SUMMARY
[as article understood by me]
US-NATO War Machine
Humanitarian NGOs
Shilling for US-NATO Wars
Entwined with US-NATO
War Machine
Title:
"Amnesty's Shilling for US-NATO Wars"
By:
Coleen Rowley
Former FBI Special Agent
Wrote Whistleblower Memo 2002
Testified re FBI pre-9/11 Failures
Ann Wright
29-year U.S. Army/Army Reserve Colonel
16-year US diplomat
Resigned 2003 in Opposition to Iraq War
Summary of Article
[As understood by me]
Cornerstone Obama foreign policy:
- "humanitarian intervention"
- "Atrocity Prevention Board" newly created
served mainly to rationalize the launching of war on Libya
& now for U.S.-NATO military intervention in Syria
Suzanne Nossel (former Amnesty International USA chief)
coined 'Smart Power':
USA use of:
1. military power
2. 'soft power'
approach announced by Hillary Clinton
on confirmation as US Secretary of State
Suzanne Nossel paper on "Smart Power" (2004)
published in the Council on Foreign Relations
-- much like theories of:
- - Samantha Power
- - Madeline Albright
Suzanne Nossel article:
urges policy-makers to:
return to "great mainstay" of 20th Century
"US foreign policy:
Suzanne Nossel paper posits: global system of 'stable' in liberal democracies less prone to war
USA should offer leadership (diplomatic & economic), together with military might & "quarantine and elimination of dictators and weapons of mass destruction (WMD"
Amnesty International USA
hiring of a State Department shill
as executive director of its US affiliate
NATO Shadow Summit
closely mimicked CIA's latest suggested propaganda device [see post, here]
'CIA Red Cell' - new CIA think-tank
-- group of analysts
-- assigned to
- think 'outside the box'
- anticipate emerging challenges
-- & right to worry in 2010 re:
State Department
Bureau of Intelligence & Research (INR) found:
"80 percent of French and German citizens were opposed to continued deployment of their countries' militaries in the U.S.-NATO war in Afghanistan."
PUBLIC APATHY
-- allowed politicians (Germany & France)
-- to ignore voters
-- to increase troop contributions
-- to International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
Afghanistan
-- CIA think-tank concern re anticipated NATO casualties
-- turning to calls for withdrawal (by Europeans)
-- worried re active & politically potent hostility
-- thus conversion of PASSIVE OPPOSITION into ACTIVE CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL
CIA "Special Memorandum"
-- CIA propaganda expert
-- suggests USA-CIA European propaganda campaign
[see post, here]
"Red Cell" memo was leaked
-- window into US govt propaganda
-- to work on NATO citizenry
-- to maintain public support for waging war on Afghans
-- via 'euphemistically titled
"International Security Assistance Force" (ISAF)'
CIA propaganda aims to:
-- tap into concerns of secular French public
-- provoke French indignation re 'girls' education' / women's issues
-- create rallying point
-- give voters reason to support war & ignore casualties
-- promote outreach initiatives
-- exploit Afghan women in media
-- esp. French, German & other European
-- feature emotive testimonials
-- on programs targeting disproportionately female audience
-- to overcome scepticism of women re war
Amnesty International - [NATO-CIA Echo]:
- - strikes similar themes via:
- - online announcements
- - billboard advertisements, Chigaco bus stops
meanwhile, thousands of activists march in Chicago
to protest NATO wars
Bill board exploits feminism.
Huffington Post echoes same feminist propaganda with article:
HuffPo:
"Afghanistan:
The First Feminist War?"
HuffPo propaganda:
-- 'male domination' of three-quarters of worlds women
-- "Afghanistan is an extreme case in point"
-- "in what might be termed the first feminist war "
-- "women who have promised not to desert their Afghan sisters."
Amnesty International
'Shadow Summit'
-- featuring: former Sec. State, Madeline Albright
-- & other female foreign relations
-- Melanne Verveer, US Ambassador-at-Large, Global Women's Issues
-- US Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois
-- Afifa Azim, Gen Dir. & Co-founder, Afghan Women's network
-- Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Dep. Dir. CFR Women & Foreign Policy Program
Verveer
-- would not answer Ann Wright questions
-- hotel security guards tried to turn away anti-war protesters
-- registration desk reminded that Summit advertised as
-- 'Free Admissions' & some anti-war were members of Amnesty International
-- were then permitted to attend (on condition)
THE BIG SELL
UNDERPINNED BY EXPLOITING WOMEN'S ISSUES (just as CIA propagandist suggested - [see post, here]):
"All generally linked the protection and participation of Afghan women in government as well as the progress made in educating Afghan women to the eventual peace and security of the country as envisioned by the new strategic "partnership" agreement that Obama had just signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai."
US government officials
-- EASILY use "good & necessary cause" of women's rights
-- to get audience into the palm of their collective hand
-- just as CIA propaganda expert predicted
Albright a PR blunder
-- given her involvement & defence of Iraqi sanctions 1990s
-- when 500,000 Iraqi children deaths deemed by Albright as:
"we think the price is worth it."
----
(article) reference source human rights blogger:
Amnesty International USA
advertising posters described as:
-- pro-NATO posters
-- playing into prevailing tropes
-- re so-called "humanitarian intervention"
-- via "think of the women & children" imagery
Posters & the forum that includes Albright
= neither slight slips nor without context
Amnesty International USA
"used pro Nato imagery & slogans ahead of & during a controversial summit that has thousands protesting in the streets"
On Albright, humanitarian blogger comments:
Amnesty International USA asked:
"notorious apologist for mass murder of children to speak on the right of women and children"
Humanitarian Blogger (article reference source)
-- refers to Amnesty international USA's:
- "critical SERIES of errors"
- asks how such a series of 'errors' could be made.
Article authors contend:
Amnesty International USA
had chosen Madeleine Albright as main speaker
-- because Albright has paved the way for feminist war-hawks
-- to become Secretary of State (or candidates for same)
-- & became they take the lead of 'ruthless Grand Dame' Albright
Highest ranks of feminist wing of interventionism:
- Madeline Albright
- Condi Rice
- Hillary Clinton
- Susan Riche
- Samantha Power
Passion & enthusiasm re:
- -- 'nobility' of own goals
- -- & American exceptionalism
that it sways others, like religious blind faith.
Nossel & Albright theories are flawed
NOTE
- as demonstrated by lady war-hawks lobbying
- & long list of democracies disproving assertion, incl:
- Nazi Germany
- Roman Empire
- United Kingdom
- France
- USA
DEMOCRACIES ARE NOT LESS PRONE TO WAR
USA 'support' for democracies
involves much hypocrisy (& exploitation)
as the USA has a long record of
toppling (or attempting to topple)
democracies in foreign countries
Examples:
- Iran (Mossadequh)
- Guatemala (Arbenz)
- Chile (Allende)
USA history of bringing down democracies to:
-- to gain easier control of a foreign country
-- through an allied dictatorship
Goals of humanitarianism
-- preventing atrocities
-- furthering women's rights
are truly noble goals
*and, yes, women lack rights in Afghanistan
HOWEVER
this is convenient truth and:
best lies are always based on a certain amount of truth
devil lies in the details
re promoting equality & accomplishing humanitarianism
Article authors argue:
ends, even noble ends, never justify wrongful means
⟴ when people such as Samantha Power decide to bomb village (Libya) to save it
⟴ it will backfire on a pragmatic level
CIA PROPAGANDA - EXPLOITATION OF PUBLIC
(ESP. WOMEN)
VIA ADVERTISED & PR SPUN 'NOBILITY' OF US-NATO MOTIVATION
nobility of the U.S.-NATO's motivation that
-- as CIA propaganda department advised
-- should be relied upon to convince public (esp. women)
-- to support (or at least tolerate) war & military occupation
War & military occupation, now known to encompass
- worst of war crimes
- massacres of women and children
- torture
- cutting off body parts of those killed
US soldiers:
- increasing mental illness
- self-destructive behavior
- suicides
corresponding cover-ups
Military scholars identify:
-- declining American public support for Vietnam war
-- as main factor responsible for USA Vietnam war loss
US GOVT. BY-PASS PUBLIC OPPOSITION
1. get rid of the military draft;
2. put the wars on a credit card ;
so fewer citizens pay attention
3. control over the type of free media
SERIES OF WAR PROPAGANDA SYSTEMS
-- planting retired generals as "talking heads" on TV
-- assistant to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
-- deciding to "embed the media"
⟴ work well to maintain
⟴ necessary level of war momentum
⟴ in mainstream media & amongst public opinion
SLEIGHT OF HAND
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
& OTHER
BACK UP USA FOREIGN POLICY
JUST AS PUBLIC SOURS ON WAR
-- American polls approaching same as Europe
-- cited by the "CIA Red Cell" (that called for propaganda campaign) [see post, here]
-- & suddenly major human rights orgs
-- eg Amnesty International (& others)
-- applauding Obama's (and the feminist war-hawks')
-- "Atrocity Prevention Board"
Congress may allow
Pentagon propagandists
to target American citizens
through: National Defense Authorization Act of 2013
TWISTING & EXPLOITING HUMAN RIGHTS
"laudable need to further human rights should not be twisted into justifying harsh economic sanctions that kill hundreds of thousands of children or, even worse, "shock and awe" aerial bombing that takes the lives of the women and children the "humanitarian" propagandists say they want to help."
HUMAN RIGHTS EXPLOITED
FALSITY OF UTILITARIANISM
CONCOCTING FICTIONAL 'HAPPY' OUTCOMES
TO JUSTIFY WRONGFUL MEANS
Madeleine Albright
-- response re deaths HALF MILLION CHILDREN IN IRAQ
-- on 60 Minutes
-- that "the price was worth it"
-- illustrates falsity of what ethicists call
-- "act utilitarianism"
-- concocting fictional happy outcomes
-- to justify wrongful means
CORRUPTED
BY ALIGNMENT
WITH USA & NATO
- human rights NGOs - incl. Amnesty International
- Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel laureate
-- Mairead Maguire withdrew from the Nobel Peace Forum
-- held in CHICAGO during NATO
-- for that reason
"Good NGOS and non-profits that want to maintain the trust in their humanitarian work tend to be very careful to maintain their independence from any government"
SOURCE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/amnestys-shilling-for-usn_b_1607361.html
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