Untruth Serum

By P Chandra Sekharan

06 May, 2010
Combatlaw.org

Supreme Court has ruled that forcible use of tools like narco-analysis, polygraph tests and Brain Electrical Activation Profile (BEAP) is illegal, inhuman and degrading. Forensic science experts have pointed out that use of drugging for investigations doesn’t necessarily extract truth out of one’s system. On the contrary, it is yesteryear’s barbarism and today’s truth detecting terrorism marketed by some self-centered pseudo-scientists, writes P Chandra Sekharan

Interrogation is an important aspect of criminal investigation. It is an art to be mastered through study and experience. It plays major role in investigation whenever there is little or no physical evidence. Police and other investigators depend on interrogation as a principal means of determining facts and resolving issues. It is a well-accepted norm in civilized nations that for both ethical and pragmatic reasons no interrogator may take upon himself or herself the unilateral responsibility for using coercive methods. Concealing from the interrogator’s superiors intent to resort to coercion, or its unapproved employment, does not protect them. It places them, in unconsidered jeopardy.

Reliance on interrogation, however, involves certain problems: ascertaining when a suspect or witness is telling the truth, evaluating memory, allowing for the physical and mental condition of a witness or suspect, and understanding the problems created by an individual’s perspective. Interrogation methods and equipment have evolved in response to these problem areas. It is true that the psychological, psychophysical, and physical sciences have played vital roles in police interrogation techniques. But unfortunately this eventually led to many pseudoscientific truth-detecting techniques as well.

Coercive techniques

But we should know basic information about coercive techniques available for use in the interrogation situation. Coercive procedures are designed not only to exploit the resistant source’s internal conflicts and induce him to wrestle with himself but also to bring a superior outside force to bear upon the subject’s resistance. The following are the principal coercive techniques of interrogation: arrest, detention, deprivation of sensory stimuli through solitary confinement or similar methods, threats and fear, debility, pain, heightened suggestibility and hypnosis, narcosis, and induced regression.

If we look at the history of police investigation, physical coercion (third degree practice) has been preferred to painstaking and time-consuming inquiry in the belief that direct methods produce quick results. Sir James Stephens, writing in 1883, rationalizes a grisly example of “third degree” practices by the police of India: “It is far pleasanter to sit comfortably in the shade rubbing red pepper, in a poor devil’s eyes than to go about in the sun hunting up evidence.”

Narcoanalysis

More recently, police officials in our country are lured by one or two pseudoscientists to the practice of narcoanalysis to extract confessions from accused persons. The police are misguided to think that narcoanalysis is a boon to the police to make breakthroughs. This technique, as claimed by the police, is neither modern nor an internationally accepted one having its origin in the early 1920s. Drugs are supposed to relax the individual’s defenses to the extent that he unknowingly reveals truths he has been trying to conceal. This investigative technique cannot be considered as humanitarian and as an alternative to physical torture, but could be dubbed as “psychological third degree”, raising serious questions of individual rights and liberties. The civilized nations abhor the use of chemical agents in the guise of truth serum “to make people do things against their will”.

Truth serum

What is truth serum? “In vino veritas” (“in wine there is truth”) observed Gaius Plinius Secundus, (better known as Pliny the Elder), the Roman nobleman, scientist, natural philosopher and historian during the first century. In fact, alcohol given as intravenous ethanol, was an early form of truth serum. But the fascination for truth-eliciting drugs began in 1916 when an obstetrician named Robert Ernest House, practicing in a town outside Dallas named Ferris, saw a strange event during a home delivery.

The woman in labour was in a state of “twilight sleep” induced by scopolamine, a compound derived from the henbane plant that blocks the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. House had asked her husband for a scale to weigh the newborn. The man looked for it and returned to the bedroom saying he could not find it — whereupon his wife, still under the anesthetic, told him exactly where it was. House became convinced that scopolamine could make anyone answer a question truthfully, and he went on to promote its forensic use.

The phrase “truth serum” appeared first in a news report of the experiments conducted on prisoners by Robert House, in the Los Angeles Record, sometime in 1922. Robert House himself resisted the usage of the term for a while but eventually came to employ it regularly himself. Since then police departments used it — and in a few cases judges permitted it — through the 1920s and 1930s. Other drugs were also tried, most famously the barbiturates and Pentothal Sodium had become the drug of choice in interrogations. But by the 1950s, most scientists had declared the very notion of truth serums invalid, and most courts had ruled testimony gained through their use inadmissible.

The terminology “truth serum” is itself a twofold misnomer. Neither the drugs used in this technique are sera nor do they necessarily bring forth the probative truth. It is the media which continues to exploit the appeal of the term as it provides an exceedingly durable theme for the press and popular literature.

Practice of narcoanalysis

The use of so-called “truth” drugs in interrogation is similar to the accepted psychiatric practice of narcoanalysis, which is nothing but psychotherapy conducted while the patient is in a ’sleep-like state’ induced by barbiturates or other drugs, especially as a means of releasing repressed feelings, thoughts, or memories. Its use in psychiatric practice is restricted to circumstances when there is a compelling, immediate need for a patient’s responses. But the difference in the procedures adopted by the investigator lies in a totally different objective. The police investigator is concerned with empirical truth that may be used against the suspect, and therefore almost solely with probative truth: the usefulness of the suspect’s revelations depends ultimately on their acceptance in evidence by a court of law.

The psychiatrist, on the other hand, using the same ‘truth-drugs’ in diagnosis and treatment of the mentally ill, is primarily concerned with psychological truth or psychological reality rather than empirical fact. A patient’s aberrations are reality for him at the time they occur, and an accurate account of these fantasies and delusions, can be the key to recovery. According to psychiatrists ‘they cannot be considered as reliable recollection of past events.

Experimental studies

The clinical and experimental studies conducted by many researchers have concluded that there is no such magic brew as the popular notion of truth serum. The barbiturates, by disrupting defensive patterns, may sometimes be helpful in interrogation, but even under the best conditions they will elicit an output contaminated by deception, fantasy, garbled speech, etc. A major vulnerability they produce in the subject is a tendency to believe he has revealed more than he has. Studies and reports dealing with the validity of material extracted from reluctant informants indicate that there is no drug which can force every informant to report all the information he has. Not only may the inveterate criminal psychopath lie under the influence of drugs which have been tested, but the relatively normal and well-adjusted individual may also successfully disguise factual data.

Several patients revealed fantasies, fears, and delusions approaching delirium, much of which could readily be distinguished from reality. But sometimes there was no way for the examiner to distinguish truth from fantasy except by reference to other sources. One subject claimed to have a child that did not exist, another threatened to kill on sight a stepfather who had been dead a year, and yet another confessed to participating in a robbery when in fact he had only purchased goods from the participants. Recently a Bangalore journalist, who was voluntarily undergoing a narco test, revealed that he loved Shah Rukh Khan’s mum the most while his recorded answer before he took the test was he loved his mother.

Testimony concerning dates and specific places was untrustworthy and often contradictory because of the patient’s loss of time-sense. His veracity in citing names and events proved questionable. Because of his confusion about actual events and what he thought or feared had happened, the patient at times managed to conceal the truth unintentionally. As the subject revived, he would become aware that he was being questioned about his secrets and, depending upon his personality, his fear of discovery, or the degree of his disillusionment with the doctor, grow negativistic, hostile, or physically aggressive. Drugs disrupt established thought patterns, including the will to resist, but they do so indiscriminately and thus also interfere with the patterns of substantive information the interrogator seeks. Even under the conditions most favourable for the interrogator, output will be contaminated by fantasy, distortion, and untruth. Because of these world-wide opinions, narcoanalysis for interrogation has been dispensed with long back.

As cited by Aniruth K Kala, Inbau, the then professor of law at Northwestern University, who had had considerable experience in observing or participating in ‘truth serum’ tests, is of the opinion that such tests are occasionally effective on persons who, if they had been properly interrogated, would have disclosed the truth anyway. The person who is determined to lie will usually be able to continue the deception even under the effects of the drug. On the other hand, the person who is likely to confess will probably do so as a result of skillful police interrogation and it will not be necessary to use drugs.

Side effects of Pentothal

The life-threatening adverse side effects of Pentothal are circulatory depression, respiratory depression with apnoea and anaphylaxis. Its effects on CNS may produce head ache, retrograde amnesia, emergence delirium, prolonged somnolence and recovery, besides several other side effects.

Sodium thiopental is a depressant and is sometimes used during interrogations not to cause pain (in fact, it may have just the opposite effect) but to get the person being interrogated to talk. It is not true that sodium pentothal does not cause pain. It can be irritating and painful if accidentally injected into tissues. Extravascular or intra-arterial injection would indeed cause pain4.( Please refer Stephen Raftery, Bristol Royal Infirmary, UK., Pharmacology Issue 2 (1992) Article 8: Page 1 of 1 ) .

The Indian scenario

It was sometime during the year 2000, narcoanalysis was given a rebirth in India when the Bangalore Forensic Science Laboratory announced the availability of a four-in-one package tests for the investigating police officers. From then on the Indian police were lured to these tests and they began considering ‘Pentothal Sodium’ as the cornucopia for all their unsolved crimes. They believe in the fits and starts of the drug rather than their wits to intelligently interrogate. The Indian judiciary, barring the Supreme Court, appears to have given its tacit approval to adopt pseudoscientific techniques in crime investigation. The Fourth Estate looks at the truth drug with the same excitement it created in 1922 when the Texas obstetrician, Robert House first termed the drug as ‘truth serum’. The Indian psychiatry is watching the fun with caution. The Indian Neuroscientists (medicos) are amused to see the misuse of Brain Sciences by the non-medicos.

The four-in-one package

The package includes the following four tests in that order a) psychological profile b) polygraph test c) brain fingerprinting test and d) narcoanalysis. All the four tests are conducted by the same expert (social psychologist) one after the other on the pretext that the earlier test suggests confirmation by the next. The tragedy is that the final confirmation is made by Narcoanalysis, the earliest to be thrown out. The intention is clear. The report on narcoanalysis will only be in the form of verbal statements by the accused while the reports on the other tests are simply based on electrical responses. The architect of these tests is also not bothered about the possibility of the result of one test prejudicing the findings in the next which is again against principles of scientific investigation and ethics.

The other tests

A. Polygraph Test : The most dramatic gains in interrogation technology, when once narco test was discarded, have come through the polygraph, or so-called lie detector. The polygraph monitors and records selected body changes that are affected by a person’s emotional condition. The recorded changes are then studied, analyzed, and correlated in respect to specific questions or other stimuli.

Again, the name “polygraph test” is itself misleading. The word “test” indicates an ‘objective process of evaluation’ based on facts; similar to a DNA or a blood test. Results obtained from a polygraph test are much less credible, since the device measures the body’s reaction to two different types of questions. The two different types of questions are known as relevant and control questions. The examiner must compare responses from relevant questions to those of control questions in order to form an opinion. The dirty little secret behind the polygraph is that the “test” depends on trickery, not science. Perversely, the “test” is inherently biased against the truthful

‘Absolutely there is no difference between a polygraphist who manipulates examinations, and a law enforcement officer who plants contraband on a suspect. In both cases, evidence is being manufactured. The only difference is the law enforcement officer has committed a crime, and the polygraphist just made money’.

B. Brain Fingerprinting : The technique developed in the early nineteen nineties by Lawrence A. Farewell, a former research associate in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry of Harvard Medical School, is claimed to be an alternative to polygraph test. In using the technology, a suspect is shown carefully selected words, phrases or images on a computer screen. They are things like a photo of a murder weapon or the model of car used in a crime. It is claimed that these things would only be recognized by the person who committed the crime.

Sensors on a headband register the subject’s EEG, or brain wave responses to the computer images. The EEG is fed through an amplifier and into a computer that uses proprietary software to display and interpret the brain waves. Unlike polygraph testing, it does not attempt to determine whether or not a subject is telling the truth. Rather, it attempts to determine whether the subject’s brain has a record of relevant words, phrases, or pictures.

Farwell’s visit to India

I had an opportunity to expose the fallacy behind Farwell’s brain fingerprinting technique when Lawrence Farwell visited Hyderabad on March 27, 2004 whence the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory had organized a symposium on ‘Truth detecting techniques’. After Farwell made his presentation I confronted him with the comment that his technique would not differentiate the brain wave response exhibited by the perpetrator of a crime from that exhibited by the others who have knowledge about the crime. Farwell concurred with my observation. Farwell’s team brought with them more than a dozen equipment to be marketed in India. The Director General of Police, Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Sukumaran had on the spot cancelled the orders earlier placed for the purchase of a unit for Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory from Farwell and Farwell has to go back to America taking back all the units he brought to India for sale.

Farwell’s Brain Fingerprinting The Des Moines Register, a newspaper dated September 06, 2004 has published a very interesting story about Farwell’s company having swindled the taxpayers of Iowa out of over $100,000 on the pretext of Brain Fingerprinting research. On the outskirts of Fairfield, alongside a gravel- driveway marked with a sign that reads “Hermit Haven,” sits the National Data Center and Regional Operations Center for Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories Inc. The centers consist of a small, rented office and an empty laboratory. A few computers with archived experiment data are stashed in the basement behind steel doors, but no workers are there to use them. “They moved to Seattle,” explains a businessman in a neighboring office.

In the months before that move, Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories collected $125,000 in grants and loans from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. However, a lawyer in the Iowa attorney general’s office has said Farwell’s so-called brain fingerprinter is no more effective than “a pasta strainer with a chin strap.” Another lawyer in the attorney general’s office called the state’s investment a waste of taxpayer money. A third has said the company’s claims are “nonsense.” There are no takers for brain fingerprinting in America itself.

Brain fingerprinting in India

When such is the real position of brain fingerprinting, two forensic science laboratories in India (The Gujarat lab also joined the bandwagon now) moved fast to apply this technique in actual cases. (Bangalore Lab claims that they have already completed 700 cases of brain mapping and 300 cases of narcoanalysis.) Our psychologists claim that they have brought out the hidden secrets of the brain of the accused.

The P300 brain wave response is just a waveform with a single spike which is very similar in the suspect as well as the other witnesses. Unless our experts find out a distinct characteristic in the brainwave response of the perpetrator which is totally different from the responses of other witnesses, the information derived from brainwave response of an accused will have no meaning. I am yet to find any publication about original research, if any carried out in this direction by our brain wave specialists in peer-reviewed scientific journals. There is a wild rumour that these people are simply copying Farwell’s patented technique without paying royalty to him and they will certainly get into problems. First they must come out with their own findings, if any, which are different from that of Farwell, and satisfy the ‘falsifiability criterion’, before applying the technique in actual cases. ‘Brain fingerprinting’ as it is today, is little supported by forensic evidence or experience and it is no better than its cousin ‘lie-detector’. If narcoanalysis is a primitive technique, brain wave test is a premature one.

Strong support from DFS, MHA

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Forensic Sciences functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs (DFS, MHA) had officially released a manual, prescribing the procedure for the conduct of narcoanalysis. Yes! A manual was released in 2005 by the DFS, which proclaims “Promoting Good Practices and Standards” for a technique not practiced until this day in any of the three Central Forensic Science Laboratories directly under its own control; a technique considered to be a barbaric practice and abandoned by all civilized countries; a technique not practiced by any Forensic Science Laboratory any where in the world; a technique, since its inception in 1922 was practiced only in hospitals with the help of medical men, psychiatrist and anesthetist until it was abandoned a few decades ago.

It is only the State Forensic Science Laboratory Bangalore that had suddenly found a fancy for this test during the past few years. But the “Laboratory Procedure Manual-Forensic Narcoanalysis issued under the banner of Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, carries disinformation as if many laboratories in India are doing this test. It is said in the preface of the manual that “Forensic Science Laboratories now have started playing active role in providing scientific aids to investigators by examining suspects under the “state of trance” achieved by employing Narcoanalysis technique”,. The fact is that no laboratory other than the Bangalore one in India conducts this test. No big procedure or technology is involved in this test. The write-up, resembling the advocacy of a private company to promote its product, makes tall claims ignoring all negative aspects and risk factors involved in the test. The manual also advises that the revelations during narcoanalysis can be verified by polygraphy and brain fingerprinting, the two pseudoscientific techniques. Incidentally, the DFS has also released a manual for brain fingerprinting.

Plea before Indian Government

It is in such a scenario, calling narcoanalysis a “psychological third degree” method of investigation, I had written to the Prime Minister in July 2006, asking the government to make a policy decision on whether the police may use narcoanalysis, and to clarify what role, if any, forensic scientists should have in such tests. I had also suggested to form a committee of experts to tackle the issue and to refer the matter to the Supreme Court. My letter was subsequently forwarded to the Home Ministry. The Ministry is responsible for the Directorate of Forensic Sciences, the Centre’s forensic sciences department.

I had again addressed the MHA in August 2006 criticizing the Ministry for trying to mainstream a technique that has been discredited in most “civilized” countries and not practiced by any forensic science lab anywhere in the world. I have also called for the withdrawal of the manual on narcoanalysis. I am yet to get a response.

Ethical considerations

For ethical reasons the psychiatrist is advised against performing narcoanalysis when the examination is requested as an aid to criminal investigation. World Medical Association recently revised its Tokyo declaration on this subject and now states inter-alia:
The physician shall not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading procedures, whatever the offence of which the victim of such procedures is suspected, accused or guilty and whatever the victim’s beliefs or motives and in all situations including armed conflict and civil strife.
The physician shall not provide any premises, instruments, substance or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture or other forms or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or to diminish the ability of the victim to resist such treatment.

Medical Council of India has recently amended its official code of medical ethics by adding, “The physician shall not aid or abet torture nor shall he be a party to either infliction of mental or physical trauma or concealment of torture inflicted by some other person or agency in clear violation of human rights”.

Anirudh Kala says, “It is shocking that such a gigantic fraud with so many important ramifications is being perpetrated on the nation. I suggest that a group of scientists and intelligentsia be formed so that a concerted effort can be made to expose the absurdity going on”.

Conclusion

The police are a disciplined force trained to uphold the law and to enable democratic institutions to function lawfully. Police powers are confined by the provisions of the Constitution, the Police Act, the Criminal Procedure Code the Evidence Act and many other local and special laws which impose restrictions on the scope and method of exercise of that power. Forensic scientists should inspire the police with their scientific methods not to violate the norms. They will be accused of conspiring with them if they are a party in using the above psychological coercive methods.

Courts have powers to extract accountability from the police in case of violations of human rights in exercising their functions. Courts should therefore be posted with a detailed knowledge about these techniques. The recent decision of the Bombay High Court in a case that employing certain physical tests involving minimum bodily harm such as narcoanalysis, lie detector tests and brain fingerprinting did not violate the rights of the accused persons guaranteed by Article 20(3) of the Constitution has come probably due to the fact that they have not been posted with full information about these techniques. Certainly this will lead to a systematic violation of human rights through the use of coercive pseudo scientific practices under the label of proven and recognized forensic scientific techniques.

All the more it is necessary that the media, the Lok Ayuktas, the Human Rights Commissions, the superiors within the police organizations should take a serious view about the use of these techniques in the guise of interrogation and guide the Home Ministries to evolve a common code in this regard.

In the case of Daubert v. Merrell-Dow Pharmaceutical, the Supreme Court of America unanimously decided on June 28, 1993, that ‘falsifiability criterion’ should be the arbiter of what kind of scientific evidence will be admissible. According to this criterion Freudian psychoanalyst concept is clearly unscientific. Many psychologists themselves have little or no understanding of ‘falsifiability criterion’ and this may be even truer of psychiatrist and social workers.

The expert witness of psychologists using hypnosis, narcoanalysis, theories of repression, recovered memories, deviant behaviour, dissociation and multiple personality disorder, as well as others is no longer acceptable. And such expert witness can be questioned on the grounds of lack of reliability and testability. In my opinion, narcoanalysis is yesteryear’s barbarism and today’s truth detecting terrorism marketed by some self-centered pseudoscientists

REFERENCES

1. Kala AK, Of ethically compromising positions and blatant lies about truth serum, Indian Journal of Psychiatry,2007, May12, 49,6-9

2. McDonald JM., narcoanalysis and Criminal Law, American J Psychiatry 1954, 111:283-8

3. Stephen, Sir James, History of criminal law. Norton WW. New York; 1952. p. 1883.

4. Guttmacher, Weihofen. Psychiatry and the law. Cited from: Inbau FG. Self incrimination. Thomas CC. Springfield; 1950. p. 69.

5. Mayank Tewari. First brain mapping lab in Bangalore. Sunday Hindustan Times, Mumbai September 17, 2006, page 1.

6. Stephen Raftery, Bristol Royal Infirmary, UK., Pharmacology Issue 2 (1992) Article 8: Page 1 of 1

The author is President, Forensics International (Consultancy, Education, Research and Training). He is the President of Forensic Science Society of India & Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Journal of Forensic Sciences

Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/chandra060510.htm

New York Car Bomb Incident: Another False Flag?

By Stephen Lendman

05 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org

On May 1, New York Times writers Al Baker and William Rashbaum headlined, "Police Find Car Bomb in Times Square," saying:

"A crude car bomb of propane, gasoline and fireworks was discovered in a 'smoking' Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg claimed "We were very lucky. We avoided what could have been a very deadly event."

For much of the evening, Midtown New York, from 43rd - 48th streets, was closed, heightening fear reported for hours on cable news shows, including statements by Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, saying the bomb "appeared (to be) in the process of detonating, but it malfunctioned."

Good luck or something else? We've seen this too often not to be suspicious. This one, like others, has all the earmarks of a false flag, more likely given its coverage and location in Times Square on Saturday night, followed by a May 2 video saying the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Who could imagine they had a branch office in New York, and no one even noticed. At least that's the impression from media disinformation, hyped to spread fear and prepare the public for what's to come, perhaps something much worse.

In addition, like previous times, a suspect is already in custody, a Muslim, of course, as part of the anti-Islamic post-9/11 rage, and given how abusively he may be treated (including frightening threats of life in prison or the death penalty), perhaps will confess to anything or make it appear that he did so headlines can blare it.

According to Reuters, a statement on an Islamic web site (http://www.muslm.net/vb/showthread.php?t=387309) said:

"The Pakistani Taliban announces its responsibility for the New York attack in revenge for the two leaders al-Baghdadi and al-Muhajir and Muslim martyrs."

Videos are easy to fake, including strategically timed bin Laden ones, exposed by digital experts as fakes, aside from convincing evidence he died in 2001.

See David Ray Griffin's important book titled, "Osama Bin Laden: Dead or Alive?" In his latest April 30 article, "Did Osama Bin Laden Confess to the 9/11 Attacks, and Did He Die in 2001," Griffin notes his book's convincing evidence of his death, that if so, proves all subsequent video and audio tapes attributed to him are fakes.

According to Hactor Factor's Neal Krawetz, bogus ones are characterized by low quality visual and audio splices and more. His analysis of a September 2007 video showed bin Laden's beard black when in earlier images it's gray. It also had him dressed in a white hat, shirt and yellow sweater, precisely the same attire as in October 2004. In addition, the background, lighting, desk and camera angle were the same.

Most obvious were the edits, showing obvious splices, at least six video ones and even more for audio that appeared to be words and phrases spliced together.

Videos like these are easy to make as are special effects clever enough to make anyone look like bin Laden, convincingly enough to fool the public, especially when media reports hype them.

Post-9/11, it's vital to remind the public by strategically timed "Enemy Number One" bin Laden incidents and the "security threat" he represents. If he didn't exist, he'd have to be invented so why not perpetuate the myth, omitting that he was a CIA asset and likely remained one until his death.

Noteworthy is that CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported that he was admitted to a Rawalpindi, Pakistan hospital on September 10, 2001, and France's Le Figaro said:

"Dubai....was the backdrop of a secret meeting between Osama bin Laden and the local CIA agent in July (2001). A partner of the administration of the American Hospital....claims that (bin Laden) stayed (there) between the 4th and 14th of July (and) received visits from many members of his family as well as prominent Saudis and Emiratis. (During the same period), the local CIA agent, known to many in Dubai, was seen taking (the hospital's) main elevator (to) bin Laden's room." Why not if he was a valued asset.

On May 2, the Israeli news website Debka.com featured an "Exclusive Report" saying:

"On April 30, twenty-four hours before a smoking SUV Nissan containing an improvised bomb was defused (in) Times Square....the Pakistani Taliban's top bomb-maker, Qari Hussain Mehsud, took 'full responsibility for the recent attack in the USA' in an audiotape with images on a You Tube website."

Saying no proof of overseas involvement was forensically found, "DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources" noted similarities between the New York bomb and earlier 2005 and 2007 ones in London and Glasgow, Scotland respectively. In each case, they used propane and failed to detonate - the Glasgow one, in fact, causing the car used to burn but not cause a major catastrophe.

DEBKA also quoted Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud saying on an April 4 nine minute tape that "The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in the major cities." Earlier, Qari Hussein Mehsud "warned NATO governments to denounce the US and apologize for the 'massacres in Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistani tribal areas - otherwise be prepared for the worst destruction and devastation in their own countries.' "

A mid-April Debka report had Iran threatening to retaliate against US cities with nuclear weapons if they're used against Iranian cities or sites.

"For the first time, DEBKAfile's military sources (IDF and/or Mossad ones stoking fear) report, Tehran indicated the possibility of passing nuclear devices to terrorists capable of striking inside the United States....Although Iran has yet to attain operational nuclear arms, our military sources believe it does possess the makings of primitive nuclear devices or 'dirty bombs.' "

With no supportive evidence, these type reports hype fear to prepare the public for what's to come, so if a planned major terrorist event in a Western city, there's a ready suspect to blame and popular approval to act.

Noted Previous False Flags

The historic record is full of false flags, some especially noteworthy. Below are a few examples:

-- in 1898, America falsely accused Spain of blowing up the USS Maine in Havana, Cuba harbor. The Spanish-American war followed;

-- in 1933 Germany, a week before general elections, the strategically timed Reichstag fire (home of the German parliament) was blamed on communists. It got President Paul von Hindenburg to sign an emergency decree. Civil liberties were suspended. Weimar Republic democracy ended, and Hitler assumed fascist powers after enough Nazis were elected to assure it;

-- on August 31, 1939, Nazis impersonating Polish terrorists attacked the Gleiwitz radio station on the border between the two countries, starting WW II;

-- on December 7, 1941, the Roosevelt administration succeeded in manipulating Japan to attack Pearl Harbor, giving FDR the war he wanted from the early 1930s, but had to convince a pacifist public of the threat; the fleet was also tracked across the Pacific, but Admiral HE Kimmel wasn't warned or given known intelligence to assure enough mass casualties for congressional and public support;

-- in 1962, a US Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed false flag attack never happened because President Jack Kennedy rejected it; called Operation Northwoods (a part of Operation Mongoose), the scheme included sinking US ships, shooting down US commercial airliners, blowing up buildings in US cities, attacking America's Guantanamo base, other incidents, and blaming it on Cuba as a reason for war;

-- the fake August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident initiating full-scale retaliation against North Vietnam after Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing war without declaring it; and the seminal event of our time -

-- September 11, 2001, clear evidence showing it was a false flag, the Afghan and Iraq wars made possible by fear-mongering blame on the Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

On February 16, 2010, a Washington's blog web site (georgewashington2.blogspot.com) article titled, "Governments ADMIT That They Carry Out False Flag Terror" listed some examples, including:

-- the CIA admitting its 1950s role in toppling Iran's democratically government in 1953;

-- Israel admitting a 1954 attack in Egypt, including planting bombs in US diplomatic facilities, leaving "evidence" of Arab involvement;

-- Indonesia's former president, Abdurrahman Wahid, saying the nation's police or military most likely were involved in the 2002 Bali bombing, killing over 200 people;

-- a former Italian prime minister, judge, and military counterintelligence head, General Gianadelio Maletti, saying America's CIA instigated and abetted right wing terrorist groups in the 1970s and earlier, including bombing a Milan bank in 1969, to rally popular anti-communist support in Italy and other European countries; and

-- many others, including former Carter administration National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, telling a Senate committee that a false flag terror attack on US soil might occur to blame Iran and justify war.

In his 1997 book, "The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives," he said:

"Moreover, as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat," the kind 9/11 created - predicted, planned, orchestrated, and carried out to further new world order dominance globally.

Other False Flag Examples

(1) The March 2004 Madrid train bombings occurred three days before Spain's general elections. With no supportive evidence, they were blamed on Al Qaeda, yet they stoked public fear and were used to warn that other Western cities were threatened, including in America.

Nearly always, Muslims are blamed and arrested, the DEBKAfile citing advance bin Laden tapes threatening to punish Spain for supporting the Bush administration. This time, Basque separatists were also named, again without evidence, and the bin Laden tapes were fakes.

(2) The July 7, 2005 London underground bombings (called 7/7) were a series of attacks on the city's public transport system during the morning rush hour for maximum disruption and casualties. At precisely the same time, an anti-terror drill occurred, simulating real attacks. It was no coincidence this time or ever, others in America and Britain coming on the same day as a real event, other notable ones covered below.

AP reported that the London Israeli embassy warned Scotland Yard about the 7/7 one in advance, and Israeli Army Radio reported that "Scotland Yard had intelligence warnings of the attacks a short time before they occurred," but didn't act or issue warnings. In addition, Israel's finance minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, was told not to attend an economic conference in the city where he was scheduled to deliver an address.

Other dignitaries were also warned, but not the public. Even without smoking gun proof, the 7/7 attack was a false flag operation to heighten fear and keep Britain and the West embroiled in war.

(3) On the morning of the 9/11 attack, the CIA ran a "pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building." Held at the Agency's Chantilly, Virginia Reconnaissance Office, AP reported (on August 22, 2002) that it simulated "a small corporate jet (hitting) one of the four towers....after experiencing a mechanical failure."

Unmentioned at the time was a later revealed (but unreported) Homeland Security conference announcement a year later to commemorate the 9/11 event. Held under the auspices of the National Law Enforcement and Security Institute, one of its speakers was John Fulton, CIA Chief of the Strategic War Gaming Division of the National Reconnaissance office in charge of the operation. Another coincidence, or was something more sinister afoot?

The previous year in October, the Pentagon simulated a commercial plane striking the Pentagon, coordinated by its Command Emergency Response Team and the Defense Protective Services Police. This and the 9/11 exercises are more than coincidental, given what's now known and the fallout.

(4) On June 30, 2007, a Jeep Cherokee with propane canisters crashed into Glasgow International Airport's glass doors, the BBC reporting that it "was in the middle of the doorway burning....The car didn't actually explode. There were a few pops and bangs which presumably was the petrol."

The usual suspects were blamed, Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists, Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying:

"We are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with Al Qaeda," followed by his initiating draconian security measures, hyped by the UK Telegraph saying:

An "unknown Al Qaeda terrorist cell (was) thought to be preparing to launch a series of Baghdad-style car bombings." Another Telegraph article mentioned Washington's involvement with UK authorities in hyping the threat, and an ABC News report suggested foreknowledge of the incident based on advance warnings (by unnamed intelligence officials) of Al Qaeda "target(ing) nightclubs and other soft targets....All of this comes just three weeks after what was described as an Al Qaeda graduation ceremony for suicide bombers at a training camp in Pakistan."

Fear mongering and false flags? Draw your own conclusions, understanding the need to stoke fear to keep public support for the "war on terror," the loss of civil liberties for "security," the Afghan and Iraq wars, and whatever else may be planned.

(5) the Christmas 2009 airliner incident involving Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen on an Amsterdam - Detroit bound flight. US officials claimed he was trained in Yemen by Al Qaeda, obtained explosive chemicals (PETN), and tried to detonate them on board.

In a December 29 Russia Today interview, Webster Tarpley called him a "protected (CIA) patsy (for a) provocation designed to facilitate US meddling in (Yemen's) civil war (pitting) the Saudi-backed central government against the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels," being bombed by US and Saudi air strikes.

Abdulmutallab was denied a UK entrance visa, wasn't on a No Fly List, paid cash for a one-way ticket to Detroit, checked no luggage, had a US visa but no passport, and was helped on board by a "well-dressed Indian" to facilitate the likely false flag plot using him as a convenient dupe.

The Wayne Madsen Report called the incident a false flag operation "carried out by (the) intelligence tripartite grouping of CIA, Mossad, and India's Research Analysis Wing (RAW)." Earlier they conspired with "former Afghan KHAD intelligence agents to assassinate former Pakistani Prime Minister Benezir Bhutto....to destabilize Pakistan" for planned balkanization, the same scheme planned for Afghanistan and already implemented in Iraq.

Madsen explained that Abdulmutallab's PETN was "weak, technically deficient," failed to go off properly, and if so would have had the impact of an exploding fire cracker.

Madsen also reported that the same tripartite CIA, Mossad, and RAW alliance was behind the November 2008 Mumbai, India attacks, killing nearly 200 and wounding hundreds more. Webster Tarpley said almost for certain Pakistan's ISI radical wing was involved, and that Indian and Mossad operatives conduct regular cross-border missions into Pakistan from India and Afghanistan.

(6) Make of it what you will, but in Miami on January 11, 2010 (one day before Haiti's earthquake), the Pentagon's US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) simulated a hurricane striking Haiti in preparation for subsequent measures to be implemented, that, in fact, would be a carefully planned military operation for occupation, control, and planned plunder.

Also, Deputy SOUTHCOM head, General PK Keen, was in Haiti when the quake struck, ready to assume command when it did and use a communication tool called the Transnational Information Sharing Cooperation project (TISC), linking other nations and NGOs with the Pentagon and US government to facilitate measures to be implemented, none to help Haitians.

Final Comments

As long as imperial ambitions and rogue agencies like CIA and their foreign counterparts exist, false flag operations will be commonplace, the May 1 New York one the latest example, and maybe a forerunner of what's to come - another 9/11 some believe, far worse than the first one, perhaps involving a nuclear incident in a US city. Then using it as a pretext for more war and to divert attention from America's deepening economic crisis, likely to erupt in protests because of Washington's indifference to millions affected.

Whether or not the direst predictions occur will only be known in the fullness of time. In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates as events unfold, and be prepared for the worst.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

posted by Steve Lendman @ 3:03 AM

Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Soldier Committed Violence Against Palestinian Detainees

Soldier Committed Violence and Abuse Against Palestinian Detainees - by Stephen Lendman

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PACTI - stoptorture.org) calls "torture and ill treatment of any kind....incompatible with" moral democratic values. It "advocates for all persons" in Israel and Occupied Palestine to protect them from abusive treatment of all kinds.

In June 2008, its report titled, "No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees" is just as relevant today, perhaps more so given Israel's intensified violence and abuse in Gaza and the West Bank in the past year.

PACTI interviewed detainees and participating soldiers, included media reports, IDF provided information, and comments of political figures regarding these practices.

Observed was a phenomenon dating back decades, and, of course, remains ongoing today. Hence, the report's relevance and need to discuss it. Especially since September 2000 (the beginning of the second Intifada), "the number of arrests has been unprecedented. Thousands of Palestinians are arrested each year....and are executed by a large number of combat units in the Israeli military."

Violent arrests followed by torture and ill treatment are commonplace. For decades, Israeli soldiers have abused Palestinian detainees "on a routine basis." Recognizing and exposing it is key to stopping it.

Ill Treatment in Arrests

Force is routinely used even for those posing no threat. It begins during and after arrests, in transit, and at military bases and installations, prior to being transfered to a detention facility.

Detainees are beaten, blindfolded, and painfully shackled for hours, a practice often causing permanent injury. In response to PACTI requests, an IDF spokesperson cited no regulations, guidelines, procedures, or orders relating to the process. Order 9810, not applicable to all arrest stages, merely says:

"only metal shackles are to be used (and) tightening (them) should be undertaken in such a manner as to prevent injury to the detainee (particularly to blood vessels)."

As a result, abuses occur routinely, including violence and threats. Typical are severe beatings while shackled and blindfolded, enough to cause serious injuries. They begin at arrest and continue during transport with detainees forced to sit, lie, or be thrown on vehicle floors.

Soldiers commonly put their feet on detainee bodies and/or heads, creating enough friction to cause abrasions and injuries. Commanders are there to observe it.

Before imprisonment, detainees are often held in makeshift detention facilities on military bases where abuse continues. One prisoner said he was taken to a concrete yard, handcuffed to a concrete pole, made to sit on the ground, and be beaten on the face every 30 or 60 minutes.

Abuse, ill treatment, and humiliation continue through each stage of the process. For Nidal Shataya, it was especially egregious as he explained:

"....After the soldiers searched the house and the entire building, they arrested me and my brothers....They put us into a military jeep using force and violence and shoves. They shouted at us and cursed us....They put us on the floor of the jeep, handcuffed and blindfolded. (They) were taking us to Hawara base to the south of Nablus, where we were interrogated by Intelligence officers....The soldiers beat us while we were waiting in the outer yard. Every soldier that walked past would beat and curse us. We were not allowed to lean or to sleep.

At the Hawara military checkpoint....they put us on the floor in a small, dirty room next to the checkpoint. The soldiers handcuffed us very tightly and blindfolded us. My hands and eyes hurt a lot and we could not...stand this situation any longer....

Then the soldiers came and started to beat us with their army boots and their weapons. The beatings were repeated three times," at first for about 15 minutes, the second the same time, and the third for over 10 minutes, "continuously and without any interruption....Then the Israeli soldiers dragged and pulled us along the road to the other side of the checkpoint....and threw us on the road there. There were taxi drivers there who called for an ambulance and they took us to the hospital, almost unconscious...."

Use of Dogs

After September 2000, their use increased - at checkpoints, on military bases, and accompanying soldiers, especially during arrests. According to one soldier:

"Today, the dogs in the unit are trained for one of five capabilities: Assault, identification of explosives, scouting, weapons and ammunitions searches, or rescue and release."

PACTI attorney Yaara Kalmanovich wrote Israel's Judge Advocate General saying:

"The....graver aspect is the phenomenon of deliberate ill treatment with the means of dogs. These cases....are shocking and they must be quickly and effectively eliminated. (In addition), the mere contact with the dogs may be terrifying and humiliating. According to Islam, the dog is an impure animal, and accordingly many Muslims feel humiliated and dishonored whenever a dog is close to their person or touches them....The soldiers should be required to keep the dogs in such a manner that they will not come into contact with the detainees whenever there is no tangible operational need for this."

In response, the military denied the allegation, stonewalled, and lied, claiming the opposite of what, in fact, happens. Soldier testimonies confirm it, saying dogs are trained and used specifically for assault and do it - not for a potential threat, but on the assumption that Palestinian detainees are offenders, whether or not true. As a result, highly aggressive dogs cause serious injuries. Unless muzzled, they present a clear and present danger, even to their handlers, and detainees report being terrified and bitten.

Mistreating Children

Soldiers treat them like adults, the Israeli penal code allowing it in defiance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, other international laws, and Israeli law (nominally) affording minors special protection. It prohibits injuring or psychologically harming them, and obligates anyone witnessing mistreatment to report it.

International law protects all civilians from violence and threats thereof, and requires occupiers to treat them humanely, especially children.

According to Protocol I to Fourth Geneva: "Children shall be the object of special respect and shall be protected against any form of indecent assault. The Parties to the conflict shall provide them with the care and aid they require, whether because of their age or for any other reason."

However, soldiers exploit children's weaknesses and regularly abuse them, at times seriously enough to require hospitalization. Like adults, they're handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten, including with rifle butts and boots.

"Accordingly, the ill treatment of minor Palestinian detainees constitutes the most extreme manifestation of a broader phenomenon whereby the various state authorities that implement the occupation routinely treat minor detainees as adults, ignoring the legal and human obligations to ensure special safeguarding and protection for those who have not yet reached the age of eighteen."

Military procedures make no distinction between adults and children, some as young as 12 or younger. Grave consequences thus happen regularly as part of Israel's systematic pattern of ill treatment and abuse.

Systematic Detainee Abuse and Mistreatment

A 2007 joint B'Tselem-Hamoked Center for the Defence of the Individual report titled, "Absolute Prohibition: The Torture and Ill-Treatment of Palestinian Detainees" confirmed PACTI's findings through victim testimonies. It said Israel disregards international law and its own throughout the arrest, transport, interrogation, and imprisonment process. Abuses range from "softening up" to torture. Common ones includes:

-- "Isolation from the outside world - prohibition on meetings between detainees and their attorneys or ICRC representatives;"

-- psychological pressure, including in "putrid, stifling" solitary confinement;

-- sleep deprivation and inadequate and poor food;

-- painfully binding hands and feet to a chair in the "shabah" position;

-- other forms of torture, including severe beatings;

-- threats and intimidation, including against family members;

-- use of informants to extract information, whether or not true; and

-- routine "cover up and whitewashing" of grievous crimes; rarely are abusive practices investigated; most are dismissed, and almost never are abusers punished.

Further, Israel's arrest-interrogation-imprisonment process "is significantly aided by the HCJ (High Court of Justice), which serves as a rubber stamp on orders which regulate isolation" and subsequent abuse, half or more of the time causing one or more injuries, at times serious.

According to (retired) Col. Gadi Amir, part of the process is "the dehumanization of the enemy, (that he, or she, is regarded as) an object" to be treated any way we wish. As a result, "we have become jaded and phenomena that we once considered horrifying we now seem to have become accustomed to...."

Yet the IDF won't acknowledge it, and by so doing "encourages and reinforces" abuse and degrading treatment, despite clear international and Israeli law prohibitions, binding at all times, under all circumstances, with no allowed exceptions.

Ill Treatment After Arrest Under Israeli Law

Under Israeli military law, "ill treatment" is an offense, prohibiting beating and other forms of abuse with offenders liable to three years imprisonment if charged and convicted. Under "aggravating circumstances," it's seven years.

Soldiers are legally responsible for detainees in their custody, and according to Israel's Military Court of Appeals:

"The discrepancy of powers and status between the person wielding control and authority and the person lacking the ability to resist leaves the victim defenseless against the abuse of the power held by the person in authority."

Yet the court has yet to address the minimum threshold beyond which ill treatment occurs as distinguished from the lesser offense of assault. In fact, however, abusive ill treatment happens whenever soldiers use violence or humiliating tactics against defenseless shackled, blindfolded detainees.

In all cases PACTI examined, ill treatment, assault or "assault in aggravating circumstances" occurred, in violation of articles 378 - 382 in Israel's penal code. Other offenses are also common, including injury, battery, forcible extortion, and ill treatment of a minor. Some violate military law, others civil or both.

"In any case, however, violence by soldiers against shackled detainees is a criminal phenomenon penalized under an entire system of offenses in Israeli criminal law."

Crime and Punishment

Despite Israeli law, military judges rarely act or go easy on offending soldiers, and compared to civil courts they're lax, regardless of how serious the offense. Yet the Military Court of Appeals ruled that commanders are responsible for preventing detainee ill treatment, especially if he ordered the abuse.

Yet, like US military law, a soldier who disobeys an illegal order isn't culpable. In fact, under paragraph 498 of the US Army Field Manual (FM) 27-10, any person, military or civilian, who commits a crime (even if ordered by a superior) under US or international law, is responsible for it and may be punished. It's the same under Israeli law, but enforced under neither, except in America to charge low level recruits to absolve their commanders.

In Israel, there is "no disagreement as to the clear illegality of an order to harm persons not involved in combat, or removed, and the obligation not to obey such an order." The standard for commanders is even higher, given their position of authority and reluctance of subordinates to disobey fearing punishment.

Failure to Enforce - Military Investigatory Bodies

Israel's Military Justice Code establishes three interrogation authorities - an examining officer, the Military Police Investigation Unit (MIU), and an investigative judge.

They're explicitly separate from debriefings by those involved in investigating incidents, including by commanders. Material from them is to go only to the military advocate general (MAG) or his representative. The latter then decides whether a debriefing offense was committed and if an investigation is warranted. If so, a summary of findings "shall not be transferred to a person undertaking a criminal investigation in accordance with the law." Nor "shall it indicate suspicion against any person involved in the incident."

An examining officer or investigative judge is charged with handling the case, the latter only if deaths are involved. The former may be a senior adjudicating military officer, another one appointed by him, or a MAG-designated military police person.

The examining officer may then hear witnesses, review evidence, and arrest suspects. He only decides whether to recommend prosecution, not order it himself. The MAG decides whether or not to proceed further. In practice, however, MIU army officers handle most ill treatment examinations, not trained lawyers familiar with the law.

The process of soldiers judging others in the ranks taints the whole process, especially the way Israel goes about it, taking care of its own. A clear conflict of interest delivers injustice.

Troublesome Forms of Investigation

They rarely happen, and when they do are effectively whitewashed, given that examining officers rely on operational debriefings supplied by the offending forces or their commanders. As a result, they're tainted and wholly unreliable. It shows up in how few are charged, let alone convicted of serious offenses, including torture and killings.

According to Law Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer:

"....There are two problems with the operational debriefing. Firstly, the person who undertakes it is not a professional investigator, with all due respect to the military commander. (In addition), when people have acted unlawfully, they have a natural motivation not to admit this, to deny it, to tell incorrect stories, and to back up each other's incorrect stories."

As a result, cases are closed for "lack of evidence," suppressed, and to absolve offenders, and it happens regularly.

Prosecutions, Convictions, and Punishment - Soldiers and Commanders

Based on IDF Spokesperson supplied figures, investigations of ill treatment rarely happen, and almost never lead to prosecutions or convictions. Out of hundreds of them launched, a mere handful of indictments followed, amounting to about two per year since September 2000. Of those, acquittals were common, and hand slaps (like 10 days imprisonment) followed convictions most often.

Also, practically never are commanders charged or prosecuted even when they issued direct orders. In rare instances, they face disciplinary hearings, in others, demotion. No senior commanders have been prosecuted for the offenses of their subordinates. In these cases, command responsibility "is an extremely restricted concept," an alien one.

B'Tselem explained that many complaints are closed "due to various defects during the processing of the case. (For example), months pass between the submission of the complaint and the transfer of the case to the MIU for investigation....The conclusion from all this is that the system does not attach the necessary importance to investigating cases of violence by security force personnel against Palestinian residents and ensuring that justice is meted out to those responsible. This conveys a lenient message to those in the field that such actions are not regarded as severe."

Even after beginning, investigations can drag out for months, so long, in fact, that those involved often complete their military service and leave.

Further, as long as the IDF investigates and prosecutes its own, justice is virtually impossible, unlike in civil courts. A possible solution is ending military involvement, so far not considered. Yet Human Rights Watch suggested that:

"a consensus is emerging in international law that military personnel should not be tried in military courts in cases when the victims are civilians, and that military jurisdiction systems should relate solely to offenses of a clearly military nature."

In December 2007, Yediot Ahronoth, Israel's most widely circulated newspaper, published a survey showing widespread soldier abuse during inspections at checkpoints alone. According to one soldier interviewed:

"When you deny thousands of people a day freedom of movement, it is impossible to do it in a nice way."

Yet the security establishment denies it and claims abuses there are exceptions, localized, and unusual, and military courts often quote a ruling declaring that "the basic rules of human morality and human dignity guide the Israel Defense Force," despite clear evidence of the opposite - "inconsistent with the testimonies and reports from the field, which leave no doubt that the phenomenon (is) widespread."

Steps for change include ending denial, exposing falsified evidence, obeying the law, and holding abusers accountable. Yet "the military does not make proper preparations for arrest operations; refrains from imposing responsibility on commanders for the ill treatment of detainees; and is extremely disinclined to launch investigations (to) indict soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinian detainees."

Civilian authorities are part of the coverup and denial, the Defense Ministry ignoring abuse and holding no one accountable. Crimes against Palestinians "are not considered worthy of....attention." The topic is unaddressed in the Knesset.

"A review of Knesset Protocols (from) January 2006 through April 2008 reveal(ed) that no discussions took place in the plenum of the Knesset regarding the ill treatment by soldiers of Palestinians in general, or Palestinians in particular."

In addition, no legislative action occurred, and the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, in charge of supervising the defense system, "failed abysmally to protect the public interest when it comes to ensuring the rule of law in the actions of the executive branch in the Territories." They deliberately ignored the issue, even during the height of the Intifada.

PACTI concluded saying:

"We hope that this report will encourage the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee to address the phenomenon of ill treatment of Palestinian detainees by soldiers as part of the responsibility the committee has accepted for scrutinizing, inspecting, and encouraging change on behalf of the public in matters relating to human rights violations in the Occupied Territories."

A Final Comment

To date, the Knesset hasn't acted, and, in fact, performed worse, the Mossawa Advocacy Center and Coalition Against Racism calling the current body the most racist in Israeli history in a 2010 report - Mossawa saying "almost every day" another Israeli Arab is victimized by racist acts, 100s in various categories confirmed by media and police reports.

In the Territories, Gaza remains under siege, and West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians endure daily neighborhood incursions, loss of homes, frequent arrests, killings, various other assaults, and violations of their dignity, civil and human rights on streets, at work, in their homes, and in detention.

On April 27, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported the killing of Ali Isma'el Ali Swaiti in Beit 'Awwa, his home demolished on top of him. PCHR condemned the crime, calling it an extrajudicial execution in charging politicians and commanders with war crimes.

On April 28, PCHR condemned Fatah's General Intelligence Service (working collaboratively with Israel) for harassing and arresting Palestinian writers Muhannad Salahat and Walid al-Hodali to prevent their free expression right to document West Bank crimes against innocent civilians.

Outlandish abuses happen daily, endorsed by IDF commanders, MKs, and the fascist Netanyahu government, as extremist and morally decadent as any in Israeli history. As a result, Palestinians suffer grievously, including in detention where torture remains official Israeli policy.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman050510.htm

Am I A Maoist?

By Gladson Dungdung

03 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org

I appeared in public life through my human rights works, writings and speeches. However, I reached to a larger audience when I got a chance to appear in CNN-IBN and NDTV-24×7 debates on the issue of Naxalism last year. After these debates, I got immense positive and negative responses from across the country. I was upset for sometime precisely because of the most negative responses I got from youth who are running behind the market forces unknowingly. They ruthlessly questioned me about whether I get money from Pakistan, Nepal or China for speaking against the Indian State. I responded to a few of them with detailed explanations, but many believe P Chidambaram’s theory of this side or that side; therefore they are not ready to accept my rational arguments.

Meanwhile, I continued my work of raising the genuine issues of the marginalized people of India. Amidst, the so-called operation green hunt (OGH) was also launched in the state of Jharkhand in the name of cleansing the Maoists. I passionately attempted to bring out the truth of the OGH, intention of the state behind the OGH and sufferings of the villagers caused by the OGH. As a result, so-called educated people intensified more personal attacks against me. There are also some e-groups where they attempted to coin me as a Maoist sympathizer and supporter. Finally, they have portrayed me as a Maoist Ideologue. I just laugh, laugh and laugh. Precisely, because how can a person suddenly become a Maoist ideologue without having an in-depth study on Maoism? I have never read about Maoism.

I deliberately do not read about any ideology because I know that Maoists teach the Adivasis about Maoism, Gandhians preach them about Gandhism and Marxists ask them to walk on Marxism; but no one bothers about Adivasism, which is the best ‘ism’ among these, which perhaps leads to a just and equitable society. I have been raising questions about how the Indian State has deliberately destroyed the Adivasism. The Adivasi religion was not recognized by the Indian constitution, traditional self-governance was neglected, culture was destroyed, lands were grabbed and our resources were snatched in the name of development. But what do we get out of it? Should we still keep quiet? Are we not the citizens of this country who need to be treated equally? Do they care about our sufferings?

I’m one of those unfortunate persons, who have lost everything for the so-called development of the nation and am struggling for survival even today. When I was just one year old, my family was displaced. Our 20 acres of fertile land was taken away from us in the name of development. Our ancestral land was submerged in a Dam, which came up at Chinda River near Simdega town in 1980. We lost our house, agricultural land and garden but we were paid merely Rs.11 thousand as compensation. When the whole village protested against it they were sent to Hazaribagh Jail. Can a family of 6 members ensure food, clothing, shelter, education and health facilities for whole life with Rs.11 thousand?

After displacement, we had no choice but to proceed towards the dense forest for ensuring our livelihood. We settled down in the forest after buying a small patch of land. We used to collect flowers, fruits and firewood to sustain our family. We also had sufficient livestock, which supported our economy. Needless to say that the state suppression continued with us. When we were living in the forest, my father was booked under many cases filed by the forest department (the biggest landlord of the country) alleging him as an encroacher and woodcutter. There was no school building in our village - therefore we used to study under the trees, and when there was rain our school was closed. But my father taught us to always fight for justice. Though he was struggling to sustain our family, he never stopped his fight for the community.

Unfortunately, on 20 June 1990, my parents were brutally murdered while they were going to Simdega civil court to attend a case and 4 kids were orphaned. Can anyone imagine how we suffered afterwards? The worst thing is the culprits were not brought to justice. Can anyone tell us why the Indian State did not deliver justice to us, who snatched our resource in the name of development? Why there is no electricity in my village even today? Why my people do not get water for their field whose lands were taken for the irrigation projects? Why there is no electricity in those houses, who have given their land for the power project? And why people are still living in small mud houses whose lands were taken for the steel plants? It seems that the Adivasis are only born to suffer and other to enjoy over our graves.

After a long struggle, we all got back to life but my pain and sufferings did not end here. When I was working as a state programme officer in a project funded by the European Commission, a senior government officer and an editor of a newspaper (both from the upper caste) questioned my credentials saying that being an Adivasi, how could I have gotten into such a prestigious position? Similarly, when my friend had taken me to meet a newly wedded couple of the upper caste in Ranchi, I was not allowed to meet them saying that being an Adivasi if I meet the couple, they might become unauspicious and their whole life would be at stake. Was I a devil for them?

However, when I joined another firm, I was totally undermined and not given the position which I highly deserved. I was racially discriminated against, economically exploited and mentally disturbed. Can anyone tell me why I should not fight for justice? Can those so-called supporters of the unjust development process, who have not given even one inch of land for the so-called national interest, coin me as the Maoist ideologue, sympathizer and supporter respond to me: why should I shut up my mouth and stop writing against injustice, inequality and discrimination?

I have lost everything in the name of development and now I have nothing to lose therefore I’m determined to fight for my own people because I do not want them to be trapped in the name of development. I have taken the democratic path of struggle, which the Indian Constitution guarantees through Article 19. A pen, mouth and mind are my weapons. I’m neither a Maoist nor a Gandhian but I’m an Adivasi who is determined to fight for his own people, whom the Indian State has alienated, displaced and dispossessed from their resources and is continually doing it in the name of development, national security and national interest even today.

Gladson Dungdung is a Human Rights Activist and Writer from Jharkhand. He can be reached at gladsonhractivist@gmail.

Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/dungdung030510.htm

Surrender To Injustice Never An Option: A Gaza Story

By Dr. Ludwig Watzal

03 May, 2010
Palestine Chronicle

'Not one refugee will return. The old will die. The young will forget.' This prediction, uttered by David Ben-Gurion in 1948, did not come true. Not only the keys of the houses, that the Palestinians were forced to leave, passed on from generation to the other, but so did the memoirs and the deep roots and emotional attachment to the Land of Palestine endured over the years.

When the founding of Israel was declared on May 15, 1948, the then Zionist militias had already depopulated 212 Palestinian villages and three major towns before even one Arab soldiers had set foot in Palestine. The Arab armies, who did not intervene against the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians before May 15, 1948, declared war against the newly established state, in a desperate attempt to protect the areas allocated to the Palestinian state. The war ended with a ceasefire. At that point, more than 700,000 Arab inhabitants were forced out or fled their homes in Palestine. Many Palestinians left in order to escape the fighting – with the intent to return to their homes when the fighting would cease - or because they were expelled by Israeli (Zionist) forces. The Palestinians commemorate this tragic event as the "Nakba" or the Catastrophe.

Ramzy Baroud, a US-Palestinian, columnist, journalist, gifted writer and Editor-in-Chief of The Palestine Chronicle, writes the story of his family, which was expelled from their village Beit Daras, located 46 kilometers to the north-east of Gaza City. The village belonged to those that fell victim to Ben-Gurion’s vision of an exclusive Jewish state, devoid of its indigenous population. The Baroud family ended up as refugees in the Gaza Strip like hundreds of thousands of others from the depopulated villages.

In the book’s Foreword, Salman Abu Sitta, founder and president of Palestine Land Society, mentions that the population of Gaza equals now the total population of Palestine in 1948, namely 1.4 million. Israeli politicians and their supporters in the West always mention that the Gaza Strip is the most densely populated place on earth without mentioning Israel’s responsibility for this situation. Israeli state institutions, including its armed forces, keep the whole population of Gaza incarcerated in what is sometimes termed the biggest open-air prison in he world. The entire Gaza Strip has been surrounded by barbed wire. And during the 43 long years of occupation, Israel has systematically prevented the economic development of the Gaza Strip. (See Sara Roy’s detailed study: The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development.)

The author portrays the life and the struggle for survival of his family and the Palestinian people in Gaza. He describes six decades of suffering with no end in sight. After having read the book, one gets the impression that the Nakba was not limited to 1948, but is still ongoing. When Israeli settlers were still living in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army made life for the Palestinians "a living hell", writes Baroud. The story the author tells us is basically about the life of his father Mohammed. His story could only been told after he passed away. "Israeli soldiers can no longer raid, search and ravage his house. They can no longer deny him permission to travel for medical treatment. No more humiliation from a smart-ass teenage Israeli soldier at a checkpoint. No more questioning and no more abuse."

Focusing mainly on the story of his uprooted family, Baroud’s moving chronicle also sheds light on the live of the Palestinian population in general and their persisting ordeal caused by Israeli occupation. He locates the life of his family in a wider political, social and economic context. As a ten-year-old boy, Mohammad Baroud, the author’s father, found himself displaced in the middle of nowhere in Gaza, light years away from his farm where his family grew its own crops. This "nightmare was to be his true, everlasting reality". The 200 000 refugees were not welcomed by the 80 000 Gazans. However, tensions between the two groups grew, and the Egyptian occupiers did little for their relief. The opposite was the case; they only created the impression that they took care of the refugees.

Unlike his older brother, Mohammed was not a source of pride to his parents. He was resentful, disobeying orders, and possessed a rebellious spirit, which led to merciless reprimands and beatings. "The more he resented his parents’ unfair treatment, the more punishment he received." This early experience marked his life. Having survived the several wars, he decided to join the newly established "Palestinian Liberation Army" (PLA) to achieve something besides more than Arab rhetoric. After Israel occupied the rest of Palestine in June of 1967, the rules of the games changed fundamentally.

When the so-called peace process took place, Mohammed described the Oslo accords as "the best-timed disaster that had ever befallen Gaza". The PLO acted as Israel’s security agent, shot at demonstrators protesting the accords and put them in jail. In the last elections, Mohammed voted for Hamas because it presented a "culture of resistance". His funeral was attended by thousands of people "who shared his plight, hopes and struggles", writes his son, Ramzy.

The book’s story is depressing as the history of the Palestinian people is concerned. On the other hand, the life and the inner attitude of Mohammed Baroud give hope to the "Wretched of the Earth". He showed that surrender to injustice and repression can never be an option. This should be understood as a hint to Palestinians who seem to prefer, with Abbas leading the way, the easier way to "independence". Ramzy Baroud and his father stand for the alternative: freedom and self-respect.

(My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Pluto Press. Click here to learn more. Watch short video in English and Arabic.)

- Dr. Ludwig Watzal works as a publicist, editor and journalist in Bonn, Germany.

Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/watzal030510.htm

Repel evil with good

We are living in a world where the pressure to achieve and excel is becoming increasingly noticeable. However, the general benchmark for achievements and success are things that are linked to the material world.

The material world and materialism by its very nature has a propensity to create greed, selfishness and intolerance in people. At times of conflict and disagreement this very intolerance leads to a total breakdown in relationships resulting in acrimony and discord.

In the Noble Qur’an the Almighty tells us, “The good and evil deed cannot be equal. Repel the evil with one which is better, then verily, he, between whom and you there was enmity (will become) as though he was a close friend.” (41:34).” The ayah alludes to an excellent conflict management tool and strategy.

This strategy at its most basic level inspires us to treat an antagonist with patience and forbearance. Instead of coming down to a level where anger, hatred and violence is adopted and justified one would be circumspect and use wisdom.

Sayyiduna Abdullah ibn Abbas Radhiallahu anhu explains the verse thus: “The Almighty enjoins one to be patient when one is faced with anger, to exercise forbearance when one encounters ignorance and to display forgiveness when one is wronged. The reward will be that the Almighty will save the person from Shaytaan and his enemy or the antagonist will be humbled becoming his friend.

We do not live in a perfect world. What we can do is to use the Most Perfect Word to not only inspire us but to become our beacon of guidance so that we can become exemplary in every facet of our lives.
May Allah guide us all. Aameen

Source:http://www.jamiat.co.za/newsletter/online_newsletter_0518.htm

Shariah - Terrorising or Modernising

Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1431 A.H, Tuesday, April 27, 2010

‘The Saracens [i.e. The Muslims] show us great goodwill. They allow us to build our churches and to observe our own customs without hindrance.’1

These are the sentiments of Patriarch Theodosius of Jerusalem regarding Muslim tolerance, expressed in a letter written to the Patriarch of Constantinople in 869 CE. Theodosius was certainly the equivalent of Archbishop of Canterbury in Jerusalem at the time. We may wonder whether his acknowledgement was deemed controversial, or whether he was asked to resign for daring to speak well of Muslims. Such sentiments did not of course provoke the kind of outrage that is witnessed today; probably due to the factual accuracy of the patriarch’s statement. What Theodosius stated is also corroborated by other Christian figures such as Bernard the Wise (a French pilgrim who visited Jerusalem in the reign of Caliph al-Mu’tazz [866-9 CE]), who stated that if any property was left unattended for some time, it would be found unmolested upon return, ‘such is the peace there’2.

If modern critics of Shariah law were living in those times, we don’t quite know what they would have said about its effective tolerant nature. The dynamics of the Shariah and its application continues, on the one hand, to intrigue interest, and on the other to generate scepticism. The debate of course has global implications; how compatible is Shariah law with the modern age?

At the outset we must begin by highlighting media bias and selective focus on cases of ‘unethical’ and ‘uncivilized’ treatment of others in Muslim populated countries, which has sadly done much to tarnish a legal code founded upon ideals of justice, human rights and deterrence; resulting in a somewhat negative popular perception of Shariah law. The law code is applied extremely selectively, or not at all, in Muslim populated countries today.

What is Shariah law? Shariah law is the law that is directly derived from the Qur’an and authentic prophetic traditions (the Sunnah) and it is this law, which Muslims uphold as sacred as well as a source of modernity. The parameters for such a discussion are blurred due to the aforementioned current context, but it is hoped that objectivity will triumph above misconceived notions and political persuasions. A fusion of linguistic and technical terminology allows for recognition of modernity as anything newly accepted, and manifests itself through political, economic and scientific development.

Modernity of course is a very fluid and relative term, and the peripheries of the notion may change from time to time or place to place. Modernity may influence societies in a diverse range of ways, and under various socio-economic circumstances, the effects of modernity may transpire in a variety of forms. Today, however, it is fairly accurate to conclude that no one has a monopoly on modernity; one man’s modernity may be another’s barbarity.

Who defines modernity and its limits is the question still to be addressed by European scholarship. European modernity is in continuous evolution, not having any set consistency, standard or criteria. However, the Islamic definition of modernity is very different in both make-up and stature. Islamic Law seeks to ensure the protection of one’s life, honour, property, intellect, religion and the constructive development of humanity - whilst pursuing the ‘progressive’ attainment of modernity. This must be noted in light of contemporary markings of ‘modernity’; from the economic exploitation of poor nations to the corrosion of social values within contemporary and supposedly civil societies.

We may note that Muslims governed parts of Spain with Shariah law for more than seven centuries (711-1492 CE). This law produced such peace and tranquillity among the population that they were able to achieve high levels of academic excellence and scientific advancement, and it was this very same advancement, which was subsequently translated into Latin for European learning by scholars such as Gerard of Cremona, Michael Scot, Robert of Ketton and Adelard of Bath. Europeans were, at that time, so unacquainted with these sciences that Robert of Ketton, when writing the preface for his translation of the Arabic text, ‘Composition of Alchemy’, stated that ‘Since what Alchymia is, and what its composition is, your Latin world does not yet know, I will explain in the present book’3.

Works on all scientific fields were translated in the schools of Toledo and then subsequently passed on to European countries. Professor Thomas Arnold confirmed this by asserting that ‘Muslim Spain had written one of the brightest pages in the history of medieval Europe. Her influence had passed through Provence into the other countries of Europe, bringing into birth a new poetry and new culture, and it was from her that the Christian scholars received what of Greek Philosophy and science they had to stimulate their mental activity up to the time of the renaissance.’4

It would thus be of great benefit to British society if some of its politicians and journalists were to drop the attitude that is well spotted by Maria Rosa Menocal, a prominent scholar of medieval European literature, who stated that: ‘Westerners – Europeans - have great difficulty in considering the possibility that they are in some way seriously indebted to the Arab world...’5.

How Shariah law enabled the Spanish Muslims, Jews and Christian to produce this result was also appreciated by some of the most prominent European thinkers. Adam Smith, the 18th Century founder of modern economics whose picture is printed on the current £20 note, was exceedingly inspired by the Islamic method of governing. He proclaimed that ‘...the empire of the Caliphs seems to have been the first state under which the world enjoyed that degree of tranquility which the cultivation of the sciences requires. It was under the protection of those generous and magnificent princes, that the ancient philosophy and astronomy of the Greeks were restored and established in the East; that tranquility, which their mild, just and religious government diffused over their vast empire, revived the curiosity of mankind, to inquire into the connecting principles of nature.’6

How the Shariah Law provided this security and tolerance is clearly demonstrated in the texts of the treaties, which were agreed upon, by the Muslim rulers and their non-Muslim subjects. Consider, for instance, the Treaty of Jerusalem (638 CE): ‘This is the protection which the servant of Allah, Amir ul-Mumineen, grants to the people of Palestine. Thus, protection is for their lives, property, church, cross, for the healthy, and for all their co-religionists. In this way that their churches shall not be turned into dwelling houses, nor will they be pulled down, nor any injury will be done to them or to their enclosures, nor to their cross...and nor will anything be deducted from their wealth. No restrictions shall be made regarding their religious ceremonies…’7 This treaty concerning the Christians of Jerusalem was enacted by the 2nd Caliph Omar in the year 638 CE.

Whilst many politicians emphatically rule out any existence or partial accommodation of the Shariah law in UK, Times on-line (20th January 2008) ironically quoted Home Secretary Jacqui Smith remarking that she would not feel safe walking the streets of London at night even in well-to-do areas like Kensington and Chelsea. ‘It is thus astonishing’, as Chris Huhne notes, that ‘the Home Secretary admits that after 10 years of a Labour government, our capital is a no-go area for women at night.’8 Unfortunately, Jacqui Smith’s fears were confirmed by a Daily Mail report, only three days later, which stated that a teenage girl was raped next to the Diana memorial fountain in Kensington.

If the medieval monk Bernard the Wise (quoted above) was alive today, he probably would have advised the Home Secretary to give Shariah law a try. And perhaps too, the Nestorian John bar Penkaye (690 CE) who stated, regarding the reign of Mu’awiah (661-80 CE), that ‘the peace throughout the world was such that we have never heard, either from our fathers or from our grandparents, or seen that there had ever been any like it’9.

Much talk regarding the Shariah revolves around its attitude towards women. Women are protected, favoured and respected by the Shariah law, and this can be ascertained when one considers the rights and freedoms endowed upon women by Islam. For instance, women were considered an inherited object in pre-Islamic Arabia and sons would inherit their fathers’ wives as property. Islam, however, put an end to this injustice (O you who believe! you are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should you treat them with harshness, that you may take away part of the dower you have given them-except where they have been guilty of open lewdness; on the contrary live with them on a footing of kindness and equity.)10; women were denied any part of inheritance, Islam gave them their share; women were not given a choice to choose a husband, Islam put an end to this inequality; men could divorce women at will and take them back at will, Islam diminished this practice and decreed that if a man was to divorce, he had to sustain the woman for four successive months; women were given complete rights of owning property by Islam and in addition to that they could spend their wealth when they liked while previously this was not the case; Islam declared that even if women were wealthy, it was still the responsibility of the husband to provide sustenance for them. Annie Besant, a feminist activist in the 1930s, had this to say about Islam’s position towards women:

‘I often think that a woman is more free in Islam than in Christianity. Woman is more protected by Islam...In the Qur’an the law about woman is more just and liberal. It is only in the last twenty years that Christian England has recognised the right of woman to property, while Islam has allowed this right from all times…it is a slander to say that Islam preaches that women have no souls.’ 11

Conclusion

It can therefore be noted that Muslims and their religious law played a decisive role in the modernisation of societies, and helped to establish a framework of justice and cohesive societal rule that has left a positive impression on the world. Much of what is now referred to as ‘western modernity’ – in its positive aspects - was largely borrowed from Islamic lands like Spain and Sicily, and such a contribution has received wide acclamation from historians and authors (Muslim and non-Muslim alike) of Islam’s unique ability to provide peace, harmony and advancement in society. Shariah law, therefore, is not terrorising; rather it is a divine religious code that works to foster human enlightenment.

References:

1) Christopher J. Walker, Islam and the West, (Gloucestershire, 2005), p. 17.
2) Christopher J. Walker, Islam and the West, (Gloucestershire, 2005), p 17.
3) E. J. Holmyard, Alchemy (Harmondsworth, 1957), p. 103.
4) Thomas Arnold, Preaching of Islam (London, 1913), p. 131.
5) Maria Rosa Menocal, The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, (Philadelphia, 2004), preface, p. xii.
6) Adam Smith, ‘History of Astronomy’, The Essays of Adam Smith (London, 1869), p. 353.
7) Thomas Arnold, Preaching of Islam (London, 1913), p. 56.
8) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3216678.ece
9) Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests (London, 2008), p. 349.
10) The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 4, Verse 19.
11) Annie Besant, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad (Madras, 1932), p. 25-6.

The Hittin Institute is a research based initiative that focuses on historical, social and political analysis on issues affecting Muslims and the wider community. For further information please visit www.hittininstitute.com or email info@hittininstitute.com.

Resisting MNC Greed

By Raja Jaikrishan

30 April, 2010
Countercurrents.org

In this land of Valmiki
Who cursed the quarry of birds in love?
In this time of Salim Ali
Who gave his life for love of birds?
Infrequent are men
Who live or die for fellowmen

(From Shall we live to kill? by Varavara Rao)

All religions urge the devout to shun greed as it creates need in many. An observer noted recently that if Americans continue consuming the resources at the existing rate, the world resources would be over faster. This in some measure explains the US wars for resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In India the bulk of natural resources are in hills and forests. These resources are gods of Adivasis because they answer their all needs.

Enter greedy MNCs with heavy machines to cart away the tribal gods. Since greed is not their way of life they resist the invasion. The history is witness; people free from greed can‘t be dominated. The British tried and failed.

The history has repeated itself as a farce. By launching Operation Greenhunt—the people’s government is fighting its own people; Salwa Jhudam —setting Advasis against each other—the government is trying to satiate the MNC greed.

Advasis led by Maoist are taking the MNC violence head on, here and now, for their languages have no future tense.

“Over the last decade the Maoists have built new societies in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Jharkand. The elementary health and education networks are in place”, says G.N. Saibaba, deputy secretary, Revolutionary Democratic Front.

“This experiment has brought irrigation and drinking water projects. Experienced doctors have trained Adivasis. There's one barefoot doctor for a cluster of villages. There are makeshift schools – which move to places where children work.

They have their own syllabus. The scientific models of study material, including audiovisual material, have been put in tribal languages.

The government’s two-pronged strategy to defeat the Maoist protracted war includes development and security. To help the government meet obligations under the Right to Education Act, a panel has suggested that education in elementary schools should be imparted in tribal languages in scheduled tribe areas.

The main factor for the high dropout rate of tribal students is the difference in language in which they are taught in schools and their mother tongue, said the panel, headed by former education secretary Anil Bordia.

The teaching and study material should be in tribal languages to ensure that such children are retained in schools. The Central Institute of Hindi and Indian Languages, Mysore, could prepare teaching and learning material in tribal languages for such students, the committee said in its report.

Tribal children face certain exclusionary practices in schools like derogatory reference to their communities, names and cultural practices, it further said.

The government for meeting obligations of international aid agency is waking up to the need of universal literacy so that people in this country are able to distinguish brands and help them to make an ‘informed choice’.

“Further, for the first time in the history of these regions, they have surplus grain – not only for the revolutionary army, but for the people too. Even now if the Indian military offensive blocks these areas for several years they will not have a problem due to this surplus grain, and in addition they have fishponds and other income-generating activities. These villages and their governments have started exporting to other markets as well, keeping the surplus for their own consumption, and using the surplus they have accumulated to build other development projects. This is the way in which their self-reliant economy is developing”, says Prof Saibaba.

The public distribution system of ration to people below poverty line in the Maoist-affected areas has done well, according to a government nationwide survey.

To steal the thunder from the Maoist resistance to MoUs with MNCs over mining in the area, the government has come out with the New Draft Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act.

Prof B.D Sharma, coordinator Bharat Jan Andolan, had given a similar proposal to the then Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar that the mining companies could be allowed in the area as junior partners.

The draft act envisages setting up of ‘’mining area welfare funds’’, where profits of companies can be shared in perpetuity with local villagers and Adivasis whose lands are taken away. Currently, a one-time compensation is mostly given to those whose lands are taken away by the companies, a government official said.

The government is also mulling bringing provisions, which include granting free equity to those who give a major portion of land to companies, the sources said.

The government is also trying to build in provisions where companies may be asked to build ‘’model villages’’ within a 10 km radius of the industry being set up to enable maximum benefits of development reach the local villagers. For the setting up of power plants, the government will be asking the authorities to provide free electricity within 10 km radius, the sources said.

Notably, the government is also in the process of withdrawing cases against tribals for accessing minor forest produce.

The Maoists are not the first to oppose the plunder of MNCs. Socialist trade union leader George Fernandes managed to oust Coca-Cola out of the country, temporarily. The Swadeshi Janjagran Manch has been consistent in its opposition. Yoga guru Swami Ramdev has ‘oust MNC’slogan in the soon-to-be-launched party constitution.

Unlike their Avatar of the sixties and seventies, the Maoists are resisting the abettors of MNC loot. In this protracted war Advasis are with them. The New Draft Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act shows that the government wants to arrest the alienation caused by security forces in these areas. Sooner such measures are implemented, the Maoist guns will fall silent.

Source:http://www.countercurrents.org/jaikrishan300410.htm