Writer’s Notebook
by
Eric Margolis
by Eric Margolis
-
The latest
Osama bin Laden audio is interesting. In it, he warns that westerners
will now become targets of revenge attacks because they failed
to stop their government’s attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan.
He repeated claims the west is waging a “Zionist-Crusader” war
against Islam, and tried to shame Muslim nations into helping
Hamas in Palestine, which is being squeezed to death by US sanctions.
Ominously, he added that the UN is a puppet of the US. Any UN
troops sent to Darfur should be opposed by “mujahidin,” proclaimed
bin Laden. The Western powers, he added, wanted to divide Sudan
and grab its oil – a claim that is not without some basis
in fact.
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Correction:
Iran’s president, Muhammed Ahmadinejad, did not call for Israel
to be "wiped off the face of the map," as I and everyone
else reported before being able to read the full translation
of his speech. In it, the Iranian president quoted the late
Imam Khomeini, who used the phrase. We must always be cautious
of self-appointed translators in Washington who skew much of
the news we get from the Mideast.
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The arrest
and prosecution for terrorism by the FBI of two American citizens
of Muslim background from the state of Georgia, aged 21 and
19, sounds fishy. They were supposed to have met with suspicious
Muslims in Toronto to discuss attacking power plants and communication
nodes in the USA. But like so many other Muslims arrested in
the US and Canada, their case may amount to little. They were
unlikely agents of bin Laden. More likely, just two post-adolescents
running their mouths.
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It was
a national disgrace that President George Bush did not give
a state dinner for visiting President Hu of China. A lunch was
the consolation prize. This was a major slap in the face to
the formality-loving Chinese, who were deeply embarrassed by
this rude slight. Bush was pandering to his Evangelical Christian
backers while jeopardizing the most important foreign affairs
relationship in America’s future: US-Chinese relations. The
White House’s behavior was stupid, offish and counter-productive.
Chinese will not forget this affront.
-
We hope
Nepal’s odious king will be overthrown in the next week or so.
How long will it be before his soldiers and police refuse to
keep beating and killing Nepalese and turn on the king? Let
India send a plane to fly him into exile.
-
One of
the things that continues to amaze and dismay me is the failure
so far of many Americans to realize they were lied to and deceived
into an unjust war by White House propaganda. Or that a cabal
of neoconservatives engineered a war to serve another nation.
Where is the outrage? Why are more Americans not demanding Congress
charge administration officials with malfeasance, lying to Congress,
and creating an illegal war?
 Anyone
who watched this weekend’s program, “60 Minutes,” saw the former
CIA chief in Europe affirm that the White House was warned that
the story about Iraq’s purchase of uranium from Niger, which
Bush used to justify invading Iraq, was faked. Why, one wonders,
is there not a storm of public outrage? Too many Americans remain
in denial that they launched an illegal, unwarranted war for
the basest of reasons. And where was the outrage when it was
revealed that Bush proposed sending US aircraft over Iraq painted
with UN markings in hope Iraqi AA would fire at them and this
provide a casus belli? This was worthy of Dr. Goebbels.
 Spanish
authorities confirmed last week that there was no link between
the bombers of Madrid’s train station and al-Qaida. British authorities
came to the same conclusion over last year’s bombing of the London
Underground. Both attacks were "home-grown" – i.e.,
done by angry young men opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
April
26, 2006
Eric
Margolis [send
him mail], contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media
Canada, is the author of War
at the Top of the World. See his
website.
Copyright
© 2006 Eric Margolis
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