posted April 27, 2006 10:47 AM              

Imperialism 101
Chapter 1 of Against Empire by Michael Parenti

Imperialism has been the most powerful force in world history over the last four or five centuries, carving up whole continents while oppressing indigenous peoples and obliterating entire civilizations. Yet, it is seldom accorded any serious attention by our academics, media commentators, and political leaders. When not ignored outright, the subject of imperialism has been sanitized, so that empires become "commonwealths," and colonies become "territories" or "dominions" (or, as in the case of Puerto Rico, "commonwealths" too). Imperialist military interventions become matters of "national defense," "national security," and maintaining "stability" in one or another region. In this book I want to look at imperialism for what it really is.
Across the Entire Globe
By "imperialism" I mean the process whereby the dominant politico-economic interests of one nation expropriate for their own enrichment the land, labor, raw materials, and markets of another people.

The earliest victims of Western European imperialism were other Europeans. Some 800 years ago, Ireland became the first colony of what later became known as the British empire. A part of Ireland still remains under British occupation. Other early Caucasian victims included the Eastern Europeans. The people Charlemagne worked to death in his mines in the early part of the ninth century were Slavs. So frequent and prolonged was the enslavement of Eastern Europeans that "Slav" became synonymous with servitude. Indeed, the word "slave" derives from "Slav." Eastern Europe was an early source of capital accumulation, having become wholly dependent upon Western manufactures by the seventeenth century.

A particularly pernicious example of intra-European imperialism was the Nazi aggression during World War II, which gave the German business cartels and the Nazi state an opportunity to plunder the resources and exploit the labor of occupied Europe, including the slave labor of concentration camps.

The preponderant thrust of the European, North American, and Japanese imperial powers has been directed against Africa, Asia, and Latin America. By the nineteenth century, they saw the Third World as not only a source of raw materials and slaves but a market for manufactured goods. By the twentieth century, the industrial nations were exporting not only goods but capital, in the form of machinery, technology, investments, and loans. To say that we have entered the stage of capital export and investment is not to imply that the plunder of natural resources has ceased. If anything, the despoliation has accelerated.

Of the various notions about imperialism circulating today in the United States, the dominant view is that it does not exist. Imperialism is not recognized as a legitimate concept, certainly not in regard to the United States. One may speak of "Soviet imperialism" or "nineteenth-century British imperialism" but not of U.S. imperialism. A graduate student in political science at most universities in this country would not be granted the opportunity to research U.S. imperialism, on the grounds that such an undertaking would not be scholarly. While many people throughout the world charge the United States with being an imperialist power, in this country persons who talk of U.S. imperialism are usually judged to be mouthing ideological blather.
The Dynamic of Capital Expansion
Imperialism is older than capitalism. The Persian, Macedonian, Roman, and Mongol empires all existed centuries before the Rothschilds and Rockefellers. Emperors and conquistadors were interested mostly in plunder and tribute, gold and glory. Capitalist imperialism differs from these earlier forms in the way it systematically accumulates capital through the organized exploitation of labor and the penetration of overseas markets. Capitalist imperialism invests in other countries, transforming and dominating their economies, cultures, and political life, integrating their financial and productive structures into an international system of capital accumulation.

A central imperative of capitalism is expansion. Investors will not put their money into business ventures unless they can extract more than they invest. Increased earnings come only with a growth in the enterprise. The capitalist ceaselessly searches for ways of making more money in order to make still more money. One must always invest to realize profits, gathering as much strength as possible in the face of competing forces and unpredictable markets.

Given its expansionist nature, capitalism has little inclination to stay home. Almost 150 years ago, Marx and Engels described a bourgeoisie that "chases over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. . . . It creates a world after its own image." The expansionists destroy whole societies. Self-sufficient peoples are forcibly transformed into disfranchised wage workers. Indigenous communities and folk cultures are replaced by mass-market, mass-media, consumer societies. Cooperative lands are supplanted by agribusiness factory farms, villages by desolate shanty towns, autonomous regions by centralized autocracies.

Consider one of a thousand such instances. A few years ago the Los Angeles Times carried a special report on the rainforests of Borneo in the South Pacific. By their own testimony, the people there lived contented lives. They hunted, fished, and raised food in their jungle orchards and groves. But their entire way of life was ruthlessly wiped out by a few giant companies that destroyed the rainforest in order to harvest the hardwood for quick profits. Their lands were turned into ecological disaster areas and they themselves were transformed into disfranchised shantytown dwellers, forced to work for subsistence wages--when fortunate enough to find employment.

North American and European corporations have acquired control of more than three-fourths of the known mineral resources of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But the pursuit of natural resources is not the only reason for capitalist overseas expansion. There is the additional need to cut production costs and maximize profits by investing in countries with cheaper labor markets. U.S. corporate foreign investment grew 84 percent from 1985 to 1990, the most dramatic increase being in cheap-labor countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Singapore.

Because of low wages, low taxes, nonexistent work benefits, weak labor unions, and nonexistent occupational and environmental protections, U.S. corporate profit rates in the Third World are 50 percent greater than in developed countries. Citibank, one of the largest U.S. firms, earns about 75 percent of its profits from overseas operations. While profit margins at home sometimes have had a sluggish growth, earnings abroad have continued to rise dramatically, fostering the development of what has become known as the multinational or transnational corporation. Today some four hundred transnational companies control about 80 percent of the capital assets of the global free market and are extending their grasp into the ex-communist countries of Eastern Europe.

Transnationals have developed a global production line. General Motors has factories that produce cars, trucks and a wide range of auto components in Canada, Brazil, Venezuela, Spain, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Nigeria, Singapore, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea and a dozen other countries. Such "multiple sourcing" enables GM to ride out strikes in one country by stepping up production in another, playing workers of various nations against each other in order to discourage wage and benefit demands and undermine labor union strategies.
Not Necessary, Just Compelling
Some writers question whether imperialism is a necessary condition for capitalism, pointing out that most Western capital is invested in Western nations, not in the Third World. If corporations lost all their Third World investments, they argue, many of them could still survive on their European and North American markets. In response, one should note that capitalism might be able to survive without imperialism--but it shows no inclination to do so. It manifests no desire to discard its enormously profitable Third World enterprises. Imperialism may not be a necessary condition for investor survival but it seems to be an inherent tendency and a natural outgrowth of advanced capitalism. Imperial relations may not be the only way to pursue profits, but they are the most lucrative way.

Whether imperialism is necessary for capitalism is really not the question. Many things that are not absolutely necessary are still highly desirable, therefore strongly preferred and vigorously pursued. Overseas investors find the Third World's cheap labor, vital natural resources, and various other highly profitable conditions to be compellingly attractive. Superprofits may not be necessary for capitalism's survival but survival is not all that capitalists are interested in. Superprofits are strongly preferred to more modest earnings. That there may be no necessity between capitalism and imperialism does not mean there is no compelling linkage.

The same is true of other social dynamics. For instance, wealth does not necessarily have to lead to luxurious living. A higher portion of an owning class's riches could be used for investment rather personal consumption. The very wealthy could survive on more modest sums but that is not how most of them prefer to live. Throughout history, wealthy classes generally have shown a preference for getting the best of everything. After all, the whole purpose of getting rich off other people's labor is to live well, avoiding all forms of thankless toil and drudgery, enjoying superior opportunities for lavish life-styles, medical care, education, travel, recreation, security, leisure, and opportunities for power and prestige. While none of these things are really "necessary," they are fervently clung to by those who possess them--as witnessed by the violent measures endorsed by advantaged classes whenever they feel the threat of an equalizing or leveling democratic force.
Myths of Underdevelopment
The impoverished lands of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are known to us as the "Third World," to distinguish them from the "First World" of industrialized Europe and North America and the now largely defunct "Second World" of communist states. Third World poverty, called "underdevelopment," is treated by most Western observers as an original historic condition. We are asked to believe that it always existed, that poor countries are poor because their lands have always been infertile or their people unproductive.

In fact, the lands of Asia, Africa, and Latin America have long produced great treasures of foods, minerals and other natural resources. That is why the Europeans went through all the trouble to steal and plunder them. One does not go to poor places for self-enrichment. The Third World is rich. Only its people are poor--and it is because of the pillage they have endured.

The process of expropriating the natural resources of the Third World began centuries ago and continues to this day. First, the colonizers extracted gold, silver, furs, silks, and spices, then flax, hemp, timber, molasses, sugar, rum, rubber, tobacco, calico, cocoa, coffee, cotton, copper, coal, palm oil, tin, iron, ivory, ebony, and later on, oil, zinc, manganese, mercury, platinum, cobalt, bauxite, aluminum, and uranium. Not to be overlooked is that most hellish of all expropriations: the abduction of millions of human beings into slave labor.

Through the centuries of colonization, many self-serving imperialist theories have been spun. I was taught in school that people in tropical lands are slothful and do not work as hard as we denizens of the temperate zone. In fact, the inhabitants of warm climates have performed remarkably productive feats, building magnificent civilizations well before Europe emerged from the Dark Ages. And today they often work long, hard hours for meager sums. Yet the early stereotype of the "lazy native" is still with us. In every capitalist society, the poor--both domestic and overseas--regularly are blamed for their own condition.

We hear that Third World peoples are culturally retarded in their attitudes, customs, and technical abilities. It is a convenient notion embraced by those who want to depict Western investments as a rescue operation designed to help backward peoples help themselves. This myth of "cultural backwardness" goes back to ancient times, when conquerors used it to justify enslaving indigenous peoples. It was used by European colonizers over the last five centuries for the same purpose.

What cultural supremacy could by claimed by the Europeans of yore? From the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries Europe was "ahead" in a variety of things, such as the number of hangings, murders, and other violent crimes; instances of venereal disease, smallpox, typhoid, tuberculosis, plagues, and other bodily afflictions; social inequality and poverty (both urban and rural); mistreatment of women and children; and frequency of famines, slavery, prostitution, piracy, religious massacres, and inquisitional torture. Those who claim the West has been the most advanced civilization should keep such "achievements" in mind.

More seriously, we might note that Europe enjoyed a telling advantage in navigation and armaments. Muskets and cannon, Gatling guns and gunboats, and today missiles, helicopter gunships, and fighter bombers have been the deciding factors when West meets East and North meets South. Superior firepower, not superior culture, has brought the Europeans and Euro-North Americans to positions of supremacy that today are still maintained by force, though not by force alone.

It was said that colonized peoples were biologically backward and less evolved than their colonizers. Their "savagery" and "lower" level of cultural evolution were emblematic of their inferior genetic evolution. But were they culturally inferior? In many parts of what is now considered the Third World, people developed impressive skills in architecture, horticulture, crafts, hunting, fishing, midwifery, medicine, and other such things. Their social customs were often far more gracious and humane and less autocratic and repressive than anything found in Europe at that time. Of course we must not romanticize these indigenous societies, some of which had a number of cruel and unusual practices of their own. But generally, their peoples enjoyed healthier, happier lives, with more leisure time, than did most of Europe's inhabitants.

Other theories enjoy wide currency. We hear that Third World poverty is due to overpopulation, too many people having too many children to feed. Actually, over the last several centuries, many Third World lands have been less densely populated than certain parts of Europe. India has fewer people per acre--but more poverty--than Holland, Wales, England, Japan, Italy, and a few other industrial countries. Furthermore, it is the industrialized nations of the First World, not the poor ones of the Third, that devour some 80 percent of the world's resources and pose the greatest threat to the planet's ecology.

This is not to deny that overpopulation is a real problem for the planet's ecosphere. Limiting population growth in all nations would help the global environment but it would not solve the problems of the poor--because overpopulation in itself is not the cause of poverty but one of its effects. The poor tend to have large families because children are a source of family labor and income and a support during old age.

Frances Moore Lappe and Rachel Schurman found that of seventy Third World countries, there were six--China, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Chile, Burma, and Cuba--and the state of Kerala in India that had managed to lower their birth rates by one third. They enjoyed neither dramatic industrial expansion nor high per capita incomes nor extensive family planning programs. The factors they had in common were public education and health care, a reduction of economic inequality, improvements in women's rights, food subsidies, and in some cases land reform. In other words, fertility rates were lowered not by capitalist investments and economic growth as such but by socio-economic betterment, even of a modest scale, accompanied by the emergence of women's rights.
Artificially Converted to Poverty
What is called "underdevelopment" is a set of social relations that has been forcefully imposed on countries. With the advent of the Western colonizers, the peoples of the Third World were actually set back in their development sometimes for centuries. British imperialism in India provides an instructive example. In 1810, India was exporting more textiles to England than England was exporting to India. By 1830, the trade flow was reversed. The British had put up prohibitive tariff barriers to shut out Indian finished goods and were dumping their commodities in India, a practice backed by British gunboats and military force. Within a matter of years, the great textile centers of Dacca and Madras were turned into ghost towns. The Indians were sent back to the land to raise the cotton used in British textile factories. In effect, India was reduced to being a cow milked by British financiers.

By 1850, India's debt had grown to 53 million pounds. From 1850 to 1900, its per capita income dropped by almost two-thirds. The value of the raw materials and commodities the Indians were obliged to send to Britain during most of the nineteenth century amounted yearly to more than the total income of the sixty million Indian agricultural and industrial workers. The massive poverty we associate with India was not that country's original historical condition. British imperialism did two things: first, it ended India's development, then it forcibly underdeveloped that country.

Similar bleeding processes occurred throughout the Third World. The enormous wealth extracted should remind us that there originally were few really poor nations. Countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Chile, Bolivia, Zaire, Mexico, Malaysia, and the Philippines were and sometimes still are rich in resources. Some lands have been so thoroughly plundered as to be desolate in all respects. However, most of the Third World is not "underdeveloped" but overexploited. Western colonization and investments have created a lower rather than a higher living standard.

Referring to what the English colonizers did to the Irish, Frederick Engels wrote in 1856: "How often have the Irish started out to achieve something, and every time they have been crushed politically and industrially. By consistent oppression they have been artificially converted into an utterly impoverished nation." So with most of the Third World. The Mayan Indians in Guatemala had a more nutritious and varied diet and better conditions of health in the early 16th century before the Europeans arrived than they have today. They had more craftspeople, architects, artisans, and horticulturists than today. What is called underdevelopment is not an original historical condition but a product of imperialism's superexploitation. Underdevelopment is itself a development.

Imperialism has created what I have termed "maldevelopment": modern office buildings and luxury hotels in the capital city instead of housing for the poor, cosmetic surgery clinics for the affluent instead of hospitals for workers, cash export crops for agribusiness instead of food for local markets, highways that go from the mines and latifundios to the refineries and ports instead of roads in the back country for those who might hope to see a doctor or a teacher.

Wealth is transferred from Third World peoples to the economic elites of Europe and North America (and more recently Japan) by direct plunder, by the expropriation of natural resources, the imposition of ruinous taxes and land rents, the payment of poverty wages, and the forced importation of finished goods at highly inflated prices. The colonized country is denied the freedom of trade and the opportunity to develop its own natural resources, markets, and industrial capacity. Self-sustenance and self-employment gives way to wage labor. From 1970 to 1980, the number of wage workers in the Third World grew from 72 million to 120 million, and the rate is accelerating.

Hundreds of millions of Third World peoples now live in destitution in remote villages and congested urban slums, suffering hunger, disease, and illiteracy, often because the land they once tilled is now controlled by agribusiness firms who use it for mining or for commercial export crops such as coffee, sugar, and beef, instead of growing beans, rice, and corn for home consumption. A study of twenty of the poorest countries, compiled from official statistics, found that the number of people living in what is called "absolute poverty" or rockbottom destitution, the poorest of the poor, is rising 70,000 a day and should reach 1.5 billion by the year 2000 (San Francisco Examiner, June 8, 1994).

Imperialism forces millions of children around the world to live nightmarish lives, their mental and physical health severely damaged by endless exploitation. A documentary film on the Discovery Channel (April 24, 1994) reported that in countries like Russia, Thailand, and the Philippines, large numbers of minors are sold into prostitution to help their desperate families survive. In countries like Mexico, India, Colombia, and Egypt, children are dragooned into health-shattering, dawn-to-dusk labor on farms and in factories and mines for pennies an hour, with no opportunity for play, schooling, or medical care.

In India, 55 million children are pressed into the work force. Tens of thousands labor in glass factories in temperatures as high as 100 degrees. In one plant, four-year-olds toil from 5 o'clock in the morning until the dead of night, inhaling fumes and contracting emphysema, tuberculosis, and other respiratory diseases. In the Philippines and Malaysia corporations have lobbied to drop age restrictions for labor recruitment. The pursuit of profit becomes a pursuit of evil.
Development Theory
When we say a country is "underdeveloped," we are implying that it is backward and retarded in some way, that its people have shown little capacity to achieve and evolve. The negative connotations of "underdeveloped" has caused the United Nations, the Wall Street Journal, and parties of various political persuasion to refer to Third World countries as "developing" nations, a term somewhat less insulting than "underdeveloped" but equally misleading. I prefer to use "Third World" because "developing" seems to be just a euphemistic way of saying "underdeveloped but belatedly starting to do something about it." It still implies that poverty was an original historic condition and not something imposed by the imperialists. It also falsely suggests that these countries are developing when actually their economic conditions are usually worsening.

The dominant theory of the last half century, enunciated repeatedly by writers like Barbara Ward and W. W. Rostow and afforded wide currency in the United States and other parts of the Western world, maintains that it is up to the rich nations of the North to help uplift the "backward" nations of the South, bringing them technology and teaching them proper work habits. This is an updated version of "the White man's burden," a favorite imperialist fantasy.

According to the development scenario, with the introduction of Western investments, the backward economic sectors of the poor nations will release their workers, who then will find more productive employment in the modern sector at higher wages. As capital accumulates, business will reinvest its profits, thus creating still more products, jobs, buying power, and markets. Eventually a more prosperous economy evolves.

This "development theory" or "modernization theory," as it is sometimes called, bears little relation to reality. What has emerged in the Third World is an intensely exploitive form of dependent capitalism. Economic conditions have worsened drastically with the growth of transnational corporate investment. The problem is not poor lands or unproductive populations but foreign exploitation and class inequality. Investors go into a country not to uplift it but to enrich themselves.

People in these countries do not need to be taught how to farm. They need the land and the implements to farm. They do not need to be taught how to fish. They need the boats and the nets and access to shore frontage, bays, and oceans. They need industrial plants to cease dumping toxic effusions into the waters. They do not need to be convinced that they should use hygienic standards. They do not need a Peace Corps Volunteer to tell them to boil their water, especially when they cannot afford fuel or have no access to firewood. They need the conditions that will allow them to have clean drinking water and clean clothes and homes. They do not need advice about balanced diets from North Americans. They usually know what foods best serve their nutritional requirements. They need to be given back their land and labor so that they might work for themselves and grow food for their own consumption.

The legacy of imperial domination is not only misery and strife, but an economic structure dominated by a network of international corporations which themselves are beholden to parent companies based in North America, Europe and Japan. If there is any harmonization or integration, it occurs among the global investor classes, not among the indigenous economies of these countries. Third World economies remain fragmented and unintegrated both between each other and within themselves, both in the flow of capital and goods and in technology and organization. In sum, what we have is a world economy that has little to do with the economic needs of the world's people.
Neoimperialism: Skimming the Cream
Sometimes imperial domination is explained as arising from an innate desire for domination and expansion, a "territorial imperative." In fact, territorial imperialism is no longer the prevailing mode. Compared to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when the European powers carved up the world among themselves, today there is almost no colonial dominion left. Colonel Blimp is dead and buried, replaced by men in business suits. Rather than being directly colonized by the imperial power, the weaker countries have been granted the trappings of sovereignty--while Western finance capital retains control of the lion's share of their profitable resources. This relationship has gone under various names: "informal empire," "colonialism without colonies," "neocolonialism," and "neoimperialism."

U.S. political and business leaders were among the earliest practitioners of this new kind of empire, most notably in Cuba at the beginning of the twentieth century. Having forcibly wrested the island from Spain in the war of 1898, they eventually gave Cuba its formal independence. The Cubans now had their own government, constitution, flag, currency, and security force. But major foreign policy decisions remained in U.S. hands as did the island's wealth, including its sugar, tobacco, and tourist industries, and major imports and exports.

Historically U.S. capitalist interests have been less interested in acquiring more colonies than in acquiring more wealth, preferring to make off with the treasure of other nations without bothering to own and administer the nations themselves. Under neoimperialism, the flag stays home, while the dollar goes everywhere--frequently assisted by the sword.

After World War II, European powers like Britain and France adopted a strategy of neoimperialism. Left financially depleted by years of warfare, and facing intensified popular resistance from within the Third World itself, they reluctantly decided that indirect economic hegemony was less costly and politically more expedient than outright colonial rule. They discovered that the removal of a conspicuously intrusive colonial rule made it more difficult for nationalist elements within the previously colonized countries to mobilize anti-imperialist sentiments.

Though the newly established government might be far from completely independent, it usually enjoyed more legitimacy in the eyes of its populace than a colonial administration controlled by the imperial power. Furthermore, under neoimperialism the native government takes up the costs of administering the country while the imperialist interests are free to concentrate on accumulating capital--which is all they really want to do.

After years of colonialism, the Third World country finds it extremely difficult to extricate itself from the unequal relationship with its former colonizer and impossible to depart from the global capitalist sphere. Those countries that try to make a break are subjected to punishing economic and military treatment by one or another major power, nowadays usually the United States.

The leaders of the new nations may voice revolutionary slogans, yet they find themselves locked into the global capitalist orbit, cooperating perforce with the First World nations for investment, trade, and aid. So we witnessed the curious phenomenon of leaders of newly independent Third World nations denouncing imperialism as the source of their countries' ills, while dissidents in these countries denounced these same leaders as collaborators of imperialism.

In many instances a comprador class emerged or was installed as a first condition for independence. A comprador class is one that cooperates in turning its own country into a client state for foreign interests. A client state is one that is open to investments on terms that are decidedly favorable to the foreign investors. In a client state, corporate investors enjoy direct subsidies and land grants, access to raw materials and cheap labor, light or nonexistent taxes, few effective labor unions, no minimum wage or child labor or occupational safety laws, and no consumer or environmental protections to speak of. The protective laws that do exist go largely unenforced.

In all, the Third World is something of a capitalist paradise, offering life as it was in Europe and the United States during the nineteenth century, with a rate of profit vastly higher than what might be earned today in a country with strong economic regulations. The comprador class is well recompensed for its cooperation. Its leaders enjoy opportunities to line their pockets with the foreign aid sent by the U.S. government. Stability is assured with the establishment of security forces, armed and trained by the United States in the latest technologies of terror and repression. Still, neoimperialism carries risks. The achievement of de jure independence eventually fosters expectations of de facto independence. The forms of self rule incite a desire for the fruits of self rule. Sometimes a national leader emerges who is a patriot and reformer rather than a comprador collaborator. Therefore, the changeover from colonialism to neocolonialism is not without risks for the imperialists and represents a net gain for popular forces in the world.

posted April 27, 2006 10:54 AM              

I got this list from here: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/usinterventionism.html

Try some of these to widen your outlook:

US interventions, geostrategy, and other crimes:
http://64.177.75.218/completetimeline/index.htm
http://americanstateterrorism.com/AmericanStateTerrorism.html
http://mediafilter.org/caq/
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm#beginning
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/freeearth/war/chronology_meOCT01.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/046.html
http://www.historyguy.com/War_list.html
http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/foabroad.htm
http://www.cdi.org/
http://www.korpios.org/resurgent/L-thinktank.htm
http://stratfor.com/
http://www.bessereweltlinks.de/english/book73e.htm
http://www.opensecrets.org/
http://www.stoessel.ch/hei/hpi/usa_1895_2000_summary.pdf
http://www2.minorisa.es/inshuti/madsen2.htm
http://globalism-news.com/conspiracy.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/28/039.html
http://tfclub.tripod.com/list.html
http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Foreign_Policy_Failures.html
http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa.html
http://pw1.netcom.com/~ncoic/cia_info.htm
http://www.cia-on-campus.org/
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/us-latin-america.htm

global finance:

http://www.developmentgap.org/
http://www.whirledbank.org/index.html
http://www.federalreserve.gov/
http://www.bilderberg.org/
http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
http://www.worldbank.org/
http://www.wto.org/
http://www.inequality.org/index.html
http://www.marshallfoundation.org/about_gcm/marshall_plan.htm
http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/briefs/vol3/v3n3sap.html
http://www.oneworld.net/guides/sap/front.shtml
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/index.htm
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/index.html

general history and current global affairs:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/coldwar.htm
http://www.rrojasdatabank.org/country1.htm
http://www.krysstal.com/democracy.html\
http://www.travel.dk.com/wdr/
http://www.worldstatesmen.org/
http://www.worldhistory.com/
http://www.world-gazetteer.com/home.htm
http://www.debka.com/pop_up.htm
http://www.countryreports.org/history/
http://www.nysol.se/index3.html
http://history.hyperjeff.net/conflicts/MiddleEast/Timeline2.html
http://www.onwar.com/
http://www.nanana.com/worldhistory.html
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/curricul.htm#6
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/1999/4/17-2_3.html
http://www.angelfire.com/id/multicultural/featureafrica.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/index.html
http://members.tripod.com/Brian_Blodgett/Conflicts.htm
http://www.clamormagazine.org/
http://www.boydgraves.com/timeline/
http://sites.uol.com.br/chpennaforte/generalindex.htm
http://www.iacenter.org/
http://www.citizens4change.org/home.htm
http://www.anti-imperialist.org/
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/
http://www.africa2000.com/directory.html
http://www.worldhistorycompass.com/index.htm

alternative media:

http://www.indymedia.org/
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/index.html
http://wsws.org/
http://www.labourstart.org/
http://www.copvcia.com/
http://www.greenleft.org.au/
http://www.endgame.org/
http://pilger.carlton.com/print/67484
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
http://www.humorisdead.com/index.html
http://www.globalexchange.org/
http://www.zmag.org/weluser.htm
http://protest.net/qatar.html
http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/
http://www.nomorefakenews.com/
http://www.workingforchange.com/index.cfm
http://www.informationwar.org/
http://www.yellowtimes.org/
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/thepropagandamatrix
http://www.everythingblows.com/index.cfm
http://www.americanpolitics.com/index.html
http://www.almartinraw.com/index.html
http://www.mediawhoresonline.com/
http://www.gregpalast.com/
http://www.prwatch.org/improp/research_faq.html
http://www.bushnews.com/
http://www.alternet.org/
http://www.worldwar3report.com/
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/justincol.html
http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR15.shtml
http://www.monthlyreview.org/

posted April 27, 2006 11:37 AM            

But this one caught my eye as I read down your list of outrages supposedly perpetrated by the United States against Central and South American nations and peoples.

"Some of the guerrilla leaders flirted with Communist Party and Trotskyist ideas and groups, falling prey to the usual
factional splits and arguments. Eventually, no ideology or sentiment dominated the movement more than a commitment to the
desperately needed program of land reform aborted by the 1954 coup, a simple desire for a more equitable society, and
nationalist pride vis-à-vis the United States. New York Times, correspondent Alan Howard, after interviewing guerrilla leader Luis Turcios, wrote:"

Luis Turcios was a revoluntionary communist, supported, trained, funded and armed by communist Cuba's Fidel Castro in an attempt to spread communist revolution around the world and more closely to home in Central and South America.

Gone is any deception of a poor, innocent citizen of Guatamala, Luis Turcios simply attempting to help his people. The plan was to enslave the people of Guatamala under a communist regime...just like every other communist regime which ever existed in the world, including Cuba.

"Cuban trained Guatemalans Cesar Montes and Luis Turcios Lima led a violent terrorist/guerrilla campaign against the government in Guatemala. Montes organized the Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) in Guatemala. In the 1980's he joined the FMLN in El Salvador and participated actively in the bloody civil war in that country." http://www.netforcuba.org/Terrorism-EN/Terrorism/Main.htm

Of course goatgirl, it's no surprise to find communists, Noam Chomsky and William Blum, the bums glorifying communists and bashing the United States.

posted April 27, 2006 11:40 AM            

CASTRO AND TERRORISM
1959-2001

A CHRONOLOGY by Eugene Pons,
with a foreword by Jaime Suchlicki,
Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies Occasional Paper Series September 2001

FOREWORD
Since 1948 when, as a young student, Fidel Castro participated in the violence that rocked Colombian
society and distributed anti-U.S. propaganda, he has been guided by two objectives: a commitment to violence and
a virulent anti-Americanism. His struggle since and his
forty-two years rule in Cuba have been characterized primarily by these goals.

In the 1960's Castro and his brother, Raul, believed that the political and economic conditions that produced their revolution existed in Latin America and that anti-American revolutions would occur throughout the continent. Cuban agents and diplomats established contact with revolutionary, terrorist and guerrilla groups in the area and began distributing propaganda, weapons and aid. Many Latin Americans were brought to Cuba for training and then returned to their countries.

At the Tricontinental Conference held in Havana in
1966 and attended by revolutionary leaders from throughout the world, Castro insisted that bullets not ballots was the way to achieve power and provided the institutional means to promote his anti-American, violent line. He insisted that "conditions exist for an armed revolutionary struggle" and criticized those who opposed armed struggle, including some Communist leaders in Latin America, as "traitorous, rightists, and deviationists."

Castro's attempts in the 1960's to bring revolutionary, anti-American regimes to power failed. His support for guerrillas and terrorist groups in Guatemala, Venezuela, and Bolivia only produced violence and suffering to those countries and their people, which repudiated violence as a means to achieve power. Violence resulted in military regimes coming to power in several Latin American countries

For the next two decades, the Cuban leadership, supported by the Soviet Union, modified its tactics. In addition to agents from the America Department, the subversive arm of Cuba's Communist Party, Castro used his Armed Forces to help friendly groups achieve power in Latin America and Africa. In Nicaragua Cuban military personnel, weapons and intelligence supported and helped bring to power the Sandinistas. In El Salvador, a bloody civil war in part fomented and aided by Cuba, ended in a stalemate and a negotiated peace. In Africa, Castro achieved his most significant victories. The Soviet-Cuban backed Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) faction was installed in power in Angola and other Cuban supported regimes came to power throughout the continent. The Cuban military also trained and supplied the South-West African Peoples Organization (SWAPO) and the African National Congress (ANC), forces fighting the South African regime.

Castro also became involved with African-Americans in the U.S. and with the Macheteros, a Puerto Rican terrorist group. Cuba focused particular attention on the black struggle in the U.S., providing aid and training to the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army, as well as a safehaven on the island for black leaders. Castro continuously promoted the independence of Puerto Rico and supported the Macheteros who committed terrorist acts and bank robberies in the United States. Several still live in Cuba.

Cuban military and intelligence personnel aided Middle Eastern groups and regimes in their struggle against Israel, and Cuban troops fought on the side of Arab States, particularly Syria, during the Yom Kippur war. Castro sent military instructors and advisors into Palestinian bases; cooperated with Libya in the founding of World Mathaba, a terrorist movement; and established close military cooperation and exchanges with Iraq, Libya, Southern Yemen, the Polisario Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara, the PLO and others in the Middle East.

Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, Castro continues to undermine U.S. policies in the Middle East in several ways: a) by portraying U.S. actions and diplomacy in the region as those of an aggressor, seeking to impose hegemony by force, particularly in Iraq and the perpetration of unjustified economic sanctions on Iraq and Iran; b) by portraying the U.S. as the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the Israel/Arab conflict; and c) by discrediting U.S. policies and seeking support for Cuba at the U.N. These anti-American views and policies are conveyed as a systematic message through a network of Cuban embassies and agents, as well as at the U.N. and other non-governmental political, religious and cultural organizations.

While not abandoning his close relationships in the Middle East, Castro has recently concentrated his support on several groups: the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), where Castro, and his new ally Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, see significant possibilities for success; ETA, the Basque terrorist/separatist organization from Spain, which has found refuge and support in Cuba, and the Irish Republican Army (IRA), which established its Latin American headquarters in Havana.

American policymakers should pay careful attention to the intricate web of relationships which emerges so clearly from this chronology. It carefully details Castro's involvement with and support for terrorist regimes and organizations during the past four decades. Cuba's geographical location, Castro's continuous connections with these groups and states and the harboring of terrorists in Havana creates a dynamic that requires vigilance and alertness. It should be emphasized that in addition to violence and terrorism, Castro and his regime, have been for more than four decades, the most vocal and active proponents of anti-Americanism. The often-repeated view in many countries that the United States is an evil power, guilty for much of the problems and sufferings of the developing world, is owed in great part to the propaganda efforts of Fidel Castro.

Jaime Suchlicki
Director Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
September 2001

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Castro and Terrorism A Chronology
By Eugene Pons

1959-1967

Raúl Castro and Che Guevara visited Cairo and established contacts with African liberation movements stationed in and supported by Cairo. Both Cuban leaders visited Gaza and expressed support for the Palestinian cause.

Members of the Dominican Republic "Agrupación Política Catorce de Junio" received military training in Cuba.

Major emphasis was placed on instructing several hundred pro-Castro Latin Americans in violence and guerrilla warfare. Dominicans, Guatemalans, Venezuelans and Chileans were trained in special camps in Cuba and infiltrated back to their countries.

Castro established relations with the Algerian FLN; official and public support was extended, weapons were shipped to the FLN through Morocco (1960-1961). Cuba provided shelter, medical and educational services and cooperation in the fields of counter-intelligence and intelligence.

African leaders from Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, South Africa, Spanish Guinea, Tanganyika and Zanzibar arrived in Cuba for military training.

Che Guevara engaged in guerrilla operations in Congo-Kinshasa (former Zaire) in 1965.

A revolutionary trained in Cuba, John Okello, overthrew the pro-Western government in Zanzibar in 1964 and proclaimed the "People's Republic of Zanzibar" which was promptly recognized by Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Conference of Latin American Communist Parties held in Havana agreed to "help actively the guerrilla forces in Venezuela, Guatemala, Paraguay, Colombia, Honduras and Haiti".

Group of Venezuelans, members of the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), trained in Cuba and landed in the Venezuela coast in the State of Miranda.

Cuban trained Guatemalans Cesar Montes and Luis Turcios Lima led a violent terrorist/guerrilla campaign against the government in Guatemala. Montes organized the Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) in Guatemala. In the 1980's he joined the FMLN in El Salvador and participated actively in the bloody civil war in that country.

Cuba welcomed the founding of the PLO. First contacts with Palestinian FATAH in 1965 in Algiers and Damascus.

The Tricontinental Conference was held in Havana in January, 1966 to adopt a common political strategy against colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism. Cuba provided the organizational structure to support terrorist, anti-American groups in the Middle East and Latin America. The Organization for the Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) was created.

Fidel Castro created The National Liberation Directorate (DLN) in Cuba to support revolutionary groups throughout the world. DLN was responsible for planning and coordinating Cuba's terrorist training camps in the island, covert movement of personnel and military supplies from Cuba and a propaganda apparatus.

A Cuban controlled Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO), with its permanent seat in Havana was created to "coordinate and foment the fight against North American imperialism".

In Venezuela, Castro made a relentless and determined effort to create another Cuba by supporting the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) and promoting violence and terrorism against the democratically elected regime of Rómulo Betancourt.

Castro sent weapons via Cairo, to the NLF in Southern Yemen. Cuban agents were sent on fact-finding missions to North and South Yemen (1967- 1968).

Cuba published a small book by French Marxist journalist Regis Debray Revolution in the Revolution, promoting guerrilla warfare in Latin America. The book was translated into various languages and distributed widely.

Cuban supported guerrillas led by Che Guevara moved into Bolivia in an attempt to create "many Vietnams " in South America.

Cuba and Syria developed a close alliance and supported FATAH and the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF).

1968-1975

* Cuba continued its military and political support for FATAH after the Syrians broke with the latter, and Cuban military, political and intelligence support was granted to other Palestinian organizations.

Castro sent military instructors and advisors into Palestinian bases in Jordan to train Palestinian Fedayeen (1968); first high-level delegation from FATAH-PLO visited Cuba (1970).

Several missions sent to Southern Yemen to support NLF/FATAH Ismail both politically and militarily.

Castro began supporting and training of M19, a Colombian guerrilla group that captured the Dominican Embassy and the Justice building in Bogota and assassinated several prominent Colombian judges.

In 1970 a "Mini Manual for Revolutionaries" was published in the official LASO publication Tricontinental, written by Brazilian urban terrorist leader Carlos Marighella. The mini manual gives precise instruction in terror tactics, kidnappings, etc. The short book was translated into numerous languages and distributed worldwide by Cuba.

Cuba commenced political and military cooperation with Somalia's Siad Barre (1969).

Economic and political cooperation began with Libya in 1974.

In 1974 the National Liberation Directorate (DLN) was reorganized into the America Department (DA) under the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee. The DA centralized control over Cuban activities for supporting national liberation movements. The DA was responsible for planning and coordinating Cuba's secret guerrilla and terrorist training camps, networks for the covert movement of personnel and material from Cuba, and a propaganda apparatus. DA agents also operated in Europe and other regions. Trusted Castro ally Manuel Piñeiro, " Barbaroja" was placed in charge.

Cuba provided training and support to the Tupamaros, a terrorist group operating in Uruguay.

Cuba's America Department (DA) set up a network for the funneling of weapons and supplies to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

In 1979 second in command in Cuba's America Department (DA) Armando Ulises Estrada, helped unify Sandinista factions fighting Somoza.

Closer connections with FATAH-PLO and other Palestinian organizations were reinforced, including training of Latin American guerrillas in Lebanon; Cuba's military support included counter-intelligence and intelligence training.

Arafat visited Cuba in 1974.

Cuba provided military support and personnel to Syria during the Yom Kippur War (1973-1975).

Black Panther Party members from the U.S. were trained in Canada by Cuban personnel. Black Panther leaders and other U.S. blacks also received weapons and explosives training in Havana.

Cuba joined with Algeria and Libya on a diplomatic/political offensive in support of Frente POLISARIO (People's Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara and Río del Oro); later on provided military cooperation, and medical services.

1976-1982

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimated that there were 300 Palestinians training in Cuban camps.

Cuba supported the so-called "Steadfastness Front" against the U.S. backed Camp David accord.

Illich Rámirez Sánchez, known as "Carlos, the Jackal", responsible for numerous terrorist acts in Europe, trained in Cuba. He attended the 1966 Tricontinental Conference in Havana and later trained in urban guerrilla tactics, automatic weapons, explosives and sabotage in Cuba.

Abu Iyad, a close aid to Yasser Arafat, stated in 1978 that hundreds of Palestinian had been sent to Cuban terrorist camps.

Additional military and political support provided to the Palestinian cause; Arafat attended the Sixth Non-Aligned Conference in Havana (1979).

During Havana visit, Arafat signed agreement for military cooperation and arms supply.

Significant hard currency loans (tens of million) were facilitated by Arafat-PLO to the Cuban government under very soft terms; Cuba granted diplomatic and political support to Arafat during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

The Aden (South Yemen) regime supported the Ethiopian radical officers commanded by Mengistu Haile Mariam, sending Yemeni military units in support of the latter against Somali aggression, and asking the Cubans to do the same. Cuba joined in, first with a group of officers headed by General Arnaldo Ochoa, a move that was followed later on by the deployment of large Cuban forces against the Somali invasion. Also as part of the alliance with the Aden regime, Cuba granted some small-scale support to the Dhofaris in their armed struggle against the monarchy in Oman.

The Cuban trained Congolese National Liberation Front invaded Shala, Zaire.

As part of Cuba's alliance with Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in Ethiopia, the Cuban leadership decided to engage in active political and military support of the Liberation Movement of Southern Sudan headed by John Garang against the Arab-Muslim regime in Khartoum.

Cuba developed closer ties with and sent military advisors to Iraq.

Cuba's America Department (DA) operated a weapons pipeline to the Farabundo Martí National Front (FMLN) a terrorist group attempting to gain power in El Salvador.

Cuba cooperated with Libya in the political founding of the World MATHABA in Tripoli, to provide political support and coordinate revolutionary violence throughout the world. Cuba supported Libya's stand on Chad and the FRENTE POLISARIO.

Cuban trained terrorists members of the Guatemalan EGP kidnapped a businessman in Guatemala. Several were arrested in Mexico when attempting to collect ransom.

Despite its close links with Baghdad, Cuba recognized and praised the Iranian Revolution. Once Iraq attacked Iran, Castro withdrew his military advisors from Baghdad and adopted a position of official impartiality, though more sympathetic to Baghdad, due to his past relations.

1983-1990

Argentine born Cuban intelligence agent Jorge Massetti helped funnel Cuban funds to finance Puerto Rican terrorists belonging to the Machetero group. The Macheteros highjacked a Wells Fargo truck in Connecticut in September 1983 and stole $7.2 million.

Cuba's America Department (DA) provided, thru Jorge Massetti, weapons and several thousand dollars to the Chilean MIR.

Libyan support to Latin American revolutionary movements, especially in Central America and the whole of the World MATHABA project, declined after the U.S.bombing of Tripoli in 1986.

Cuban agents in Mexico engaged in bank robberies to finance several terrorist groups from Latin America operating out of Mexico.

The Palestinian Intifada increased Cuba's support for Arafat and the PLO, both diplomatic and military.

Several dozen Mexicans received training in terrorism and guerrilla warfare in Sierra del Rosario, Pinar del Rio Province and in Guanabo, in eastern Cuba.

After the negotiations leading to the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, Cuban-Palestinian military cooperation was enhanced, including the areas of counter-intelligence and intelligence.

In early 1989, Cuban General Patricio de la Guardia directed a plot in Havana and charged Jorge Massetti with blowing up the U.S. transmission balloon of TV Martí located in the Florida Keys.

Cuba condemned Iraq for its invasion and annexation of Kuwait, supporting the latter's sovereignty; it also condemned U.S. military operations in the Gulf and abstained at the U.N. from supporting the bulk of the sanctions imposed on Baghdad. A Cuban military delegation was sent to Iraq to learn and share what was considered vital information and experiences from U.S. combat operations in Kuwait and Iraq.

Cuba provided advanced weapons and demolition training to the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Perú. The Tupac Amaru attacked the U.S. Embassy in 1984; bombed the Texaco offices in 1985 and attacked the residence of the U.S. Ambassador in 1985 all in Lima, Perú.

1991-2001

ETA, a Spanish terrorist organization seeking a separate Basque homeland, established the Cuartel General (General Headquarters) in Havana.

A high-level PLO military delegation including the head of Intelligence paid a visit to Cuba.

On February 24, 1996, Cuban Air Force Migs shot down, in international waters, two small unarmed civilian planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami based group. All occupants were killed, including three American citizens.

The election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika (April 1999) as President of Algeria, opened new opportunities for Cuba, given Bouteflika's close relationship with the Cuban government for more than three decades.

PLO leaders continue to have close relations with the Cuban leadership, having access to specialized military and intelligence training, either in Cuba or Palestinian territory, and in the sharing of intelligence.

A spokesman for the Basque government in Spain met in Havana with two high level ETA terrorist taking refuge in Cuba, José Angel Urtiaga Martinez and Jesús Lucio Abrisqueta Corte.

Cuba continued to provide safe haven to several terrorists fugitives from the U.S. They include: Black Liberation Army leader Joanne Chesimard aka Assata Shakur, one of New Jersey's most wanted fugitives for killing a New Jersey State trooper in 1973 and Charlie Hill a member of the Republic of New Afrika Movement wanted for the hijacking of TWA 727 and the murder of a New Mexico State trooper

A number of Basque ETA terrorists who gained sanctuary in Cuba some years ago continued to live on the island, as did several Puerto Ricans members of the Machetero Group.

Castro refused to join the other Ibero-American heads of state in condemning ETA terrorism at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panamá and slammed Mexico for its support of the Summit's statement against terrorism.

Castro continues to maintain ties to several state sponsors of terrorism in Latin America. Colombia's two largest terrorist organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), both maintain a permanent presence on the island.

Colombian officials arrested IRA members Niall Connelly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan and accused then of training the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Connelly had been living in Cuba as the representative of the IRA for Latin America.

Former Defense Department counter-terrorism expert John More told UPI that Cubans, militant Palestinians, Hezbollah and even advisors from the leftist government of Venezuela are all active in Colombia.

During the trial of several Cuban spies in Miami, one of the accused Alejandro Alonso revealed on December 30, 2000 that he was instructed from Havana to locate areas in South Florida "where we can move persons as well as things, including arms and explosives."

Speaking at Tehran University in Iran on May 10, 2001 Fidel Castro vowed that "the imperialist king will finally fall".

Eugene Pons is the Coordinator of Cuba's Information System at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, University of Miami.

Glossary

BPP - Black Panther Party - Founded in the United States in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. It adopted Marxist-Leninist principles along with urban guerrilla warfare, and a structure similar to the American Communist party.

DGI - Directório General de Inteligencia - The Cuban Department in charge of collecting intelligence and carrying out covert operations outside Cuba.

DA - America Department - Centralized control over Cuban activities for supporting national liberation movements, responsible for planning and coordinating Cuba's secret guerrilla and terrorist camps, and propaganda apparatus.

DLN - National Liberation Directorate - Organization created in Cuba to support revolutionary groups throughout the world. Responsible for planning and coordinating Cuba's terrorist training camps in the island, covert movement of personnel and military supplies from Cuba, and propaganda apparatus.

EGP - Ejercito Guerrillero de los Pobres - A political-military Marxist-Leninist organization that followed Cuba and Vietnam as revolutionary models. This Guatemalan insurgent organization was trained in Cuba and was very active during the 1970s, seeking to depose the political and military structure of the country.

ELF - Eritrean Liberation Front - The most influential Eritrean organization fighting for secession from Ethiopia in the 1960s, actively supported by the Cuban and Syrian regime since 1965. Various internal divisions developed later on until the late 1970s, when a new front was built based on very different domestic and external alliances and, eventually led the Eritreans to victory. Cuba's support to Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in 1978 meant the cessation of previous Cuban backing to the Eritrean cause.

ELN - National Liberation Army - Organized by the Castro regime, this Colombian Marxist insurgent group was founded in 1965. Its main terrorist activities includes kidnappings and extortion targeting foreign employees of large corporations.

ETA - Basque Separatist Movement - This organization was founded by militants and leftist students from the University of Madrid in 1962. They formed guerilla units that commit violent terrorist acts claiming that they are fighting for freedom of the Basque Region, in Spain. This group has close relations with the IRA. The two groups have offices in Havana and their members have found safe haven in Cuba.

FALN - Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional - A Venezuelan guerrilla organization trained by Cuba in violence and terrorism.

FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Established in 1964, the FARC is the oldest and best-equipped Marxist insurgency in Colombia. It is a well-organized terrorist group that controls several rural and urban areas. It has received financial and military aid from Cuba and many of its members were trained in Havana. FATAH - Palestine National Liberation Movement - Founded in 1959 by younger generations of Palestinians that had experienced the defeats of 1948 and 1956. The FATAH are strongly committed to a radical nationalist platform to fight for Palestine and against Arab intervention and manipulations of the Palestinian problem. Mostly an underground organization until the June War in 1967 when it transformed itself into the most powerful and influential party inside Palestinian and Arab politics. FLN - Front de Libération National - The political and military organization that led the war of national liberation against French colonial rule between 1954 and 1962. Ruling political party until the 1980s in Algeria.

FMLN - Farabundo Martí National Front - Formed in 1970, the FMLN is a terrorist Marxist-Leninist organization intent on establishing a communist revolutionary regime in El Salvador. The FMLN was extremely active in its terrorist campaign, receiving assistance from Nicaragua and Cuba.

FSLN - Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional - This organization was founded in Havana in 1961 when Carlos Fonseca-Amador's Nicaraguan Patriotic Youth organization merged with Tomas Borge's Cuban-supported insurgent group. The group adopted Marxist-Leninist ideology and gained support from the Castro government, employing low-level guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism tactics to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship.

IRA - Irish Republican Army - The IRA is the most dangerous terrorist organization of Northern Ireland dating back to the early 1920s. Although, it wasn't until the 1970's when the IRA began terrorist actions and resurrected the historical conflicts. The IRA targets political transformation for United Ireland by eliminating Britain from Northern Ireland and replacing the government of Northern Ireland with a socialist government. Its Latin American headquarters are in Havana.

LASO - Latin American Solidarity Organization - A Cuban controlled organization founded during the 1966 Tri-Continental Conference in Havana to "coordinate and foment the fight against North American imperialism."

M-19 - Movimiento 19 de Abril - A Castro supported group formed in 1974 to disrupt Colombia's government through acts of terrorism and violence. The M-19 was very active throughout the 1980s receiving assistance and training from the Montoneros and Tupamaros groups and the Cuban government, causing Colombia to temporarily sever diplomatic relations with Cuba.

M-6-14 - Agrupación Politica Catorce de Junio - Dominican guerrilla organization trained in Cuba.

MACHETEROS - This terrorist organization is composed of four Puerto Rican groups: 1) the Macheteros, 2) the Ejercito Popular Borícua (EPB), 3) the Movimiento Popular Revolucionario, and 4) the Partido Revolucionario de Trabajadores Puertorriqueños. Most of the Macheteros have been trained in Cuba, were they have established relations with other terrorist groups. They are responsible for several terrorist acts within the United States and throughout Puerto Rico.

MIR - Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria - A Chilean insurgent organization founded in 1965 and supported by Castro. The MIR was very active in the mid-1970s when they promoted violence and occupied several rural areas in Chile. The group encountered several set backs during the 1980s that essentially ended their activity.

MONTONEROS - An Argentinean guerilla organization that was formed in 1968 as a Peronist urban anti-government group. It adopted a Marxist ideology in the mid-1970s after it united with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Argentina. In 1977, many of its members were exiled and its numbers reduced to less than 300.

MRTA - Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement - Marxist-Leninist revolutionary organization formed in 1983 and supported by the Castro regime. The MRTA's intent was to establish a Marxist regime in Peru through terrorism, although Peru's counter terrorism program diminished the groups' ability to effectively carry out terrorist attacks.

NLF - National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen - Created in 1962 in the course of the revolution in North Yemen against the monarchy and supported by Nasser, the NLF is another important and successful branch of the Arab Nationalist Movement. Since 1965 it has had very close relations with Cuba. In 1966-1967, it broke with Nasser and finally forced the British to negotiate and evacuate Aden. OSPAAL - Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America - Founded in 1966 in Cuba at the Tri-Continental Conference, this organization aims to support the struggle of the people of Africa, Asia and Latin America against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism. PLO - Palestine Liberation Organization - This organization was founded in Cairo in 1964 under the auspices of Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic) to serve Nasser's manipulations of the Palestinian cause. The group was composed mostly of conservative Palestinian intellectuals and bureaucrats serving Arab governments. The PLO was an instrument of Nasser's foreign policy until the June War of 1967, when the old PLO leadership collapsed to be replaced by FATEH's leadership headed by Arafat. POLISARIO - People's Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara and Río del Oro - The Frente POLISARIO was inspired by the ANM tradition and the Algerian FLN and was created to fight against the Spanish-Morrocan-Mauritinian arrangements to split the former colony of Saguía el Hamra/Río del Oro (known as Western Sahara) between the two African states. This group enjoyed active support from Algeria and Libya and Cuba. POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINES - The most important branch of the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), created in the 1950s as radical followers of Nasser. After the June War of 1967, the group disassociated itself from Nasser and focused on building a more radical alternative within the Palestinians under the name of Popular Front. The group has strong alliances within Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen, and the Gulf, and was heavily engaged in terrorist activities during the 1970s. TRICONTINENTAL - Cuban publication disseminated by the Organization for the Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL) in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Italian / promoting the Castro line of armed struggle.

TUPAMAROS or MNL - Movimiento Nacional de Liberación Tupamaros - This Uruguay insurgent group was organized in the early 1960s by law student Raul Sendic. The Tupamaros were one of the first terrorist groups to use guerrilla warfare in urban areas and established independent terrorist cells throughout the country.

WORLD MATHABA - A Libyan project from the late 1970s to promote political, financial, and military support for revolutionary movements throughout the world. Ghaddafi called on other "revolutionary governments" to support this project, which Cuba did. MATHABA was essentially a tool in the hands of the Libyans to project their individual goals and agenda. Financial and military assistance was never a collective decision, but responded for the most part to bilateral arrangements between Ghaddafi's regime and individual organizations, some of which resorted, at different stages, to terrorist methods like the IRA and ETA. Insurgencies in Central America, like the Sandinistas and others, were privileged beneficiaries along with the African National Congress, Frente POLISARIO, and others.

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Terrorism Research Center, The, "Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Next Generation Terrorism Analysis." http://www.terrorism.com/terrorism/MRTA.shtml, 1996 - 2000. Times, The, "Arrested IRA man 'is Sinn Fein Cuba link'". British News, August 2001.

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- oOo -

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Luis Aguilar León, Institute for Cuban & Cuban-American Studies
Graciella Cruz-Taura, Florida Atlantic University
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Irving Louis Horowitz, Rutgers University
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Recently Published
Irving Louis Horowitz, "Political Pilgrimage to Cuba, 1959-1995." (August 1996).

Joaquín Roy, "España, la Uni?n Europea y Cuba: la evoluci?n de una relaci?n especial a una política de gestos y de presi?n." (September 1996).

Antonio Jorge, "Methodology, Ideology, and the Economy: The Dismal State of Cuban Studies." (October 1996).

Enrique A. Baloyra, "Twelve Monkeys: Cuban National Defense and the Military." (November 1996)

José Manuel Hernández, "Félix Varela: El primer cubano." (December 1996).Double Issue: "Facing the Future: Two views on Cuba's Inevitable Transition." Includes Edward González, "Cuba's Dismal Post-Castro Futures" and Alberto Coll, "The Future of U.S.-Cuba Relations." (February 1996).

Gert Oostindie, "A Loss of Purpose: Crisis and Transition in Cuba." (March 1997).

Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello and Arnaldo Lauzurique, "Documentos del Instituto Cubano de Economistas Independientes." (April 1997).

Jaime Suchlicki, "Cuba: A Current Assessment." (May 1997).

Graciella Cruz-Taura, "De Patria Soñada a Nación Funesta: Cuba en la Obra de José Antonio Saco." (June 1997).

Emilio T. González, "The Cuban Connection: Drug Trafficking and the Castro Regine." (July 1997).

Gustavo Pérez-Firmat, "A Willingness of the Heart: Cubanidad, Cubaneo, Cubanía."(September 1997).

Jorge Duany, "From the Cuban ajiaco to the Cuban-American Hyphen: Changing Discourses of National Identity on the island and in the Diaspora." (October 1997).

Ricardo Pau-Llosa, "The Tasks of Exile." (November 1997).Ileana Fuentes, "De Patria a Matria." (December 1997).

Holly Ackerman, "Five Meanings of Cuba's Political Prisoners." (February 1998).

Juan del Aguila, "Exiles or Immigrants? The Politics of National Identity." (March 1998).

José Manuel Hernández, "The Politics of Wishful Thinking: Nineteenth Century Precedents of the Bay of Pigs." (April 1998).

George Lambie, "Cuban-European Relations: Historical Perspectives and Political Consequences." (May 1998).

Charlotte Cosner,"Vegueros and Tabaqueros: Rebellion, Revolution, and 'The Devil's Plant': Challenges to State Control in Colonial Cuba." (June 1998).

Maria Werlau, "Impressions on the Visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba." (September 1998).

Juan Clark, "The Pope's Visit to Cuba and its Aftermath." (June 1999).

Domingo Amuchastegui, "Cuba in the Middle East: A Brief Chronology." (July 1999).

Antonio Jorge, "The U.S. Embargo and the Failure of the Cuban Economy." (February 2000).

Efren Cordova and Eduardo Garcia Moure, "Modern Slavery: Labor Conditions in Cuba." (April 2000).

Efren Cordova and Eduardo Garcia Moure, "La situacion de los trabajadores en Cuba." (April 2000).

Jaime Suchlicki, "The U.S. Embargo of Cuba." (June 2000).

Sara M. Sanchez, "Afro-Cuban Diasporan Religions: A Comparative Analysis of the Literature and Selected Annotated Bibliography." (August 2000).

Irving Louis Horowitz, "Searching for the Soul of American Foreign Policy: The Cuban Embargo and the National Interest." (September 2000).

Dr. Moises Asís, "Judaism in Cuba: 1959-1999." (December 2000).

posted April 27, 2006 12:22 PM              

quote:

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it's no surprise to find communists, Noam Chomsky and William Blum, the bums glorifying communists and bashing the United States.

---

Noam Chomsky is not an communist, so I don't know why you are labeling him as such. I am not sure about the political affiliation of Mr. Blum, so I cant speak to that.

The nice thing about America, in fact one of the most wonderful in my opinion, is that WE are all FREE to state our OPINIONS and THOUGHTS. If you disagree, that's OK too. You are FREE to voice your OPINIONS and THOUGHTS as well. There's really no need to label someone as "ANTI-AMERICAN" or "AMERICA HATER" just for exercising that right.

I think that some maybe confusing being Anti-Imperialism, for Anti-American.

A question for those of you residing in ENgland or France...How did that work out for each of your respective countries anyhow? DId it work out well and positively, or did it fail miserably?

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." - Abbie Hoffman

posted April 27, 2006 12:50 PM              

thank you so much for presenting all this relevant information here.

posted April 27, 2006 04:35 PM            

quote:

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Noam Chomsky is not an communist, so I don't know why you are labeling him as such. I am not sure about the political affiliation of Mr. Blum, so I cant speak to that.

---

Do you perceive people's political leaning to be what they say it is? Or do you look at what they are saying and see where it falls into the political spectrum?

In both cases, Chomsky and Blum, they are communists, they promote communist ideas of government and economics.

They are both rabidly anti-America. If you can show me some articles, quotes where they are complimentary of America...depending on what it happens to be, I might change my mind.

I have read some of what each has had to say about America. They are befuddled, irresponsible, far left radicals who have not one good word, now or in the past for the United States.

And yet, they continue on in the belly of the beast they despise. They have no character and no guts. If these gutless wonders had either, they would have packed up and left the US long ago.

We are not going to change America to suit the notions of far left radical collectivists.

posted April 28, 2006 12:38 PM              

quote:

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In both cases, Chomsky and Blum, they are communists, they promote communist ideas of government and economics.

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I want to make sure that I understand what you define communism as in this particular context. Could you please expand upon what your working definition of communism is in this conversation, as pertaining to your critisism of these individuals and their statements?

quote:

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They are both rabidly anti-America. I have read some of what each has had to say about America. They are befuddled, irresponsible, far left radicals who have not one good word, now or in the past for the United States.

---

What do you define as Anti-American in this particular context as pertaining to these individuals? Could you please post some of the statements you consider to be Anti-American? And please make note of which ones would be, in your opinion, rabidly Anti-American.

quote:

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We are not going to change America to suit the notions of far left radical collectivists.

---

Though there has been much discussion upon the matters of the so-called right versus the so-called left as far as the political spectrum within this nation goes, I would be very interested in learning your particular take on how this breaks down.
Where do you personally draw this line between right and left? At what point does this line occur? Could you please cite examples of activites on both the "right" and the "left" of the political spectrum (as far as your personal opinion is concerned)?
Extending this, where is the "far left" situated? What kind of behaviors within the realm of politics and governance would be defined as being "far left" by you?
As well, being a "radical"? How are you defining this term? When does an opinion or viewpoint go from being non-radical to radical? Is there a further extreme of this vector of definition of political leaning?
And as a final question, what is your definition of collectivism? What makes these individuals collectivists, in your opinion? Can you also please cite quotes and sources for this point of contention?

I appreciate your input and candor.

posted April 28, 2006 12:52 PM            

You and I seem to be having one hell of a communication problem. It is not enough to just quote a million sources or a list of US interventions.

The question is not IF the interventions occured, but the question is about the validity of the wacknuts facts taken from real facts / documents from those times.

In a similar fashion if I am writing a book on the non-pathogenicity of e-coli in hamburger, I can take thousands of sources and then tailor my "take" on scientific or factual documents to support MY theory.

Say I work for the meat packers industry and in truth I am against the random testing of the meat because it is cost prohibitive. I will take every factual source, article and microbiology book and make a case for how e-coli actually helps our bodies, how insane it is to test for such a small organism and make a major case for the fact that young and eldery that died deserved it because they couldn't fight off infections.

Now, is it truth? Well, it is one person's version of truth as they see it. But, if I posted that article or published that book and people believed it as gospel - do you see how it would be wrong? Of COURSE I would have a vested interest, I am on the side of the meat packing industry. Of course this Blum has a vested interest, he has made his money as a rabid Anti-American Socialist that feels it necessary to dismantle our capitalistic government any way he can.

posted April 28, 2006 02:25 PM              

quote:

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You and I seem to be having one hell of a communication problem. It is not enough to just quote a million sources or a list of US interventions.

---

quote:

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The question is not IF the interventions occured, but the question is about the validity of the wacknuts facts taken from real facts / documents from those times.

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The inclusion of the term “wacknuts” indicates to me that you may have information concerning the mental clarity of the authors in question. Please provide supportive data to render this term useful to the discussion at hand, such as results of psychological profiles or medical records. I would be greatly interested in learning more about this information that you may have access to.

quote:

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In a similar fashion if I am writing a book on the non-pathogenicity of e-coli in hamburger, I can take thousands of sources and then tailor my "take" on scientific or factual documents to support MY theory.

---

Research (including lab work or source work) supports or refutes hypotheses not theories. An individual with a liberal arts or (especially) science education should understand this distinction. Hypotheses only become theories after a community of researchers has come to consensus on the matter.

quote:

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Say I work for the meat packers industry and in truth I am against the random testing of the meat because it is cost prohibitive. I will take every factual source, article and microbiology book and make a case for how e-coli actually helps our bodies, how insane it is to test for such a small organism and make a major case for the fact that young and eldery that died deserved it because they couldn't fight off infections.

---

As an aside, a method was developed at Iowa State University to test for e-coli in a matter of 15 minutes, it is currently being phased in as part of the distribution process in many food-packing facilities. It is quite cost effective and should reduce the incidence of food-borne illness in this country greatly.

quote:

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Now, is it truth? Well, it is one person's version of truth as they see it. But, if I posted that article or published that book and people believed it as gospel - do you see how it would be wrong? Of COURSE I would have a vested interest, I am on the side of the meat packing industry. Of course this Blum has a vested interest, he has made his money as a rabid Anti-American Socialist that feels it necessary to dismantle our capitalistic government any way he can.

---

“Would be wrong...” As before, this conclusion would require the consensus of a community to determine. Especially in matters of public policy, further discussion is required for any conclusions to be made. With a matter of warfare, such as the cases in question, the line between “right” and “wrong” often blurs to such a point as to be a pointless matter of discussion. Let us speak more in terms of “justified” or “promoting the public welfare”, or even “the greater good of our society.”

Again, as to Blum's medical conditions (i.e. Rabies), I have no knowledge of his current health. If you could please properly reference this condition for us, this may give us a better understanding of some underlying condition that may be causing fits of rage, or foaming at the mouth, etc. Yes, if this is a chronic condition, he may have to be quarantined for his own good, and the greater good of our society. Many municipal no-kill animal shelters provide this quarantine service at a nominal fee.

As far as being an Anti-American Socialist, feel free to expand on this subject, as it seems to be a re-occurring theme. I have yet to encounter any statements as to the economic leanings of Mr. Blum, though, this has not been my main focus in reading his materials. As well, if this individual is “Anti-American” as you say, what, then, do you imagine that he is “Pro-”? Is he “Pro-Ukraine”? “Pro-Bolivia”? Please expand on this point.

And, last but not least, the statement “our capitalistic government.” In what way is our Government a Capitalistic Institution? Is the government turning a profit? It is my understanding that it is our Economic system that is capitalistic. Our Government is a Federal Republic with a Long Tradition of Democracy. Please outline the capitalistic elements of our government. Again, please expand.

Could you please address these issues in a well organized fashion?

I appreciate your comments and input .

posted April 28, 2006 02:45 PM            

The term wacknut is highly subjective and not a clinical diagnosis, so I do not owe you any factual information concerning this persons mental health or wellbeing as it is a personal opinion based on the persons ability to filter facts and interpert studies or events as he would see fit.

As far as trying to throw sience in my face (Um, we don't consider it liberal arts although "Arts and Science" are usually ruled by the same Dean) I graduated with a BA in Biology and Chemistry with post graduate work. I am not worried about your questioning of my use of termonology since I was giving an example not full scientific study as I would have when I designed and excuted an extensive study on the detoxification of heavy metals using a chelation technique not yet known to our modern science.

Yes, the hypothesis is the beginning of the equation, which is then either proven or disproven. From the evidence / results we then move to the realm of theory.

In some cases there still is not enough evidence to either prove or disprove an area of scientific study or non-science. Two examples would be 1) the Theory of Evolution and 2) The Theory of Creationism.

To this day there are still massive gaps in both theories - yet even with minimal evidence we call them theories. They were based on a hypothesis that should one event or a series of events occur that would either prove or disprove the hypothesis and from there a theory would be derived.

Now I am sure you "googled" theory to try and throw a monkey wrench in my post and makes yourself look intelligent. Unfortunately you got the inference wrong.

The example of e-coli was just an example. I am familiar with the rapid ID methods for testing various pathogens in substance. My emphasis is in Microbiology (specifically regarding food borne illnesses, zoonotic diseases and bioterroris). I ran a diagnostic lab for veterinary resources for a large East coast university. I taught upper division microbiology classes at the university I from where I graduated. I also served for 5 years as a Sr. Research Associate for a well known biotech company on the East Coast where I did studies on our products in order to determine if a substance would strong enough to select various pathogenic bacteria and would take place in a culture and sensitive test conducted on unknown samples.

In my last capacity I was the county's surveillance specialist for bioterrorism, again specializing in infectious diseases and epidemiology. I did investigations on food borne illnesses, monitored ID databases as well as put together the county response plans for the "Strategic National Stockpile' in the even we are struck in a biological, chemical or nuclear agent and we need to distribute various prophylaxis to the community. I worked closely with the Center for Disease control, AZ state and consortium states in the development of these plans. Are you now satisfied with my creditionals?

Oh yes, and as I was going through the university my first major was education, in which I am almost qualified as having a minor. I now write administer grants and serve as the director of the educational service agency that works with our county's educators and students.

By the way, the Rapid ID of pathogenic organisms is only one step. Once id's they are also put through the old fashion step of plating, incubating and culturing the pure colony. The rapid tests mostly used an antibody type of method (what we call ELISA) and some are now moving towards a rapid DNA test that can be performed with a machine the size of palm pilot. I am also familiar with the workings of rapid and not so rapid DNA testing if you would like for me to go into that for you as well.

posted April 28, 2006 02:45 PM              

The logic you laid out is brilliant...and it's perfectly clear to me.

It's obvious you're looking for 'facts'(as opposed to 'fiction'), same as a lot of others here require....and you deserve them...

posted April 28, 2006 06:35 PM            

When you hear the word(s) Progressive, Progressive elements, Progressive Legislation, Progressive Groups, you are hearing the communist buzzword which covers the modern day repository of the old hard line communists. They will be found in the Progressive Movement and in Congress in the Progressive Caucus. They are communists.

Interestingly enough, you will hear these words coming out of the mouth of people like Howard Dean, Charles Schumer and Bernie Sanders...among other democrats from time to time.

Noam Chomsky is a communist who uses communist buzzwords and whose rhetoric could have come straight off the pages of Pravda during the murderous reign of the USSR, or off the literature and rhetoric of the Workers World Party, International ANSWER et.al. Just don't expect Noam Chomsky or any of the others, including William Blum to admit they are in fact communists. The reason they won't is the word communists and communism leaves a very foul taste in most peoples mouths...so, they are now Progressives. Nice ring to that word eh? But they are in no way forward looking for forward thinking. They pursue the very same shopworn, discredited and catastrophic notions of government that Karl Marx spewed in the 19th Century. Progressive indeed.

Popular Struggle, and Social Justice are other communist buzzwords you will find sprinkled liberally through their rhetoric.

Notice when communists are talking about government, they use the word state which has nothing to do with land divisions within a country, i.e., State of Iowa.

The Communist Party USA is an organization of revolutionaries working to bring about social change in a conscious, progressive direction....Communist Party USA http://www.cpusa.org/article/static/511

As for myself, I’ve taken the same position as in 2000. If you are in a swing state, you should vote to keep the worst guys out. If it’s another state, do what you feel is best. There are many considerations. Bush and his administration are publicly committed to dismantling and destroying whatever progressive legislation and social welfare has been won by popular struggles over the past century....Noam Chomsky

The urgency is for popular progressive groups to grow and become strong enough so that centres of power can’t ignore them. Forces for change that have come up from the grass roots and shaken the society to its core include the labour movement, the civil rights movement, the peace movement, the women’s movement and others, cultivated by steady, dedicated work at all levels, every day, not just once every four years....Noam Chomsky

In the state capitalist democracies, the public arena has been extended and enriched by long and bitter popular struggle....Noam Chomsky

posted April 28, 2006 06:51 PM              

Your posts are making no sense....

Could you please help understand?

Sending lots of love....

posted April 28, 2006 07:02 PM              

I fail to see how Pid listing all her "scientific accomplishments," answers your questions..

There were some of your questions that were not addressed....I guess they got buried under all the accomplishments.

posted April 28, 2006 07:27 PM            

She questioned my scientific background. Reread the post using your brain and not the hate filter you have reserved for those of us that you don't agree with.

I do believe that once there was a post questioning your "nativeness" and you went off to describe your family tree. What is the difference between someone challenging my scientific background (and hard work to achieve where I am now) and me posting my credentials in return?

Does it bother you? Do you feel that I should have to keep my hard work secret because it makes you feel uncomfortable? Should I shy away because someone called me out and used terms such as "rapid testing from Iowa state" or questioned my example of theory versus hypothesis and then made a blatent statement questioning the validity of my education?

I think not Rainbow. I put myself through college and worked my @ss off to get where I am - pretty damn good for a woman don't ya think? Oh wait, you will find something completely irrelevent to point out next and then make about 4 posts concerning that point huh?

Oh and Rainbow,

This is exactly what I was mentioning on the other thread to Harpyr. You absolutely cannot help but to track down all of my posts or lurk around to find the next thread I post on to make one of your passive aggressive comments.

Keep up the good work because you are giving more ammunition to hold against you and to prove the bitter contempt you hold for certain people. Should I now call you names and tell you to BUTT OUT in special little graphics like you did to me? Should I tell you to knock it off?

I think once others start to watch your posting style they will see how you can't wait to post after me to make little comments about me - even if they have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

posted April 28, 2006 10:30 PM              

goatgirl said...

quote:

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As far as being an Anti-American Socialist, feel free to expand on this subject, as it seems to be a re-occurring theme. I have yet to encounter any statements as to the economic leanings of Mr. Blum, though, this has not been my main focus in reading his materials. As well, if this individual is “Anti-American” as you say, what, then, do you imagine that he is “Pro-”? Is he “Pro-Ukraine”? “Pro-Bolivia”? Please expand on this point.

And, last but not least, the statement “our capitalistic government.” In what way is our Government a Capitalistic Institution? Is the government turning a profit? It is my understanding that it is our Economic system that is capitalistic. Our Government is a Federal Republic with a Long Tradition of Democracy. Please outline the capitalistic elements of our government. Again, please expand.

Could you please address these issues in a well organized fashion?

---

...and I'd like to address some comments you made to me....

Pid said....

quote:

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I do believe that once there was a post questioning your "nativeness" and you went off to describe your family tree

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There was NEVER a post questioning my "nativeness!" I don't know where you come up with this stuff...

.....and she also says.....

quote:

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You absolutely cannot help but to track down all of my posts or lurk around to find the next thread I post on to make one of your passive aggressive comments.

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Ah...you mean like this thing you just did below...jumping over to another thread and not only commenting THERE on my post....but HERE as well (where it wasn't posted)?

quote:

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Hey thanks for defiling Christ Rainbow, that is something to be proud of.
<http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/001895.html>

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The quote above is what I'm referring to...
You just did what you accused me of doing...

Pid also said....

quote:

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Keep up the good work because you are giving more ammunition to hold against you and to prove the bitter contempt you hold for certain people.

---

Ammunition you say?

I thought people only needed "ammunition" when they are in a war...Why do you need ammunition??? Are you warring?

Let's give it a rest, Pid....