Web of Democracy

Readers of the latest leaked (& confirmed to be authentic) CIA Red Cell Memo (.pdf) 'What If Foreigners See the United States as an “Exporter of Terrorism”?' may be surprised to see that none of the references (among over 40 uses of "terror") appear to demonstrate a concern for the foreign perception of state terror exercised by the US. 

The reason for this may found in the assumption of American Exceptionalism [1], which reveals itself through the statement, "if the US were seen as an 'exporter of terrorism,' foreign governments could request a reciprocal arrangement that would impact US sovereignty." 

Ergo, your sovereignty may be violated, but ours is sacred.

The Memo further infers the "transcendent purpose" of the US with its reference to certain "difficult legal issues" that could arise if foreign countries perceive the US as a terror exporter:

"To date, the US is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and instead, has pursued Bilateral Immunity Agreements (BIAs) with other countries to ensure immunity for US nationals from ICC prosecution.  The US has threatened to terminate economic aid and withdraw military assistance with countries that do not accede to BIAs."

[1] See Noam Chomsky's latest book Hopes and Prospects for a good discussion of American Exceptionalism. Although the theme stretches back through Chomsky's corpus, his latest book incorporates how the double standard is being projected globally with the so-called "emerging norm," The…

"A group of international academics and authors has written to Nicolas Sarkozy calling on France to reimburse the crushing "independence debt" it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago. The open letter to the French president says the debt, now worth more than €17bn (£14bn), would cover the rebuilding of the country after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people seven months ago. Its signatories – including Noam Chomsky, the American linguist, Naomi Klein, the Canadian author and activist, Cornel West, the African-American author and civil rights activist, and several renowned French philosophers – say that if France repays the money it would be a solution to the shortfall in international donations promised following the earthquake."

[More at The Guardian, original letter  (to which I am a signatory) in French, published in today's Libération, and here's the English version via C.R.I.M.E.]

- No doubt much to France's chagrin, the publication of the open letter has generated more mass media coverage: New York Times, Al Jazeera, BBC, among others.

- Isabel MacDonald, one of the drafters of the letter, has published an op-ed in today's Toronto Star.

"In February 2006, following Hamas' electoral victory, a top advisor to Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, Dov Weisglass, described the essence of Israel's Gaza policy. "It's like a meeting with a dietitian," Weisglass said. "We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death."...Beyond the well-documented tunnel trade running under the Gaza-Egypt border, Hamas has taken concrete steps to mitigate the impacts of the siege and further its political administration in the coastal strip. Hamas' agriculture minister, Muhammad al-Agha, has issued a ten-year plan designed to side-step the blockade by increasing local food production and agricultural self-sufficiency in Gaza. Entitled The Plan for 2020, the document was vetted by 150 academics and researchers, according to the agriculture ministry, and looks to respond to the challenges imposed by Israel's blockade with local initiatives." [Read the complete article at Al Jazeera]

Last week I posted the full-text of the latest press release from the pranksters who had the world (if but for a moment) believing that France intended to repay the billions of dollars they extorted from Haiti in the 19th century, where C.R.I.M.E. stated that an alleged official from the French foreign ministry, believed to be one Olivier Poudade, placed a threatening phone call to the hoaxsters spokesperson, 'Laurence Fabre.' 

Save for our colleagues over at Pacific Free Press, the allegations have been all but ignored by the English-speaking Western media. A member of the French media, however, questioned the foreign ministry about the allegations this week. My google-translation of the original exchange has the questioner stating Poudade "reportedly threatened those responsible for the false report, including the spokesman CRIME Laurence Fabre, having to personally pay for dissemination thereof and risking arrest. [Have] there been such calls? Have they been punished? What is your comment?"

The response from the Ministry:

"I am not aware of any official intervention of one of our colleagues from the authors of this hoax. To hide nothing from you, fake websites fake Twitter messages, plagiarism in hoaxes, I do not know where is the reality in this case. I work to check the foundations. In addition, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European studies all the devices and legal remedies available to it in response to the misuse and fraud of its image and identity theft have…