imposed on it by the UN and the international community – all in the name of ‘ensuring national security’.

And the great, crowning glory of this entire, sordid episode of Sri Lanka’s Sacred Games, will be when elections happenend of the year and Gothabaya Rajapaksa is finally elected President.

The only hope now, is the possibility that he will not be greeted on this occasion by his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, who may not be the Prime Minister of India anymore by that time.

Satya Sagar is a journalist and public health worker who can be reached at sagarnama@gmail.com

[1]Incidentally, a December 2016 report in the Sri Lanka Mirror, that claimed both the National Thowheeth Jamaa’th and the Buddhist extremist group Bodu Bala Sena were funded from the same account set up by Sri Lankan intelligence when Mahinda was President has completely disappeared from the net. https://srilankamirror.com/news/796-thowheed-jamath-bbs-both-funded-by-single-secret-account

30 April 2019

Source: countercurrents.org

By Countercurrents Team

The past year has been immensely successful for the war industry.

The world has spent $1.8 trillion on its military in 2018. The US is leading the charge, while some of its NATO allies are also buffing their war budgets citing the Russian threat despite Moscow decreasing its military spending.

The driving force behind this increase is the growing appetite of the US military-industrial complex rather than real threats, analysts say. Washington’s close friend Saudi Arabia is the third largest military spender, coming ahead of India.

New data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on April 29, 2019:

Total world military expenditure rose to $1822 billion in 2018. It represents an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2017.

The five biggest spenders in 2018 were the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia, India and France. These five biggest spenders together accounted for 60 per cent of global military spending.

Military spending by the USA increased for the first time since 2010, while spending by China grew for the 24th consecutive year.

Total global military spending rose for the second consecutive year in 2018, to the highest level since 1988 — the first year for which consistent global data is available.

World military spending is now 76 per cent higher than the post-cold war low in 1998. World military spending in 2018 represented 2.1 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) or $239 per person.

According to Dr Nan Tian, a researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX) program, in 2018 the USA and China accounted for half of the world’s military spending. The higher level of world military expenditure in 2018 is mainly the result of significant increases in spending by these two countries.

USA and China lead increase in world military expenditure

US military spending grew — for the first time since 2010 — by 4.6 per cent, to reach $649 billion in 2018. The USA remained by far the largest spender in the world, and spent almost as much on its military in 2018 as the next eight largest-spending countries combined.

Dr Aude Fleurant, the director of the SIPRI AMEX program, said: “The increase in US spending was driven by the implementation from 2017 of new arms procurement programs under the Trump administration.”

China, the second-largest spender in the world, increased its military expenditure by 5.0 per cent to $250 billion in 2018. This was the 24th consecutive year of increase in Chinese military expenditure. Its spending in 2018 was almost 10 times higher than in 1994, and accounted for 14 per cent of world military spending.

“Growth in Chinese military spending tracks the country’s overall economic growth,” says Tian. “China has allocated 1.9 per cent of its GDP to the military every year since 2013.”

Three decades of growth in military spending in Asia and Oceania

Military expenditure in Asia and Oceania has risen every year since 1988. At $507 billion, military spending in the region accounted for 28 per cent of the global total in 2018, compared with just 9.0 per cent in 1988.

India Pakistan S Korea

In 2018, India increased its military spending by 3.1 per cent to $66.5 billion.

Military expenditure by Pakistan grew by 11 per cent (the same level of growth as in 2017), to reach $11.4 billion in 2018.

South Korean military expenditure was $43.1 billion in 2018 — an increase of 5.1 per cent compared with 2017 and the highest annual increase since 2005.

Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI AMEX program, said: “The tensions between countries in Asia as well as between China and the USA are major drivers for the continuing growth of military spending in the region.”

Increases in Central and East European countries

Several countries in Central and Eastern Europe made large increases in their military expenditure in 2018.

Spending by Poland rose by 8.9 per cent in 2018 to $11.6 billion, while Ukraine’s spending was up by 21 per cent to $4.8 billion.

Spending by Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania also grew (ranging from 18 per cent to 24 per cent) in 2018.

Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI AMEX program, said: “The increases in Central and Eastern Europe are largely due to growing perceptions of a threat from Russia. This is despite the fact that Russian military spending has fallen for the past two years.”

Russia

Russia slipped two places to claim sixth spot by spending some $61.4 billion on the military in 2018, 3.5 percent less than in 2017.

South America

Military spending in South America rose by 3.1 per cent in 2018. This was mainly due to the increase in Brazilian spending (by 5.1 per cent), the second increase in as many years.

Africa

Military expenditure in Africa fell by 8.4 per cent in 2018, the fourth consecutive annual decrease since the peak in spending in 2014. There were major decreases in spending by Algeria (–6.1 per cent), Angola (–18 per cent) and Sudan (–49 per cent).

Middle East

Military spending by states in the Middle East for which data is available fell by 1.9 per cent in 2018. Total military expenditure by all 29 North Atlantic Treaty Organization members was $963 billion in 2018, which accounted for 53 per cent of world spending.

Largest absolute increase

The largest absolute increase in spending in 2018 was by the USA ($27.8 billion), while the biggest decrease was by Saudi Arabia (–$4.6 billion).

Turkey

Military spending in Turkey increased by 24 per cent in 2018 to $19.0 billion, the highest annual percentage increase among the world’s top 15 military spenders.

Highest military burden

Six of the 10 countries with the highest military burden (military spending as a proportion of GDP) in the world in 2018 are in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia (8.8 per cent of GDP), Oman (8.2 per cent), Kuwait (5.1 per cent), Lebanon (5.0 per cent), Jordan (4.7 per cent) and Israel (4.3 per cent).

[All percentage changes are expressed in real terms (constant 2017 prices).]

SIPRI said:

SIPRI monitors developments in military expenditure worldwide and maintains the most comprehensive, consistent and extensive data source available on military expenditure.

Military expenditure refers to all government spending on current military forces and activities, including salaries and benefits, operational expenses, arms and equipment purchases, military construction, research and development, and central administration, command and support.

SIPRI therefore discourages the use of terms such as ‘arms spending’ when referring to military expenditure, as spending on armaments is usually only a minority of the total.

SIPRI tracks the data since 1988.

If the world were to spend this money on something else, the amount in question would constitute 2.1 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) or $239 per person, according to the SIPRI report.

Washington’s NATO allies

Washington’s NATO allies have seen pressure from the US related to their military spending ever since Donald Trump came to power in the White House. It has less to do with security of the alliance and more with the interests of the US arms manufacturers.

Hawks in the U.S. typically justify the need for ever-increasing military expenditures with some perceived threats from Russia or China, portraying them as warmongers.

The US and its allies grossly outspend all the nations they perceive as alleged threats. The US expenditures alone accounted for 36 percent of global defense spending while exceeding the expenditures of the next eight largest-spending countries combined in 2018.

NATO’s total military spending accounted for 53 percent of the global defense expenditures.

China’s defense budget amounted to only a fraction of the US one and accounted for 14 percent of the global military spending.

However, these facts do not stop the biggest military spender in the world – U.S. – to accuse Moscow of somehow initiating an “arms race.”

30 April 2019

Source: countercurrents.org

Palestinians pledge to continue the dream of passing land to their children and grandchildren amid accelerating seizures

By Shatha Hammad

Tayseer Ataya stands, leaning on his cane and gazing at his plot of land on Risan hill, west of Ramallah. The 65-year-old man has been forbidden from accessing his property for close to a year. In August 2018, Israeli settlers built homes for themselves on parts of Ataya’s 25-acre (104 dunum) land in the village of Ras Karkar. He says from that moment onwards, he knew his dreams of passing on the land to his children and grandchildren were crushed. ‘It is this struggle that I’ll be passing on to my children, who will never give up’

His plot is just one parcel of close to 250 acres (1,000 dunum) of land that Israel first laid its hand on in 1983. A military court had frozen a land confiscation order, and that remained the case for the past 35 years. Over the past year, however, settlement construction intensified. On 16 August, a new agricultural settler outpost was built, in just two days. Livestock and water tanks were brought, a new road was paved to serve the Jewish-only community, and Israeli army reinforcements arrived to provide protection.

Speaking to Middle East Eye, Ataya says that the confiscation order is not limited to the 247 acres, but will extend further than that under the pretext of security. “I’ve tried to access my land several times, but every time I approach it, soldiers surrounded me and prevent me from walking over to it,” he says. Ataya inherited his land through his paternal grandfather. “I will not give up on my land. Even though I have difficulty walking, I try to access my land every week, and I will not stop trying to retrieve it,” he says.

Ottoman law
Next to Ataya stands 52-year-old lawyer Wadi’ Nofal. He holds a stack of papers that proves the ownership of 75 heirs within his family over close to nine acres (40 dunums) of land on Risan hill. “Many Israeli judges live in the settlements built on our private land, so we do not expect He explained that the land was seized based on the 1858 Ottoman law which Israel has been using since 1980 to expropriate private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

In 1968, a year after Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip; it stopped the land registration process in the newly occupied territories. Until 1980, Israel had been using military orders to confiscate private Palestinian land and build settlements on them, while claiming security needs.

In 1979, however, Palestinians whose land was confiscated petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice (HCJ), arguing a violation of international law, and won. But the case was rare; the court could not rule that the establishment of the settlement would serve military needs, because settlers testified they intended to live there for religious and political reasons.

Facts on the ground
Following the court’s ruling, Israel began rewriting provisions within the Ottoman Land Code and applying its own interpretation, to declare private Palestinian property as state land. Between 1979 and 2002, Israel declared more than 220 acres (90,000 hectares) of land as state land. The latter now makes up 22 percent of the entire West Bank. “They are creating facts on the ground, by taking over land and expanding into the surrounding territories,” says Wadi’.

He explained that the 247 acres of land (1,000 dunum) are owned by Palestinians from surrounding villages of Ras Karkar, Khirbetha Bani Hareth, and Kufr Ni’ma. Wadi’ arranges the stack of paper in his hands and grips it tightly lest the papers are blown away by the wind. “It’s extremely painful, that I am standing here, just a few metres away from my land, and not able to reach it. It is painful for me to be a lawyer and not have the ability to defend my rights.”

‘Consequences for the entire region’
Abdullah Abu Rahma, from the Palestinian Authority’s National Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements, tells MEE that the outpost is merely a prelude to the establishment of a large settlement on Risan hill – under Area C of the occupied West Bank. Abu Rahma explains that the goal, aside from taking over land, is to link the nearby settlements west of Ramallah with one of the major settlements in the area – Modi’in Ilit – where some 70,000 Israelis live.

The latter has been built on lands belonging to the Palestinian villages Nilin, Safa, Deir Qaddis and Khirbetha Bani Hareth. “This plan won’t only affect landowners, it will have consequences for the entire region of the West Bank and Jerusalem,” he continues, explaining that it will obstruct the territorial contiguity of Palestinian villages and their natural expansion.

‘Land means life’
Naser Nofal, 63, owns 10 dunums on the Risan hill, which he inherited from his great grandfather. “Anyone who comes to this area, and sees it, will know very well that Israel’s claims are false,” says Naser. “Our lands are cultivated and rich with 400-year-old trees. We have always tended to our lands.”

He knows that it is a strategic area for Israeli settlers. The hill has a view of the country’s coastline, as well as the Jordanian hills, and the holy city, Jerusalem. “By using false claims and forced laws they are taking over the hilltops, and stealing Palestinian lands, which are a source of daily sustenance,” continues Naser. “Land means life. I will continue to defend my land until I die, and I will not let Israelis take it over.”

Settler assaults
Radi Abu Fakhida, head of the Karkar village council, tells MEE that another petition was filed against the confiscation decision, but that Israeli courts had rejected the appeal. It did, however, issue a ruling in favour of land owned by one of the residents, Ibrahim Abu Fakhida, upon which a 700-metre long road was built to serve the Israeli settlement.

“If we succeed in retrieving [Ibrahim’s] land, we would be able to block the road to the new settlement and halt the movement of settlers into this area,” says Radi. “The Israeli army has prevented us from doing this so far, and claims there are no alternative road to the settlement.” Ras Karkar village lies about 15km west of Ramallah city, and has a total area of about 7,000 dunum (1,730 acres). It is surrounded by six Israeli settlements built on parts of the village’s land. Radi, the head of the council, says that some 2,000 dunums of property (close to 500 acres), have been confiscated so far for the building of settlements and settlement infrastructure.

Settler attacks against the village, he continues, have escalated intensively since August 2018. At least 130 ancient Roman olive trees have been cut down, anti-Palestinian, racist slogans have been graphitized on vehicles, and famers are continuously prevented from reaching their lands. “The families of Ras Karkar have not surrendered in the face of settler assaults. They go to their lands and farms on a daily basis and harvest their crops,” says Radi.

Defending the land
Israeli confiscation orders have also hit the nearby village of Kufr Ni’ma, which extends onto Risan hill. Khaldoun al-Dik, head of Kufr Ni’ma’s village council, explains that Israeli authorities confiscated more than 160 acres (650 dunum) of property belonging to families of the village.
A road serving the settlement took up some an additional 60 acres (250 dunum) of village land. Families who had their land stolen tried all available, non-violent methods, to retrieve their lands, says al-Dik. They petitioned Israeli courts and held sit-ins on their properties.

“This is Palestinian land and we have the documents to prove it,” says al-Dik. “Confiscating these lands and building settlements on them means that the security of the area will be greatly affected, and the colonial policies will extend onto more village land.”

Since August 2018, Risan hill has been a hotspot for confrontations between Palestinians hailing from the various surrounding villages attempting to reach their lands, and Israeli occupation soldiers, in rejection of colonial policies. The families tend to hold Friday prayers on the hill as an act of protest. Israeli soldiers respond with a flurry of tear gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets.

Back in Ras Karkar, Ataya says that more Palestinians need to protest against discriminatory Israeli policies. “We need thousands of Palestinians to come here and defend this land with us,” says.

28 April 2019

Source: palestineupdates.com

By Ranjan Solomon

In this issue of Palestine Updates, we bring you narratives of Palestinian farmers who speak with defiance and longing about the land they have lost. It is theirs but often stolen from under their very noses. They can gaze in gloom and hope. Many have grown old from the day they were driven from the land in the horrors of The Nakba; then the occupation. And now the Nakba grows as ethnic cleansing is pursued with impunity while the world watches in tacit acceptance of the war criminalities happen in front of our very own eyes. More land is stolen and settlements come up. We are complicit in that crime of ethnic cleansing by our hush and apathy. And yet, Palestinians will not budge from the highway of hope. Indian writer, novelist, and political commentator put it best when she argued: “The system will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability”.

Palestinian farmers are doing just this. They are asserting: “Land means life.”Despite Israel’s military superiority, they invest their hopes in the notion of justice and persistent resistance. “We need thousands of Palestinians to come here and defend this land with us,” they insist.

28 April 2019

Source: palestineupdates.com

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – “I gave leadership to the government that defeated the terrorists that no one thought could ever be defeated. From the moment this government came into power in January 2015, they have been persecuting the members of the armed forces and the intelligence services that ended that war,” said former President and Current Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapakse in an emotional 10 minute address to parliament on April 23.

With his voice almost cracking up with emotion, the war-winning president said that “the armed forces personnel who carried out their duties on behalf of the nation were harassed and hunted down by this government”. He slammed the government for listening to foreign (western) powers and undermining national security.

“The government should at least now realise that you cannot run this country according to the dictates coming from foreign countries. We have to solve our own problems. Because the government was engaged in relentlessly persecuting its own armed forces, we became an easy target for terrorists,” pointed out Rajapakse, adding that “no other country in the world has persecuted and weakened their own armed forces and intelligence services in this manner”.

While social media is blocked by the government, his comments have triggered a debate in much of the mainstream media about how the government led by President Maitripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been inept at protecting the security of the country, because they have allowed western governments, NGOs funded by them and UN organisations like the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to dictate national security policies to them.

In September 2015, the government virtually surrendered the policy making process to the UNHRC when it co-sponsored a resolution calling upon the government to account for alleged war crimes and missing persons during the final push to eliminate one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world at the time, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

This has led to pressure on the government to set up war crimes courts with foreign judges, set up a missing persons investigation centre and imprisonment of former intelligence officers and army personnel, many of whom are seen by most Sri Lankans as war heroes, who brought peace to the country. At the time of the Easter Sunday attack, the government was on the verge of repealing the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ under the dictates of the West and UNHRC.

“If that had happened what position would we be at today?” asked Rajapakse.

In a video interview given by leading Constitutional Lawyer Manohara de Silva on April 23 that was widely circulated via email, he also slammed the government for giving the responsibility for the country’s security to the international community. He blamed the 2015 UNHRC resolution for the current situation where the country’s security guard was lowered.

He pointed out that the new anti-terror law that was presented to parliament recently, makes it impossible to pursue or charge anyone for terrorism activity if that person is a foreign national – even though he may have been a Sri Lankan national before.

“If the country he lives now don’t agree, we can’t charge him,” he notes. “So this law is going to be subservient to the West (because most of those who support terrorism in Sri Lanka have obtained asylum in Western countries, especially LTTE sympathisers)”. He accuses the government of trying to please the West rather than protecting “our citizens”.

Silva pointed out in the interview that about 40 intelligence officers who helped to end terrorism in Sri Lanka are now behind bars. “They are still held on remand when there is no sound evidence against them,” he notes. “If so they should be charged by now.”

This has led to a situation, argues Silva, that intelligence officers are afraid to investigate terrorism threats today because they are worried that they would be framed like those in jail. “We cannot operate our intelligence services this way. This is why we have to depend on Indian intelligence,” he argues.

Silva also points out that 54 bills have been passed against “our army” under pressure from UNHRC and the missing persons act passed does not allow the police to the investigations, but delegates it to the ‘Office of Missing Persons’ that is stacked with anti-national NGO types, one of whom is Dr Nilmalka Fernando, a well-known anti-Buddhist western-funded NGO activist.

In a statement released to the media today on April 25, Sri Lanka’s major Buddhist chapter, Asgiriya chapter, called upon the government to give an immediate pardon to all imprisoned intelligence officials and draft them back into the country’s national security framework. “Religious extremism spread in the country because experienced intelligence officials have been imprisoned for various reasons. They did an immense service to defeat terrorism. We need to consider our national security and they should be pardoned and released immediately,” the statement said.

Another Sri Lankan lawyer, Dharshan Weerasekare, author of ‘UN’s Relentless Pursuit of Sri Lanka’ in a commentary published in Lankaweb has called into question the timing and reason for the Easter Sunday attack.

“What is crucial is that the bombings not be permitted to become a pretext for the Government to join the U.S.’s ‘War on Terror.’ For the past four years, the U.S. and India (the U.S.’s new ally in Asia) have been busy trying to gain maximum indirect control over Sri Lanka in order to prevent the Chinese from establishing a presence in this country,” he argues.“They would have succeeded had it not been for the collapse of the ‘National Government’ and the subsequent collapse of the drive to enact a new Constitution”.

With both presidential and parliamentary elections due in Sri Lanka within the next 12 months, the nationalist alliance led by Rajapakse is strongly tipped to win both elections. Survival of the staunchly pro-Western Wickremasingle is crucial for the West to control Sri Lanka’s destiny.

In March 2018 when a no-confidence motion against the PM was gathering momentum a riot broke out between Muslims and Buddhists in Central Sri Lanka. Timely action by local community leaders of both communities prevented it becoming a major nationwide conflict.

Then when Sirisena sacked Wickremasinghe and appointed Rajapakse as PM in November 2018, Western ambassadors in Colombo openly interfered in the domestic political process to get Wickremasinghe reinstalled. Now come the terror attacks that have the potential to create chaos in the country so that Sri Lanka could be called a ‘failed state’, ripe for the West’s new-colonialism via the R2P (Right to Protect) framework.

“Sri Lanka which sits at a strategically vital spot in the Indian Ocean is crucial for both the Americans as well as the Chinese, the former in order to further entrench their control over this region, the latter to break out of the ‘encirclement’“ notes Weerasekare, pointing out that a new government that would take power after elections next year could be heavily pro-nationalist as well as pro-Chinese.

“In short, all the hopes that the Americans/Indians had in January 2015 are now in ruins, and the ‘gains’ they made in the last four years are very much in danger of being reversed.”

Sri Lanka’s oldest leftist party Lanka Sama Samaji Party (LSSP), while issuing a condolence message to victims of the bombing, said there was something more sinister than what meets the eye. “This whole attack has similarities with events abroad that have been attributed to the CIA of the USA,” the statement argued.

The statement added: “It is known that the CIA and USA think tanks are operating here with the support of the Government. With the blue print for a police state, the diabolical Counter Terrorist Act (CTA) available, to ensure that the UNF (governing alliance) can stay in power, without holding elections, the path to becoming a neo-colony of the USA can go ahead without interruption.”

Thus, what happened on Easter Sunday, may not be merely a jihadist attack on Christians and Western tourists to take revenge on the New Zealand Christchurch massacre in March 2019. This could well be part of the dirty geo-political wars being fought around the world by major powers with young brainwashed religious zealots as fodder. [IDN-InDepthNews – 25 April 2019]

Photo: The Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, which was among three Colombo hotels hit by suicide bombers on Easter Sunday. CC BY-SA 4.0

IDN is flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate.

facebook.com/IDN.GoingDeeper – twitter.com/InDepthNews

25 April 2019

Source: www.indepthnews.net

By Mike Head

The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci, was finally permitted yesterday to meet with Julian Assange inside London’s Belmarsh prison.

The WikiLeaks journalist and publisher has been held virtually incommunicado, in denial of his fundamental legal and democratic rights, since the British police dragged him out of Ecuador’s embassy more than two weeks ago.

This has become a global battle for free speech and right of the public to know the truth about the crimes being committed by governments and their state agencies around the world.

Assange is being persecuted, and subjected to an unprecedented legal assault, for publishing millions of secret documents exposing political conspiracies and corporate crimes. Without this extraordinary record of authentic investigative journalism since 2006, this information would have remained suppressed.

Confronted by worldwide protests and petitions against the illegal termination of Assange’s political asylum and the immediate launching of proceedings to extradite Assange to the US, the British government felt compelled to grant the UN access. Cannataci became the first person allowed into Belmarsh prison to visit Assange, who has even been denied his right to speak to his family.

For weeks, the UN has been investigating the blanket surveillance conducted by Ecuador’s government against Assange inside its embassy.

On April 10, WikiLeaks revealed that hundreds of thousands of documents, audio recordings, videos and photos were taken in the embassy. Assange was arrested the very next day, preventing a scheduled April 25 visit by Cannataci.

Ecuadorian officials spied on every aspect of Assange’s life for more than a year, including his medical consultations and confidential meetings with his lawyers. The obvious purpose of this illegal operation was to gather or concoct evidence that the Trump administration could use to indict and extradite Assange on manufactured conspiracy and espionage charges.

Outside the prison yesterday, Cannataci told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “There are strong indications that some elements of his privacy may have been breached.” He added: “The case is important because it concerns a very special set of circumstances where a person who is not formally under detention yet was subjected to surveillance.”

Having met with Assange for two hours, the UN special envoy reported that Assange was “in fairly good shape and certainly very cogent in replying to our questions.” This is another indication of Assange’s defiant determination to fight his removal to the US, despite the damage done to his health by his seven-year confinement inside the Ecuadorian embassy.

Interviewed by the Italian newspaper Repubblica, Cannataci pointed to the far-reaching nature of the spying. He said he was seeking access to the material currently held by the Spanish police, who are investigating an attempt to extort WikiLeaks for copies of the documents and videos.

“If and when my access is granted, that evidence might consist of thousands of hours of surveillance footage, which will take some time to watch.”

The UN rapporteur agreed with the Repubblica journalist, Stefania Maurizi, that the spying operation against Assange threatened an entire range of human rights, including lawyer-client confidentiality. “[T]here are many dimensions to the case, including freedom of expression, including whistleblowing, protection of journalistic sources,” he said.

The UN is investigating whether Ecuador violated Assange’s privacy under two cornerstones of international law—the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—by placing him under strict surveillance.

Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer representing Assange, an Australian citizen, said in a statement that his legal team welcomed the UN’s continued engagement in the case. “It is a matter of grave concern that Ecuador expelled Mr Assange from the embassy before the scheduled UN visit could take place,” she said.

Robinson said the legal team had also requested a visit to Assange by the UN special rapporteur on torture. She recalled that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had ruled in late 2015 that Assange was “arbitrarily detained,” as a result of having to remain in the embassy to protect himself from US extradition, and called for his release.

Chelsea Manning, the courageous whistleblower who leaked the infamous “Collateral Murder” video and many thousands of incriminating US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, has been held in solitary confinement for over six weeks because she has refused to give perjured testimony against Assange before a Grand Jury. Her continued detention is a transparent attempt to force her to cooperate in the US-led vendetta against Assange.

If Assange is dispatched to the US on bogus computer hacking charges, he will soon face additional charges, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty. This would set an international precedent for the jailing of journalists everywhere who expose government crimes and wrongdoing.

Since Assange’s arrest, numerous corporate publications have lined up directly behind this offensive. They have brazenly used Ecuador’s video footage and other illegal surveillance material to repeat the personal smears against Assange fabricated by the corrupt Ecuadorian regime to justify its termination of his political asylum.

These lies and slanders against Assange are in contrast to the immense support that he enjoys among the millions of workers, students and young people internationally who regard him and Manning as heroes. The mass opposition to Assange’s persecution must be transformed into a political movement to prevent his extradition and secure his freedom. The WSWS and the Socialist Equality Parties (SEP) around the world are playing a central role in this decisive fight.

Over the past 18 months, the SEP (Australia) has held a series of rallies, demanding that the Australian government immediately fulfil its obligations to Assange, as an Australian citizen, by securing his return to Australia, with a guarantee against extradition to the US.

Another rally, aimed at placing this demand at the centre of the May 18 Australian federal election, will be held in Sydney this Saturday, followed by meetings in a number of cities.

The SEP in the UK has taken part in protests and vigils calling for an all-out mobilisation against the moves to extradite Assange. It will participate in a London public meeting, called by the Julian Assange Defence Committee, today.

This crucial struggle is entirely bound up with the fight for genuine socialism. As the all-out assault on Assange and Manning by governments and the corporate media conglomerates demonstrates, securing fundamental democratic rights requires nothing less than the worldwide transformation of society by the working class to meet social needs, not the profit interests of the financial aristocracy.

This internationalist and socialist perspective animates the 2019 International Online May Day Rally, organised by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site. We urge our readers to register today.

Originally published in WSWS.org

26 April 2019

Source: countercurrents.org

By Rene Wadlow

On Tuesday, 23 April 2019, the United Nations Security Council voted resolution N° 2467 concerning the use of rape as a weapon in times of armed conflict. This resolution builds on an earlier resolution of 24 June 2013 which called for the complete and immediate cessation of all acts of sexual violation by all parties in armed conflicts. The new resolution introduced by Germany contained two new elements, both of which were eliminated in the intense negotiations in the four days prior to the vote of 13 in favor and two abstentions, those of Russia and China.

The first new element in the German proposed text concerned help to the victims of rape. The proposed paragraph was “urges United Nations entities and donors to provide non-discrimatory and comprehensive health services including sexual and reproductive health, psychosocial, legal and livelihodd support and other multi-sectoral services for survivors of sexual violence, taking into account the special needs of persons with disabilities.”

The U.S. delegation objected to this paragraph claiming that “sexual and reproductive health” were code words that opened a door to abortion. Since a U.S. veto would prevent the resolution as a whole, the paragraph was eliminated. There had been four days of intense discussions among the Security Council members concerning this paragraph, with only the U.S. opposed to any form of planned parenthood action. After the resolution was passed with the health paragraph eliminated, the Permanent Representative of France, Ambassador Francois Delatte spoke for many of the members saying “It is intolerable and incomprehensible that the Security Council is incapable of acknowledging that women and girls who suffered from sexual violence in conflict and who obviously didn’t choose to become pregnant should have the right to terminate their pregnancy.”

The second concept of the German draft that was eliminated was the proposal to create a working group to monitor and to review progress on ending sexual violence in armed conflict. Such a working group was opposed by the diplomats of Russia and China, both of which have the veto power. Thus, for the same reason as with the U.S. opposition, the idea of a monitoring working group was dropped. Both China and Russia are opposed to any form of U.N. monitoring, fearing that their actions on one topic or another would be noted by a monitoring group. The Russian diplomat had to add that he was against the added administrative burden that a monitoring group would present but that Russia was against sexual violence in conflict situations.

Thus the new U.N. Security Council resolution 2467 is weaker than it should have been, but is nevertheless a step forward in building awareness. The Association of World Citizens first raised the issue in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in March 2001 citing the judgement of the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia which maintained that there can be no time limitations on bringing an accused to trial. The Tribunal also reinforced the possibility of universal jurisdiction that a person can be tried not only by his national court but by any court claiming universal jurisdiction and where the accused is present.

The Association of World Citizens again stressed the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Special Session of the Commission on Human Rights Violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo citing the findings of Meredeth Turshen and Clotilde Twagiramariya in their book What Women Do in Wartime: Gender and Conflict in Africa. (London: Zed Press, 1998). They write “There are numerous types of rape. Rape is committed to boast the soldiers’ morale, to feed soldiers’ hatred of the enemy, their sense of superiority, and to keep them fighting: rape is one kind of war booty; women are raped because war intensifies men’s sense of entitlement, superiority, avidity, and social licence to rape: rape is a weapon of war used to spread political terror; rape can destabilize a society and break its resistance; rape is a form of torture; gang rapes in public terrorize and silence women because they keep the civilian population functioning and are essential to its social and physical continuity; rape is used in ethnic cleansing; it is designed to drive women from their homes or destroy their possibility of reproduction within or “for” their community; genocidal rape treats women as “reproductive vessels”; to make them bear babies of the rapists’ nationality, ethnicity, race or religion, and genocidal rape aggravates women’s terror and future stigma, producing a class of outcast mothers and children – this is rape committed with consciousness of how unacceptable a raped woman is to the patriarchal community and to herself. This list combines individual and group motives with obedience to military command; in doing so, it gives a political context to violence against women, and it is this political context that needs to be incorporated in the social response to rape.”

The Security Council resolution opens the door to civil society organizations to build on the concepts eliminated from the governmental resolution itself. Non-governmental organizations must play an ever-more active role in providing services to rape victims with medical, psychological and socio-cultural services. In addition, if the U.N. is unable to create a monitoring and review of information working group, then such a monitoring group will have to be the task of cooperative efforts among NGOs. It is always to be hoped that government acting together would provide the institutions necessary to promote human dignity. But with the failure of governments to act, our task as non-governmental representatives is set out for us.

Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

26 April 2019

Source: countercurrents.org

By Israel Today News

Tactical nukes and ground invasion planned for Iran, according to whistleblower.

18 Apr 2019 – President Donald Trump and his inner circle are planning an extensive invasion of Iran, according to a source working in the White House.

The plan involves a ground invasion and the use of tactical nuclear weapons, in a campaign planned for the Fall of 2019. Iran will be “wiped off the map” according to the source, and the war effort is expected to cost “two and half times the Iraq War.”

The war will be promoted by the news media and Trump will go right along with it, after an “expected False Flag pinned on Iran, probably something involving the boats in the Strait of Hormuz.” The False Flag is an “integral part of the plan” as Iran has reportedly no desire or intent to start a war, according to the whistleblower.

The war plans have the White House staff “in an excited tizzy” as war-hawks like John Bolton put the “finishing touches” on the planned strike. President Trump initially showed resistance to the plan, but has since jumped on board with enthusiasm, convinced Iran is an “existential threat to Israel” and as such, a war is required to “eliminate them.”

Further details have been revealed, including:

• 100 tactical nukes will be used to eliminate the Iranian military.
• 120,000 U.S. ground troops will be used in the invasion.
• France, the U.K., Canada, Saudi Arabia and Israel are expected to join a “coalition” in support of the war.
• CIA assets and counter-intel efforts have been ramped-up over the past year in preparation.
• A “False Flag” is being prepared to be used before the war with Iran.
• Propaganda is being prepped by White House and Israeli counterparts.
• Israel will support the effort and Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly “smiling ear to ear” during a recent meeting with John Bolton.
• There are concerns Trump’s “base” may resist or criticize the efforts, so further propaganda efforts are being made to “shore up support” for the war.
• Expected casualties range between 1.2 Million and 2 Million Iranians and 5,000 US troops.

Due to President Trump’s close relationship with Jared Kushner, a sense of “sober import” has been placed on the war effort, which is being as a fulfillment of “Jewish prophecy” within White House circles. Many in the White House believe Jared Kushner is the “Messiah” or Jewish “Moshiach” who cannot attain his “throne” until Iran is wiped out.

The White House source is a high level official who has been right about many other things in the past, and their identity has been verified.

The information in this article was provided to David Goldberg, a Jewish advocate and fellow at the Jewish Center for Antisemitic Study, by a former White House employee only known by the name of “Isabel”. Her story has been aired on Mr. Goldberg’s YouTube channel, and she continues to provide valuable information about what is going on in the Trump White House.

Antisemitic attacks against Mr. Goldberg continue, and are documented in his video series. Efforts to block this information and shut down the social media accounts of Mr. Goldberg continue to be an issue.

Israel Today News

22 April 2019

Source: www.transcend.org