International Politics News

Is the Transatlantic Alliance Doomed?
By John Feffer

Contributors Note: 

Michael Chossudovsky talks of the militarization of "aid" to Haiti.  Aid will go to Haiti, and the people will be helped back to their status as exploited slave labour for the profit of foreign corporations - and U.S. policy for the region.

The Militarization of Emergency Aid to Haiti: Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

by Michel Chossudovsky

Haiti has a longstanding history of US military intervention and occupation going back to the beginning of the 20th Century. US interventionism has contributed to the destruction of Haiti's national economy and the impoverishment of its population.

The devastating earthquake is presented to World public opinion as the sole cause of the country's predicament.

A country has been destroyed, its infrastructure demolished. Its people precipitated into abysmal poverty and despair.

Haiti's history, its colonial past have been erased.

The US military has come to the rescue of an impoverished Nation. What is its Mandate?

Is it a Humanitarian Operation or an Invasion?

 We are too easily led into believing that continued war is the only solution to the Afghanistan/Pakistan conflict. As the new decade approaches we might consider waging peace with the same zeal we wage war.  In fact, there are very credible options being proposed and following are just two.

The following article at Open Democracy should be of interest to Canadians in view of the current controversy surrounding the use of torture in Afghanistan and the Canadian  government being complicit in it.

The Americans finally come clean

 To date they get failing grades on all counts.

Paging through press reports it is less than comforting to hear the chorus of Western leaders indulge in their asinine game of brinksmanship with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

History is a weapon, arm yourself. The history we were taught in school was laced with mind numbing brain dumbing down drivel.

30 May 2009

www.greenleft.org.au/2009/797/41023

Mass protests by indigenous communities continue to spread throughout Peru. This is despite a violent crackdown by police and military forces following President Alan Garcia’s declaration of a 60-day state of emergency in the Cusco, Ucayali, Loreto and Amazonas regions on May 9.

Since April 9, indigenous communities have shut down oil fields and gas pipelines, and blocked roads, rivers, airports and other installations. These actions are in protest at government decrees that open access to indigenous people’s lands to facilitate oil, mining, logging and agricultural companies.

Garcia decreed the laws under special powers awarded to him by Congress to bring Peruvian law into line with a free trade agreement (FTA) signed with the United States in December 2007.

One of the most controversial decrees (Legislative Decree 1090) removes some 45 million hectares, or roughly 60%, of Peru’s jungles from the country’s Forestry Heritage protection system.

by Federico Fuentes

Global Research, May 31, 2009

Green Left Weekly

Addressing the 400-strong May 21 workshop with workers from the industrial heartland of Guayana, dedicated to the “socialist transformation of basic industry”, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez noted with satisfaction the outcomes of discussions: “I can see, sense and feel the roar of the working class.”

“When the working class roars, the capitalists tremble”, he said.

Chavez announced plans to implement a series of radical measures, largely drawn from proposals coming from the workers’ discussion that day.

The workers greeted each of Chavez’s announcements with roars of approval, chanting “This is how you govern!”

Chavez said: “The proposals made have emerged from the depths of the working class. I did not come here to tell you what to do! It is you who are proposing this.”

Senior diplomats and human rights workers lashed out at Hamid Karzai's decision today to select a powerful warlord accused by western officials of involvement in criminal gangs and arms smuggling as a running mate in Afghanistan's presidential election.

KEEPING THE LID ON :

The United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) is another one of those international agreements that the U.S. has yet to ratify.  President Reagan rejected the treaty, but a revised version was signed by President Clinton in 1994.  As a result of intense opposition, LOST was never brought before the Senate for a full vote.  Several failed attempts were also later made by the Bush administration to galvanize support for the treaty.  The Democrats are now laying the groundwork to finally ratify LOST.  Proponents view ratifying the treaty as an opportunity for the U.S. to further promote global security and stability.  Critics maintain that under LOST, the U.S. would be forced to surrender more sovereignty to the UN.

We urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a non-partisan independent Special Counsel to immediately commence a prosecutorial investigation into the most serious alleged crimes of former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, the attorneys formerly employed by the Department of Justice whose memos sought to justify torture, and other former top officials of the Bush Administration.