Well-Made World 24

In a letter to the president of the Oxford Union, Israeli filmmaker Ronen Berelovich laments Oxford's decision to uninvite Norman Finkelstein from a panel discussion on the one-state solution in Israel/Palestine. This is a shameful display of academic intolerance that is more suited to the United States, where Finkelstein has already experienced enough undue ideological censure; accordingly, the three other academics who were slated to represent Finkelstein's side of the debate (the one-state, as opposed to two-state, side)--Ghada Karmi, Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappe--have withdrawn from the debate. Karmi's recent article for Comment is Free details the circumstances surrounding their withdrawal, as well as what she sees as the importation of the notorious Israel lobby of American onto British soil.

And thanks to John for bringing this article from The Nation to our attention: an account of the political climate regarding Israel/Palestine at Columbia University that almost has us at No Empires wishing we were back home...

Well-Made World 22

Quote of the day--

"I do not believe that any true Muslim will make an attack on me, because Islam forbids attacks on women, and Muslims know that if they attack a woman they will burn in hell."
--Former Pakistani PM Benazir Bhutto on the prospect of violence directed toward her upon her return to Pakistan following eight years of exile. And yet, this, from the AP, about fifteen minutes ago.

We're doing our best to keep on top of developments in Pakistan--an as-of-yet official presidential election; Bhutto's return; continuing anti-Nato violence across Waziristan. For the moment, we respectfully defer to Aijaz Ahmad, and this two-part video interview from the Real News website, one of our favorite sites recently, where Aijaz is a senior news analyst.

Also, congratulations to new grandfather and fellow-traveler of No Empires, John Loose (see above!), as well as to Manya and Mark.

Well-Made World 17

Europe

Loose directs us to a missive from Terry Eagleton, on the Guardian's blog, calling curtains on Britain's centuries-old tradition of subversive/contrarian writers--making an exception for Harold Pinter, who, Eagleton admits, may only be offering a form of "champagne socialism." Unsurprisingly, TE's examples are overwhelmingly male, though he does toss in the obligatory Virginia Woolf/"Three Guineas" reference, and notes the brief flashes of Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing. Still, Eagleton's contemporary targets (Larkin, Hare, Rushdie, Amis the Younger, et al.) are worthy ones.

The "War on Terror"

Some of the most "well-behaved" prisoners at Guantanamo, many of whom have been slated for release for upwards of a year, have recently been awarded new freedoms including access to select films once a week and limited access to tv. This and other "concessions" to detainees, rather than softening the image of the atrocious conditions at Guantanamo, highlight the absolute horror that is the system, and the dangerous paranoia that prevents detainees from doing just about anything. Read Andy Worthington on these new developments here.

Near East/ The "Muslim World"

No Empires admits to our own lack of analytical depth re: the situation obtaining in Pakistan since the military coup that put Gen. Pervez Musharraf in (increasingly shaky and dubious) power in 1999. It is, without a doubt, a country that has, for ideologically nefarious reasons, found itself swirling in the politics of George Bush's "War on Terror." But this month's seige at the "Red Mosque" in Islamabad, which had been brewing for months, certainly helps us place things in some perspective, at least as much as the previous crisis over the Pakistani judiciary did. We defer, for the moment, to Tariq Ali, who finds that the Pakistani electorate is hesitant to side with either of the groups--in Ali's words, "the Judges or the jihadis"--that have drawn the ire of Musharraf's authoritarian regime.

Richard Falk takes on the difficult, and often morally/politically dubious, task of drawing parallels between the approach of Israel and the "international community" toward Gaza, and the record of "collective atrocity" left in the wake of the Third Reich. There is, of course, nothing that galls Israel's supporters more than equivalences of this sort, which Falk is extremely careful in drawing out; what is preferred, of course, is an Israeli monopoly on the legacy and moral resonance of the Holocaust, which is cynically used to justify Israel's deplorable behavior. For more on what has been called "The Holocaust Industry", see the work of Norman Finkelstein.

The Independent has published a downright horrifying preview of interviews with American veterans of the War in Iraq, conducted by the Nation magazine. It's all here: utterly racist disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians; hackneyed "information-gathering" techniques; unencumbered bloodlust; and psychological destruction of both civilians and G.I.'s. Harrowing reading ahead, but is anyone all that surprised?

An IRIN report reveals that the Iraqi Ministry of Finanace is now offering life insurance, as well as bodyguards, to Iraq's university professors. Iraq's education system was once the envy of the Near East; a decade-plus of UN-sponsored economic sanctions--not to mention Saddam Hussein's well-documented paranoia and anti-intellectualism--irrevocably changed this situation. George Bush's war has brought the death of more than 200 professors, and the flight of thousands more.

In a charged piece for Al-Ahram Weekly, reprinted at the Electronic Intifada, Columbia's Joseph Massad rails against the subversion of Palestinian democracy that has been taking place over the past year-and-a-half.

Following her death on March 16, 2003, the parents of Rachel Corrie (subject of one of the best plays in recent memory, finally brought to the Minetta Lane theater last winter) filed a civil suit against Caterpillar, Inc. the American company that has a contract with Israel and provides it with the bulldozers that are regularly used to destroy Palestinian homes, a particularly long-standing and odious instance of illegal collective punishment. A judge dismissed the case in 2005, but Corrie's parents have moved to have the case reopened, citing the spuriousness of Caterpillar's original argument that they just couldn't possbily have known, and therefore have taken responsibility for, what Israel intended to do with their bulldozers.

The U.S.

The New York Times reports on the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which would see the installment of hundreds of cameras to monitor car (and, presumably, foot) traffic from the East River to the Hudson, to the tune of $90 million.

In a piece for Le Monde Diplomatique, Alex Cockburn writes on the sluggishness of the American anti-war movement, and points out that, for an anti-war demonstration to be "memorable and effective," it has to be "edgy, not comfortable"--something No Empires has grappled with recently, in the wake of our attending in June the first-ever protest specifically directed against the Israeli occupation.

Rudy Giuliani's campaign takes a hit in the South, as Rep. David Vitter becomes ensconced in his own hypocrisy. Sinner! No Empires isn't sure who we'd like to see drop out, or drop dead, first: Giuliani, or John McCain.

no empires goes to washington and yonkers

from practice, and from the June 10 rally to protest the 40th birthday of the Israeli occupation.

Well-Made World 13

EUROPE

• No Empires to Albania: Uh, what the fuck?
• Tony Blair, apparently thirsting for (positive) relevance, has lashed out against political reporting in the British media--and by the Independent in particular--for undermining Britons' confidence in their country and their government. Simon Kelner, editor of the Independent, responds, feeling honored at his paper's having been singled out, and even sees Blair's attack as confirming the veracity of the Independent's anti-Iraq war stance.

NEAR EAST

• Flailing around for bedfellows among an Iraqi population it has done everything under the sun to fragment and destroy, the US is giving arms support to Sunni groups for the purpose of fighting their former Shiite allies, who are now accused of representing Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
• Kevin Zeese picks up where Dennis Kucinich left off on the floor of Congress a week or so back, and updates us on the state of the Iraqi "hydrocarbon law," a privitization law that the United States is desperately clinging to as the "benchmark" by which the puppet government must prove itself. Iraqi oil laborers are on strike and are under constant threat from the Iraqi Army and the Maliki government for "sabotaging the [Iraqi] economy."
• Meanwhile, the Iraqi Parliament has recently passed a resolution calling for an end to the American occupation. Today's New York Times, furthermore reports a closed-door meeting between William Fallon, head of CENTCOM, and Nuri al-Maliki, during which Fallon stresses the need for "public progress" on security in Iraq, and where does the pressure start? With the oil distribution law.
• Loose sends us this piece by Patrick Seale, which reminds us that, in recent weeks, George Bush and Robert Gates have stated that the US aim is an "enduring presence" in Iraq--they cite the post-WWII South Korean and Japanese models, though we all know Bush has never read anything resembling a history book in his life--and also that, of the 110 bases built by the US following the invasion, 14 of these are slated to become permanent bases (including the 100-acre compound on the banks of the Tigris--see Well-Made World 6).
  
  LATIN AMERICA

• Richard Gott, the preeminent journalist of Latin America, writes on Hugo Chavez's recent refusal to renew the charter of RCTV, producers of "colonial" television and proponents of the short-lived, CIA-backed coup against Chavez in 2002. See The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, dir. Kim Bartley & Donnacha O'Briain.

U.S.

• In yet more distressing news for academic freedom in America, Norman Finkelstein has been denied tenure in the political science department at DePaul university in Chicago, even after his departmental colleagues voted 9-3 in favor of tenure. This would usually be the place for some No Empires-style vitriol directed against Alan Fucking Dershowitz, who wielded massive outside pressure against Finkelstein, but we're too disgusted to continue.

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Middle East

• On the anniversary of the War of 1967, Jonathan Cook takes a look at Shin Bet and Bizshara, and Saree Makdisi, Edward Said's nephew, eloquently makes the case for one secular state in Israel-Palestine.
• Nizar Latif interviews the elusive Moqtada al-Sadr, who, the article notes, has taken to wearing a white shroud in combination with his usual black turban, "a symbol of his willingness to be martyred, and his belief that death is close at hand."

The US

• Military judges in separate decisions throw out charges against Omar Ahmed Khadr of Canada and Salim Ahmed Hamdan of Yemen, (temporarily) thwarting the US government's system of trying Guantánamo detainees. Classified as "enemy combatants" instead of "unlawful enemy combatants," these men are sure to be charged on different grounds following a re-group on the part of the Pentagon.
• Mit Romney: poised for entry into the White House.
• And thanks to JL, again--No Empires kept meaning to include an article on Cindy Sheehan's disillusionment, and here it is.
• David Vest on the second Democratic debate and the "Democrats War." No Empires supports Dennis Kucinich as a rare politician with a spine in the US.

Europe

• Diana Johnstone explains why Sarko's appointment of "progressive"/opportunist Bernard Kouchner shouldn't surprise anyone.

Well-Made World #6

• In November of 2006, Joseph Massad began drawing parallels between the United States's support of the Chilean military in the overthrow the Allende government, and the current aid being given to Fatah (or, to be more explicit, to the faction of security forces led by Mohammed Dahlan, the new US bulldog in Palestine), in ostensible preparation for a coup against the democratically-elected Hamas government. Tony Karon has picked up this thread in his blog, where he gives a lucid analysis of the recent disheartening violence in Gaza, and asks: is this the time for the "Palestinian Pinochet" to make his move?
• Israel's national infrastructure minister, meanwhile, has declared that all members of the Hamas government are potential assassination targets.
• "For years, Israel was proud of the democratic miracle of an obedient army that did not accumulate too much power and served the elected government loyally, even though the country was engaged in a continual existential war." A Haaretz editorial uses the example of the army's disregard for court decisions regarding the separation wall in the West Bank--as well as an ever-increasing (illegal) settlement rate there--to show why this is no longer the case.
• John Loose brushes us up on our Coleridge: 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure dome decree'. The American embassy under construction in Baghdad is costing upwards of 700 million dollars, and is the size of the Vatican. One shouldn't be too given to wonder why this is the case.
• No Empires officially believes that no action of the US Army, sadly, can be too surprising. But a secret plot to kill the most popular Shia politician in Iraq? Is it the Americans taking a page out of the Israeli playbook? Regardless, for their aims, it is a remarkably short-sighted move. Patrick Cockburn reports.

Well-Made World #5

• No Empires will never understand why the US Army thinks this scheme will work.
• The ever-reliable, and brave, Patrick Cockburn interviews one of the most infamous "jackals" (Tariq Ali's phraseology) of the new Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi, who, incredibly, was left off of the original "NO EMPIRES HATES" list.
  
• Sorry to be blunt, Mr. Tenet, but fuck your book tour, and fuck you. Too little, too late.
• Ashley Dawson explains that "while the World Bank's official inquiry denounces the Goodfellas-style strong-arm tactics and scatological language he employed during his tenure as president, it fails to focus on the broader forms of corruption promoted by Wolfowitz. Nor does it allude to the disastrously wrong-headed lending policies that ensure that the Bank's baneful influence will linger long after Wolfowitz's exit." She cites "fundamentally corrupt and undemocratic" appointment procedures at the World Bank and points to a "cronyism at the top extends far beyond Wolfowitz's shady package for his girlfriend" before going on to discuss the Bank's disasterous energy lending policies, which, of course, are unlikely to change once the Bank drops Wolfowitz.
• Bill Fletcher is a former president and executive of the TransAfrica forum, and he's rightly skeptical about the Obama candidacy.
• Ali Abunimah, the indefatigable, continues to push for a one-state solution in Palestine/Israel.
• Yesterday, the NYPD released as-yet-classified internal documents regarding its (extensive/costly/downright fucking frightening) preparation for the actions taken against the Republican National Convention in 2004. The New York Times, apparently looking to flex its "social conscience" muscle behind the ACLU (Mr. Keller, No Empires is not buying it!) has some feedback.
• No Empires supports single-payer health insurance, though this may, for now, be a losing battle: "The US ranked last [among Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, and New Zealand) in most areas, including access to health care, patient safety, timeliness of care, efficiency and equity. Americans were also last in terms of whether they had a regular physician."
• Regular contributor John Loose brings us an update on Washington's continuing and nefarious machinations in Venezuela.

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to fuck with your weekend, and with love to moms:

• Patrick Cockburn--No Empires hopes that he will come to be seen as the pre-eminent journalist of the second Iraq war--puts paid to any positive assessment of George Bush and David Petraeus's (and Joe Lieberman's? and Christopher Hitchens's? and Hillary Clinton's? and Bill Keller's? and Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz's?) troop surge in Iraq.
• John Loose (much love!) directs No Empires to this Common Dreams article about a new hydrocarbon law being considered by the Iraqi Parliament.
• The improbably-named Steve Stalinksy--a rank-and-file member of the scum at the New York Sun, who so purposely supervened on issues of "academic freedom" in the MEALAC department at Columbia in 2005/6--purports a growing alliance between the "anti-global left" and Islamist movements in the Middle East.
• Kathleen Christison, a favorite at No Empires (along with her husband, Bill), on the "fake peace conference" taking place this week in New Mexico, to the tune of half of a million dollars.
• No consequences, it would seem, for the police who killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the London tube system in July of 2005