CHAPTER VII b
THE ROCK OF S. FRANCESCO
Cap. VII pag. 151-159
To Brother Leo only was vouchsafed some glimpse of that secret strife, and he depicted it afterwards in those bodily images which were the simple expression of his spiritual insight, telling of fasting and mortification, of night-long watchings, of weeping and prayer ; of conflict with invisible demons, of angelic visits and consolation, of music from celestial viols breathing around the recluse such intolerable sweetness that all bodily feeling left him for the time.
Once, when his master did not answer to the gentle matin call, the faithful disciple, instead of going away, sought him out where he was praying in the moonlit woods and was witness to ineffable things, which he could only explain afterwards as wondrous apparitions and miraculous voices talking with the holy man. But Francesco, alarmed by the rustle of his feet upon the dead leaves, turned and saw him, and Leo was overcome by fear and penitence. Moved by his simplicity and devotion, the Saint only upbraided him gently. And when they had read together in the Scriptures, opening the Book at hazard three separate times as their innocent custom was and always alighting on the story of the Passion, he sent the disciple away and bade him watch him no more. With Brother Leo we too stand afar off and by the outward manifestations strive to learn something of the motions of the spirit. The flesh indeed played a significant part in that drama of a soul, witnessing to it in a new and marvellous manner. When Francesco's companions saw him deny and discipline his body for its sinfulness, as they supposed, was it not rather suffering a glorious fellowship with the strong spirit within? Francesco was no abhorrer of the body. In that pessimistic age, penetrated with the Manichean idea of the inherent evil of the flesh, when men thought to obtain grace by senselessly torturing themselves, he vindicated the honour of that human vesture which the Son of God had put on, and which the Christian expected to resume at the Resurrection and wear in eternal life. The strange pleasure in blood, which mingled with the medireval Italian's mystic worship of the Cross, prompting now a mad ecstasy of devotion, now an inhuman self-immolation, was absent from his strong clean soul. He who saw that Nature was beautiful and good, who loved all God's creatures with a fraternal love, called his body also his brother.
And did he not himself bear witness at the end of his life that this body, which from privation and rigour was already well-nigh dead, had in all things been obedient, had never stinted in giving itself, had shunned no labour, refused no discomfort? In this il and I agreed perfectly, that without any reluctance we served the Lord Christ. (Thomas of Ce1ano) "Gaude, frater corpus!" he cries. And we see the willing limbs, grown so light that earthly gravitation scarcely holds them, joyously consenting to the exaltation of the spirit, mounting upwards to that consecration which was to give them new sanctification.
In the rapture of privation, released almost from mortal, burdens, the fleshly vessel wears ever more exquisitely fine till it becomes a transparent crystal lamp for the flame within.
Was it not in the body that Christ died for us? Francesco's deep intimate searchings into the all-suffering heart of the Man of Sorrows ùttered itself continually in an anguish of love and pity for the wounded Body. To suffer with it, to share its martyrdom became an irresistible need. The intolerable ecstasy of the soul had to find outward expression, brand itself upon the flesh. .
There carne a moment when pain and joy transcended their bounds and united in one unutterable emotion. Body and soul consummated a new union ; heaven and earth mingled and met. Very early one morning Francesco knelt upon the mountain-top, his long night of vigil over. The day broke in the sapphire east and he saw before him a seraph stretched upon a cross and felt upon his flesh a mysterious touch. When the vision was gone, he found himself signed with the Five Wounds of Christ.
It was the 14th of September, the Feast of the Holy Cross. Strange things are said to have happened that morning. The mountain shone with a bright light, so that the shepherds watching their flocks upon the hills were greatly afeard, and certain muleteers who were resting in a hostelry not far off rose and set their packs upon their beasts, thinking that the real sun was risen. But Francesco told no one what was done unto him. Concea1ing his hands and his feet as much as he could with his cloak, he came forth presently from hjs retreat and prepared to descend from the mountain. He took only Brother Leo with him, and commended the Sacred Mount very especially to the care and reverence of Fra Masseo, Frate Angelo and the other brothers left behind. He bade a long, touching farewell to them and to the place which he loved so well, weeping as he went on his way and repeating again and again:
"A Dio tutti, a Dio Monte, a Dio, a Dio Monte Alverna, a Dio carissimo, a Dio carissimo."
Throughout the seven centuries that have passed since the mystic vision came to Francesco d'Assisi upon the mount, La Verna has been regarded as a peculiarly holy place. Where that one man knelt and prayed alone, the prayers of hundreds have gone up unceasingly since. Hundreds of hundreds have hastened up that steep path first trodden by him, that they might live like him in obedience to the three vows. Wherever his foot stepped, there has sprung up a chapel, an oratory, or a shrine; it is as if every sigh of his heart had embodied itself in enduring stone. So potent was the effect of his preaching and so great the fame of the mysterious sanctification which he had suffered on the Mount that the rich and powerful very soon began to build chapels and monastic dwellings there in memory of the mirac1e of the Stigmata. The barons of the Casentino, especially the Conti Guidi di Battifolle, were some of the most zealus of these patrons. Before long a splendid convent had taken the place of the anchorite's cell, a change far indeed from the intention of the saint. It was inevitable perhaps that his ideal of the perfect apostolic life should suffer modification. But Lady Poverty, whom he so anxiously desired that his disciples should in no way offend, has not been dethroned. This Franciscan palace in the snows and clouds is nearer to the sky than other earthly habitations, and life there is austere enough. By continual prayer, by fasting and nightly vigil, by discipline of body and soul, the followers of Poverty seek those spiritual joys for which they have abandoned the world. Unsparing of themselves they carry on the work of their master, and up and down the long steep way and over the solitary mountain tracks, through storm and snow or summer beat, the hardy, brown-frocked figures may be seen, two by two, striding barefoot about their business of preaching the Gospel to the dwellers in the valleys and cities below. Kindliness, gentleness and simplicity, those virtues which belonged so peculiarly to Francesco and his first disciples, still flourish in the fresh pure air at La Verna, breathing the sweet Franciscan poesy over the savage rocks and forests. And nowhere does the traveller find a more courteous and hospitable welcome. The brothers give refreshment, and lodging if needed, to everyone who comes ; they show the pilgrim all their sanctuaries and shrines, their many treasures of art, and the natural wonders of the Rock, and admit him readily to their most sacred ceremonies.
Bibbiena is the nearest town to La Verna, which is distant from it two hours or more by carriage. The road descends and ascends by turns sharply for two or three miles over the low intervening hills, between hedges thick in May with heavy-scented honeysuckle, till you come to a deep valley at the foot of the mountain upon which the Rock rises. Here a lovely stream, the Corsalone, darts like a silver streak on its solitary course between the hills, to empty itself before long into the Arno. Crossing its wide, shallow bed by a wooden bridge, you begin the ascent through the oak woods which clothe the mountain side, delicious flowery solitudes, in which some sylvan spirit seems to lurk, delicate, joyous, kindly. For since San Francesco came up, the wilderness has lost its terrors, and is found to be inhabited by gentleness and peace. In holes blasted by old thunderbolts one perceives lichens and young green things growing. lf the sunshine, which spreads its living gold between the deep shadows of the trees, burn too fiercely, a fountain will surely spring up beside the path. The air grows purer and lighter, the heart more free and glad, as one presses up beneath the glowing blue. After a long climb the wood emerges in a wide moorland, covered with sweet thin herbage and scattered with rocks; a world so pale and fresh and pure that it seems hardly of this earth. Scanty flocks of lean sheep crop between the boulders. The children who herd them are fair, and there is infinite pathos in their large, simple gaze; over just such pecorelle, the prey then of many ravening wolves, the heart of Francesco long ago yearned with love and pity.
And there, dose before you, rises the Sacred Mount, a strange outcrop of pallid grey rock, rearing itself upon the hill-top in gigantic precipices, cleft with deep ravines and heavily curtained with woods. Seen across the sterile wilderness at its foot, after the long day's journey through the forest, it may well have been to him who first approached like the Dark Tower to which Childe Roland carne. Now upon the solitary road below a tall cross stands, for - a sign that from the enchanted precinct guarded by the symbol of love the devils have fled away. The space beyond, at the foot of the Rock, seems indeed like the borderland of some earthly paradise. Here spread fresh green lawns and the pleasant shade of trees. Cold winds do not visit this sheltered spot, and even in the winter months the sun's rays are so enhanced by reflection from the towering limestone wall that summer seems still to be there. In the spring the grass. is enamelled with a million vari-coloured flowerets, and upon the rocks the white rock cress hangs thick, and the leopard's bane is a glory of gold, while in the fields dose by the sweet narcissus springs freely.
The convent stands on the verge of the precipice, its campanile and buildings enwalled by the huge grey buttresses of the Rock like a fortress of giants. The steep ascent is scaled by a broad path now, very different to the rough track up which the weary feet of the Poverello climbed seven hundred years ago. The great tree which gave him shade is no longer here; it was withered long ago by the depredations of pilgrims upon its bark. Nor do the birds come now to welcome the wayfarer; only a lonely twitter in the silence of the woods around reminds one that a few of them still survive in these days of guns. But at the turn of the path there is a little chapel, called of the Birds and built in 1602 by means of alms collected by a devout brother, which commemorates that sweet moment of intimacy between man and Nature.
A great arched portal, planted upon the rocks, admits into the precincts above. How holy this place is into which you are about to pass you are reminded by the inscription upon the arch: Non est in toto sanctior orbe mons. And in the solemn shadow beneath it sit, quite unafraid and unabashed, a group of poor folk, who know that they are we1come whereever the Brothers Minor dwell, in the name of him whose heart went out with so much tenderness to the poor and needy that if he had nothing else to give he would cut off a piece of his only garment for them.
Within the great entrance, where was once the boulder-strewn ground, spread with mosses and pillared' and roofed only by the soaring beeches, there is now a fine piazza, surrounded by churches and cloisters and conventual buildings. Facing the gateway is the low picturesque portico of the oldest sanctuary upon the Mount, Sta. Maria degli Angeli, commonly called the Chiesina, and to the right is the ancient archway and dark vaulted passage leading into the interior of the convent. The Chiesina is said to have been founded by San Francesco himself, according to directions and measurements given to him in a vision on the spot by the Mother of God herself. To her he dedicated the sanctuary when by the help of Count Orlando it had been built, giving it, like the church he had founded at Assisi, the title of Sta. Maria degli Angeli. When pilgrims began to throng to the Mount after San Francesco's death it was found necessary to enlarge and rebuild the church, but the upper part, which is of earlier date than the lower and is divided from it by a screen or low wall, shows traces of ancient gothic windows and doors, and is said to preserve the miraculous dimensions of the original church. The building was restored in the fifteenth century by one Domenico Bartoli, and later alterations have deprived it of architectural interest.
Vicenza: No Dal Molin.
Spettacolo di Dario Fo e Franca Rame
American people, stand up!
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CHAPTER VII
THE ROCK OF S. FRANCESCO
Pag.139-151
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ! "
UPON the crest of the hills in the south-east of the Valley rises the Rock of La Verna, with the Franciscan convent perched like a bird in a cleft of its long spiny back. Thither the eyes of the wanderer to-day turn as persistent1y as those of the contentious barons in the castles below long ago. The peculiar shape of the Sacred Mount and the dark garment of forest which clothes it mark it out amid the dry and sterile summits around.. To those in
the Valley it is the gateway to the East, whence the Wise Men came. The sun rises from behind it, and lingers upon it last of all, when the ridges around are already grey. Every hour of the day brings it a changing glory, from that earliest moment before the dawn when you first descry it looming against the blanching sapphire of the sky. In the low beams of the newly-risen sun it glows translucent as with some inward flame amid wreaths of fiery mist, and you feel that the mystic Sacrifice is being offered up anew which once caused the mountain to shine with a light so bright that it woke the sleepers far be1ow. And so it passes onward into the purple and golden alternations of fun day, and in the afternoon withdraws itself within a ce1estial vesture of rose, till evening brings new fire and gold, and it burns with a deeper and deeper crimson against the crystalline flame of the sky.
The very equinoxes seem to respect this holy place. When the whole Apennine range has been black with impending storm I have seen La Verna shining still, the last to be overwhelmed in the cataclysm. And out of the veil of rain, the billowy ocean of vapour that has levelled the mountains with the valley, it has been the first to reappear, an Ararat upon the flood.
But the Mons Felix does not always vouchsafe itself to our gaze. Often when all around is clear, and every fold and wrinkle is marked out upon the secular hills, a little cloud, like a dove's wing, rests upon it
and wraps it from us. Again, cut off from earth by encircling mists, it floats in the pure ether, or through the fine veil of a shower, smitten by sunlight, it will appear infinitely far off, no solider than a dream. Sometimes -not often- the Rock is grey and sad, just. a thing of earth, a vision no longer.
The story of San Francesco's acquisition of La Verna is well known. We all remember from the Fioretti how, at the great feast at Montefeltro for the knighting of a member of that noble House, the wonderful words of the small barefooted brother with the flaming eyes, whose tales were of the valiant and sorely tried knights and virgins of Christ, held all the revellers in a spell, and how Count Orlando of Chiusi in Casentino was so moved that he sought out Francesco after the preaching and inquired of him privately concerning his own soul. “And in the end Messer Orlando said to the holy Francesco: I have in Tuscany a most devout mountain (monte devotissimo) which is called the Mountain of the Vernia, which is very solitary and wild, and passing fit for him who would do penance in a place removed from the world, or for him who desires a solitary life; if it please thee, I will willingly give it to thee and to thy companions, for the welfare of my soul." .
San Francesco, hearing “so liberal an offer of that thing which he much desired, was greatly rejoiced."
He agreed with Count Orlando to send two of his companions to visit the mountain, and if it appeared
them all that was described, he would accept the loving offer.
The two brothers, to whom the Count gave a little company ofsoldiers to defend them from the wild beasts, presently returned full of joy to their master at Assisi and related to him how they had taken possession of a place upon the mountain, exceedingly well fitted for prayer and contemplation. Whereupon San Francesco was very joyful and gave praise and thanks to God, and before long he prepared to go up thither himself.
He took with him three of the brothers who loved and understood him best. There is a charming
holiday feeling about the story of this journey. Burdens and cares had already begun to weigh upon the fast-growing community, and material considerations and all the complex influences of earthly existence were spoiling its founder's poetic dream of the perfect evangelic life. But alone with his three friends he would follow the counsel of his own heart and conform to the letter with those precepts of the Gospel which he knew to be the way of liberty and happiness. For the holy followers of Poverty, having nothing, have no fear of losing aught; everywhere safe, they are slopped by no terrors, are distracted by no fears, and without any anxiety await from one day the next. I
So they would take no thought for the morrow, what they should eat, or where they should sleep.
(1) Thomas of Celano.
Bread they could beg and God would provide them a . lodging. Scripless and purseless, they set forth, making the sign of the Cross.
On the second day bad weather overtook them, and they were very weary; no village or house was at hand. But they found an abandoned church in which they sheltered themselves. Here Francesco, praying after his custom while his companions slept, was assailed by devils, and after a whole night of wrestling he emerged victorious and joyful, but so worn out in body that he could continue his way no longer on foot. Help was forthcoming. A poor countryman willingly lent his pack-ass when he heard that he who needed it was that Brother Francesco d'Assisi, of whom so much good is related, and mounting the saint upon the beast, he himself followed on foot. When they were gone a little way he said :
"Tell me, art thou Brother Francesco d'Assisi ?" and when he heard that it was so: “Then endeavour, therefore," said the peasant, "to be as good as thou art held to be by all men, inasmuch as the people have great faith in thee; and therefore I admonish thee that thou be not other than that which they hope of thee."
Francesco. straightway flung himself from his steed to the ground, and kneeling before the man, kissed his feet and thanked him humbly because he had deigned to admonish him with so much charity. They proceeded onwards. up the mountain side, through the oak forest, over rocks and stones and across ravines, and the heat became very great, so that the peasant began to cry out :
"Alack, I die of thirst."
Then San Francesco prayed very earnestly to God and told the man to go to a certain spot dose by, where he would find a fountain of fresh water. And he did so and found the fountain as San Francesco had said, and drank of it and was refreshed. But the story says that this fountain was never seen there before, and has never been found since.
Presently they came to the foot of the Rock and sat down' to repose themselves. In this wilderness, to reach which they had nearly died of heat and fatigue, a beautiful spreading oak now gave them comfortable shade, and in this old haunt of robbers and wild beasts nothing came to molest the Poverello di Dio. Only a loud singing and a fluttering of wings was suddenly heard, and a great multitude of birds surrounded him and alighted, some upon his head, others on his shoulders, on his arms, in his lap, at his feet. Then he said, all joyous of heart :
" I believe, oh, dearest brethren, that it is pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ that we should dwell in this solitary mountain, since our brothers and sisters, the birds, show such gladness at our coming."
The two pioneer brothers had made huts for themselves, in the place where the convent now stands, and Count Orlando, who hastened up with his people when he heard that Francesco was come, quickly caused a rough cell to be built at the foot of a beautiful beech tree, a spot chosen by the saint as especially “devout " and suited for praying.
Before he took his leave the Count besought his. " dearest brethren " to send to his house for everything that they needed, as it was not his intent that in this .wild place they should suffer for any bodily nece9Sity, which might make them less mindful of spiritual things. But Francesco knew well that ease of body was no encouragement to contemplation and prayer. In this high place he was resolved that his Lady Poverty should be supreme, and that, where the atmosphere was become so pure and dean that it seemed already more like heaven than earth, no thought of the flesh should weigh down the' winged soul.
When the Count was gone he made his companions sit down and taught them the way of the religious life in a hermitage. And more especially he enjoined upon them the observance of Holy Poverty, saying :
"Do not regard the loving proffer of Messer Orlando so much as in aught to offend our lady, Madonna la Povertà." And again : "Let us persevere in holy poverty, since it is a way of perfection and an earnest of eternal riches."
Thus did San Francesco take possession of his castle. Thus was this mountain, the habitation of rude Nature and her ancient votaries, whose kings are said in dim past days to have made their seat there among the thunderbolts, consecrated to ,a new cult, the mystic paradox that reveals sweetness in the lion's carcase,
strength in weakness, love in pain. The Cross, lifted by the three handmaids -Poverty, Humility and
Chastity- was henceforth to be the beacon for the Apennine valleys.
It was in 1213 that Count Orlando de' Cattani gave La Verna to Francesco d'Assisi, a gift confirmed by his sons in a legal instrument in 1274. After that first visit, the saint often came there again. There is no
precise record in the ear1y biographies of these different visits. The Fioretti confound his first and last ascents in one, but we may gather from that enchanting record and from the other early legends something of his life upon the Rock.
Often, when his virtue was all gone out of him because of his fervour in healing souls, or his spirit was cast down by some compromise with his ideal forced upon him by the world, or some new frustration of his dear desire of martyrdom, he would seek La Verna, where in the silence and free space, lifted above the sordid world and remote from the curious multitude, he could refresh his soul, which needed only God. Guarded from intrusion by the faithful companions whom he always took with him, he would pass long hours in secret communion with the Unseen. Here he could live unhindered according to the rule of his heart, and with fasting and with hot tears make his body conform to that passion of the soul which he suffered. continually because of the Cross of Christ.
Nesting in the holes of the rocks and making his habitation in caves, often giving his frail limbs only a cold and rigid stone for a couch, he sought to share the Agony which filled him with such a rapture of pity and love. He descended, into the secret and terrible places of the mountain wl1'ich all men believed to be the habitation of evil spirits, and wrestled with the devils therein till he compelled them to reveal themselves as in reality the servants and agents of Christ. Then when fear was cast out, comforted and renewed in spirit he heard the cloven rocks suddenly resound with a song of praise and knew that the whole earth was redeemed. All the creatures of God in fraternal concord with him and with one another praised the Lord; and where before in the frozen walls of the mountain the dumbness of eternal ages had reigned, he saw the tender green fronds springing in the crevices, and heard, joining in the joyful chorus, the consoling voice of our sister, the Bodily Death.
And here at La Verna was to be fulfilled in a new and strange manner that consummation of love, that union with Christ, that sacramental martyrdom, for which his whole being yearned. This mount, for him whose life had been a joyful Calvary, was to be the scene of actual sacrifice. Two years before his death, Francesco, who was now weak from many bodily infirmities, and whose heart was so full with constant meditation on the sorrow of Christ that he continually melted into tears, turned his feeble steps once more to the place which was perhaps already peculiarly associated in his mind with the thought of the Crucifixion. The Quaresima, or forty days' fast in preparation for the Feast of St. Michael, was at hand, and Francesco, who held the archangel in especial reverence, had elected to keep it at La Verna.
He took with him his three constant companions, Brother Masseo, Brother Angelo, and Brother Leo. Mounted upon an ass, for he was utterly unable to ascend on foot, he entered the place where he was to suffer the great experience of his life. After his usual manner here, he withdrew himself from his companions and passed his time in a fervour of prayer and meditation. Feeling that his death was now not far off, he wept often for the future of his Order, when he should no longer be there to care for it.
" Lord God," he would say, "how will it be with thy poor family, which Thou hast committed to me,
sinner that I am? Who will comfort them, correct them, pray for them? "
Crying thus, he was visited, we are told, by the ange1 of the Lord and filled with new hope, and consoled in heart he gave himself after this wholly to the contemplation of the Crucified.
Sometimes stealing upon him unawares, the brothers would see and hear him weeping aloud the passion of Christ, as if he saw it with his bodily eyes. But their wonder and veneration disturbed the saint. He would have none but Brother Leo near him, who was of a passing simplicity and purity, so that San Francesco loved him very dearly and called him, instead of Brother Lion, Fra Pecorella di Dio, the little lamb of God.
One day Brother Leo was troubled. by a very great temptation of the devil, and there came to him a great desire to have something devout written by the hand of San Francesco, believing that if he could have it the temptation would depart. But he dared not ask. San Francesco, however, perceived what was the matter, and calling him, bade him bring pen and ink, and with his own hand he wrote a benediction of Brother Leo and gave it to him. These were the words: May the Lord bless thee and keep thee, show thee His face and have compassion upon thee, turn His countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And underneath he drew a Tau cross, upon a skull, for his sign.
(1) This document, inscribed by Brother Leo with the word s, the blessed Francis wrote with his hand this benediction for me, Brother Leo, and with an account of the miracle of the Stigmata, is preserved at the Sacro Convento at Assisi.
Brother Leo, immediately released from temptation and consoled in spirit, was filled with joy and wonder at his master's knowledge of his heart, and from thenceforth regarded him as an ange1.
Often when Francesco was rapt in ecstasy the disciple would think he saw him lifted up bodily in the air, and creeping to his feet, would kiss them and weep over them, praying that thus he too, through the merits ofthis man, might be carried up into heaven.
But even this reverent companionship was irksome to Francesco. His soul needed to be alone in its upward flight. He summoned Brother Leo one day and bade him go and stand beside the. oratory of the friars, and come to him when he heard him call. Presently Leo heard a call and went and found his master. "My son," said Francesco, "let us seek another place where you shall not be able to hear me." Before long he spied a solitary spot cut off from them by a horrible cleft in the rock and not to be reached save by means of a great tree trunk, which with . difficulty was laid across for a bridge. There he elected to have a little rough cell built where it was not possible that for any cry he could be heard by the Brothers. When it was made he sent his companions all away and bade that none should come to him. Brother Leo alone was to come once a day with a little bread and water, and again in the night at the hour of Matins, when he should come silently, and standing at the head of the bridge should say: Domine, labia me aperies. And if the master responded he was to cross and enter the cell and they would say Matins together. But if there was no answer he was to depart instantly. And the Brothers did as Francesco bade them and left him alone.
Now began that forty days' retreat, of which we may not probe the mysteries. Only we know that now
was come the hour of fiercest trial, of bitterness like unto ,death, for this follower of Christ, issuing in a strange and new consolation. Here was his Gethsemane, his Golgotha, his split rock-tomb.
(Continue)
Impeachment Is Not Off the Table
By Peter Phillips
Nancy Pelosi declared on national television “impeachment is off the table.” Impeachment, it seems, is too divisive for a 2008-oriented Democratic Party leadership and will interfere with the business of Congress over the next two years.
The Democrats seem to be giving a pardon to Bush and Cheney without even having a trial. Impeachment is the people’s option to end corrupt government. According to the Lancet Medical Journal 650,000 civilians have died in Iraq since the start of the US invasion. US aerial bombing in civilian neighborhoods have caused over a third of these deaths including whole families—children, grandparents, moms and dads.
We now know that Bush and Cheney lied about the weapons of mass destruction. According to the Downing Street Memos from July 2002, “Military action was [in order to justify the invasion of Iraq] seen as inevitable…justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD…the intelligence facts were…fixed around the policy.” Bush and Cheney misled the American people, frauded Congress, violated their constitutional oaths of office. Impeachment has never been more warranted. Yet the Democrats say it is off the table, and can only muster a mild non-binding rebuke in the House as the surge goes on. How many more thousands of people must die before Americans say “enough”?
We have seen the gross profit engorgement of oil companies and private military contractors as of result of the 9/11 wars. Pro-war interests exert significant influence on members of Congress with money and lobbying, while the public relations machines of private industry and government work full time through the corporate media to keep us fearful of terrorists.
Yet, the values and moral core of the American people are based in love, hard work, family and justice. With all our faults, we are basically a good people being led astray by a neo-conservative cabal seeking nothing less than total military domination of the world. We recognize the awfulness of war, decry torture, and understand the connection between of military spending and infrastructure depletion including: housing, education, health care, and employment.
The American people voted against the war in November. Opinion polls show two-thirds oppose the war, and over half support impeachment. We have the individual choice of being “Good Germans” and hiding our heads in the sand, or taking united action to dethrone the imperial powers through the people’s option of impeachment.
New avenues of resistance are emerging to challenge the illegal occupants in the White House. On February 17-18 some twenty-five organizations met in New York for an emergency impeachment conference. The result of the weekend planning was the formation of a new coalition of activists to pursue the impeachment of Bush and Cheney through an increase in public pressure, lobbying, media activism, advertising, creative actions and civil disobedience over the next few months. (
www.worldcantwait.org)
Plans to push impeachment include
massive marches in major cities on March 17-18, a national Hip-Hop Not War Tour, a global US corporate and chain store shopping boycott April 15(tax day) to April 22 (Earth Day) (www.wearenotbuyingit.org), and the declaration of National Impeachment Day April 28 (www.a28.org).
To allow this administration to ride out the next two years without impeachment is to sanction a lying treasonous presidency and set precedence for future presidents to ignore Congress and the will of the people. A democracy cannot tolerate an imperial power centered in the Whitehouse. If we choose to defend our Constitution we must pressure Congress to go beyond political partisanship and serve the best interests of America.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and co-editor with Dennis Loo of Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney.
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LET'S THROW US BASES INTO THE SEA
The saddest thing in days like these
is seeing always the same old faces
while everybody's history is changing
and all the great facts teach us this lesson:
Let's throw US bases into the sea,
let's give up being puppets of these killers
let's turn a twenty years long page,
let's go and regain our liberty
In this daily spiderweb of facts
we forget being comrades.
But there's a struggle that will never cease,
let's break the rules for our humanity
Let's throw US bases into the sea,
let's give up being puppets of these killers
let's turn a twenty years long page,
let's go and regain our liberty
It's no use wondering if we shall overcome
let's words take their time to wait
or maybe we're waiting for the red providence
so that others decide, while we've to be patient
Let's throw US bases into the sea,
let's give up being puppets of these killers
let's turn a twenty years long page,
let's go and regain our liberty
English version, expressly prepared by Riccardo Venturi on February 13, 2007, for the Anti-US Base demonstration in Vicenza.
I was born in a war
So they call me a war baby
I was born in a war
And it don't make me war crazy
And the guns start to roar
As the fire sweeps the street
Crazy
Why can't we walk the road together
And keep our children safe and sure
War - War Baby
And the war made us poor
Made our future unsure
Hazy
Why don't we run this race together
And keep our children safe and sure
But the arms race is on
And the tanks all roll out
All the guns are in place
We just wait for the shout
To arms, to arms
And the guns start to roar
From the ship to the shore
And the bombs start to fall
As we crouch in the hall
as they bust through the breach
Out on Omaha Beach
Why don't we run this road together
Why can't we hope to find a cure
But the arms race is on
And the tanks all roll out
All the guns are in place
As we wait for the shout
And the army sweeps on and on
And the navy sails out
As we rush to the edge
As we wait for the shout
To arms, to arms
War - War Baby
War Baby
Mick Jagger
Continue sing songs
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Real News February 2007
No Habeas Corpus for Any Person
Researched by Julie Bickel
With the approval of Congress and no outcry from corporate media, the Military Commissions Act (MCA), signed by Bush on October 17, 2006, ushers in military tribunal law for US citizens and non-citizens alike. While media have given false comfort that we, as American citizens, will not be the victims of the draconian measures legalized by this Act such as military roundups, torture, life-long detention without court trial articles below disclose verbiage in the MCA that allows for the institution of a military alternative to the constitutional justice system for any person regardless of American citizenship. The MCA did away with habeas corpus rights for any person arbitrarily deemed to be an enemy of the state. The judgment on whom is deemed an enemy combatant is solely at the discretion of President Bush. And once that happens, says Thom Hartmann, you no longer have the right to challenge your detention. You dont have the right to a lawyer, or to a trial, or to a jury. You dont have the right to talk to anybody; you have no rights whatsoever. Thats what no habeas corpus means. They can put you in prison and torture you for the rest of your life.
Who Is 'Any Person' in Tribunal Law? Robert Parry, Consortium, 10/19/2006
Still No Habeas Rights for You Robert Parry, Consortium, 2/3/2007
Repeal the Military Commissions Act and Restore the Most American Human Right Thom Hartmann, Commondreams, 2/12/2007
The Facts About the Military Commission Act Bob Avakian, Revolution, 10/8/2006
Bushs Move Toward Martial Law
Researched by Julie Bickel
The Defense Authorization Act of 2007," which was quietly signed by Bush on October 17th, 2006, the same day that he signed the Military Commissions Act, allows the president to station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." By revising the two-century-old Insurrection Act, the law in effect repeals the Posse Comitatus Act and gives Bush the legal authority to order the military onto the streets of America, directing military operations against the American people under the cover of law enforcement. The law facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention, transferring from the Pentagon to local militarized police units, the latest technology and weaponry designed to suppress dissent. Frank Morales asserts that with the presidents polls at an historic low and Democrats taking back the Congress it is particularly worrisome that President Bush has seen fit, at this juncture to, in effect, declare himself dictator.
Bush Moves Toward Martial Law Frank Morales, Uruknet, 10/ 26/2006
Human Trafficking Builds US Embassy in Iraq
Researched by Angela Purcaro
The enduring monument to US liberation and democracy in Iraq will be the most expensive and heavily fortified embassy in the world. Scheduled to open in 2007, the 104-acre complex equal in size to Vatican City, is being built by forced labor trafficked from Asia. With a highly secretive contract awarded by the US State Department, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting has joined the ranks of Haliburton/KBR in Iraq by using bait-and-switch recruiting practices. Thousands of citizens from countries that have banned travel or work in Iraq are being tricked, smuggled into brutal and inhumane labor camps, and subjected to months of forced servitudeall in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone, right under the nose of the US State Department. The Pentagon has yet to announce any penalty for violation of US labor trafficking laws or contract requirements.
A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad: Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest EmbassyDavid Phinney, CorpWatch, 10/17/2006
Air America on Ad Blacklist
Researched by Jen Huss
An internal
memoAmerica programming that airs on ABC affiliates. The list, totaling 90 advertisers, includes some of largest and most well-known corporations in the U.S.: Wal-Mart, GE, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Bank of America, Fed-Ex, Visa, Allstate, McDonald's, Sony and Johnson & Johnson. The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Navy are also listed as advertisers who don't want their commercials to air on Air America. from ABC Radio Networks to its affiliates reveals scores of powerful sponsors have a standing order that their commercials never be placed on the liberal syndicated Air
The Scam of Reconstruction in Afghanistan
Researched by Julie Bickel
Reports reveal that much of the US tax money earmarked to rebuild Afghanistan actually ends up going no further than the pockets of wealthy US corporations. Phantom aid that never shows up in the recipient country is a scam in which paychecks for overpriced American experts under contract to USAID go directly from the Agency to American bank accounts. Additionally, 70 percent of the aid that does make it to a recipient country requires that the recipient use the donated money to buy US products and services. A former head of USAID cited foreign aid as a key foreign policy instrument designed to help countries become better markets for US exports. To guarantee that mission, the State Department recently took over the aid agency. USAIDs website boasts of its only infrastructure accomplishment in Afghanistana narrow and crumbling highway costing Afghanis $1 million a mile, projected to charge $20 per-month toll to lessen the US aid burden.
Why It's Not Working in Afghanistan Ann Jones, Tomdispatch.com, 8/27/06
Tomdispatch.com, 8/27/06
Afghanistan Inc: a CorpWatch Investigative Report Fariba Nawa, CorpWatch, 10/6/06
Drugging Our Waters
Researched by Toni Faye Catelani
Pharmaceutical drugs are making their way into the US water supply through human waste. A wide range of pharmaceuticals and other human-caused waste compounds remain despite wastewater treatment and are discharged to receiving waters across North America. Many of these compounds are still bioactive and can enter the bioprocesses of aquatic organisms. Researchers have found abnormalities in fish and suspect that exposure to pharmaceutical hormones is the cause. While the effects of chronic low-level exposure to pharmaceuticals are unclear, it is certain is that the presence of these compounds will continue to increase as Americans age.
Drugging Our Waters: How An Aging Population and Our Growing Addiction to Pharmaceuticals May be Poisoning Our Rivers Elizabeth Royte, Natural Resource Defense Councils ONEARTH, Fall 2006
MEFTA: Wal-mart and Target Profit of Jordanian Slaves
Researched by Morgan Ulery and Mayra Madrigal
Major U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl's, Victoria's Secret and L.L. Bean, are buying apparel from sweatshops in Jordan under a three-way trade deal that binds the Arab nation to Israel and the United States. A report by the New York-based National Labour Committee says that the U.S-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has descended into human trafficking and "involuntary servitude." Part of the FTA, the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) programme, launched by Washington in 1998 as an economic dividend for Jordan's peace agreement with Israel, gives products from the zones duty-free and quota-free access to the U.S. market as long as the Arab nation sources at least eight percent of their content from an Israeli manufacturer. Both the United States and Israel are seeking to replicate this model in numerous trade deals with other countries in the Arab world, under Pres. George W. Bush's plan for a Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA), which would tie all 22 Arab states with the U.S. and Israel in a trade deal by 2013.
U.S., Israel, Jordan Pact Created Havens for Servitude Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service 5/ 3/06
Earths Loss of Biodiversity
Researched by Alex Rubin
The fabric of life on earth is facing a major crisis as thousands of species face imminent extinction. Nineteen of the world's most eminent biodiversity specialists are calling on governments to establish a political framework to bridge the gap between science and policy by creating an international body of biodiversity experts. Due to human activity, the rate of extinction is now between 100 and 1,000 times higher than the normal �background� extinction rate. Research confirms that every group of animals and plants is experiencing an unprecedented loss of diversity. Scientists estimate that 12 percent of all birds, 23 percent of mammals, 25 percent of conifers, 33 percent of amphibians and more than half of all palm trees are currently threatened with extinction.
World Bank Study Reveals Its Failure to Reduce Poverty
Researched by Adrienne Magee
A study by the World Banks Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) concludes that the World Banks strategies on trade does not deliver on increasing economic growth, exports, or employment, nor on the reduction of poverty. The IEG called the Bank overly optimistic about the immediate and universal benefits of more open trade.
These findings confirm our daily experience. Policies to open markets have benefited the worlds largest corporations, but have a devastating impact on millions of the worlds poorest people, says Alberto Villarreal of Friends of the Earth Uruguay.
The 270-page report analyzes the World Banks trade work from 1987 through 2004, including lending and technical assistance. It concludes: trade-related projects did not adequately attend to the poverty and distributional outcomes.
World Banks Independent Evaluation Group Issues Report Assessing Two Decades of Global Trade Programs World Bank, 3/22/06
Cable TVs $100m Political Contributions
Researched by Morgan Ulery
A report by Common Cause follows cables $100 million investment in campaign contributions and lobbying. The return has been a 90 percent increase in cable rates since 1995, and industry friendly regulations that boost profits, coupled with even more consolidation among cable companies. Big cable has spent more than $92 million lobbying in Washington since 1998. The industry's political spending increased dramatically in the past two years as it marshaled its forces to block congressional and regulatory interference with mega mergers, to halt any effort to curb cable rates, and to quash any attempts to permit families to pay for only the cable stations they watch. Common Cause President Chellie Pingree says, American families are paying the price for public policies that favor the wealthy and powerful.
Why Are Cable Television Prices So High? Mary Boyle, Common Cause, 10/11/06
US Relation to Death Squads in Iraq
Researched by Lauren Abruzzo
Death squads from the Ministry of the Interior posing as Iraqi police are killing more people than ever1,536 bodies were brought to the Baghdad morgue in September. Dahr Jamail discusses the root of death squads in Iraq. U.S. mainstream media is conveniently decontextualizing the situation. Well talk about whats happening after, well talk about death, ethnic cleansing, sectarian violence and the millions of refugees and then blame it on the Iraqisbut we wont talk about who instituted the entire process and whos behind it and that is the U.S. occupation. Working under US ambassador to Iraq, June 2004-April 2005, John NegroponteJames Steel was in charge of the Iraq Security Forces, at precisely the time Pentagon chiefs were considering the Salvador option, the proposal to organize death squads from within the US-recruited Iraqi Security Forces to target Sunni resistance. Negroponte and Steele helped set up and facilitate the right wing death squads in Central America in the 1980s and did the same thing in Baghdad.
Attack Dogs Used in State Prisons
Researched by Mayra Madrigal
Five state prison systems in the United States permit the use of aggressive, unmuzzled dogs to terrify and attack prisoners in efforts to remove them from their cells. A Human Rights Watch report reveals that while the entire world has seen the photo of an Abu Ghraib detainee crouched in terror before a snarling dog, the use of attack dogs against prisoners here in the U.S. has been a well-kept secret. Jamie Fellner, author of the 20-page report,
Cruel and Degrading: The Use of Dogs for Cell Extractions in U.S. Prisons, which exposes Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota and Utah correctional systems, says, We know of no other country in the world where officers use attack dogs to remove prisoners from their cells.
Toxic Chemicals Damaging DNA
Researched by Michael Januleski
New evidence suggests that many industrial chemicals are more ominously dangerous than previously understood. Scientists have discovered that a second genetic code, which influences the way genes operate and can be passed on to successive generations, is vulnerable to exposure to toxic chemicals. Effects of toxic exposure can be passed on through generations. "This introduces the concept of responsibility into genetics and inheritance," said Dr. Moshe Szyf, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal, You aren't eating and exercising just for yourself, but for your lineage."
On average, 1800 new chemicals are registered with the federal government each year and about 750 of these find their way into products, all with hardly any testing for health or environmental effects. The European Union has responded to this situation by trying to enact a new law called REACH, which requires that chemicals be tested before they can be sold. The US chemical industry and the White House have, however, been working overtime to subvert the European effort to enact REACH.
Some Chemicals are More Harmful Than Anyone Ever Suspected Peter Montague, Rachel's Democracy & Health News #876, 10/12/06
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Release Date: 19/02/2007 17.01
HOWARD ZINN: IMPEACHMENT BY THE PEOPLE . . .
From
The Progressive
Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation’s capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about “unity” and “bipartisanship,” in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course.
These are the Democrats who were brought to power in November by an electorate fed up with the war, furious at the Bush Administration, and counting on the new majority in Congress to represent the voters. But if sanity is to be restored in our national policies, it can only come about by a great popular upheaval, pushing both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will. . . .
Read more
Check out Zinn’s recent book,
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
The Anti-Empire Report
Some things you need to know before the world ends
January 12, 2007
by William Blum
Johnny got his gun
In the past year Iran has issued several warnings to the United States about the consequences of an American or Israeli attack. One statement, issued in November by a high Iranian military official, declared: "If America attacks Iran, its 200,000 troops and 33 bases in the region will be extremely vulnerable, and both American politicians and military commanders are aware of it."[1] Iran apparently believes that American leaders would be so deeply distressed by the prospect of their young men and women being endangered and possibly killed that they would forswear any reckless attacks on Iran. As if American leaders have been deeply stabbed by pain about throwing youthful American bodies into the bottomless snakepit called Iraq, or were restrained by fear of retaliation or by moral qualms while feeding 58,000 young lives to the Vietnam beast. As if American leaders, like all world leaders, have ever had such concerns.
Let's have a short look at some modern American history, which may be instructive in this regard. A report of the US Congress in 1994 informed us that:
Approximately 60,000 military personnel were used as human subjects in the 1940s to test two chemical agents, mustard gas and lewisite [blister gas]. Most of these subjects were not informed of the nature of the experiments and never received medical followup after their participation in the research. Additionally, some of these human subjects were threatened with imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth if they discussed these experiments with anyone, including their wives, parents, and family doctors. For decades, the Pentagon denied that the research had taken place, resulting in decades of suffering for many veterans who became ill after the secret testing.[2]
In the decades between the 1940s and 1990s, we find a remarkable variety of government programs, either formally, or in effect, using soldiers as guinea pigs -- marched to nuclear explosion sites, with pilots sent through the mushroom clouds; subjected to chemical and biological weapons experiments; radiation experiments; behavior modification experiments that washed their brains with LSD; widespread exposure to the highly toxic dioxin of Agent Orange in Korea and Vietnam ... the list goes on ... literally millions of experimental subjects, seldom given a choice or adequate information, often with disastrous effects to their physical and/or mental health, rarely with proper medical care or even monitoring.[3]
In the 1990s, many thousands of American soldiers came home from the Gulf War with unusual, debilitating ailments. Exposure to harmful chemical or biological agents was suspected, but the Pentagon denied that this had occurred. Years went by while the veterans suffered terribly: neurological problems, chronic fatigue, skin problems, scarred lungs, memory loss, muscle and joint pain, severe headaches, personality changes, passing out, and much more. Eventually, the Pentagon, inch by inch, was forced to move away from its denials and admit that, yes, chemical weapon depots had been bombed; then, yes, there probably were releases of deadly poisons; then, yes, American soldiers were indeed in the vicinity of these poisonous releases, 400 soldiers; then, it might have been 5,000; then, "a very large number", probably more than 15,000; then, finally, a precise number -- 20,867; then, "The Pentagon announced that a long-awaited computer model estimates that nearly 100,000 U.S. soldiers could have been exposed to trace amounts of sarin gas."[4]
If the Pentagon had been much more forthcoming from the outset about what it knew all along about these various substances and weapons, the soldiers might have had a proper diagnosis early on and received appropriate care sooner. The cost in terms of human suffering has been incalculable.
Soldiers have also been forced to take vaccines against anthrax and nerve gas not approved by the FDA as safe and effective; and punished, sometimes treated like criminals, if they refused. (During World War II, soldiers were forced to take a yellow fever vaccine, with the result that some 330,000 of them were infected with the hepatitis B virus.[5])
And through all the recent wars, countless American soldiers have been put in close proximity to the radioactive dust of exploded depleted uranium-tipped shells and missiles on the battlefield; depleted uranium has been associated with a long list of rare and terrible illnesses and birth defects. It poisons the air, the soil, the water, the lungs, the blood, and the genes. (The widespread dissemination of depleted uranium by American warfare -- from Serbia to Afghanistan to Iraq -- should be an international scandal and crisis, like AIDS, and would be in a world not so intimidated by the United States.)
The catalogue of Pentagon abuses of American soldiers goes on ... Troops serving in Iraq or their families have reported purchasing with their own funds bullet-proof vests, better armor for their vehicles, medical supplies, and global positioning devices, all for their own safety, which were not provided to them by the army ... Continuous complaints by servicewomen of sexual assault and rape at the hands of their male counterparts are routinely played down or ignored by the military brass ... Numerous injured and disabled vets from all wars have to engage in an ongoing struggle to get the medical care they were promised ... One should read "Army Acts to Curb Abuses of Injured Recruits" (New York Times, May 12, 2006) for accounts of the callous, bordering on sadistic, treatment of soldiers in bases in the United States ... Repeated tours of duty, which fracture family life and increase the chance not only of death or injury but of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).[6]
National Public Radio's "All Things Considered", on December 4 and other days, ran a series on· Army mistreatment of soldiers home from Iraq and suffering serious PTSD. At Colorado's Ft. Carson these afflicted soldiers are receiving a variety of abuse and punishment much more than the help they need, as officers harass and punish them for being emotionally "weak."
Keep the above in mind the next time you hear a president or a general speaking on Memorial Day about "honor" and "duty" and about how much we "owe to the brave young men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of freedom and democracy."
And read "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo for the ultimate abuse of soldiers by leaders of nations.
The conscience of our leaders
After he ordered the bombing of Panama in December 1989, which killed anywhere from 500 to a few thousand totally innocent people, guilty of no harm to any American, the first President George Bush declared that his "heart goes out to the families of those who have died in Panama".[7]
When asked by a reporter: "Was it really worth it to send people to their death for this? To get Noriega?", Bush replied: "Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it."[8]
Speaking in November 1990 of his imminent invasion of Iraq, Bush, Sr. said: "People say to me: 'How many lives? How many lives can you expend?' Each one is precious."[9]
While his killing of thousands of Iraqis was proceeding merrily along in 2003, the second President George Bush was moved to say: "We believe in the value and dignity of every human life."[10]
In December 2006, the White House spokesman for Bush, Jr., commenting about American deaths reaching 3,000 in Iraq, said President Bush "believes that every life is precious and grieves for each one that is lost."[11]
Both father and son are on record expressing their deep concern for God and prayer both before and during their mass slaughters. "I trust God speaks through me," said Bush the younger in 2004. "Without that, I couldn't do my job."[12]
After his devastation of Iraq and its people, Bush the elder said: "I think that, like a lot of others who had positions of responsibility in sending someone else's kids to war, we realize that in prayer what mattered is how it might have seemed to God."[13]
God, one surmises, might have asked George Bush, father and son, about the kids of Iraq. And the adults. And, in a testy, rather ungodlike manner, might have snapped: "So stop wasting all the precious lives already!"
In the now-famous exchange on TV in 1996 between Madeleine Albright and reporter Lesley Stahl, the latter was speaking of US sanctions against Iraq, and asked the then-US ambassador to the UN, and Secretary of State-to-be: "We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And -- and you know, is the price worth it?" Replied Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it."[14]
Ten years later, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, continuing the fine tradition of female Secretaries of State and the equally noble heritage of the Bush family, declared that the current horror in Iraq is "worth the investment" in American lives and dollars.[15]
And don't forget that we can't pull out of Iraq now because it would dishonor the troops who haven't died yet.
The American media as the Berlin Wall
In December 1975, while East Timor, which lies at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, was undergoing a process of decolonization from Portugal, a struggle for power took place. A movement of the left, Fretilin, prevailed and then declared East Timor's independence from Portugal. Nine days later, Indonesia invaded East Timor. The invasion was launched the day after US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had left Indonesia after giving President Suharto permission to use American arms, which, under US law, could not be used for aggression. But Indonesia was Washington's most valuable ally in Southeast Asia and, in any event, the United States was not inclined to look kindly on any government of the left.
Indonesia soon achieved complete control over East Timor, with the help of the American arms and other military aid, as well as diplomatic support at the UN. Amnesty International estimated that by 1989, Indonesian troops had killed 200,000 people out of a population of between 600,000 and 700,000, a death rate which is probably one of the highest in the entire history of wars.[16]
Is it not remarkable that in the numerous articles in the American daily press following President Ford's death last month, there was not a single mention of his role in the East Timor massacre? A search of the extensive Lexis-Nexis and other media databases finds mention of this only in a few letters to the editor from readers; not a word even in the reports of any of the news agencies, like the Associated Press, which generally shy away from controversy less than the newspapers they serve; nor a single mention in the mainstream broadcast news programs.
Imagine if following the recent death of Augusto Pinochet the media made no mention of his overthrow of the Allende government in Chile, or the mass murder and torture which followed. Ironically, the recent articles about Ford also failed to mention his remark a year after Pinochet's coup. President Ford declared that what the United States had done in Chile was "in the best interest of the people in Chile and certainly in our own best interest."[17]
During the Cold War, the American government and media never missed an opportunity to point out the news events embarrassing to the Soviet Union which became non-events in the communist media.
Man shall never fly
The Cold War is still with us. Because the ideological conflict that was the basis for it has not gone away. Because it can't go away. As long as capitalism exists, as long as it puts profit before people, as it must, as long as it puts profit before the environment, as it must, those on the receiving end of its sharp pointed stick must look for a better way.
Thus it is that when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced a few days ago that he plans to nationalize telephone and electric utility companies to accelerate his "socialist revolution", the spokesperson for Capitalism Central, White House press secretary Tony Snow, was quick to the attack: "Nationalization has a long and inglorious history of failure around the world," Snow declared. "We support the Venezuelan people and think this is an unhappy day for them."[18]
Snow presumably buys into the belief that capitalism defeated socialism in the Cold War. A victory for a superior idea. The boys of Capital chortle in their martinis about the death of socialism. The word has been banned from polite conversation. And they hope that no one will notice that every socialist experiment of any significance in the past century has either been corrupted, subverted, perverted, or destabilized ... or crushed, overthrown, bombed, or invaded ... or otherwise had life made impossible for it, by the United States. Not one socialist government or movement -- from the Russian Revolution to Cuba, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the FMLN in Salvador, from Communist China to Grenada, Chile and Vietnam -- not one was permitted to rise or fall solely on its own merits; not one was left secure enough to drop its guard against the all-powerful enemy abroad and freely and fully relax control at home. Even many plain old social democracies -- such as in Guatemala, Iran, British Guiana, Serbia and Haiti, which were not in love with capitalism and were looking for another path -- even these too were made to bite the dust by Uncle Sam.
It's as if the Wright brothers' first experiments with flying machines all failed because the automobile interests sabotaged each test flight. And then the good and god-fearing folk of America looked upon this, took notice of the consequences, nodded their collective heads wisely, and intoned solemnly: Man shall never fly.
Tony Snow would have us believe that the government is no match for the private sector in efficiently getting large and important things done. But is that really true? Let's clear our minds for a moment, push our upbringing to one side, and remember that the American government has landed men on the moon, created great dams, marvelous national parks, an interstate highway system, the peace corps, built up an incredible military machine (ignoring for the moment what it's used for), student loans, social security, Medicare, insurance for bank deposits, protection of pension funds against corporate misuse, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the Smithsonian, the G.I. Bill, and much, much more. In short, the government has been quite good at doing what it wanted to do, or what labor and other movements have made it do, like establishing worker health and safety standards and requiring food manufacturers to list detailed information about ingredients.
When George W. took office one of his chief goals was to examine whether jobs done by federal employees could be performed more efficiently by private contractors. Bush called it his top management priority. By the end of 2005, 50,000 government jobs had been studied. And federal workers had won the job competitions more than 80 percent of the time.[19]
We have to remind the American people of what they've instinctively learned but tend to forget when faced with statements like that of Tony Snow -- that they don't want more government, or less government; they don't want big government, or small government; they want government on their side.
And by the way, Tony, the great majority of the population in the last years of the Soviet Union had a much better quality of life, including a longer life, under their "failed nationalized" economy, than they have had under unbridled capitalism.
None of the above, of course, will deter The World's Only Superpower from continuing its jihad to impose capitalist fundamentalism upon the world.
Unwelcome guests at the table of the respectable folk
Sen. Joseph Biden, Democrat from Delaware, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has announced four weeks of hearings focused on every aspect of US policy in Iraq. He really wants to get to the bottom of things, find out how and why things went so wrong, who are the ones responsible, hold them accountable, and what can be done now. The committee will hear the testimony of top political, economic and intelligence experts, foreign diplomats, and former and current senior US officials, like Condoleezza Rice, Brent Scowcroft, Samuel Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and George Shultz.[20] All the usual suspects.
But why not call upon some unusual suspects? Why do congressional committees and committees appointed by the White House typically not call experts who dissent from the official explanations? Why not hear from people who had the wisdom to protest the invasion of Iraq and condemn it in writing before it even began? People who called the war illegal and immoral, said we should never start it, and predicted much of the horrible outcome. Surely they may have some insights and analyses that will not be heard from the mouths of the usual suspects.
Likewise, why didn't the September 11 Committee, or any of the congressional committees dealing with the terrorist attack, call upon any of the numerous 9-11 experts who have done extensive research and who question various aspects of the official story?
Traditionally, of course, such committees have been formed to put a damper on dissident questioning of official stories, to ridicule them as "conspiracy theorists", not to give the dissidents a larger audience.
Speaking engagements
January 25 -- Flagstaff, AZ
March 9 -- Venice, CA
March 10 -- Irvine, CA
March 17 or 18 -- Columbus, OH
See www.killinghope.org for the details
NOTES
[1] Fars News Agency, November 21, 2006
[2] Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans' Health? Lessons Spanning Half a Century", December 8, 1994, p.5
[3] Ibid., passim
[4] Washington Post, October 2 and 23, 1996 and July 31, 1997 for the estimated numbers of affected soldiers.
[5] "Journal of the American Medical Association", September 1, 1999, p.822
[6] Washington Post, December 20, 2006, p.19
[7] New York Times, December 22, 1989, p.17
[8] New York Times, December 22, 1989, p.16
[9] Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1990, p.1
[10] Washington Post, May 28, 2003
[11] Washington Post, January 1, 2007, p.1
[12] Washington Post, July 20, 2004, p.15, statement attributed to President Bush in the Lancaster (Pa.) New Era newspaper from a private meeting with Amish families on July 9. The White House later said Bush said no such thing. Yes, we know how the Amish lie.
[13] Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1991, p.1
[14] CBS "60 Minutes", May 12, 1996
[15] Associated Press, December 22, 2006
[16] National Security Archive -- www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/ -- Search <Ford Timor>; William Blum, Rogue State, p.188-9
[17] New York Times, September 17, 1974, p.22
[18] Washington Post, January 10, 2007, p.7
[19] Washington Post, March 23, 2006, p.21
[20] Washington Post, January 5, 2007
William Blum is the author of:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
Portions of the books can be read, and copies purchased, at <www.killinghope.org >
Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.
To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to <bblum6@aol.com> with "add" in the subject line. I'd like your name and city in the message, but that's optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be speaking in your area.
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Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd appreciate it if the website were mentioned.
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Kiss the picture with mouse
Student Strike Against the War Feb. 15
