Bulletin
N° 603
Subject: ON THE INDISPENSABLE ILLUSION OF POWER THAT
SERVES TO CONCEAL THE SOURCES AND INSTRUMETNS OF REAL POWER.
10 March 2014
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of
CEIMSA,
For several years now CEIMSA has
made use of Information Clearing House
for articles containing some of the most critical information available on US
foreign and domestic policies. Tom Feeley (no relation to me) is working in
Southern California to gather and make available to subscribers an
impressive diversity of alternative views of the North American political landscape and
beyond. His web site at <
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/> must be
considered among the top half-dozen sources of critical world news available in the
English language, with new articles added on a daily basis.
Reading articles published by ICH, while keeping in mind John Kenneth Galbraith’s concepts that are outlined in his 1983 book, The Anatomy of Power, provides an invaluable education on the sources of political power and the instruments used to exercise this power which are being employed in various combinations today, as we speak. The definitions and illustrations offered by Galbraith of the classic instruments of power (condign punishment, both direct and indirect compensation, and social conditioning, both explicit and implicit) and of the universal locations of power sources (personality, property, and organization, or some combinations thereof . . .) constitute important analytical tools with which we can discover the pervasive illusions of power and expose real power relationships as they truly exist.
Any examination and understanding of
Galbraith’s categories make it virtually impossible for one to remain passive
in the face of current events. It is simply a fact of live that we are all actors –whether we wish to be or not—
sometimes resisting power, more often submitting to power, but always engaged in
what Galbraith describes as “the dialectics of power,” the symmetrical response
and counter–response to the organizations and people who attempt to make us
submit to their will, whether consciously or unconsciously, rationally or
irrationally, eagerly or reluctantly . . . .
Contrary to what one might suppose
before reading his book, The Anatomy of Power
is not a reductive approach to this subject. It serves, as the title suggests, to present a picture of the structure of power in functionalist
terms, as opposed to more general institutional terms, like military power, religious power, corporate power, government power, etc., etc.... From Galbraith's anatomy lesson, we can more easily identify where power comes
from, how it is exercised, and to what effect. As we apply this knowledge to “messy
realities” --whether of world history or local politics-- political structures
become visible, and the articulations between different systems become
apparent; we gain insights into the challenges we face when up against the will power
of others, and into our own conditioned habits of thought. By dissecting power
until its sources, its principles, and its instruments are completely exposed,
Galbraith sheds light on how important organizing skills have become today and what a
society where such skills are not widely distributed might look like, before
it collapses.
The 11 items below will draw
the attention of CEIMSA readers to the importance of organization as a source of power in contemporary society, and to
the skilful exploitation of social
conditioning --both explicit by propaganda and implicit by the reproduction of social traditions and systems of belief-- as
an instrument of power, for winning popular submission to the will of organizations,
which, of course, maintain a ready access to the instuments of condign punishment and
compensations of various sorts in order to achieve submission when all
else fails.
Item A.,
from Common
Dreams, is an article by Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin on the failing power of the Israeli Lobby in Washington,
D.C.
Item B.,
from ZNet, is an article by Jack Rasmus on the economic crisis in Ukraine.
Item C., from The Nation, is an article by former Princeton University Professor Stephen
Cohen on the destabilization of Ukraine.
Item D.
is an article by retired CIA analyst Ray
McGovern in Consortium News : “Ukraine: One ‘Regime Change’ Too Many?”
Item E.,
from Democracy
Now! is an interview with Yale University Professor Timothy Snyder speaking
with Ray McGovern on the
destabilization of Ukraine: Is it grassroots
democracy or Astroturf democracy?
Item F.,
from Information Clearing House,
is an article by Russian-Israeli
writer, Israel Shamir, on Russian troops & US troops on the ground
while Ukrainian Oligarchs are busy privatizing the rest of the country’s
assets.
Item G.,
from the Real
News Network, is a video report with Robert
Parry,
an American investigative journalist and founder of Consortium News, on the role of the US in the Ukrainian coup
d’état.
Item H.,
from ZNet, is an article by Robert Fisk on the
history of post-colonial violence in the Middle East.
Item I., from NYU Professor Mark Crispin Miller,
founder of News
From Underground, is a video tape of an
American
being hauled off to jail for speaking truth to the US Supreme Court.
Item J., from Mark Crispin Miller, is a video broadcast from Russian Television and an
article from Global Research which
discuss evidence that the same small group of professional Ukrainian snipers
were paid to kill both police and demonstrators in Kiev in an effort to
destabilize the elected government of Ukraine and affect a coup d’état against
the pro-Russian government.
And finally we invite CEIMSA readers
to view a Real News Network photo
report from . . .
Inside the Secret Wall Street Society of the 1%
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11530
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies
University of Grenoble-3
Director of Research
University of Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced Study of
American Institutions and Social Movements
The University of California-San
Diego
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
_______________
A.
From Common Dreams :
Dates: 28
February 2014
Subject: [Syria] Israel Lobby AIPAC Down, But Not
Out---Medea Benjamin.
Israel Lobby AIPAC Down, But Not Out—Yet
by
Medea Benjamin
The American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is still one of the most powerful lobby
organizations in the country, but fortunately, it is starting to lose its
iron-clad grip on our policymakers. AIPAC lost the fight to stop Chuck Hagel from being confirmed as Secretary of Defense; it lost
the push for the US military to attack Syria, and it is losing its effort to
derail nuclear talks with Iran. In the old days, AIPAC bragged that it could,
within 24 hours, get the signatures of 70 Senators on a
napkin if it really wanted to. This year, AIPAC got stuck at 59
cosponsors for its S.1881 sanctions bill–not enough support to force Senator
Harry Reid to bring the bill to the floor or to override a threatened
presidential veto.
Another sign of AIPAC’s
waning influence is the fact that this year, at their March 2-4 Policy
Conference in Washington DC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will
attend but not President Obama or Vice President Joe Biden—both of whom have
spoken in past years.
But it’s certainly not
time to sound the death knell. AIPAC still has a lot of muscle and will keep
trying to flex it. Here’s what we have to look forward to coming out of AIPAC
2014:
1. AIPAC continues to gun
for a military confrontation with Iran. AIPAC has been pushing for increased
sanctions during these delicate international nuclear talks, a move that would
violate the terms of the agreement, signal to Iran that the US negotiating team
cannot deliver on its commitments, divide the US from its international
negotiating partners, and embolden Iranian hardliners. AIPAC is still pushing
for this, but as a backup is trying to set the conditions for the talks.
AIPAC’s policy would lead us down a path to yet another disastrous war in the
Middle East (AIPAC was a big promoter of the war in Iraq–and look how that one
turned out!).
2. AIPAC’s call for
unconditional support for the Israeli government undermines a possible
negotiated solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. AIPAC promotes
Israeli policies that are in direct opposition to international law, including
the establishment of settlements in the Occupied West Bank and the confiscation
of Palestinian land in its construction of the 26-foot high concrete
“separation barrier” running through the West Bank. On February 27 Amnesty
International published a report called Trigger Happy providing
chilling detail of Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank. AIPAC’s
support of these illegal practices is in direct opposition to a negotiated
solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. AIPAC has also been pressuring
Secretary of State Kerry to keep the political representatives of Palestinians
in Gaza–Hamas–completely out of the peace
talks. How can you come to a negotiated solution if 40 percent of
all Palestinians are not represented?
3. AIPAC’s influence on US
policy–pushing it in the direction of unconditional support for
Israel–increases anti-American sentiment around the world, sowing the seeds of
more possible terrorist attacks against us. Even General David Petraeus
admitted that the U.S./Palestine conflict “foments anti-American
sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel.” He also said
that “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of
U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the [region] and weakens the
legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other
militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support.”
4. AIPAC makes the U.S. a
pariah at the UN. AIPAC describes the UN as a body hostile to the State of Israel
and has pressured the U.S. government to oppose resolutions calling Israel to
account. Since 1972, the US has vetoed 44 UN Security Council resolutions
condemning Israel’s actions against the Palestinians. President Obama continues
that practice. Under Obama, the US vetoed UN censure of the savage Israeli
assault on Gaza in January 2009 in which about 1400 Palestinians were killed; a
2011 resolution calling for a halt to the illegal Israeli West Bank
settlements, even though this was stated U.S. policy; a 2011 resolution calling
for Israel to cease obstructing the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees; and another resolution calling for an end to illegal
Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights.
5. AIPAC attacks
politicians who question unconditional support of Israel. AIPAC demands that
Congress rubber stamp legislation drafted by AIPAC staff. It keeps a record of
how members of Congress vote and this record is used by donors to make
contributions to the politicians who score well. Members of Congress who fail
to support AIPAC legislation have been targeted for defeat in re-election bids.
These include Senators Adlai Stevenson III and Charles H. Percy, and
Representatives Paul Findley, Pete McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney, and Earl F.
Hilliard. AIPAC’s overwhelmingly disproportionate influence on Congress
subverts our democratic system.
6. AIPAC attempts to
silence all criticism of Israel. Journalists, think tanks, students and
professors have been accused of anti-Semitism for merely taking stands critical
of Israeli government policies. These attacks stifle the critical discussions
and debates that are at the heart of democratic policy-making. Most recently,
AIPAC has been attacking supporters of the movement that calls for the boycott,
divestment, and sanctions on Israel (BDS), a movement that has gained rapid
momentum and multiple victories to put pressure on Israel to end the
occupation. In December, the American Studies Association passed a measure
supporting BDS. In direct response, AIPAC is trying to push a bill through
Congress that would cut federal funding to American academic institutions that
advocate a boycott of Israel. Several state-level bills are also in the works.
Seems like AIPAC has a hard time with the First Amendment!
7. AIPAC feeds U.S.
government officials a distorted view of the Israel/Palestine conflict. AIPAC
takes U.S. representatives on sugar-coated trips to Israel. Every year, AIPAC
takes dozens of members of Congress—and many of their spouses—on a free junket
to Israel to see precisely what the Israeli government want them to see. It is
illegal for lobby groups to take Congresspeople on
trips, but AIPAC gets around the law by creating a bogus educational group, the
American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), to “organize” the trips for them.
AIEF has the same office address as AIPAC and the same staff. These trips help
cement the ties between AIPAC and Congress, furthering their undue influence.
8. AIPAC lobbies for
billions of U.S. taxdollars to go to Israel instead
of rebuilding America or funding the truly needy. While our country is still
suffering from a prolonged financial crisis, AIPAC is pushing for no cuts in
military funds for Israel. With communities across the nation slashing budgets
for teachers, firefighters and police, AIPAC pushes for over $3 billion a year
to Israel.
Israel is the 27th richest country in
world, but thanks to AIPAC, it gets more U.S. taxdollars
than any other country. At a time when the foreign aid budget is being slashed,
keeping the lion’s share of foreign assistance for Israel means taking funds
from critical programs to feed, provide shelter and offer emergency assistance
to the world’s poorest people.
The bottom line is that
AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has influence on
U.S. policy out of all proportion to the number of Americans who support its
policies. When a small group like this has disproportionate power,
that hurts everyone—including Israelis and American Jews. From stopping
a catastrophic war with Iran to finally solving the Israel/Palestine conflict,
an essential starting point is breaking AIPAC’s grip on U.S. policy. Join us by sending a message to AIPAC
today.
This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Medea Benjamin (medea@globalexchange.org),
cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, is the author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control.
Her previous books include Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman
Speaks from the Heart., and (with Jodie
Evans) Stop the Next War Now (Inner Ocean Action Guide).
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_______________
B.
From Z Net :
Dates: 3 March
2014
Subject: Killing
our own citizens ‘legally’.
What are the dimensions of the
current economic crisis in the Ukraine? And its origins in
the preceding decade?
The Ukraine Economic Crisis: Past, Present & Future
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-ukraine-economic-crisis-past-present-future/
by Jack Rasmus
_______________
C.
From The Nation :
Dates: 20
February 2014
Subject: Ukraine,
an interpretation by Stephen Cohen.
http://www.thenation.com/authors/stephen-f-cohen
by
Stephen Cohn
_______________
D.
From Consortium
News :
Dates: 20
February 2014
Subject: Killing our own citizens ‘legally’.
Is “regime change” in Ukraine the
bridge too far for the neoconservative “regime changers” of Official Washington
and their sophomoric “responsibility-to-protect” allies?
Ukraine: One ‘Regime
Change’ Too Many?
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/01/ukraine-one-regime-change-too-many/
by
Ray McGovern
_______________
E.
From Democracy
Now! :
Dates: 3 March
2014
Subject: Ukraine,
the start of a new Cold War?
Who Is Provoking the Unrest in Ukraine? A Debate on Role of
Russia, United States in Regional
_______________
F.
From Information
Clearing House :
Dates: 8 March
2014
Subject: US
& Russian Troops in Ukraine.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The stakes are high in the Ukraine:
after the coup, as Crimea and Donbas asserted their right to self
determination, American and Russian troops entered Ukrainian territory, both
under cover.
The American soldiers are “military
advisors”, ostensibly members of Blackwater private
army (renamed Academi); a few hundred of them patrol
Kiev while others try to suppress the revolt in Donetsk. Officially, they were
invited by the new West-installed regime. They are the spearhead of the US
invasion attempting to prop up the regime and break down all resistance. They
have already bloodied their hands in Donetsk.
The
Ukrainian Pendulum
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37886.htm
by Israel Shamir
_______________
G.
From The
Real News Network :
Dates: 4 March
2014
Subject: The
US and the Ukrainian coup.
Investigative journalist Robert
Parry talks about Russia's move to invade Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and the
role of the US and the west in fomenting crisis there.
Did
the U.S. Carry Out a Ukrainian Coup?
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11541
_______________
H.
From Z Net :
Dates: 4 March
2014
Subject: Arabs Killing
Arabs.
Were It Not For The French
http://zcomm.org/znetarticle/were-it-not-for-the-french/
by
Robert Fisk
_______________
I.
From Mark
Crispin Miller :
Dates: 2 March
2014
Subject: American
hauled off to jail for speaking truth to the US Supreme Court.
Unprecedented Interruption of
Supreme Court Proceedings
Thu, 2/27/2014 - by Carl Gibson
Early on Wednesday morning, inside
the stuffy chambers of the United States Supreme Court, a man stood up in a
crowd of 330 citizens to address the nation’s nine top judges. He wasn’t
scheduled to give testimony, and wasn’t a certified legal expert with
credentials to present an oral argument in the Supreme Court. His interruption
of Supreme Court proceedings would be the first in eight years, and only the
second in two decades.
And for the first time ever, a citizen speaking freely inside the Supreme Court
chamber was caught on video.
“I rise on behalf of the majority of
the American people, who believe that money is not speech, corporations are not
people, and our democracy should not be for sale to the highest bidder.
Overturn Citizens United. Keep the cap in McCutcheon. The people demand
democracy,” said Kai Newkirk of the organization 99Rise, before being hauled out of the courtroom and
handcuffed. As of this writing, Newkirk is still in jail on charges of “haranguing” and uttering “loud threatening or
abusive language" in the Supreme Court building.
Newkirk’s outburst preceded oral
arguments for the McCutcheon vs. FEC case,
which has been called “Citizens United, Part 2.” Shaun McCutcheon, C.E.O. of
the mining industry-focused engineering company Coalmont
Electrical Development, is the plaintiff in the case. McCutcheon, of
Birmingham, Ala., donated $16,250 to
the Alabama Republican Party in 2012. His company has donated to the campaigns
of the most obstructionist Republicans in the US Senate, including top Republican Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, who is credited with
initiating the federal government shutdown of 2013. The latest oral arguments
for McCutcheon vs. FEC were presented in October. It’s also worth noting that
the Republican National Committee has joined McCutcheon in his lawsuit, along with Mitch
McConnell himself, whose team of lawyers will be making arguments to
the Supreme Court on McConnell’s behalf.
- See more at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K-8FJ114kU and at
_______________
J.
From Mark
Crispin Miller :
Dates: 6 March
2014
Subject: Kiev
snipers who killed protesters were hired by US-backed
"revolutionaries"!
Leaked EU’s Ashton Phone Tape: Kiev Snipers Were Hired by US
Supported Opposition Leaders
http://rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/
by Russia
Today
Article by
Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Image:
leader of Neo Nazi Svoboda party together with John McCain
Article by
Umberto Pascali
The Big
Lie of the Maidan “Revolution”: The Organizers of the
Coup d’état Hired the Snipers (And Lady Ashton Knows it)
Global Research Editor’s Note :
On the 20th of February, according
to reports, more than twenty protesters were killed by professional snipers.
This was not a spontaneous event resulting from clashes between protesters and
riot police, nor was it marked by an exchange of gunfire between the police and
the Neo-Nazi militia.
The sniper killings had the
hallmarks of a carefully planned operation . They
happened within ‘the space of a few hours”. Moreover, the killings coincided
with the meetings of President Viktor Yanukovych with
a high level EU delegation. In a bitter irony, these targeted killings were
used as a pretext to topple the government and issue an arrest warrant directed
against president Yanukovych
The following RT report confirms
what is already known. The US Sponsored opposition militia was behind the
shooting of civilians on February 20th.
Civilian casualties were part of
this staged agenda, with a view to accusing president Yanukovych
of “mass murder”, thereby providing a justification for regime change on
humanitarian grounds.
Read the Report of Russia Today. GR
will be releasing additional reports on this issue
Michel Chossudovsky,
Global Research, March 5, 2014
***
The snipers who shot at protesters
and police in Kiev were allegedly hired by Maidan
leaders, according to a leaked phone conversation between the EU foreign
affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian foreign affairs minister, which has
emerged online.
“There is now stronger and stronger
understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich,
but it was somebody from the new coalition,” Paet
said during the conversation.
“I think we do want to investigate.
I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh,” Ashton answered.
The call took place after Estonia’s
Foreign Minister Urmas Paet
visited Kiev on February 25 at the peak of clashes between the pro-EU
protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital.
Paet also recalled his conversation with a doctor who treated
those shot by snipers in Kiev. She said that both protesters and police were
shot at by the same people.
“And second, what was quite
disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well
that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from
both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were
the same snipers killing people from both sides,” the Estonian FM stressed.
Ashton reacted to the information by
saying: “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.”
“So that she then also showed me
some photos she said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the same
handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the
new coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened,” Paet said.
The file was reportedly uploaded to
the web by officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted
President Viktor Yanukovich who hacked Paet’s and Ashton’s phones.
An anti-government protester sit
near the bodies of two demonstrators killed by a sniper during clashes with the
police in the center of Kiev on February 20, 2014.(AFP
Photo / Sergei Supinsky)
An anti-government protester sits
near the bodies of two demonstrators killed by a sniper during clashes with the
police in the center of Kiev on February 20, 2014.(AFP
Photo / Sergei Supinsky)