Nobel Prize Pinter: Iraq war act of state terror
Pinter could not attend the prize ceremony due to ill health
December 7th - 2005 - In a fierce critique ahead of the Nobel awards ceremony, literature laureate Harold Pinter has branded the war on Iraq "an act of blatant state terrorism" and has demanded the prosecutions of US President George Bush and Britain's Tony Blair.
"THE INVASION OF IRAQ WAS A BANDIT ACT*, AN ACT OF BLATANT STATE TERRORISM, DEMONSTRATING ABSOLUTE CONTEMPT FOR THE CONCEPT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW," PINTER SAID IN A PRE-RECORDED LECTURE BROADCAST BY THE SWEDISH ACADEMY ON WEDNESDAY.
The Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, aired the interview, recorded on Sunday in London, because Pinter was too sick to travel to Sweden for the lecture or pick up the award in person at Saturday's ceremony.
"HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU HAVE TO KILL BEFORE YOU QUALIFY TO BE DESCRIBED AS A MASS MURDERER AND A WAR CRIMINAL?" PINTER ASKED.
"One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice," he added.
The 75-year-old British playwright was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2002.
Criticism
In the recording made in London, he used nearly his entire lecture of almost an hour to criticise the US.
PINTER USED NEARLY HIS ENTIRE LECTURE TO CRITICISE THE US
"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War.
"I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile," he said.
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.
"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force of universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
PINTER'S CRITICISM OF WASHINGTON IS NOTHING NEW.
Although he won the 2005 Nobel Prize for his plays, which according to the Nobel jury uncover "the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms," he has recently focussed on political activism.
Literature and politics
In his lecture, he emphasised the difference between the separate worlds of literature and political life.
In literature "a thing is not necessarily either true or false.
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them"
Harold Pinter "It can be both true and false," he said, adding however that "as a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false."
POLITICIANS ARE NOT INTERESTED "IN TRUTH BUT IN POWER AND IN THE MAINTENANCE OF THAT POWER", ACCORDING TO PINTER.
"THE JUSTIFICATION FOR THE INVASION OF IRAQ WAS THAT SADDAM HUSSEIN POSSESSED A HIGHLY DANGEROUS BODY OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ... IT WAS NOT TRUE.
"WE WERE TOLD THAT IRAQ HAD A RELATIONSHIP WITH AL QUAEDA AND SHARED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ATROCITY IN NEW YORK OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 ... IT WAS NOT TRUE," HE SAID.
Pinter, born the son of a Jewish dressmaker in Hackney, east London, began as an actor and made his playwriting debut in 1957, with "The Room".
That play was followed by one of his masterpieces "The Birthday Party" and his conclusive breakthrough came with "The Caretaker" in 1959, followed by "The Homecoming" in 1964.
The playwright's publisher, Stephen Page, will accept the $1.3 million prize money, a diploma and a medal on Pinter's behalf at the ceremony.
[andend] - TinyUrl: http://tinyurl.com/7g3sn
THE 'MANAGERS' OF THE NETHERLANDS OPENLY SUPPORT THOSE CRIMINAL ACTS - contrary to the will of the people - and are secretly financing the PNAC-people's illegal wars with hundreds of Euro-millions of taxpayers money.
For these crimes against humanity the political paupers in The Hague - the puppet traitors - have put the whole dutch defense at the disposal of the warcriminals, keeping the PNAC's profitable 'killing fields' soaked in blood - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bevps
FPF - Related:
* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp
* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v
* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org
* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi (It.) Balkenende (NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.: http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal
* The 'Federal Reserve' is the absolute biggest crime ever - and guess who's financing the wars? Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
* The latest Google News on Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/exp5y
* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
-0-
December 7th - 2005 - In a fierce critique ahead of the Nobel awards ceremony, literature laureate Harold Pinter has branded the war on Iraq "an act of blatant state terrorism" and has demanded the prosecutions of US President George Bush and Britain's Tony Blair.
"THE INVASION OF IRAQ WAS A BANDIT ACT*, AN ACT OF BLATANT STATE TERRORISM, DEMONSTRATING ABSOLUTE CONTEMPT FOR THE CONCEPT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW," PINTER SAID IN A PRE-RECORDED LECTURE BROADCAST BY THE SWEDISH ACADEMY ON WEDNESDAY.
The Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, aired the interview, recorded on Sunday in London, because Pinter was too sick to travel to Sweden for the lecture or pick up the award in person at Saturday's ceremony.
"HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU HAVE TO KILL BEFORE YOU QUALIFY TO BE DESCRIBED AS A MASS MURDERER AND A WAR CRIMINAL?" PINTER ASKED.
"One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice," he added.
The 75-year-old British playwright was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2002.
Criticism
In the recording made in London, he used nearly his entire lecture of almost an hour to criticise the US.
PINTER USED NEARLY HIS ENTIRE LECTURE TO CRITICISE THE US
"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War.
"I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile," he said.
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.
"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force of universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
PINTER'S CRITICISM OF WASHINGTON IS NOTHING NEW.
Although he won the 2005 Nobel Prize for his plays, which according to the Nobel jury uncover "the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms," he has recently focussed on political activism.
Literature and politics
In his lecture, he emphasised the difference between the separate worlds of literature and political life.
In literature "a thing is not necessarily either true or false.
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them"
Harold Pinter "It can be both true and false," he said, adding however that "as a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false."
POLITICIANS ARE NOT INTERESTED "IN TRUTH BUT IN POWER AND IN THE MAINTENANCE OF THAT POWER", ACCORDING TO PINTER.
"THE JUSTIFICATION FOR THE INVASION OF IRAQ WAS THAT SADDAM HUSSEIN POSSESSED A HIGHLY DANGEROUS BODY OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ... IT WAS NOT TRUE.
"WE WERE TOLD THAT IRAQ HAD A RELATIONSHIP WITH AL QUAEDA AND SHARED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ATROCITY IN NEW YORK OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 ... IT WAS NOT TRUE," HE SAID.
Pinter, born the son of a Jewish dressmaker in Hackney, east London, began as an actor and made his playwriting debut in 1957, with "The Room".
That play was followed by one of his masterpieces "The Birthday Party" and his conclusive breakthrough came with "The Caretaker" in 1959, followed by "The Homecoming" in 1964.
The playwright's publisher, Stephen Page, will accept the $1.3 million prize money, a diploma and a medal on Pinter's behalf at the ceremony.
[andend] - TinyUrl: http://tinyurl.com/7g3sn
THE 'MANAGERS' OF THE NETHERLANDS OPENLY SUPPORT THOSE CRIMINAL ACTS - contrary to the will of the people - and are secretly financing the PNAC-people's illegal wars with hundreds of Euro-millions of taxpayers money.
For these crimes against humanity the political paupers in The Hague - the puppet traitors - have put the whole dutch defense at the disposal of the warcriminals, keeping the PNAC's profitable 'killing fields' soaked in blood - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bevps
FPF - Related:
* The Nuremberg principles: "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/byurp
* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC: video & text-interview of the United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v
* Reference guide to the Geneva Conventions - Url.: http://www.genevaconventions.org
* The leaked 'Downing Street Memos' expose the criminal lies by war criminals like Bush, Blair, Berlusconi (It.) Balkenende (NL) - their collaborating media and other malignant ilk - Url.: http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
* The infamous US 'Lie Factory' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/8ncal
* The 'Federal Reserve' is the absolute biggest crime ever - and guess who's financing the wars? Url.: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/reserve.htm
* The latest Google News on Harold Pinter - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/exp5y
* Help all the troops of whatever nationality to come back from abroad! We need them badly at home in many countries - AND WITH ALL THEIR WEAPONS, WHICH WE PAID FOR BY TAXES - to fight with us against our so called 'governments' and their malignant managers - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/
FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://forpressfound.blogspot.com/
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
-0-
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