'Deskundigen' 56

Tegen het einde van De Cultuur van Tevredenheid waarschuwde in 1992 de befaamde econoom John Kenneth Galbraith de Amerikaanse plutocraten voor

de diepgewortelde neiging van de economie tot zelfvernietiging. De nare gevolgen – niet in de laatste plaats voor de betrokkenen – van de geweldige speculatiehausse (dikwijls ontaard in diefstal) van de jaren tachtig zijn overduidelijk. Tijdig en verantwoord regulerend ingrijpen had dit kunnen voorkomen. Als de buitensporige speculatie door de spaar- en leeninstellingen en de algemene banken door nauwgezette regulering was voorkomen – wat zowel uitvoerbaar als mogelijk was --, zou het later niet nodig zijn geweest gigantische, oneindig veel duurdere maatregelen te nemen om deze intstellingen te redden… De fusie- en overname rage van de jaren tachtig had in een pril stadium kunnen worden onderbroken door wetgeving die hoorzittingen en een wachttermijn verplicht stelde om de deugdelijkheid te beoordelen van ieder geval waarin eigen vermogen op grote schaal werd vervangen door schuld… Het remmende effect dat de schulden en rentebetalingen voor tal van ondernemingen hebben gehad op de investeringen en de produktie, en de vele roemruchte faillisementen, zouden zo tegen geringe kosten zijn voorkomen.

Dit schreef hij 16 jaar voordat de kredietcrisis van 2008 alleen al in de VS de belastingbetalers een biljoen, een miljoen maal een miljoen, dollar kostte om de bankwereld overeind te houden. Desondanks duwde het failliete systeem van speculeren met niet bestaand geld de echte economie de afgrond in en heeft het miljoenen Amerikanen in armoede gestort. Sindsdien weigerent de Amerikaanse plutocraten en dus hun politici deze luchthandel aan banden wilden leggen. Daarin worden ze gesteund door hun opiniemakers die als verklaring voor deze  omvangrijke zwendel gaven dat het geld ‘verdampt’ was, zonder erbij te vermelden hoe een vaste stof kan ‘verdampen.’ Over de oorzaken van dit failliet heb ik het al enkele malen gehad en ik beperk me nu daarom tot de opmerking dat het kapitalisme domweg onverzadigbaar is, en dat het speculeren een facet is van de niet te vullen leegte in het hart van de neoliberale ideologie. Een leegte die net als een zwart gat in de kosmos alle energie naar zich toetrekt en verslindt. Het kapitalisme is een parasitair systeem dat zijn gastheer tenslotte vernietigd. Het neoliberalisme, de huidige vorm van het kapitalisme, kent geen verantwoordelijkheid ten aanzien van mens en natuur. Bovendien schept  het een angstig en egoistisch menstype dat zich geisoleerd voelt van de gemeenschap. Desondanks wordt dit systeem in Geert Mak’s reisboek niet structureel onderzocht. Wel meldt hij op pagina 332 het volgende:

‘Public poverty,’ publieke armoede, zo omschreef de econoom John Kenneth Galbraith dit verschijnsel in The Affluent Society (1958), Al aan het eind van de jaren vijftig zag hij de Amerikaanse samenleving steeds verder uit balans raken: de winkels puilden uit van alle luxe nieuwigheden voor privégebruik, terwijl de aandacht voor alles wat behoort tpot het publieke domein zichtbaar afnam.

Maar net als bij het fenomeen obesitas geeft Geert Mak ook hier geen verklaring voor dit interessante en ingrijpende verschijnsel. In plaats van naar oorzaken te zoeken die het irrationele gedrag in een breder perspectief zet, stapt hij moeiteloos over op het volgende:

Volgens de meeste economen komt een land vroeg of laat in de problemen wanneer de staatsschuld stijgt boven de 90 procent van het bruto nationaal product.

Die staatsschuld is evenwel niet ontstaan door ‘public poverty.’ Ook niet door de lonen die sinds het midden van de jaren zeventig bevroren werden, en eveneens niet door grote infrastructurele projecten. Wel door de onder andere de wapenwedloop en het financieren van het ontzagwekkende militair industrieel complex, maar die koppeling maakt Mak niet. Net als bijna alle Nederlandse opiniemakers overziet hij het geheel niet, heeft geen flauw benul van hoe realpolitiek en neoliberalisme precies werken, en zit Mak vol dromen en verlangt naar ‘hoop.’ Net als zijn collega’s in de massamedia komt hij niet verder dan de buitenkant, bij hen is er altijd een happy end, een oplossing. In De Cultuur van Tevredenheid eindigt Galbraith met een Requiem, waarin hij opmerkt:

Dit soort boeken loopt gewoonlijk goed af. Zodra duidelijk is waar de fout zit, worden de corrigerende krachten van de democratie in stelling gebracht. Misschien zou dat ook nu gebeuren als wij te maken hadden met een echte democratie, een die de belangen en de stemmen van alle burgers omvat. Dan zou de groep die nu buiten de tevreden meerderheid valt voor haar eigen belangen opkomen – of, juister gezegd, voor die belangen in het geweer kunnen worden gebracht -, waarmee ook de belangen en de veiligheid van de gemeenschap in ruimere zin gediend zouden zijn. Maar wij spreken hier helaas pver de democratie van hen die het minst aandrang voelen om misstanden te corrigeren, een systeem dat via kortstondige welstand de mensen maximaal afschermt van wat er verkeerd zou kunnen gaan. Er is hier alle reden tot droefenis – tot een slechte afloop.

Desondanks concludeerde zelfs na de kredietcrisis van 2008 en het begin van diepe economische crisis de Amerikaanse sociaal wetenschapper Les Leopold aan het slot van zijn boek The Looting of America. How Wall Street’s Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity:

The financial sector, when measured by its overall impact on our economic world, produces systematic instability and runs inefficiently when structured as a small set of for-profit enterprises that are too big to fail. At the very least we need some sort of way to protect ourselves from the crises that even Alan Greenspan has ‘no doubt’ will occur again… our children and grandchildren deserve better than the very least we can do. Let’s hope we won’t throw away much of our children’s inheritance because we did not have the courage to do the obvious: Take over the failing major banks, drastically trim their astronomical salaries, control their hazardous financial engineering, and run the damn things for the good of us all.

Allemaal vergeefse adviezen om de simpele reden dat wij hier niet te maken hebben met slechts een economisch en politiek probleem, maar allereerst met een diep cultureel probleem, met het onverzadigbare expansionisme van het kapitalisme, dat 500 jaar geleden begon met de zogeheten ‘ontdekking’ van Amerika. Die ‘ontdekking’ leidde tegelijkertijd de degradatie in van de ander, ‘de wilde, de zwarte, de primitieve mens’ die tot slaaf werd gemaakt van de Europese economnische belangen, een systeem dat tot de dag van vandaag doorgaat. In 2004 beschreef de Amerikaan auteur  John Perkins de huidige uitbuiting als volgt in Confessions Of An Economic Hitman. The shocking inside story of how America REALLY took over the world:

Economic hit men are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and foreign ‘aid’ organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during thjis time of globalization. I should know; I was an Economic Hit Man.

Daar heeft het Westen flink van geprofiteerd, ook de gewone burger, aldus Perkins die jarenlang werkte ‘for an international consulting firm that worked to convince poorer countries to accept enormous development loans – and to make sure that such projects were contracted to U.S. companies. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the Amnerican government would request their “pound of flesh” in favours, including access to natural resources, military cooperation and political support.’ Hij schrijft:

The income ratio of the one-fifth of the world’s population in the wealthiest countries to the one-fifth in the poorest went form 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1995.

Al vanaf de Renaissance verloopt dit process niet altijd even soepel. Over de economic hit men schrijft Perkins:

if we fail, an even more sinister breed steps in, ones we economic hit men refer to as jackals, men who trace their heritage directly to… earlier empires. The jackals are always there, lurking in the shadows. When they emerge, heads of state are overthrown or die in violent ‘accidents.’ And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.

Perkins geeft hiervan voorbeelden die hij van nabij heeft meegemaakt en concludeert op pagina 205 dat

We decry slavery, but our global empire enslaves more people than the Romans and all the other colonial powers before us… Things are not as they appear. NBC is owned by General Electric, ABC by Disney, CBS by Viacom, and CNN is part of the huge AOL Time Warner conglomerate. Most of our newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses are owned – and manipulated – by gigantic international corporations. Our media is part of the corporatocracy. The officers and directors who control nearly all our communications outlets know their places; they are taught throughout life that one of their most important jobs is to perpetuate, strengthen, and expand the system they have inherited.

Eerder al schreef de Franse surrealist André Breton:

If slave traders have physically disappeared from the world stage, their vile spirit is undoubtedly still at work.

American flags streamed recently above the main street of Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. One of the world’s newest countries, Kosovo separated from Serbia, with the support of the United States.

Ik geef een willekeurig voorbeeld hoe de intellectuele corruptie, die het onrecht legitimeert,  in de praktijk werkt. Gisteren, woensdag 12 december 2012, opende de International Herald Tribune, The Global Edition of the New York Times, op de voorpagina met een 4 kolommen brede kop ‘Back in Kosovo, for business’ daaronder een foto van een straat in de Kosovaarse hoofdstad Pristina met alleen maar Amerikaanse vlaggen. De lezer wordt medegedeeld dat

Admired for roles in war, ex-U.S. officials return to seek lucrative contracts. The prime minister is in a bind. His country’s largest and most lucrative enterprise, the state telecom, is up for sale… One bid is from a fund founded by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright. Lobbying for another was James W, Pardew, the U.S. special envoy to the Balkans in Bill Clinton’s presidency. Both are among the Americans who hold the status of heroes for their roles in the 1999 war that separated one of the world’s newest states… so many former U.S. officials have returned to Kosovo for business – in coal and telecommunications, or for lobbying and other lucrative government contracts – it is hard to keep them from colliding. The list reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of recent American diplomatic history in the region. It also includes Wesley K. Clark, the former supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe who ran the 78-day bombing campaign against the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic… Kosovo is not the only nation where former officials have returned to conduct business – Iraq is another prominent example – but it presents an extreme case, and perhaps a special ethical quandary, given the outsize American influence here. Pristina, the capital, may be the only city in the world where a Bob Dole Street intersects Bill Clinton Boulevard. Experts in foreign policy say the practice of former officials returning for business is more common than acknowledged publicly. Privately, former officials concede the possibility for conflicts of interest and even the potential to influence American foreign policy, as diplomats who traditionally spent careers in public service are rotating more frequently to lucrative jobs in the private sector.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/12/world/europe/americans-who-helped-free-kosovo-return-as-entrepreneurs.html?pagewanted=all

Hier komen de belangrijkste elementen bij elkaar. Het militair industrieel complex, democratische politici, commerciele pers, en de corruptie. Laten we eerst generaal Wesley Clark nemen, de voormalige opperbevelhebber van de NAVO Strijdkrachten in Europa, die ten tijde van het NAVO-geweld in Kosovo bereid was een Derde Wereldoorlog uit te lokken:

One of Clark's most debated decisions during his SACEUR command was his attempted operation to attack Russian troops at Pristina International Airport immediately after the end of the Kosovo War. A joint NATO-Russia peacekeeping operation was supposed to police Kosovo. Russia wanted their peacekeeping force to operate independent of NATO, but NATO refused. British forces were supposed to occupy Pristina International Airport, but a contingent of Russian troops arrived before they did and took control of the airport. Clark called then-Secretary General of NATO Javier Solana, and was told ‘you have transfer of authority’ in the area. General Clark then issued an order for the NATO troops to attack and ‘overpower’ the armed Russian troops, but Captain Blount leading the British troops questioned this order, [81] and was supported in this decision by the British commander of the Kosovo Force, General Mike Jackson, who refused to sanction the attack, reportedly saying ‘I'm not going to start the Third World War for you.’ [82][83]      

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark

Eenmaal uit het leger Clark ‘went on Meet the Press in June 2003 and said he was ‘seriously consider[ing]’ running for president,’ maar trok zich later terug omdat hij vreesde geen kans te maken. In 2011 liet hij opnieuw van zich horen toen hij verklaarde dat de regering van Bush junior al voorafgaand aan de aanslagen in 2001 van plan was om de Amerikaanse strijdkrachten zeven landen aan te laten vallen.

Wars Were Planned - Seven Countries In Five Years Because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, ‘Sir, you've got to come in and talk to me a second.’ I said, ‘Well, you're too busy.’ He said, ‘No, no.’ He says, ‘We've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq.’ This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, ‘We're going to war with Iraq? Why?’ He said, ‘I don't know.’ He said, ‘I guess they don't know what else to do.’ So I said, ‘Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?’ He said, ‘No, no.’ He says, ‘There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.’ He said, ‘I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments.’ And he said, ‘I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.’

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, ‘Are we still going to war with Iraq?’ And he said, ‘Oh, it's worse than that.’ He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, ‘I just got this down from upstairs’ -- meaning the Secretary of Defense's office – ‘today.’ And he said, ‘This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.’ I said, ‘Is it classified?’ He said, ‘Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don't show it to me.’ And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, ‘You remember that?’ He said, ‘Sir, I didn't show you that memo! I didn't show it to you!’ http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.nl/2012/11/western-terrorism-21.html

Maar omdat de oorlog in Irak niet verliep zoals de Amerikaanse autoriteiten verwacht hadden, liet de Bush-regering de andere zes oorlogen vallen. Voor hoe lang is niet duidelijk, aangezien ook de Obama-regering Iran onder druk blijft zetten. Duidelijk in elk geval dat achter de schermen de Amerikaanse elite in het grootste geheim oorlogen voorbereid, en het publiek dit pas verneemt wanneer een betrokkene buiten dienst is en zelf een politieke agenda heeft. Nu het geval Madeleine Albright, die:

On May 12, 1996… defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a 60 Minutes segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her ‘We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?’ and Albright replied ‘we think the price is worth it.’

Madeleine Albright - 60 Minutes - YouTube

► 0:23► 0:23

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4

Jun 28, 2008 - Uploaded by groenhagen

Albright makes statement that ultimately led to 9/11.

Nadat deze moeder en grootmoeder, die de genocidale politiek had verdedigd, weer gewoon burger was geworden, begon ze voor zichzelf en verdient nu veel geld in landen waarvan de infrastructuur door haar toedoen is vernietigd en weer moeten worden opgebouwd. Leest u even mee hoe een Amerikaanse oorlogsmisdadigster gelauwerd wordt voor en rijk wordt aan de door haar veroorzaakte verwoestingen:

In 2001, Albright was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[69] The same year, she founded the Albright Group, an international strategy consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.[70] It has Coca-Cola, Merck, Dubai Ports World, and Marsh & McLennan Companies among its clients, who benefit from the access that Albright has through her global contacts.[71][72] Affiliated with the firm is Albright Capital Management, which was founded in 2005 to engage in private fund management related to emerging markets.[72]

Albright currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations Board of directors and on the International Advisory Committee of the Brookings Doha Center.[73] She is also currently the Mortara Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C..

In 2003, she accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, Albright declined to run for re-election to the board in the aftermath of the Richard Grasso compensation scandal, in which Grasso, the chairman of the NYSE Board of Directors, had been granted $187.5 million in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat. During the tenure of the interim chairman, John S. Reed, Albright served as chairwoman of the NYSE board's nominating and governance committee. Shortly after the appointment of the NYSE board's permanent chairman in 2005, Albright submitted her resignation. [74]

On October 25, 2005, Albright guest starred on the television drama Gilmore Girls as herself.[75]

On January 5, 2006, she participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss U.S. foreign policy with George W. Bush administration officials. On May 5, 2006, she was again invited to the White House to meet with former Secretaries and Bush administration officials to discuss Iraq.

Albright currently serves as chairperson of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation. She is also the co-chair of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor and held the Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders Women's Ministerial Initiative up until November 16, 2007, succeeded by Margot Wallström.

In an interview given to Newsweek International published July 24, 2006, Albright gave her opinion on current U.S. foreign policy. Albright said: ‘I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that Iraq is going to turn out to be the greatest disaster in American foreign policy – worse than Vietnam.’ [76]

In September 2006, she received the Menschen in Europa Award, with Václav Havel, for furthering the cause of international understanding. [77]

Albright has mentioned her physical fitness and exercise regimen in several interviews. She has said she is capable of leg pressing 400 pounds. [78][79]

At the National Press Club in Washington on November 13, 2007, Albright declared that she with William Cohen would co-chair a new "Genocide Prevention Task Force"[80] created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute for Peace. Their appointment was criticized by Harut Sassounian[81] and the Armenian National Committee of America. [82]

On May 13, 2007, two days before her 70th birthday, Albright received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [83]

Albright endorsed and supported Hillary Clinton in her 2008 campaign for U.S. President. Albright has been a close friend of Clinton and serves as her top informal advisor on foreign policy matters. She is currently serving as a top advisor for U.S. President Barack Obama in a working group on national security. On December 1, 2008, then-President-elect Obama nominated then-Senator Clinton for Albright's former post of Secretary of State.

In September 2009, Albright opened an exhibition of her personal jewelry collection at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, which ran until January 2010. The collection highlighted the many pins she wore while serving at the United Nations and State Department, including the famous pin showing a snake and apple she wore after the Iraqi press called her ‘an unparalleled serpent’, and several jeweled insect bugs she wore to meet the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov after it was discovered the Russian secret service had attempted to bug the State Department.[84]

In August 2012, when speaking at a Obama campaign event in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Albright was asked the question ‘How long will you blame that previous administration for all of your problems?’, to which she replied ‘Forever’. [85][86]

World Justice Project

Madeleine Albright serves as an Honorary Chair for the World Justice Project. [87] The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity. [88]

The Hague Institute for Global Justice

Madeleine Albright serves as Chair of the advisory council for The Hague Institute for Global Justice, which was founded in 2011 in The Hague. [89] […]

Hate speech incident in Prague bookstore, 2012

In late October 2012, during a book signing in the Prague bookstore Palác Knih Luxor, she was visited by a group of activists from the Czech organization ‘Přátelé Srbů na Kosovu’. She was heard saying ‘Disgusting Serbs, get out!’ to the Czech group, which had brought war photos to the signing, some of which showed Serbian victims of the Kosovo War in 1999. The protesters were expelled from the event when police arrived. Two videos of the incident were later posted by the group on their Youtube channel, the specific hate speech incident can be seen at 1:00 in one of them. [94][95]

Albright's involvement in the NATO bombing of Serbia was the main cause of the demonstration - a sensitive topic which became even more controversial when it came to light that her investment firm, Albright Stonebridge Group, was preparing to bid in the proposed privatization of Kosovo's state-owned telecom and postal company, Post and Telecom of Kosovo. In an article published by the New York-based magazine Bloomberg Businessweek, it was estimated that this deal may be as large as €600 million. Serbia stands opposed to the sale, and plans to file a lawsuit before international courts to block the sale, alleging that the rights of former Serbian employees have been not respected. [96]

Emir Kusturica has expressed thanks to Czech director Václav Dvořák for organizing and participating in the demonstration. Together with other protesters, Dvořák has also reported Madeleine Albright to the police, stating that she was spreading ethnic hatred and disrespect to victims of war. [97][98]

Het spreekt voor zich dat de Nederlandse opiniemakers die anders hun mond zo vol hebben over democratie en mensenrechten zwijgen als het graf over de Amerikaanse oorlogsmisdaden van bijvoorbeeld Albright. Sterker nog: 26 november 2012 was zij opnieuw in Nederland, niet om over haar misdaden te spreken maar om reclame te maken voor een nieuw boek waarin zij haar  eigen gecultiveerd slachtofferschap uitgebreid uit de doeken doet. De volgeboekte bijeenkomst bij het John Adams Insititute in Amsterdam werd voorgezeten door Tom-Jan Meeus, voormalig NRC-correspondent in de VS en een schoolvoorbeeld van de mainstream in de journalistiek. De avond werd als volgt aangekondigd:

Madeleine Albright

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948

26 November 2012The first female Secretary of State in United States history was born Marie Jana Korbelová in Praguein 1937. When she was two years old, her family fled the Nazi threat and escaped to England--for political reasons, she was told. Only later did she learn that she was in fact Jewish. After a stellar career as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and ultimately Secretary of State to President Bill Clinton, Albright has returned to her childhood, and the events that formed her life path and worldview: her family life under the specter of Nazism, and the creation of the postwar world. The Los Angeles Times called the book “a riveting tale.” Please join us for an evening with one of America’s most distinguished public citizens

http://www.john-adams.nl/lecture_frame.php?id=751

En ook bij de naar ‘Amerika’ zoekende Mak wordt geen woord over Albright’s oorlogsmisdaden gerept omdat dit nu eenmaal slecht voor zijn imago is. Zowel in de journalistiek, als in de politiek en bedrijfsleven wordt met het oog op carriere en inkomsten hard gezwegen over westerse misdaden. Iedereen vreet uit de ruif mee. Nog twee voorbeelden:

Samuel R. Berger is Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, which is affiliated with Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets.

Mr. Berger works across nearly all of the firm’s engagements and regions, with a strong focus on Asia, Russia and Central Asia, and the Middle East. From 1997-2001, Mr. Berger served as National Security Advisor to President Bill Clinton.

In that capacity, he drove policy across a range of issues – the fight against terrorism; Iraq; advancing the peace process in the Middle East; and building our relations with India and China, among others.

http://www.albrightstonebridge.com/team/samuel-r-berger/

Lee Hamilton is a member of the Board of Advisors of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm. Mr. Hamilton is the Director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University and most recently served as President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Previously, Mr. Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing Indiana’s ninth district, where he chaired multiple committees including the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran.

After retiring from Congress, Mr. Hamilton served as Vice-Chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States (known as the 9/11 Commission).

He has also served as a commissioner on the influential U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (the Hart-Rudman Commission), and was co-chair with former Senator Howard Baker of the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos.

http://www.albrightstonebridge.com/team/Lee-Hamilton/  

En ook de vrije westerse pers kent haarscherp de grenzen van de consensus:

Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's quote, calmly asserting that U.S. policy objectives were worth the sacrifice of half a million Arab children, has been much quoted in the Arabic press. It's also been cited in the United States in alternative commentary on the September 11 attacks (e.g., Alexander Cockburn, New York Press, 9/26/01)

maar werd in alle talen verzwegen door westerse journalisten als bijvoorbeeld Tom-Jan Meeus, over wie u hier meer kan lezen:

http://stanvanhoucke.blogspot.nl/search?q=tom-jan+meeus

Het progressieve kritische FAIR wees er daarentegen op dat

It's worth noting that on 60 Minutes, Albright made no attempt to deny the figure given by Stahl--a rough rendering of the preliminary estimate in a 1995 U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report that 567,000 Iraqi children under the age of five had died as a result of the sanctions. http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/we-think-the-price-is-worth-it/

De filosofe en onafhankelijke journaliste Felicity Arbuthnot zette alles nog eens op een rijtje toen de ‘grim reaper,’ Madeleine Albright, weer eens gehuldigd werd:

Iraq’s ‘Grim Reaper’
Madeleine Albright Gets Humanitarian Award.

By Felicity Arbuthnot

        'There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.' Madeleine Albright 

May 01, 2012 ---- As the anniversary of probably one of the most infamous responses in broadcasting history approaches, the woman who uttered it is shortly to be awarded ‘the highest honour’ that America bestows upon civilians: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Madeleine Albright, Iraq’s ‘Grim Reaper’, of course confirmed on Sixty Minutes’ (12th May 1996) that the deaths of half a million children as a result of the absolute, all-embracing deprivations of the UN embargo were: ‘A hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.’

 Her comment also further endorsed the extent to which the United Nations had soiled its own founding affirmation to: ‘Save succeeding generations from the scourge of war..’ by declaring a new method of warfare, the withdrawal and denial of all life-sustaining necessities. Albright, at the time of her astonishing statement was US Ambassador the UN (1993-1997).

Ironically, as a child she and her Czechoslovak family, her father a diplomat, lived in London during the 1939-’45 war, and whilst there she appeared in a film on the plight of children in war. 

In her autobiography, she describes how her experience and knowledge of the horrors and repercussions of war were also shaped by the terrible consequences for a small state when it collides with the ambitions of interests of a big one. Iraq’s twenty five million population and America’s three hundred and fifty million again come to mind.

She enjoined in further heaping misery on Iraq’s most vulnerable as US Secretary of State (1997-2001.) Perhaps, as many, for good or ill, she was shaped by her childhood. When her family returned to Prague after the war, controversy was caused by their being given a home owned by a wealthy German family. Germans were expelled from the country, by Prime Ministerial decree after the war.

At least it was only a house. The government she had served went on to take over - and comprehensively ruin plunder and further impoverish - two countries and their peoples.

For the annals of: ‘You Could Not Make It Up’, Ms Albright’s current positions include being Co-Chair of the United Nations Development Programme’s Commission for Legal Empowerment of the poor, which: “works to make real improvements in people’s lives (fostering) economic growth, poverty reduction, human development” and making the: ‘law work for everyone.’

In Sept 2006 she received Menschen in Europe Award for furthering the cause of international understanding. Orwell strikes again.

On 26th April, announcing the thirteen recipients of the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, President Obama commended Madeleine Albright for her efforts to bring peace to the Middle East …. Reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, and for her role as a longtime champion of democracy and human rights all over the world. (The Daily Beast, April 26)

’These extraordinary honorees (have) challenged us … inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place’, said the President.

The Medal honours those who have significantly contributed to: “world peace.”

Reading this ‘Adventures of a Heroine’ fantasy story, the memories of the Iraqi mothers I have held, their tears mingling with mine, or dampening my shoulder, as they watched helplessly as their children faded away in front of us, for want of medications, denied by Albright’s country and the UN she served, flooded back. The funerals, with the litany of coffins, so small, the impossibly little grave sites beyond counting, throughout Iraq, witness to unique wickedness.

But Madam Albright is right on one thing. There is indeed: ‘a special place in hell, for women who don’t help other women.’ Her Award may yet haunt her to become the ultimate poisoned chalice. Here’s hoping.



- Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist with special knowledge of Iraq. Author, with Nikki van der Gaag, of Baghdad in the Great City series for World Almanac books, she has also been Senior Researcher for two Award winning documentaries on Iraq, John Pilger's Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Denis Halliday Returns for RTE (Ireland.) She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31210.htm

Natuurlijk werkt deze hypocrisie alleen bij het geindoctrineerde grote publiek in het Westen, in de rest van de wereld prikt men hier dwars doorheen em groeit de woede tegen de westerse terreur. Maar zolang de westerse elite erin blijft slagen de rol van de burgers te beperken tot alleen maar ‘spectators,’ en geen ‘participants, apart from occasional choices among leaders representing authentic power,’ zal er niets veranderen en zullen Amerikaanse en Europese oorlogsmisdadigers vrij blijven rondlopen. Zolang er geen echte democratie bestaat hoeft de macht geen verantwoording af te leggen. Meer hierover morgen.