The U.S.A and Terrorism one and the same
Next on your imagination list is terrorism. Now, surely American leaders are against terrorism -- categorically, no ifs or buts, no exceptions. ... Of course they're not.

In 1998, the State Department issued a report listing Cuba amongst those nations alleged to "sponsor terrorism". Curious about this, I called up the State Department and was connected to what they called "The Terrorism Desk", where a man told me that Cuba was included because "They harbor terrorists."

"So does the United States," I replied. "The Cuban exiles in Miami have committed hundreds of terrorist acts, in the U.S. and abroad."

The gentleman exploded. "Sir," he cried in a rising voice, "that is a fatuous remark and I will not listen to such nonsense!" And he hung up.

It's always fascinating to observe how a True Believer reacts to a sudden, unexpected and unanswerable threat to his fundamental ideological underpinnings.

The Cuban exiles are in fact probably the longest lasting and most prolific terrorist group in the world, and they're still at it. In the past year or so they've been busy bombing hotels in Havana, all directed from Miami. {3}

Cubans are not the only terrorists enjoying safe haven in the United States. There are Haitians, Salvadoreans, Guatemalans, Indonesians, and others guilty of terrible crimes against humanity, walking around free as can be in the United States. They were, and perhaps still are, allies of U.S. foreign policy objectives. {4}

Take the example of Former Guatemalan Defense Minister Hector Gramajo. In 1995 a U.S. court ordered Gramajo to pay $47.5 million in damages to eight Guatemalans and a U.S. citizen for his responsibility in the torture of the American and the massacre of family members of the Guatemalans (among thousands of other Indians whose death he was responsible for). Gramajo was served a court summons in 1991 as he graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he had studied on a scholarship provided by the U.S. government. The judge stated that "The evidence suggests that Gramajo devised and directed the implementation of an indiscriminate campaign of terror against civilians." It was only following the court judgement that the Defense Department withdrew Gramajo's invitation to speak at a military seminar. {5}

For many years, and in many ways, the United States has worked with and helped such terrorists in numerous countries. Washington has taught them how to bomb, how to torture, how to assassinate, even provided them with terrorism manuals. {6}

One commonly accepted definition of terrorism is: Violence directed against civilians in order to intimidate or coerce a government or its citizens in furtherance of a political objective. The 40,000 American bombing sorties of the Gulf War and those since have claimed the lives of many thousands of Iraqi civilians in an attempt to influence the government of Saddam Hussein or induce his overthrow. Likewise the American bombings of civilians in Panama, Libya and Grenada in the 1980s directed against those governments.

Imagine that the cold war is still going on, and the Soviet Union, citing some very minor pretext, filled the skies with bombers over, say, Greece, bombing the civilian population, killing hundreds or thousands, making thousands more homeless ... without having been first attacked by Greece, or threatened in any way by Greece. If this, at the time, had been called an act of terrorism, who would have objected? Well, the scenario I just described is exactly what the United States did to Panama in 1989 .{7}

The difference between an individual terrorist and a government in some cases may be simply that the former has a bomb but doesn't have an air force. And many more examples of acts of terrorism by the U.S. government can be cited, even the more classic kind -- in 1985, in an attempt to assassinate a certain Muslim leader in Lebanon, the CIA arranged for a car bomb to go off. The bomb went off, and killed 80 people, but not including the Muslim leader.

This is part of an article by William Blum, and can be found on the Propagandhi Official Website

The U.S.A and Terrorism one and the same
Next on your imagination list is terrorism. Now, surely American leaders are against terrorism -- categorically, no ifs or buts, no exceptions. ... Of course they're not.

In 1998, the State Department issued a report listing Cuba amongst those nations alleged to "sponsor terrorism". Curious about this, I called up the State Department and was connected to what they called "The Terrorism Desk", where a man told me that Cuba was included because "They harbor terrorists."

"So does the United States," I replied. "The Cuban exiles in Miami have committed hundreds of terrorist acts, in the U.S. and abroad."

The gentleman exploded. "Sir," he cried in a rising voice, "that is a fatuous remark and I will not listen to such nonsense!" And he hung up.

It's always fascinating to observe how a True Believer reacts to a sudden, unexpected and unanswerable threat to his fundamental ideological underpinnings.

The Cuban exiles are in fact probably the longest lasting and most prolific terrorist group in the world, and they're still at it. In the past year or so they've been busy bombing hotels in Havana, all directed from Miami. {3}

Cubans are not the only terrorists enjoying safe haven in the United States. There are Haitians, Salvadoreans, Guatemalans, Indonesians, and others guilty of terrible crimes against humanity, walking around free as can be in the United States. They were, and perhaps still are, allies of U.S. foreign policy objectives. {4}

Take the example of Former Guatemalan Defense Minister Hector Gramajo. In 1995 a U.S. court ordered Gramajo to pay $47.5 million in damages to eight Guatemalans and a U.S. citizen for his responsibility in the torture of the American and the massacre of family members of the Guatemalans (among thousands of other Indians whose death he was responsible for). Gramajo was served a court summons in 1991 as he graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he had studied on a scholarship provided by the U.S. government. The judge stated that "The evidence suggests that Gramajo devised and directed the implementation of an indiscriminate campaign of terror against civilians." It was only following the court judgement that the Defense Department withdrew Gramajo's invitation to speak at a military seminar. {5}

For many years, and in many ways, the United States has worked with and helped such terrorists in numerous countries. Washington has taught them how to bomb, how to torture, how to assassinate, even provided them with terrorism manuals. {6}

One commonly accepted definition of terrorism is: Violence directed against civilians in order to intimidate or coerce a government or its citizens in furtherance of a political objective. The 40,000 American bombing sorties of the Gulf War and those since have claimed the lives of many thousands of Iraqi civilians in an attempt to influence the government of Saddam Hussein or induce his overthrow. Likewise the American bombings of civilians in Panama, Libya and Grenada in the 1980s directed against those governments.

Imagine that the cold war is still going on, and the Soviet Union, citing some very minor pretext, filled the skies with bombers over, say, Greece, bombing the civilian population, killing hundreds or thousands, making thousands more homeless ... without having been first attacked by Greece, or threatened in any way by Greece. If this, at the time, had been called an act of terrorism, who would have objected? Well, the scenario I just described is exactly what the United States did to Panama in 1989 .{7}

The difference between an individual terrorist and a government in some cases may be simply that the former has a bomb but doesn't have an air force. And many more examples of acts of terrorism by the U.S. government can be cited, even the more classic kind -- in 1985, in an attempt to assassinate a certain Muslim leader in Lebanon, the CIA arranged for a car bomb to go off. The bomb went off, and killed 80 people, but not including the Muslim leader.

This is part of an article by William Blum, and can be found on the Propagandhi Official Website