by Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Who is a terrorist? Undoubtedly, what comes to mind is Daesh (ISIL), al-Qaeda, MKO, Boko Haram, etc. What is terrorism? The events of 9/11 and the gruesome beheadings carried out by Daesh shape our visual perception of terrorism. What is left unmentioned and unrecognized in our collective psyche is the kind of terrorism that has been deliberately obfuscated: sanctioned terrorism or terrorism with a license – sanctions.
The fact that scholars have identified over 100 definitions of the term terrorism demonstrates that there is no universally accepted definition of the term. There is general consensus that terrorism is ‘viewed as a method of violence in which civilians are targeted with the objective of forcing a perceived enemy into submission by creating fear, demoralization, and political friction in the population under attack.’ [1].
In 1937, the League of Nations Convention defined terrorism as: “All criminal acts directed against a State and intended or calculated to create a state of terror in the minds of particular persons or a group of persons or the general public.”
Article 1.2 of The Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism signed in Cairo in 1998 describes terrorism as: “Any act or threat of violence, whatever its motives or purposes, that occurs for the advancement of an individual or collective criminal agenda, causing terror among people, causing fear by harming them, or placing their lives, liberty or security in danger, or aiming to cause damage to the environment or to public or private installations or property or to occupy or to seize them, or aiming to jeopardize a national resource”.
In the aftermath of the September 11, the UNSC adopted Resolution 1373 licensing the United States to wage war against terrorism without first defining terrorism. However, Section 1.B of 18 U.S. Code § 2331 on international terrorism includes the following: (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping. In spite of these clear definitions, sanctions–sanctioned terrorism is dubbed as ‘diplomacy’, ‘an alternate to war’ etc.
The reality of sanctioned terrorism is denied even by the UN from whence the most important definition terrorism was delivered in a seminal speech by Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Annan conveyed the findings of a high level UN panel “A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility”(2004)[2] as having defined terrorism to be: “[A]ny action intended to kill or seriously harm civilians or non-combatants, with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling action by a government or international organization”.
Shamelessly, even after sanctioned terrorism took the life of one million Iraqis, the UNSC licensed terrorism against Iran – sanctions, without any remorse for the lost lives of 1 million Iraqi victims of sanctioned terrorism and untold numbers or other victims across the globe.
The terror inflicted by way of sanctions could not have been made more clear than what Kofi Annan reported of the 2004 UN panel’s findings stating that opin prevention was a vital part of any strategy to protect people against terrorism’; adding that ‘in today’s world, any threat to one is truly a threat to all. ‘ And that ‘any event or process that leads to deaths on a large scale or the lessening of life chances, and which undermines states as the basic unit of the international system, should be viewed as a threat to international peace and security. Such threats included “economic and social threats”[3].
Security’ in terms of international relations is understood to be human security. There are six sectors to security: physical, military, economic, ecological, societal and political. Any change from ‘secure’ to ‘insecure’ or a general deterioration in any one or more of these sectors, increases the potential for violence (Buzan 2009). In spite of it all, the UNSC licensed terrorism.
The overall failure to identify and deliberately obfuscate this act of terrorism has enabled this premeditated act of terrorism to continue with impunity. The success of this deception is owed to controlling the narrative with complicity from the media. This has been so effective that even the victims of sanctioned terrorism fail to grasp that they are being subjected to terrorism. As Walter Laquer famously wrote in his 1977 piece “Terrorism”: “The success of a terrorist operation depends almost entirely on the amount of publicity it receives.” Sanctioned terrorism has received no publicity.
Our present day understanding of terrorism was initially introduced by Hollywood that often borrows its story ideas from the U.S. foreign policy agenda and has at times reinforced these policies. Hollywood rarely touched the topic of terrorism in the late 1960s and 1970s when the phenomenon was not high on the U.S. foreign policy agenda, in news headlines or in the American public consciousness. In the 1980s, in the footsteps of the Reagan administration, the commercial film industry brought terrorist villains to the big screen, making terrorism a blockbuster film product in the 1990s, painting Arabs (and now Moslems) as terrorists.[4] Thus the movie industry defined and projected terrorism to the world at large in a manner consistent with US foreign policy. The news media continues to play an even bigger role.
News media has consistently framed terrorism by presenting sudden, shocking scenes of carnage and blood in order to shock the viewer and drive home the narrative of what terrorism should entail –by implication, ruling out all other terrorist acts. So while the imagery creates fear and loathing, and a total rejection of terrorism as identified by the media, a parallel loathing of unidentified terrorism – of sanctioned terrorism has been deliberately precluded. This is propaganda at its finest.
It goes without saying that the aim of propaganda is to change peoples’ opinion and attempt to influence their future actions and decisions. What is common about propaganda is that it seldom shows the situation from different points of view and seldom gives the full picture. Images of sanctioned terrorism are sorely missing from the picture as the culprits make every effort to present sanctions as diplomacy, a tool of statecraft, and have even convinced the general public that it is a better alternative to war. In fact, sanctioned terrorism is the cowardly alternate to war for the victim is deprived of an unidentifiable enemy to fight. Sanctions, like other terrorists, don’t wear military uniforms.
It is incumbent upon every individual opposed to terrorism to take ownership of the falsely presented narrative about sanctions and refer to sanctions as sanctioned terrorism at all times. Terrorism, like pollution, does not recognize boundaries. Russia has learnt this the hard way. By Hillary Clinton’s own admission, the terrorists America is fighting today were created by the US. We cannot send our uniformed men and women to fight unidentified terrorism, sanctions. We must be the champions of this war on terror. Whether we want to speak for yesterday’s victims, or defend today’s victims of sanctioned terrorism, or whether we want to prevent future victims, we must fight sanctioned terrorism today.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on US foreign policy.
- Alex P. Schmid, Albert J. Jongman, et al., Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories, and Literature, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1988, pp. 5-6. ↑
- www.un.org/secureworld ↑
- Kofi Annan, “Special Report: Courage to fulfill our responsibilities”, The Economist Intelligence Unit, December 4, 2004. ↑
- Helena Vanhala – “Hollywood portrayal of modern international terrorism in blockbuster action-adventure films: From the Iran hostage crisis to September 11, 2001”. Dissertations and theses. University of Oregon; 2005.
Yes to this article. Related, first in the media there were no wars of our (Western European) choice in the Middle East, and still are not when doublethink calls for that, and now it is the “migrant” refugees of our non-existent indiscriminate bombing and other terrorism who are being made the villain, the aggressor, the breakers of boundaries and of peace by the media and the political class. It’s as despicable and complete a reversal as it gets.
Speaking of world-wide terrorism and its main supporter, the Hegemon, here are the same pics of the latest ‘Russian invasion’ that the Saker showed earlier now resurfacing via the Hegemon’s New Zealand vassal broadcasting outlet:
Russia ‘is building military base in Syria’ – American intelligence
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11508956
The fact that Syria has been long supported quite openly by Russia and has had a naval base there is suddenly a revelation to the Western MSM. We have headlines ‘Russia puts boots on the ground’ that have no article but lead to the article above:
Do people not see the hypocricy in the USA entering everywhere and trampling
everywhere in the world with impunity or that the last two words of that ‘military base’ heading are an oxymoron?
Haha, spot on! What passes for “intelligence” in Pindostan is totally (oxy)moronic. Quite a few Pindos can barely move one leg past the other and not simply because of their grossly inflated BMI.
You know what’s really inflated about the USA? Its GDP.
Correct. In the case of Pindostan, it would be much more accurate interpreting GDP as meaning GodDamnParasitism.
Here we go again. Americans are the only dumbed down, misinformed, defective populace on the planet. Well nusiminen, you are either as stupid as those you criticize or you are deaf and blind. I see much the same from the eurodopes, australians, new zealanders, canadians, indians you name it. How are the eurodopes any different? Quite a few racist nazis I see. I find your generalizations repugnant. All over this godamned planet there exists morons.
@ SanctuaryOne,
Q; Russia ‘is building military base in Syria’ – American intelligence.
R; That must have been a template, because the same headlines pop up in Northern/Western
propagandanews outlets.I have personal experience with these sanctions.
Under the OFAC general license number 6, private persons in the US may send personal remittances to private persons in Crimea without interference.
The money I earned with my blue collar job in the US was confiscated by the intermediary bank (Citibank) anyway, when I tried to send it home to my wife and kids in Crimea. They (Citibank) demanded I send them a PDF with the date of confiscation within ten days or I forfeit the money. My bank could not even tell me when they (Citibank) confiscated it, but I’m pretty sure Citibank has that information because they are the ones that confiscated it!
Why do they then, demand this information from me? It’s a game. I complained to the OFAC, and they said they would investigate, and it would take at least six months.
The rule of law is already gone in the West. The demonization of Russia and related sanctions are a license for banks to steal from little people who happen to be in the rare situation I am in.
I am going home and forgetting all about the West, and I am an Anglo who was born and raised in the USA.
That’s so ridiculous. May be you should get a lawyer, but I would think the amount may be too small to interest any lawyer ?
***sympathetic response to commenter – mod
Do you are your wife have friends in other areas of Russia? Maybe you could sent the money to them.And they then resend it directly to Crimea from other areas of Russia? Just a thought,good luck.
By those definitions, the US hasn’t only “supported” groups which are non-uniformed and vague as to place and country of origin, but it is itself the largest terrorist organisation on earth.
Don’t look to worry about “Stopping ISIS”, nor mutter about who or what is/are DAESH or whatever name or jumble of initials they are.
Just look to one terrorist outfit, and you’ve got them all.
It’s called USA. Period.
Isabella, not only is the USA the greatest state terrorist in history, it is also the greatest sponsor of state terror by its allies (Israel, Saudi Arabia et al) and creator and sponsor of death-squads (Daash, al-Qaeda, The Contras, Kopassus, Operation Condor, Operation Phoenix, the Colombian paramilitaries, Greek colonels, the graduates of the School of the Americas etc)in history. In short the ultimate, the greatest Evil in all human history. Not to forget its genocidal aggressions, its ‘Special Forces’ death-squads, its genocidal economic sanctions and the genocidal impact of the brutal neo-liberal capitalist order that spreads poverty, misery and death throughout the global South. And the War on Drugs, designed to worsen drug addiction, destroy countries, imprison the US underclass and provide tens of billions in ‘black money’ for US banks to launder and the CIA etc to dip into. And then there is torture, as American as apple-pie, practised in US prisons, police lock-ups and secret torture centres and even schools. And 100,000 rotting in solitary confinement, some for decades. Yet this evil empire still screeches incessantly about its ‘Moral Values’, as if it were the conscience of the world. For a pithy summation, read Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech.
You can watch or listen to Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech here – link to youtube
Thanks for that Daniel.
And yes, MM – I agree. A good pithy summation of what feels like a never ending horror still rising to an unimaginable crescendo. Even the far planets must echo to the scream.
Isabella, the dominance of the planet by the evil Western elites led by the USA not only presages human destruction through the insane aggression and narcissism of the global thugocracy, either one country at a time or through a global thermo-nuclear catastrophe, or through a complete collapse of the planet’s habitability for our species as the result of ecological collapse, but also makes it inevitable. If humanity is indeed finding its highest expression in ‘Western Civilization’, ‘Free Market capitalism’ and Samantha Powers et al’s ‘moral values’, as the Judeo-Christian supremacists constantly screech, then humanity would deserve to disappear, as an evil thing. This, right here and now, is the hopefully final battle for the soul of humanity.
A few Tweeets by Phil Greaves today. Very clear explanations of some basic things.
———————-
Those who put faith in the empty words of American fascism, only do so by virtue of their historical ignorance: by repressing its deeds.
The reason so many “journalists” & various apologists of US imperial fascism assume its destructive policies are “failures” or “mistakes” is firstly because they believe in mythology & ideology over historico-material fact, they are philosophical idealists in every sense […] this religious thought purports that US endeavors are always “For the Good of All Society”.
They sincerely believe that Libya –formerly Africa’s most prosperous independent nation– was merely a “Savage Dystopian Wasteland” that Noble Western Civilisation only “mistakenly” made worse by carrying out its ‘humanitarian’ mission.
They ideologues believe that Syria, the region’s most developed and independent nation, was a “Brutal Despots Playground” that the West were really trying to improve by implanting mass-terrorism and Takfiri reaction, but this “mistakenly made matters worse”.
They still believe the “Civilisers” murder of 2 million Iraqis was maybe “worth it” because “Saddam was Evil & Iraq was a shithole anyway”.
This is the racist, supremacist worldview of indoctrinated petty bourgeois of the imperial metropolis. Where even dropping nuclear bombs on a “lesser” people is imagined to be a “mistaken” act of virtue.
The media outpouring of European self-congratulation for the filthy ruling class finally allowing the refugees a modicum of dignity is the emotional preparation of the public for when the same filthy ruling class deems itself the Noble Civiliser of Syria and overtly attacks the Syrian State, the Syrian army and the Syrian people under the ‘humanitarian’ guise of ousting ‘Evil Assad’.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
“By Hillary Clinton’s own admission, the terrorists…were created by the US.”
What don’t we know! The death toll mounts – daily. The planet itself, groans. Economic, political, ecological, and social ills, worsen. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, are ever more fleeting memories. Ms Sepahpour-Ulrich is forced to write such a sad warning.
Do we recall those slaughtered by the American imperialists?
Vietnam – 2 million (1962-1975)
Indonesia – 1 million (1965)
Guatemala – 100,000 (1960-1970)
Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Laos, Cambodia, Chile, Yugoslavia, Greece, Palestine, (1970-2015), dozens invaded & millions more dead.
The American Republic: they destroyed by violent assassination in the Coup D’etat in Dallas on November 22, 1963, must be restored.
Praise let me have the temerity to suggest a way to resist the worst purveyors of terror in the world, the unconstitutional terrorist Oligarch controlled Zionist American Government.
The restoration must occur by way of holding Alternate elections to establish alternate Government foci. The work must begin as soon as possible, and the moral foundation of all efforts will be a clean break with the existing unconstitutional bought politicians and their official titles and their political gangs. Statewide Committees of Correspondence would pledge to abide by and restore the legal primacy of the Nation’s Constitution.
As with Dieudonné and Soral in France, a political social foundation of Equality and Reconciliation would ameliorate political sectarianism and old hatreds. A Revolution is a Moral affair, and is therefore, impossible to defeat, once in motion.
Action must be undertaken in the neighborhoods and centers of learning of America if America is to be transformed. Ideas, discussions, meetings, leaflets, actions, mistakes, and successes.
Any with a better idea on how to stop American Oligarch Terror, please do not hesitate to criticize me (er-post here).
For the Democratic Republics!
IMAGINE
The only way to stop any empire’s shenanigans and power and greed adventurism is to defund them.
There are many centres of learning in America but have they had any effect on US policy since the Vietnam War? Do you see the huge protests that existed back then?
The government(s) control the message now and the Golden Rule dictates who is in government and what the stealth obedience message fo the people is.
Defunding is a trite answer but to me seems the only answer. There is some hope that the USA is defunding itself but in the short term things will get far worse before they get better. And that’s an ‘if’.
@ Peter J.Antonsen,
Q; Ms Sepahpour-Ulrich
R; From a legal pov, that allows her to apply for the title Mrs.
Yes, yes, I know, pure nitpicking… but that’s how I like to start Monday mornings. I need to morally warm up :o)
I was reading the other day that, after the coup in Iraq that brought the Baathists to power, that the US ‘Embassy’ distributed lists of those they wanted eliminated. The same occurred in Indonesia in 1965, as the genocide of 1-2 million by the loyal butcher Suharto commenced. So every US ‘Embassy’ must be seen as a cancer, a site of death-list compilation, and a threat to every society that they infect.
@ Mulga Mumblebrain,
Q; So every US ‘Embassy’ must be seen as a cancer, a site of death-list compilation, and a threat to every society that they infect.
R; I can’t divulge too much or dive too deep into this, but you’d be astonished to know how much your local city hall knows about you and what they’re going to do when the sh** hits the fan.
I was left flabbergasted when I saw what they can do to cut [fill in the blanks] off from the outside world. The cancer and rot run very deep and I don’t know where to begin to stop it. The only thing, for now, is to stop visiting certain web sites [although that list has expanded exponentially over the last decade], but to effectively halt it… I have no clue whatsoever.
The US’ intravenous influence is everywhere; news, music, films, books…, you name it, you’ll find it.
A good start would be to kick out all the ‘fast food’ crapola and replace it with ‘slow food’ goodies, so we can take our time and enjoy life a bit more.
But, yeah.. Freedom of choice…
“This is the racist, supremacist worldview of indoctrinated petty bourgeois of the imperial metropolis.”
Exactly. Phil Greaves is being scientifically accurate on the subject. The following rendition is even better and stems from an erstwhile Russian blogger:
“The West is made up by bankrupt hideous baboons for whom the total destruction of humanity and, indeed, life itself is their only capable wetdream”.
European values at their finest, indeed.
“Oh, c’mon! Terrorism is something you do, not I.” – US
BriberyLibrary of Congress’ Dictionary of Foreign Affairs.This (I think Russian-made) film on the destruction of Aleppo – whose Ancient City is a UNESCO site – shows in graphic detail what has been done to Syria.
Although the film is from the perspective of the ‘rebels’ – presumably so the filmmakers could get up-close-and-personal access – it still brings home the true horror-show of terrorism.
Another depressing fact I gleaned, was the political incoherence of the various groups – (‘What are you fighting for?’ ‘Against Assad/ Iran. For women and children. For sharia law. Because we are mujahadeen..’)
They never mention the paychecks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVRPI3jaakk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Eimar, anyone with any experience of US Evil knew what was coming to Syria years ago. The incessant sequence of belligerent Congressional interference, with laws passed to finance traitors and subversives inside Syria and in the exile community. The forcing of Syria out of Lebanon. The murder of Hariri and the transparent attempt to frame Syria or Hezbollah for the murder. Then the Israeli aggression of 2006, where Hezbollah handed them their Chosen arses on a platter, again, despite a typically cowardly and murderous air campaign designed to provoke sectarian war.
Then Seymour Hersh outlined in ‘The Redirection’ exactly how Mordor-on-the-Potomac was going to use the Israeli tactic of setting Shia against Sunni (the essence of the Oded Yinon Plan)to destroy Iraq, Syria etc. Then Robert Ford, the death-squad Boss from the ‘Salvador Option’ in Iraq, the typical US bully-boy thug ‘Ambassador’, set out to incite civil strife, taking advantage of the unrest caused by a dreadful drought. Immediately the old ‘regime change’ tactic of sniper killings, as in Caracas 2002 or Kiev 2014 was wheeled out, and the Qatari and Saudi financed takfiris were unleashed on Syria. A frequent visitor on local radio in those days was a woman who traveled to Syria often. She appeared for a while to relate the fact that the terrorists were foreigners, not local Syrians, so she was disappeared pretty quick. And as the takfiri butchers’ atrocities appeared on Youtube, no Western MSM scum-bag dared notice that every video was accompanied by the trade-mark jihadist screeching of ‘Allahu Akbar’, pretty easily showing just who these evil vermin really were and remain. Uncle Satan’s old friends for decades, the Wahhabist filth from the unspeakable medieval despotic hell-hole that is Saudi Arabia.
NATO is preparing to take Syria down, under 2 pretexts: refugee crisis (manipulated– refugees in Turkey given the means to go to Europe) & “rising presence of Russia in Syria”.
Russian diplomacy against the coming aggression: announcement Friday that Assad has agreed to early elections & some power-sharing w opponents [This is a change!] & Russian/Syrian willingness to join a coalition agst ISIS.
NATO’s continued plans: BBC: ” Ministers will start to make a case for British military action in Syria next week – with Downing Street keen to take the “next step” against so-called Islamic State”
See http://www.moonofalabama.org/ for his expert parsing of everybody’s exact words.
Editorials in the Guardian & Washington Post blame Washington for having “done nothing” while Assad kills his own people.
Related? 229,000 refugees in Jordan rec’d UN text messages that their food aid is ended.
@Penelope
Sounds like Athens hasn’t got the ‘Topple Assad’ memo:
http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/28037/53/
That is strange. Jordan is a key. If Jordan switches to support Syria, it could be the beginning of the end for the criminals.
Netanyahu rejects calls for
Israelthe Apartheid State to take refugees – and pledges to build fence instead– link to The Independent
“Those ‘refugees’ have to create a country for themselves somewhere. Any ideas, anyone?” – unofficial Apartheid State’s official, not authorized to speak about the subject, yet here he is, doing exactly that.
Dang. I told myself it’s better to fill out everything manually, instead of relying on auto-fill options, so my brain would remain alert, crisp and sharp.
I guess it’s time to get it out of the fridge then…
:o)
Sorry, mods.
Sanctioned terrorism apology after 30 years:
New Zealand Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior bomber apologises
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34168078
The BBC’s spokesface deems it only state sabotage though.
I agree with this post 100%. question is what can be done? By now, having spent enough time to educate myself on this Saker site, I just feel *** and hopeless. While by now I am a “converted”, it’s practically impossible to try to convince even some close ones on our view point. Most just think I’m nuts and gone to the deep end, or even worse, a disloyal citizen, potential trouble maker, etc
What you can do is get your own life in order. Remove yourself from evils grip. So many of those who have much negative to say live their lives supporting those they rant against. I wonder how many posters use credit cards, rely on the banking system, even eat in a way that supports the beast. If enough individuals make an effort the foundation crumbles.
Penelope,
Definitely a case for ‘intervention’ being manufactured.
This specious piece from the Daily Beast – which includes a reference to Iran’s General Soulaimeni as a ‘terrorist’ – is definitely under orders to ‘hoe the ground’ so to speak:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/05/exposing-russia-s-secret-army-in-syria.html?via=mobile&source=twitter
The ‘Evil Assad’ meme is being resurrected I suspect because a.) he is winning (and has the Syrian Kurds now on his side, so rather spoiling the ‘Kurdistan’ fiction run by the Barzani clan with Mossad) and b.) Iran’s major diplomacy drive appears to be returning dividends…
Eimar,
Eimar,
“Evil Assad” meme indeed. I suppose sometime we must find out how the oligarchs manage to prevent countervailing TV stations, newspapers, etc. Gutsy Athens allowing Russians her airspace. Gutsy S Korea attending Peking’s parade; as we can well imagine the fondest hope of all Koreans is reunification of their country. Not a chance US will help w that.
The Moon of Alabama piece is worth reading cuz he sensitizes us to the very subtle subtext in the words being used by Putin and others.
Also Moon had an interesting piece a few days back–maybe the 27th– about the motivation of the real Syrian rebels (not mercenaries) being drought caused by Turkey’s many dams on the Tigris-Euphrates. Rebels may have felt Syrian govt should have done something about it. Always wondered what issues the real opposition had; still wonder how they cd team up w terrorists who called for bombing the country.
You’re right Assad is winning. Fars news hasn’t picked up “The Russians are Coming”; instead has about 5 success stories from the field.
Thank you, Soraya.
As long as the media is monopolized by those who intentionally distort the meaning of “terrorism” your important analysis will have a smaller audience than it deserves.
I hope we will someday end that monopoly.
Ordinary people still have compassion:
Michale Whitton (AM) : “The Icelandic government is reconsidering its national refugee quota after a social media campaign resulted in over 11,000 Icelanders offering up a room in their homes to refugees.”
http://nsnbc.me/2015/09/05/11000-icelanders-offer-to-house-syrian-refugees/
“On September 1, 20,000 people took to the streets of Vienna to demonstrate their support for refugees, just days after a similar march in Dresden. And on the morning of September 3, a petition on the UK parliament website hit 100,000 signatures, enough to require a parliamentary debate on increasing the number of people granted refuge in the UK. A few hours later, it was at nearly 200,000.”
http://nsnbc.me/2015/09/05/public-opinion-on-the-refugee-crisis-is-changing-fast-and-for-the-better/
Iceland better vet those refugees carefully! As one of the most ‘secular’, and the smallest of the Scandinavian nations, a few IS warriors there could wreak havoc, worse than the worst of the vikings!
Jim of Olym
My heartbreaking introduction to economic sanctions first arrived in,
“Cool War: Economic sanctions as a weapon of mass destruction”
By Joy Gordon in Harper’s Magazine, November 2002
Currently available at,
http://www.scn.org/ccpi/HarpersJoyGordonNov02.html
Elder Woman, the first two UN Commissioners in charge of the food for oil program, Halliday and von Sponack resigned in protest at the sanctions, denouncing them as ‘genocidal’. The US deliberately targeted electricity and water treatment plants, the latter a war crime, to exacerbate the suffering. In other words the intent was genocidal from the beginning, as is a feature of most US aggressions. They just love killing, particularly children.
Its completely true. I have not seen images of sanctioned terrorism. I mean not like I’ve seen of Daesh’s form of it.
I suggest images, and photos, as I can only imagine what it entails…starvation, and homelessness, and no medical help, no education.
This time period of the sanctioned terrorism is teaching the world’s population about the mistakes made in the past, starting I think about 1850’s when the bankers became a species. ..
The US got all its banking power from England, and now, the US is the worst example of everything that’s wrong with this system….
How long it will take to fix the system is unknown. ..even if the BRICS etc will fix it, or will just postpone more of the same, is unknown.
But if the planet is to survive, then these mistakes made in the late 1800’s are going to have to be ‘unmade’.
If the US doesn’t blow up the planet, I think humanity will eventually find its way forward.
But its a terrible time to be living in, for most people, but for the people under sanctioned terrorism, its the worst.
Ann, I have.
Gaza has been providing them for years.
yes, small children standing amidst rubble.
There will never be any kind of definition of terrorism, because it would limit antiterrorist fighter’s freedom to kill at will.
Many thanks to the Saker for publishing my article and to those of you who have read it and commented. Regrettably, due to limited access to the internet, I am not able to respond to these terrific comments.
Soraya, I’m sorry to say that unless the US blinks we are going to see much more terrorism in the next few weeks– in Syria:
“US SEEKS OCCUPATION As US Fighters Flood Syria”
“Not only does Brookings lay out an open conspiracy to invade and occupy Syria, it does so with the open admission that the goal is not to degrade the fighting capacity of the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS or ISIL), but rather to undermine and eventually overthrow the Syrian government. In fact, Brookings makes a point of stating that the goal would be to seize and hold Syrian territory to further advance American ambitions toward regime change, and would move quickly to degrade the Syrian government’s ability to resist ISIS if any attempts were made by Damascus to stop the US invasion
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/08/us-seeks-occupation-as-us-fighters-flood-syria/
I wonder if the US is at last taking off its mask.
***Penelope scaring everyone as usual – mod
History shows that terrorism is to 99% State terrorism. Enough said.
Yes, I agree with the author that placing sanctions on nations is terrorism. Ron Paul and others whose voices are characterized as reactionary in the hoopla of Western propaganda have stated many times that sanctions are not but a “Declaration of War” against the affected nations. It’s difficult to imagine how the American public can accept and go along with such savage behavior by their representative government in case it is quite clear that the nations affected by these sanctions are so horribly affected by them. Is it any secret any longer that a million Iraqi children died as the result of sanctions that the American government, a Superpower, imposed on that nation? Shame on people who refuse to see the reality of crimes being committed on their behalf!!!
Those who control the media in the West, and unfortunately in most of the world, have the power to dominate public opinion by creating the illusion of humanity in a few acts while ignoring their broad Western savage behavior towards defenseless people. Examples of this are many on Western news broadcasts. One example which is repeated many time on TV broadcasts is when they show videos of a drone strike showing the drone operator holds back from firing its missile if there is a child in the video frame. However, there are thousands of incidents taking place where 99 percent of the time drone strikes hit wedding parties and innocent people gathering fire wood in Afghanistan, Iraq and all of these poverty stricken places killing women, children and many other people by the thousands.