mintpressnews--2020-06-22--Reparations and the Palestinian Right of Return: Two Sides of the Same Bloody Coin

The calls “ Black Lives Matter ” and “ Free , Free Palestine , ” serve to remind us that Palestine is not free and that if the lives of Black people mattered , there would be no need for the call .
In both cases , people are in the grips of a cruel , racist system that refuses to let go .
In both cases , people are being hunted down , caged , strangled , and shot to death , and the root cause of their suffering is rarely addressed .
In Palestine , the return of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ capacity to completely alter the conversation and ultimately bring justice to Palestinians .
However few are willing to bring it up , much less to discuss it seriously .
In America , the issue of reparations to descendants of slaves is arguably the issue that will force an honest conversation and provide some semblance of justice to Black Americans , and yet it too is rarely discussed in public forums .
Are people being too polite ?
Is it a fear of making someone feel uncomfortable , or is it that people have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keeps conversations on these important , pivotal issues from bursting into the public debate ?
In Palestine , the perceived legitimacy of the Zionist regime and the far reach of the Zionist PR machine , or Hasbara , is keeping the issue from being raised .
In the U.S. , the lack of real discourse about the horrors and the legacy of slavery is preventing Black Americans from real emancipation .
People are generally not aware of the amount of wealth the United States amassed on the backs of African slaves , nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compensate the descendants of slaves through reparations .
According to an article titled , “ Why we need reparations for Black Americans ” by Rashawn Ray and Andre M. Perry , published in Brookings Policy 2020 , “ the case for reparations can be made on economic , social , and moral grounds.
” The article continues , “ The United States had multiple opportunities to atone for slavery [ … ] but has yet to undertake significant action.
” It goes on to state that , “ Black Americans are the only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state-sanctioned racial discrimination.
” In the June 2014 issue of The Atlantic , Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote that “ America begins in black plunder and white democracy , two features that are not contradictory but complementary.
” And , he adds , that “ American law worked to reduce black people to a class of untouchables and raise all white men to the level of citizens.
” When Michele Obama spoke in front of the 2016 DNC , her speech created waves .
What caught people ’ s attention was her statement , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ house that was built by slaves.
” The families of those slaves have not yet been compensated for their work , ” and yet , she added , “ this right now is the greatest country on earth.
” Since such injustice is allowed to go on , one wonders where exactly she sees this “ greatness.
” In June 2016 she gave a commencement address at City College in New York .
Here again , she described the feeling of living “ in a house that was built by slaves.
” She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school each day , “ waving goodbye to their father , the president of the United States.
” But why is it that neither she nor her husband , the first Black president of the United States , saw a need to find the descendants of the slaves that built the White House and compensate them .
Who and how It is not uncommon for people to highlight the complexity of a given situation in order to avoid action .
There are complex issues that need to be resolved , like what a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ qualify .
Similar questions are raised when one mentions the Palestinian right of return – who should be allowed to return and what a reparations package should look like .
These are all important questions , and they can all be answered once there is a will and a demand to act .
According to Amnesty International , “ Israel ’ s failure to respect the right to return for Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes in 1948 is a flagrant violation of international law that has fuelled decades of suffering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s prime minister , Benjamin Netanyahu , has said on many occasions that Palestinians have no right to return .
The Anti-Defamation League , or ADL , is a Zionist organization dedicated to promoting the Zionist agenda and the defamation of Arabs and Muslims .
According to them , the right of return is not viable on practical grounds .
This , they say , is because “ an influx of millions of Palestinians into Israel would pose a threat to its national security and upset the country ’ s demographic makeup.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ designed to create a Jewish majority .
The return of Palestinians to their land would create a Palestinian majority , but this would have been the case anyway had it not been for Israel ’ s original crime of artificially manipulating the population ratios in Palestine through ethnic cleansing .
The ADL also claims that “ any international effort would also need to consider the situation of the 800,000 Jews who were either expelled from their native Arab nations or forced to flee.
” There is no comparison to be made here and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the claim is false .
However , even if it were true , Palestinian refugees are not responsible for what may or may not have happened to Jewish people in Iraq or Algeria or any other Arab country .
We can expect to hear arguments that explain why injustice must go on , why the status quo is the best we can expect .
While it is obvious that today , in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Iyad Halak in Jerusalem , the calls for justice are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before , we are not there yet .
Until a serious discussion on reparations becomes front and center in the U.S. and a serious discussion on the right of return becomes front and center in Palestine , the systemic denial of human rights to Palestinians by Israel and Blacks in America will not end .
Feature photo | Barbara Martin looks at a display about slavery in Mobile , Ala. after the discovery of the remains of the slave ship Clotilda , Aug. 26 , 2019 .
Jay Reeves | AP Miko Peled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ born in Jerusalem .
He is the author of “ The General ’ s Son .
Journey of an Israeli in Palestine , ” and “ Injustice , the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five .
”

The calls “Black Lives Matter” and “Free, Free Palestine,” serve to remind us that Palestine is not free and that if the lives of Black people mattered, there would be no need for the call. In both cases, people are in the grips of a cruel, racist system that refuses to let go. In both cases, people are being hunted down, caged, strangled, and shot to death, and the root cause of their suffering is rarely addressed.
In Palestine, the return of refugees is the issue that has the capacity to completely alter the conversation and ultimately bring justice to Palestinians. However few are willing to bring it up, much less to discuss it seriously. In America, the issue of reparations to descendants of slaves is arguably the issue that will force an honest conversation and provide some semblance of justice to Black Americans, and yet it too is rarely discussed in public forums.
Are people being too polite? Is it a fear of making someone feel uncomfortable, or is it that people have given up? What is it that keeps conversations on these important, pivotal issues from bursting into the public debate?
In Palestine, the perceived legitimacy of the Zionist regime and the far reach of the Zionist PR machine, or Hasbara, is keeping the issue from being raised. In the U.S., the lack of real discourse about the horrors and the legacy of slavery is preventing Black Americans from real emancipation. People are generally not aware of the amount of wealth the United States amassed on the backs of African slaves, nor are they aware of the necessity to compensate the descendants of slaves through reparations.
According to an article titled, “Why we need reparations for Black Americans” by Rashawn Ray and Andre M. Perry, published in Brookings Policy 2020, “the case for reparations can be made on economic, social, and moral grounds.” The article continues, “The United States had multiple opportunities to atone for slavery […] but has yet to undertake significant action.” It goes on to state that, “Black Americans are the only group that has not received reparations for state-sanctioned racial discrimination.”
In the June 2014 issue of The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote that “America begins in black plunder and white democracy, two features that are not contradictory but complementary.” And, he adds, that “American law worked to reduce black people to a class of untouchables and raise all white men to the level of citizens.”
A house built by slaves
When Michele Obama spoke in front of the 2016 DNC, her speech created waves. What caught people’s attention was her statement, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” The families of those slaves have not yet been compensated for their work,” and yet, she added, “this right now is the greatest country on earth.” Since such injustice is allowed to go on, one wonders where exactly she sees this “greatness.”
In June 2016 she gave a commencement address at City College in New York. Here again, she described the feeling of living “in a house that was built by slaves.” She described watching her daughters head off to school each day, “waving goodbye to their father, the president of the United States.” But why is it that neither she nor her husband, the first Black president of the United States, saw a need to find the descendants of the slaves that built the White House and compensate them.
Who and how
It is not uncommon for people to highlight the complexity of a given situation in order to avoid action. There are complex issues that need to be resolved, like what a reparations package should include and who would qualify. Similar questions are raised when one mentions the Palestinian right of return – who should be allowed to return and what a reparations package should look like. These are all important questions, and they can all be answered once there is a will and a demand to act.
According to Amnesty International, “Israel’s failure to respect the right to return for Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes in 1948 is a flagrant violation of international law that has fuelled decades of suffering on a mass scale.”
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said on many occasions that Palestinians have no right to return. The Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, is a Zionist organization dedicated to promoting the Zionist agenda and the defamation of Arabs and Muslims. According to them, the right of return is not viable on practical grounds. This, they say, is because “an influx of millions of Palestinians into Israel would pose a threat to its national security and upset the country’s demographic makeup.”
The demographic makeup of Israel was artificially designed to create a Jewish majority. The return of Palestinians to their land would create a Palestinian majority, but this would have been the case anyway had it not been for Israel’s original crime of artificially manipulating the population ratios in Palestine through ethnic cleansing.
The ADL also claims that “any international effort would also need to consider the situation of the 800,000 Jews who were either expelled from their native Arab nations or forced to flee.” There is no comparison to be made here and there is ample evidence that suggests that the claim is false. However, even if it were true, Palestinian refugees are not responsible for what may or may not have happened to Jewish people in Iraq or Algeria or any other Arab country.
We can expect to hear arguments that explain why injustice must go on, why the status quo is the best we can expect. While it is obvious that today, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Iyad Halak in Jerusalem, the calls for justice are starting to be heard more than ever before, we are not there yet. Until a serious discussion on reparations becomes front and center in the U.S. and a serious discussion on the right of return becomes front and center in Palestine, the systemic denial of human rights to Palestinians by Israel and Blacks in America will not end.
Feature photo | Barbara Martin looks at a display about slavery in Mobile, Ala. after the discovery of the remains of the slave ship Clotilda, Aug. 26, 2019. Jay Reeves | AP
Miko Peled is an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. He is the author of “The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”


mintpressnews--2020-06-22--NYPD Cop Caught Choking Man On Camera Has Long History of Attacking Black People

Barely a week after the state made the practice a criminal offense , New York Police Department officer David Afanador was caught on camera yesterday choking a black man unconscious .
Video of the incident in Queens shows Afanador and other officers apprehending 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue as his companions plead for his safety : “ Stop choking him bro… He ’ s choking him !
let him go !
” one says .
Bellevue was taken to a local hospital after losing consciousness .
Bellevue ’ s lawyer , Lori Zeno , Executive Director of Queens Defenders , claimed his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were swollen .
“ He was on such a hard chokehold that he couldn ’ t speak to say he couldn ’ t breathe , ” she said , echoing the final words of George Floyd and Eric Garner , two other black men suffocated by police .
Despite the massive media attention and protest movements they sparked , Garner ’ s killer was not fired for five years , while it took four days of nationwide insurrection before Derek Chauvin , the Minneapolis officer who killed Floyd , to be arrested .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ NYPD immediately announced they were suspending Afanador without pay , the city ’ s police commissioner Dermot Shea stating that “ immediate action was necessary ” given how “ disturbing ” the incident was .
Perhaps more disturbing , however , is Afanador ’ s long history of violence and brutality towards those he is charged with protecting and serving , especially to African-Americans .
In 2014 , for example , he faced up to seven years in prison for the brutal assault of a black teenager , in addition to official misconduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the incident shows Afanador drawing his weapon on the teen , who had his hands up and using it to smash his teeth in .
Afanador and his partner continue to attack him as he is lying dazed on the ground , punching and slapping his face .
He and his partner were found innocent of all charges .
The not guilty verdict was delivered by Judge Danny Chen , who , as New York City publication Gothamist reported , reduced the sentence for Peter Liang , the officer who killed African-American man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vigilantes who admitted to beating up a gay black college student so badly it left him blind in one eye , to only community service .
As Afanador left the courtroom acquitted , the New York Post noted at the time , he was “ surrounded by jubilant fellow cops ” celebrating the decision .
In 2008 , Afanador was part of a group of officers who were performing a strip search on a man in the street .
According to an official complaint , a shocked bystander , Ranique Williams , began @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their names and numbers .
The officers immediately assaulted him , punching and slapping him in the head and stealing his phone .
They proceeded to handcuff Williams , lifting him off by the cuffs , causing him excessive pain , and continued to punch in the face and assault him while handcuffed .
Afanador and his colleagues then started a malicious prosecution against Williams in an attempt to cover for their false arrest and seizures .
The City of New York paid Williams $ 37,500 in a settlement .
A year later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afanador was part of a group of police officers who arrested and brutalized George Smith for no reason , breaking his collarbone and refusing to get him medical treatment , later lying about the incident later to cover themselves .
In 2015 , Afanador was allegedly part of a group of three plainclothes officers who illegally entered a Brooklyn house and assaulted an African-American woman .
When her sister tried to intervene , they shouted “ shut the fuck up you black bitch , ” and arrested her too , ransacking the house @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
After their brother appeared he was also beaten up .
As one of the sisters tried to protest , an officer told her , “ I ’ m sick and tired of you , you fat black bitch , ” slamming her head into a wall .
She was taken – virtually naked – to the police station .
The officers were accused of excessive force , failure to intervene , false arrest , malicious prosecution , municipal liability , unlawful entry , and unlawful stop and search .
New York City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A 15-year NYPD veteran , New York ’ s payroll records show Afanador makes $ 103,408 – over three times the median U.S. income , according to the census bureau .
While authorities at both a national and state level have moved to ban the dangerous and deadly chokehold Afanador used , it is far from clear whether it will change police behavior .
The NYPD had already banned chokeholds in 1993 , yet between 2014 ( Garner ’ s killing ) and June 2020 , the New York City Civilian Complaint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying they had been subjected to one , suggesting police violence like that displayed in the Afanador video is a systemic , not an individual problem .
When left to rot , bad apples , the saying goes , spoil the entire bunch .
Feature photo | New York police officers David Afanador , left , and Tyraine Isaac , right , leave state court following their arraignment , Nov. 5 , 2014 , in New York .
Bebeto Matthews | AP Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News .
After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

Barely a week after the state made the practice a criminal offense, New York Police Department officer David Afanador was caught on camera yesterday choking a black man unconscious. Video of the incident in Queens shows Afanador and other officers apprehending 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue as his companions plead for his safety: “Stop choking him bro… He’s choking him! let him go!” one says. Bellevue was taken to a local hospital after losing consciousness.
Dear @NYCMayor & @NYGovCuomo & @NYPDShea, What are you going to do? This is TODAY. 100th Precinct. NYPD Officer David Afandor.
Badge #31730. Choked a young Black man unconscious. New York just made this a crime last week. It’s been against NYPD policy for 20 years. pic.twitter.com/RuZ1wdlvIf — Shaun King (@shaunking) June 21, 2020
Bellevue’s lawyer, Lori Zeno, Executive Director of Queens Defenders, claimed his head had been bloodied and his wrists were swollen. “He was on such a hard chokehold that he couldn’t speak to say he couldn’t breathe,” she said, echoing the final words of George Floyd and Eric Garner, two other black men suffocated by police.
Despite the massive media attention and protest movements they sparked, Garner’s killer was not fired for five years, while it took four days of nationwide insurrection before Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who killed Floyd, to be arrested. Perhaps fearing a similar uprising, the NYPD immediately announced they were suspending Afanador without pay, the city’s police commissioner Dermot Shea stating that “immediate action was necessary” given how “disturbing” the incident was.
Perhaps more disturbing, however, is Afanador’s long history of violence and brutality towards those he is charged with protecting and serving, especially to African-Americans. In 2014, for example, he faced up to seven years in prison for the brutal assault of a black teenager, in addition to official misconduct and gun possession charges. Video of the incident shows Afanador drawing his weapon on the teen, who had his hands up and using it to smash his teeth in. Afanador and his partner continue to attack him as he is lying dazed on the ground, punching and slapping his face. He and his partner were found innocent of all charges.
Viral video shows NYPD Officer David Afandor choking a black man unconscious just days after it was made illegal. Here's a video of him beating up a black kid. He was acquitted. pic.twitter.com/NAqwyb3mIs — Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) June 21, 2020
The not guilty verdict was delivered by Judge Danny Chen, who, as New York City publication Gothamist reported, reduced the sentence for Peter Liang, the officer who killed African-American man Akai Gurley to probation and sentenced two vigilantes who admitted to beating up a gay black college student so badly it left him blind in one eye, to only community service. As Afanador left the courtroom acquitted, the New York Post noted at the time, he was “surrounded by jubilant fellow cops” celebrating the decision.
In 2008, Afanador was part of a group of officers who were performing a strip search on a man in the street. According to an official complaint, a shocked bystander, Ranique Williams, began to record the event and ask for their names and numbers. The officers immediately assaulted him, punching and slapping him in the head and stealing his phone. They proceeded to handcuff Williams, lifting him off by the cuffs, causing him excessive pain, and continued to punch in the face and assault him while handcuffed. Afanador and his colleagues then started a malicious prosecution against Williams in an attempt to cover for their false arrest and seizures. The City of New York paid Williams $37,500 in a settlement.
A year later, according to another official complaint, Afanador was part of a group of police officers who arrested and brutalized George Smith for no reason, breaking his collarbone and refusing to get him medical treatment, later lying about the incident later to cover themselves.
In 2015, Afanador was allegedly part of a group of three plainclothes officers who illegally entered a Brooklyn house and assaulted an African-American woman. When her sister tried to intervene, they shouted “shut the fuck up you black bitch,” and arrested her too, ransacking the house while putting a gun to their heads. After their brother appeared he was also beaten up. As one of the sisters tried to protest, an officer told her, “I’m sick and tired of you, you fat black bitch,” slamming her head into a wall. She was taken – virtually naked – to the police station. The officers were accused of excessive force, failure to intervene, false arrest, malicious prosecution, municipal liability, unlawful entry, and unlawful stop and search. New York City paid out $70,000 to the victims. A 15-year NYPD veteran, New York’s payroll records show Afanador makes $103,408 – over three times the median U.S. income, according to the census bureau.
While authorities at both a national and state level have moved to ban the dangerous and deadly chokehold Afanador used, it is far from clear whether it will change police behavior. The NYPD had already banned chokeholds in 1993, yet between 2014 (Garner’s killing) and June 2020, the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board reported 996 allegations from locals saying they had been subjected to one, suggesting police violence like that displayed in the Afanador video is a systemic, not an individual problem. When left to rot, bad apples, the saying goes, spoil the entire bunch.
Feature photo | New York police officers David Afanador, left, and Tyraine Isaac, right, leave state court following their arraignment, Nov. 5, 2014, in New York. Bebeto Matthews | 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--2020-06-22--Why So Few American Muslims Serve in the US Military

With long and seemingly endless conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa , the United States Armed Forces is constantly struggling to meet recruitment targets for its wars .
One group that is greatly underrepresented in our armed forces is Muslim Americans ; fewer than 10,000 troops list their faith as Islam , accounting for just 0.3 percent of personnel .
This is despite large and active recruitment drives to hire Muslims – particularly Arab Americans – to serve as intelligence officers , translators and in other key roles in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .
Muslims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States , their numbers increasing from 2.35 million in 2007 to 3.45 million in 2017 , around 1.1 percent of the total U.S. population .
Yet , if the military genuinely wishes to recruit more Muslims , it has been slow to accommodate their needs .
Very few bases have Islamic prayer services , and only five of the Army ’ s roughly 2,900 chaplains are imams .
For decades , Muslim soldiers were forced to shave their beards and made to eat meals containing non-Halal meat and even pork @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
However , there is more to the question of why so few Muslims serve in the military than simply a lack of tolerance .
There has , for a long time been a strong strain of anti-war , anti-imperialist sentiment within American Islam , as Dawud Walid , Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations , explained to MintPress News .
The majority of Americans do not know even a single Muslim , according to a survey by Pew Research .
However , the events of one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put Islam on the national agenda like no other .
Despite the fact that the vast majority of Islamic groups immediately denounced Osama Bin Laden ’ s attacks on New York City and Washington , D.C. , suspicion of America ’ s Muslim population – or anyone who looked passably Middle Eastern – rocketed across the country .
“ Post-9/11 America isn ’ t exactly the most welcoming place for Muslims , ” Walid said .
President Bush famously announced that the United States was on a new “ crusade ” in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of covert and overt hostility from the state led increasing numbers of American Muslims to question the military ’ s role in the world .
For Muslims already serving in the armed forces , that day seemed to change everything .
“ Discrimination got crazy worse after 9/11 , ” said Affraz Mohammed , “ You served your country honourably , you had great positions in the military .
And now , here it is that you are being discriminated against by your own country.
” Mohammed , a native of New Jersey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a lack of opportunities elsewhere .
“ In America , people say we have choices .
But not many have lots of choices .
In the ghetto , how much choice do you really have , ” he asked MintPress .
Born in Trinidad and with Indian Muslim ancestry , he served honorably for seven years , rising to the rank of sergeant .
On trial for my religion Like many veterans , he suffered greatly from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ) .
But unlike others , his trauma was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how he was treated at home .
In 2002 another Marine pressured him into buying his AK-47 assault rifle .
He had originally come to ( legally ) buy a handgun , but the Marine was insistent he take the Kalashnikov instead , and for an extremely low price .
As soon as he accepted , he was swarmed by government agents and charged with buying an illegal , fully automatic weapon .
He was stripped naked , tortured and held incommunicado .
His Marine-corps appointed lawyer told him to plead guilty , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to trial , where he was found unanimously innocent .
The weapon he bought appears not to have been fully automatic anyway , while prosecutors had filed documents listing two different serial numbers for the gun , raising further suspicions about the validity of their case .
While he was officially on trial for an illegal weapons charge , he maintains that his real crime , in the eyes of the establishment , was “ being a brown-skinned Muslim with the last name Mohammed.
” Many of his fellow Marines were not happy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was a terrorist .
He was harassed , woken up in the middle of the night , called “ Mohammed the Taliban Marine , ” and fellow Marines constantly warned that he would be the victim of a friendly fire incident .
He left the service in 2004 , having never been sent to the Middle East .
Since then , he claims that the police , Department of Homeland Security , FBI and other agencies constantly harass and try to provoke him , informing his neighbors and relatives about his supposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been blacklisted by several agencies and is flagged as a risk when flying .
“ I stood up to the empire that everybody is afraid of .
I stood up against the highest government agencies all by myself and came out on top .
That inspires people to stand up for their rights , if they get to know about my story .
So what they ’ re trying to do is make sure I don ’ t have a positive story or a positive image , ” he said , when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still going after him .
Despite this , he remains proud of his service and fiercely loyal to the Marines and says his training helped him through his ordeal .
When asked if Muslims are welcome in the military , Mohammed was blunt , “ They ’ re not , ” he said .
“ Because of the current situation .
If we look back at history , during the Second World War , even the Japanese-Americans serving in the armed forces were being scrutinized .
So if we look at our past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; any time a military is fighting against another country , those people automatically become enemies.
” By the “ current situation , ” Mohammed is referring to the 19-year occupation of Afghanistan , the 17-year occupation of Iraq , and multiple conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa , the large majority of which are Muslim-majority nations .
Even today , the Trump administration continues to increase tensions with Iran , sparking fears of another long and bitter war .
“ My brother did 20 years in the Navy , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When the Iraq War started in 2003 , and his peers were saying ‘ put him in jail because we are going to kill his people.
’ So the racism is there and it is brutal , ” Mohammed added .
For so many American Muslims , the prospect of going to war with their own country of origin or that of their close friends is unpalatable , to say the least .
Walid , a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council Imams Committee , explained that , Inside the armed forces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disloyal and often are the targets of their superiors ’ prejudices .
Last year , Sgt .
Cesilia Valdovinos was forced by a senior non-commissioned officer to remove her hijab while at a briefing .
She had previously complained of being made to cook pork and of being labeled a “ terrorist ” by another soldier .
In 2016 , Marine Corps recruit Raheel Siddiqui leapt to his death after being constantly hazed and bullied by drill instructors during training .
One instructor reportedly labeled him a “ terrorist ” and had slapped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was also known to have forced other Muslim recruits into industrial clothes dryers and turned the machine on .
While the official verdict was suicide , Siddiqui ’ s family contested the decision .
Mohammed suffered similar treatment at training , with instructors punishing him more than others , attempting to sow division between him and his peers , encouraging others to fight him , calling him a “ towel head , ” and placing sand around his bed to “ make him feel more at home.
” As stated previously , Mohammed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trinidad , and of Indian extraction , but knowledge of geography is not many Americans ’ strong suit .
Walid suggested that if Siddiqui had been from a different religion or race , the story would have become a “ national scandal ” and there would have been a senate committee hearing .
But , “ when it comes to Muslims , the anti-Muslim bigotry is overt and subtle , ” he said .
When the parents of a Humayun Khan , a fallen Muslim-American soldier spoke up against Trump ’ s proposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ implying Khan ’ s mother was silent as a result of Islam ’ s backward practices and repressive attitude towards women .
While he scandalized many in the punditry class , a majority of Americans supported the ban on entry to the United States , such is the level of demonization of the religion in media and public life .
1 in 9 Americans say they would refuse to accept a Muslim as a neighbor and 41 percent believe that Islam encourages violence more than other faiths , with nearly two-thirds of Republicans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Muslims are anti-American , and 16 percent saying almost all are .
The same survey found that Americans are far more likely to hold Islamophobic beliefs if they do not know any Muslims personally .
As a result , Muslim Americans are much more likely to hold liberal economic , political and cultural views , with only 13 percent identifying with the Republican Party at all .
Three-quarters say they face a lot of discrimination living in the U.S. “ I don ’ t think it is limited to the military at all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think it goes back deeper beyond religion to an issue of systemic racism that takes place in America .
Muslims are a faith group , but we are predominantly seen as people of color and non-white in the American imagination .
And the reality is that non-white people in America have never been treated equally in American institutions .
That is the historical reality.
” There is perhaps no better example of this than Minnesota Congressperson Ilhan Omar .
As a black , African , refugee , hijab-wearing Muslim democratic socialist woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for bigots .
A study published in November in the Social Science Research Journal found that roughly half the tweets mentioning her contained some kind of hate speech .
Omar has drawn public attention as an outspoken critic of the police ’ s role in the killing of George Floyd .
However , less well-known is how authorities ’ surveillance of Muslims contributed to his death .
Since the days of the Nation of Islam , black Muslims have been targeted by law enforcement and the secret services as an enemy of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ largest populations of black Muslims in the United States , due in part to its large Somali community .
Under Obama ’ s Countering Violent Extremism program , Minneapolis was plied with cash and equipment to surveil supposedly radical extremist groups , leading to a situation where blackness became to be seen by police as a crime in itself .
As Venessa Taylor argued in The Progressive , state surveillance of Muslims “ paved the way for George Floyd ’ s murder.
” While the U.S. military does want and need to recruit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they have also been fighting decades-long campaign against Islamic groups in Muslim-majority countries , leading to a heightened level of casual and toxic Islamophobia within its ranks , alienating many Muslim Americans who might otherwise consider joining .
Soldiers are trained to see brown-skinned Muslims as the enemy , meaning those who join their side are subject to abuse or mockery .
Still more of a question for other American Muslims is whether any war , especially these wars are worth fighting and dying for .
Considering the dearth of Muslim recruits , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the answer is “ no.
” Feature photo | A combination photo shows Affraz Mohammed during his time in the US Marine Corps .
Photo | Courtesy | Affraz Mohammed 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 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Herald Tribune and The Canary .

With long and seemingly endless conflicts across the Middle East and North Africa, the United States Armed Forces is constantly struggling to meet recruitment targets for its wars. One group that is greatly underrepresented in our armed forces is Muslim Americans; fewer than 10,000 troops list their faith as Islam, accounting for just 0.3 percent of personnel. This is despite large and active recruitment drives to hire Muslims – particularly Arab Americans – to serve as intelligence officers, translators and in other key roles in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Muslims are among the fastest growing minority groups in the United States, their numbers increasing from 2.35 million in 2007 to 3.45 million in 2017, around 1.1 percent of the total U.S. population. Yet, if the military genuinely wishes to recruit more Muslims, it has been slow to accommodate their needs. Very few bases have Islamic prayer services, and only five of the Army’s roughly 2,900 chaplains are imams. For decades, Muslim soldiers were forced to shave their beards and made to eat meals containing non-Halal meat and even pork, although this has begun to change.
However, there is more to the question of why so few Muslims serve in the military than simply a lack of tolerance. There has, for a long time been a strong strain of anti-war, anti-imperialist sentiment within American Islam, as Dawud Walid, Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, explained to MintPress News.
If you go back to the Nation of Islam’s days, which includes Muhammad Ali resisting the draft, many Muslims have looked at the interventions of the American military abroad as being immoral and conflicting with the teachings of peace and justice within Islam. So there is a long tradition of African-American Muslims in particular being skeptical of how America exerts its military strength abroad,” he said.
9/11
The majority of Americans do not know even a single Muslim, according to a survey by Pew Research. However, the events of one day – September 11, 2001 – put Islam on the national agenda like no other. Despite the fact that the vast majority of Islamic groups immediately denounced Osama Bin Laden’s attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., suspicion of America’s Muslim population – or anyone who looked passably Middle Eastern – rocketed across the country. “Post-9/11 America isn’t exactly the most welcoming place for Muslims,” Walid said. President Bush famously announced that the United States was on a new “crusade” in the Middle East, and the heightened levels of covert and overt hostility from the state led increasing numbers of American Muslims to question the military’s role in the world.
For Muslims already serving in the armed forces, that day seemed to change everything. “Discrimination got crazy worse after 9/11,” said Affraz Mohammed, “You served your country honourably, you had great positions in the military. And now, here it is that you are being discriminated against by your own country.” Mohammed, a native of New Jersey, joined the Marines in 1997 due to a lack of opportunities elsewhere. “In America, people say we have choices. But not many have lots of choices. In the ghetto, how much choice do you really have,” he asked MintPress. Born in Trinidad and with Indian Muslim ancestry, he served honorably for seven years, rising to the rank of sergeant.
On trial for my religion
Like many veterans, he suffered greatly from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But unlike others, his trauma was not from combat: it was from how he was treated at home. In 2002 another Marine pressured him into buying his AK-47 assault rifle. He had originally come to (legally) buy a handgun, but the Marine was insistent he take the Kalashnikov instead, and for an extremely low price. As soon as he accepted, he was swarmed by government agents and charged with buying an illegal, fully automatic weapon. He was stripped naked, tortured and held incommunicado.
His Marine-corps appointed lawyer told him to plead guilty, but he resisted and the case went to trial, where he was found unanimously innocent. The weapon he bought appears not to have been fully automatic anyway, while prosecutors had filed documents listing two different serial numbers for the gun, raising further suspicions about the validity of their case. While he was officially on trial for an illegal weapons charge, he maintains that his real crime, in the eyes of the establishment, was “being a brown-skinned Muslim with the last name Mohammed.”
Many of his fellow Marines were not happy with him, and rumors spread that he was a terrorist. He was harassed, woken up in the middle of the night, called “Mohammed the Taliban Marine,” and fellow Marines constantly warned that he would be the victim of a friendly fire incident. He left the service in 2004, having never been sent to the Middle East. Since then, he claims that the police, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and other agencies constantly harass and try to provoke him, informing his neighbors and relatives about his supposed danger. He also told MintPress he has been blacklisted by several agencies and is flagged as a risk when flying.
“I stood up to the empire that everybody is afraid of. I stood up against the highest government agencies all by myself and came out on top. That inspires people to stand up for their rights, if they get to know about my story. So what they’re trying to do is make sure I don’t have a positive story or a positive image,” he said, when asked why he believes the government is still going after him. Despite this, he remains proud of his service and fiercely loyal to the Marines and says his training helped him through his ordeal.
When asked if Muslims are welcome in the military, Mohammed was blunt, “They’re not,” he said. “Because of the current situation. If we look back at history, during the Second World War, even the Japanese-Americans serving in the armed forces were being scrutinized. So if we look at our past, it has a lot of information; any time a military is fighting against another country, those people automatically become enemies.”
Endless Wars
By the “current situation,” Mohammed is referring to the 19-year occupation of Afghanistan, the 17-year occupation of Iraq, and multiple conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, the large majority of which are Muslim-majority nations. Even today, the Trump administration continues to increase tensions with Iran, sparking fears of another long and bitter war.
“My brother did 20 years in the Navy, and he had it worse than me. When the Iraq War started in 2003, and his peers were saying ‘put him in jail because we are going to kill his people.’ So the racism is there and it is brutal,” Mohammed added. For so many American Muslims, the prospect of going to war with their own country of origin or that of their close friends is unpalatable, to say the least.
Walid, a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council Imams Committee, explained that,
For those Muslims who are immigrants or children of immigrants and are underrepresented [in the military], most likely feel a sense of alienation from the American military for similar reasons. If we look at the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians that were killed during that time, and the use of drone bombings that killed high percentages of civilians and the extrajudicial assassinations via American drones; these are factors that I believe have stopped many American Muslims from joining the U.S. military.”
Inside the armed forces, Muslims are often suspected of being disloyal and often are the targets of their superiors’ prejudices. Last year, Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos was forced by a senior non-commissioned officer to remove her hijab while at a briefing. She had previously complained of being made to cook pork and of being labeled a “terrorist” by another soldier. In 2016, Marine Corps recruit Raheel Siddiqui leapt to his death after being constantly hazed and bullied by drill instructors during training. One instructor reportedly labeled him a “terrorist” and had slapped him a number of times. He was also known to have forced other Muslim recruits into industrial clothes dryers and turned the machine on. While the official verdict was suicide, Siddiqui’s family contested the decision. Mohammed suffered similar treatment at training, with instructors punishing him more than others, attempting to sow division between him and his peers, encouraging others to fight him, calling him a “towel head,” and placing sand around his bed to “make him feel more at home.” As stated previously, Mohammed is originally from the Caribbean island of Trinidad, and of Indian extraction, but knowledge of geography is not many Americans’ strong suit.
Walid suggested that if Siddiqui had been from a different religion or race, the story would have become a “national scandal” and there would have been a senate committee hearing. But, “when it comes to Muslims, the anti-Muslim bigotry is overt and subtle,” he said.
The “reality of systemic racism”
When the parents of a Humayun Khan, a fallen Muslim-American soldier spoke up against Trump’s proposed Muslim ban, he mocked them, implying Khan’s mother was silent as a result of Islam’s backward practices and repressive attitude towards women. While he scandalized many in the punditry class, a majority of Americans supported the ban on entry to the United States, such is the level of demonization of the religion in media and public life. 1 in 9 Americans say they would refuse to accept a Muslim as a neighbor and 41 percent believe that Islam encourages violence more than other faiths, with nearly two-thirds of Republicans polled saying that a great deal of Muslims are anti-American, and 16 percent saying almost all are. The same survey found that Americans are far more likely to hold Islamophobic beliefs if they do not know any Muslims personally.
As a result, Muslim Americans are much more likely to hold liberal economic, political and cultural views, with only 13 percent identifying with the Republican Party at all. Three-quarters say they face a lot of discrimination living in the U.S. “I don’t think it is limited to the military at all,” Walid told MintPress. “I think it goes back deeper beyond religion to an issue of systemic racism that takes place in America. Muslims are a faith group, but we are predominantly seen as people of color and non-white in the American imagination. And the reality is that non-white people in America have never been treated equally in American institutions. That is the historical reality.”
There is perhaps no better example of this than Minnesota Congressperson Ilhan Omar. As a black, African, refugee, hijab-wearing Muslim democratic socialist woman, her existence is a bingo card for bigots. A study published in November in the Social Science Research Journal found that roughly half the tweets mentioning her contained some kind of hate speech.
Omar has drawn public attention as an outspoken critic of the police’s role in the killing of George Floyd. However, less well-known is how authorities’ surveillance of Muslims contributed to his death. Since the days of the Nation of Islam, black Muslims have been targeted by law enforcement and the secret services as an enemy of the state. Minneapolis has one of the largest populations of black Muslims in the United States, due in part to its large Somali community. Under Obama’s Countering Violent Extremism program, Minneapolis was plied with cash and equipment to surveil supposedly radical extremist groups, leading to a situation where blackness became to be seen by police as a crime in itself. As Venessa Taylor argued in The Progressive, state surveillance of Muslims “paved the way for George Floyd’s murder.”
While the U.S. military does want and need to recruit soldiers from Islamic and Arab-American background, they have also been fighting decades-long campaign against Islamic groups in Muslim-majority countries, leading to a heightened level of casual and toxic Islamophobia within its ranks, alienating many Muslim Americans who might otherwise consider joining. Soldiers are trained to see brown-skinned Muslims as the enemy, meaning those who join their side are subject to abuse or mockery. Still more of a question for other American Muslims is whether any war, especially these wars are worth fighting and dying for. Considering the dearth of Muslim recruits, It appears that, for many, the answer is “no.”
Feature photo | A combination photo shows Affraz Mohammed during his time in the US Marine Corps. Photo | Courtesy | Affraz Mohammed
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--2020-06-24--Experts See Ulterior Motives Behind US Decision to Finally Deport Haitian Death Squad Leader

After decades escaping justice , the United States finally deported death squad leader Emmanuel “ Toto ” Constant back to Haiti yesterday .
Constant , leader of the infamous Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti ( FRAPH ) paramilitary , was immediately arrested as he touched down on the tarmac in Port-au-Prince , 26 years after he fled to the United States , where he received de facto political asylum .
Constant was sentenced in absentia to life in prison by a Haitian court for his role in leading the 1994 Raboteau massacre , where the FRAPH @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who had been protesting the military dictatorship that overthrew him .
However , none of the Haiti experts that MintPress spoke to saw the news as a welcome development .
“ The timing of Constant ’ s deportation is especially worrisome .
Not only did it occur in the midst of a global pandemic , with local resources stretched thin and attention focused elsewhere , but he can count on the support of certain segments of those in power in Haiti today , ” said Jake Johnston , Senior Research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Research in Washington , D.C. , a think tank specializing in domestic and Latin American matters .
“ Prior Haitian governments had requested the U.S. deport Constant so that he could face justice for his role in the Raboteau massacre .
The U.S. refused .
Now , however , with one of his codefendants in the high command of the newly reinstalled military , former allies close to power , and a deeply politicized judiciary , his deportation is unlikely to lead to real justice or accountability – as surely the U.S. administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sprague , a Research Associate at the University of California , Riverside , and author of “ Paramilitarism and the assault on democracy in Haiti , ” agreed .
“ My guess is that the government of Jovenel Moïse will not prosecute him .
That government is very close to the far-right .
And in fact it has a lot of former death squad and military members in official positions in the government , ” he told MintPress .
Kim Ives , a journalist at Haiti Liberté , was even more downcast : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspect he may walk freely in Haiti soon , one way or another ” he told MintPress , explaining that “ his return to his homeland couldn ’ t come at a worse time .
His right-wing political allies are in power .
President Jovenel Moïse of the Haitian Bald Headed Party ( PHTK ) currently rules Haiti by decree .
Parliament has been disbanded , and Haiti ’ s judges are on strike.
” Constant , the son of a military general under the murderous Duvalier dictatorship ( 1957-1986 ) , modeled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death squads that terrorized Haiti throughout that era .
Human rights groups estimate that the FRAPH killed some 3,000 political opponents during the 1991-1994 dictatorship that deposed Aristide , the country ’ s first democratically elected leader .
It was public knowledge that he was supported by Washington .
“ We know that he was getting paid monthly by the CIA .
He would brag that he was protected by them , later on , so it is very scary the level of impunity that these types of individuals have , ” said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 1994 , Constant fled to New York City , where he worked as a real estate broker .
The U.S. blocked all extradition requests from Haiti .
Despite his connections , in 2007 , an American court found him liable for torture , attempted extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity , ordering him to pay compensation to women who claim they were raped and had their breasts cut off by his forces .
“ For the brief period of Haiti ’ s democracy , between 1995-2004 , the U.S. protected the many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war against the Haitian people .
Emmanuel Constant was the most egregious example .
Through a coup and occupation , Haiti ’ s sovereignty was destroyed .
Returning Constant to COVID-afflicted , ruled-by-decree Haiti is another insult to the people of the country and the victims of Constant and FRAPH .
Haiti is in no position to bring such people to justice , and the U.S. knows it .
But whatever miscarriage of justice happens now , the U.S. will comfortably blame Haiti for it , ” Justin Podur , author of Haiti @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In 2008 , Constant was convicted of mortgage fraud and grand larceny , serving 12 years in a New York prison .
As part of the Trump administration ’ s push to expel more immigrants , he was immediately scheduled for deportation after his sentence was up .
However , his case kept getting stalled , leading to suspicions that he was still under CIA protection .
Constant ’ s mission during the 1990s was to destroy the progressive , grassroots movement around Aristide , pacifying the country and paving the way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that had ruled for decades .
Aristide unexpectedly came to power in 1991 in the country ’ s first ( reasonably ) democratic election , beating a U.S.-backed Duvalier official Marc Bazin , a former World Bank economist .
Aristide was a radical priest who preached the doctrine of liberation theology and called for a political revolution , and unbeknownst to the outside world , a huge nationwide democratic movement was building .
He took the election in a landslide , winning 68 percent of the vote to Bazin ’ s 14 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alike .
However , hope was dashed as he was deposed in a coup that the first Bush administration , behind the scenes , worked hard to ensure was successful .
Bazin was installed as leader anyway .
With their man at the helm , Washington , the World Bank and others were confident that Haiti would finally become “ the Taiwan of the Caribbean ” they had been predicting it would be since the 1980s .
But the only results of the wide ranging structural adjustment reforms was to destroy Haitian agriculture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the most exploited sweatshop states in the world .
Remarkably , Aristide ’ s career was far from over , returning to the country ’ s top position in 1994 , being re-elected in 2001 .
While in power , he oversaw a massive public education , health and literacy drive , doubling the minimum wage and introducing land reform measures .
However , the second Bush administration managed to orchestrate his removal in a coup in 2004 .
Since then , the country has been in serious political decline , resulting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has canceled elections and rules by decree , triggering nearly two years of ongoing nationwide protests that have rocked the nation but have received scant attention in the Western press .
“ The US diplomatic-military-intelligence apparatus has local allies on the ground that it works with and Constant is a perfect example of that .
And so Haiti itself suffers from this total impunity for past right-wing violence .
After the 2004 coup d ’ état , so many of the people involved in massacres and assassinations of social movement activists , labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the individuals who had been involved in the killing of these grassroots now have complete impunity , ” said Sprague .
Thus , while on the surface , the news about Constant may seem like a positive step , it is far from certain whether he is returning to face justice or because it is now totally safe for him to do so .
Most fear the latter .
Feature photo | Emmanuel Constant who has just been deported from the US walks down the stairway of a plane as he arrives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Port-au-Prince , Haiti , June 23 , 2020 .
Dieu Nalio Chery | 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 .

After decades escaping justice, the United States finally deported death squad leader Emmanuel “Toto” Constant back to Haiti yesterday. Constant, leader of the infamous Revolutionary Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti (FRAPH) paramilitary, was immediately arrested as he touched down on the tarmac in Port-au-Prince, 26 years after he fled to the United States, where he received de facto political asylum. Constant was sentenced in absentia to life in prison by a Haitian court for his role in leading the 1994 Raboteau massacre, where the FRAPH slaughtered supporters of the recently ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been protesting the military dictatorship that overthrew him.
Emmanuel "Toto" Constant arriving to a police escort in #Haiti this week. Constant was founder of CIA's Front for Advancement & Progress (FRAPH) in Haiti after 1991 coup that overthrew president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. FRAPH committed heinous crimes of torture & murder. pic.twitter.com/Ucl7mli5tJ — HaitiInfoProj (@HaitiInfoProj) June 24, 2020
However, none of the Haiti experts that MintPress spoke to saw the news as a welcome development.
Friends in high places
“The timing of Constant’s deportation is especially worrisome. Not only did it occur in the midst of a global pandemic, with local resources stretched thin and attention focused elsewhere, but he can count on the support of certain segments of those in power in Haiti today,” said Jake Johnston, Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, D.C., a think tank specializing in domestic and Latin American matters. “Prior Haitian governments had requested the U.S. deport Constant so that he could face justice for his role in the Raboteau massacre. The U.S. refused. Now, however, with one of his codefendants in the high command of the newly reinstalled military, former allies close to power, and a deeply politicized judiciary, his deportation is unlikely to lead to real justice or accountability – as surely the U.S. administration understands,” he added.
Jeb Sprague, a Research Associate at the University of California, Riverside, and author of “Paramilitarism and the assault on democracy in Haiti,” agreed. “My guess is that the government of Jovenel Moïse will not prosecute him. That government is very close to the far-right. And in fact it has a lot of former death squad and military members in official positions in the government,” he told MintPress.
Kim Ives, a journalist at Haiti Liberté, was even more downcast: “I’m disgusted. I suspect he may walk freely in Haiti soon, one way or another” he told MintPress, explaining that “his return to his homeland couldn’t come at a worse time. His right-wing political allies are in power. President Jovenel Moïse of the Haitian Bald Headed Party (PHTK) currently rules Haiti by decree. Parliament has been disbanded, and Haiti’s judges are on strike.”
Constant, the son of a military general under the murderous Duvalier dictatorship (1957-1986), modeled his FRAPH on the feared Tonton Macoutes death squads that terrorized Haiti throughout that era. Human rights groups estimate that the FRAPH killed some 3,000 political opponents during the 1991-1994 dictatorship that deposed Aristide, the country’s first democratically elected leader. It was public knowledge that he was supported by Washington. “We know that he was getting paid monthly by the CIA. He would brag that he was protected by them, later on, so it is very scary the level of impunity that these types of individuals have,” said Sprague. As Aristide returned to power in 1994, Constant fled to New York City, where he worked as a real estate broker. The U.S. blocked all extradition requests from Haiti. Despite his connections, in 2007, an American court found him liable for torture, attempted extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity, ordering him to pay compensation to women who claim they were raped and had their breasts cut off by his forces.
A history of violence
“For the brief period of Haiti’s democracy, between 1995-2004, the U.S. protected the many killers that it used in its long-running war against the Haitian people. Emmanuel Constant was the most egregious example. Through a coup and occupation, Haiti’s sovereignty was destroyed. Returning Constant to COVID-afflicted, ruled-by-decree Haiti is another insult to the people of the country and the victims of Constant and FRAPH. Haiti is in no position to bring such people to justice, and the U.S. knows it. But whatever miscarriage of justice happens now, the U.S. will comfortably blame Haiti for it,” Justin Podur, author of Haiti’s New Dictatorship, told MintPress.
In 2008, Constant was convicted of mortgage fraud and grand larceny, serving 12 years in a New York prison. As part of the Trump administration’s push to expel more immigrants, he was immediately scheduled for deportation after his sentence was up. However, his case kept getting stalled, leading to suspicions that he was still under CIA protection.
Constant’s mission during the 1990s was to destroy the progressive, grassroots movement around Aristide, pacifying the country and paving the way for a return to the military dictatorship that had ruled for decades. Aristide unexpectedly came to power in 1991 in the country’s first (reasonably) democratic election, beating a U.S.-backed Duvalier official Marc Bazin, a former World Bank economist. Aristide was a radical priest who preached the doctrine of liberation theology and called for a political revolution, and unbeknownst to the outside world, a huge nationwide democratic movement was building. He took the election in a landslide, winning 68 percent of the vote to Bazin’s 14 percent, shocking the Haitian establishment and Washington alike.
However, hope was dashed as he was deposed in a coup that the first Bush administration, behind the scenes, worked hard to ensure was successful. Bazin was installed as leader anyway. With their man at the helm, Washington, the World Bank and others were confident that Haiti would finally become “the Taiwan of the Caribbean” they had been predicting it would be since the 1980s. But the only results of the wide ranging structural adjustment reforms was to destroy Haitian agriculture and to turn the country into one of the most exploited sweatshop states in the world.
Remarkably, Aristide’s career was far from over, returning to the country’s top position in 1994, being re-elected in 2001. While in power, he oversaw a massive public education, health and literacy drive, doubling the minimum wage and introducing land reform measures. However, the second Bush administration managed to orchestrate his removal in a coup in 2004. Since then, the country has been in serious political decline, resulting in a situation today where President Moïse has canceled elections and rules by decree, triggering nearly two years of ongoing nationwide protests that have rocked the nation but have received scant attention in the Western press.
“The US diplomatic-military-intelligence apparatus has local allies on the ground that it works with and Constant is a perfect example of that. And so Haiti itself suffers from this total impunity for past right-wing violence. After the 2004 coup d’état, so many of the people involved in massacres and assassinations of social movement activists, labor and left-wing protestors, and so many of the individuals who had been involved in the killing of these grassroots now have complete impunity,” said Sprague. Thus, while on the surface, the news about Constant may seem like a positive step, it is far from certain whether he is returning to face justice or because it is now totally safe for him to do so. Most fear the latter.
Feature photo | Emmanuel Constant who has just been deported from the US walks down the stairway of a plane as he arrives at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 23, 2020. Dieu Nalio Chery | 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--2020-06-24--The High-Tech Profiling of Native Americans Under COVID-19 Could Be Headed Your Way

By now it is no secret that COVID-19 is being used to justify profiteering , power grabs , and the incremental decimation of our right to privacy .
It is also serving to perpetuate age-old practices of oppression against Native peoples and other minority groups in the United States , as evidenced by a secret policy enacted by a neonatal women ’ s hospital in Albuquerque , New Mexico , which deliberately singled out First Nation mothers and separated them from their newborn infants as a “ preventative measure ” against the spread of the disease .
State-level investigators referred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a joint investigative report by Pro Publica and New Mexico In Depth , which revealed that Lovelace Women ’ s Hospital conducted special screenings for pregnant women who met the unique criteria of the underhanded policy .
Women who appeared to be Native American or lived in a particular zip code were subjected to an “ additional step ” in the process that normally would only include temperature checks and questions about whether they had been in contact with an infected person .
Clinicians at the only medical institution in New Mexico @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compare the zip codes of expectant mothers with Indian Reservation zip codes and place matches on the informally-named “ Pueblos list ” , designating them as persons “ under investigation ” .
So labeled women would then be administered COVID-19 tests , resulting in the separation of babies from their mothers for up to three days .
One clinician , who remained anonymous , decried the practice as racial profiling , stating that the hospital seems “ to be specifically picking out patients from Native communities as at-risk whether or not there are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The clinician ’ s claims are supported by data that shows that ten of the zip codes on the aforementioned list do not have a high rate of infection .
Hospital spokesman Whitney Marquez asserted that the practice was delineated in CDC guidelines .
But no mention of geographical criteria for infection prevention and control at healthcare facilities can be found in official CDC guidelines .
Additionally , the hospital ’ s claims that the practice of identifying asymptomatic COVID-19 test candidates based on zip codes was consistent with the CDC guidelines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flat , since these are determined by county and not zip code .
Furthermore , of the 22 zip codes on the “ Pueblos list , ” very few are located in areas deemed to be a hot spot and several that do fall within those county borders are not included in the list .
The hospital also withheld information from Native American mothers about their right to refuse being separated from their infants or being tested in the first place .
This lack of informed consent represents a recurring theme in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back to the days of racist paternalism enshrined in government-appointed guardianships of First Nations peoples – a federal program begun at the beginning of the twentieth century which assigned White men to administer the finances of individual tribal members .
The program was rife with corruption and abuse as many Natives were kept in the dark about the actual state of their economic resources , which were stolen right from under them by these so-called guardians .
It wasn ’ t uncommon for one man to control the money of more than one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or traded among other Whites like company stock .
One particularly egregious episode in history saw the serial killing of multiple members of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma orchestrated by a government-appointed guardian who planned to assassinate virtually every last member of the tribe and , thereby accrue the rights to their collective wealth .
This sort of exploitation and oppression is hardly new to Native communities who continue to endure various kinds of ignominies like the scandalous situation unfolding at Lovelace Women ’ s Hospital .
Insidious forms ethnic cleansing such as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that increase the baby ’ s overall health and development of a strong immune system .
But , as many Native American leaders have expressed at one time or another , these forms of oppression are coming for all of us eventually as the corporate model fully overtakes the fragile instruments of democracy and those who have benefited until now find that they , too , are targets .
The measures taken to curb the impact of the COVD-19 pandemic have opened the door to an increasingly more powerful and independent private sector @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by present and recent administrations , corporations are taking full advantage of this deliberate vacuum of power to forge a society into a version more line with their “ free ” market-based ideals , where ‘ we the people ’ are at once the source of their profits and the guarantor of their investments .
Digital Contact Tracing ( DCT ) technologies have proliferated over the course of the last few months and are set to expand greatly as the country slowly reopens .
But , concerns are also multiplying over the tech @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matters of privacy and equal rights .
DCTs have the ability to collect vast amounts of sensitive data , usually reserved for instances like hospital visits or a doctor ’ s clinic .
But , as the “ new normal ” moves into place and demand for these apps rises , the lack of existing legislation surrounding data protection has given corporations like Apple and Microsoft virtual carte blanche on how such data is handled or accessed .
While many of these DCT apps provide boilerplate user agreements that give people ostensible control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the end of the day these end up being nothing more than handshake agreements between one giant self-regulating corporation and a largely defenseless individual , who has little recourse in the event of a data breach or a sudden change in the terms of service .
The tech companies developing these data-collection apps aren ’ t bound by federal laws protecting medical information like The Health Insurance Protection and Portability ( HIPPA ) , which only applies to healthcare providers and their direct business associates .
Furthermore , the online marketplaces where people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distinguish between a DCT app and Candy Crush , placing a user ’ s data security at risk from the get go .
However , these particular concerns may simply end up being red herrings to crowd out smaller players from these emerging digital “ healthcare ” markets once stricter laws are put in place .
But , since it is the big fish like Apple , Microsoft and Amazon who end up writing many of those laws through lobbying groups and other methods of influence , more attention should be paid to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the use they make of the data they collect .
We Know Who You Are DCTs are only the latest in a slew of mass surveillance tools being implemented at a large scale through our ubiquitous smartphone devices and other internet of things ( IoT ) infrastructure , which will all inevitably blend together to form an interconnected grid of uninterrupted data-collection .
Burgeoning technologies like facial recognition have recently come under the spotlight after the protests that erupted over the killing of George Floyd prompted some companies , like IBM , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ space given the technology ’ s unmatched ability to carry out racial profiling like that which led to the police murder of another unarmed black man .
But , as is typical of many large companies , grand declarations of “ corporate responsibility ” are seldom more than marketing ploys .
IBM may have said all the right things at the right time in order to burnish its image , but privacy advocates and civil rights organizations have been quick to point out the devil in the details of IBM ’ s sudden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ language used in their announcement .
By stating they would stop selling “ general purpose ” facial recognition software , the company could have committed to stop selling nothing at all , since “ a lot of the work IBM does is actually customized work for their customers ” said Eva Blum-Dumontet of Privacy International .
Civil rights group Mijente , likewise , seemed skeptical of the feel-good assurances , questioning whether IBM would still be in the market for customers like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines .
IBM , of course , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began testing their own “ opt-in ” app to track the location of its employees in India back in April .
Microsoft is far more advanced in the growing DCT market , having co-developed a leading contact tracing app with Apple .
But Microsoft is also a player in the facial recognition market and also made a big show about “ banning facial recognition sales to police ” just a few weeks ago .
Microsoft ’ s promise rings even more hollow , perhaps , than IBM ’ s as emails recently uncovered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been trying to sell its facial recognition software to the DEA ; an agency tasked with leading the failed war on drugs , called by some the “ new Jim Crow ” because of the notorious racial bias in the so-called war ’ s prosecution .
Feature photo | An officer with the Navajo Nation Police talks to a driver at a roadblock in Tuba City , Ariz. , on the Navajo reservation on April 22 , 2020 .
Carolyn Kaster | AP

By now it is no secret that COVID-19 is being used to justify profiteering, power grabs, and the incremental decimation of our right to privacy. It is also serving to perpetuate age-old practices of oppression against Native peoples and other minority groups in the United States, as evidenced by a secret policy enacted by a neonatal women’s hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which deliberately singled out First Nation mothers and separated them from their newborn infants as a “preventative measure” against the spread of the disease.
State-level investigators referred findings related to the allegations first published in a joint investigative report by Pro Publica and New Mexico In Depth, which revealed that Lovelace Women’s Hospital conducted special screenings for pregnant women who met the unique criteria of the underhanded policy. Women who appeared to be Native American or lived in a particular zip code were subjected to an “additional step” in the process that normally would only include temperature checks and questions about whether they had been in contact with an infected person.
Clinicians at the only medical institution in New Mexico dedicated to women’s health would compare the zip codes of expectant mothers with Indian Reservation zip codes and place matches on the informally-named “Pueblos list”, designating them as persons “under investigation”. So labeled women would then be administered COVID-19 tests, resulting in the separation of babies from their mothers for up to three days.
One clinician, who remained anonymous, decried the practice as racial profiling, stating that the hospital seems “to be specifically picking out patients from Native communities as at-risk whether or not there are outbreaks at their specific pueblo or reservation.” The clinician’s claims are supported by data that shows that ten of the zip codes on the aforementioned list do not have a high rate of infection.
Hospital spokesman Whitney Marquez asserted that the practice was delineated in CDC guidelines. But no mention of geographical criteria for infection prevention and control at healthcare facilities can be found in official CDC guidelines. Additionally, the hospital’s claims that the practice of identifying asymptomatic COVID-19 test candidates based on zip codes was consistent with the CDC guidelines for identifying “hot spots” falls flat, since these are determined by county and not zip code. Furthermore, of the 22 zip codes on the “Pueblos list,” very few are located in areas deemed to be a hot spot and several that do fall within those county borders are not included in the list.
History repeated and augmented
The hospital also withheld information from Native American mothers about their right to refuse being separated from their infants or being tested in the first place. This lack of informed consent represents a recurring theme in the annals of Native American oppression, dating back to the days of racist paternalism enshrined in government-appointed guardianships of First Nations peoples – a federal program begun at the beginning of the twentieth century which assigned White men to administer the finances of individual tribal members.
The program was rife with corruption and abuse as many Natives were kept in the dark about the actual state of their economic resources, which were stolen right from under them by these so-called guardians. It wasn’t uncommon for one man to control the money of more than one individual and guardianship rights were often sold or traded among other Whites like company stock.
One particularly egregious episode in history saw the serial killing of multiple members of the Osage Nation of Oklahoma orchestrated by a government-appointed guardian who planned to assassinate virtually every last member of the tribe and, thereby accrue the rights to their collective wealth.
This sort of exploitation and oppression is hardly new to Native communities who continue to endure various kinds of ignominies like the scandalous situation unfolding at Lovelace Women’s Hospital. Insidious forms ethnic cleansing such as delaying breastfeeding and post-partum mother-child bonding practices that increase the baby’s overall health and development of a strong immune system.
But, as many Native American leaders have expressed at one time or another, these forms of oppression are coming for all of us eventually as the corporate model fully overtakes the fragile instruments of democracy and those who have benefited until now find that they, too, are targets.
A quick loading tyranny
The measures taken to curb the impact of the COVD-19 pandemic have opened the door to an increasingly more powerful and independent private sector. Coupled with an extremely hands-off approach by present and recent administrations, corporations are taking full advantage of this deliberate vacuum of power to forge a society into a version more line with their “free” market-based ideals, where ‘we the people’ are at once the source of their profits and the guarantor of their investments.
Digital Contact Tracing (DCT) technologies have proliferated over the course of the last few months and are set to expand greatly as the country slowly reopens. But, concerns are also multiplying over the tech industry’s poor track record on matters of privacy and equal rights.
DCTs have the ability to collect vast amounts of sensitive data, usually reserved for instances like hospital visits or a doctor’s clinic. But, as the “new normal” moves into place and demand for these apps rises, the lack of existing legislation surrounding data protection has given corporations like Apple and Microsoft virtual carte blanche on how such data is handled or accessed.
While many of these DCT apps provide boilerplate user agreements that give people ostensible control over the information they provide, at the end of the day these end up being nothing more than handshake agreements between one giant self-regulating corporation and a largely defenseless individual, who has little recourse in the event of a data breach or a sudden change in the terms of service.
The tech companies developing these data-collection apps aren’t bound by federal laws protecting medical information like The Health Insurance Protection and Portability (HIPPA), which only applies to healthcare providers and their direct business associates. Furthermore, the online marketplaces where people would find these apps cannot currently distinguish between a DCT app and Candy Crush, placing a user’s data security at risk from the get go.
However, these particular concerns may simply end up being red herrings to crowd out smaller players from these emerging digital “healthcare” markets once stricter laws are put in place. But, since it is the big fish like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon who end up writing many of those laws through lobbying groups and other methods of influence, more attention should be paid to the history these corporations have in regards to the use they make of the data they collect.
We Know Who You Are
DCTs are only the latest in a slew of mass surveillance tools being implemented at a large scale through our ubiquitous smartphone devices and other internet of things (IoT) infrastructure, which will all inevitably blend together to form an interconnected grid of uninterrupted data-collection.
Burgeoning technologies like facial recognition have recently come under the spotlight after the protests that erupted over the killing of George Floyd prompted some companies, like IBM, to publicly announce their exit from this space given the technology’s unmatched ability to carry out racial profiling like that which led to the police murder of another unarmed black man. But, as is typical of many large companies, grand declarations of “corporate responsibility” are seldom more than marketing ploys.
IBM may have said all the right things at the right time in order to burnish its image, but privacy advocates and civil rights organizations have been quick to point out the devil in the details of IBM’s sudden social consciousness and have exposed the careful language used in their announcement. By stating they would stop selling “general purpose” facial recognition software, the company could have committed to stop selling nothing at all, since “a lot of the work IBM does is actually customized work for their customers” said Eva Blum-Dumontet of Privacy International. Civil rights group Mijente, likewise, seemed skeptical of the feel-good assurances, questioning whether IBM would still be in the market for customers like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.
IBM, of course, is also entering the DCT game and began testing their own “opt-in” app to track the location of its employees in India back in April. Microsoft is far more advanced in the growing DCT market, having co-developed a leading contact tracing app with Apple. But Microsoft is also a player in the facial recognition market and also made a big show about “banning facial recognition sales to police” just a few weeks ago.
Microsoft’s promise rings even more hollow, perhaps, than IBM’s as emails recently uncovered by the ACLU revealed that the company has been trying to sell its facial recognition software to the DEA; an agency tasked with leading the failed war on drugs, called by some the “new Jim Crow” because of the notorious racial bias in the so-called war’s prosecution.
Feature photo | An officer with the Navajo Nation Police talks to a driver at a roadblock in Tuba City, Ariz., on the Navajo reservation on April 22, 2020. Carolyn Kaster | AP
Raul Diego is a MintPress News Staff Writer, independent photojournalist, researcher, writer and documentary filmmaker.


mintpressnews--2020-06-24--A US Navy Destroyer Just Entered Venezuelan Waters. Is Trump Trying to Start a War?

Heightening already increased tensions with the country , a Navy destroyer , the USS Nitze , entered Venezuelan waters yesterday , conducting what the military is calling a “ freedom of navigation operation ” in the Caribbean .
The Nitze , according to Southern Command ’ s official twitter account , was “ contesting an excessive maritime claim by Venezuela .
The U.S. Navy ship lawfully navigated an area the illegitimate Maduro regime falsely claims control over.
” In addition to the Nitze , an American military Boeing RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft was also spotted in the area .
In an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ head of Southern Command , said that the move was carried out in order to increase regional peace and stability .
“ The United States will continue to fly , sail and operate wherever international law allows , preserving the rights , freedoms and lawful use of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations , ” he added .
The warship got to nearly 12 nautical miles from the coast where , last month , a botched invasion led by ex-Green Berets was foiled .
The team hoped to shoot their way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Maduro , and replace him with U.S.-backed politician Juan Guaidó .
Washington has been trying to overthrow the democratically elected government since the election of Maduro ’ s predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1998 .
Former White House national security adviser John Bolton ’ s new book , “ The Room Where it Happened , ” alleges that Trump said it would be “ cool ” to invade Venezuela as the country was “ really part of the United States , ” but that he had lost patience with Guaidó , who has now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each with U.S. backing , each with less success than the last one .
After his failures , Bolton alleges , Trump labeled Guaidó the “ Beto O ’ Rourke of Venezuela ” for his vacuous weakness , comparing him to the “ strong ” Maduro .
MintPress spoke with independent journalist and Navy veteran Ariel Fornari today , who said that the military currently lacks the strength to truly bully Venezuela , considering its overreach in the Pacific , attempting to confront China .
“ Southern Command ’ s purported ‘ freedom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s exclusive economic zone but outside its 12 nautical miles territorial limits , is another spurious show of force attempts by the U.S. meant more to show the flag as opposed to a strategic naval presence in the region , ” he added , arguing that yesterday ’ s incident was more a symbolic “ show of force ” meant to “ assuage the imperial designs within the Trump regime ” rather than a substantive challenge to the Maduro government .
While the U.S. has supported an array of coup attempts over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gone through with any invasions , despite Trump ’ s repeated insistence that a “ military option ” was on the table .
This is primarily because , as Fornari explained , they have not been able to influence the country ’ s military leaders , who preside over well-equipped and loyal armed forces .
Instead , Washington has attempted to strangle Venezuela through sanctions , which have devastated the economy , blocking off virtually all foreign trade , including in oil , its primary commodity .
Only a handful of countries , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have broken the unilateral embargo .
This has led to crippling shortages of certain foods , medicines , and other essential products .
An American Special Rapporteur to the UN , Alfred de Zayas , visited the country , comparing the sanctions to a medieval siege , declaring Trump guilty of crimes against humanity , and estimated that over 100,000 Venezuelans have died as a result .
Jeb Sprague , Research Associate at the University of California , Riverside and author of Globalizing the Caribbean : Political Economy , Social Change , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tactic as “ death by 1000 cuts , ” and a “ new type of hybrid warfare.
” The whole point of this , Sprague told MintPress , is to “ create confusion , divisions , and chaos in Venezuela and generate an impossible situation where the government has shrinking options and can more easily make mistakes or be forced to react in a rushed manner.
” Washington has quietly been gearing up for the possibility of a full-scale invasion for over a decade .
In 2008 , the U.S. resurrected the Fourth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deal with the wave of anti-imperialist governments in Latin America .
The military has also dramatically increased its presence on Curaçao , an island just to the north of Venezuela , and in 2006 carried out a wargame there simulating an invasion of the country to capture a leader called “ Hugo Le Grand.
” In 2018 , Admiral James Stavridis , former head of Southern Command , wrote an article in Bloomberg celebrating Jair Bolsonaro ’ s dubious election victory in Brazil , commenting that , if they can only break @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ clean sweep ” in Latin America .
Others , like Senator Lindsey Graham ( R-SC ) , have argued that the U.S. must intervene in Venezuela “ the way we did in Grenada , ” in 1983 when marines invaded the island and overthrew the country ’ s anti-imperialist prime minister Maurice Bishop .
While yesterday ’ s incident appears to have passed without escalation , sending even more warships to Venezuela ’ s borders is a clear provocation that could escalate into a hot war .
Sprague noted that “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , of the Navy being used to pressure adversaries.
” In 1898 , the U.S. used the highly suspicious destruction of the U.S.S .
Maine to intervene in the Spanish-American War , invading and occupying Cuba , while in 1964 , it lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify ramping up war with Vietnam .
The USS Nitze is named after Paul Nitze , Deputy Secretary of Defense under Lyndon B. Johnson , responsible for planning and carrying out the Vietnam War , the casualties of which the Vietnamese government estimates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the ship was involved in a similar incident off the coast of Iran , where it was chased away by four Iranian patrol craft .
Fortunately , it appears that , as with Iran , this new incident has not escalated the conflict , no thanks to the U.S .
Feature photo | The “ big eyes ” ?
aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Nitze ( DDG 94 ) catch the reflection of the USNS Joshua Humphreys .
Naquon Kebe | DVIDS Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 .

Heightening already increased tensions with the country, a Navy destroyer, the USS Nitze, entered Venezuelan waters yesterday, conducting what the military is calling a “freedom of navigation operation” in the Caribbean. The Nitze, according to Southern Command’s official twitter account, was “contesting an excessive maritime claim by Venezuela. The U.S. Navy ship lawfully navigated an area the illegitimate Maduro regime falsely claims control over.” In addition to the Nitze, an American military Boeing RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft was also spotted in the area. In an official statement, Admiral Craig Faller, head of Southern Command, said that the move was carried out in order to increase regional peace and stability. “The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, preserving the rights, freedoms and lawful use of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations,” he added.
The warship got to nearly 12 nautical miles from the coast where, last month, a botched invasion led by ex-Green Berets was foiled. The team hoped to shoot their way to the presidential palace, capture President Maduro, and replace him with U.S.-backed politician Juan Guaidó. Washington has been trying to overthrow the democratically elected government since the election of Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez in 1998. Former White House national security adviser John Bolton’s new book, “The Room Where it Happened,” alleges that Trump said it would be “cool” to invade Venezuela as the country was “really part of the United States,” but that he had lost patience with Guaidó, who has now tried to oust Maduro six times, each with U.S. backing, each with less success than the last one. After his failures, Bolton alleges, Trump labeled Guaidó the “Beto O’Rourke of Venezuela” for his vacuous weakness, comparing him to the “strong” Maduro.
MintPress spoke with independent journalist and Navy veteran Ariel Fornari today, who said that the military currently lacks the strength to truly bully Venezuela, considering its overreach in the Pacific, attempting to confront China. “Southern Command’s purported ‘freedom of navigation’ operations inside Venezuela’s exclusive economic zone but outside its 12 nautical miles territorial limits, is another spurious show of force attempts by the U.S. meant more to show the flag as opposed to a strategic naval presence in the region,” he added, arguing that yesterday’s incident was more a symbolic “show of force” meant to “assuage the imperial designs within the Trump regime” rather than a substantive challenge to the Maduro government.
While the U.S. has supported an array of coup attempts over the past twenty years, it has never gone through with any invasions, despite Trump’s repeated insistence that a “military option” was on the table. This is primarily because, as Fornari explained, they have not been able to influence the country’s military leaders, who preside over well-equipped and loyal armed forces. Instead, Washington has attempted to strangle Venezuela through sanctions, which have devastated the economy, blocking off virtually all foreign trade, including in oil, its primary commodity. Only a handful of countries, including China, Cuba and Russia, have broken the unilateral embargo. This has led to crippling shortages of certain foods, medicines, and other essential products. An American Special Rapporteur to the UN, Alfred de Zayas, visited the country, comparing the sanctions to a medieval siege, declaring Trump guilty of crimes against humanity, and estimated that over 100,000 Venezuelans have died as a result. Jeb Sprague, Research Associate at the University of California, Riverside and author of Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class, described the tactic as “death by 1000 cuts,” and a “new type of hybrid warfare.” The whole point of this, Sprague told MintPress, is to “create confusion, divisions, and chaos in Venezuela and generate an impossible situation where the government has shrinking options and can more easily make mistakes or be forced to react in a rushed manner.”
Washington has quietly been gearing up for the possibility of a full-scale invasion for over a decade. In 2008, the U.S. resurrected the Fourth Fleet, liquidated in 1950, specifically to deal with the wave of anti-imperialist governments in Latin America. The military has also dramatically increased its presence on Curaçao, an island just to the north of Venezuela, and in 2006 carried out a wargame there simulating an invasion of the country to capture a leader called “Hugo Le Grand.”
In 2018, Admiral James Stavridis, former head of Southern Command, wrote an article in Bloomberg celebrating Jair Bolsonaro’s dubious election victory in Brazil, commenting that, if they can only break Venezuela, the U.S. will have achieved a “clean sweep” in Latin America. Others, like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have argued that the U.S. must intervene in Venezuela “the way we did in Grenada,” in 1983 when marines invaded the island and overthrew the country’s anti-imperialist prime minister Maurice Bishop.
Imagine being this craven and no one calling you out on it. That, folks, is imperial hubris. https://t.co/puAiLztzeg — Alejandro Velasco (@AleVelascoNYU) June 23, 2020
While yesterday’s incident appears to have passed without escalation, sending even more warships to Venezuela’s borders is a clear provocation that could escalate into a hot war. Sprague noted that “There is a long history of this, of the Navy being used to pressure adversaries.” In 1898, the U.S. used the highly suspicious destruction of the U.S.S. Maine to intervene in the Spanish-American War, invading and occupying Cuba, while in 1964, it lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify ramping up war with Vietnam. The USS Nitze is named after Paul Nitze, Deputy Secretary of Defense under Lyndon B. Johnson, responsible for planning and carrying out the Vietnam War, the casualties of which the Vietnamese government estimates at around 3.4 million. In 2016, the ship was involved in a similar incident off the coast of Iran, where it was chased away by four Iranian patrol craft. Fortunately, it appears that, as with Iran, this new incident has not escalated the conflict, no thanks to the U.S.
Feature photo | The “big eyes”? aboard the guided missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) catch the reflection of the USNS Joshua Humphreys. Naquon Kebe | DVIDS
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.