Bulletin N° 204
Subject : ON DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN EXISTENCE : FROM THE CENTER FOR
THE ADVANCED STUDY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS,
22 October 2005
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The "enemies of democracy" seem to be turning to the defensive at
this moment in
From Information
Clearing
House, Tom Feeley (no relation) of Boston, Massachusetts warned
recently
the "Police State Is Closer Than You Think", and he sent a series of
pithy quotes which may remind some of us of gestalt therapy techniques
used
against the pathogenic obsessions bred by capitalist
accumulation in the
1970s.
For example :
"I wouldn't call it
fascism exactly, but a political
system nominally
controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate who are
manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media that
dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment can
hardly be described as democracy either."
--Edward Zehr
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism
because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
-- Benito Mussolini
"Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Item A. is an article
from
Item B. is
an article forwarded to us by our research associate Professor John
Gerassi, at
Item C. is from
Item D., an
article from John Pilger, reminds us of the heritage of modern
imperialism and
the contemporary history of men acting like "demi-gods," determining
life-or-death for millions of people according short-term economic
interests or
simply by caprice.
Item E. is an
article forwarded to us from Professor Richard Du Boff, who warns of a
"double standard" which has effectively disarmed the American nation
for many, many years and today risks to annihilate the world by "the
use
of nuclear weapons to deter terrorists."
Sincerely
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research
Université Stendhal-Grenoble III
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
_______________
A.
from Jean-Pierre Juy
18 septembre 2005
Salut
Francis,
J'ai trouvé un article que je trouve bien intéressant sur le ""split
AFL-CIO". Il est en attaché. Il fait suite à ton dernier bulletin.
Tu peux le trouver sur WWW.marxist.com
à bientôt,
Jean- Pierre
AFTER the Split of AFL-CIO.doc
_______________
B.
from John Gerassi
22 October 2005
Subject: Gag order lifted on Canadian torture charges against Bush.
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005
Francis,
Light at the end of the tunnel?
I hope so.
Tito
Gag Order Lifted on
Canadian Torture Charges Against
Bush
Vancouver B.C. –
Lawyers
Against the War (LAW) has achieved what it is calling a "very important
victory" in its battle to have George W. Bush face criminal charges in
Canada for torture.
The charges stem from the notorious cases of torture carried out by
The charges were laid under sections of the Canadian Criminal Code
enacted
pursuant to the United Nations Torture Convention, which requires
extra-territorial jurisdiction to be exercised against officials, even
Heads of
State, who authorize or oversee torture.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of British Columbia quashed an order
banning
publication of everything having to do with the case. In a secret
hearing held
December 6th
The secrecy, the immunity claim and the ban were vigorously opposed by
LAW, who
appealed all aspects of the decision.
On Monday, Justice Deborah Satanove of the Supreme Court of British
Columbia
quashed the publication ban after government lawyers failed to come up
with any
argument to defend it. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Associatio
had
intervened on the side of LAW against the ban.
“This is a very important victory”, said Vancouver lawyer Gail
Davidson, who
laid the charges for LAW, “because it ensures that the proceedings will
be scrutinized
by people in Canada and throughout the world, to make sure that the law
is
applied fairly and properly and, above all, to make sure that Bush
doesn’t get
away with torture.”
“The American legal system seems incapable of bringing him to justice
and there
are no international courts with jurisdiction. So it’s up to
The next hearing in the case will take place on November 25th 2005, at
10:00
a.m. at the B.C. Supreme Court,
Lawyers Against the War is an international group of jurists based in
Contacts :
Michael Mandel,
4700
Tel : 416 736-5039
Fax : 416-736-5736
Email: MMandel@osgoode.yorku.ca
Gail Davidson
Tel: 604 738 0338
Fax: 604 736 1175
Email: law@portal.ca
_________________
C.
from Karin Busch
24 septembre 2005
Salut Francis
Ci-jointe une info sur les société américaines en Chilé.
Karin
___________________
D.
from
Michael Albert
15 October 2005
zmag.org
ZNet | Foreign Policy
Suharto to Iraq,
Nothing has Changed
by John Pilger
"The
propagandist’s purpose,” wrote Aldous Huxley, “is to make one set of
people
forget that certain other sets of people are human.” The British, who
invented
modern war propaganda and inspired Joseph Goebbels, were specialists in
the
field. At the height of the slaughter known as the First World War, the
prime
minister, David Lloyd George, confided to C P Scott, editor of the
Manchester
Guardian: “If people really knew [the truth], the war would be stopped
tomorrow. But of course they don’t know, and can’t know.” What has
changed?
“If we had all known then what we know now,” said the New York Times on
24
August, “the invasion [of
This remains largely an unspoken shame in
When will important journalists cease to be establishment managers and
analyse
and confront the critical part they play in the violence of rapacious
governments? An anniversary provides an opportunity. Forty years ago
this
month, Major General Suharto began a seizure of power in Indonesia by
unleashing a wave of killings that the CIA described as “the worst mass
murders
of the second half of the 20th century”. Much of this episode was never
reported and remains secret. None of the reports of recent terror
attacks against
tourists in Bali mentioned the fact that near the major hotels were the
mass
graves of some of an estimated 80,000 people killed by mobs
orchestrated by
Suharto and backed by the American and British governments.
Indeed, the collaboration of western governments, together with the
role of
western business, laid the pattern for subsequent Anglo-American
violence
across the world: such as Chile in 1973, when Augusto Pinochet’s bloody
coup
was backed in Washington and London; the arming of the shah of Iran and
the
creation of his secret police; and the lavish and meticulous backing of
Saddam
Hussein in Iraq, including black propaganda by the Foreign Office which
sought
to discredit press reports that he had used nerve gas against the
Kurdish
village of Halabja.
In
The Americans worked closely with the British. The British ambassador
in
The IRD was a top-secret, cold war propaganda unit headed by Norman
Reddaway,
one of Her Majesty’s most experienced liars. Reddaway and his
colleagues
manipulated the “embedded” press and the BBC so expertly that he
boasted to
Gilchrist in a secret message that the fake story he had promoted –
that a
communist takeover was imminent in
The bloodbath was ignored almost entirely by the BBC and the rest of
the
western media. The headline news was that “communism” had been
overthrown in
Suharto’s cut was considerable. When he was finally overthrown in 1998,
it was
estimated that he had up to $10bn in foreign banks, or more than 10 per
cent of
Since the invasion of
__________________
E.
from Richard Du Boff
11 September 2005
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Pentagon planning document
being
updated to reflect the doctrine of pre-emption declared by President
Bush in
2002 envisions the use of nuclear weapons to deter terrorists from
using
weapons of mass destruction against the United States or its allies.
The "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations,'' which was last
updated
10 years ago, makes clear that "the decision to employ nuclear weapons
at
any level requires explicit orders from the president.'' But it
says that
in a changing environment "terrorists or regional states armed with WMD
will likely test U.S. security commitments to its allies and friends.''
"In response, the U.S. needs a range of capabilities to assure friend
and
foe alike of its resolve,'' says the 69-page document dated March 15.
A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday evening that Navy Cmdr. Dawn Cutler,
a
public affairs officer for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
has
issued a statement saying the draft is still being circulated among the
various
services, field commanders, Pentagon lawyers and Defense Secretary
Donald H.
Rumsfeld's office, .
Its existence was initially reported by The Washington Post in Sunday
editions,
which said the document was posted on a Pentagon Internet site and
pointed out
to it by a consultant for the Natural Resorces Defense Council.
The file
was not available at that site Saturday evening, but a copy was
available at www.globalsecurity.org.
"A broader array of capability is needed to dissuade states from
undertaking ... courses of action that would threaten
It says "deterrence of potential adversary WMD use requires the
potential
adversary leadership to believe the United States has both the ability
and will
to pre-empt or retaliate promptly with responses that are credible and
effective.''
It says "this will be particularly difficult with nonstate
(non-government)
actors who employ or attempt to gain use of WMD. Here, deterrence may
be
directed at states that support their efforts as well as the terrorist
organization itself. However, the continuing proliferation of WMD
along
with the means to deliver them increases the probability that someday a
state/nonstate actor nation/terrorist may, through miscaluation or by
deliberate choice, use those weapons. In such cases, deterrence, even
based on
the threat of massive destruction, may fail and the United States must
be
prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary.''
It notes that
One scenario for a possible nuclear pre-emptive strike in the draft
would be in
the case of an "imminent attack from adversary biological weapons that
only effects from nuclear weapons can safely destroy.''
The Bush administration is continuing to push for development of an
earth-penetrating nuclear warhead, but has yet to obtain congressional
approval. However, the Senate voted in July to revive the
"bunker-buster'' program that Congress last year decided to kill.
Administration officials have maintained that the
But opponents said that its benefits are questionable and that such a
warhead
would cause extensive radiation fallout above ground killing thousands
of
people. And they say it may make it easier for a future president to
decide to
use the nuclear option instead of a conventional weapon.
The Senate voted 53-43 to include $4 million for research into the
feasibility
of a bunker-buster nuclear warhead. Earlier this year, the House
refused to
provide the money, so a final decision will have to be worked out
between the
two chambers.
On The Net:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/policy/dod/jp3_12fc2.pdf
*********************
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research
Université de Grenoble-3
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/