Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Brainwash and pictures of oysters?

Nov. 22, 2006 - Many of us often have been asked or know by themselves at what time in life one started to understand that something was terribly wrong in the way our world was managed. Part of my answer is below. The question now again is raised when Dutch troops are shown to also have taken part in torture to extract confessions during interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Dutch torture too in an illegal war, as many know.

But the blunt Ben Bot, the infamous US war machine's Dutch 'foreign minister' in his usual state of denial said ''he did not know about the allegations'' but added that if true, ''they were inadmissible." As all the others crawling for the US junta, he was informed about the torture facts a long time ago it has shown. However, as 99% of the others he lied as usual.

But, in the very interesting article by Doug Soderstrom (link below) - 'A Prescription for Peace - Teaching Tommy During an Era of Fascism.' - many of us will recognize the conclusions, and understand why we better not strangle our teachers on all levels of education: most of them apparently didn't know any better, and were as brainwashed as they were brainwashing us. Like us they were fed rewritten history, selling fakes as facts. For the past two decades the 'dumbing down' has been global. Soderstrom is a senior insider and tells it like it was and is.*

PICTURES OF OYSTERS?

More than prisoners died at Abu Ghraib prison. America, the UK and the also guilty allies, lost their moral purchase; we killed the story that we were liberators guided by our God to bring freedom to the oppressed.
But the occupied never want to be occupied. They will outfight us, outdie us, and outlast us, because our boots are on their ground.

Henk Ruyssenaars

Amsterdam, May 25th, 2004 - It happened aboard the s.s. Nieuw Amsterdam* - a luxury liner of the Holland America Line, in 1961, when I was 19. And it was a very simple wooden table. Placed in the square of a little Javanese hamlet. On top lay a heap of - what I thought - were oysters. The pictures which a cook showed me had been taken by him as a soldier in former 'Dutch Indonesia', in the year after WWII and just before the Dutch too were forced to leave their colony.

And I didn't forget the photo's since. They changed my perception of humanity and the world in general. Like the picture of the small naked girl running in Vietnam with the napalm burning on her frail body did for many others too.*

Speaking up and accusing - for weeks the information is leaking out of Iraq's prisons - and shows that each picture loud and clear and with more than a thousand words changes in a pictorial landslide the world's and the American people's perception of the socalled "benevolent Human Rights respecting US Government".

LIKE THE COOK'S PICTURES DID IT TO ME.

Were they clams or oysters? - "No" he said, "no clams or oysters. Those are the eyeballs of the people there, which we popped out when they didn't want to talk to us and as a revenge for killing a buddy or something similar. Early in the dawn we put up our heavy machine-guns around their kampong, and then we'd throw a couple of hand grenades in the middle of the village.

When they start running around - like chickens without a head - we'd shoot some and capture the rest. And this is the result", he said, handing me more slightly brownish pictures, documenting more Dutch war atrocities. "Those we kill - men, women, young or old, we call 'peloppers, snipers or terrorists', anything to justify the shooting", he explained. (Like now with an estimated 655.000 victims in Iraq: "Let's kill'm all. God will sort them out.')

THE INDONESIANS SAW THE 'PELOPPERS' AS RESISTANCE FIGHTERS.

Because, when the Japanese were forced to leave the by them occupied and rich Indonesian archipelago at the end of World War II, the Dutch returned 'to clean up the mess' in their colony, and planned to return Indonesia to the greedy Dutch 'bussiness-as-usual' fold.*

But the Indonesians had other thoughts and wanted independence. The Dutch occupation of Indonesia faltered, and Indonesia fell into covert American hands, thanks to the CIA.* The 'Killing Fields' of Indonesia started. But we never saw any of the above facts in the history books the Dutch government fed us with. Now and than: lying through the teeth seems to be epidemic in Gov't.*

HELL'S LUXURIOUS KITCHEN...

I worked my way over from Europe to the United States, in the perfect but hell hot kitchen aboard the s.s. Nieuw Amsterdam. I wanted to see my brother who studied at an American University with a 'brain drain' Fullbright scholarship. And I of course wanted to see the "Land of the Free and the Brave". The land where so many of the soldiers came from which had liberated the Netherlands and my family from the Nazi occupation.

But I remember distinctly looking at some of those 'Indonesia war memory pictures', and I have never wondered since, about what mankind can do. Not in Vietnam nor Chile, or the 'slaughterhaus' by Israel in the ghettos of the Mideast Holocaust of the Palestinians, or what the US/Israeli 'would-be-Empire' has been doing to the rest of the world.

All the stories, pictures and videos about 'abuse' in jails - be it in Afghanistan, Iraq or the US itself now - which early on and thanks very much to Internet - confirmed the torture and killing of prisoners by the US, Israel and their allies. All those pictures are available all over the world, and show the war's inhumanity.

THE OCCUPIED NEVER WANT TO BE OCCUPIED

In a very informative article in 'the Independent' James Moore writes about Bush and Blair Repeating History’s Most Egregious Mistakes: "We were wrong, of course, and the deadly lesson, whether it was learned by Her Majesty’s armies in Africa or American troops in Vietnam, is that the occupied never want to be occupied. They will outfight us, outdie us, and outlast us, because our boots are on their ground. Through loss, Caesar slowly came to understand that the further his armies were from Rome the more difficult it was for them to retain power.

Geography may be less of a challenge to the modern military, but the battle still offers the same teachings. And no matter how loudly President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair argue to the contrary, the US and the UK are presently engaged in repeating history’s most egregious mistakes with their exploits in Iraq. Both Bush and Blair have tried to convince the world that Iraq had to be invaded as the first front in the war on terrorism. Stopping Al-Qaeda* and ridding Iraq of Saddam and his torture chambers provided the moral justification for rolling our armies across those ancient plains.

IF THE DEAD ARE GIVEN THE TRUTH AT THE TIME OF REDEMPTION, THOUGH, OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS NOW KNOW THEY LOST THEIR LIVES FOR CONSIDERABLY DIFFERENT REASONS THAN THOSE PROVIDED BY THEIR LEADERS.

The war in Iraq began with a lie and it has spiraled into an even greater immorality, which is where all lies eventually lead. Our bombs and bullets cannot tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy and in our effort to learn the distinctions we have resorted to immoral tactics.

More than prisoners died at Abu Ghraib prison. America and the UK lost their moral purchase; we killed the story that we were liberators guided by our God to bring freedom to the oppressed.

“GOD TOLD ME TO INVADE IRAQ.”?

Bush, meeting Palestinian leaders last year, explained to them: “God told me to invade Iraq.”

The Muslim world must be wondering if the God of Bush and Blair also told them to torture and kill at Abu Ghraib and all other places in criminally compliant countries. If not, how did that happen?

The denouement of this plot is the moment when the camera reveals the liberators have the same tendencies as the oppressor they have just deposed. Nothing has changed for the Iraqis except for the fact that the prisons are now open under new management."

The pictures of the 'oysters' on the kampong's table in Java, in one second showed me the lies of my own government: "Working for democracy, being liberators, rebuilding Indonesia"...

AMERICAN TORTURE UNIVERSITY

“We see a consistent pattern of the Pentagon claiming to work for democracy,” says Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, “while in their prisons and training centres, reports of torture and human rights abuses continue to surface.“ Torture of Iraqi Soldiers Indicative of Ongoing Policy of Systematic and Illegal Abuse. Recent reports of the torture of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib military prison near Baghdad are part of a larger pattern of abuse and torture at the hands of U.S. soldiers, U.S.-trained soldiers, 'independent contractors' and intelligence agents around the world. The U.S. and Israel have been torture interconnected in the Middle East for quite a long time. - Url.: tinyurl.com/2zf5r

In fact, U.S. Army intelligence manuals advocating torture techniques and how to circumvent laws on due process, arrest and detention were used for at least a decade to train Latin American soldiers at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation or WHINSEC."

BUSH'S CAPITULATION SPEECH

Many of the worst warmongering US- and global media now - when it is too late - feel forced to write like the unreliable Washington Post "that Mr. Bush would be more persuasive if he would acknowledge more honestly what has gone wrong in the past year and how it can be corrected. (They should correct themselves and rest of the the media / HR)

That is true of the evident failure to deploy sufficient numbers of troops, recruit more international support or nurture genuine Iraqi political leaders, and it applies to the abuses of Iraqi prisoners by American guards and interrogators, which Mr. Bush continues to describe as the isolated acts of individuals, despite abundant evidence of a systemic failure.

U.S. CREDIBILITY TO BE REPAIRED

The president promised last night to build a new prison in Iraq and then seek Iraqi approval to tear down the notorious Abu Ghraib complex - but for U.S. credibility to be repaired with Iraqis and U.S. allies, Mr. Bush must also renounce the policies that led to the abuses. He repeated (Vietnam stupidities - HR) "that he would send more troops if U.S. commanders asked for them. But he is the commander in chief; he can and should make that urgent and necessary decision himself.*

The demolishing of the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad will not help, as long as the US even has a University for training torturers, as even the BBC could not avoid reporting. The blood of all victims of the US junta's war machine washing down the façade of their Potemkin 'peace'.

Like the 'oysters', the US occupation of Iraq, the torture pictures and what they stand for will never be forgotten. Not for centuries and many generations to come.

Nor will the victims of the atrocities be forgotten.

The 'oysters' and me are living proof.


HENK RUYSSENAARS


Story first published in Maine and DC - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/y8mbuw

* Doug Soderstrom's very interesting story - Url.: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15691.htm

* Excellent article - No Iraq torture debate before elections in the Netherlands - Url.: http://electroniciraq.net/news/2656.shtml

* Indonesia: Bush is the terrorist! - Url.: http://jakarta.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=1153

* Rumsfeld Charged with War Crimes in German Court - Url.: http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/142509/1/

* BBC- New image for US 'torture school': tinyurl.com/t8vv

* Mr. Bush's Challenge (in May 2004) - Url.: tinyurl.com/yuc5j

* US/CIA in Indonesia - Url:tinyurl.com/2e26b

* Vietnam - Napalm burning on her frail body. Picture - Url.: tinyurl.com/y6yp

* Indonesia - Dutch 'bussiness-as-usual' fold. - Url.: tinyurl.com/2rztn

* The 'classic s.s. Nieuw Amsterdam - Google pictures - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/wh6sl

The Dutch author worked for 4 decades for international media as foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab World and the Middle East. Seeing that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism!

Evil triumphs when good men, women and journalists remain silent...

RELATED LINKS - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/v9pjs

* HOW PROPAGANDA IS SPREAD - ASSOCIATED PRESS DECIDES? - From AxisofLogic.com - News Article - Oct. 28, 2004 - Vote fraud? As Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin said: 'It's not important who votes. The people who count the votes decide." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5zosu

* THE NATION - ''IS AL QAEDA JUST A BUSH BOOGEYMAN?'' - BBC: 'The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear' - a three-hour historical film by Adam Curtis recently aired by the British Broadcasting Corp. argues coherently that much of what we have been told about the threat of international terrorism "is a fantasy that has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It is a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media." - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/acnjy

* The Dutch author this far has lived and worked abroad - never in an English speaking country - during more than four decades for international media, as an independent foreign correspondent. Of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab world and the Middle East. Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb used by the for profit murdering multinationals and their US junta's war machine, breeds more and armed resistance. Not only among Muslims, as the 'Junta Judasses' claim, but in all 190 countries surrounding the U.S. - War criminals, beware! - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/y7wr67

* 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.

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor: Henk Ruyssenaars
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The Netherlands
fpf@chello.nl

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