Julian Assange was on "60 Minutes" last night, a rerun. Assange is a great man--and here's one reason why.
Stuart Levey was an Under Secretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence for both GW Bush and Obama, running around the world putting the squeeze on Iran. Last fall he got a full hour on Charlie Rose. Levey's a very discreet man, but he was about to leave Treasury and become a talking head and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, so he was building the brand. Charlie Rose asked him how you define terror (48:00; transcript here).
Rose said, "People say we don’t have a war against terrorism because terrorism is a tactic."
Stuart Levey:
I think that whether we say — we use the word war or not-- is for someone else to decide. That’s semantic. But the point is we do have a threat to us that’s disproportionate to the amount of people on the other side and that — a small group of people can inflict very significant harm on us.
Sounds pretty reasonable, huh? It's uncool to talk about a "war on terror." Well this is from Wikileaks, when Levey was in Kuwait, back in 2006:
U/S Levey praised the GOK's [Government of Kuwait's] strong support for the war on terror … With numerous overseas branches of RIHS [Revival of the Islamic Heritage Society] suspected of supporting terrorist networks, U/S Levey stated that RIHS was like a tree bearing poisonous fruit, a problem that must be addressed at its roots, i.e. at its headquarters in Kuwait. He encouraged increased GOK information sharing, vigilance and scrutiny of RIHS headquarters in Kuwait and its branches abroad to address the concerns outlined in the paper and to protect Kuwait's international reputation in the war on terror....
U/S Levey has cleared this message.
P.S. Levey is a fascinating figure. There's a lot about his government activities in Wikileaks, and I'll have more to report in days to come...
Levey:
“a small group of people can inflict very significant harm on us”
Tell it like it is, brother! Only, in my view the “small group of people” doing us (USA) harm is the israeli lobby
Yes, looking forward to more reports on this Levey!
I can’t understand why the US went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What was the point ?
The most amazing scene of the debt ceiling fiasco was the sight of some senior Yank general in Afghanistan telling his troops he didn’t know if they would get their paychecks at the end of the month.
Is the point of the Tea Party to distract THE AMERICAN PEOPLE from the fact that US foreign policy is FUBR ?
Terrorism is what “they” do. What we do is anti-terroism. Just ask the many victims of our drone attacks.
It might be time for you guys to understand the roots of the “war on terror” from someone who has done their homework – Max Blumenthal. Unless of course you want to say he is all wet, like you have about what I have posted –
“The sudden rise of Islamophobia in the United States is alarming while the movement that advances anti-Muslim resentment seems bizarre and filled with eccentric, even dangerous characters. But when viewed in the context of a new, groundbreaking research document by the Center for American Progress and an obscure, decades-old political memorandum by a long-forgotten former Supreme Court Justice, the Islamophobic crusade raging across the country appears perfectly in line with longstanding goals and methods of conservative organizing, and is aimed at much more than demonizing Muslims.
In 1971, former US Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell submitted a confidential memorandum to his friend, Eugene Sydnor, the chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce, an umbrella group representing American big business. Powell, who was serving on the boards of 11 corporations at the time, warned that America was suffering from a surplus of democratic freedom thanks to the legacy of the New Left and the countercultural revolt of the 1960’s. He declared, “No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack.” Powell warned that “Communists, New Leftists and other revolutionaries” were joining forces with “perfectly respectable elements of society from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians” to bring down American capitalism.”
You need to understand the roots of what you are fighting, and it is not merely some small contingency of “the lobby,” maybe Max can help to wake you up – I’m tired of trying.
How an obscure conservative memo reveals the creeping Islamophobic threat to democracy
This is an extremely important post, not because it is necessarily new news, but because it is a seminal treatment of a subject that needs to be studied in earnest on this site. I could not think of a better source than someone you have posting here like Max Blumenthal. You need to understand that the target is more than merely what the lobby desires, but the wish to destroy democracy itself – if you do not know the target, you will miss the intent of those in power and that would be a shame.
Unless, of course, you believe billionaires are all great philanthropists (which is the exterior of some) – benevolent billionaires (or some other bs you’ve been fed, Batman – Ironman, etc.), and that they have nothing but good intentions when it comes to mankind in general. Or, that they are just hard working guys who got a break, etc. Sort of the Hollywood makeover version –
THE BENEVOLENT BILLIONAIRE SYNDROME
Assange endangered both the lives of our troops and our intelligence officers on the ground. Calling him a great man is unpatriotic.
What should we call GW Bush? After all, he sent our troops and our intelligence officers to invade and occupy Iraq based on lies. This war has killed over 4,000 troops. Would this make anyone who calls GWB a great man unpatriotic?
You endanger troops when you send them to places where they shouldn’t be and lie to them about it.
What a world. The truth-tellers are dangerous, and the liars are “great men”.
What should we call GW Bush?
war criminal
GW can share a cell with Obama, Clinton, Bush senior and every president since the inception of International Law, in fact, if the same standards that were applied to Nazi war criminals were applied to this bunch they would all be hanged (in a perfect world where international law was not used primarily against the poor and weak).
>> VR September 6, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Amen to that. The astounding hypocrisy applied by the West to criminality, immorality, injustice and accountability never ceases to amaze me.