CIA’s many crimes 8/28/2021

 

28, August 2021                            CIA’s many crimes

The CIA and America has lots of blood on its hands. There is virtually no oversight into CIA’s  clandestine activities and it enjoys an unlimited “black box” budget. It was created by Harry Truman in 1947. Their mandate was to collect information about foreign threats.  However, within months, the CIA abandoned this policy and begin target assassinations undermining and orchestrating coups to depose democratically elected governments. Two examples of its many crimes: They armed Saddam Hussein’s military during the Iran-Iraq war, allowing him to brutally crush internal opposition. Only 15 years earlier, America had supported Saddam's use of chemical weapons against the Iranians, and blocked countless UN resolutions that were intended to condemn their use.

In 1953, a CIA coup overthrew the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he made plans to nationalize the oil industry. The CIA coordinated its activities with the British spy agency,  MI6. The British took possession of Iran’s oil and named it BP. The Shah was installed as dictator. His rule was so oppressive and violent that it precipitated the Iranian revolution in 1979. More recently the CIA funded war lords in Afghanistan creating intense hostility towards the US and precipitated its hasty exit.  Finally, there has never been an investigation into the monumental intelligence failure of non-existent Iraqi WMD’s.  

Kudos to Ben & Jerry 8/11/2021

 

11, August 2021                       Kudos to Ben & Jerry

Kudos to Ben and  Jerry for banning the sale of their ice-cream in Israel’s occupied West Bank. This should bring world-wide attention to the appalling treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories. It is a pity they did not go further and ban their ice-cream from the whole of Israel. We should not reward Israel’s apartheid system with dollops of their cool delicious ice-cream.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and like-minded critics use the common Israeli refrain that such actions are dubbed “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Israel.” I would suggest such critics study their own scriptures. George Orwell famously opined that “political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” The belief that Jews should not criticize Israeli policies is reminiscent of Americans chanting “My country, right or wrong!” during the Vietnam War.

Judaism  does not condone the inhumane treatment of non-Jews. Palestinians were killed in large numbers and  driven off their land in much the same way that Native Americans suffered genocide.   Israel’s leaders today defend an inhumane  policy of subjugation and oppression of Palestinians, of denial of democratic rights to self-determination and equality by wholesale delegitimization of critics and those who refuse to be complicit in their offenses to justice and human rights.Ben and Jerry should have gone much further and vigorously supported the BDS movement. Israel’s apartheid system parallels the apartheid system of  white South Africa. It is excessively cruel to promote a separate Palestinian state when Israel has illegally confiscated the available land with illegal settlements.

 

Israeli militants demand blood money 8/5/2021

 

5, August 2021                    Israeli militants demand blood money

In another shocking example of rubber stamping the wishes of militant settlers and intensifying the war crime of ethnic cleansing, the Israeli Supreme Court  offered Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah a “compromise” in their ongoing fight to block Jewish settlers from forcibly evicting them from their own homes. The high court proposed that Palestinian families could stay in their homes for now if they begin paying rent to the Jewish settler oppressor  groups that claim ownership over the properties — a deal the families rejected, insisting they are the legal owners. The planned evictions in East Jerusalem helped spark the last war in Gaza in May and have galvanized international support for Palestinians facing dispossession from settler groups and the State.

More and more American Jews are outraged over increased militancy of settlers and the inexplicable silence of the Biden administration. As a practicing Catholic , President Biden and  the Pope, should condemn these clear violations of human rights. Palestinians have lived on their properties decades before they were forced off their land by Jewish terror groups, the , Hagenah, the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang.

Biden breaks Cuba campaign promise 8-2-2021

 

2, August  2021                          Biden breaks Cuba campaign promise

 America has always been very selective in their outrage. We reward Saudi Arabia’s appalling treatment of women with lucrative defense contracts which allow them to commit unspeakable atrocities, slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians in neighboring Yemen. 

We tolerate Egypt’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators rewarding the autocrat, President Sisi   $billions each year. We trade freely with communist Vietnam because they are a source of cheap labor. We send  $billions to Israel ignoring their brutal occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid policies. We scream “bloody murder” in response to the crackdown of protesters in Cuba but remain silent on crackdowns in Colombia and Honduras. We continue the failed Trump Cuba policies of maximum pressure causing wide-spread starvation amid the devastating Covid pandemic. The Biden admiration has even continued the Trump policy of halting remittances sent by Cuban-Americans. Tens of thousands of Cubans depend on these remittances to survive. The US policy is an abomination and violates the basic tenets of all religions. The poor suffer while those in power continue their life of privilege.

It is astounding that we so critical of Cuba ignoring the history of this belligerent relationship. When the United States intervened in Cuba in 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Cuba was forced to sign the Platt Amendment granting the US neocolonial rights. Cuba was  forced to grant Guantánamo Bay in perpetuity in return for receiving full sovereign rights. The fiery Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, demanded the return of Guantánamo Bay which fanned the flames of the anti-Castro movement.

Following 9/11, Guantánamo Bay prison has been used to torture and house prisoners away from the peering eyes of Americans. The prisoners have never been charged with a crime and medieval torture methods have been used to extract confessions in complete violation of the Geneva Conventions.

 Pandering to the anti-Castro sentiments, the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Cuba’s defense minister and Interior Ministry, with President Biden warning, “This is just the beginning.” Oh. America will you ever give up  bullying smaller nations to bend to your will”? In sharp contrast Mexico became the good benevolent  nation sending ships with food and medical supplies, including syringes, oxygen tanks and masks.

Most Cuban Americans are concentrated in South Florida, and so they become a really pivotal constituency in elections.

Conservative Democrats in the House and in the Senate are urging Biden to maintain the anti-Cuba rhetoric, despite his campaign promises, for fear of losing even more ground in Florida in the 2022 midterm elections.  So, President Biden do  not claim you are a practicing Catholic if you choose political expediency over the basic rights of the Cuban people.

Biden breaks Cuba campaign promise 8/2/2021

 

2, August  2021                      Biden breaks Cuba campaign promise

 

America has always been very selective in their outrage. We reward Saudi Arabia’s appalling treatment of women with lucrative defense contracts which allow them to commit unspeakable atrocities, slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians in neighboring Yemen. 

We tolerate Egypt’s brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators rewarding the autocrat, President Sisi   $billions each year. We trade freely with communist Vietnam because they are a source of cheap labor. We send  $billions to Israel ignoring their brutal occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid policies. We scream “bloody murder” in response to the crackdown of protesters in Cuba but remain silent on crackdowns in Colombia and Honduras. We continue the failed Trump Cuba policies of maximum pressure causing wide-spread starvation amid the devastating Covid pandemic. The Biden admiration has even continued the Trump policy of halting remittances sent by Cuban-Americans. Tens of thousands of Cubans depend on these remittances to survive. The US policy is an abomination and violates the basic tenets of all religions. The poor suffer while those in power continue their life of privilege.

 

It is astounding that we so critical of Cuba ignoring the history of this belligerent relationship. When the United States intervened in Cuba in 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Cuba was forced to sign the Platt Amendment granting the US neocolonial rights. Cuba was  forced to grant Guantánamo Bay in perpetuity in return for receiving full sovereign rights. The fiery Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, demanded the return of Guantánamo Bay which fanned the flames of the anti-Castro movement.

Following 9/11, Guantánamo Bay prison has been used to torture and house prisoners away from the peering eyes of Americans. The prisoners have never been charged with a crime and medieval torture methods have been used to extract confessions in complete violation of the Geneva Conventions.

 Pandering to the anti-Castro sentiments, the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on Cuba’s defense minister and Interior Ministry, with President Biden warning, “This is just the beginning.” Oh. America will you ever give up  bullying smaller nations to bend to your will”? In sharp contrast Mexico became the good benevolent  nation sending ships with food and medical supplies, including syringes, oxygen tanks and masks.

 

Most Cuban Americans are concentrated in South Florida, and so they become a really pivotal constituency in elections.

Conservative Democrats in the House and in the Senate are urging Biden to maintain the anti-Cuba rhetoric, despite his campaign promises, for fear of losing even more ground in Florida in the 2022 midterm elections.  So, President Biden do  not claim you are a practicing Catholic if you choose political expediency over the basic rights of the Cuban people.