Obama’s latest sideshow - ‘new security measures’

If Ronald Reagan was a B-grade actor playing the role of President, Barack Obama looks every day more like the side-show clown with open grinning mouth into which you put money, and it’s balls drop. Only it seems Obama’s have dropped right off.

This is the man who promised a new direction in US foreign policy, who promised to review the relationship with Cuba, who promised to restore the US’s international reputation regarding human rights. What has he done so far, but bow obsequiously to the bush hawks running his State Department, Clinton-claws and all, only to dangle grinning inanely from their strings, his promises as empty as the space between his legs Look at the evidence.

First up, the only new direction in US foreign policy has been to extend their military sights to include Latin America. To open several new bases in Colombia; to use their existing base in Honduras to assist the removal of the legitimate constitutional president of that country, Manuel Zelaya; to use their existing base in Curacao to send military aircraft into Venezuelan airspace in provocations so similar to Brothers to the Rescue over Cuba that one wonders if Jorge Mas Canosa has risen again, like some rabid capitalist anti-Christ.

Maybe Obama needs a bit of rest and RECE[i] to get his head around this terrorism stuff before he too is swept away by a JM/WAVE and wakes up On the Beach.[ii] Take his latest lunacy – the ‘additional security control measures’ designed to piss off the entire Muslim world, and most of the rest of us to boot. Body searches indeed!

Are we seriously meant to believe that where other countries can install x-ray machines and other less intrusive methods of establishing whether someone is carrying explosives or dangerous weaponry onto an airplane, the best the US can manage is a grope-fest, and a blatantly discriminatory one at that? What sad-sack paraphile in Homeland Security came up with THAT? Arbitrarily rooting through peoples’ handbags and sticking your fingers up their bums and vaginas without their consent is no way to make friends and influence people – in fact, in most countries it is a crime.

At the very least, such a race-based and invasive policy breaches several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:[iii]
Article 2 - entitlement to all rights without distinction such as race or national origin;
Article 3 - the right to security of the person;
Article 5 – the right not to be subjected to degrading treatment;
Article 7 – the right to protection against discrimination; and most importantly
Article 28 - “Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.”

It is not for the United States to make unilateral decisions on who are and aren’t terrorists, but for the United Nations through the appropriate organs – they have a Security Council after all, which makes designations, consolidates and updates them, and monitors implementation of sanctions[iv] using a multilateral process[v]. While the US is not the only country to have its own list, a quick comparison of the UN list with that of the US reveals what can only be called an extraordinary – and clearly discriminatory - over-reaction on the part of the US. The United Nations lists only "Usama Bin Laden, members of the Al-Qaida organization and the Taliban and other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with them," while the US list dispenses with mere organisations and instead lists entire countries (Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Sudan), and for good measure chucks in an additional 10 of interest – and anyone passing through them.[vi] Talk about arbitrary!

No wonder so many recipients of such treatment by the US get a trifle tetchy. As Stephen Zunes pointed out almost a decade ago, “The tactics of terrorists can never be justified. But the most effective weapons in the war against terrorism are measures that lessen the likelihood for the U.S. and its citizens to become targets. This means changing policies that victimize vulnerable populations.”[vii]

As an example of a positive policy change under Obama, these additional security control measures are about as convincing as is the inclusion of Cuba in the list of State sponsors of terrorism, and equally useless in guaranteeing an improvement in relations between the US and the rest of the world, including Cuba. No other country or organisation has Cuba on their list – not the UN, not the European Union, not the United Kingdom. Numerous people from both outside and within the US have been calling for years for Cuba’s removal from the US list, including Four-Star Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (ret) in June last year.[viii]

When pressed, the Obama administration justified Cuba’s presence on their Reagan-initiated terrorist list by claiming that "the Cuban government continues to provide safe harbour for various terrorists" that "members of the ETA, FARC, and the ELN remained in Cuba in 2008" and that "it continues to allow U.S. fugitives to live legally in Cuba."

If Nelson Mandela had made it to Havana instead of Robben Island, would Obama have accused Cuba of allowing South African “fugitives to live legally in Cuba"? How come he welcomes Mandela with open arms, yet condemns as a terrorist, a black woman civil rights activist fighting a similar battle in the US at a similar time? Is Obama sexist, in addition to everything else? Does this first black president of the United States really believe he would be in the position he holds today without the activism of thousands, nay millions of people like Joanne Chesimard aka Assatur Shakur[ix] and Nelson Mandela, himself a past leader of what, like the Black Panthers, was once an armed resistance organisation? Do I detect a faint whiff of self-serving hypocrisy?

Does it not become an overpowering stench when you consider the number of known terrorists living ‘legally’, and outside of any prison, in the United States – Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles for example[x] - especially when you compare their freedom with the situation of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters occupying US prison cells for trying to thwart the terrorist activities of these two members of CANF (the Cuban American National Foundation), and others like them?[xi] Obama inhabits a very fragile glass house indeed.

As for “members of the ETA, FARC, and the ELN” remaining in Cuba – what’s the problem? He should be pleased they have remained in Cuba, where they can cause no harm!! The presence in Cuba of a few ETA exiles resulted from a request by other governments who didn’t want them in their countries, and the exiles are presumably smart enough to behave themselves and stick around, because they know that if they leave Cuba they will not be permitted to return. They never were and never will be a threat to the US, their beef being with Spain, and like Assatur Shakur they have been in Cuba for over 20 years without incident. The Spanish Government has no concerns about them, so why should Obama worry his pretty little head about things that don’t concern him?

Re the FARC and ELN, facilitating dialogue and hosting peace negotiations along with a group of other friendly countries - at the request of the Colombian Government and the organisations named – should attract commendation, not censure. It is certainly far more than the Nobel Prize-winning Obama has ever done for peace.

So where does his paranoid Cuba policy come from?

Before his death, Mas Canosa controlled CANF, described as “the single most effective legislative leveraging force in Washington.” Over a decade ago, after speaking with State Department insiders, nationally syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer wrote "State Department officials admit that Mr. Mas' Foundation...has been responsible for the fact that the United States has basically formulated no policy of its own toward Cuba because of fear of the Foundation's tactics.... To say that U.S. policy on Cuba at this crucial moment -- when the next and defining stage of Cuban history is being formed - is thus being run by a bunch of nuts and ambitious egomaniacs is not too far from the truth."

So what’s new? Mas Canosa’s machinations in ’92 pitted presidential hopeful Bill Clinton against Bush Snr and saw the President go against his State Department over the Torricelli Bill, using an Executive Order to get Mas’ desired policy through. At the time, a State Department official admitted off the record to a Miami Herald reporter, "We're bending over on this and taking it."

Obama is right about one thing – there has been a change. Negroponte, another Reagan-era mate with VERY strong links to both the CIA and the State Department[xii] has picked up where Mas Canosa left off, leaving Ms Geyer´s comments as pertinent today as they were a decade ago. It is now the President bending over and taking it – or perhaps he’s just looking for his lost balls.

Until he finds them and comes up with some Executive Orders of his own, US foreign policy will be doomed to remain as morally and rationally bereft as it ever was, and Cuban policy even more so. Likewise, US failure to observe human rights and international law, and its abject hypocrisy in its response to international terrorism will ensure the continuance of their well-deserved international reputation as the biggest single threat to world peace, justice, and freedom.

Notes:

[i] RECE - Representatión Cubana en El Exilio. Ostensibly, RECE was backed by Bacardi Rum magnate Jose M. Bosch, but files later reviewed by congressional investigators reveal it was CIA supported. An early FBI report lists its leaders as Jorge Mas Canosa and Ernesto Freyre. An FBI memo reveals how Mas Canosa once delivered $5000 to Luis Posada, also on the CIA payroll. The money was to cover expenses in blowing up a Cuban ship in Mexico's Vera Cruz harbor. (from Jorge who? By Gaeton Fonzi)

[ii] JM/WAVE (also known as “the Kennedy Vendetta”) was a CIA station in Miami headed by Theodore G. Shackley (who later rose to Deputy Director of ‘Operations’ aka ‘Dirty Tricks’). It was founded following the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. President Kennedy was equally furious at both Fidel Castro, for repeatedly rubbing his nose in the debacle, and at the CIA, for botching it. Kennedy was determined to get even, and sent his brother Robert to take direct charge of the Agency and organize a prolonged clandestine guerilla war against Castro. Miami's JM/WAVE station became the largest CIA operation outside of Langley. More than $100 million a year went into logistics, weapons, boats, planes, and secret training camps in the Florida Keys and the Everglades. Nightly raids were made into Cuba, destroying or disrupting railroads, oil refineries, sugar mills and other facilities. JM/WAVE's secret war was so successful it eventually produced the Cuban Missile Crisis. That led Kennedy to a personal awakening, a sudden realization that he had brought the world to the brink of a nuclear holocaust.

He made a deal with Khruschev that included ending the secret war and closing down the CIA's exile operations. When the guerilla raids didn't stop on his command, Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard to raid and shut the secret training camps. After Kennedy's assassination, the Agency and the Cuban exiles renewed their military operations against Castro. Although not on as large a scale, they continued until the late Sixties, creating a legacy of alliances between the Cuban exiles and the CIA that endured over the years in other areas of Agency activities, from Vietnam to Chile, Angola, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Some became involved in terrorist blackmailing, political bombings and narcotics trafficking. Others popped up in Watergate and in other congressional investigations. The alliances also emerged in business networking, deals between men who had mutual interests and fidelities. (from Jorge who? By Gaeton Fonzi)

[iii] Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person.
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 7
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

[iv] "Designation" on seperate lists under UN Security Council Resolutions 1267, 15 October 1999 (Taliban) and 1333,19 December 2000 (Al-Qaida). SC Resolution 1390 (16 January 2002) consolidates the lists and provides for updates by Security Council Committee.

SC Resolution 1455 (17 January 2003) provides for monitoring of implementation by the 'Sanctions Committee' established under SC Resolution 1363 (30 July 2001).

[v] List agreed by the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1267 which comprises one representative from each state in the Security Council.
The Committee reaches decisions "by consensus". If consensus cannot be reached on a particular issue, the Chairman organises "further consultations" to "facilitate agreement". If after these consultations consensus still cannot be reached, "the matter may be submitted to the Security Council". "Given the specific nature of the information, the Chairman may encourage bilateral exchanges between interested Member States in order to clarify the issue prior to a decision".
"Where the Committee agrees" decisions may be taken by "written procedure". This means that proposed decisions are simply circulated to the Committee member and adopted if no-one objects within 2 working days ("or in urgent situations, such shorter period as the Chairman shall determine").

[vi] Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen

[vii] Stephen Zunes http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol3/v3n38terr.html

[viii] McCaffrey, now Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at West Point, has served as SouthCom Commander in charge of U.S. forces in Latin America and also was U.S. National Drug Policy Director. In June 2009 in an Op Ed in the Miami Herald he said, "In my judgment, Congress and the administration should move to:
-- Remove Cuba from the State Department list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
-- Repeal enforcement of the outmoded Helms-Burton legislation.
-- End the economic embargo.
-- End U.S. restrictions on travel by American citizens.
-- Close the detention facility at Guantanamo and return the base to Cuban sovereignty. The place has become an international embarrassment to us.
-- End the 'Wet Foot/Dry Foot immigration policy' and treat illegal immigrants from Cuba as we do those from Mexico or any other country.
-- Formalize coordination on anti-drug trafficking matters.
-- Provide significantly increased funds to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
-- End U.S. opposition to Cuban participation in Western Hemisphere multilateral agreements.”

[ix] Assatur Shakur, ex-Black Panther, continues to protest her innocence in the killing of a state trooper in New Jersey in the ‘70’s, and she has neither planned nor committed even one violent act in the 30 odd years since she fled the US and sought refuge in Cuba.

[x] The Boston Globe once editorialized Bosch as being "...in a class with terrorists such as Abu Nidal." A CIA report has tied Bosch to more than 90 terrorist acts between 1968 and 1980 - bombings, kidnappings, assassinations - both in the US and abroad. Bosch walked free in July 1990, after President Bush Snr ordered his release, against the advice of Justice Department officials and the FBI. One retired FBI agent was so incensed he wrote a letter to Secretary of State George Schultz describing Bosch as "Miami's number one terrorist." When Bosch was released, The New York Times wrote a scathing editorial concluding: "In the name of fighting terrorism, the United States sent the Air Force to bomb Libya and the Army to invade Panama. Yet now the Bush Administration coddles one of the hemisphere's most notorious terrorists."

Two events in Bosch's career illustrate the “covert brotherhood of CIA-trained exiles who, despite being involved in terrorist activities, have been major players in the U.S. Government's Latin American policy.” These men were sophisticated warriors, schooled in weaponry, sabotoge, explosives and terrorist tactics. Along with Jorge Mas Canosa and Luis Posada Carriles, Bosch was a member of CORU (Commando of United Revolutionary Organizations), the group responsible for the September 1976 car bombing assassination of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier and an aide in Washington D.C., and the October 1976 mid-air explosion of a Cubana Airlines plane out of Barbados that killed all 73 aboard. (Gaeton Fonzi)

Mas Canosa was never brought to justice for his terrorist acts, and has since died of natural causes. Posada Carriles is currently under house arrest in Miami on immigration offences, and like Mas has never been charged by the US for his terrorist offences. Successive US administrations have refused to extradite Posada to Venezuela, under whose jurisdiction the blowing up of the airliner occurred, or to Cuba, whose airplane and citizens were victims.

For an outline of Posada Carriles’ terrorist career, see Party Games for Terrorists http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00046.htm

[xi] http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0910/S00142.htm

[xii] Wikipedia reports Negroponte was US Ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan-era, condoning gross human rights abuses by the Honduran government evidence of which is contained in several Congressional records. In 2005 President George W. Bush named Negroponte as the first Director of National Intelligence, (DNI), a cabinet-level position charged with coordinating the nation’s Intelligence Community, remarking “John Negroponte is going to have a lot of influence. He will set the budgets.” The budget of the Intelligence Community is estimated at $40 billion.

In April 2005, as the Senate confirmation hearings for the National Intelligence post took place, hundreds of documents were released by the State Department in response to a FOIA request by The Washington Post. The New York Times wrote that the documents revealed "a tough cold warrior who enthusiastically carried out President Ronald Reagan's strategy. They show he sent admiring reports to Washington about the Honduran military chief, who was blamed for human rights violations, warned that peace talks with the Nicaraguan regime might be a dangerous "Trojan horse" and pleaded with officials in Washington to impose greater secrecy on the Honduran role in aiding the contras."

Cables showed that Mr. Negroponte worked closely with William J. Casey, then director of central intelligence, on the Reagan administration's anti-Communist offensive in Central America. He helped word a secret 1983 presidential "finding" authorizing support for the Contras, and met regularly with Honduran military officials to win and retain their backing for the covert action.

Reaction in the intelligence community to Negroponte’s nomination was, according to Newsweek, “overwhelmingly positive.” The Times noted, “…if anyone can bring a semblance of unity to America’s bewildering network of competing spy agencies, it is John Negroponte.”

Negroponte quickly appointed “mission managers” focused on counterterrorism, counter-proliferation, counter-intelligence, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

On January 5, 2007 Negroponte announced his resignation from DNI and moved to the State Department to serve as Deputy Secretary of State.

On only his second day in office, Obama “spoke before a crowd of distinguished guests as well as staffers from each bureau and office of the State Department.¨ John Negroponte was amongst them.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2009/01/obama-and-clint.html

Julie Webb-Pullman (click to view previous articles) is a New Zealand based freelance writer who has reported about - and on occasion from - Central America for Scoop since 2003. Send Feedback tojulie@scoop.co.nz

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