Things my government never told me....

First I want you all to think very carefully, and truthfully answer a question.
Which is the world's greatest terrorist state?  Which nation or regime has created the most terrorists?  Which nation or regime has perpetrated the worst acts of violence?
Before you read any further, do me a favor and answer that question.  Even if that's the only thing you do, even if you read no further, just answer that one question...

A couple weeks back I was hanging out with some friends and conversation turned, as it usually does, to the state of our nation.  In the ramblings of that conversation I realized that I had forgotten a name.
Me forgetting something is no surprise.  I forget things all the time.
But I was surprised to find that I could not remember that specific name.  It was the name of one of my favorite authors.  A man whose works I have recommended to many.  I was recommending his work to another person, or trying to.  At that moment I realized that it had been a long time since I had checked his website.  A long time since I had ventured into the areas that he writes about.
And I knew it was time to go back.
I did remember his name before the end of that conversation, and suggested that my friend look him up.  Now, I am recommending him to you.
The man's name is William Blum and he writes about things the US government doesn't want you to know.

Our fear that communism might someday take over most of the world blinds us to the fact that anti-communism already has.

That's a quote taken from his book Killing Hope .  I looked that quote up online and could find no attribution for it beyond anonymous.  Blum attributes it to Michael Parenti from a book called The Anti-Communists Impulse, published in 1969.  It's a very widely cited quote, but I guess since the book was written before the advent of the internet no one feels the need to attribute it correctly.
That's not really central to the point of this diary, it just irks me that we can be so lazy on such a large scale.  You'd think that pages that collect quotes would at least try to attribute them correctly...
While searching this topic I ran across a youtube video that lays this all out much better than I can.
Remember your answer to my question while you watch.



And yes, I have taken the time to, independently, verify some of the facts in Killing Hope, back when I first read it.  The verification is there, if you look for it.  In some cases it is part of the public record.
And I remember what we did in Afghanistan.  We created the Taliban, and we should remember that while we fight the latest of our wars.
And I remember Nicaragua.

What most of the countries on the receiving end of 20th century American imperialism had in common was their attempt to establish a society that offered an alternative to the capitalist model. In the eyes of Washington, this was the ultimate heresy, as it remains today. Such an endeavor had to be crushed, by any means necessary, lest it wind up serving as an example for others. Other targeted countries, while retaining free enterprise to one degree or another, were reluctant to allow the needs of American corporations to dictate their society's priorities; i.e., they were unwilling to permit the WTO/IMF/World Bank/free-trade beast to stomp in and privatize and sell the country's social assets to multinationals, to deregulate, erase their border, drive local industries and farmers into destitution, trash social services and safety nets, develop a cheap labor force, cheap raw materials, and a market for corporate goods, and put people in prison so prices could be free... by now a painfully familiar syndrome known as "globalization", merely the latest transmutation of imperialism, the natural extension of capitalist growth and control; for some years ago, while we were all busy leading our little daily lives, a handful of corporations came along, and step by step, unannounced, purchased the world, then hung a sign out saying "Open for business", and have since then, understandably, insisted on exercising the rights of ownership. Globalization is nothing less than the recolonization of the underdeveloped world.

This is from the introduction of his latest book Freeing the World To Death , which I'd be buying now, if I had a job.  You can read the rest of the introduction, as well as other bits of the book and some articles here: The William Blum Page  &  http://killinghope.org/

I underlined that bit in the middle.  Does it sound familiar to anyone else?

The point of a destabilization is to put pressure on the targeted government by ripping apart the social and economic fabric of the country. These are only words, "social and economic fabric," but what they mean is making the people suffer as much as you can until the country plunges into chaos, until at some point you can step in and impose your choice of government on that country a strategy that was ultimately successful in the Nicaraguan elections when the people of that country "cried uncle" and voted for the CIA collaborator, Violeta Chamorro.9 The rationales we used in Nicaragua were classic Cold War slogans: we were "fighting Communism" in the interests of our "national security"; they were a "Marxist bastion in our ownbackyard"; etc. More specifically, our leaders said at first that the purpose of this program was to "interdict the alleged flow of arms from Nicaragua to the rebels in El Salvador." Unable to prove any flow of arms whatsoever from Nicaragua into El Salvador, the Reagan team, followed eventually by George Bush, developed the propaganda line that they were "returning Nicaragua to democracy." When it was pointed out that Nicaragua had never had a democracy-certainly not under the brutal Somoza dictatorship-they began to speak of the "democratization of Nicaragua," ignoring the fact that Nicaragua had held elections in 1984 that were demonstrably more democratic than the elections that we have in our own Republic.

This passage from The Praetorian Guard: The U.S. Role in the New World Order by John Stockwell should stir some ugly echos in your thoughts.  Cuz, if you look closely at what's happening in this country right now, you could be looking at a tailor made destabilization.
Again, the underlined bit should be reminiscent of something from much more recent history.
And if you think the The Powers That Be, and I'm not talking about the figurehead circus that passes for politics, wouldn't do this, think again.
This quote takes us to another source I urge you all to check out.  Third World Traveler
The stated mission of the page is to:

…tell the truth
about American democracy, media, and foreign policy,
and about the impact of the actions of
the United States government, transnational corporations, global trade and financial institutions, and the corporate media,
on democracy, social and economic justice, human rights, and war and peace,
in the Third World, and in the developed world.

They also have travel information and tips.  So, if you're planning a trip to a third world nation, I'd definitely check them out.

And here are another couple of quotes to keep you thinking... 

"There is a transnational ruling class, a "Superclass", that agrees on establishing a world government. The middle class is targeted for elimination, because most of the world has no middle class, and to fully integrate and internationalize a middle class, would require industrialization and development in Africa, and certain places in Asia and Latin America. The goal of the Superclass is not to lose their wealth and power to a transnational middle class, but rather to extinguish the notion of a middle class, and transnationalize a lower, uneducated, labor oriented class, through which they will secure ultimate wealth and power.

The global economic crisis serves these ends, as whatever remaining wealth the middle class holds is in the process of being eliminated, and as the crisis progresses, the middle classes of the world will suffer, while a great percentage of lower classes of the world, poverty-stricken even prior to the crisis, will suffer the greatest, most probably leading to a massive reduction in population levels, particularly in the "underdeveloped" or "Third World" states."

Andrew Gavin Marshall, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century 

 "Some of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena... [They] share the traits of psychopaths who are not sensitive to altruistic appeals, such as sympathy for their victims or remorse or guilt over their crimes. They possess the personality traits of lying, narcissism, selfishness, and vanity. These are the people to whom we have entrusted our fate. Is it any wonder that America is failing at home and world-wide?"

 Jim Kouri

Here I will ask you to recall Abu Ghraib.

How many of you know that Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, and other human rights organizations had been  protesting the situation in Abu Ghraib for over a year before the U.S. took any action.  The only reason anything was done officially in this situation was, CBS had pictures and was preparing to go public.

Do you really think these were isolated, clandestine, activities, indulged by just a few bad apples?  If you, as most Americans think this was a singular occurrence, think again.

For those who think the United States has been unconscionably brutal to detainees in Iraq, here's how the US handled them during Vietnam: "Two Vietcong prisoners were interrogated on an airplane flying toward Saigon. The first refused to answer questions and was thrown out of the airplane at 3,000 feet. The second immediately answered all the questions. But he, too, was thrown out."

 William Blum Freeing the World To Death.

The fact is, the U.S. is a world leader in torture.  We've taught the terrorists factions in this world pretty much all they know.  Cuz, we don't, generally, get our hands too dirty, we pay someone else to do it.  For a more detailed account check out Killing Hope.
And I have seen an old copy of field manual to back this up.

And remember we had a problem in this country classifying water boarding as torture and declaring it illegal.

Well, the research for this, as usual with the OSS, spiraled out of control and this whole thing took way longer than it was supposed to.  I've got enough material, already, for at least 2 more posts on things the government won't tell you.  For now, I'll leave you with 2 names:  The Bilderberg Group and The Trilateral Commission, and hope you might do some research of your own.  Maybe we'll talk a little about The Powers That Be sometime in the future.
Right now, I've got to do my job searching for the day....

Ohhh all right, one more quote.

 History does not tell us what a Soviet Union, allowed to develop in a "normal" way of its own choosing, would look like today. We do know, however, the nature of a Soviet Union attacked in its cradle, raised alone in an extremely hostile world, and, when it managed to survive to adulthood, overrun by the Nazi war machine with the blessings of the Western powers. The resulting insecurities and fears have inevitably led to deformities of character not unlike that found in an individual raised in a similar life-threatening manner.

Again, William Blum, from the introduction to Killing Hope.  I know the quotes are long.  But I realize I'm asking people to reconsider things they've held as truth their entire lives.  This takes evidence, in most cases, overwhelming evidence.  The quotes are from people who are way smarter, and know more, than me.  If you don't trust me, look at the evidence.  Verify it for yourself.


One of the members over on Left Take replied to this post and provided a few more links to check out.
Thanks SuzeB for adding a few more sources.

My minor was in Latin American History

by: SuzeB1964August 25, 2011 8:19 PM

So I am well familiar with the fascist and criminal acts this country has performed in order to spread democracy (aka corporate dominance) over Latin America. Here's a couple of anecdotes for you:
http://thoughtcontrol.us/same-... http://www.thirdworldtraveler....
http://www.thirdworldtraveler....
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/n...
The list goes on and on...