London Olympics: Behind The Curtain
Posted on 21. Jul, 2012 by Editor in Opinion
Blair, Olympic deals and the glimpse of another Britain
By John Pilger
This is a story of two letters and two Britains. The first letter was written by Sebastian Coe, the former athlete who chairs the London Olympics Organising Committee. He is now called Lord Coe. In the New Statesman of 21 June, I reported an urgent appeal to Coe by the Vietnam Women's Union that he and his IOC colleagues reconsider their decision to accept sponsorship from Dow Chemical, one of the companies that manufactured dioxin, a poison used against the population of Vietnam. Code-named Agent Orange, this weapon of mass destruction was "dumped" on Vietnam, according to a US Senate report in 1970, in what was called Operation Hades. The letter to Coe estimates that today 4.8 million victims of Agent Orange are children, all of them shockingly deformed.
In his reply, Coe describes Agent Orange as "a highly emotional issue" whose development and use "was made by the US government [which] has rightly led the process of addressing the many issues that have resulted". He refers to a "constructive dialogue" between the US and Vietnamese governments "to resolve issues". They are "best placed to manage the reconciliation of these two countries." When I read this, I was reminded of the weasel letters that are a specialty of the Foreign Office in London in denying the evidence of crimes of state and corporate power, such as the lucrative export of terrible weapons. The former Iraq Desk Officer, Mark Higson, called this sophistry "a culture of lying".
I sent Coe's letter to a number of authorities on Agent Orange. The reactions were unerring. "There has been no initiative at all by the US government to address the health and economic effects on the people of Vietnam affected by dioxin," wrote the respected US attorney Constantine Kokkoris, who led an action against Dow Chemical. He noted that "manufacturers like Dow were aware of the presence and harmfulness of dioxin in their product but failed to inform the government in an effort to avoid regulation." According to the War legacies League, none of the health, environmental and economic problems caused by the world's most enduring chemical warfare has been addressed by the US. Non-government agencies have helped "only a small number of those in need". A "clean up" in a "dioxin hot spot" in the city of Da Nang, to which Coe refers, is a sham; none of the money allocated by the US Congress has gone directly to the Vietnamese or has reached those most severely disabled from the cancers associated with Agent Orange.
For this reason, Coe's mention of "reconciliation" is profane, as if there were an equivalence between an invading superpower and its victims. His letter exemplifies the London Olympics' razor-wired, PR and money-fuelled totalitarian state within a state, which you enter, appropriately, through a Westfield mega shopping mall. How dare you complain about the missiles on the roof of your flats, hectored a magistrate to 86 residents of London's East End. How dare any of you protest at the "Zil car lanes", reminiscent of Moscow in the Soviet era, for Olympic apparatchiks and the boys from Dow and Coke. With the media in charge of Olympics excitement, as it was for 'Shock and Awe' in Iraq in 2003, now enter the man who played a starring role in making both spectacles possible.
On 11 July, a so-called Olympics evening – "a coming together of the Labour tribe", declared the Labour Party leader Ed Milliband – celebrated its "star guest" Tony Blair and his 2005 "gift" of the Games and "provided the perfect opportunity for Blair's return to frontline politics", reported the Guardian. The organiser of this contrivance was Alistair Campbell, chief spinner of the bloodbath Blair and he gifted to the Iraqi people. And just as the victims of Dow Chemical are of no interest to the Olympic elite, so the epic criminality of Labour's star guest was unmentionable.
The source of the Olympics' chaotic security is also unmentionable. As established studies in Britain have long conceded, it was the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the rest of the "war on terror" that served to recruit new jihadists and bolster other forms of resistance that led directly to the London bombs of 7/7. These were Blair's bombs. In his current rehabilitation, courtesy of his Olympics "legacy", there is the additional spin that Blair's huge post-Downing Street wealth is concentrated on charities.
The second letter I mentioned was sent to me by Josh Richards who lives in Bristol. In March 2003, Josh and four others set out to disable an American B-52 bomber based at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, before it could bomb Iraq. So did four other people. It was a non-violent action faithful to the Nuremberg principles that a war of aggression was the "paramount war crime". Josh was arrested and charged with planning to lay explosives. "This was based on the ludicrous idea," he wrote, "that some peanut butter I had on me was actually a bomb component. The charge was later abandoned after the Ministry of Defence performed extensive tests on my Tesco crunchy nut peanut butter."
During two trials and two hung juries, Josh was finally acquitted. It was a landmark case in which he spoke in open court about the genocidal embargo imposed upon Iraq by the British and US governments prior to their invasion and the false justifications of the "war on terror". His acquittal meant that he had acted in the name of the law and his intention had been to save lives.
The letter Josh wrote to me included a copy of my book, The New Rulers of the World, which, he pointed out, had provided him with the facts he needed for his defence. Meticulously page-marked and highlighted, it had accompanied Josh on a three-year journey through courtrooms and prison cells. Of all the letters I have received, Josh's epitomises a decency, modesty and determination of moral purpose that represent another Britain and antidotes to poisonous Olympic sponsors and rehabilitated warmongers. During these extraordinary times, such an example ought to give others heart and inspiration to reclaim this receding democracy.
Courtesy JohnPilger.Com
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5 Responses to “London Olympics: Behind The Curtain”
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Saeed Malik
21. Jul, 2012
Pilger is one of the truly great journalists of our times. All those
who can, should see all his documentaries. Each one is outstanding. He
is the first one to have exposed the killing of unpopular U.S army
officers by their men in the Vietnam. That was about his first
documentary. From then on he has produced many classics.
It should be no surprise therefore that all his articles are worth reading.
Afriq
21. Jul, 2012
WHEN WILL SOMEONE CALLING THEMSELVES PAKISTANI HAVE THE DECENCY TO HOLD
HER MAJESTY the ugly obnoxious woman witha nappy on her head government accountable for crimes AGAINST HUMANITY?
BRICS?
No India is nothing more than the brown version of the englishmen
http://www.cgpi.org/mel/voice-party/2443-condemn-indian-state-its
Condemn the Indian state for its collaboration with the murderers!
On June 26, a U.S. Federal Court ruled that the U.S.-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and its then chief Warren Anderson were not liable for damages caused by the toxic wastes dumped in Bhopal. Neither could the two be asked to clean up, the court ruled.
It is close to 28 years since December 2-3,1984, when a mixture of methyl isocyanate (MIC) and other poisonous gases spewed out from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant in Bhopal resulting in exposure of more than half a million people to toxic gas and harmful chemicals. More than 35,000 people living in and around the plant site have since died from gas-related diseases, while nearly 3 lakh continue to suffer from chronic illnesses. Most of these were workers at the plant, living in bastis around the plant site.
The response of the Indian state to this whole tragedy has been criminally callous. All the assurances and promises made in these 28 years by successive governments at the Centre and the state have been blatantly violated. Those who survived that deadly night are still fighting for their demands for adequate medical relief and rehabilitation. Those who lost their loved ones and the only earning members of their families are still demanding compensation that was promised. They were made to run from pillar to post in the immediate months following their loss and till date, a majority of the widows are yet to be paid the pension due to them. The state is yet to organize for the removal of the toxic waste from the site and for the supply of clean water to the residents of Bhopal.
That the Indian state defends the interests of the Indian and foreign imperialist bourgeoisie at the expense of its people needs no further proof than the fact that it did not hold the company in India – Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) nor its parent company in the US, Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) responsible for this genocide. On the contrary, it ensured that the then UCC chief Warren Anderson escaped from the country. The UCC chief had visited Bhopal just after the event, to ostensibly, “assess the extent of damages”; he was “arrested” just to demonstrate to the people of Bhopal and all Indians who were incensed with the tragedy and demanding that UCC and UCIL should be held responsible it, that it was doing something. But he was granted bail within hours and enabled to leave the country, according to the orders of the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and his Home Minister, Narasimha Rao.
Khalif
21. Jul, 2012
the reply of coe is typical of the brits
lies lies lies and nothing but grotesque profane lies
I had written to the brit FM regarding the insanity of the israhelli state – the Jenin genocide
his reply was an 8 line which can best be described as profanity. I posted it on the notice board of mosque
Within 30 min of my posting the piece of paper was torn into many pieces and stamped on
than their was that hedious man chris patten a brit – ex-EU commissioner who had the audacity to tell me that the biggest commercial group trading with that horrendous evil vile barbaric illegal state israhell
appplying sanctions will not work
after he had enough blood money and became ex EU he than had the audacity to be the patron of MAP – Medical aid for Palestine
My complaints to MAP regarding this butcher had no effect now this slut has a title
baron & was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2003.
chairman of bbc trust (what can one expect!)
…….
titles go with how much blood one spills for the repulsive criminality
Afriq
21. Jul, 2012
Dr Assraf Ezzat a very wise man Pakistan gov how come you never hold the "holier than thou repulsive brit accountable"? Hina Khar it is YOUR DUTY TO address the slaughter of MUSLIMS no not the divide et impera Shina Sunni but
SLAUGHTER OF MUSLIM everywhere it happens and usually the criminals are the same ones
Libya, SYRIA, Burma, Bahrain, Yemen, Balouchistan,——– and not meet these mass murderers
Bahrain: British arms used to crush peaceful demonstrators as regime’s sadistic torturer allowed to attend Olympics
As efforts to ban the notorious torturer, Nasser bin Ahmad from attending the London Olympics continue, it has transpired that the UK Government has ignored several requests and pleas supported by irrefutable evidence against him. Despite the Foreign Secretary’s assertion that anyone proven to have engaged in torture would not be granted a visa, the Alkhalifa dictators have boasted of sending one of the most sadistic torturers Bahrain has seen to London. There are now mounting fears for the lives of three prominent detainees who had testified that Nasser, the son of Bahrain’s dictator, had personally tortured them. Sheikh Mohammad Habib Al Miqdad, Sheikh Mirza Al Mahroos and Mohammad Hassan Jawad said that Nasser had hurled verbal abuses as he punched and kicked them in the Spring of 2011. They did not only recognize him but he also introduced himself as “This is Prince Nasser†as he punched Sheikh Mohammad Habib Al Miqdad knocking him to the ground before setting upon him with all kinds of torture. London Olympiad would go in the books of history as one that embraced people who had committed crimes against humanity. That would be disastrous to London Olympics.
Meanwhile the Alkhalifa hereditary dictatorship has tightened its grip by banning any form of public dissent especially in the capital, Manama. Even the registered political societies have now been banned from organizing any protest. In the past few weeks their leaders had been targeted for assassination by regime’s forces in daylight. The head of Al Wefaq Society was hit in the back as he led a peaceful demonstration last month. The societies had called for country-wide protests today, but have been banned. The regime has decided to undertake an all-out war against Bahrain’s people, supported by both USA and UK governments who have been unyielding in supporting a bloody regime which had invited foreign troops to occupy the country.
The Revolution has, nonetheless, continued unabated. At least 20 demonstrations have taken place every day in various parts of the country. Regime’s repression has intensified, and tens of people have been wounded with shotgun wounds. The American and British support has emboldened the bloody regime to intensify its use of chemical gases hurled not only on demonstrators but inside houses crowed with children and elderly people. Yet the resolved of Bahrainis has now reached a point of no return in the struggle to overthrown the hereditary dictatorship. People now believe that the American and British support may delay this but cannot prevent it.
Over the past few days calls from many international human rights bodies have been made for the immediate and unconditional release of Nabil Rajab, the President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. He has been threatened with extermination by security forces run by John Timony and John Yates. There is mounting fear for his life as his wife said that no news have been received from him for several days. The dictator has decided to exact revenge against Mr Rajab for accusing him of giving the orders to kill and torture Bahrainis. The Alkhalifa court has adopted delaying tactics to prevent his early release. The four most prominent human rights activists have now been put out of action. With the serious injury sustained by Zainab Al Khawaja who was shot and wounded by Timoney and Yates forces last year, Nabil Rajab, Abdul Hadi Al Khawaja and Dr Abdul Jalil Al Singace are languishing behind bars.
The continued supplies of lethal arms to Alkhalifa regime which is intent on killing Bahrainis has cause alarm among those monitoring the arms trade. Both USA and UK have resumed supplies of lethal weapons to this dictatorship. Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the regime’s crown prince is on arms-purchasing tour in USA as he declared his unyielding support to the killing of Bahrainis while hiding behind a façade of deceptive calls to conditional dialogue. In London, meanwhile, wisdom of resuming arms supplies to Alkhalifa regime have been questioned. In the Parliament Denis MacShane (Rotherham, Labour) said on 16th July: “We are still exporting arms to Bahrain, where the death toll mounts, the numbers in prison grow and the torture continues. I am curious to know whether the Minister has any moral qualms about that.†Gerald Howarth (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (International Security Strategy), Defence; Aldershot, Conservative) replied: “As the right hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well from his experience in the Foreign Office, we have one of the most stringent arms export control arrangements in the world, and we look very carefully at these matters. I should add that Bahrain has been an extremely important friend and ally to both the United Kingdom and the United States.†He has thus confirmed what the Bahraini people have feared most; UK complicity in the bloody attacks on their women and children by the regime using British arms.
Bahrain Freedom Movement
20th July 2012
Rehmat
22. Jul, 2012
The British government has allocated nearly one billion dollars for the security of the event - more than 10% of Olympics total budget. However, the Israel-Firster government of David Cameron was not satisfied with the capability of UK’s own secret service (MI5) and invited Israeli Mossad to train MI5 operatives. Israeli daily, YNet had reported on May 12, 2011 that Mossad officials participated in a security drill at London’s Olympics park. The drill stimulated a scenario based on 1972 Munich Olympics, where atheletes were held hostages by (Palestinian) terrorists. The Munich hostage-taking was Mossad’s false flag operation to pit the West against Palestinians.
http://rehmat1.com/2011/10/26/2012-london-olympics-and-mossad/