How Would the Americans React if George Bush is Killed by Iraqi Commandos in America?

by Noam Chomsky

It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite Osama if they were presented with evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have. Thus Obama was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that “we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda.”

Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of Osama’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement.
There is also much media discussion ofWashington’s anger thatPakistan didn’t turn over Osama, though surely elements of the military and security forces were aware of his presence in Abbottabad. Less is said about Pakistani anger that the U.S. invaded their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American fervor is already high inPakistan, and these events are likely to exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already, predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.

It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed Osama’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.
There’s more to say about [Cuban airline bomber Orlando] Bosch, who just died peacefully in Florida, including reference to the “Bush doctrine” that societies that harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves and should be treated accordingly. No one seemed to notice that Bush was calling for invasion and destruction of the U.S. and murder of its criminal president.

Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying Osama by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”

There is much more to say, but even the most obvious and elementary facts should provide us with a good deal to think about.

Osama’s Death Hard to Digest in Pakistan

Monday, May 2, was a historic day forAmerica, the day when its most wanted man,

Osama bin Laden, was finally found and killed by the USarmy. While the news was welcomed by leaders around the world, it has been harder to digest in Pakistan. There are conspiracy theorists and sceptics everywhere, including in the US, but flicking through the channels on Pakistani television and listening to the many journalists and security experts offer their analysis, it is apparent that there is considerable scepticism in Pakistan over whether Bin Laden has really been killed.

Many want to see footage of his burial as proof and there are still who are not even willing to blame Osama for the suicide attacks on civilians, mosques and the Pakistani forces. Several of those defending him were people who had met him in the past and channels were showing their photographs with him. Osama was their hero in spite of the fact that he effectively declared war onPakistanwith terrorist attacks that have killed thousands of innocent men, women and children.

Sadly, Osama is likely to remain a hero for a long time among those Pakistanis who considered him to be a “soldier of Allah” waging legitimate jihad against theUS. To the rest of the world, Osama was and forever will be a terrorist, but inPakistanemotions against theUShave been running high for a long time and the perspective is somewhat different.

That aside, the killing of Osama on Pakistani soil has raised many concerns. The Pakistani foreign office – and theUSconfirmed it – stated that it was not aware of the attack on Osama’s compound.

Questions are being asked as to why the US did not inform the Pakistani government of its operation, but there are also obvious questions about our national security and the ability of our army to protect the country when it is not even aware of a major military operation taking place a short distance away from one of its top military academies.

The media has been further critical of the government’s reticence since news of Osama’s death broke. Instead of coming before journalists and the cameras to clarify the situation, government officials have been nowhere to be seen, leaving many of us wondering whether they even know what’s going on.

The most important question that everyone is asking, however, is whether Osama’s death will reduce terrorism. I have my doubts. An oft repeated statement in the last few days has been that the world is a safer place without him. That may turn out to be true in the long run but, in terms of the foreseeable future, the threat of a terrorist attack on the US, UK and other parts of the western world is severe.

Lots are already being drawn as to who will be Osama’s likely successor, with Ayman Al-Zawahiri the emerging favourite. Certainly the indications are that al-Qaeda, while perhaps deflected momentarily by the death of its leader, is nowhere close to forsaking its goal of establishing an Islamic world order by any and every means possible. This not only has implications for the western world – al-Qaeda’s most loathed enemy – but for Pakistan and majority Muslim countries too. Ayman Al-Zawahiri said in his book, The Morning and the Lamp, that Pakistan and its constitution are un-Islamic, and he is wanted not only by theUS, but by the Egyptian government too.

Despite having nothing to do with Osama’s death, Pakistani Christians are also now extremely fearful of a backlash. If the Taliban attack their churches and properties, it would come as no surprise as Christians have tended to be the targets for acts of vengeance whenever the West has invaded a Muslim country. In the aftermath of 9/11 and the invasions ofIraq and Afghanistan, Islamic militants launched deadly attacks on churches and institutions. Christians were killed in cold blood as they worshipped or went about their daily business. There will no doubt be many more as the war on terror continues.

Indeed, the Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Lahore, Lawrence Saldanha, expressed grave concerns about the safety ofPakistan’s Christians. “Christians could face a backlash and we are a soft target as they cannot attack America. We demand security. The government should control any retaliation,” he said.

The Church in Pakistanis scared and its leaders are crying out for greater security, particularly around churches. Even as I write this article, Christians are facing an extremely precarious situation inGujranwala, where tensions are threatening to boil over after Christians were accused of burning copies of the Koran. Mushtaq Gill and his son Farrukh were taken into police custody for questioning and found guilty. Muslims have reacted angrily, holding protests and vandalising Christian homes and a school. Some 3,000 Christians have fled the area in fear for their lives and the police have utterly failed to bring the situation under control.

The killing of  Osama will only increase hatred towards the US and towards Pakistani Christians, who are automatically responsible for the actions of the West simply because they share the same faith. It is my sincere hope that Christians inPakistanare not made the scapegoats once again, as the archbishop fears, and that the world does indeed become safer and more peaceful without Osama.

Nasir Saeed can be contacted at; info@claas.org.uk

Hundreds of Peace Corps Volunteers Raped

Jess Smochek arrived inBangladeshin 2004 as a 23-year-old Peace Corps volunteer with dreams of teaching English and “helping the world.” She left six weeks later a rape victim after being brutalized in an alley by a knife-wielding gang. When she returned to the United States, the reception she received from Peace Corps officials was as devastating, she said, as the rape itself. In Bangladesh, she had been given scant medical care; in Washington, a counselor implied that she was to blame for the attack. For years she kept quiet, feeling “ashamed and embarrassed and guilty.”

Today, Ms. Smochek is among a growing group of former Peace Corps volunteers who are speaking out about their sexual assaults, prompting scrutiny from Congress and a pledge from the agency for reform. In going public, they are exposing an ugly sliver of life in the Peace Corps: the dangers that volunteers face in far-flung corners of the world and the inconsistent — and, some say, callous — treatment they receive when they become crime victims.

“These women are alone in many cases, and they’re in rough parts of the world,” said Representative Ted Poe, Republican of Texas, who says the Peace Corps’ promises do not go far enough and is sponsoring legislation to force changes in the way it treats victims of sexual assault. “We want theUnited Statesto rush in and treat them as a victim of crime like they would be treated here at home.”

Founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, the Peace Corps has 8,655 volunteers and trainees, as young as 21 and as old as 86, serving in 77 countries. For most, service is, as the agency’s Web site boasts, “a life-defining leadership experience.”

But from 2000 to 2009, on average, 22 Peace Corps women each year reported being the victims of rape or attempted rape, the agency says. During that time, more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers reported sexual assaults, including 221 rapes or attempted rapes. Because sexual crimes often go unreported, experts say the incidence is likely to be higher, though they and the Peace Corps add that it is difficult to assess whether the volunteers face any greater risk overseas than women in theUnited States do.

In an interview, the director of the Peace Corps insisted that it was safe for women to serve in the Peace Corps. “We do not place Peace Corps volunteers in unsafe environments,” he said.

But he said the agency must modernize its procedures to “make sure that we provide compassionate care” to crime victims.

In interviews and documents, ABC’s program 20/10 paints a picture of what many call a “blame the victim” culture at the Peace Corps.

Jessica Gregg, who was drugged and sexually assaulted in 2007 in Mozambique, said a Peace Corps medical officer “made me write in my testimony that I was intoxicated” and suggested that “I willingly had sex with this guy.” She and a number of other women complained that a training video the Peace Corps uses places too much emphasis on the role of alcohol in sexual assaults.

Many, like Kate Finn, who was raped in Costa Rica and now works in the district attorney’s office in Denver as a victim’s advocate, complain that they are not advised on how to prosecute their attackers; a 2010 survey of Peace Corps volunteers revealed that nearly 40 percent of those raped and 50 percent of those sexually assaulted did not report their attacks. Ms. Finn said that her attacker’s family was on the police force and that she “did not feel safe” reporting what had happened.

Still others say they are given inadequate information about counseling. Karestan Koenen, who sought therapy on her own and is now a psychologist who teaches at Columbia and Harvard, said she was shocked to discover that women today were confronting the same difficulties as she did when she was raped in 1991 inNiger.

“My own experience,” she said, “was that the treatment by the Peace Corps was worse than the rape.”