A Real Terrorist Is On The Loose: Humanity And Mother Earth
Are in DangerBy Ali Baghdadi
17 November, 2007
Countercurrents.orgI am greatly honored to be speaking to you. I must tell you from the start that I will not beat around the bushes. I am not here to entertain you or to please you. Truth sometimes hurts. You are adults. You can take it.
I am a Palestinian, an Arab and a Muslim. That means I belong to the people that the United States government has designated as enemy. I belong to the camp of the "bad guys", who are punished, murdered, tortured and even raped. But I am also an American. I belong to the camp of the "good guys", who are doing the murder, torture and rape, who are waging what President George W. Bush calls a crusade, against my people, the "terrorists". Israel is an integral member of this camp. As a matter of fact, the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC), a Zionist-Jewish lobby in Washington, is leading this camp.
My wife for forty three years is an American. My six children and eleven grandchildren know no other country on Earth except the United States of America. Two of my kids have served in the military, and were honorably discharged.
Let me put it this way. I do belong to the people who hate you. Ironically, I also belong to the people, who are hated, not only by Arabs and Muslims, but by almost the rest of the world, including Europeans. The United States is hated not only by Muslim masses, but also by Arab rulers who enjoy Washington?s military and political support. Yes, America is hated by its "loyal friends", King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdallah II of Jordan, President Mubarak of Egypt, and al-Maliki of Iraq, among many others. They hate, because the White House humiliates them, despises them and pushes them around. George W. Bush has given them one choice. Either you are with us, or with the "terrorists", their own people. They are unwilling to face the destiny of those who challenge the American empire. Unlike Saddam Hussein, they chose to be living cowards and traitors, instead of becoming great martyrs loved and honored by the Arab and Muslim people. The fact remains that, when their service is no longer needed, their master will trash them, will flush them into the sewage of history. America has no permanent friends, only interests. Today, anti-Americanism throughout the world is the norm, not the exception.
During a two day visit to my city of birth, Jerusalem, and as my family and I were attempting to enter the Holy Sepulcher, the holiest church in Christianity, Palestinians told me, point blank, straight to my face, that they hate me; that they hate all Americans; that I am one of them, an enemy to Arabs and Muslims. The fact that I have been defending Arab and Muslim causes, particularly the Palestinians?, for forty seven years, made no difference. I do understand.
A day earlier, at the Jordan River entry point to my native lands, Palestine (Israel), I was treated by the Israeli authorities quite differently. Though none of us meet the profile of a Muslim "terrorist?, my son and I have no beard, and my grandson is too young to have a beard; though my wife is blond, has a low profile and peaceful disposition; though my wife, daughter and granddaughter had no headscarf; and though we all carried U.S. passports; we waited for seven hours in front of the passport control window before we were allowed in. In the eyes of the Israeli authorities, we are all Palestinians, not Americans. We are all potential terrorists.
I don?t blame the Palestinians, my fellow countrymen and women for hating me. President Jimmy Carter describes the Tel-Aviv government as the worst occupational regime. Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu speak of Israel as worse than the former apartheid government of South Africa. The present South African government agrees.
In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians are murdered daily. They are being starved to death. They all live in a prison. Their homes and agricultural lands are bulldozed. Their olive and citrus trees are uprooted. More than 550 Israeli military checkpoints are scattered all over the West Bank alone. A trip between two villages that normally takes fifteen minutes last for five to seven hours. Palestinian babies die at military checkpoints while their mothers are on their way to a hospital to deliver. Palestinians? drinking water is stolen and diverted to Jewish swimming pools in illegal settlements built on their confiscated lands. Their economy is in shambles. The little of what they clench unto of their remaining land is actually a living hell. More than 60% of the work force is unemployed. Palestinian children are seen searching in Jewish garbage dumps for food to eat. Recently, Palestinian students who had come home to visit were not permitted to return to their universities abroad.
Three weeks ago, despite protest made by the United Nations, the world community and international human rights organizations, food, electricity and fuel to Gaza were cut in half, by Israeli government, as a mass punishment, because the Palestinians chose Hamas as their representative, in an election that was described by former President Carter, as free and democratic. President Bush, who told us that his invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq is prompted by his desire to spread democracy, labels the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, as a terrorist organization with which the United States will not deal. Even Israeli military disagrees with Bush?s claim. According to a Nov 11, 2007 news report published by Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, Israeli paratroopers testified that "in all parameters, we are facing an army, not gangs."
The Zionist controlled U.S. mass media allege that Israel is not morally or legally obliged to cater to needs of Palestinians who are blockaded, who are under occupation, and all their air, sea and land entry points are controlled by Israeli forces. Israel continues to disavow responsibility for the human catastrophe Palestinians are facing, in violation of international law.
No wonder that my family and I saw, by the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestinian crowds who were not allowed to pray at al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques, shouting, pleading upon the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad, to fire Iranian missiles towards their Israeli occupied city, out of no concern for their own lives. No wonder why, after experiencing the intolerable living conditions of Palestinians, my children and my grandchildren in my company, stood helplessly by, and expressed approval and support, despite the heavy presence of trigger happy Israeli soldiers. No wonder why, during the 1991 war of aggression ordered by Bush senior, against Iraq, West Bank Palestinians danced on the roofs of their homes and cheered Saddam?s missiles lighting the skies on their way to Tel-Aviv and Haifa. No wonder why, after they were forcefully driven out of over 550 towns and villages in 1948, and the remaining 22% of their lands occupied in 1967, did Palestinian youths, males and females, find no alternative but to explode themselves amongst Israeli soldiers. Palestinians have no army. They have no tanks, no jet fighters, no apache helicopters, and no weapons of mass destruction, but their enemy does and uses.
Iraq as a country has been completely destroyed. Its seven thousand year civilization has been shattered. Its infrastructure has been ruined. Its industrial machinery, 750 billion dollars worth, was disassembled and sold as scrap to neighboring countries. Its water, air and land have been poisoned. It resources are being robbed. Since Bush?s "mission accomplished" declaration on aircraft carrier The Lincoln in the Gulf, 1.2 million men, women and children have been murdered, a death toll that rivals Rwanda genocide. This brings the total number of Iraqis losing their lives from a combination of the two wars led by Bush the father and the son, and including the 13 years of illegal sanctions imposed on the country, to 3.5 million. Iraqi widows number over 3 million. Iraqi orphans exceed 5 millions. 70% of Iraqi children suffer traumatic stress syndrome due to death and destruction they are exposed to daily. Though Iraqis are known to be proud, educated and hard working people, thousands of mothers and children are forced into prostitution to survive. According to the U.N., Iraqi refugees, including the internally displaced, reached 4.4 million, two millions in Syria alone.
A month ago, in an interview that appeared on 60-Minutes CBS TV, a U.S. field commander said that the military is authorized to bomb and kill civilians if a suspected Taliban fighter was in their midst, provided that the number of those civilians is less than thirty. If the number of unarmed civilians was higher, the approval of the U.S. Secretary of Defense or the President would become necessary. I am almost certain that those two men have never said no to the murder of Muslims and destruction of Muslim countries.
Even the Afghani leader, Hameed Karazai, a puppet and a traitor, stated on the same program that he had complained to the U.S. President and had asked him "to stop bombing us". Remember that Karazai is the White House man. Until he was handpicked by Bush and Cheney to become president of Afghanistan, the man was employed by Unical, an oil giant, here in the United States.
You must have heard a question that Americans often ask, "Why do they hate us?"
In a speech given to the Congress, George W. Bush answered, because they hate our freedoms. We are told that they hate us because we are rich. They envy us because we stand for democracy and freedom. They resent us because we are the most powerful nation. They are jealous of our achievements and accomplishments. They are loners like Timothy McVeigh. They are intolerant; and their religion is primitive, irrational and violent. Certainly, these statements are insults to the intelligence of the American people.
Americans, particularly the Christian Zionists, ignore the fact that Arab Christians share Muslim sentiments. They also hate America.
"Why do they hate us?" Americans should have known why. Americans have allowed the Israeli Jewish lobby to hijack U.S. government in the service of the Israeli policy of aggression and expansionism. No Republican or Democrat candidate can win without the blessings and approval of this lobby. We have been pouring billions of dollars into aid to insure Israel?s military superiority over all Arab armies. We protect Israel in the United Nation, despite its refusal to implement U.N. resolutions, and its disrespect to international law. We have also allowed Israel to be the only state in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons aimed at all major Arab and Muslim cities. In addition, this illegal and genocidal war was waged on behalf the Zionist state, to prevent Iraq of becoming a threat and a challenge to its military power and dominance.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon in July of 2006. Israeli-U.S. F-15 and F-16 fighters dropped over 1.25 million American cluster bombs on the civilian population. Lebanese cities and villages were bombarded, day and night. The infrastructure, including highways, roads, and bridges south of Beirut, was destroyed. Food, water and fuel storages were hit. Apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, clinics and houses of worship were leveled to the ground. One million Lebanese refugees were compelled to flee, with little food or water. It took 33 days of killing and destruction by the Israeli army, which is described as the fourth most powerful army in the world, before the U.S. agreed to a U.N. resolution for a cease fire.
Notably, Americans who volunteered to go to Lebanon to help were there only to rescue the surviving animals.
Five weeks ago, many of the residents of southern California, who escaped the deadly fires that resulted in over a half million displaced individuals, left almost everything behind, but brought with their animals, their dogs, cats and even fish.
Love for animals is not confined to Americans. It is universal. I do love animals.
Again, I must tell you the truth. Americans show unusual love and mercy towards animals. Those who are cruel to animals are punished and jailed if convicted. But what is really disturbing is the fact that the great majority doesn?t show similar love and mercy towards people, towards fellow men and women. Death and destruction has been an integral part of Western culture and Western history.
I am not a psychologist or a psychiatric. However, I do know that that is sick. It is also sickening. It makes me vomit.
Despite tight censorship, Americans saw the destruction of Baghdad, and images of the assault on the city of Falujah, which was nearly razed to the ground. They saw the devastation of the entire city. They saw Iraqi corpses blackened with Napalm and phosphorus bombs, which are outlawed. They heard cheers and laughs of U.S. soldiers as they bring down mosques and minarets. They saw the marines shooting unarmed, wounded and harmless civilians that had taken refuge in houses of worship. Though the number of active Iraqi resistance fighters is no more than 20,000, the U.S. army fired 1.5 billion small arms rounds in one year, more bullets than can be manufactured. The very little of what Americans have seen is enough to demand a Nuremberg-like trial for the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State and their advisors, as well as top generals in the Pentagon. U.S. citizens have failed to do their part. They have been silent, and silence is complicity. They are not prepared to dedicate a fraction of the time wasted on stupid TV programs to learn a little about world affairs and the serious crimes against humanity that their government is actually committing.
Americans are generally indifferent and heartless. Americans see wars as action movies, computer games, exciting and entertaining. The 2,000 pounds bombs and ballistic missiles raining down on Baghdad were fireworks. Victims are numbers and their murder is collateral damage.
The question that puzzles me is, "How many more nations should be invaded and destroyed; how many more cities should be torched and devastated; how many more millions should be massacred; how many more widows and orphans should be left without a supporter; how many more Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons we are going to build; how many more innocents we are going to torture; how many more international laws and conventions our country will be violating, before the American conscience can be awakened and become functional?"
Our "State of the Union" is gloomy and disgraceful. It is true that there are honorable, caring and courageous American men and women, Christians, Jews, atheists and others, who strongly protest U.S. policy. It is true that there are Americans who challenge the benefiters of war. Unfortunately, they are in the tiny minority. They are seldom seen on major news networks.
In the meanwhile, Bush continues to allege that we "don?t torture" and that "waterboarding" does not cause permanent damage. Republican and Democratic senators, who should experience this technique only for a minute or two, have just confirmed Mukasey as U.S. attorney general, another victory for (AIPAC), despite the fact that he refused to recognize "waterboarding" as torture. Mukasey, a Zionist Jew who, as a judge, sentenced an innocent blind Muslim scholar for life imprisonment for a crime that he never committed, is now the Secretary of the "U.S. Department of Injustice". Under the disguise of combating terrorism, efforts to marginalize Muslims and intimidate non-Muslims of an imaginary enemy, the Los Angeles Police Department has just announced a program to "map" Muslim communities. Muslims population in the greater Los Angeles is estimated to be a half of a million. According to recent polls, 53% of the Americans favor expanding the fraudulent ant-terrorism war to include Iran.
I didn?t come here to solicit your support and arouse your sympathy for Arab and Muslim causes. Americans pass the buck. They cannot escape responsibility. They put their trust mostly in the hands of criminals, who do not take the legitimate interests of their country at heart and instead, cater to Israeli demands.
Arabs and Muslims will survive. Eventually they will liberate their lands, control their destiny, protect their resources and catch up in the field of science, and technology. All indications show that the Bush Empire is collapsing, and Israel, as an apartheid state, will finally disappear. The year 2007 has been the deadliest for U.S. troops in Iraq, and also Afghanistan.
Israel was forced to retreat from Lebanon. None of its objectives have been realized. Hezbollah is stronger now than ever. Military maneuvers held last week, have shown beyond a doubt the readiness and preparedness of the Lebanese resistance fighters to defend their country.
Though they are facing 160,000 U.S. troops and 180,000 U.S. mercenaries that are called contractors, Iraqi resistance has dragged the United States into a quagmire. Bush has been begging neighboring countries, including Iran, to give a hand. "Support the Troops" stickers, have been disappearing, not because Americans are largely against death and destruction. They want an end to this war because it is costly, and their money is going down the drain. The real cost is, according to the latest estimates, is 3.5 trillion dollars. Also Americans are not winning.
What is really tragic is that Americans are generally not concerned about the boys and girls that come home in boxes under the cover of darkness. They are not photographed. They are not seen. The overwhelming majority are Blacks, Latinos and poor Whites. According to official figures, which are too distorted, almost 4,000 of our American sons and daughters have died in vain, died for Israel and big business. The injured and maimed are approximately 30,000. Those who suffer brain damage and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are approximately 48,000. Soldiers who no longer serve in the front lines are neglected by the "Commander in Chief" of the U.S. Army. An estimated 200,000 veterans have been homeless at some point in the last year. Veterans waiting for their disability claims increased from 325,000 in 2002 to 600,000. Cooper, the head of the agency in charge of veterans? benefits, an Evangelist, appointed by Bush, proclaimed that Bible study is "more important than doing [my] job." Health care for Iraq?s veterans will cost tax-payers 650 billion dollars and is rising.
Bush?s claim that the "surge" mission is working, is another big lie. Operations usually carried out by U.S. death squads have been intentionally reduced. U.S. military ground missions and engagements have been greatly decreased. Fewer road bombs have been exploding because American forces stick to their bases, and no longer roam the streets. However, airstrikes against heavily populated civilian targets launched in 2007 are four times that of the ones launched in 2006. The U.S. will eventually cut and run as it did in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia. Members of the Iraqi parliament, though they were handpicked by the Americans, want U.S. troops out, now.
In Afghanistan, Karazai is not actually a president but a mayor of a heavily U.S. guarded section of Kabul, the capital. Taliban resistance fighters are regaining strength and winning. The British foreign intelligence, MI6, has been working on a deal with Taliban. NATO has rejected U.S. requests for more troops.
I came here, however, to warn you. A serial killer, a mass murderer and a war criminal and his gang are all on the loose. Americans ought to wake up to the truth. They are in great danger.
George W. Bush is talking about a Third World War, a "nuclear holocaust", which may bring an end to life on earth as we know it. "So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," Bush recently declared.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that regularly inspects Iran?s nuclear facilities emphasizes that Iran has no atom bomb development program. The uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes. Iran is not a nuclear threat. Many U.S. experts agree.
The US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which coordinates the judgments of the US?s 16 intelligence agencies, refused to yield to Cheney?s demands to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear program.
According to a Nov 11, 2007 news report, Micah Brose, a privately contracted interrogator working for American forces in Iraq, near the Iranian border, told the Observer that US military officials are putting huge pressure on interrogators who question Iraqi 'insurgents' to find incriminating evidence pointing to Iran.
According to specialists, Bush is a mad man. He is a psychopath. His brain is damaged as a result of years of alcohol dependency. As a child, he stuffed fire crackers in the mouths of frogs on his family farm, and left them to explode. The man hallucinates. He admitted that he talks to God. He told the Palestinian Authority "President", Mahmoud Abbas, that God told him to invade Iraq to spread democracy. He is waiting for the green light from his god to strike Iran. Of course, Bush's god is big business. He prays for the oil companies and the war industrial complex. He gives alms in the form of governmental contracts to his friends, who are robbing the American tax-payers in the billions of dollars. If he is allowed to push the button, the consequences will be a global disaster. Humanity and mother earth are at great risk.
(A speech at Northeastern University, Chicago)
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