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Month in Review September 2010: The Alchemy of Empire

WAR WATCH

by Ellen Kaiser

WAR ESCALATES IN AFGHANISTAN

On April 9, as the U.S. claimed victory in Baghdad, a 1,000-pound U.S. laser-guided bomb killed 11 Afghani civilians in their home. The South East Asian bureau chief for Asia Times reports in the Nation, "Afghanistan is tottering on the brink of civil war."

According to Salon.com, even the brother of the man installed by the Bush administration to rule Afghanistan admits, "What was promised to Afghans [by the U.S.] with the collapse of the Taliban was a new life of hope and change. But what was delivered? Nothing."

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali laments, "At a time when the United States is promising a reconstructed democratic Iraq, many Afghans are remembering hearing similar promises not long ago."

WMD DISINFORMATION

So far U.S. troops have found no evidence that there are weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. In March, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. Security Council that U.S. documents indicating that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger were forgeries. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (W. Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has asked the FBI to investigate if forged documents were used, and whether they are part of a larger disinformation campaign.

KOREA WATCH

Upon finding itself on Bush's "axis of evil" and fingered for pre-emptive attack, North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and threatened to restart its nuclear weapons program. North Korea has offered to give up its nuclear ambitions for a peace treaty and normalized relations with the U.S. A useful leaflet from the Korea Solidarity Committee can be downloaded here.

LATINO ATTITUDES ABOUT WAR

When the Pew Hispanic Center asked Latinos about the U.S. going to war without U.N. support, 52 percent opposed it in February. In April, following the invasion, the poll found 61 percent supporting the war. U.S.-born Latinos rallied to a pro-war position at a rate similar to the general population (75 percent support). But only 50 percent of Latinos born outside of the U.S. were in support.

HATE CRIMES AGAINST ARABS AND MUSLIMS

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) reports an increase in alleged hate-motivated crimes and physical attacks against Arab Americans, Muslims and other at-risk communities related to the war in Iraq. More than 130,000 male immigrants and visitors, mostly Muslims, have been questioned by immigration authorities in the last five months (NY Times).

In addition: an Iraqi American family in Phoenix had dry ice explosives thrown into their backyard (AP); an Afghani man suffered burns over 60 percent of his body when two men broke into his restaurant and set him on fire (AP); a two-story window shook from the impact of thrown objects as worshipers in an Illinois mosque (Chicago Sun-Times).

PATRIOT ACT 2

The USA PATRIOT Act, passed after Sept. 11, gave the government considerable and constitutionally questionable new powers to conduct investigations and surveillance of U.S. residents. Now the administration is proposing the Domestic Security Enhancement Act or Patriot Act 2.

Under Patriot 2, the government would no longer be required to disclose the identity of anyone detained in connection with a terror investigation--until criminal charges are filed, no matter how long that takes. Current court limits on local police spying on religious and political activity would be repealed. The government would be allowed to obtain credit records and library records without a warrant.

The definition of terrorism would be expanded, so individuals engaged in civil disobedience could risk losing their citizenship. Lawful immigrants would be stripped of the right to a fair deportation hearing and federal courts would not be allowed to review immigration rulings. See the ACLU's Website: www.aclu.org/SafeandFree.