Westers Terrorisme 8

Bijna twee jaar geleden, op 9 december 2005, schreef ik dit:

'Deze foto staat op de website van Aegis Specialist Risk Management, een Brits uitzendbureau van huurlingen, volgens eigen zeggen in dienst van de Amerikaanse regering. Werknemers van deze organisatie maakten een video waarop te zien is hoe ze volstrekt willekeurige Irakese burgers beschieten. Onder die beeldopnamen heeft dit tuig muziek van Elvis Presley gezet. 'AEGIS is contracted in Iraq by the US Government to provide a wide variety of services including, critically, the protection of both civilian and military personnel travelling throughout the country, in a very hostile environment under circumstances of often great personal danger. Typically in one week, Aegis carries out over 100 escort assignments covering approximately 18,000 miles. AEGIS' personnel have substantial military and peacekeeping experience and all operate under strict and accountable Rules of Engagement of the Coalition Military (CENTCOM), and the US Department of State, as well as Coalition Provisional Authority Order - Memo 17... AEGIS's main contract in Iraq is for the US Government Department of Defence (DOD). The contract is to provide security support services to the Project and Contracting Office (PCO). The PCO is responsible for managing the reconstruction programme in conjunction with the Multi-National Force Iraq (MNFI).' http://www.aegisworld.com/index.lasso Die huurlingen worden, volgens deskundigen, speciaal ingehuurd door de Amerikaanse overheid omdat deze professionele moordenaars nauwelijks te vervolgen zijn voor oorlogsmisdaden. En ze vallen ook niet onder de verantwoordelijkheid van hun opdrachtgevers. En dus kunnen schendingen van de mensenrechten, oorlogsmisdaden en misdaden tegen de menselijkheid nu zonder al te veel problemen uitbesteed worden. De Nederlandse regering ziet hier geen reden in om de eigen troepen uit het Miden Oosten te trekken. Integendeel zelfs, het kabinet is voor het sturen van nog meer manschappen. Hoe de huurlingenterreur in haar werk gaat kunt hier zien: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAD20051201&articleId=1381

Deze Westerse terreur gaat al jaren ongestoord door, geen politicus of journalist van de commerciele massamedia verrichtte een serieus onderzoek er naar.

Maar kennelijk is de tijd aangebroken om er wat meer aandacht aan te besteden, geen serieuze gedegen aandacht die laat zien dat deze terreur gebeurt binnen de context van een koloniale oorlog om olie zoals nu ook door vooraanstaande Amerikaanse autoriteiten wordt toegegeven, maar gewoon de alledaagse aandacht, de waan van de dag, sensatie.

The Nation daarentegen besteedt er wel serieuze aandacht aan:

'Blackwater, Oil and the Colonial Enterprise

By John Nichols "The Nation"

Blackwater USA's mercenary mission in Iraq is very much in the news this week, and rightly so. The private military contractor's war-for-profit program, which has been so brilliantly exposed by Jeremy Scahill, may finally get a measure of the official scrutiny it merits as the corporation scrambles to undo the revocation by the Iraqi government of its license to operate in that country. There will be official inquiries in Baghdad, and in Washington. The U.S. Congress might actually provide some of the oversight that is its responsibility. Perhaps, and this is a big "perhaps," Blackwater's "troops" could come home before the U.S. soldiers who have been forced to fight, and die, in defense of these international rent-a-cops.But it is not the specific story of Blackwater that matters so much as the broader story of imperial excess that it illustrates.If Blackwater, with an assist from the U.S. government, beats back the attempt by the Iraqis to regulate the firm's activities -- as now appears likely, considering Friday's reports that the firm has resumed guarding U.S. State Department convoys in Baghdad -- we will have all the confirmation that is needed of the great truth of the U.S. occupation of Iraq: This is a colonial endeavor no different than that of the British Empire against America's founding generation revolted.But even if Blackwater loses its fight to stay, even if the corporation is forced to shut down its multi-billion dollar, U.S. Treasury-funded operation in Iraq, the brief "accountability moment" may not be sufficient to open up the necessary debate about Iraq's colonial status. The danger, for Iraq and the United States, that honest assessment of the crisis will lose out to face-saving gestures designed to foster the fantasy of Iraqi independence.It is not enough that Blackwater is shamed and perhaps sanctioned. A Blackwater exit from Iraq will mean little if its mercenary contracts are merely taken over by one or more of the 140 other U.S.-sanctioned private security firms operating in that country -- such as Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton.Whatever the precise play out of this Blackwater moment may be, the likelihood is that the colonial enterprise will continue. That's because, in the absence of intense pressure from grassroots activists and the media, Congress is unlikely to go beyond a scratch at the surface of what is actually going on in Iraq.'

Les verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18436.htm