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By Countercurrents.org

01 November, 2012

Countercurrents.org

Across the world, inequality and poverty are increasing as is increasing rich-poor gap. Now, none can ignore the fact.

“Global inequalities in wealth are at their highest level for 20 years and are growing, said a Save The Children report.

The report, Born Equal, how reducing inequality could give our children a better future, says continuing inequality could hinder further progress in improving living standards.

STC found that in most of the 32 developing countries it studied, the rich had increased their share of national income since the 1990s. In a fifth of the countries, the incomes of the poorest had fallen over the same period.

The report said:

“[A]cross the 32 countries […] studied, a child in the richest 10% of households has 35 times the effective available income of a child in the poorest 10% of households. The gaps between the poorest and richest children are considerably larger than the gaps between adults, suggesting that children experience a magnified inequality effect. And the gaps are increasing. Since the 1990s, across the 32 countries […] studied, the effective available incomes of the children in the poorest decile have actually declined as a share of GDP, while those of the children in the richest decile have increased. This means that the gap between the richest and poorest children has grown by 35% since the 1990s, the timeframe used to monitor progress towards the MDGs.”

The gap has become particularly pronounced among children and affects their well-being as well as causing disparities in several key indicators, the STC says.

The report notes that in Tanzania, child mortality in the richest fifth of the population fell from 135 to 90 per 1,000 births over the research period, while the poorest fifth saw hardly any progress with a modest fall of 140 to 137 per 1,000 births.

The report said: “[T]oday, despite the fact that inequalities between countries remain high, more than 70% of the world’s poorest people – up to a billion people – live in middle-income countries. This ‘new bottom billion’ of people in extreme poverty within countries that are growing wealthier has emerged within the last two decades as a crucial challenge for global development.”

The report said:

“[C]hild mortality rates are more than twice as high among the poorest, in countries with high income inequality such as Nigeria. Stunting rates can be up to six times higher in rural than in urban areas in countries with high spatial inequalities and with a big divide between rural and urban populations – for example, China. Gender inequality is still a strong driver of lower educational outcomes for girls. In Indonesia, there are twice as many illiterate women as men, and three times as many girls as boys are never enrolled in schools. In Nigeria, girls’ enrolment rate was 44%, while boys’ was 56%.”

It said: “One of the biggest blind spots in the MDG framework is the failure to address inequality comprehensively. Inequality is a complex issue. It manifests itself through different economic, social and political dimensions – you can experience inequalities in income, in healthcare coverage, in access to school or in political representation. And inequalities exist at many different levels. For example, there are income inequalities between people, and between countries.”

By Q. Isa Daudpota

01 November, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Pervez Hoodbhoy, one of Pakistan’s leading public intellectuals, has recently been told by LUMS that it will not be offering him an extension of contract. The background to this unfortunate decision by this well-known University is explored in the light of the decaying educational milieu in the country

We are a country rich in natural resources, currently hobbled by inequity, poor governance, and unable to provide for our burgeoning population. Beyond the basics of survival, the greatest burden faced by the people, especially the youth, is the absence of training for critical thinking. A repressive anti-intellectual environment exists where open rational dialogue is rare and fraught with danger.

Even elite schools and universities fail to make the interventions necessary to reverse the trend set in motion by General Zia ul Haq’s demonic regime. The brain-washed Zia-boomers (unlike the baby-boomer of the post WW II era who opened up societies in the late 60s) now in their 30s occupy most of the teaching positions. The distortion of Pakistan and world history in the curriculum and textbooks is uncritically transferred by them to the budding minds. This cycle needs to be broken.

Among the rare breed of educators who try to do this well is Pervez Hoodbhoy. He, now nearly twice the age of the Zia-boomers, has over the past 40 years countered the false notions of the orthodoxy. This was done while facing considerable animosity from colleagues and administrators during his stint at Quaid-i-Azam University (from which he retired 2 years ago). Incredibly, he almost relishes the noise and the thrill of knocking-out irrational ideas on talk shows fronted by mostly inane anchor-persons – perhaps a delicious reminder of his days in the boxing ring!

On retiring from QAU, PH accepted the repeated invitation of Mr Babar Ali, Chairman, Lahore University of Management Sciences’ Board, to take up employment in the Physics department. The denouement that led to the recent non-renewal of his contract is described meticulously in his letter to the VC, Dr Adil Najam, and others connected with LUMS, including a member of the International Advisory Board. The international board has asked for an explanation from the executives of LUMS. Neither they nor PH have as yet received a response. Also available are letters to Mr Babar Ali on this issue by Naeem Sadiq and I. See:

http://tinyurl.com/9spbj7z ,

http://tinyurl.com/97f6l4n and

http://tinyurl.com/d6mre3w .

PH wouldn’t have moved to LUMS had the vision of his guru, Eqbal Ahmad, to set up Khaldunia University in Islamabad become a reality. It was planned roughly around the time that LUMS started operating in rented houses in Lahore. Had Khaldunia started in a similar modest fashion, Eqbal Ahmad [See his publications at http://tinyurl.com/cg4t86a] leading the effort and with like-minded intellectuals in toe, it would have been a truly enlightened place of learning, markedly different from LUMS. This is run by a bloated Board of 53 men and one woman, wholly corporate types. See composition at:

http://tinyurl.com/9447jwa .

With his letter not receiving a response, PH in an interview to BBC Urdu website:

http://tinyurl.com/9sgd52c

states that his services were no renewed on ideological grounds by misrepresenting the contents of his course, “Science and Contemporary World Order”, hosted by LUMS’ School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The course’s primary purpose is to bridge the gap between science/technology and arts/humanities. There were however false rumors that he was in fact largely discussing the conflict of science and religion. (This of course is the subject of PH’s 1991 book, “Islam and Science” whose chapter titles and summary appears at

http://tinyurl.com/8gzd22q .

Also see his relatively recent essay at

http://tinyurl.com/ydoamf7 .)

The role of religion in every aspect of Pakistani life is very important, so even if PH’s course touched on some aspects of religion it should not have caused the LUMS administration to get its hackles up.

As for the truly significant issue of bridging the gap between the sciences and the arts, little effort has been made here. The notion that our universities, their system and the intellectual life they breed, is characterized by a split between “the two cultures” – the art/humanities on the one hand and science/technology on the other – has a history dating back to C. P. Snow’s 1959 essay, “The Two Cultures”. [Text available at: http://tinyurl.com/bo8z7mr ]

Science and engineering departments in Pakistan are loathe to give up what they think are “essential” courses. But this is precisely what is needed to ease the introduction of arts/humanities subjects into their curriculum. This can follow once the philosophy of the curriculum steers engineering education to principally serve the needs of the largest numbers, i.e. the poor people. Sadly the current narrow focus of our technical graduates is due to the narrow worldview and inertia of many top academics and administrators. The situation for arts/humanities is a lot worse as their graduates enter the job market with virtually no knowledge of science and technology that drives the world.

Why should an academic like PH wishing to excel in his field spend considerable time trying to bridge the divide between the two cultures, popularizing Physics and highlighting societal problems in the media, and for a decade be a voluntary advisor to LUMS’ nascent faculty of which he is currently a member? The reply to this comes from Dr Amer Iqbal, the former head of the Physics department. His is the first entry on the petition by students against LUMS’ decision. See:

http://tinyurl.com/8avqprm .

Newer claims by the LUMS authorities have been met by firm rebuttals by PH. Here is a partial list:

1. Claim: PH cannot be given a visiting contract because he has crossed 60. [BUT there 15+ such persons with visiting contracts, and two are over 70.]

2. Claim: The Physics department does not want PH to continue. [BUT the majority of the department’s teachers are strongly in favor of PH’s continuation as a visiting professor and have committed themselves in writing as well as in meetings with the dean both as a group as well as individually. The exception may be the chairman, who refuses to release the recommendation to the dean, which was supposed to reflect the position of the department.]

3. Claim: PH wants to fix the world and does not have time for LUMS. [BUT the document attached shows that PH taught substantially more than the normal load of courses, supervised more students than any physics faculty member, and gave more open talks on campus than any other faculty member.]

4. Claim: PH is expensive for LUMS to employ. [BUT he simply accepted what LUMS offered and his salary is no different from others in the visiting category.]

There are old reasons for Hoodbhoy doing what he does. To discover them take a peek at the first half of the 1960s, his early teen years in Karachi, a period when kids begin to ask awkward question and seek answers from those around them and from books. Passions developed in those impressionable years often become the driving force in the future. Those were pre-Internet years when students relied on two invaluable repositories of knowledge: The British Council and USIS Libraries.

Riding his pedal bike the considerable distance from his house in Soldier Bazar to Pakistan Chowk, PH often visited the rounded red building of British Council. It was on its shelves that he discovered Bertrand Russell (see his essays at http://tinyurl.com/8bc66wa ) who influenced his early ideas.

For me, perhaps the most moving piece of literature is the short Prologue,“What I Have Lived For”, to Russell’s autobiography (in full at http://tinyurl.com/8mh9erk ) from which I quote the first paragraph:

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.”

I don’t suppose PH has ever reached the “verge of despair” but he certainly has some of the passions of Russell: single-minded rationality, popularization of knowledge and a distaste of war.

These are passion he also shares with Noam Chomsky, arguably the most important public intellectual of our time. It was at PH’s invitation that Chomsky visited Pakistan to deliver 2001 Eqbal Ahmad Distinguished Lecture in honor of his old friend and comrade. Chomsky also recently talked to PH’s students at LUMS using Skype [See the end of http://tinyurl.com/97f6l4n ]. No other LUMS faculty member would – I hazard a guess – be able to get a such a busy, top world intellectual to agree immediately to interact long-distance with students here.

Despite a lot of knowledge now being available on the Net, libraries and information centers remain indispensable. The British Council libraries of the 50s and 60s had limited stock of books but were excellent cultural centers and places where students could sit and work in air-conditioned comfort.

The lovely USIS library on Karachi’s Bunder Road, with its lovely lawn and Pipal trees under which films were shown, was burnt by hooligans egged on by anti-US groups or political parties. This was well before I left the city in 1969. Later, in the first half of 80s, when I taught at Sindh University, I used the American Center and British Council libraries, with the American place aptly on top of the British! Both these were closed down. When I got to Islamabad in the early 90s, destruction followed me – the American Center suffered a rocket attack, and it and the British Council also boarded up, ending decades of flourishing foreign libraries in Pakistan. Needless to say, our government or philanthropists have not created anything to match what these old libraries offered. Today, Islamabad must be the only world capital without a public library of any significance, if one excludes the National Library, which is inaccessible and mainly houses reference material on Pakistan.

The parties and leaders who supported or turned a blind eye to the wanton destruction of books, today support the violent ideology of the Talibans and their associates. The lack of opposition to the destruction of books and libraries in the past is today mirrored in a listless society where nameless humans are killed daily and forgotten quickly. The brave Malala Yousufzai is thankfully an exception.

If Pakistan is to survive as a civilized nation its leaders and academics must focus on transforming the thinking of its people, over decades warped by fanatics and well-meaning but brain-dead educators. Such a change calls for many Hoodbhoys in positions of influence from where they bring about a speedy change – using TV, the Net and the overhaul of all aspects of the formal education system and facilitate life-long learning for all. That has to be Pakistan’s primary challenge.

Pervez Hoodbhoy, driven by his passions, will continue to bravely jump over hurdles after he says goodbye to LUMS later this year.

Readers who wish to express their views on the refusal of LUMS to extend PH’s contract need to click on the Petition at: http://tinyurl.com/8avqprm .

It would also help if they write individually to:

Key persons in LUMS Administration:

“Vice Chancellor – Adil Najam” adil.najam@lums.edu.pk

“Chairman of the LUMS Board – Babar Ali” syedbabarali@yahoo.com

The author is an Islamabad based physicist interested in the environment.

By Countercurrents.org

01 November. 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Unemployment in the eurozone has risen to a new record, with more than one in four out of work in Spain and Greece. In Greece, labor is planning to strike.

There are now 18.49 million people without jobs in the 17 countries sharing the euro, said the European statistics office Eurostat on October 31, 2012 with an extra 146,000 joining the ranks of the unemployed last month. Across the whole 27 nation EU, 25.751 million men and women were without jobs last month – an increase of 169,000 from August – while the unemployment rate stayed at 10.6% [1].

Youth unemployment – joblessness among under-25s – rose to 23.3%, up from 21% during the same month a year ago.

Brussels and most eurozone governments have put cuts in spending ahead of schemes to create jobs, despite predictions that the situation will worsen over the coming months.

Greece’s coalition government published €13.5bn of spending cuts and tax rises that will result in a sixth year of falling GDP and increase in the jobless rate.

Eurostat said the jobless rate across the eurozone increased to 11.6% in September, the highest on record, from a revised 11.5% in August.

The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.4%), Luxembourg (5.2%), Germany and the Netherlands (both 5.4%), which are near full employment. Spain (25.8%) and Greece (25.1% in July) had the highest unemployment in the eurozone, while France looks much like Italy (both at 10.8%), with a steady rise in joblessness. August data for Greece will be published next week, although the true picture is probably worse than the official figures show as a growing number of Greek workers remain nominally employed but have not been paid for some time.

Youth unemployment also hit a new high in Spain with 54.2% of under-25-year-olds out of work, up from 53.8%.

By comparison, the unemployment rate was 7.9% in the UK, 7.8% in the US and 4.2% in Japan in September.

Energy prices continued to rise, by 7.8%, but by less than the month before, when they climbed by 9.1% year-on-year. Food became dearer, however, with prices up 3.2% compared with 2.9% in September.

In some countries the unemployment figures are depressed by a rise in emigration. Ireland, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have seen a strong rise in the number of people, mainly young, seeking work abroad.

Roughly 370,000 people emigrated from Spain in 2011, 10 times more than before the banking crisis hit the country in 2008.

Although about 86% of them were naturalized immigrants born abroad, there is also a growing number of native Spaniards saying “ya basta” (“enough is enough”). More than 50,000 left last year, up 80% since before the crisis hit.

A BBC report [2] said:

The eurozone as a whole is struggling to generate the economic growth needed to stimulate employment. Its economy shrank by 0.2% between April and June, with Italy and Spain stuck in recession and France registering no growth for the past three quarters.

The notable exception is the German economy, Europe’s biggest, which grew by 0.3% in the second quarter. Growth there is expected to slow when preliminary figures for eurozone GDP between August and October will be published on November 15.

Meanwhile, Greek trade unions vowed on October 31, 2012 to bring the country to a halt next week after agreeing a two-day general strike in protest at the latest round of welfare and wages cuts [3].

The strike call came after the government outlined a series of austerity measures in its revised 2013 budget that predicts a sixth year of contraction and an escalation in its debt-to-GDP ratio to 167%. The prime minister Antonis Samaras said negotiations with the major lenders were concluded and it was time for MPs to vote through measures to secure €31bn (£24bn) of fresh loans.

The €13.5bn of cuts for 2013-14 include a two-year increase in the retirement age from the current average of 65, salary and pension cuts, and another round of tax increases, including the levy on interest from bank deposits, up from 10% to 15%. The vast majority of measures are to be implemented in 2013 and include a €4.6bn cut in pensions and a €1.2bn reduction in salaries.

Unions responded by announcing a 48-hour general strike that could persuade some coalition MPs to join opposition groups in rejecting a bill to be tabled by finance minister Yannis Stournaras next week.

However, there was confusion on October 31, 2012 after some European finance ministers warned they still needed to address some outstanding budget issues before releasing funds to the Greek government.

The strain in the governing coalition was evident earlier, in a parliamentary vote on a bill to allow the government to privatize public utilities. The legislation was passed, but 15 MPs from the Pasok party, which is a junior partner in the coalition, voted against certain articles. Dissenters included former prime minister George Papandreou, who opposed one article in the legislation.

Stournaras submitted the revised budget to parliament on October 31, 2012 but the deputy finance minister cancelled a presentation of the budget due to a 24-hour journalists’ strike in protest at their industry healthcare plan being drawn into spending cuts of €455m.

The coalition is under pressure to pass the budget before the November 11 deadline set by Greece’s international creditors. Officials are also concerned that Greece finds a way to refinance more than €3bn of loans due for renewal on November 16.

Ben May, an analyst at Capital Economics, said he was concerned that Greece’s debts were already unsustainable and further austerity measures would aggravate the situation. He pointed to the International Monetary Fund’s warning in its recent world economic outlook that the country’s debts were likely to reach 183% of GDP next year. May said the expectation that a recovery from 2014 would bring the figure back to 120% by 2020 was nothing more than an illusion.

“There is still a significant risk that Greece will not survive another year inside the eurozone,” he said.

Source:

[1] guardian.co.uk, Julia Kollewe and Phillip Inman, “Eurozone unemployment hits new high”, Oct. 31, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/31/eurozone-unemployment-record-high-eurostat

[2] BBC, “ Eurozone unemployment jumps to fresh high”, Oct. 31, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20153497

[3] The Guardian, Phillip Inman, Oct. 31, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/31/greek-unions-two-day-strike-austerity

Makdessi: Davutoglu’s Statements Reaffirm His Determination to Continue Dragging the Turkish People into Turkish Government’s Policies

Oct 30, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Spokesman of the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Dr. Jihad Makdessi said that the repeated statements of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reaffirm his determination to continue dragging the Turkish people into Turkish government’s policies which no longer receive approval and consensus as they contradict the interests and the historic and fraternal bonds between the Syrian and Turkish people.

In a statement, Makdessi said that Davutoglu still adopts the course of escaping forward and refuses to undertake any critical revision of destructive policies that proved to be a filure on the ground, and that he continues  to publically target the security and stability of the next-door neighbor Syria.

He said that it was clear for all observers that Turkey and the Arab Gulf didn’t commit to the success of the decision to suspend military operations which the Syrian leadership committed to, which holds them responsible for the continuing shedding of Syrian blood and forms a clear undermining by these parts of the mission of UN Envoy Lakhdar Ibrahimi through their continuing funding, arming and harboring of armed terrorist groups.

Makdessi affirmed that Syria will remain committed to the historic and fraternal relations between the Syrian and Turkish people which no government will succeed in undermining or damaging.

Armed Forces Inflict Heavy Losses upon Terrorists in Several Areas

Oct 30, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)- Units of the Armed Forces on Tuesday clashed with armed terrorist groups in the neighborhoods of Salah-Eddin and al-Khazan in Harasta city in Damascus Countryside.

An official source told SANA reporter that the clashes resulted in killing a number of terrorists and injuring others.

The source mentioned that the military engineering units dismantled scores of explosive devices ready for detonation, planted by terrorists on the main roads and inside the residents’ houses in Harasta.

Terrorists Assassinate Pilot Maj. Gen. Abdullah al-Khalidi in Rukn-Eddin Neighborhood, Damascus

In the framework of targeting the national skills and qualified cadres, an armed terrorist group assassinated Pilot Maj. Gen. Abdullah al-Khalidi in Rukn-Eddin neighborhood in Damascus.

A source at Damascus Police Command told SANA that terrorists shot al-Khalidi in Assadeddin St. in Rukn-Eddin neighborhood while getting off his car, causing his immediate martyrdom.

Ministry of Justice Mourns death of Martyr Judge Nazem Kabalan who passed away in Jaramana Terrorist Explosion

Ministry of Justice today announced the death of Judge Nazem Elias Kabalan, chief justice of the 2nd civil Appeal court in Damascus who was martyred in the terrorist explosion that took place in Jaramana, Damascus countryside on Monday.

An armed terrorist group blew up a booby trapped car at al-Rawda neighborhood in Jaramana claiming the lives of scores of martyrs while many others were injured.

Authorities discover 8 bodies for known persons near in Hama countryside

The competent authorities today discovered 8 bodies for known persons near Jisr Maaren al-Saleb in Misyaf countryside in Hama.

SANA reporter quoted a source in the province as saying that the bodies were for men aging between 15-50 years old who were killed at the hands of terrorists by shooting fires after they were hand-cuffed.

Army Units clashed Terrorists  in Homs and its countryside, inflect heavy losses upon them

Units of the Army clashed with armed terrorist groups in Homs and its countryside, inflecting heavy losses upon them.

A source in the province told SANA reporter that the army carried out qualitative operations against the positions of terrorists in al-Boueda al-Sharkiya, Katena, Kfar Aya, destroying their cars and killing a big number of them.

Army Units destroy dens of terrorists in Aleppo and its Countryside

Units of the armed forces today targeted dens of terrorists in Kfar Naha, Tal Rifaat, Hrietan, al-Atareb and al-Bab in Aleppo countryside, killing a big number of the terrorists and destroying 7 cars loaded with different kinds of weapons.

A unit of the Army also destroyed three boats loaded with weapons and munitions at al-Assad lake in Maskana.

Units of the Army destroyed a number of cars used by the terrorists to transport weapons and munitions in a number of Aleppo neighborhoods.

A source in Aleppo told SANA reporter that the army carried qualitative operations near al-Lermon traffic circle, al-Tirkawi square and in the west area of the indutrail city of al-Sheikh Najar, destroying cars loaded with different kinds of weapons and killing a number of terrorists.

25 Terrorists Killed in Clashes following Dispute over Loot Sharing

A clash broke out on Tuesday between two armed terrorist groups in Izaz area in the countryside of Aleppo following dispute over sharing the loot and stuff stolen from the locals, which resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists.

An official source told SANA reporter that the clash resulted in the killing of more than 25 terrorists and the injury of others.

Armed Forces Eliminate Terrorists in Bab Houd, Homs

An Armed Forces unit clashed with a terrorist group that was firing explosive projectiles at citizens’ homes in Bab Houd neighborhood in Homs city, which led to the burning of some houses.

A source at the province told SANA’s correspondent said that the conflict resulted in the killing and injuring of a number of terrorists.

Armed Forces Clash with Terrorists, Seize Weapons in Deir Ezzor

A unit of the Armed Forces clashed with an armed terrorist group which was terrorizing citizens in al-Mareiyeh area in the countryside of Deir Ezzor.

An official source in the province told SANA reporter that the army members killed and injured a number of the group’s members, in addition to seizing BKC machineguns, a large amount of ammunition and a pick-up car prepared to be equipped with a DShk machinegun and on which the so-called “Ahfad Mohammad (Mohammad’s Descendants) Brigade- Omar Bin al-Khattab Battalion” was written.

Authorities and Locals Repel Terrorist Group in Salamiyeh, Hama

The authorities confronted an armed terrorist group which attempted to attack the citizens in Tal-Durreh town in Salamiyeh in Hama countryside.

An official source in the province told SANA reporter that the authorities, in cooperation with the locals, confronted the members of an armed terrorists group and inflicted heavy losses upon them.

The source highlighted that the terrorists, who were driving 7 cars, some of them equipped with DShK machineguns, attempted to enter the town and attack the citizens using machineguns and RPGs before being repelled by the authorities and the locals.

Three Citizens including Nurse and Ambulance Driver Martyred in Explosion of IEDs in Daraa Countryside

Three citizens, including a nurse and an ambulance driver, were martyred when two explosive devices planted by terrorists exploded on the highway between the towns of al-Hirak and Namer in Daraa countryside.

A source at the province told SANA’s reporter that male nurse Taha al-Zayed and ambulance driver Mohammad al-Hariri were killed when an explosive device went off and damaged their ambulance as they were on their way from al-Hirak Hospital to help people injured in the blast of another explosive device on the aforementioned highway which claimed the life of citizen Bassam Daqaq.

The source said that the explosion that hit the ambulance also caused critical injuries to Dr. Mohammad Deeb al-Adawi and male nurse Jamal al-Hariri.

Premier al-Halqi Condemns Terrorist Groups’ Violations during Eid al-Adha

Oct 30, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- Prime Minister, Wael al-Halqi, condemned the violations committed by the armed terrorist groups of the declaration on the suspension of military operations during Eid al-Adha holiday, which the Armed Forces committed to.

Heading a Cabinet session on Tuesday, al-Halqi stressed that the Armed Forces, which immediately reacted to the terrorist groups’ violations in protection of citizens and the private and public properties, will continue work on consolidating security and stability in Syria.

Along with the Armed Forces’ efforts, the Prime Minister said, the governmental parties concerned will continue providing all kinds of services and needs to the citizens and work on rehabilitating what the terrorist groups have damaged.

He stressed the necessity of combating corruption with all its various forms, reducing squandering and moving ahead with the administrative reform process.

During the session, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Qadri Jamil, presented a review of the outcomes of his recent visit to Russia.

Lieutenant Back Homeland: Turkish Government Facilitates Weapon Smuggling into Syria

Oct 30, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-Lieutenant Hussein Khalifa, one of the officers who deserted his post at the Interior Ministry and returned to the road of right said that he decided to return home after he escaped to Turkey because he felt guilty and disgrace when he crossed the borders, recognizing that there is no dignity without Home.

“The government of Recep Tayyib Erdoan is offering support with weapon and money to the armed terrorist groups in order to infiltrate into Syria and perpetrate massacres against the Syrian people,” Khalifa added in an interview with the Syrian TV broadcast Tuesday.

Lieutenant Khalifa has worked in al-Thawra region which is affiliated to al-Rakka Police Leadership when he was informed last Ramadan that an aggression by armed terrorist groups took place against Afnan Dabsa Town’s police station, and that he along with his colleagues should support the police station.

“When we arrived in the police station, we knew that Brigadier General Adib al-Shalaf, Director of al-Thawara town who told me to go there for support was plotting to cooperate with the terrorists to flee the country into Turkey and that there was no attack against the police station,” Khalifa said.

He added that in turkey they resided in an area which distances 20 KM from Antioch, saying that the concepts which the armed groups believe in are Takfiris and depend on fatwas that come from the Gulf countries.

“The orders were given to those groups from Istanbul council.. their goals were not overthrowing the regime, but overcoming the Syrian state with its army,” Khalifa underlined.

He went on to say that the Syrians in the Turkish camps suffer from humiliation, disgrace, adding that they were treated in an inhuman way and they are ostracized in Turkey.

“Psychological pressures and wars of rumor were being practiced on the deserted officers in Turkey to frighten them and prevent them from returning to Syria,” Lieutenant Khalifa said.

He added that while he was in Turkey, He was suffering an internal conflict because of feeling guilty, so he decided to return Syria as there is no future for anyone who lives there.

Bogdanov Reiterates Russia’s Position on Finding Peaceful Resolution to Syrian Crisis Through National Dialogue

Oct 30, 2012

MOSCOW, (SANA) – Special Representative of the Russian President for Middle East Affairs, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov reiterated Russia’s principled position which calls for an immediate and full cessation of violence in Syria and finding a solution to the crisis in it through wide-scale national dialogue.

A statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that during his meeting with Syria’s Ambassador in Moscow Riyad Haddad, Bogdanov exchanged viewpoints in detail on developments in Syria and around it, particularly in light of the recent talks in Moscow with UN Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Ibrahimi.

22 People Involved in Recent Events Who Didn’t Shed Syrian Blood Released

Oct 30, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – 22 people covered by the recent amnesty decree and who were involved in the recent events in Syria but didn’t shed Syrian blood were released on Tuesday.

A source at Damascus Police Command said that this is the third group of detainees who benefited from the amnesty and were released, with more set to be released within the next few days.

Meetings of Syrian-Democratic Korean Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific, Technical and Commercial Cooperation Kick Off

Oct 30, 2012

PYONGYANG, (SANA) – Meetings of the Syrian-Democratic Korean Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific, Technical and Commercial Cooperation kicked off on Tuesday at Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The two sides voiced commitment to boosting bilateral relations in all fields, particularly, industry, agriculture, communications, culture, commerce, energy and media, stressing the need to maintain regular meetings of the Committee, particularly in light of the current situation in Syria and the conspiracy against it.

The two sides agreed to draft 10 memos of understanding and executive programs in the fields of media, free zones, communications, agriculture, industry, environment, and housing, in addition to an agricultural cooperation agreement.

They also called for increasing trade exchange in a balanced manner and exporting Syrian food, textile and chemical products to Korean markets.

The two sides discussed prospects of cooperation in scientific, agricultural and pharmaceutical research in addition to railroads, petroleum and energy, including the possibility of establishing an electrothermal power station with a capacity of 1000 megawatts in Syria that is powered by coal imported from the DPRK.

They also discussed boosting relations in the fields of media, radios, television and news agencies.

The two sides affirmed the depth of the relations between the two countries and their firm rejection of the foreign conspiracy targeting Syria and its people.

During a meeting with Syrian Culture Minister Dr. Lubana Mashouh who heads the Syrian side of the Committee, DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun voiced confidence that Syria will be victorious over the conspiracy targeting its stances which reject western plots.

Endowments Minister Honors Families of 144 Martyrs in Dreikish, Tartous

Oct 30, 2012

TARTOUS, (SANA)- Empowered by President Bashar al-Assad, Minister of Religious Endowments (Awqaf) Mohammad Abdul-Sattar al-Sayyed on Tuesday honored the families of 144 martyrs from Dreikish in Tartous.

Al-Sayyed said that this honoring expresses respect and appreciation of the sacrifices of the martyrs to defend the homeland, affirming that Syria will be victorious thanks to the sacrifices of its people.

For their part, the families of martyrs expressed readiness to sacrifice everything for the sake of Syria, calling for striking firmly against terrorists and mercenaries and all those who tamper with Syria’s security.

The martyrs’ relatives voiced pride in the martyrdom of their sons who answered the call of day, affirming that Syria’s victory over its enemies is near.

In turn, Head of Tartous branch of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party Hasan Shaaban said that martyrs live on in the hearts of Syrians, while Tartous governor Nizar Mousa affirmed that the governorate is prepared to offer all that is necessary to the families of martyrs, noting that a committee tasked with caring for them and providing their needs has been formed.

Galloway: Global War on Syria Similar to War on Egypt in 1956… Syrian Leadership Will Not Be Defeated

Oct 30, 2012

BEIRUT, (SANA) – British MP George Galloway affirmed that the global war currently being waged on Syria is similar to the one waged against Egypt in 1956, voicing confidence that Syria will be victorious over this war under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad similar to the victory of the late Jamal Abdelnasser.

During a meeting with former Lebanese President Emil Lahhoud in Beirut on Tuesday, Galloway stressed that the Syrian leadership will not be defeated, underlining the need for the plan launched by former UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan to bear fruit and for countries to stop providing military support to the Syrian opposition.

General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces: Armed Terrorist Groups Continue Violations of Ceasefire

Oct 30, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – For the fourth consecutive day, the armed terrorist groups continued their violations of the ceasefire declaration announced by the General Command’s statement on October 25th, the General Command of the Army and the Armed Forces stressed on Monday.

The General Command said that on Monday at 05:30 in the morning an armed terrorist group attacked with mortar missiles the Army Command of the southern district in Damascus and targeted a law-enforcement headquarters in Harasta city at 08:50.

The statement added that in Damascus countryside, armed terrorist groups fired at law-enforcement forces in Douma and Harasta and attacked a supplies vehicle near al-Rahma Gas Station.

The armed terrorist groups also attacked the local cemetery checkpoint, al-Sayrian checkpoint and Ras al-Nabe’ checkpoint in Qatana city at 21:30.

On Monday Morning, the armed terorrist groups fired at law-enforcement forces in Irbeen at 07:00, al-Hermelleh checkpoint at 08:30, Zamalka- al-Qaboun Tunnel checkpoint and Irbeen-al-Qaboun tunnel checkpoint at 09:00, and al-Dabbaghat checkpoint at 10:00.

In Homs province, the General Command said that armed terrorist groups attacked law-enforcement members in al-Qarabis, Jouret al-Shayah, and Talbiseh at 20:00 Sunday evening.

The terrorists also attacked law-enforcement members in Jeb al-Jandali at 24:00 and in al-Khaldieh and al-Kalaa at 02:00, in Talkalakh at 03:00, in Bab Hud at 05:00, in Deir Balbeh at 06:00 and near al-Abbasieyin healthcare center at 08:00 and al-Khanda’ St. at 11:00.

In Hama province, the armed terrorist groups attacked Sunday evening al-Hijra and al-Sibahi sqaures checkpoints, and they attacked law-enforcement forces in al-Masafi neighborhood at 21:35, and in Bab al-Taka- al-Madiq Castle- at 07:00 in the morning, according to the statement.

In Aleppo province, law-enforcement forces were attacked by snipers and mortar missles near the Jusice Palace Sunday at 20:30, in Aleppo-Izaz Road-AlLairamoun area- Monday at 00:30, in the southern highway at 00:40, on the main road of Aleppo-Alatareb-Khan Alasal at 01:00, in the old city of Aleppo al-Tilal St. at 03:00.

The armed terrorist groups also attacked law-enforcement forces in Allairamoun area with locally made missiles at 12:25.

In Idleb province, the Army Command said  that armed terrorist groups targeted the law-enforcement  checkpoints in Harem, al-Allaneh at 20:30, and in  Wadi ad-Daif and al-Hamidieh at 21:00. The armed groups also attacked al-Trenbeh checkpoint near al-Mastoumeh at 10:15.

In Deir Ezzor province, the General Command said that the law-enforcement checkpoints were also attacked with RPGs by armed terrorist groups at 07:30.

The armed terorist groups also attacked a military compound at 10:20.

The General Command reiterated commitment to carry out its constitutional duties of defending the homeland, eliminating terrorism and restoring security and stability to the homeland.

Mehmanparast: Western Countries Don’t Want to Create Positive Atmospheres for Finding Peaceful Solution to Crisis in Syria

Oct 30, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast stressed that the western countries do not want to create positive atmospheres for finding a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria through national dialogue among all spectrums of the Syrian people.

In a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday, Mehmanparast said the tools of these countries inside Syria are committing terrorist acts, adding that the foreign countries seek to achieve their own political goals in the Middle East, therefore they spare no efforts to foil the missions of the UN envoys, Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi.

He added that the reforms the Syrian people aspire for should be achieved in Syria by the Syrian people and through national mechanisms  far from any foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

He called on all the countries to continue their efforts to create suitable atmospheres for national dialogue and to support Brahimi’s efforts, pointing out that the ceasefire would have been an advanced step if it had succeeded, but its violation by the armed terrorist groups foiled it.

Russian Newspaper: Russia and Turkey Holding Talks to Regain the Syrian Plane’s Cargo Seized at Ankara Airport 

Oct 30, 2012

MOSCOW, (SANA)- The Russian newspaper Kommersant revealed that Russia and Turkey are holding talks to regain the cargo of the Syrian passenger plane which the Turkish authorities forced to land in Ankara Airport on October 10, subjected to search and confiscated its cargo.

In its issue on Tuesday, the newspaper said it is not unlikely that the cargo will not be regained because the Turkish authorities had refused to give the cargo receipt note to the Syrian plane’s pilot when he asked for it.

Kommersant quoted a Russian military source as saying that the main issue is to restore the cargo “because what happened can only be described as a piracy.”

The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry condemned the Turkish act of piracy against the Syrian passenger plane coming to Damascus from Moscow which took place on October 10 as it was forced to land in Ankara Airport and searched before it was allowed to leave the airport after long hours despite the fact that it was not carrying any type of prohibited goods.

By Federico Fuentes

29 October, 2012

@ Green Left Weekly

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s re-election on October 7 with more than 55% of the vote was vital for two reasons.

First, the Venezuelan people blocked the return to power of the neoliberal right. Had they won, these US-backed forces would have worked to roll back important advances for the poor majority won since Chavez was first elected in 1998.

These include a huge expansion in government providing basic services (such as education, health and housing), the nationalisation of previous privatised strategic industries, and the promotion of popular participation in communities and workplaces.

Second, Chavez’s re-election provides a new mandate for arguably the most radical, anti-capitalist project under way in the world today.

Having emerged as a response to the crisis the country found itself in under neoliberalism, and at a time when socialism appeared moribund, Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution has radicalised to the point where it has explicitly stated its goal to be “socialism of the 21st century”.

The ability to further advance this project in Venezuela will depend on the impact of ongoing US intervention and regional integration, the intensifying class struggle within the pro-Chavez camp, and the political fate and health of Chavez.

Background

Understanding the rise of the Bolivarian revolution requires placing it within the country’s oil-rich history.

The rise of oil production in the 1920s fuelled a dramatic transformation in Venezuela’s economy. Agricultural production, until then the main pillar of the economy, slumped as capital poured into the oil sector.

As oil’s contribution to state revenues rapidly rose, power and wealth became fused within the state. The result was a parasitic capitalist class that primarily sought to enrich itself by appropriating state resources.

These developments also shaped the formation of Venezuela’s popular classes. People fled the countryside en masse , flocking to the cities for their share of the oil rent.

They came to create a huge belt of barrios (shanty towns) where impoverished informal workers tried to eke out an existence. State funds were used by different political interests to win the loyalty of these sectors.

These factors underpinned Venezuela’s pervasive culture of “clientalism” and corruption.

This political set-up was sent into crisis by the economic crises and the gyration of oil prices that hit the world economy from the 1970s onwards.

Venezuela’s 1976 oil nationalisation only deepened this trend. The state oil company PDVSA came to operate as a “state within the state”, operating largely independently of any governmental control.

Within PDVSA, private appropriation of public resources continued unabated, while US-based corporations kept control over oil production.

State income instead experienced a steep decline, falling from US$1500 per person in 1975 to $350 per person in 1999 (in 1998 US dollars).

International financial institutions advised Venezuela’s rulers to resolve the state’s fiscal crisis by shifting the burden onto the people.

A February 1989 International Monetary Fund austerity package caused fuel prices to skyrocket overnight. This was the trigger for an explosion of mass discontent: an immense uprising that rocked Caracas for four days, extending outwards to several other cities and towns.

Although quelled by brutal repression, the Caracazo marked a point of no return for a society reeling from a deep economic slump and a crisis of the state and political system.

Throughout the next decade, about 7000 protests took place as new dynamic forms of local organisation began to emerge in the barrios.

Given the state’s role in controlling the nation’s wealth, the state became the focus of a steady stream of demands that progressively became an unstoppable wave.

Rise of Chavez

Within this context, the leader of a clandestine dissident current within Venezuela’s armed forces — Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez — captured the collective imagination of the poor majority when he led a failed military rebellion in 1992.

Jailed after the rebellion, Chavez emerged two years later resolved to stand in the 1998 presidential elections.

He began campaigning across the country, arguing the only way to achieve real independence and eradicate poverty was by giving power to the people.

Alongside setting up a new electoral party, the Movement for a Fifth Republic (MVR), Chavez called for the formation of a Patriotic Pole (PP) to unite all those parties and organisations that supported his candidature.

Chavez’s message enabled him to tap into the deep discontent among Venezuela’s popular classes and unify the various strands of the left.

On December 6, 1998, Chavez was elected as president, winning 56.2% of the vote.

However, from the beginning it was clear that winning elections was not the same as taking state power. PDVSA remained tightly under the control of the traditional business elites and the allegiance of large sections of the military to any project for radical change remained unknown.

The new government was also conscious that its mass popularity was not rooted in well-organised social organisations. The dispersed and unorganised nature of “chavismo” meant the centre of gravity lay with executive power.

As such, the pace and course of reforms has tended to be driven almost exclusively by initiatives taken from above. Critically, with each advance, Chavez sought to organise and consolidate the social base.

Chavez’s first move was to convene a democratically-elected constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. The aim was to shift the rules of a game that had been traditionally stacked in favor of the old political class.

In opposition to the corrupt “representative” democracy that had allowed the same elites to monopolise power for decades, the new constitution proposed a “participatory and protagonist” democracy, where power resided among the people.

The challenge for the Bolivarian forces was to turn this novel idea into reality, which would require an inevitable showdown with the traditional elites, backed and funded by Washington.

Over the next three years, these two competing blocs faced off in three decisive battles. Each time, the pro-revolution forces came out victorious, and consolidated their military, economic and political hegemony.

Showdowns

The first major showdown occurred on April 11, 2002, when an opposition rally against Chavez morphed into a military coup that overthrew him and installed the head of the country’s chamber of commerce.

The coup was defeated by a civic-military uprising. Hundreds of officers who supported the coup were later removed, taking control of the armed forces out of the hands of the old elites.

The second major bid to bring down Chavez took place at the end of the same year, when an alliance between PDVSA management, capitalist elites, the corporate media and corrupt trade union officials sought to halt production in the strategic oil sector.

In response, loyal PDVSA workers, soldiers, and community activists mobilised to break the back of the bosses’ strike.

This mobilisation from below enabled the Venezuelan government to purge PDVSA of its right-wing bureaucracy, and placed the company firmly in the hands of the government.

The leaps forward in worker and community organisation that occurred during this struggle proved crucial to defeating the third major offensive by the opposition: the August 2004 recall referendum on Chavez’s presidency.

Chavez’s victory, in a poll made possible because of democratic reforms introduced by the new constitution, consolidated his democratic credentials.

With the military and PDVSA under control, and resting on an increasingly organised social base, the Chavez government was able to launch a range of experiments during 2003-2005 aimed at deepening peoples’ power.

These included initiatives such as the social missions that provide free health and education, and economic enterprises such as cooperatives and worker-run factories. These helped tackle poverty while simultaneously increasing the organisational capacity of the masses.

By the time of Chavez’s re-election bid at the end of 2006, the Bolivarian revolution could also count on a growing alliance of progressive and left governments in the region. This opened the way to greater regional cooperation and integration, a key objective of the Bolivarian revolution.

However, it was also clear the revolution had not decisively broken the resistance of corporate power and replaced the old, corrupt state that served corporate power with a new power built from below.

Anti-capitalist offensive

After winning the December 2006 presidential elections, Chavez unleashed a new anti-capitalist offensive.

At his January 8 inauguration ceremony, Chavez explained that the goal of this new term was to “transfer political, social, and economic power” to the people. To do so it was vital to dismantle the old state.

Chavez said the goal of 21st century socialism required advancing on three fronts at the same time: increasing social ownership over the means of production, encouraging greater workplace democracy, and directing production toward social needs.

To achieve this ambitious agenda, Chavez called for all revolutionaries to help form a united party of the revolution, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Four-and-a-half million people joined the PSUV in its initial recruitment drive, a clear sign of the level of support for the initiative.

Over the next six years, the Chavez government carried out a wave of nationalisations in the oil, electricity, telecommunications, banking, steel, cement, and food production sector as it tried to reassert national sovereignty over the economy.

The overall result was that the state had the necessary weight across strategic sectors of the economy to dictate production goals. The threat of expropriation loomed for those that refused to cooperate.

The spate of nationalisations was more the result of government initiatives (in response to the needs the poor) than workers’ struggle, and Chavez continuously emphasised that nationalisation alone did not equate with socialism.

To help stimulate worker participation, the government initiated a process of workers’ control in the state-owned steel, aluminium and electricity companies.

The promotion of grassroots communal councils, and later communes (made up of elected representatives from communal councils), was also an important focus of the Chavez government during this term.

These councils were aimed at building upon and linking the various forms of existing community groups. The communal councils were charged with diagnosing the main problems facing their communities and creating a plan to resolve them.

Funding for these projects came from the state, but all major decisions were made in citizen’s assemblies. This was a unique experiment in democratising the redistribution of oil revenue while promoting community empowerment.

In 2009, the government took a further step by promoting the communes. These aim to encompass several communal councils within a self-defined community to collectively tackle problems on a larger scale.

These new forms of organisation have involved unparalleled numbers in community organising. They have come to be seen as the building blocs of a new state.

Internal class struggle

This simultaneous push for nationalisation, workers control and community councils also brought to the fore the class struggle that existed within chavismo.

A 2009 banking crisis led to several banks being nationalised and their owners jailed. This process revealed the existence of a sector within the revolutionary process that had enriched itself through its connections to the state, popularly referred to as the boliburguesia (“Bolivarian bourgeoisie”).

Moves to transfer greater power to workers and communities faced mounting resistance from within the existing state bureaucracy.

Along with the persistent problems of corruption and clientalism, worker and community activists increasingly complained that company and state officials sought to defend their positions of power.

By early last year, Chavez was also denouncing the vices that plagued the PSUV. He warned: “The old way of doing politics is devouring us, the corruption of politics is devouring us … the old capitalist values have infiltrated us from all sides.”

The party needed to return to its principles, otherwise it risked following the path of the MVR, which only really operated as an electoral vehicle.

Recognising these problems, Chavez launched the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) in October last year, calling on all pro-revolution social movements and parties to unite to ensure a decisive victory in the 2012 presidential elections.

More than 30,000 different groups signed up. In the end, the votes of the non-PSUV parties (which numbered around 1.7 million) and social movements that did not appear on the ballot (as they were not electoral registered) and therefore called for a vote for the PSUV despite not being involved in the party, were decisive in securing Chavez’s victory.

Challenges

As Chavez prepares to start a new term in government, Venezuela’s revolution faces three main challenges.

The first is the threat from the US, which has recently made some gains in the region such as the coup against progressive Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo, and the Venezuelan opposition it backs in its bid to oust Chavez.

The second is the revolution’s ability to deal with the twin problems of corruption and bureaucratism. Overcoming these challenges will require greater popular participation through initiatives such as the communes and the push for workers’ control.

Consolidating the unity achieved through the GPP could help lead in this regard.

The third challenge, which has become ever more apparent since Chavez’s diagnosis with cancer, is the need to create a collective leadership.

History will record that the Bolivarian revolution succeeded in rolling back neoliberalism and laying the foundations for a transition to 21st century socialism.

The dynamic relationship that has existed so far between Chavez and the masses has been a key factor in ensuring this.

Chavez has played a dominant leadership role in the Venezuelan revolution. This has been criticized in some quarters, but his role must be placed within the historic context outlined: one of a Venezuela marked by intense ferment from below but varying organisational strength of the social movements.

At each step, Chavez has launched initiatives to encourage the self-organisation of the people. Through this process the Venezuelan people have increasingly taken the destiny of their country into their own hands.

His role as the key figure in the revolution and the trust placed in him by the poor majority make Chavez, for now, irreplaceable.

His re-election to the presidency in the face of a reinvigorated opposition, demonstrated once again that most Venezuelans believe he is the sole figure capable of leading the country forward.

The future of the process will depend on increasing the self-organisation of the masses and the development of a collective leadership that can support, and be capable of substituting for Chavez’s singular role.

[Federico Fuentes is a Socialist Alliance and Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network activist. He has lived in Venezuela as part of Green Left Weekly ‘s Caracas bureau. With Michael Fox and Roger Burbach, Fuentes is the co-author of the forthcoming book Latin America Turbulent Transitions: The Future of Twenty-First Century Socialism .]

By Kerin Hope

29 October 2012

@ Financial Times

(Financial Times) — The investigative journalist facing trial after embarrassing Greece’s political and business elite by publishing the names of 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts on Monday stuck to his guns saying his list showed “how sick the system is”.

Speaking from his office in a run-down shopping mall in central Athens, Costas Vaxevanis claimed the list of accounts held by Greeks at an HSBC branch in Geneva encapsulated Greece’s deeply corrupt political culture.

“It is a closed system with politicians, businessmen and their hangers-on controlling what happens,” he told the Financial Times as the lights flickered on and off.

“We acted in the public interest … We know the list is accurate. It refers both to legitimate accounts held by businesspeople and individuals and to others that we believe were used for channeling funds for purposes of tax evasion.”

An Athens court postponed until Thursday Vaxevanis’s trial for allegedly violating the country’s data protection laws. The journalist’s lawyers requested the delay at a preliminary hearing on Monday so that he could prepare his defence. Scores of friends and colleagues gathered outside the court to show support for Vaxevanis, editor of the biweekly Hot Doc magazine. If convicted, he faces up to five years’ imprisonment.

“We will argue that there was no violation of privacy under Greek law as we didn’t publish the amounts held in each account, only the names and professions of the account-holders,” Vaxevanis said.

Vaxevanis said that more than €13bn had moved through the accounts on the list between 1998 and 2007: “Our view is that some account-holders moved large amounts of black money through their HSBC account in Geneva to invest in foreign funds or deposit in safe havens elsewhere.”

The conservative-led coalition government has not commented on the case. One government official said on Monday it was “being handled by the Greek justice system, and it has to be cleared up”.

Shipowners, industrialists, artists and a handful of politicians and their relatives are among those named in the so-called “Lagarde list” published last week by Hot Doc. Sales of last week’s issue quadrupled to 100,000, highlighting Greek anger over the failure of successive governments to crack down on tax evasion by the country’s elite. The full list was also published as a special insert in Monday’s edition of Ta Nea, Greece’s biggest selling daily newspaper.

Hot Doc’s publication of the list provided in 2010 by Christine Lagarde, then French finance minister, to her Greek counterpart for investigation of possible tax evasion, has sent shockwaves through the country’s political and business elite. Although members of the Greek establishment have long been known to transfer funds abroad, often in the names of their wives and other family members, it is the first time that large numbers of such account-holders have been publicly identified.

The list was officially revealed last month though unofficial versions had circulated for more than two years. “Our understanding is that politicians, media barons and some journalists were able to exploit the list for blackmail and extortion because the government held off from launching a proper investigation,” Vaxevanis said, as a power outage briefly plunged his office into darkness.

Several political figures whose names appeared on the list have issued formal denials. George Voulgarakis, a former public order minister, called it a fake, saying he and his family did not have any bank accounts outside Greece. Nikos Papandreou, brother of former premier George Papandreou, said there were plenty of other Greeks with the same name. Former finance minister Yannos Papantoniou said the appearance of his wife’s name on the list did not correspond with reality.

The French government obtained the list from Herve Falciani, a former HSBC employee who had illegally copied detail of 20,000 account-holders, including French, German and Italian as well as Greek citizens.

Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou, who requested the list from Mrs Lagarde, and his successor Evangelos Venizelos face criticism for failing to ensure the financial police fully investigated the case. Both politicians told parliament last week that the CD containing the names and a copy made on a USB stick had been mislaid.

Mr Venizelos later turned over a copy on a USB stick to the finance ministry, but Greece has since requested an official copy of the list from the French government because of doubts about its authenticity.

Ioannis Kapeleris head of the financial police in 2010 told a public prosecutor he never received specific instructions to carry out a full investigation. Ioannis Diotis, his successor and a former public prosecutor, argued there were legal obstacles to pursuing the case.

Mr Papaconstantinou said the records dated from 2007 and the total amount held by account-holders at that time stood at €1.5bn.

By President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

27 September, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Video and Transcript of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to UN General Assembly

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

“All praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe, and peace and blessing be upon our Master and Prophet, Mohammad, and his pure Household, and his noble Companions”

“Oh, God, hasten the arrival of Imam Al-Mahdi and grant him good health and victory and make us his followers and those who attest to his rightfulness”

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I thank the Almighty God for granting me, once more, this opportunity to address this important international meeting.

I wish to begin by congratulating you, Mr. President, for having assumed the presidency of the 64th Session of the UN General Assembly and wish you all the success. I also extend my thanks to H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd Session of the General Assembly, for his excellent stewardship of the work of the General Assembly during his term.

Over the past four years I have talked to you concerning the main challenges facing our world. I have talked about the roots and underlying causes of these challenges and the need for the world powers to review their outlook and workout new mechanisms to address the pressing international problems. I have talked about the two conflicting outlooks prevailing in our world; one that is based on the predominance of its materialistic interests through spreading inequality and oppression, poverty and deprivation, aggression, occupation and deception, and tends to bring the entire world under its control and impose its will on other nations. This outlook has produced nothing but frustration, disappointment and a dark future for the entire humanity.

The other outlook is the one that spouses with the belief in the oneness of the Almighty God, follows the teaching of His messengers, respects human dignity and seeks to build a secure world for all members of the human community, in which everybody can equally enjoy the blessings of sustainable peace and spirituality. The latter is an outlook that respects all human beings, nations, and valuable cultures in defiance of all types of discrimination in the world, and commits itself into a constant fight to promote equality for all before the law on the basis of justice and fraternity, laying a solid foundation to guarantee equal access for all human beings in their quest to excel in knowledge and science.

I have laid emphasis time and again on the need to make fundamental changes in the current attitudes towards the world and the human being in order to be able to create a bright tomorrow.

Friends and Colleagues;

Today, I wish to share with you a few points about the changes that should take place.

First,

Clearly, continuation of the current circumstances in the world is impossible. The present inequitable and unfavorable conditions run counter to the very nature of human kind and move in a direction which contravenes the truth and the goal behind the creation of the world.

It is no longer possible to inject thousands of billions of dollars of unreal wealth to the world economy simply by printing worthless paper assets, or transfer inflation as well as social and economic problems to others through creating sever budget deficits. The engine of unbridled capitalism with its unfair system of thought has reached the end of road and is unable to move. The era of capitalist thinking and . imposition of one’s thoughts on the international community, intended to predominate the world in the name of globalization and the age of setting up empires is over. It is no longer possible to humiliate nations and impose double standard policies on the world community.

Approaches in which realization of the interests of certain powers is considered as the only criteria to weigh democracy, and using the ugliest methods of intimidation and deceit under the mantle of freedom as a democratic practice, and approaches through which sometimes dictators are portrayed as democrats, lack legitimacy and must be totally rejected.

The time has come to an end for those who define democracy and freedom and set standards whilst they themselves are the first who violate its fundamental principles. They can no longer sit both the judge and the executor and challenge the real democratically- established governments.

The awakening of nations and the expansion of freedom worldwide will no longer allow them to continue their hypocrisy and vicious attitudes. Because of all these reasons most nations including the people of the Untied States are waiting for real and profound changes. They have welcomed and will continue to welcome changes.

How can one imagine that the inhuman policies in Palestine may continue; to force the entire population of a country out of their homeland for more than 60 years by resorting to force and coercion; to attack them with all types of arms and even prohibited weapons; to deny them of their legitimate right of self-defense, while much to the chagrin of the international community calling the occupiers as the peace lovers, and portraying the victims as terrorists.

How can the crimes of the occupiers against defenseless women and children and destruction of their homes, farms, hospitals and schools be supported unconditionally by certain governments, and at the same time, the oppressed men and women be subject to genocide and heaviest economic blockade being denied of their basic needs, food, water and medicine.

They are not even allowed to rebuild their homes which were destroyed during the 22-day barbaric attacks by the Zionist regime while the winter is approaching. Whereas the aggressors and their supporters deceitfully continue their rhetoric in defense of human rights in order to put others under pressure.

It is no longer acceptable that a small minority would dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery, and harm the reputation of other nations, even European nations and the U.S., to attain its racist ambitions.

It is not acceptable that some who are several thousands of kilometers away from the Middle East would send their troops for military intervention and for spreading war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation in the whole region while blaming the protests of nations in the region, that are concerned about their fate and their national security, as a move against peace and as interference in others’ affairs. Look at the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is no longer possible to bring a country under military occupation in the name of fight against terrorism and drug trafficking while the production of illicit drugs has multiplied, terrorism has widened its dimensions and has tightened its grips, thousands of innocent people have been killed, injured or displaced, infrastructures have been destroyed and regional security has been seriously jeopardized; and those who have created the current disastrous situation continue to blame others. How you can talk about friendship and solidarity with other nations while you expand your military bases in different parts of the world including in Latin America. This situation cannot continue. It is all the more impossible to advance expansionist and inhuman policies on the basis of militaristic logic. The logic of coercion and intimidation will produce dire consequences, exacerbating the present global problems.

It is not acceptable that the military budget of some governments exceeds far larger than those of the entire countries of the world. They export billions of dollars of arms every year, stockpile chemical and biological weapons, establish military bases or have military presence in other countries while accusing others of militarism, and mobilize all their resources in the world to impede scientific and technological progress of other nations under the pretext of countering arms proliferation. It is not acceptable that the United Nations and the Security Council, whose decisions must represent all nations and governments by the application of the most democratic methods in their decision making processes, be dominated by a few governments and serve their interests. In a world where cultures, thoughts and public opinions should be the determining factors, the continuation of the present situation is impossible, and fundamental changes seem to be unavoidable.

Second;

Any change must be structural and fundamental both in theory and practice, involving all domains of our life. The outdated mechanisms which themselves were instrumental in and the root cause for present problems in human societies can never be used to bring changes and create our desired world. Liberalism and capitalism that have alienated human beings from heavenly and moral values will never bring happiness for humanity because they are the main source of all misfortune wars, poverty and deprivation.

We have all seen that how the inequitable economic structures controlled by certain political interests have been used to plunder national wealth of countries for the benefit of a group of corrupt business giants. The present structures are incapable of reforming the present situation.

The political and economic structures created following the World War II that was based on intentions to dominate the world failed to promote justice and lasting security.

Rulers whose hearts do not beat for the love of humankind and who sacrificed the spirit of justice in their minds never offer the promise of peace and friendship to humanity. By the grace of God, Marxism is gone. It is now history. The expansionist Capitalism will certainly have the same fate. Because based on the divine traditions referred to as a principle in the Holy Quran, the wrong like the bubbles on the surface of water, will disappear. There remains only what that can be used forever towards the interest of human societies.

We must all remain vigilant to prevent the pursuit of colonialist, discriminatory and inhuman goals under the cover of the slogans for change and in new formats. The world needs to undergo fundamental changes and all must engage collectively to make them happen in the right direction, and through such efforts no one and no government would consider itself an exception to change or superior to others and try to impose its will on others by proclaiming world leadership.

Third;

All problems existing in our world today emanate from the fact that rulers have distanced themselves from human values, morality and the teachings of divine messengers. Regrettably, in the current international relations, selfishness and insatiable greed have taken the place of such humanitarian concepts as love, sacrifice, dignity, and justice. The belief in the One God has been replaced with selfishness.

Some have taken the place of God and insist to impose their values and wishes on others. Lies have taken the place of honesty; hypocrisy has replaced integrity and selfishness has taken the place of sacrifice. Deception in interactions is called foresight and statesmanship; looting the wealth of other nations is called development efforts; occupation is introduced as a gift towards promotion of freedom and democracy, and defenseless nations are subjected to repression in the name of defending human rights.

Friends and Colleagues;

Settlement of global problems and administration of justice and maintenance of peace will only be materialized with collective determination and cooperation of all nations and states. The age of polarizing the world on the premises of the hegemony or domination of a few governments is over.

Today we must rise together in a collective commitment against the present challenges; we must take change seriously and help others through collective work to return to the basic moral and human values. Messengers were sent by God to show the light of the truth to human kind, they came to make people aware of their individual and social obligations. Piety, having faith to Allah and its judgment of human behavior or conduct in the next world, belief in the primacy of justice in both lives, seeking one’s happiness, well being and security in the happiness, well-being and security of others, respecting human kind, making efforts to expand love and compassion against hostility were all on top of the teachings offered by the Messengers of God from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ and the last one Prophet Mohamamd (PUH). All of them came to do something to eliminate war and ignorance, to eradicate poverty and uproot discrimination in order to spread happiness in the entire world. They are the best gifts that God Almighty has granted to human beings.

If the belief in Entezar( A waiting patiently for the Imam to return) will turn into a common and we join hands to achieve prosperity for all, then there will be more real and increasing hopes for reform.

Fourth;

In my opinion, we have several important agendas in front of us. The Secretary-General and the UN General Assembly can take the lead by undertaking necessary measures for the fulfillment of our shared goals on the basis of:

1. Restructuring the United Nations in order to transform this world body to an efficient and fully democratic organization, capable of playing an impartial, equitable, and effective role in the international relations; reforming the structure of the Security Council, specially by abolishing the discriminatory privilege of veto right; restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people by organizing a referendum and free elections in Palestine in order to prepare a conducive ground for all Palestinian populations, including Muslims, Christians and Jews to live together in peace and harmony; putting an end to all types of interferences in the affairs of Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East, and in all countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.

As our great Prophet said, a government may survive with blasphemy, but never with oppression. Oppression against Palestinians and violation of their rights still continue; a new group of Palestinians who lived in al-Qod al-Sharif were again forced out of their homes as the destruction of their residential homes continues by the occupiers; bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan have not yet sopped; and Guantanamo Prison has not yet been shut down and there are still secret prisons in Europe.

Continuation of the present situation adds to hostilities and violence. Oppression and military aggression must be stopped. Regrettably, official reports concerning the brutalities of the Zionist regime in Gaza have not been completely published. The Secretary-General and the United Nations have crucial responsibilities in this respect and the international community is impatiently waiting for the punishment of the aggressors and the murderers of the defenseless people of Gaza.

2. Reforming the current economic structures and setting up a new international economic order based on human and moral values and obligations. A new course is needed that would help promote justice and progress worldwide by flourishing the potentials and talents of all nations thus bringing well-being for all and for future generations;

3. Reforming the international political relations based on the promotion of lasting peace and friendship, eradication of arms race and elimination of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;

4. Reforming cultural structures , respect for diverse customs and traditions of all nations, fostering moral values and spirituality aimed at institution of family as the backbone of all human societies;

5. Worldwide efforts to protect the environment and full observance of the international agreements and arrangements to prevent the annihilation of nature’s non-renewable resources.

Fifth;

Our nation has successfully gone through a glorious and fully- democratic election, opening a new chapter for our country in the march towards national progress and enhanced international interactions. They entrusted me once more with a large majority this heavy responsibility.

And now, I want to declare that our great nation that has made great contribution to the world civilization, and the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the most democratic and progressive governments of the world is ready to mobilize all its cultural, political and economic capabilities to engage into constructive process aimed at addressing the international concerns and challenges. Our country has been a main victim of terrorism and the target of an all-out military aggression during the first decade of the revolution.

All through the past thirty years we have been subject to hostile attitudes of those who supported Saddam’s military aggression and his use of chemical weapons against us, and then they took military action in Iraq to get rid of him. Today, our nation seeks to create a world in which justice and compassion prevail. We announce our commitment to participate in the process of building a durable peace and security worldwide for all nations based on justice, spirituality and human dignity, while being dedicated to strongly defending our legitimate and legal rights.

To materialize these goals, our nation is prepared to warmly shake all those hands which are honestly extended to us. No nation can claim to be free from the need to change and reform in this journey towards perfectness. We welcome real and humane changes and stand ready to actively engage in fundamental global reforms.

Therefore, we emphasize that:

The only path to remain safe is to return to Mmonotheism (believing in the Oneness of God) and justice, and this is the greatest hope and opportunity in all ages and generations. Without belief in God and commitment to the cause of justice and fight against injustice and discrimination, the world architect would not get right.

Man is at the center of the universe. The man’s unique feature is his humanity. The same feature which seeks for justice, piety, love, knowledge, awareness and all other high values. These human values should be supported, and each and every fellow humans should be given the opportunity to acquire them. Neglecting any of them is tantamount to the omission of a constituting piece of humanity. These are common elements which connect all human communities and constitute the basis of peace, security and friendship.

The divine religions pay attention to all aspects of human life, including obedience to God, morality, justice, fighting oppression, and endeavor to establish just and good governance. Prophet Abraham called for Oneness of God against Nimrod, as Prophet Moses did the same against Pharaohs and the Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon them) did against the oppressors of their own time. They were all threatened to death and were forced out of their homelands. Without resistance and objection, the injustices would not be removed from the face of the earth.

Sixth;

Dear friends and colleagues;

The world is in continuous change and evolution. The promised destiny for the mankind is the establishment of the humane pure life. Will come a time when justice will prevail across the globe and every single human being will enjoy respect and dignity. That will be the time when the Mankind’s path to moral and spiritual perfectness will be opened and his journey to God and the manifestation of the God’s Divine Names will come true. The mankind should excel to represent the God’s “knowledge and wisdom”, His “compassion and benevolence”, His “justice and fairness”, His “power and art”, and His “kindness and forgiveness”.

These will all come true under the rule of the Perfect Man, the last Divine Source on earth, Hazrat Mahdi (Peace be upon him); an offspring of the Prophet of Islam, who will re-emerge, and Jesus Christ (Peace be upon him) and other noble men will accompany him in the accomplishment of this, grand universal mission. And this is the belief in Entezar (Awaiting patiently for the Imam to return). Waiting with patience for the rule of goodness and the governance of the Best which is a universal human notion and which is a source of nations’ hope for the betterment of the world.

They will come, and with the help of righteous people and true believers will materialize the man’s long-standing desires for freedom, perfectness, maturity, security and tranquility, peace and beauty. They will come to put an end to war and aggression and present the entire knowledge as well as spirituality and friendship to the whole world.

Yes; Indeed, the bright future for the mankind will come.

Dear friends,

In waiting for that brilliant time to come and in a collective commitment, let’s make due contributions in paving the grounds and preparing the conditions for building that bright future.

Long live love and spirituality; long live peace and security; long live justice and freedom.

God’s Peace and blessing be upon you all.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the president of Islamic Republic of Iran

By Countercurrents.org

27 September , 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Banks are as major speculators in the global food market while millions face starvation. In the backdrop of global food crisis, banks are speculating with food. Barclays has made half a billion pounds in two years from speculating on food staples.

Citing research from the World Development Movement The Independent ‘s report “Barclays makes £500m betting on food crisis” ( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/barclays-makes-500m-betting-on-food-crisis-8100011.html ) on September 1, 2012 said:

Barclays is the UK bank with the greatest involvement in food commodity trading and is one of the three biggest global players, along with the US banking giants Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

In the last week of August 2012, the trading giant Glencore was strongly criticized for describing the global food crisis and price rises as a “good” business opportunity.

The extent of just one bank’s involvement in agricultural markets will add to concerns that food speculation could help push basic prices so high that they trigger a wave of riots in the world’s poorest countries, as staples drift out of their populations’ reach.

The UK has not escaped rising food costs. Shop food prices have risen, on average, by 37.9 percent in the past seven years, according to the Office for National Statistics, as the demands of an increasingly affluent and growing world population strain supply. Oils and fats have soared by 63 percent in the UK during that period, fish prices by 50.9 percent, bread and cereals by 36.7 percent, meat 34.5 percent and vegetables 41.3 percent. In April, average UK food prices were 4.2 percent higher than a year earlier.

Oxfam’s private sector adviser, Rob Nash, said: “The food market is becoming a playground for investors rather than a market place for farmers. The trend of big investors betting on food prices is transforming food into a financial asset while exacerbating the risk of price spikes that hit the poor hardest.”

The WDM report estimates that Barclays made £529m from its “food speculative activities” in 2010 and 2011. Barclays made up to £340m from food speculation in 2010. The following year, the bank made a smaller sum – of up to £189m – as prices fell.

The revenues that Barclays and other banks make from trading in everything from wheat and corn to coffee and cocoa, are expected to increase this year, with prices once again on the rise. Corn prices have risen by 45 percent since the start of June, with wheat jumping by 30 percent.

Barclays makes most of its “food-speculation” revenues by setting up and managing commodity funds that invest money from pension funds, insurance companies and wealthy individuals in a variety of agricultural products in return for fees and commissions. The bank claims not to invest its own money in such commodities.

Since deregulation allowed the creation of such funds in 2000, institutions such as Barclays have collectively channeled an astonishing $200bn (£126bn) of investment cash into agricultural commodities, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Barclays’ dominance in commodities trading is thanks to its former chief executive Bob Diamond, who was Britain ‘s best-paid banking boss until he was forced to resign last month following a £290m fine for attempting to manipulate the Liborinterest rate. As boss of Barclays Capital he boosted trading in agricultural products.

Christine Haigh, policy and campaigns officer at the WDM and one of the analysts behind the research, said: “No doubt the UK ‘s biggest player in the commodities markets is hoping it will do better this year by cashing in on rising food prices. Its behavior risks fuelling a speculative bubble and contributing to hunger and poverty for millions of the world’s poorest people.”

Barclays declined to comment on the amount of money it makes from trading in agricultural commodities yesterday.

The bank defended its actions, pointing out that trading in so-called futures contracts – an agreement to buy or sell a certain quantity of a product, at a given price on an agreed date – helped parties such as farmers and bakers to hedge against the risk of rising or falling prices.

Barclays also declined to comment on whether it thought large amounts of speculation pushed up prices and volatility. A spokesman said: “We recognize there is a perception held by some stakeholders that participation in agricultural futures markets by some participants can unduly influence the prices of commodities. As a result, we continue to carefully monitor market trends and any research produced on this subject,” a spokesman said.

Barclays Capital analysts admitted in a note to clients in February that speculation did push up prices. Barclays said: “The second key driver is that commodity investors have begun allocating to commodities again after beginning 2012 heavily underexposed to the sector.” The other drivers were the “health of the global economy” and “weather and geopolitics”.

By Common Dreams

26 October, 2012

@ CommonDreams.org

The UN’s special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights announced Thursday that the Human Rights Council at the UN will likely initiate an investigation into civilian deaths caused by the CIA and US military’s use of drones and other targeted killing programs, and said that if certain allegations against the US prove true, he considers them serious enough to call “war crimes”.

Ben Emmerson, at speech given at Harvard Law School on Thursday, said that he and his UN colleague—Christof Heyns, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions—are compelled to investigate the controversial programs because the US government has so far refused to answer even some of the most basic questions about how it justifies such programs or prove that it has put in necessary safeguards to prevent the death of civilians.

“The Obama administration continues to formally adopt the position that it will neither confirm nor deny the existence of the drone program. . . . In reality, the administration is holding its finger in the dam of public accountability,” he said according to a prepared copy of the speech.

“I will be launching an investigation unit within the special procedures of the [U.N.] Human Rights Council to inquire into individual drone attacks, and other forms of targeted killings conducted in counterterrorism operations, in which it has been alleged that civilian casualties have been inflicted,” he added.

As special rapporteur, Emmerson’s role at the UN is that of an independent researcher and adviser, but he does not necessarily represent the views or speak on behalf of the world body. “It’s not my job to speak for the UN,” he said. “I speak to the UN.”

His position was created in 2005, following concern at the UN that the role of counter-terrorism and reports of torture being used by the Bush administration exposed a blind spot in how human rights abuses were being institutionalized in the name of fighting terrorism.

“It is only by adherence to human rights regulations that counter-terrorism can survive,” Emerson said before he crowd of about 50, reports Harvard’s student paper, The Crimson. He called into question not only the human rights obligations of governments to protect civilians, but also the important responsibility to uphold the rights of individuals “suspected of terrorism.”

“Victims demand the accountability of public officials and the rule of law, not more human rights violations,” Emmerson said.

Emmerson specifically addressed the failed logic of what is widely called ‘the global war on terror,’ arguing the construct of a ‘global war paradigm’ has been repeatedly used to justify acts that severe long-held notions of international law. He said:

The global war paradigm has done immense damage to a previously shared international consensus on the legal framework underlying both international human rights law and international humanitarian law… It has also given a spurious justification to a range of serious human rights and humanitarian law violations.

The [global] war paradigm was always based on the flimsiest of reasoning, and was not supported even by close allies of the US. The first-term Obama administration initially retreated from this approach, but over the past 18 months it has begun to rear its head once again, in briefings by administration officials seeking to provide a legal justification for the drone program of targeted killing in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia …

[It is] alleged that since President Obama took office at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims and more than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. Christof Heyns … has described such attacks, if they prove to have happened, as war crimes. I would endorse that view.

In addition, Emerson, entered the political arena in some measure by noting that in a recent debate, presidential candidates Obama and Romney showed consensus on the existing drone program. “It is perhaps surprising that the position of the two candidates on this issue has not even featured during their presidential elections campaigns, and got no mention at all in Monday night’s foreign policy debate. We now know that the two candidates are in agreement on the use of drones.’

He credited Obama for halting some of the worst abuses of the Bush years and noted that Mitt Romney, even recently, contends that waterboarding is “not torture.”

“Anyone who is in doubt about whether waterboarding is torture should visit Tuol Sleng,” Emerson said, invoking the murderous legacy of Pol Pot and the “infamous S-21 detention facility operated by the Khymer Rouge in Phnom Penh.”

“Over a period of four years 14,000 people were systematically tortured and killed there. It is now a genocide museum. And right there, in the middle of the central torturing room, is the apparatus used by Pol Pot’s security officials for waterboarding.”

By Tom Hayden

26 October, 2012

@ The Nation

Russell Means, who died on Tuesday, kept a place here in Santa Monica in recent years, with his wife, Pearl. Once my wife Barbara and I took our son Liam for a visit to meet this man we described as having fought a real war against the government. Still in good health a couple of years ago, Russell took great interest in our 10-year-old, as he did in all kids trying to understand the actual history of our country.

Russell was a strong, imposing figure. It wasn’t only his braided hair or the beads around his neck; his clear eyes gazed as if it was 1873. He had Liam’s attention. When they shook hands, Russell told Liam that his grip needed to be firmer, he should stand up straight, and that he always should look the other person straight in the eye. Our son will not forget the quiet authority this man quietly commanded.

Russell had that effect on people, the presence of a nineteenth-century warrior still alive as a force in the here and now. He touched millions.

I therefore was quite shocked to see Russell with Pearl in a local restaurant a few months later, gaunt and frail from cancer. I didn’t quite recognize him. He told me the diagnosis was terminal, and that he was living on tribal remedies and prayer. His face should have been on Mr. Rushmore. The great law of mortality would prevail where the Great White Father had failed, and Russell soon would enter the spirit world. He knew his time on earth was ending, eating eggs in an Ocean Park cafe.

My wife, a descendant of the Oglala Nation, and our son, were blessed to know him even briefly. My old friends Bill Zimmerman and Larry Levin were touched enough to fly a plane with supplies into Wounded Knee when the fight was on. Governor Jerry Brown was courageous enough to harbor Russell in California when South Dakota wanted him extradited. Tim Carpenter, now of PDA, was inspired enough in 1971 to march across the United States on the latter-day Trail of Tears. Russell, the imprisoned Leonard Peltier and the American Indian Movement led many to try repealing the past. “No More Broken Treaties” was the slogan of the Indochina Peace Campaign at the time of the Paris Peace Agreement, a reminder of the 371 solemn pacts violated by the US government during the earlier Indian Wars. One of the most momentous violations was that of the 1868 Treaty of Laramie guaranteeing Sioux Nation ownership of the Black Hills, now the center of a vast corporate energy domain. That violation aroused a new generation of native American warriors.

The fundamental difference between a truthful, radical interpretation of US history and a merely progressive or liberal one is how deeply one understands that our permanent original sin, even preceding slavery, was a genocide against native people that underlay the the later growth of democratic rights. That truth is what is “buried at Wounded Knee”, what Russell Means’ war for recognition was all about, and why he will be long remembered by my son.

Until we in America finally accept and redeem the moral debasement of a Conquest that still underlies the achievement of democracy, our blindness will lead us into one war after another against indigenous tribes and clans in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Asia, Africa and Latin America, all stemming from a denial of our own blood-stained origins.

Russell was a reminder that the wars against indigenous people, and the conquest of their resources, are far from over, and that we cannot be fully human until remorse with our eyes wide open allows the possibility of reconciliation.

Also Read this speech given by Russell Means in July 1980

Revolution And American Indians: “Marxism Is As Alien To My Culture As Capitalism”