mintpressnews--2020-07-14--Trump Tells Florida Crowd “Something Will Happen in Venezuela” Soon

On a trip to COVID-19 riddled Florida this weekend , President Donald Trump not-so-cryptically revealed that he had something big planned for Venezuela during a meeting with leaders of the U.S. military ’ s Southern Command .
“ Something will happen with Venezuela .
That ’ s all I can tell you , ” he said , before adding that Washington would be “ very much involved ” in what he was referencing .
On Trump ’ s orders , Southern Command moved large numbers of forces to the region , ostensibly to conduct a counter-narcotics operation against Venezuela , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ narco state , ” with the DEA offering a $ 15 million bounty for President Maduro ’ s head .
This , despite the fact the U.S. government ’ s own reports on drug smuggling barely even mention Venezuela and official summaries show that U.S.-allies Colombia and Ecuador are the sources of the vast majority of South American drugs that end up in the U.S .
In May , Juan Guaidó , the Washington-backed self-declared president of Venezuela , green-lighted a coup attempt led by American ex-Green Berets that ended in total @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a spent force , the “ Beto O ’ Rourke of Venezuela , ” President Trump continued to publicly back Guaidó , telling a group of hardline Venezuelan and Cuban expats in Miami-Dade County this weekend that he still “ stands with the righteous leader of Venezuela.
” A recent poll found that only three percent of Venezuelans recognize Guaidó as legitimate , and over 80 percent of the country say the entire opposition movement has “ no credibility ” whatsoever .
This weekend , Trump ’ s Special Advisor on Venezuela @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not just on Venezuela , which is under a virtual total blockade , but on any company found to be helping the importation of goods to the country in any way .
Abrams has managed to force London-based Lloyd ’ s Registrar to withdraw insurance and registration to ships the U.S. deems to be helping break the blockade , meaning they are unable to dock anywhere in the world .
“ It ’ s just not worth the hassle or the risk for [ companies ] , ” he gleefully told Reuters .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ t cooperate…We ’ ll go after the ship , the ship owner , the ship captain.
” U.S. citizens breaking the embargo already face 30 years in prison .
Thus , Abrams appears to have dusted off his Nicaragua strategy from the 1980s , where the country was sanctioned and attacked so badly that they eventually gave in and accepted the U.S.-backed candidate Violetta Chamorro as president in 1990 .
Washington ’ s power and influence have helped bring the Venezuelan economy to a standstill , with oil exports at their lowest in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ formally condemned by the United Nations ; an American U.N. rapporteur visiting the country and estimating that over 100,000 people have been killed as a result , declaring the U.S. guilty of “ crimes against humanity.
” Sanctions are a bi-partisan endeavor , beginning under President Obama in 2015 , who declared a “ national emergency ” due to the “ unusual and extraordinary threat ” Venezuela was posing to the United States .
Trump ’ s latest move to tighten the noose even further around the necks of Venezuelans appears to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to shore up the vote of the large Latin American expat vote in Southern Florida , a state where polls show he is falling further behind Joe Biden .
In the 2013 election , at least 92.5 percent of Venezuelans in Florida voted against Maduro and for the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski .
Biden has also taken a hard line on Venezuela and is attempting to out-hawk Trump on the issue .
“ It ’ s time for free and fair elections so that the Venezuelan people can turn the page on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said , adding that , “ Trump talks tough on Venezuela , but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro .
As President , I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy.
” Last month the largest Democratic Super PAC began running ads aimed at Latino Florida Latinos comparing Trump to Maduro , his predecessor Hugo Chavez , and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro .
A recent poll found that only 19 percent of Venezuelans had confidence that the situation would improve in the short term .
The U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ correct in their pessimism .
Feature photo | President Donald Trump speaks about the counternarcotics operations at U.S. Southern Command , July 10 , 2020 , in Doral , Fla. Evan Vucci | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books : Bad News From Venezuela : Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age : Still Manufacturing Consent .
He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .

On a trip to COVID-19 riddled Florida this weekend, President Donald Trump not-so-cryptically revealed that he had something big planned for Venezuela during a meeting with leaders of the U.S. military’s Southern Command. “Something will happen with Venezuela. That’s all I can tell you,” he said, before adding that Washington would be “very much involved” in what he was referencing.
On Trump’s orders, Southern Command moved large numbers of forces to the region, ostensibly to conduct a counter-narcotics operation against Venezuela, which the U.S. has described as a “narco state,” with the DEA offering a $15 million bounty for President Maduro’s head. This, despite the fact the U.S. government’s own reports on drug smuggling barely even mention Venezuela and official summaries show that U.S.-allies Colombia and Ecuador are the sources of the vast majority of South American drugs that end up in the U.S. In May, Juan Guaidó, the Washington-backed self-declared president of Venezuela, green-lighted a coup attempt led by American ex-Green Berets that ended in total failure.
Despite privately writing him off as a spent force, the “Beto O’Rourke of Venezuela,” President Trump continued to publicly back Guaidó, telling a group of hardline Venezuelan and Cuban expats in Miami-Dade County this weekend that he still “stands with the righteous leader of Venezuela.” A recent poll found that only three percent of Venezuelans recognize Guaidó as legitimate, and over 80 percent of the country say the entire opposition movement has “no credibility” whatsoever.
This weekend, Trump’s Special Advisor on Venezuela, Elliott Abrams announced brand new sanctions not just on Venezuela, which is under a virtual total blockade, but on any company found to be helping the importation of goods to the country in any way. Abrams has managed to force London-based Lloyd’s Registrar to withdraw insurance and registration to ships the U.S. deems to be helping break the blockade, meaning they are unable to dock anywhere in the world. “It’s just not worth the hassle or the risk for [companies],” he gleefully told Reuters. “There are people who don’t cooperate…We’ll go after the ship, the ship owner, the ship captain.” U.S. citizens breaking the embargo already face 30 years in prison. Thus, Abrams appears to have dusted off his Nicaragua strategy from the 1980s, where the country was sanctioned and attacked so badly that they eventually gave in and accepted the U.S.-backed candidate Violetta Chamorro as president in 1990.
US terrorist Elliot Abrams opens up about plans to cause a famine and deprive the poor of medicine in Venezuela https://t.co/gCAa3Ypy2d — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 13, 2020
Washington’s power and influence have helped bring the Venezuelan economy to a standstill, with oil exports at their lowest in modern history. The sanctions regime was formally condemned by the United Nations; an American U.N. rapporteur visiting the country and estimating that over 100,000 people have been killed as a result, declaring the U.S. guilty of “crimes against humanity.” Sanctions are a bi-partisan endeavor, beginning under President Obama in 2015, who declared a “national emergency” due to the “unusual and extraordinary threat” Venezuela was posing to the United States.
Trump’s latest move to tighten the noose even further around the necks of Venezuelans appears to be at least partially motivated by his desire to shore up the vote of the large Latin American expat vote in Southern Florida, a state where polls show he is falling further behind Joe Biden. In the 2013 election, at least 92.5 percent of Venezuelans in Florida voted against Maduro and for the opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski.
Biden has also taken a hard line on Venezuela and is attempting to out-hawk Trump on the issue. “It’s time for free and fair elections so that the Venezuelan people can turn the page on the corrupt and repressive Maduro regime,” he said, adding that, “Trump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like Nicolas Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy.” Last month the largest Democratic Super PAC began running ads aimed at Latino Florida Latinos comparing Trump to Maduro, his predecessor Hugo Chavez, and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. A recent poll found that only 19 percent of Venezuelans had confidence that the situation would improve in the short term. The U.S.’ latest moves suggest they would be correct in their pessimism.
Feature photo | President Donald Trump speaks about the counternarcotics operations at U.S. Southern Command, July 10, 2020, in Doral, Fla. Evan Vucci | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.


mintpressnews--2020-07-14--10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War

Since George Floyd was murdered , we have seen an increasing convergence of the “ war at home ” against Black and brown people with the “ wars abroad ” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries .
Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities , as militarized police treat our cities as occupied war zones .
In response to this “ endless war ” at home , the growing and thunderous cries for defunding the police have been echoed by calls for defunding the Pentagon ’ s wars .
Instead of seeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we should see them as intimately linked , since the racialized police violence on our streets and the racialized violence the U.S. has long inflicted on people around the world are mirror reflections of each other .
We can learn more about the war at home by studying the wars abroad , and learn more about the wars abroad by studying the war at home .
Here are some of those connections : • The U.S. kills people of color at home and abroad .
The United States was founded on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ genocide against Native Americans to upholding the system of slavery .
U.S. police kill about 1,000 people per year , disproportionately in the Black community and other communities of color .
U.S. foreign policy is similarly based on the white superiority-derived concept of “ American exceptionalism , ” in tandem with European partners .
The endless series of wars the U.S. military has fought abroad would not be possible without a view of the world that dehumanizes foreign peoples .
“ If you want to bomb or invade a foreign country filled with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States military so often does , you have to first demonize those people , dehumanize them , suggest they ’ re backward people in need of saving or savage people in need of killing , ” said journalist Mehdi Hasan .
The U.S. military has been responsible for the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of Black and brown people around the world , and the denial of their rights to national self-determination .
The double standard that sanctifies the lives of U.S. troops and citizens , but disregards the people whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is as hypocritical as the one that values white lives over Black and brown lives at home .
• Just as the U.S. was created by taking over the lands of Indigenous peoples by force , so America as an empire uses war to expand access to markets and resources .
Settler colonialism has been an “ endless war ” at home against Indigenous nations , who were colonized when their lands were still defined as foreign territories , to be annexed for their fertile land and natural resources .
The Army forts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the equivalent of foreign military bases today , and the Native resisters were the original “ insurgents ” who were in the way of American conquest .
The “ Manifest Destiny ” colonization of Native lands morphed into overseas imperial expansion , including the seizure of Hawai ’ i , Puerto Rico , and other colonies , and the counterinsurgency wars in the Philippines and Vietnam .
In the 21st century , U.S.-led wars have destabilized the Middle East and Central Asia , while increasing control over the region ’ s fossil fuel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ template of the Indian Wars to frighten the American public with the specter of “ lawless tribal regions ” that need to be “ tamed , ” within countries such as Iraq , Afghanistan , Yemen , and Somalia .
Meanwhile , Wounded Knee in 1973 and Standing Rock in 2016 show how settler colonialism can become remilitarized back in the U.S. “ homeland.
” Stopping oil pipelines and toppling Columbus statues shows how Indigenous resistance can also be renewed in the heart of the empire .
• The police and military are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Black Lives Matter protests , many people have now learned about the origins of U.S. police in all-white slave patrols .
It is no accident that hiring and promotion within police departments have historically favored whites , and officers of color around the country continue to sue their departments for discriminatory practices .
The same is true in the military , where segregation was official policy until 1948 .
Today , people of color are pursued to fill the bottom ranks , but not the top positions .
Military recruiters set up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where government disinvestment in social services and education makes the military one of the few ways to not only get a job , but access to health care and a free college education .
That ’ s why about 43 percent of the 1.3 million men and women on active duty are people of color , and Native Americans serve in the Armed Forces at five times the national average .
But the upper echelons of the military remain almost exclusively a white-boys ’ club ( of the 41 senior commanders , only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a woman ) .
Under Trump , racism in the military is on the rise .
A 2019 survey found that 53 percent of servicemembers of color said they had seen examples of white nationalism or ideologically driven racism among their fellow troops , a number up significantly from the same poll in 2018 .
Far-right militias have attempted to both infiltrate the military and collude with police .
• The Pentagon ’ s troops and “ surplus ” weapons are being used on our streets .
Just as the Pentagon often uses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to describe its foreign interventions , police are being militarized within the U.S .
When the Pentagon ended up in the 1990s with weapons of war it no longer needed , it created the “ 1033 Program ” to distribute armored personnel carriers , submachine guns , and even grenade launchers to police departments .
More than $ 7.4 billion in military equipment and goods have been transferred to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies—turning the police into occupation forces and our cities into war zones .
We saw this vividly in 2014 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michael Brown , when police flush with military gear made the streets of Ferguson , Missouri look like Iraq .
More recently , we saw these militarized police forces deployed against the George Floyd Rebellion , with military helicopters overhead , and the Minnesota Governor comparing the deployment to an “ overseas war.
” Trump has deployed federal troops and wanted to send in more , much as active-duty troops were previously used against several workers ’ strikes in the 1890s-1920s , the Bonus Army veterans ’ protests of 1932 , and Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in multiple cities in 1968 ( after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ) , and in Los Angeles in 1992 ( after the acquittal of the police who had beaten Rodney King ) .
Sending in soldiers trained for combat only makes a bad situation worse , and this can open the eyes of Americans to the shocking violence with which the U.S. military tries , but often fails , to quell dissent in occupied countries .
Congress may now object to the transfer of military equipment to police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ using troops against U.S. citizens at home , but they rarely object when the targets are foreigners or even U.S. citizens who live abroad .
• U.S. interventions abroad , especially the “ War on Terror , ” erode our civil liberties at home .
Techniques of surveillance that are tested on foreigners have long been imported to suppress dissent at home , ever since occupations in Latin America and the Philippines .
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks , while the U.S. military was purchasing super drones to kill U.S. enemies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collect intelligence on entire cities , U.S. police departments began buying smaller , but powerful , spy drones .
Black Lives Matter protesters have recently seen these “ eyes in the sky ” spying on them .
This is just one example of the surveillance society that the U.S. has become since 9/11 .
The so-called “ War on Terror ” has been a justification for the tremendous expansion of government powers at home—broad “ data mining , ” increased the secrecy of federal agencies , No-Fly lists to prohibit people tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vast government spying on social , religious and political groups , from the Quakers to Greenpeace to the ACLU , including military spying on antiwar groups .
The use of unaccountable mercenaries abroad also makes their use more likely at home , as when Blackwater private security contractors were flown from Baghdad to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 , to be used against the devastated Black community .
And in turn , if police and armed far-right militias and mercenaries can commit violence with impunity in the homeland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violence elsewhere .
• The xenophobia and Islamophobia at the heart of the “ War on Terror ” has fed hatred of immigrants and Muslims at home .
Just as wars abroad are justified by racism and religious bias , they also feed white and Christian supremacy at home , as could be seen in Japanese-American incarceration in the 1940s , and anti-Muslim sentiment that rose in the 1980s .
The 9/11 attacks precipitated hate crimes against Muslims and Sikhs , as well as a federally imposed travel ban that denies entrance to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , separating families , depriving students of access to universities , and detaining immigrants in private prisons .
Senator Bernie Sanders , writing in Foreign Affairs , said , “ When our elected leaders , pundits , and cable news personalities promote relentless fear-mongering about Muslim terrorists , they inevitably create a climate of fear and suspicion around Muslim American citizens—a climate in which demagogues like Trump can thrive.
” He also decried the xenophobia resulting from turning our immigration debate into a debate about Americans ’ personal security , pitting millions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrants .
The militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border , using hyperbolic claims of infiltrating criminals and terrorists , has normalized the use of drones and checkpoints that bring the techniques of authoritarian control into the “ homeland.
” ( Meanwhile , U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel were also deployed to the borders of occupied Iraq . )
• Both the military and the police suck up enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars that should be used for building a just , sustainable , and equitable society .
Americans are already participating in supporting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or not , by paying taxes to the police and military that carry it out in our names .
Police budgets account for an astronomical percentage of cities ’ discretionary funds compared to other crucial community programs , ranging from 20 to 45 percent of discretionary funding in major metropolitan areas .
Per capita police spending in the city of Baltimore for 2020 is an astounding $ 904 ( imagine what every resident could do with $ 904 ) .
Nationwide , the U.S. spends more than twice as much on “ law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cash welfare programs .
This trend has been widening since the 1980s , as we have taken funds out of poverty programs to put into fighting crime , the inevitable consequence of that neglect .
The same pattern is true with the Pentagon budget .
The 2020 military budget of $ 738 billion is larger than the next ten countries combined .
The Washington Post reported that if the U.S. spent the same proportion of its GDP on its military as most European countries do , it “ could fund a universal child-care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approximately 30 million Americans who lack it , or provide substantial investments in repairing the nation ’ s infrastructure.
” Closing the 800+ overseas military bases alone would save $ 100 billion dollars a year .
Prioritizing the police and military means deprioritizing resources for community needs .
Even President Eisenhower described military spending in 1953 as “ a theft from those who hunger and are not fed.
” • Repressive techniques used abroad inevitably come home .
Soldiers are trained to see most of the civilians they encounter abroad as a potential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or Afghanistan , they discover that one of the few employers that give priority to vets are police departments and security companies .
They also offer relatively high salaries , good benefits , and union protections , which is why one in five police officers is a veteran .
So , even soldiers who come home with PTSD or drug and alcohol abuse , instead of being adequately cared for , are given weapons and put out on the streets .
No wonder studies show that police with military experience , especially those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more likely to be involved in shooting incidents than those with no military service .
The same relationship of repression at home and abroad is true of torture techniques , which were taught to militaries and police throughout Latin America during the Cold War .
They were also used on Afghans at the U.S.-run Bagram Air Base prison , and on Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison , where one of the torturers had practiced similar techniques as a prison guard in Pennsylvania .
The purpose of waterboarding , a torture technique stretching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the Philippines , is to prevent a person from breathing , much like the police chokehold that killed Eric Garner or the knee to the neck that killed George Floyd .
# ICantBreathe is not only a statement for change at home , but also a statement with global implications .
• The War on Drugs has put more money into the police and military but has been devastating to people of color , at home and abroad .
The so-called “ War on Drugs ” has devastated communities of color , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ catastrophic levels of gun violence and mass incarceration .
People of color are more likely to be stopped , searched , arrested , convicted , and harshly sentenced for drug-related offenses .
Nearly 80 percent of people in federal prison and almost 60 percent of people in state prison for drug offenses are Black or Latinx .
The War on Drugs has also devastated communities overseas .
Throughout South America , the Caribbean , and Afghanistan in both drug production and trafficking areas , U.S.-supported wars have only empowered organized crime and drug @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violence , corruption , impunity , erosion of rule of law , and massive human rights violations .
Central America is now home to some of the world ’ s most dangerous cities , leading to the mass migration to the U.S. that Donald Trump has weaponized for political purposes .
Just as police responses at home do not solve social problems that stem from poverty and despair ( and often create more harm than good ) , military deployments abroad do not resolve historical conflicts that usually have their roots in social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a cycle of violence that worsens the crisis .
• Lobbying machines solidify support for police and war industry funding .
Law enforcement lobbies have long built support for police and prisons among state and federal politicians , using a fear of crime , and a desire for the profits and jobs that are funneled to its backers .
Among the strongest backers are police and prison guard unions , which instead of using the labor movement to defend the powerless against the powerful , defend their members against community complaints of brutality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lobbying muscle to keep politicians compliant with its wishes .
Every year billions of dollars are funneled from U.S. taxpayers to hundreds of arms corporations , who then wage lobbying campaigns pushing for even more foreign military aid and weapons sales .
They spend $ 125 million a year on lobbying , and another $ 25 million a year on donating to political campaigns .
Manufacturing weapons has provided millions of workers with some of the nation ’ s highest industrial wages , and many of their unions ( such as the Machinists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
These lobbies for the military contractors have become more powerful and influential not only over the budget but also over the creation of U.S. foreign policy .
The power of the military-industrial complex has become far more dangerous than even President Eisenhower himself feared when he warned the nation , in 1961 , against its undue influence .

Since George Floyd was murdered, we have seen an increasing convergence of the “war at home” against Black and brown people with the “wars abroad” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries. Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities, as militarized police treat our cities as occupied war zones. In response to this “endless war” at home, the growing and thunderous cries for defunding the police have been echoed by calls for defunding the Pentagon’s wars. Instead of seeing these as two separate but related demands, we should see them as intimately linked, since the racialized police violence on our streets and the racialized violence the U.S. has long inflicted on people around the world are mirror reflections of each other.
We can learn more about the war at home by studying the wars abroad, and learn more about the wars abroad by studying the war at home. Here are some of those connections:
The U.S. kills people of color at home and abroad. The United States was founded on the ideology of white supremacy, from the genocide against Native Americans to upholding the system of slavery. U.S. police kill about 1,000 people per year, disproportionately in the Black community and other communities of color. U.S. foreign policy is similarly based on the white superiority-derived concept of “American exceptionalism,” in tandem with European partners. The endless series of wars the U.S. military has fought abroad would not be possible without a view of the world that dehumanizes foreign peoples. “If you want to bomb or invade a foreign country filled with black- or brown-skinned people, as the United States military so often does, you have to first demonize those people, dehumanize them, suggest they’re backward people in need of saving or savage people in need of killing,” said journalist Mehdi Hasan. The U.S. military has been responsible for the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of Black and brown people around the world, and the denial of their rights to national self-determination. The double standard that sanctifies the lives of U.S. troops and citizens, but disregards the people whose countries the Pentagon and its allies destroy is as hypocritical as the one that values white lives over Black and brown lives at home.
Just as the U.S. was created by taking over the lands of Indigenous peoples by force, so America as an empire uses war to expand access to markets and resources. Settler colonialism has been an “endless war” at home against Indigenous nations, who were colonized when their lands were still defined as foreign territories, to be annexed for their fertile land and natural resources. The Army forts stationed in Native nations back then were the equivalent of foreign military bases today, and the Native resisters were the original “insurgents” who were in the way of American conquest. The “Manifest Destiny” colonization of Native lands morphed into overseas imperial expansion, including the seizure of Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, and other colonies, and the counterinsurgency wars in the Philippines and Vietnam. In the 21st century, U.S.-led wars have destabilized the Middle East and Central Asia, while increasing control over the region’s fossil fuel resources. The Pentagon has used the template of the Indian Wars to frighten the American public with the specter of “lawless tribal regions” that need to be “tamed,” within countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Meanwhile, Wounded Knee in 1973 and Standing Rock in 2016 show how settler colonialism can become remilitarized back in the U.S. “homeland.” Stopping oil pipelines and toppling Columbus statues shows how Indigenous resistance can also be renewed in the heart of the empire.
The police and military are both internally plagued by racism. With the Black Lives Matter protests, many people have now learned about the origins of U.S. police in all-white slave patrols. It is no accident that hiring and promotion within police departments have historically favored whites, and officers of color around the country continue to sue their departments for discriminatory practices. The same is true in the military, where segregation was official policy until 1948. Today, people of color are pursued to fill the bottom ranks, but not the top positions. Military recruiters set up recruiting stations in communities of color, where government disinvestment in social services and education makes the military one of the few ways to not only get a job, but access to health care and a free college education. That’s why about 43 percent of the 1.3 million men and women on active duty are people of color, and Native Americans serve in the Armed Forces at five times the national average. But the upper echelons of the military remain almost exclusively a white-boys’ club (of the 41 senior commanders, only two are Black and only one is a woman). Under Trump, racism in the military is on the rise. A 2019 survey found that 53 percent of servicemembers of color said they had seen examples of white nationalism or ideologically driven racism among their fellow troops, a number up significantly from the same poll in 2018. Far-right militias have attempted to both infiltrate the military and collude with police.
The Pentagon’s troops and “surplus” weapons are being used on our streets. Just as the Pentagon often uses the language of “police actions” to describe its foreign interventions, police are being militarized within the U.S. When the Pentagon ended up in the 1990s with weapons of war it no longer needed, it created the “1033 Program” to distribute armored personnel carriers, submachine guns, and even grenade launchers to police departments. More than $7.4 billion in military equipment and goods have been transferred to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies—turning the police into occupation forces and our cities into war zones. We saw this vividly in 2014 in the aftermath of the killing of Michael Brown, when police flush with military gear made the streets of Ferguson, Missouri look like Iraq. More recently, we saw these militarized police forces deployed against the George Floyd Rebellion, with military helicopters overhead, and the Minnesota Governor comparing the deployment to an “overseas war.” Trump has deployed federal troops and wanted to send in more, much as active-duty troops were previously used against several workers’ strikes in the 1890s-1920s, the Bonus Army veterans’ protests of 1932, and Black uprisings in Detroit in 1943 and 1967, in multiple cities in 1968 (after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), and in Los Angeles in 1992 (after the acquittal of the police who had beaten Rodney King). Sending in soldiers trained for combat only makes a bad situation worse, and this can open the eyes of Americans to the shocking violence with which the U.S. military tries, but often fails, to quell dissent in occupied countries. Congress may now object to the transfer of military equipment to police, and Pentagon officials may object to using troops against U.S. citizens at home, but they rarely object when the targets are foreigners or even U.S. citizens who live abroad.
U.S. interventions abroad, especially the “War on Terror,” erode our civil liberties at home. Techniques of surveillance that are tested on foreigners have long been imported to suppress dissent at home, ever since occupations in Latin America and the Philippines. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, while the U.S. military was purchasing super drones to kill U.S. enemies (and often innocent civilians) and collect intelligence on entire cities, U.S. police departments began buying smaller, but powerful, spy drones. Black Lives Matter protesters have recently seen these “eyes in the sky” spying on them. This is just one example of the surveillance society that the U.S. has become since 9/11. The so-called “War on Terror” has been a justification for the tremendous expansion of government powers at home—broad “data mining,” increased the secrecy of federal agencies, No-Fly lists to prohibit people tens of thousands of people from traveling, and vast government spying on social, religious and political groups, from the Quakers to Greenpeace to the ACLU, including military spying on antiwar groups. The use of unaccountable mercenaries abroad also makes their use more likely at home, as when Blackwater private security contractors were flown from Baghdad to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, to be used against the devastated Black community. And in turn, if police and armed far-right militias and mercenaries can commit violence with impunity in the homeland, it normalizes and enables even great violence elsewhere.
The xenophobia and Islamophobia at the heart of the “War on Terror” has fed hatred of immigrants and Muslims at home. Just as wars abroad are justified by racism and religious bias, they also feed white and Christian supremacy at home, as could be seen in Japanese-American incarceration in the 1940s, and anti-Muslim sentiment that rose in the 1980s. The 9/11 attacks precipitated hate crimes against Muslims and Sikhs, as well as a federally imposed travel ban that denies entrance to the U.S. for people from entire countries, separating families, depriving students of access to universities, and detaining immigrants in private prisons. Senator Bernie Sanders, writing in Foreign Affairs, said, “When our elected leaders, pundits, and cable news personalities promote relentless fear-mongering about Muslim terrorists, they inevitably create a climate of fear and suspicion around Muslim American citizens—a climate in which demagogues like Trump can thrive.” He also decried the xenophobia resulting from turning our immigration debate into a debate about Americans’ personal security, pitting millions of U.S. citizens against undocumented and even documented immigrants. The militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, using hyperbolic claims of infiltrating criminals and terrorists, has normalized the use of drones and checkpoints that bring the techniques of authoritarian control into the “homeland.” (Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel were also deployed to the borders of occupied Iraq.)
Both the military and the police suck up enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars that should be used for building a just, sustainable, and equitable society. Americans are already participating in supporting state violence, whether we realize it or not, by paying taxes to the police and military that carry it out in our names. Police budgets account for an astronomical percentage of cities’ discretionary funds compared to other crucial community programs, ranging from 20 to 45 percent of discretionary funding in major metropolitan areas. Per capita police spending in the city of Baltimore for 2020 is an astounding $904 (imagine what every resident could do with $904). Nationwide, the U.S. spends more than twice as much on “law and order” as it does on cash welfare programs. This trend has been widening since the 1980s, as we have taken funds out of poverty programs to put into fighting crime, the inevitable consequence of that neglect. The same pattern is true with the Pentagon budget. The 2020 military budget of $738 billion is larger than the next ten countries combined. The Washington Post reported that if the U.S. spent the same proportion of its GDP on its military as most European countries do, it “could fund a universal child-care policy, extend health insurance to the approximately 30 million Americans who lack it, or provide substantial investments in repairing the nation’s infrastructure.” Closing the 800+ overseas military bases alone would save $100 billion dollars a year. Prioritizing the police and military means deprioritizing resources for community needs. Even President Eisenhower described military spending in 1953 as “a theft from those who hunger and are not fed.”
Repressive techniques used abroad inevitably come home. Soldiers are trained to see most of the civilians they encounter abroad as a potential threat. When they return from Iraq or Afghanistan, they discover that one of the few employers that give priority to vets are police departments and security companies. They also offer relatively high salaries, good benefits, and union protections, which is why one in five police officers is a veteran. So, even soldiers who come home with PTSD or drug and alcohol abuse, instead of being adequately cared for, are given weapons and put out on the streets. No wonder studies show that police with military experience, especially those who have deployed overseas, are significantly more likely to be involved in shooting incidents than those with no military service. The same relationship of repression at home and abroad is true of torture techniques, which were taught to militaries and police throughout Latin America during the Cold War. They were also used on Afghans at the U.S.-run Bagram Air Base prison, and on Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison, where one of the torturers had practiced similar techniques as a prison guard in Pennsylvania. The purpose of waterboarding, a torture technique stretching back to counterinsurgency wars in Native America and the Philippines, is to prevent a person from breathing, much like the police chokehold that killed Eric Garner or the knee to the neck that killed George Floyd. #ICantBreathe is not only a statement for change at home, but also a statement with global implications.
The War on Drugs has put more money into the police and military but has been devastating to people of color, at home and abroad. The so-called “War on Drugs” has devastated communities of color, particularly the Black community, leading to catastrophic levels of gun violence and mass incarceration. People of color are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, and harshly sentenced for drug-related offenses. Nearly 80 percent of people in federal prison and almost 60 percent of people in state prison for drug offenses are Black or Latinx. The War on Drugs has also devastated communities overseas. Throughout South America, the Caribbean, and Afghanistan in both drug production and trafficking areas, U.S.-supported wars have only empowered organized crime and drug cartels, leading to an upsurge of violence, corruption, impunity, erosion of rule of law, and massive human rights violations. Central America is now home to some of the world’s most dangerous cities, leading to the mass migration to the U.S. that Donald Trump has weaponized for political purposes. Just as police responses at home do not solve social problems that stem from poverty and despair (and often create more harm than good), military deployments abroad do not resolve historical conflicts that usually have their roots in social and economic inequalities, and instead create a cycle of violence that worsens the crisis.


mintpressnews--2020-07-14--Five Years On, the Nefarious Goals of the Iran Nuclear Deal Reveal Themselves

Iran , due to its geopolitical position , has always been considered a jewel in the crown of the colonial powers .
Attempts to conquer it through proxy started with Operation Ajax in August of 1953 at the behest of the British and were ultimately carried out by the CIA and not abandoned even with the ousting of America ’ s man , the Shah .
Although the Islamic Revolution reclaimed Iran ’ s sovereignty in 1979 , America was not ready to abandon its plans of domination over Iran , and by extension , the Persian Gulf .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. foreign policy .
“ To all intents and purposes , ” a former senior Defense Department official observed , “ ‘ Gulf waters ’ now extend from the Straits of Malacca to the South Atlantic.
” Nevertheless , bases nearer the [ Persian ] Gulf had a special importance , and Pentagon planners urged “ as substantial a land presence in them as can be managed.
” ( Anthony H. Cordesman , “ The Gulf and the Search for Strategic Stability ” , Boulder : Westview , 1984 ) .
Having failed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coup during the nascent stages of Iran ’ s newly formed revolutionary government , war , sanctions , terrorism , and a failed color revolution , the United States needed other alternatives to reach its goal .
Unlike the illegal war against Iraq , war with Iran was not a feasible option .
The United States was aware of its inability to wage a successful war against Iran without serious damage to itself and its allies .
When George W. Bush took office , he commissioned a war exercise to gauge the feasibility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2002 Millennium Challenge was a major war game exercise conducted by the United States Armed Forces in mid-2002 .
The exercise , which ran from July 24 to August 15 and cost $ 250 million , proved that the U.S. could not defeat Iran .
The U.S. even restarted the war games , changing rules to ensure an American victory , in reality , cheating itself .
This led to accusations that the war game had turned from an honest , open , playtest of U.S. war-fighting capabilities into a controlled and scripted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ victory to promote a false narrative of U.S. invincibility .
For this reason , the United States continued its attempts at undermining Iran ’ s sovereignty by means of sanctions , terror , and creating divisions among Iranians .
The JCPOA would be its master plan .
A simple observation of Iran clearly suggests simple ideological divisions among the Iranian people ( pro-West , anti-West , minorities , religious , secular ) which have all been amply exploited by the United States and its allies .
None of the exploits delivered the prize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was that it was decided to exploit the one factor which united Iranians of all persuasions .
Iran ’ s civilian nuclear program .
In a November 25 , 2004 interview with National Public Radio , Ray Takyeh ( of the Council on Foreign Relations and husband to Iran expert Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institute ) stated that , according to polls , 75-80 percent of Iranians rallied behind the Islamic Republic of Iran in support of its nuclear program , including the full fuel cycle .
In other words , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nuclear program .
A U.S.IA poll conducted in 2007 found that 64 percent of those questioned said that U.S. legislation repealing regime change in Iran would not be incentive enough to give up the nuclear program and full fuel-cycle .
The next phase in America ’ s plan was to cause disunity on an issue that united Iranians of all stripes by negotiating away the nuclear program .
The first round of nuclear negotiations in 2003-2005 , dubbed the Paris Agreement , between Iran and the EU , proved to be futile and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We gave them a beautiful box of chocolate that was , however , empty.
” As the West ’ s fortune would have it , the same Iranian officials who participated in the 2003-2005 negotiations , would later negotiate the JCPOA .
Around the time of the end of the first round of negotiations , another Brookings Fellow , Flynt Leverett , senior advisor to the National Security Center , published a book “ Inheriting Syria , Bashar ’ s Trial by Fire.
” In it , Leverett argued that instead of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to cooperate with Syria as Assad was popular , but instead seek to weaken Assad ’ s position among his people by targeting the Golan Heights by inducing him to give them up so that he would lose popularity among Syrians .
The JCPOA was designed , in part , along the same line of thinking .
What more , Leverett ’ s wife Hillary had a prominent role in ‘ selling ’ the Iran Deal .
Secret negotiations between the Americans and ‘ reform-minded ’ Iranians never ceased , bypassing both Ayatollah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the President at the time – Mahmood Ahmadinejad .
In a 2012 meeting at the University of Southern California , present members of the Iran Project team had no reservations about suggesting that it was more beneficial to engage Iran than to attack it .
They went as far as stating in the Q & A session to this writer that “ they had been engaged with the “ Green ” ( the opposition movement in the failed 2009 color revolution ) for years , but Ahmadinejad won , ” referring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But Ahmadinejad would soon leave office and be replaced by Rouhani – a more amenable player .
Fully appreciating the challenge of attacking Iran , in 2004 , the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy ( WINEP ) , presented its policy paper “ The Challenges of U.S. Preventive Military Action ” authored by Michael Eisenstadt .
It was opined that the ideal situation was , and continues to be , to have a compliant ‘ regime ’ in Tehran .
Eisenstadt was of the opinion that unlike the Osiraq nuclear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Israel and the U.S. would not be able to bomb Iran ’ s Bushehr reactor with the same ease .
In particular , Eisenstadt claimed that Israel may have benefited from French aid in destroying Osiraq .
French intelligence reportedly placed a homing beacon at Osiraq to help Israeli pilots locate the facility or target a critical underground structure there .
In this light , it was recommended that the principal goal of U.S. action should be to delay Iran ’ s nuclear program long enough to allow for the possible emergence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , war would have been facilitated .
It was thought the Paris Agreement talks would fail , ( much as the JCPOA was designed to fail ) and as such , the following were among the suggestions made : • harassment or murder of key Iranian scientists or technicians ; • introduction of fatal design flaws into critical reactor , centrifuge , or weapons components during their production , to ensure catastrophic failure during use ; • disruption or interdiction of key technology or material transfers through sabotage or covert military actions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or at sea ; • sabotage of critical facilities by U.S. intelligence assets , including third country nationals or Iranian agents with access to key facilities ; • introduction of destructive viruses into Iranian computer systems controlling the production of components or the operation of facilities ; • damage or destruction of critical facilities through sabotage or direct action by U.S. special forces .
As with the murder and terror of Iranian nuclear scientists as well as the infection of nuclear reactors with the Stuxnet virus , the JCPOA enabled personnel on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sabotage as has been observed in recent days and weeks .
Rouhani ’ s visa-free travel opened the flood gates to spies and saboteurs – dual citizens who easily traveled with passports other than American , British , and Australian .
Iran even managed to cancel the accreditation of an IAEA inspector who triggered an alarm at one of its nuclear facilities .
But it would seem , Iran has not been able to stop other intruders and terrorists – not yet .
Why else negotiate with Iran ?
According to studies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bushehr nuclear reactor had 82 tons of enriched uranium ( U235 ) loaded into it , according to Israeli and Chinese reports .
This amount was significantly higher both before and during negotiations .
History has not witnessed the bombing of a nuclear power plant with an operational nuclear enrichment facility .
Deliberate bombing of such facilities would breach containment and allow radioactive elements to be released .
The death toll would be horrifying .
The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated 3 million deaths would result within three weeks of the bombing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the contamination would cover Afghanistan , Pakistan , all the way to India .
The JCPOA significantly reduced the amount of enriched uranium , reducing potential casualties in the event that a strike is carried out .
The Deal buys time .
Iran ’ s strength has long been its ability to retaliate to any attack by closing down the Strait of Hormuz .
Given that 17 million barrels of oil a day , or 35 percent of the world ’ s seaborne oil exports , go through the Strait of Hormuz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fatal for the world economy .
Enter Nigeria ( West Africa ) and Yemen .
In 1998 , Clinton ’ s national security agenda made it clear that unhampered access to Nigerian oil and other vital resources was a key U.S. policy .
In the early 2000s , Chatham House determined that African oil would be a good alternate to Persian Gulf oil in case of oil disruption .
This followed the release of a strategy paper prodding the U.S. to move toward African oil .
The push for Africa ’ s oil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on May 31 , 2000 .
In 2002 , the Israeli based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies suggested an American push towards African oil .
In the same year , Boko Haram was ‘ founded.
’ In 2007 , AFRICOM helped consolidate this push into the region .
In 2011 , a publication titled : “ Globalizing West African Oil : U.S. ‘ energy security ’ and the global economy ” outlined ‘ U.S .
positioning itself to use military force to ensure African oil continued to flow to the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to supply oil in addition to , or as an alternate , to the passage of oil through the Strait of Hormuz .
It is now abundantly clear that the Iran Deal was simply JCPOA 1.0 .
Other deals were to follow and disarm Iran even further , to stop Iran ’ s defensive missile program , and to stop Iran from helping its allies in the region .
This would have been relatively easy to achieve had Hillary Clinton been elected – as had been the hope .
The plan was to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rouhani administration readily embraced , a sharp increase in imports ( harming domestic production and self-reliance ) while building hope – or as Maloney called it ‘ crisis of expectation ’ .
It was thought that with a semblance of ‘ normalcy ’ in international relations and free of sanctions , Iranians would want to continue abandoning their sovereignty , their defenses , and rally around pro-western politicians at the expense of the core ideology of the Islamic Revolution , the conservatives and the IRGC .
In other words , regime change .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this policy .
The most prominent , one could argue , was President Obama .
Obama was not about peace .
The biggest threat to an empire is peace .
Obama had chosen feigned diplomacy as his weapon , but before picking up the mantle of diplomacy , he had proposed terrorism – sanctioned terrorism .
Obama , while a junior senator , introduced S. 1430 in 2007 and had “ crippling sanctions ” in mind for the Iranian people .
As president , his executive orders assured this .
Addressing AIPAC as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no wonder then that he would later be dubbed America ’ s “ first Jewish president.
” Not to be left unmentioned was the darling of the theatrics of this deal – Federica Mogherini .
So enamored were some of the Iranian parliamentarians with her that to the embarrassment of Iran , the internet was abuzz with these MPs taking pictures with her .
Perhaps they looked at her and not her years as a German Marshall Fund Fellow .
The German Marshall Fund ( GMF ) sounds harmless enough , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way .
And Iran shouldn ’ t either .
The GMF pushed for bringing Ukraine into NATO ’ s fold .
Furthermore , it gives funding to American Abroad Media ( AMA ) .
AMA boasts of some of the most dangerous anti-Iran neoconservatives who have shaped America ’ s policies , including Dennis Ross , James Woolsey , Martin Indyk ( responsible for the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act later to become ISA and still in place after the JCPOA ) , and Tom Pickering , one of the main proponents of the Iran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Supporters of the AMA are not limited to the GMF , others include the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the NED .
One of the most active proponents of the JCPOA was none other than NED recipient , Trita Parsi .
Parsi was personally thanked for his role in pushing the JCPOA through .
Job well done for a three-time recipient of NED funds .
No wonder the Soros–Koch foundation ’ s Quincy Institute selected him as their Executive Vice President .
And last but not least , Hillary Mann Leverett ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ persuaded her audiences that the JCPOA was akin to “ Nixon going to China.
” While some in Iran naively believed this to be the case and even defended her , they failed to realize that when Nixon went to China , it was to bring China on board against Russia .
And Israel was not a player .
It was not an opening to befriend Iran any more than Nixon ’ s trip had altruist motivations .
The role of Russia and China The Russians and the Chinese were so eager to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calamity caused by the United States that they fully embraced this deal , even though doing so was detrimental to their interests .
America ’ s animosity and never-ending schemes encouraged cooperation between Russia , China , and Iran .
Although the lifting of sanctions post-JCPOA would have facilitated trade and enhanced diplomacy between Iran and the West at a cost to China and Russia , they stood steadfast by the deal .
Peace was more valuable , but far more importantly , the two powerful nations allowed the United States to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the NPT .
During the Shah ’ s reign , President Ford had signed onto a National Security Decision Memorandum ( NSDM 292 , 1975 ) allowing and encouraging Iran to not only enrich uranium but sell it to neighboring countries to profit America .
The United States then decided that since the Islamic Republic of Iran did not serve the interests of the United States , the United States would determine how the NPT should apply to Iran .
But their efforts at peace and the West ’ s efforts at regime @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is important to bear in mind is that America ’ s efforts at war , sabotage , and terrorism have not ended .
Imposing unilateral sanctions – terrorism against the Iranian people , has not ceased .
Although the Iranian people and their elected representative in the new Iranian parliament are far more aware of and have an aversion to America ’ s ploys and the Iran Deal , China and Russia must do their part not only as guarantors of peace , but also to maintain their integrity in a world where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The world already has a superpower without morals and integrity ; it does not need other great powers that act similarly .
Iran has fended off another assault on its sovereignty .
However , saboteurs and terrorists are soliciting war with their recent string of terrorism in Iran .
As the fifth anniversary of this trap approaches , the world needs to understand and step up in order to defend peace , international law , and social justice .
The future of all depends on it .
And to American compatriots : Make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get him reelected .
Feature photo | Rescue workers search for survivors at the scene of a mysterious explosion at the Sina At ’ har Health Center in the north of Iran ’ s capital Tehran on June 30 , 2020 .
Amir Kholousi | ISNA Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby groups in influencing U.S. foreign policy .

Iran, due to its geopolitical position, has always been considered a jewel in the crown of the colonial powers. Attempts to conquer it through proxy started with Operation Ajax in August of 1953 at the behest of the British and were ultimately carried out by the CIA and not abandoned even with the ousting of America’s man, the Shah. Although the Islamic Revolution reclaimed Iran’s sovereignty in 1979, America was not ready to abandon its plans of domination over Iran, and by extension, the Persian Gulf.
The Persian Gulf has been the lynchpin of U.S. foreign policy. “To all intents and purposes,” a former senior Defense Department official observed, “‘Gulf waters’ now extend from the Straits of Malacca to the South Atlantic.” Nevertheless, bases nearer the [Persian] Gulf had a special importance, and Pentagon planners urged “as substantial a land presence in them as can be managed.” (Anthony H. Cordesman, “The Gulf and the Search for Strategic Stability”, Boulder: Westview, 1984).
Having failed in numerous attempts, including the Nojeh coup during the nascent stages of Iran’s newly formed revolutionary government, war, sanctions, terrorism, and a failed color revolution, the United States needed other alternatives to reach its goal. Unlike the illegal war against Iraq, war with Iran was not a feasible option. The United States was aware of its inability to wage a successful war against Iran without serious damage to itself and its allies.
When George W. Bush took office, he commissioned a war exercise to gauge the feasibility of an attack against Iran. The 2002 Millennium Challenge was a major war game exercise conducted by the United States Armed Forces in mid-2002. The exercise, which ran from July 24 to August 15 and cost $250 million, proved that the U.S. could not defeat Iran. The U.S. even restarted the war games, changing rules to ensure an American victory, in reality, cheating itself. This led to accusations that the war game had turned from an honest, open, playtest of U.S. war-fighting capabilities into a controlled and scripted exercise intended to end in a U.S. victory to promote a false narrative of U.S. invincibility.
For this reason, the United States continued its attempts at undermining Iran’s sovereignty by means of sanctions, terror, and creating divisions among Iranians. The JCPOA would be its master plan.
A simple observation of Iran clearly suggests simple ideological divisions among the Iranian people (pro-West, anti-West, minorities, religious, secular) which have all been amply exploited by the United States and its allies. None of the exploits delivered the prize the U.S. was seeking and so it was that it was decided to exploit the one factor which united Iranians of all persuasions. Iran’s civilian nuclear program.
In a November 25, 2004 interview with National Public Radio, Ray Takyeh (of the Council on Foreign Relations and husband to Iran expert Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institute) stated that, according to polls, 75-80 percent of Iranians rallied behind the Islamic Republic of Iran in support of its nuclear program, including the full fuel cycle. In other words, the overwhelming uniting factor among Iranians was the nuclear program. A U.S.IA poll conducted in 2007 found that 64 percent of those questioned said that U.S. legislation repealing regime change in Iran would not be incentive enough to give up the nuclear program and full fuel-cycle. The next phase in America’s plan was to cause disunity on an issue that united Iranians of all stripes by negotiating away the nuclear program.
The first round of nuclear negotiations in 2003-2005, dubbed the Paris Agreement, between Iran and the EU, proved to be futile and as one European diplomat put it: “We gave them a beautiful box of chocolate that was, however, empty.” As the West’s fortune would have it, the same Iranian officials who participated in the 2003-2005 negotiations, would later negotiate the JCPOA.
Around the time of the end of the first round of negotiations, another Brookings Fellow, Flynt Leverett, senior advisor to the National Security Center, published a book “Inheriting Syria, Bashar’s Trial by Fire.” In it, Leverett argued that instead of conflict, George W. Bush should seek to cooperate with Syria as Assad was popular, but instead seek to weaken Assad’s position among his people by targeting the Golan Heights by inducing him to give them up so that he would lose popularity among Syrians. The JCPOA was designed, in part, along the same line of thinking. What more, Leverett’s wife Hillary had a prominent role in ‘selling’ the Iran Deal.
Secret negotiations between the Americans and ‘reform-minded’ Iranians never ceased, bypassing both Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and the President at the time – Mahmood Ahmadinejad. In a 2012 meeting at the University of Southern California, present members of the Iran Project team had no reservations about suggesting that it was more beneficial to engage Iran than to attack it. They went as far as stating in the Q&A session to this writer that “they had been engaged with the “Green” (the opposition movement in the failed 2009 color revolution) for years, but Ahmadinejad won,” referring to Iran’s 2009 presidential elections. But Ahmadinejad would soon leave office and be replaced by Rouhani – a more amenable player.
Why negotiate with America’s archnemesis?
Fully appreciating the challenge of attacking Iran, in 2004, the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), presented its policy paper “The Challenges of U.S. Preventive Military Action” authored by Michael Eisenstadt. It was opined that the ideal situation was, and continues to be, to have a compliant ‘regime’ in Tehran. Eisenstadt was of the opinion that unlike the Osiraq nuclear power plant which was bombed and destroyed, Israel and the U.S. would not be able to bomb Iran’s Bushehr reactor with the same ease. In particular, Eisenstadt claimed that Israel may have benefited from French aid in destroying Osiraq. French intelligence reportedly placed a homing beacon at Osiraq to help Israeli pilots locate the facility or target a critical underground structure there.
In this light, it was recommended that the principal goal of U.S. action should be to delay Iran’s nuclear program long enough to allow for the possible emergence of new leadership in Tehran. Failing that, war would have been facilitated.
It was thought the Paris Agreement talks would fail, (much as the JCPOA was designed to fail) and as such, the following were among the suggestions made:
• harassment or murder of key Iranian scientists or technicians;
• introduction of fatal design flaws into critical reactor, centrifuge, or weapons components during their production, to ensure catastrophic failure during use;
• disruption or interdiction of key technology or material transfers through sabotage or covert military actions on land, in the air, or at sea;
• sabotage of critical facilities by U.S. intelligence assets, including third country nationals or Iranian agents with access to key facilities;
• introduction of destructive viruses into Iranian computer systems controlling the production of components or the operation of facilities;
• damage or destruction of critical facilities through sabotage or direct action by U.S. special forces.
As with the murder and terror of Iranian nuclear scientists as well as the infection of nuclear reactors with the Stuxnet virus, the JCPOA enabled personnel on the ground in Iran to carry out extensive sabotage as has been observed in recent days and weeks. Rouhani’s visa-free travel opened the flood gates to spies and saboteurs – dual citizens who easily traveled with passports other than American, British, and Australian. Iran even managed to cancel the accreditation of an IAEA inspector who triggered an alarm at one of its nuclear facilities. But it would seem, Iran has not been able to stop other intruders and terrorists – not yet.
Why else negotiate with Iran?
According to studies, as of 2008, Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor had 82 tons of enriched uranium (U235) loaded into it, according to Israeli and Chinese reports. This amount was significantly higher both before and during negotiations. History has not witnessed the bombing of a nuclear power plant with an operational nuclear enrichment facility. Deliberate bombing of such facilities would breach containment and allow radioactive elements to be released. The death toll would be horrifying. The Union of Concerned Scientists has estimated 3 million deaths would result within three weeks of the bombing of nuclear enrichment facilities near Esfahan, and the contamination would cover Afghanistan, Pakistan, all the way to India.
The JCPOA significantly reduced the amount of enriched uranium, reducing potential casualties in the event that a strike is carried out.
The Deal buys time. Iran’s strength has long been its ability to retaliate to any attack by closing down the Strait of Hormuz. Given that 17 million barrels of oil a day, or 35 percent of the world’s seaborne oil exports, go through the Strait of Hormuz, incidents in the Strait would be fatal for the world economy. Enter Nigeria (West Africa) and Yemen.
In 1998, Clinton’s national security agenda made it clear that unhampered access to Nigerian oil and other vital resources was a key U.S. policy. In the early 2000s, Chatham House determined that African oil would be a good alternate to Persian Gulf oil in case of oil disruption. This followed the release of a strategy paper prodding the U.S. to move toward African oil. The push for Africa’s oil was on Dick Cheney’s desk on May 31, 2000. In 2002, the Israeli based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies suggested an American push towards African oil. In the same year, Boko Haram was ‘founded.’
In 2007, AFRICOM helped consolidate this push into the region. In 2011, a publication titled: “Globalizing West African Oil: U.S. ‘energy security’ and the global economy” outlined ‘U.S. positioning itself to use military force to ensure African oil continued to flow to the United States.’ This was but one strategy to supply oil in addition to, or as an alternate, to the passage of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
The JCPOA as a starting point
It is now abundantly clear that the Iran Deal was simply JCPOA 1.0. Other deals were to follow and disarm Iran even further, to stop Iran’s defensive missile program, and to stop Iran from helping its allies in the region. This would have been relatively easy to achieve had Hillary Clinton been elected – as had been the hope.
The plan was to allow trade and neoliberal policies which the Rouhani administration readily embraced, a sharp increase in imports (harming domestic production and self-reliance) while building hope – or as Maloney called it ‘crisis of expectation’.
It was thought that with a semblance of ‘normalcy’ in international relations and free of sanctions, Iranians would want to continue abandoning their sovereignty, their defenses, and rally around pro-western politicians at the expense of the core ideology of the Islamic Revolution, the conservatives and the IRGC. In other words, regime change. Several meetings took place that spoke to this policy.
The players
The most prominent, one could argue, was President Obama. Obama was not about peace. The biggest threat to an empire is peace. Obama had chosen feigned diplomacy as his weapon, but before picking up the mantle of diplomacy, he had proposed terrorism – sanctioned terrorism.
Obama, while a junior senator, introduced S. 1430 in 2007 and had “crippling sanctions” in mind for the Iranian people. As president, his executive orders assured this.
Addressing AIPAC as a candidate, he said,
Our willingness to pursue diplomacy will make it easier to mobilize others to join our cause. If Iran fails to change course when presented with this choice by the United States it will be clear to the people of Iran and to the world that the Iranian regime is the author of its own isolation and that will strengthen our hand with Russia and China as we insist on stronger sanctions in the Security Council. And we should work with Europe, Japan, and the Gulf States to find every avenue outside the United Nations to isolate the Iranian regime from cutting off loan guarantees and expanding financial sanctions to banning the export of refined petroleum to Iran to boycotting firms associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard whose Kuds forces have rightly been labeled a terrorist organization.”
It is no wonder then that he would later be dubbed America’s “first Jewish president.”
Not to be left unmentioned was the darling of the theatrics of this deal – Federica Mogherini. So enamored were some of the Iranian parliamentarians with her that to the embarrassment of Iran, the internet was abuzz with these MPs taking pictures with her. Perhaps they looked at her and not her years as a German Marshall Fund Fellow.
The German Marshall Fund (GMF) sounds harmless enough, but perhaps Russia may not view it that way. And Iran shouldn’t either. The GMF pushed for bringing Ukraine into NATO’s fold. Furthermore, it gives funding to American Abroad Media (AMA). AMA boasts of some of the most dangerous anti-Iran neoconservatives who have shaped America’s policies, including Dennis Ross, James Woolsey, Martin Indyk (responsible for the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act later to become ISA and still in place after the JCPOA), and Tom Pickering, one of the main proponents of the Iran Deal and member of the Iran Project. Supporters of the AMA are not limited to the GMF, others include the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the NED.
One of the most active proponents of the JCPOA was none other than NED recipient, Trita Parsi. Parsi was personally thanked for his role in pushing the JCPOA through. Job well done for a three-time recipient of NED funds. No wonder the Soros–Koch foundation’s Quincy Institute selected him as their Executive Vice President.
And last but not least, Hillary Mann Leverett (wife of aforementioned Flynn Leverett) who persuaded her audiences that the JCPOA was akin to “Nixon going to China.” While some in Iran naively believed this to be the case and even defended her, they failed to realize that when Nixon went to China, it was to bring China on board against Russia. And Israel was not a player. It was not an opening to befriend Iran any more than Nixon’s trip had altruist motivations.
The role of Russia and China
The Russians and the Chinese were so eager to embrace a long-awaited peace after all the calamity caused by the United States that they fully embraced this deal, even though doing so was detrimental to their interests.
America’s animosity and never-ending schemes encouraged cooperation between Russia, China, and Iran. Although the lifting of sanctions post-JCPOA would have facilitated trade and enhanced diplomacy between Iran and the West at a cost to China and Russia, they stood steadfast by the deal. Peace was more valuable, but far more importantly, the two powerful nations allowed the United States to be the arbitrator of an international treaty – the NPT.
During the Shah’s reign, President Ford had signed onto a National Security Decision Memorandum (NSDM 292, 1975) allowing and encouraging Iran to not only enrich uranium but sell it to neighboring countries to profit America. The United States then decided that since the Islamic Republic of Iran did not serve the interests of the United States, the United States would determine how the NPT should apply to Iran.
But their efforts at peace and the West’s efforts at regime change all came to naught. What is important to bear in mind is that America’s efforts at war, sabotage, and terrorism have not ended. Imposing unilateral sanctions – terrorism against the Iranian people, has not ceased. Although the Iranian people and their elected representative in the new Iranian parliament are far more aware of and have an aversion to America’s ploys and the Iran Deal, China and Russia must do their part not only as guarantors of peace, but also to maintain their integrity in a world where both aspire to live in multilateralism. The world already has a superpower without morals and integrity; it does not need other great powers that act similarly.
Iran has fended off another assault on its sovereignty. However, saboteurs and terrorists are soliciting war with their recent string of terrorism in Iran. As the fifth anniversary of this trap approaches, the world needs to understand and step up in order to defend peace, international law, and social justice. The future of all depends on it.
And to American compatriots: Make sure Trump understands that war will not get him reelected.
Feature photo | Rescue workers search for survivors at the scene of a mysterious explosion at the Sina At’har Health Center in the north of Iran’s capital Tehran on June 30, 2020. Amir Kholousi | ISNA
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby groups in influencing U.S. foreign policy.


mintpressnews--2020-07-14--Gladio Links Remain Unsolved as Sweden Identifies New Olof Palme Assassin

Last week , Swedish authorities held a press conference to announce that they had finally identified the real killer of controversial Swedish Prime Minister , Olof Palme , gunned down outside of a theater more than 30 years ago .
The third man accused of murdering the head of state since the shocking incident took place more than thirty years ago .
Stig Engström , a Swedish graphic designer who had “ not advanced at his job ” and had no “ family [ or ] prospects in sight ” is the third man accused of murdering the head of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a cold night in Stockholm in 1986 ; ostensibly putting an end to numerous “ conspiracy theories ” surrounding his death , which included ties to Chilean fascists , Kurdish rebels , Apartheid South Africa and Operation Gladio – a secret post war alliance between the CIA , the Vatican and the Mafia , which recruited former Nazi officials to form so-called “ stay behind units ” all over Europe in order to sabotage and destroy left-wing movements and governments throughout the continent .
A resolution passed by the European Parliament in 1990 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was ignored by the NATO secretary general at the time , Manfred Wörner , and then U.S. president , George H.W .
Bush .
But , recent inquiries into the Palme affair have revived suspicions about the role covert intelligence operations may have played in the death of the Swedish PM who was known as a left-wing idealist that supported many third world liberation movements and was a strong critic of the United States , as well as other superpowers .
Palme ’ s position on issues like nuclear disarmament and his attempts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been raised as the possible motives for his assassination .
He opposed the war in Vietnam and was the first head of state to visit Cuba after the revolution ; he had collected many enemies on the opposite side of the political spectrum at a time when the climate was “ significantly polarized ” , according to Carl Bildt , also a former Swedish PM who served after Palme between 1991 and 1994 .
Bildt , himself , has been shown to have had extensive links to a covert intelligence operation which collected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Information Bureau ( IB ) , as well as to Operation Gladio ’ s stay-behind units in the country .
These links have been confirmed by Lars Christiansson , Bildt ’ s press manager while in office , who was interrogated by Palme investigators about his contacts and sources in 2018 .
Christiansson admitted that he had regular meetings with members of the stay behind units and counted several people inside IB as his contacts while part of Bildt ’ s inner circle , whom he had been closely acquainted with since the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find a link between Palme ’ s accused killer and these covert networks , but Christiansson has denied Engström ’ s presence among them .
The evidence against Mr. Engström is largely circumstantial and relies on the “ lone gunman ” theory , which so often arises in Gladio and CIA-related assassinations .
Engström had “ the right timing , the right clothing ” , according to the journalist who posited the theory and “ had close access to guns of the right type ” .
The prosecutor in the case , nevertheless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – who committed suicide in 2000 – was part of a larger conspiracy .
His wife vehemently rejects the idea , stating that her late husband was “ too much of a coward ” to do such a thing .
Olof Palme led Sweden ’ s Social Democratic party from 1969 until his murder .
During that time , he had accumulated a number of powerful enemies both in and out of his native country .
He criticized the United States and the USSR in equal measure and was a vocal opponent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which was at one point blamed for his murder by a South African police colonel who claimed in a court proceeding that one of its most notorious spies , Craig Williamson , had been sent to kill Palme .
Palme compared the U.S. ’ bombing of Hanoi to Nazi massacres and supported nuclear disarmament at the height of the Cold War .
But he also backed labor over big business interests , which drew the ire of Swedish industrialists like the Wallenberg family .
He called Margaret Thatcher “ a true extremist ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” on the horizon .
He has been compared to John F. Kennedy in posthumous retellings of his life , but also had an odd affinity with Henry Kissinger .
His friendship with a figure like Kissinger , architect of the very policy in Vietnam he abhorred , may also point to Palme ’ s own complexities as a scion of wealthy Swedish elites , himself , and tacit complicity in the Iran-Contra affair during his tenure as a UN mediator in the Iran-Iraq war when Swedish/British arms manufacturer Bofors was sending explosives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s outward stance as a champion of social justice and an advocate of national self-determination may have been more than mere political posturing , but men who reach his position are rarely able to avoid rubbing elbows with the most ruthless agents of political power .
Operation Gladio remains one of the least examined – or even acknowledged – long-term , covert ops of modern times .
The sheer breadth and scope of the secret plot to subvert any inkling of left-leaning ideologies the world over makes most people balk when first hearing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ joint multi-decade subversive project involving the Sicilian and Turkish mafias along with the Vatican and the CIA sounds like a reach , even for a Bond film .
It was , however , exactly this “ unholy alliance ” as Paul Williams describes it in his seminal book on the matter , which hovered over Europe and Latin America for the better part of forty years maintaining a covert army of former Nazis with hidden weapons caches to call upon should the need arise , as it did in Italy ’ s so-called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business men were kidnapped and Prime Minister Aldo Moro was assassinated by Gladio operatives , but blamed on the communists to discredit them .
Similar , if less flamboyant , ops were carried out in other European countries , like Sweden .
Lars Christiansson , Bildt ’ s press manager questioned by Swedish officials regarding links of the Swedish leadership with Gladio ’ s “ stay behind units ” and a secret police tasked with surveilling left-wing groups was unapologetic about the government ’ s role , saying that “ there was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ units ] ” , and that it was “ good ” that such covert operations were standing at the ready to “ intervene if there was a crisis ” .
Among the many theories that circle around Olof Palme ’ s murder is one about Chilean fascists taking the Swedish Prime Minister out over his opposition to the dictator ’ s brutal regime and the thousands of Chilean refugees who were given asylum there throughout the 70 ’ s and 80 ’ s .
Given the direct role played by Gladio operatives in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right-wing dictators in Latin America of that era , it is no wonder that Swedish investigators have been following those leads for years .
A German investigative journalist and a former Pentagon advisor have claimed that Palme was murdered by a “ former Iranian agent with CIA training ” sent by NATO over his attempts to normalize relations with the Soviet Union and his stance against nuclear weapons .
The authors of “ In the Spider Web of the Secret Services ” make a case that the assassinations of Uwe Barschel , William @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gladio ) and Olof Palme were all linked together by the same rouge network .
Feature photo | Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme during his visit to Cuba in 1975 .
Here together with Fidel Castro in cheerfully conversation .
Lars Astrom | AP

Last week, Swedish authorities held a press conference to announce that they had finally identified the real killer of controversial Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, gunned down outside of a theater more than 30 years ago. The third man accused of murdering the head of state since the shocking incident took place more than thirty years ago.
Stig Engström, a Swedish graphic designer who had “not advanced at his job” and had no “family [or] prospects in sight” is the third man accused of murdering the head of state since the shocking incident occurred on a cold night in Stockholm in 1986; ostensibly putting an end to numerous “conspiracy theories” surrounding his death, which included ties to Chilean fascists, Kurdish rebels, Apartheid South Africa and Operation Gladio – a secret post war alliance between the CIA, the Vatican and the Mafia, which recruited former Nazi officials to form so-called “stay behind units” all over Europe in order to sabotage and destroy left-wing movements and governments throughout the continent.
A resolution passed by the European Parliament in 1990 condemning Gladio and demanding a full investigation was ignored by the NATO secretary general at the time, Manfred Wörner, and then U.S. president, George H.W. Bush.
But, recent inquiries into the Palme affair have revived suspicions about the role covert intelligence operations may have played in the death of the Swedish PM who was known as a left-wing idealist that supported many third world liberation movements and was a strong critic of the United States, as well as other superpowers.
Palme’s position on issues like nuclear disarmament and his attempts to normalize relations with Soviet Russia have been raised as the possible motives for his assassination. He opposed the war in Vietnam and was the first head of state to visit Cuba after the revolution; he had collected many enemies on the opposite side of the political spectrum at a time when the climate was “significantly polarized”, according to Carl Bildt, also a former Swedish PM who served after Palme between 1991 and 1994.
Bildt, himself, has been shown to have had extensive links to a covert intelligence operation which collected information on left-wing sympathizers, called the Information Bureau (IB), as well as to Operation Gladio’s stay-behind units in the country. These links have been confirmed by Lars Christiansson, Bildt’s press manager while in office, who was interrogated by Palme investigators about his contacts and sources in 2018.
Christiansson admitted that he had regular meetings with members of the stay behind units and counted several people inside IB as his contacts while part of Bildt’s inner circle, whom he had been closely acquainted with since the 1960s. Investigators have long tried to find a link between Palme’s accused killer and these covert networks, but Christiansson has denied Engström’s presence among them.
The evidence against Mr. Engström is largely circumstantial and relies on the “lone gunman” theory, which so often arises in Gladio and CIA-related assassinations. Engström had “the right timing, the right clothing”, according to the journalist who posited the theory and “had close access to guns of the right type”. The prosecutor in the case, nevertheless, left open the possibility that Engström – who committed suicide in 2000 – was part of a larger conspiracy. His wife vehemently rejects the idea, stating that her late husband was “too much of a coward” to do such a thing.
Palme’s enemies
Olof Palme led Sweden’s Social Democratic party from 1969 until his murder. During that time, he had accumulated a number of powerful enemies both in and out of his native country. He criticized the United States and the USSR in equal measure and was a vocal opponent of South Africa’s apartheid regime, which was at one point blamed for his murder by a South African police colonel who claimed in a court proceeding that one of its most notorious spies, Craig Williamson, had been sent to kill Palme.
Palme compared the U.S.’ bombing of Hanoi to Nazi massacres and supported nuclear disarmament at the height of the Cold War. But he also backed labor over big business interests, which drew the ire of Swedish industrialists like the Wallenberg family. He called Margaret Thatcher “a true extremist” and warned of the “crazy monetarists” on the horizon. He has been compared to John F. Kennedy in posthumous retellings of his life, but also had an odd affinity with Henry Kissinger.
His friendship with a figure like Kissinger, architect of the very policy in Vietnam he abhorred, may also point to Palme’s own complexities as a scion of wealthy Swedish elites, himself, and tacit complicity in the Iran-Contra affair during his tenure as a UN mediator in the Iran-Iraq war when Swedish/British arms manufacturer Bofors was sending explosives and gunpowder to Iran.
Palme’s outward stance as a champion of social justice and an advocate of national self-determination may have been more than mere political posturing, but men who reach his position are rarely able to avoid rubbing elbows with the most ruthless agents of political power.
The Gladio Nexus
Operation Gladio remains one of the least examined – or even acknowledged – long-term, covert ops of modern times. The sheer breadth and scope of the secret plot to subvert any inkling of left-leaning ideologies the world over makes most people balk when first hearing of it. After all, a joint multi-decade subversive project involving the Sicilian and Turkish mafias along with the Vatican and the CIA sounds like a reach, even for a Bond film.
It was, however, exactly this “unholy alliance” as Paul Williams describes it in his seminal book on the matter, which hovered over Europe and Latin America for the better part of forty years maintaining a covert army of former Nazis with hidden weapons caches to call upon should the need arise, as it did in Italy’s so-called “days of lead” when Italian business men were kidnapped and Prime Minister Aldo Moro was assassinated by Gladio operatives, but blamed on the communists to discredit them.
Similar, if less flamboyant, ops were carried out in other European countries, like Sweden. Lars Christiansson, Bildt’s press manager questioned by Swedish officials regarding links of the Swedish leadership with Gladio’s “stay behind units” and a secret police tasked with surveilling left-wing groups was unapologetic about the government’s role, saying that “there was a political agreement [on the stay behind units]”, and that it was “good” that such covert operations were standing at the ready to “intervene if there was a crisis”.
Among the many theories that circle around Olof Palme’s murder is one about Chilean fascists taking the Swedish Prime Minister out over his opposition to the dictator’s brutal regime and the thousands of Chilean refugees who were given asylum there throughout the 70’s and 80’s. Given the direct role played by Gladio operatives in the rise of Pinochet and other extreme right-wing dictators in Latin America of that era, it is no wonder that Swedish investigators have been following those leads for years.
A German investigative journalist and a former Pentagon advisor have claimed that Palme was murdered by a “former Iranian agent with CIA training” sent by NATO over his attempts to normalize relations with the Soviet Union and his stance against nuclear weapons. The authors of “In the Spider Web of the Secret Services” make a case that the assassinations of Uwe Barschel, William Colby (one of the creators of Gladio) and Olof Palme were all linked together by the same rouge network.
Feature photo | Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme during his visit to Cuba in 1975. Here together with Fidel Castro in cheerfully conversation. Lars Astrom | AP
Raul Diego is a MintPress News Staff Writer, independent photojournalist, researcher, writer and documentary filmmaker.