Web of Democracy

by Wadner Pierre, courtesy of IPS:

"After weeks of delays, Haitian President René Préval confirmed this month that presidential and legislative elections will take place on Nov. 28. The U.N. and Western donor nations are pledging millions of dollars in support of the polls, but with at least 1.5 million people still homeless from the January earthquake, questions loom over how to ensure voter participation..."We come here today to question the behaviour of the U.S. government. We're asking if they will continue to finance the exclusion of Lavalas by the CEP with Préval. "

More than a year and a half after yours truly broke the story for Mother Jones, earlier this month the New York Times finally saw (Ret.) General Jay Garner's Iraqi oil profiteering 'fit to print.' Garner is mentioned along with Zalmay Khalilzad and Peter Galbraith as "among a growing list of former American diplomats and military officials now chasing business opportunities in the oil-rich Kurdish region or acting as advisers to its government."

Garner "sits on the advisory board of Vast Exploration, a Calgary-based company prospecting for oil in an area of the region known as Qara Dagh, where drilling started in May. On the seventh anniversary of Mr. Hussein’s fall, in April, General Garner flew to the Kurdish region on a chartered plane accompanied by oil analysts and executives. The visit included meetings with Kurdish leaders and a camping trip to Qara Dagh." 

The Times didn't mention that Garner is also an advisor to Forbes & Manhattan, the Toronto-based merchant bank headed by Stan Bharti that manages Vast Exploration. Thanks to Garner's Iraqi ties, another member of the F&M group of companies that won an oil block in the Kurdistan Region is Longford Energy. Both Bharti and Canada's former Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, who sits on both the Vast and Longford boards of directors, accompanied Garner to the Kurdish region last April. 

It's worth mentioning that Vast shares the Qara Dagh block with the KRG and two other Canadian companies, Niko Resources and Groundstar…

 - Mexico: Mexican activists are poised for an International Day of Action against Open Pit Mining on Thursday, July 22. A major focus will be New Gold’s mine in Cerro de San Pedro, in San Luis Potosi. The Canadian company, New Gold Inc. continues to operate, despite autumn rulings by the Ninth Circuit Administrative Court, and the Federal Tribunal of Fiscal and Administrative Justice, that the mine is operating illegally. [via Upside Down World]

- ..and Guatemala: 'Appeal to Investigate Hudbay Minerals Role in Human Rights Violations' [Rights Action via Intercontinental Cry]

- In related news, "During the International Day of Action against Open Pit Mining, Toronto activists, dressed as corporate zombies, took to the streets of the financial centre of the city to protest Goldcorp and "other unethical Canadian mining companies.” [via, The Examiner; also see the press release from the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America].

Recall that a year ago (happy anniversary!) I kicked off the Web of Democracy with a few posts about the humanitarian imperialist doctrine that Canada helped create, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). A year later, R2P's well- (and predominantly Western-) funded advocates continue to try and 'operationalize' the doctrine (ie. make it hegemonic).  In May, the Obama administration encouraged such efforts by endorsing R2P in its National Security Strategy (.pdf, p. 48)

I've just finished reading one of the best critiques of R2P to date, Edward S. Herman & David Peterson's The Politics of Genocide (reviewed favorably here and here, & not so favorably but rebutted, here), and encourage you to do the same some weekend. I'll do my best to review it before the end of the summer. 

Now, to the reason for today's post. Although the 'R2P lobby' has been undeterred by legitimate critiques (which they also refuse to engage), those critiques continue to be voiced. Most recently, during yesterday's UN Security Council 'debate on civilian protection,' here's what Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, Jorge Valero, voicing the concerns of many, had to say:

"emphasizing the primary responsibility of protecting civilians during armed conflict, [Valero] said human right violation[s] should be condemned in all circumstances.  The principles of consent of the parties concerned, impartiality, and non-use of force except in self-defence…

While a de facto foreign-imposed protectorate was installed following the 2004 coup, this recent editorial from Haiti Liberte editor, Berthony Dupont captures the changing character of it (Protectorate 2.0).

Editorial: A Protectorate is now Installed in Haiti

By Berthony Dupont (Editor, Haiti Liberte)

* THIS WEEK IN HAITI *   June 30 - July 6, 2010 Vol. 3, No. 50 (French original published in Vol. 3 No. 49) http://haiti-liberte.com  (Web subscription, U.S.$20 per year; web and print subscription in Canada, U.S.$125 per year) 

How humiliating! What a shame! The Haitian people will now be ruled by a foreigner, and not just any foreigner. It is none other than former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who recently, to placate the naive, made his now famous mea culpa: "it's my fault, my most grievous fault, to have destroyed Haitian agriculture." But the immediate objective of this new colonial master was more psychological, like waving a knife at an unhealed wound. Clinton thought that shedding crocodile tears would bring forgiveness. But how can the peasantry and the nation's progressive forces ever forget the deliberate wrong done to our agriculture by the full-spectrum neoliberal policies carried out under his administration and those after him?

In fact, the statements made by U.S. officials always have ulterior motives, so we must question the real motives of Clinton's contrition. We know from experience that their words and their deeds don't match. Deception is a political weapon as…