By Ghali Hassan. Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011.

“In terms of a violent society and armed citizens, the U.S. is in a league of its own and sadly the state of disregard for the law and justice filters all the way down from the White House.
– Yvonne Ridley, British journalist

In June 2006, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the criminal destruction of Lebanon by the Israeli fascist forces as the “birth pang” of a “New Middle East” characterised by violence and instability. The aim is to break-up the Arab states and fragment the region along religious and ethnic lines to advance U.S.-Israel Zionist interests. 

U.S. Violence and Hypocracy

In his much publicised anti-Arabs speech (19 May 2011), President Barack Obama said: “The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region”. It was a disgusting act of hypocrisy, devoid of any truth. The entire world has known, the U.S. promotes and finances violence in every corner of the world. It is not difficult to prove Obama’s hypocrisy. For nearly four decades, the U.S. unconditionally financed and armed the Israeli fascist regime’s perpetual ethnic cleansing, violence and repression against the Palestinians at the expense of peace and stability. In every major crisis, the U.S. pursued the road to violent aggression rather than peace. The criminal and illegal 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq is a case in point. The U.S. fabricated lies to justify the invasion and threatened any nation that opposed the use of violence with “dire consequences”.

Americans (the ruling class) seem to have forgotten the 600,000 Iraqi infants killed as a result of U.S. enforced genocidal sanctions on the Iraqi people. It was the most premeditated and criminal infanticide in history. Americans have never felt remorse or even acknowledged the 1.3 million of innocent Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children slaughtered since 2003 by America’s unprovoked and premeditated aggression. As a result of the murderous Occupation and U.S.-generated violence, nearly five million Iraqi have become displaced refugees – internally and externally.  Iraq as a modern nation has been deliberately and systematically destroyed. Eight years after the invasion, the U.S. military Occupation of Iraq continues, with some 60,000 U.S. forces stationed in giant U.S. military bases across Iraq. In short, Iraq is nowhere “a free and democratic” nation. Occupation is more than the worst form of military dictatorship; it is cultural annihilation.

The unimaginable barbarity of the Americans is often described by U.S. political establishment and mainstream capitalist media as, “America’s sacrifice that brought democracy and freedom” to the Iraqi people. The truth is, in addition to instituting and enforcing the most extreme form of religious and ethnic sectarianism, the U.S. installed a violent colonial dictatorship subservient to U.S. interests.

When it comes to violence, the U.S. has a complete monopoly on violence. U.S. leaders make it clear that international law is obsolete and that violence is the only way to enforce U.S. will on the rest of the world. In the U.S., Violence is promoted as a virtue. The American society is addicted to violence. “In terms of a violent society and armed citizens, the U.S. is in a league of its own and sadly the state of disregard for the law and justice filters all the way down from the White House”, writes the British journalist, Yvonne Ridley.

From childhood, Americans are feed a diet of violence, racism, ugly nationalism and militarism. “No other activity consumes the American public from childhood to death like war [of aggression] … War is part of entertainment for Americans, fundamental to conditioning the concept of heroism. War defines who is a ‘good guy’. War offers everyone the thrill and glory of battle”, writes Barbara Nimri Aziz, an anthropologist in New York. “Yearning for peace”, as the U.S. elites claim, is yearning for war and violence. 

According to American ideology, invading and occupying countries, destroying their infrastructure, terrorizing and murdering a large number of the civilian population provide “stability” and advance U.S.-Zionist interests. Meanwhile, Iran’s efforts to pursue nuclear technology and establish friendly relations with other countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, Venezuela and Syria is considered by the U.S. and its allies, as promoting “instability”; hence, the U.S. has threatened to “obliterate”, as Hillary Clinton argued, 80 millions Iranians if Iran continues its non-violent policy.

Violence Masquerading as “Humanitarianism”

Western “humanitarianism” – an ideology to justify violence against sovereign and independent nation “human rights” as pretext – is rooted in violence and fascist ideology. Adolf Hitler used “humanitarian intervention” to invade and occupied Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. Hitler was allegedly protecting “native” Germans. Unlike the Nazis who were discreet, the Americans and their allies are committing their crimes in broad daylight against defenceless civilians with the support of Western-controlled organisations like the United Nations (UN) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Furthermore, Western violence against non-Western people is normalised and supported by a global propaganda machine unprecedented in the history of humanity. Satellite TV channels, the Zionist-controlled Internet (Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube) and mainstream media outlets like the BBC News, Fox News and the Murdoch Press. They all have one common fascist agenda; manipulating and managing public perception to normalise and justify violence against defenceless non-Christian dark-skinned people.

We all know that Western aggression against non-Western civilians had nothing to do with “protecting civilians”. In fact civilians are the main victims in mostly smaller, defenceless and resources-rich nations. The primary aim is destabilisation and ultimately imperialist control of vital resources, using humanitarianism is a pretext.

The growing anti-imperialism popular uprisings in the Middle East are not inspired by Western and U.S. democracy, as Western politicians, the capitalist media and the so-called intellectuals claim. To the contrary, people in the Middle East know that Western “democracy”, U.S. democracy in particular, is a delusional democracy controlled by big corporations and Wealthy Zionists. The people have one thing in common; opposing Western imperialism and Zionism. The goal is independence and emancipation in all its forms.

The majority of people in the Middle East rightly perceive the U.S. and its Western allies as an obstacle to democracy. Egypt is a case in point. The U.S. supported the Mubarak brutal regime to the last minute, but once the dictator lost control, U.S. politicians switched side and moved quickly to back a military rule. The Egyptian army is a proud U.S. client and will continue the same repression serving U.S.-Israel Zionist interests. The army has already introduced law criminalises protest movements and restrict the formation of new parties. For its part, the U.S. government ordered the IMF and the World Bank to take over the Egyptian economy, bribing and manipulating the elites to serve U.S.-Israel Zionist interests at the expense of the Egyptian population. Political “transition” in American parlance means replacing “friendly” dictator with another “friendly” dictator.

In his speech, Obama said: “There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity”. But, we all know the long history of U.S. role of fiercely (and sometimes violently) opposing Palestinians self-determination and unconditionally supporting (militarily, financially and diplomatically) the Israeli fascist regime and Zionist expansion in Palestine in violations of international law. Indeed, the U.S. vehemently opposes the Palestinian right to declare a Palestinian nation. The ongoing U.S. murderous Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are an affront to self-determination and opportunity. Foreign military occupation is the worst form of military dictatorship.

Libya, Syria and Iran, countries the U.S. considered independent and not subservient to U.S.-Israel diktats are targets. Like Iraq eight years ago, these nations represent obstacles on the path toward global fascist governance. Libya is a soft target. The premeditated U.S.-led NATO aggression against Libya designed to deflect attention from the legitimate popular and peaceful uprisings against U.S.-backed dictators in Iraq, Bahrain, and Yemen.

Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi is accused of “attacking his own people”. Without a shred of evidence, Western imperialist governments (Britain, France and U.S.) were in a stage to readiness to intervene in Libyan domestic affairs on the side of armed insurrection or “rebels”. Indeed, the reports turned out to be false and the accusations were totally unfounded. Even the Pentagon refused to endorse the accusations. However, the accusations provided the U.S.-led NATO allies with a pretext for an immediate aggression against Libya. “Some nations may be able to turn blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of American is different”, said Barack Obama, America’s top hypocrite.

US Friendly dictatorships: Bahrain, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi and the UAE

However, when tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators jammed the streets in Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen, the U.S.-armed despots sent their armies to crush the demonstrators, indiscriminately firing bullets and missiles on the crowds. In Bahrain – home to U.S. Central Command and the Fifth Fleet naval headquarters –, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) made a deal with the U.S. to invade Bahrain and violently put-down the peaceful protest. The organisers of the protests were detained, tortured and will face the death penalty if found guilty of “wrongdoing”. In return, the U.S. got Saudi Arabia and eight other despotic regimes in the Arabian Gulf to support the U.S.-led NATO aggression against Libya. The irony is that, U.S.-NATO leaders thanked the UAE despot for joining the Western aggression against Libya.

“Humanitarian Intervention” in Libya

When compared with U.S.-installed despots and dictators, Libya is not a dictatorship. It is a nationalist state, characterised by “socialist” government. Colonel al-Qadhafi has no formal position in the Libyan Government. He is more like a “spiritual guide”. Under Colonel al-Qadhafi, Libya has attained the highest standard of living in Africa with a GNP per capital of between $2,200 and 6,000. Unlike other oil-producing countries, including the artificial Gulf states, Russia and Nigeria, Colonel al-Qadhafi used the Libyan oil revenue to develop Libya. As a result, Libya is rated on the UN Human Development Index (HDI) ahead of Russia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.

The pretext for the aggression against Libya – planned in advance by a nexus of imperialists (U.S., Britain and France) in collaboration with the pro-U.S. Arab depots – was to “protect civilians”. The UN Security Council voted (China, Russia, Germany, Brazil and India cowardly “abstained”) for a “no-fly” zone over Libya. Resolution 1973 (2011) is a fig leaf for an act of aggression against the Libyan people with UN blessing. By de-nuclearising Libya in 2003, Colonel al-Qadhafi made a fatal mistake.

If Western leaders are concerned about “protecting” dark-skinned civilians, there should be no-fly zones over Gaza, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Yemen, where violence against civilians is far worse than in Libya. Three days before the Tunisian dictator fled to Saudi Arabia, devoted “humanitarian” President Nicolas Sarkozy offered to send French security forces to defend the Tunisian dictator before he fled to Saudi Arabia.

The so-called “humanitarian intervention” has terrorised the Libyan civilian population and destroyed much of Libya’s civilian infrastructure. The aim of the imperialists is to topple the legitimate Libyan Government no matter how many innocent civilians they are prepared to kill and take control of Libya and Libyan oil resources. The attacks are accurately described by former Cuban president Fidel Castro as more blatant than “when the Nazi bombers attacked target in Spain 75 years ago”. The attacks on Libya are in violation of international law and UN Charter.

The imperialists have already informed the world that a “representative government”, a facade of corrupt CIA-trained expatriates, extremists and terrorists (the Interim Transitional National Council, ITNC) has been installed in the coastal city of Benghazi. In Benghazi, U.S.-trained and U.S.-armed death squads and rebels have began terrorising pro-government civilians and black African immigrants with Western governments’ tacit approval.

Meanwhile, Colonel al-Qadhafi accepted a ceasefire and agreed to have international observers sent to Libya, as required by the UN Resolution 1973. However, he was rebuffed by U.S.-NATO allies. A prolonged war is in the interest of Western imperialists. It will degrade Libya and allows Western capitalist media to manipulate public opinion in favour of total invasion. As mentioned earlier, they don’t care how many innocent Libyan civilians will be killed. Like in Iraq, the seeds of violence and division have been planted by the imperialists who want to ravage Libya at the expense of the Libyan people.

Resolution 1973 is not only provides a fig leaf for aggression; it also provides a cover for the assassination of Colonel al-Qadhafi and his family. On 30 April 2011, in an illegal act to ‘targeted assassination’, U.S.-led NATO war planes attacked Colonel al-Qadhafi’s family home, killing Colonel al-Qadhafi son, Saif al-Arab, and three grandbabies. BBC News called this criminal murder, an attack on Colonel al-Qadhafi “Command and Control Centre”. Of course, that is a lie even by the Nazis’ standard. You wonder what the BBC will call the White House if the Libyan air force drops few bombs and killed Obama’s wife and his daughters.

According to Asia News (01 June 2011), quoting the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, Mgr Giovanni I. Martinelli:

U.S.-led “NATO has intensified bombings and continues to create victims. The missiles are falling everywhere and, unfortunately, not only affect military zones, but also civilian areas. The people in Tripoli are suffering, even if nobody talks about it”.

U.S.-led NATO attacks have killed 718 Civilians. Some 4,067 civilian had been injured, 433 of them seriously, according to the Libyan Government.

On 13 May 2011, Sky News reported that U.S.-led NATO war planes attacked the town of Brega, along the eastern costal road in Libya, killing at least 18 civilians, including 11 Muslim clerics, and wounded many others. Local media sources reported that the religious leaders were deliberately targeted to block any peaceful resolution. Indeed, bombing a peace conference of religious leaders proved that the imperialists are threatened by any chance of a cease fire. Two days earlier (10 May 2011), Western media reported that U.S.-led NATO warplanes have attacked Tripoli, the Libyan Capital, in the heaviest bombing of the city in weeks. There are reports that hospitals and civilian infrastructures were the main targets. 

In the early hours of Tuesday 24 May 2011, U.S. and British war planes attacked the Libyan Capital Tripoli. At least 19 Libyan civilians were killed and many more were injured. When former U.S. Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, was staying at the Rexis Al Nasr Hotel in the heavily populated center she stated:

“I could taste the thick dust stirred up by the exploded bombs. I immediately thought about the depleted uranium munitions reportedly being used here–along with white phosphorus. If depleted uranium weapons were being used what affect on the local civilians?” 

The Libyan civilians, the like Iraqi civilians, will face long-lasting radiation.

As a result of this imperialist intervention, UN “humanitarian” agents have warned of humanitarian catastrophe as food, water and other basic supplies are running short in many parts of Libya. “Widespread shortages are paralyzing the country in ways in which will impact gravely on the general population in the months ahead, particularly the poorest and the most vulnerable. We do not yet have an accurate figure of the total number of casualties since the start of the crisis. The longer the current situation continues, the graver the humanitarian situation will become. With this in mind, the United Nations has established a humanitarian presence in both Benghazi and Tripoli”, said Valerie Amos of the UN. It is reported that as a result of indiscriminate bombing by U.S.-led NATO forces, hundreds of thousands of Libyans have fled their homes and that some 60 percent of the population might need humanitarian aid.

Furthermore, in addition to the UN-imposed sanctions against Libya, the U.S. and its Western allies have “frozen” (i.e., ransacking) more than more than $150 billion Libyan sovereign fund in an act reminiscent of the Nazis unlawful theft of their victims’ wealth. The theft is designed to prevent the Libyan government from supplying the population with food and living necessities.

Destabilising Syria

After Libya, Syria is an easy target. Indeed, Syria has always been a U.S.-Israel target. Like Libya, Syria is not a U.S.-controlled client dictatorship and therefore Syria is subjected to U.S.-Western destabilisation policy. The Syrian Government is a nationalist government led by the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party. It is not a U.S.-Zionist puppet government. During the 2003 illegal invasion and subsequent Occupation of Iraq by the Anglo-American fascist forces, Syria was threatened with similar aggression and sanctions by the Bush-Blair fascist axis. Over a million Iraqis refuges found refuge in Syria, putting great pressure on the country’s resources. While the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has somehow succumbed to U.S.-Western threat in recent time, the Syrian government has supported legitimate Arab causes and it stood against U.S.-Israel Zionist expansion. Unlike Libya, Syria doesn’t have much oil, but Syria is a frontline country (bordering Israel) lies strategically between Iraq and Israel which makes it a prime candidate for U.S.-Israel destabilisation policy.

According to independent French and Arabic media, the destabilisation campaign against Syria intensified in early February 2011 and during the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. On 04 February, Facebook called for a “Day of Wrath” and was relayed by Al-Jazeera satellite channel. In few hours, the Facebook page registered some 100,000 ‘friends’, an unusual feast in a country that had access to ADSL since 01 January 2011 and is not known to have high Internet use.

The mainstream capitalist media, have distorted events in Syria and propagated a U.S.-sponsored armed-insurrection as a “popular uprising”.  In contrast to the peaceful popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that took place in Tunis and Cairo respectively, the armed insurrection, which was orchestrated by U.S.-Zionist-Saudi elements, began as “frontier armed-uprising” in Deraa, a small rural town of 75,000 inhabitants near the Jordanian border and close to Israel. From the outset, the protesters were nor peaceful; they were armed and violent. Like in Libya, the aim is to destabilise and overthrow the current Syrian Government.

In early May 2011, anti-government graffiti vandalism appeared on the walls of Deraa which prompted police in Deraa to respond violently. A peaceful protest by the locals against the police duly projected and amplified by Al-Jazeera channel and the capitalist media as anti-government protest. Then armed criminal gang killed seven policemen and burned the Ba’ath Party Headquarter and the town Courthouse provoked the police to attack. President al-Assad intervened on behalf of the locals and punished the police. He also deployed the army to protect the civilian population. When masked snipers fired on demonstrators and on the police, the Syrian army intervened to restored order. To enflame the situation, the capitalist media distorted facts on the grounds and accused the army of “brutality against peaceful demonstrators”. For instance, pro-Assad rallies were called ‘anti-Assad’ by Al-Jazeera, anti-government protests never took place when reported by Al-Jazeera and anti-government in Bahrain and Iraq were attributed to Syria. As the confusion continues giving the impression that most Syrians are against al-Assad government.

While the capitalist media have exaggerated the protests as an anti-Government, President Assad remains very popular. I am “surprised at how much support President Assad himself still has [in Syria]”, said Martin Fletcher, associate editor at The Times of London, in an interview with All Things Considered host, Robert Siegel on Friday 13 May 2011. The destabilisation campaign modelled on Libya. However, this time the UN was unable to play it imperialist game against Syria. Russia and China blocked a U.S.-sponsored French, German, Britain and Portugal resolution condemning Syria, known it will be a criminal resolution like Resolution 1973 against Libya.

Despite President al-Assad’s careful handling of the situation, the armed “conspirators” – as he called them – were able to move from Deraa through Syria as far as Aleppo. According to the Washington Post, the U.S. is secretly financing and arming the opposition to topple President Bashar al-Assad. “The U.S. money for Syrian opposition groups, including a satellite TV channel to decimate false propaganda began flowing under President George W. Bush and has continued under President Obama, even as his administration sought to build relations with President al- Assad” (WP, 18 April 2011). In fact, the U.S.-sponsored armed resurrection has been in the making for sometimes waiting for the right moment.

To aggravate the situation, both, the U.S. and the European Union (EU) have imposed sanctions against Syria and began a campaign to demonise President Assad. After Libya, Syria is the only independent Arab nation not subservient to U.S.-Israel Israel diktats. A regime change in Syria will see the U.S. and Israel in total control of the Middle East through a network of despotic and weak rulers. Palestinians will lose their only support and any Iranian influence in the region will be curtailed. It is time for al-Assad to “get out of the way”, said Hillary Clinton, but not for pro-U.S. despots in Bahrain, Yemen and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, here in Australia, the “deputy sheriff” of U.S. imperialism in the Asia-Pacific, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has called on the UN to “consider a formal referral of President Assad to the International Criminal Court”. Australia, of course, was one of the U.S.-led ”coalition of the willing”, complicit in the “supreme international crime” of aggression in Iraq, including systematic torture, rapes, mass murder of Iraqi civilians and wanton destruction. Mr Rudd will do well to call on the ICC to investigate Australians for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some Australians should also face a war crimes tribunal over deliberate civilian deaths and war crimes in Afghanistan.

The ICC and Violence

The ICC has accused Colonel al-Qadhafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and Libya’s intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi of ordering what it called “widespread and systematic attacks on Libyan civilians” based on very flimsy and fabricated evidence in the midst of U.S.-led NATO aggression. While the allegations are unsubstantiated and politically-motivated allegations, the ICC Brazilian chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo failed to identify who provided him with the evidence. In fact, Ocampo has more evidence to charge U.S.-NATO leaders with war crimes.

Like many other countries, Libya does not recognise the ICC jurisdiction. Stuart Littlewood, author of Radio Free Palestine wrote:

“Yet three months ago the UN Security Council voted unanimously, in Resolution 1970, to refer the situation in the Libya to the prosecutor of the ICC. Five of the states that voted for this referral – China, India, Lebanon, Russia and the U.S. – are not parties to the ICC and don’t accept its jurisdiction. So here we see the U.S. among those forcing Libya to accept the jurisdiction of the ICC, when [the U.S.] refuses to do so itself.”

Libya rightly acknowledges that the ICC is a tool of Western imperialism created for the sole purpose of persecuting leaders who refused to serve Western imperialism. “The ICC has developed into one of the most blatant illustrations of double standards”. “The United States manipulates the ICC without recognizing its jurisdiction, and having further protected itself by bilateral agreements with a long list of countries that provide immunity for United States citizens [accused of crimes] as well as by Congressional laws to protect U.S. citizens [accused of crimes] from the ICC”, writes author Diana Johnstone.

If the ICC is serious about justice and the rules of law, it should investigate war crimes in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. The situations in these nations are worse than in Libya. In fact, the 2003 illegal aggression against Iraq and the deliberate wanton destruction of Iraq and the Iraqi society were the worst of these crimes. There is overwhelming evidence to justify the arrest and indictment of the perpetrators – George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Tony Blair, Paul Wolfowitz and others – of war crimes and crimes against humanity according to the Nuremberg Principles.  The deliberate destruction of the city of Fallujah and the mass murder of Iraqi civilians by the Anglo-American fascist forces have no comparison in the history of Western barbarism.

The 2008-2009 indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the besieged and defenceless Palestinian population in Gaza by Israeli forces were designed to terrorise the population. The 22-day attacks, with the West’s implicit blessing have devastated the territory’s civilian infrastructure, white phosphorous, tank shells and sniper bullets. More than 1,400 defenceless Palestinians were killed, including 320 children. In short, the ICC proves to be an instrument to justify and cover-up Western and Zionist war crimes

The Bin Laden Hoax

Osama bin Laden’s usefulness as a bogyman has expired long time ago, so it has become useful to stage his death on 02 May 2011, “Operation Fabrication”. Bin Laden who was a CIA asset, had been dead for years, before the U.S. illegally invaded and occupied Afghanistan. Like there has been no recent conclusive evidence that bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks, there is no hard evidence he was (supposedly) killed by the Americans on 02 May 2011.

In announcing the “success” of Operation Fabrication and the “killing” Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama said:

“There is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden. It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, as a propaganda tool. You know, that’s not who we are.”

As a Harvard-educated law professor, Obama should know that targeted political murder is a crime in violation of international law. The U.S. is purveyor of violence. Furthermore, Obama alleged that bin Laden’s body was abruptly buried at sea in accordance with the Islamic law is a falsehood. Burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not have a timeframe for burial.

It is important to remember while bin Laden involvement in 9/11 remains unproven, bin Laden was one of the pretexts to justify the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.  The underlying purposes of “operation fabrication” are:

1. to justify and escalate the ongoing murderous campaign of destabilising and the eventual breakup of Pakistan. Pakistan is accused of supporting terrorism. This is when Pakistan is on the receiving end of U.S. terror and an instability campaign.  “Pakistan is the most dangerous country on earth, also the world’s fastest growing nuclear power, with a huge arsenal”, writes Noam Chomsky, America’s foremost Zionist propagandist.  What Pakistan has done to deserve Chomsky’s wrath is anyone’s guess. A clear majority of the world’s populations rightly believes that Israel and the U.S. pose the greatest threat to world peace;
2. to help boost President Barack Obama’s approval ratings for the 2012 elections;
3. to project an “all-powerful” image of a U.S. “above the law” and warn other nations that sovereignty and international law are irrelevant;
4. to divert public attention away from U.S. domestic problems and promote U.S. nationalism and militarism; and
5. to enforce the practice of torture which is not only illegal but also and ineffective. American politicians, intellectuals and media pundits or more accurately, torture apologists have began to argue that the execution of bin Laden would not have been achieved without the use of torture. It is a falsehood.  In fact, the use of torture proved to be a disaster for the American ruling elites. “The timeline doesn’t seem to provide a lot of support for the pro-torture narrative”, writes Jane Mayor in the New Yorker. Ten years seems to be a long time to find a sick man in an old mansion in Pakistan, if it is not a hoax.

The fabricated assassination of bin Laden was an opportunity for the Western mainstream media to continue the racist campaign of demonising Muslims and Islam. The distorted allegations that bin Laden has used his wife as a human shield and that he was found with pornographic videos were headlines in all major Western propaganda organs. A day later, it was revealed that bin Laden was “killed” unarmed and in the process of planning another “operation” against America. Pakistanis who protested against their puppet government and against U.S. violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty were accused of supporting bin Laden. Bin Laden is not “seen as a hero for Millions of Muslims”. In fact, bin Laden is resented by most Muslims around the world.  Even the Arab media have become part of the capitalist mainstream media, supporting dictators and serving U.S.-Zionist interests.

The Complicity of the Media

The capitalist mainstream media, particularly the BBC, New York Times and Al-Jazeera, coverage of U.S.-led NATO attacks on Libya and the U.S.-sponsored insurrection in Syria is replete with imbalance and distortion. Al-Jazeera plays its game very cleverly; distorting the truth and manipulating public opinions. Like the BBC News and major Western capitalist mainstream media, Al-Jazeera is an imperialist propaganda organ.  Unlike its distorted coverage of Syria and the U.S.-led NATO attacks on Libya, Al-Jazeera ignored and conveniently looked the other way to the violence to crush the popular uprisings in Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen. Its coverage of the massacres in Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen has always been biased. A British delegation of civilians who visited Libya in April, found no evidence of dissent against Colonel al-Qadhafi and accused Western capitalist media of biased towards U.S.-led NATO military aggression.

The mainstream capitalist media, including the Arab satellite of Al-Jazeera, focus on Libya and Syria is designed to deflect attention away from truly legitimate popular uprisings against U.S.-backed dictators in Iraq, Bahrain Yemen, Morocco and elsewhere in the region. In short, the capitalist media have to abide by and adhere to a one-sided ‘doctrinal framework’ that promotes U.S.-Western fascist policies by looking the other way regarding what is happening in Western-friendly dictatorships.

The Qatar-based satellite channel was created by the Franco-Israeli brothers, David and Jean Frydman who wanted a medium of “rapprochement” between Arabs and Israelis. Both brothers were senior advisors to former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Al-Jazeera is funded by the Qatari despot, Emir Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani who is now happily participating in the U.S.-led NATO aggression against Libya and supplying the rebels with weapons and ammunition.

In Qatar, like in all the artificial states of the Arabian Gulf, 95 percent of Qatar’s workforce constitutes of Asian immigrants (mostly from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh) who have been denied their basic human rights and live in slave-like conditions. Qatar is home to U.S. military base (the Al-Udeid Air Base home to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing), a launch pad for U.S. aggressions around the world, including the U.S. aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition, Qatar is also home to one of the most anti-Arabs/anti-Muslims pro-Israel Zionist think-tanks, the Brookings Saban Centre in Doha. Qatar is one of the few Arab countries that have diplomatic and commercial relation with Israel.

Furthermore, Al-Jazeera and its mostly white-Anglo journalists have adopted “don’t know” attitudes regarding Qatar complicity in U.S. wars of aggression. The Qatari Government has recently introduced a new “media freedom law” which restricts journalists writing on issues “concerning national security and friendly countries”. Al-Jazeera told me: “Al-Jazeera has specific instruction: no bad news about Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia … and don’t mention the [U.S. military] bases.” In short, Al-Jazeera is an exotic version of the BBC with an Arabic flavour to normalise U.S. imperialism.

It is not an understatement to describe BBC as a fascist propaganda organ; it is far worse. The BBC is a sophisticated global propaganda organ, reaching every corner of the world using several languages to spread its fascist propaganda. In addition to its public funding, the BBC received funds from the British Zionist Lobby and several Pro-Israel Jewish organisations.

The BBC effect on the British public is formidable. For example, the BBC coverage of the Palestinians struggle against Israel ranged from biased to deceptive, to outright lies. In their updated study, Professor Greg Philo of the Glasgow University Media Group and Dr Mike Berry of Nottingham University, found that more Britons thought that Palestinians occupy Israel rather than the reverse, and the more they watched BBC TV, the more confused they tended to be (Philo, G., & Berry, G. More Bad News from Israel, Pluto Press, 2011).  According to Sut Jally, a professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, between 58 and 63 percent of his students thought that Palestinians are occupy Israel; only 22 percent knew that it is Israel that occupies Palestinian land. Finally, in its news from Israel and the murder of at least 20 unarmed innocent civilian protesters by Israeli soldiers at the border with the Syrian Golan Heights, BBC News described the Golan Heights as a “disputed territory”, not an illegally occupied Syrian land.

Meanwhile, the New York Times (08 April 2011) demanded that U.S. military use AC-130 and A-10 flying gunships to escalate the violence and killing in Libya.  The gunship 105mm shells are able to “destroy buildings and spread shrapnel over a ‘kill’ area of up to 1,500 yards. You have to be very luck civilian to escape this form of terror. On the night of 22-23rd October 2001, a U.S. AC-130 attacked the small farming village of Chowkar-Karez, about 25 miles from Kandahar in Afghanistan, killing at least 100 innocent civilians. “The world’s greatest news paper”, as described by Chomsky, was the leading propaganda mouthpiece for the U.S. aggression against Iraq in 2003, concocted multitude of inexcusable lies. Specialised in distortion and warmongering, in 1987 the Times was found to have fabricated a lie that Colonel al-Qadhafi tried to assassinate former president Roland Reagan.

Finally, Western capitalist media reported that the U.S.-backed despotic regime of the UAE has secretly signed a $529 million contract with the U.S. mercenary company, Reflex Responses (also called R2) to put together an 800-strong mercenary army. The army will be used in special operations missions against the civilian if the regime were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those in Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia. The mercenary army could also be deployed against any legitimate protest by foreign guest workers who again form the majority of the workforce in the UAE. The Obama Administration is backing what is accurately called “a Christian crusader force” protecting U.S.-backed despots in Muslim nations.

Conclusion

Only through peaceful cooperation between all countries, the world would be a peaceful and stable place. Therefore, it is imperative for civilised people who care about humanity and the rules of law worldwide to seize the moment to condemn U.S. imperialist aggression against the people of the Middle East, struggling for freedom and dignity.

*Ghali Hassan is an independent political analyst living in Australia.