Planet of the Arts vol. 3 no. 6 April 1988 t of Control J.S.A., and The Media stories which continue to re-occur. Let us never forget that the “disappeared” is just a nice word for those that have been killed and that this practice is one of the worst forms of psychological torture to the loved ones and friends of the victim. They never know how, when , what, or if, about the death of their friend(s). As a USAID report said about citizens of Vietnam: “The ultimate target is the human mind. It may be ‘changed’,it may be rendered impotent for expression or it may be extinguished, but it still remains the critical target.” This control is also achieved through establishment of “democratic” governments who often fix elections, but in most cases, don’t have to. Why? The civil police and/or right-wing death squads suppress unions, co-operatives, self-help groups - any action groups organized by the people or the Catholic church - hence Rome's so called “problem” in the church of priests practising “revolutionary theology”. Ifa citizen within a political party, through dealing with truth and reason, becomes too influential among the peasants or his working class, he is usually forced to either quit or flee or he may soon be among “the disappeared”. Others flee to the mountains rather than be killed and therefore can easily be branded as “communist” guerillas. Soldiers also sweep the countryside and committ massive atrocites, wiping out whole villages suspected of possibly being “active”. Whole regions are swept free of peasants because they might nurture and support anti- government feeling. They are equally victimized when their land, which has never been deeded to them, is now needed for a large ranch or farm. A typical example of this “scorched earth” policy te In ‘summarizing Mr. points, the memo said: bar the media from en i of the wor aed and put down the uickly as possible — rw " brutally and rapidly.”” cD 7 ; ‘Throw Out Teleyision’ : re are athe insurrection must De perfected by the U.S.A. in Vietnam. “ettt uelled immediare yt television, As the London Economist noted in 1983, ‘with the help of Israeli advisors [Guatemala] . I A. ee. To be sure, there gh has succeeded where a similar campaign in neighbouring El Salvador, pushed by American Cons ul Asserts ote Pternational criticism of bad it advisors, has failed, though ‘the price of success’ has been very high,’ including “sadistic butchery 8 5 S la yi ng jt will dissipate in short Order ~ and one million homeless Indians." 3 ; over- U Pp of The main fallback of all these “front” governments is the establishment and support of a ie strong military with U.S. aid. That way if the government is discovered by the people to be too =e 1OLINO corrupt, and subsequently through discontent, its international “visibility” rises (or worse - it heads for BY eaters true democracy) they can be overthrown by the military. The military (never really threatened by any = eel external power and thus having no real reason to exist) is used as the major fallback force to control ial_was ine the country. There are now more outright military dictatorships (and many others with “civilian” es government fronts) in Central and South America than anywhere in the world. These military Panamanian 9 wonder respected media journalists are questioning to ask” for assistance. tactic used by the Reagan administration: that MIG fighters were being introduced into as a fabrication which nevertheless resulted in gua has sought aid from the Eastern Bloc principally hich supports the Contra attacks. This then allows } “Communist” when in fact all they are doing is ont Nicaraguan military official to the U.S., whose icaraguas’ military posture. His reward for defecting payments and gifts totalling $800,000 U.S. y in internal White House documents and this implies That the President refers to them as “freedom is an example of US. media Newspeak. The gally from both Honduras to the north and from destruction in Nicaragua have been hospitals for the tion), and rural collective farms (Food). Adolfo U.S. a month by the C.I.A.) has said with regard to is no line at all, not even a fine line, between a licaraguan) military outpost”. In spite of vast funds ite, the people of Nicaragua have shown no signs of 1e “freedom fighters”. That is because regardless of / at least own and control their own country. on of state assets ( hydro lines, bridges, communica- | necessary items built by and for the peasants, by not endeared the United States to the Nicaraguan tion of “terrorism” without losing too much sight of and television is attracted to the hi-jacking of a 747, age , etc. When Israel buries people alive with iree diplomats in Cyprus, illegally hi-jacks one of their id beats women and children, this is not referred to in f us, only the Palestinians were seen as terrorists. “state “ terrorism who are “visible” by our media in srael, followed closely behind by virtually all the am not attempting to equate Israel on the same just now learning the fine art of “visible” state invisible”. the one “American” citizen killed on the decks of the ral years ago. When we take this single incident 000 dead in El Salvador since 1980, 30,000 dead in 960, and approximately 40,000 dead or wounded in > how little we have heard of these people and as “Americans” which they are, but as a statistic, ia time was given to this story of a rich U.S.A. citizen uable as a human being than a raped and murdered time were given to every peasant woman and child or the reasons behind these deaths, we would never s ourselves in the same light. due in major measure to U.S. foreign policy corporate interests’of the multi-nationals in Central ig the suppression of peoples basic rights in those out “democracy” and “freedom.” “Democracy” in this of every business to go in and exploit the nation and n. “Freedom” is Newspeak for : the freedom to selected military officials and troops‘in the newest Js, torture, and the fine art of burning crops, rape, Dften, progressive politicians are murdered and 2 “leftists”. These officials are brought to the U.S to ected military bases; they then go home to practise s (Missing, State of Seige, and the infamous “Z’) all Jistory Now lessons. They are all based on true CONTRA- DRUG LINK Mr. Rodriguez, who called himself a supporter of the anti-Sandinista rebels known as contras, also said he chan- neled laundered drug money to them through a shrimp processing ware- _\house that he set up as a front company to facilitate the money transfers. “Narcotics proceeds were used to shore up contra efforts,”’ he said. ‘I have laundered money for that net- work. 1 made it possible to transfer funds.”” we Statements Not Pursued ,7—- the money was moved to the contras, Mr. Rodriguez replied, “I had a liaison with the U.S. intelligence — let's not call him U.S. intelhgence. Let’s call him whoever was running the resup- ply.” He added that the middlemen to the contras knew that the funds came from drug profits. The subcommittee did not pursue 'Mr. Rodriguez's statements about \ funding the contras with drug money | with the help of American intelligence, an extraordinarily sensitive issue that Administration officials have repeat \edly denied. governments do not bite the U.S. hand that feeds them. Heavier and more potent lethal weaponry (napalm, cluster bombs, etc) banned by the U.S. Congress for other Central America countries is shipped to Israel and then forwarded to Central America. Many of these armies use Israeli Galil rifles. The Israelis and the South Africans are among the largest arms producers in the world, behind the major powers. The international arms business is now well over half a trillion dollars a year and it is usually the defenseless who suffer. : A classic example of this is the overthrow of the Chilean democracy in 1973. The socialist government attempted to nationalize the U.S. - owned copper mines and to compensate Anna- conda Copper for this. The result: the longest and most stable democracy in South America ( over 70 years ) was overthrown in a violent coup which is still in power today and has by conservative estimates murdered over thirty thousand Chileans. “| don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” - Henry Kissinger The Chilean coup was personally directed from the White house by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger. To show you that really not much has changed, a portion of a current article where Henry Kissinger tells the Israelis how to deal with their current “problem” is also enclosed . A democracy can survive only provided that U.S. “national interests” are not threatened. Be very aware of how often U.S. politicians use the phrase “in the national interest” and be sure that you can safely substitute the words “multi-national companies and corporate interests and monopo- lies” and you will have the exact meaning ... even better than the President! Also, when you hear them use the words “we will not accede to special interest groups” you can be sure that (in most cases) they are talking about true grass root democratic organizations with members like you and me. Take the current case of General Noriega in Panama. A corrupt general (who actually rules the “democratic” country) is finally exposed by a U.S. Senate subcommittee for the political murderer he is, as well as for being the recipient of large sums of money for aiding drug smugglers bringing “crack” (cocaine) from Columbia to the U.S. The President of Panama thus has to denounce him and fires him. Refusing to accept this, General Noriega convenes their assembly and elects a new President so that he can carry on as before. He would still be in power probably ten years from now if the Panamanian people were not so in love with the U.S. dollar. That will be Noriega’s undoing. His visibility in the media became too high for the U.S. to faithfully support him, so now the U.S. has to topple him. Prior to his indictment in the U.S. however, the administration had awarded him commendations for fighting in the war against drugs! One main story that has not yet appeared in American mainstream media is that of Contra airplanes flying down from the U.S.A. to Honduras with weapons and supplies, then being loaded with illegal drugs for the flight back, supplying many “crack” dealers in America. Since this service is being run by the C.1.A., they have no-questions-asked flight clearance using special military code numbers when entering U.S. airspace. There are no inspections upon landing in their Florida bases, (sometimes military) as they use non-military leased cargo planes with civilian pilots which are kept in less secure areas of these bases. The part of the story that has appeared however (see New York Times segments) is that of the Noriega - Honduran Army - C.I.A. drug connection, which implies that the drugs and money reach well into Honduras as part of their journey to the U.S. and that some of the drug profits for this service is going to supply the Contras. This news story shows the sub- committees reluctance to deal with a) how the C.I.A is involved in this, and b) who brings the drugs in and how do they get from Honduras to the U.S.? A half hour radio documentary aired recently on “Sunday Morning” (a three hour CBC public affairs radio show) called “Dealing for Dollars- the Contra Drug Connection"clearly revealed the situation. This report, done by Martha Honey, a Central American journalist, is investigative journalism at its best. In successive interviews with significant drug dealers and airplane smugglers (convicted and not), with attorneys and prosecutors, she shows that all trails for this operation lead to ... guess who ... the office of Vice-President George Bush, former head of the C.1.A. He is the one who has been so shakey lately when it comes to his involvement in the Iran -Contra Affair (exchanging arms for hostages and using the profits to supply the Contras.) George got mighty testy in his recent “talk” with Dan Rather. Will the Democrats follow this lead in an election year? The real question here is: how will the mainstream media in the U.S. handle it (if at all)? Is there such a thing as truth in “America”? It can be said that the U.S.A. and ourselves are the cream on the top of the milk and we sure don't want the milk to curdle under us. We can only hope that those who consciously or subconsciously “know” will use any and every opportunity to educate themselves and speak to their friends and to engage in non-violent direct action at all possible levels. | will never want to be calied an “American” in the context that a U.S. President or politician or businessman uses it. | would be ashamed and disgusted. Richard Bidwell - march 21,88 Vancouver, Canada 1 James Baldwin is a black american civil rights writer who died recently. 2&3 Thanks to Noam Chomsky (M.1.T. Professor) for finally laying out the basics in his books in such a forceful and articulate way that | could only read a few pages at a time before becoming so angry that | had to constantly leave the book for several days before picking it up again. Some of his books are Turning the Tide, Pirates and Emporers, The Fateful Triangle. Thanks to the New York Times for having 4 to 6 times more column inches on any story than any other newspaper, for having a sufficiently large readership to enable it to have independent reporters throughout the world, and for still managing to retain the American Slant. 7. Don’t smoke. t of Control U.S.A., and The Media Consul Asserts CLA. ie over-Up of ’85 Slaying salen abort ode. > wonder respected media journalists are questioning "0 aak” for assistance, actc used by the Reagan administration: that MIG fightors wore boing intoducod into as a fabricaton which nevortholossrosultod io qua has sought ad trom the Eastorn Bloc principally ich supports the Contra attacks, This thon allows "Communist when in fact al they are dong ie nt Nicaraguan miltary official othe U.S. whose caraguas’miltary posture. His reward for dalocing paymonts and gis totaling $800,000 U.S, Vin intornal Whito House documents and this impos That the Prsidont rors to thom as “koedom isan oxamplo of US. madia Nowspoak. The gally from both Honduras to th north and from destruction in Nicaragua have beon hospitals forthe on), and rural eallective farms (Food). Adollo. US. a month by the C.1A.) has said with rogard to is noline at al, not even a fie ne, betwoon a icaraguan) miltary outpost. In spite of vast funds fo, the peopl of Nicaragua have shown no signs of 1 “reedom fightes™. Thats because rogardlss of ‘atleast own and contol ther own county on of stat asses (hyo ins, bridges, communica: necessary items bu by and for the peasants, by not endeared the United Statos to tho Nicaraguan CONTRA- Kon of ero” without otng too much sight ot and television is tracted to he hijacking ofa 747, DRUG LINK eet. Wnon lal bros pool avo wth wo dolomats mn Gypin galy hacks one ote boats women and chico, isnot reed on (us, ony ho Paostcane wore soon tora ro ‘gio trorem who aro“ by out mah ek, foloned cosy behind by. vital a he ‘am fot aompsing fo equate sacl an te same itn fang tho tne ao se” ato met one “merican" ize il on he dacs of ho alas ago, When wo taka hs sgl toe 9 dad in El Satador dca T9ED"9,000 doa in 260, and aproxmatly 40,000 doad or wounded in re te we havo howd of hose poole ane as Amoricns” which aya ut a lait, a i was gon Bis sry of eh USA. cen cable as a human boing tana raped and murdered Me Ragu. cae mse a sages euros sud be oa fe. Rosriee reed a8 aon Saya Sec one es Romane romano pret. time were given, to every peasant woman and child Te saconeanie al pl the reasons behind those deaths, wo would nove sar xoargnrs teen's sb ‘Man tet conras wi eu, ote | a ry emt sue a | soursoves in tho samo ight doin major measure to U.S. foreign policy corpora interests ofthe mult-nationals in Contal 9. the suppression of pooples basic rights in tose Dut “democracy” and “reodom.” “Democracy” in this of every Businoss fo go in and exploit the nation and “Freedom” is Newspeak for: the froodom to Solacted mitary ofcials and toops in tho nowest , torture, and tho fino at of burning crop, rape, on, progressive polticians re murdored and ists. Those officials aro brought tothe US acted mitary bass; they thon go home to practise. s (Missing, Stato of Seigo, and th infamous 2° all story Now lessons. Thay aro all based on tue Planetofthe Arts vol.3 0.6 ‘April 1988 ‘stories which continue to re-occu. Let us never forget thatthe “disappeared” is just a'nice word for those that have been kilad and that his practice i one ofthe worst forms of psychological frtuo to the loved ones and friends of the victim. They never know how, when , what, of, about the death oftheir riond{s). As a USAIO report said about citzons of Vietnam: “Tho ulimato target isthe human ring. Itmay bo ‘changed it may be rendered impotent {or expression ort may be extinguished, butt stil romains tho erica target” ‘This controls also achieved through establishment of “domocratic” governments who ‘often fix electons, butin most cases, dont have to. Why?_ The civil police andor rightwing doath Squads suppress unions, co-operative, salt help groups - any action groups organized bythe [People or the Catholic church - hence Romeo's so caled “problem” in the church of priests practising “revolutionary thology”. Ifa. ciizon within a politcal party, through dealing with tuth and reason, bbocames to inuental among the poasants or his working cass, ho is usualy fore to either quit ‘0 flee or ho may soon be among “tho disappeared". Others feo to the mountains rather than be killed and therefore can easly bo branded as “communist guorilas. Sokors also swoop the ‘countyside and committ massive arocites, wiping out whole vilages suspected of possibly being "active", Whole regions are swept free of peasanis because they might nurture and support ant {government feoing. Thoy are equally vitnizod whon ter land, which has never boon dooded to thom, s now needed fra large ranch or farm. Atypical examplo ofthis “scorched earth” policy perfected by tho U.S.A. in Vitnam. “As tho London Economist notd in 1983, wih tho help of Isao advisors [Guatemala] has succooded whore a similar campaign in noighbouring El Salvador, pushod by American advisors, hs fled, though "the price of succass’ has boon vory Fig, Including “sadistic butchory’ ‘and one milion homolass Indians” 3 “Tho main fallback ofall those ront” governments i tho establishment and support ofa ‘rong miltary with US. aid. That way ifthe government is discovered bythe people tobe too corrupt, and subsequently through disconton, its intoratonal visibly" rises (or worso-itheads for true democracy) they can bo overtown by tho military. Tho miltry (never realy threatened by any ‘external power and thus having no real reacon to exit is used as the majrfalback fore fo control the county. Thoro aro now more autight miltary Sctatorships (and. many others with ilan” ‘government fronts) in Central and South America than anywhere in the word. These military {Governmonts do not bit tho U.S. hand tha foods thom. Heavier and more potontlthal weaponry napalm, cluster bombs, ete) banned by the U.S. Congress for ather Central America counts ‘shipped to Israel and thon forwarded to Contral Amorica. Many of theso armios use lraok Ga files. Tho lsaois and the South Aficans aro among the largest arms producors i tho worl, ‘ohn tho major powors. The international ams business is now wo ovor hal ain dolars a year and it's usualy the dofonsoless who suf. ‘Aelassic oxample of thsi tho overthrow of tho Chilean democracy in 1973, Tho socialist {government attompted to nationalize tho US. - owned copper mines and to compensate Anna- onda Copper for this. Tho result tho longest and most stable domocracy in. South America (over 70 years } was overthrown ina volont coup which is sila power today and has by consorvaive ‘estimates murdored over thirty thousand Chileans. “don't see wity we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due tothe ‘esponsibility of ts own poope.*- Henry Kissinger ‘The Chilean coup was personaly drecied from the Whito house by Presidont Nixon and ony Kissingor. To show you that realy not much has changed, a potion of acuront aro where nr Kissngor tls the lsraois how to doal with thoi curt “problem i also onciosed ‘A democracy can survive only provided that U.S. “natonal interests" are not threatened. Bo very ware of how often US. poliiclans use the phase “a the national intrest” and be sure that you can safely substiuto tho words “multi-national companis and corporate interests ans monopo- lls" and you wit havo the exact moaring .. van bettar than the President! Also, whon you hear thom use the words ‘we will not accede to special interest groups" you can bo sure that (mo ‘cases they are talking about tuo grass roct domacratc organizations with mombors Ike You and “Tako tho curent caso of Gonoral Noviogain Panama. A corrupt general who actually ‘ules the “democrat” county) i nally exposed by a U.S. Sonato subcommitoo for tho politcal ‘murdorer he is, as wel as fer Beng tho recipient of largo sums of monoy for asing dug emuggler® bringing “crack” (cocaine) from Columbia tothe U.S. The President of Panama thus has 10 ‘denounce him and fres him. Refusing to accopt his, General Noroga convenes their assombly and ‘ects a now President so that he can carry on as before. Ho woud sil be in powor probably ten years trom now if tho Panamanian people wor not son love with tho U.S. dolar That wil bo Norioga's undoing. is vsly inthe media became too high for tho U.S. to fatty suppor him, ‘snow tho U.S, has to topple him. Prior to hs initment in the U.S. however, the administration hhad awarded him commondations for fighting in the war against drugs! ‘One main story that has not yot appeared in American mainstream media is that of Conta Aairplanos fying down trom the U.S.A. to Honduras with weapons and supplies, then Being loaded ih illegal drugs forthe fight back, supplying many “rack” dealers in America, Since this service is ‘boing run by the C.LA,, thy have no-questons asked fight clearance using special mitary code ‘numbers when entoing US. arspaco. Thro are n inspections upon landing in tei Floriéa bases, {sometmes miliary) as thoy use non-military leased cargo planes wit evan pilots which ar kopt In loss socure areas of thoso basos. Tho part ofthe story tat has appeared however (eee New York ‘Times sogmonts) is that of tho Norioga - Honduran Army -C.LA. drug connection, which impli that the drugs and money reach wellinte Honduras as part of the journey tothe U.S. and that some of the crug profits for ths sorvceis going to supply the Contras, This news story shows tho su ‘commitoos reluctance to deal with a) how tho C..As involved in this, and 8) who brings the drugs in and how do they got rom Honduras to tho US? half hour radio documentary aired recanty on “Sunday Morning” (athoe hour CBC public afairs radio show) called "Dealing for Dollars: the Conza Drug Connoctionloarly rovealod the situation. This ropor, dona by Martha Honey, a Cental American journals e investigative Journalism atitsbost. In successive intorvews with significant drug dealers and aiplane smugglers (Convicted and no), wth atornoys and prosocutrs, she shows that al tras fortis operation lead to... guess who. the office of Vice-President George Bush, former head ofthe C.1A. Ho is the ‘one who has boon so shakoylataly whan it coms to his involvement in tho ran Contra Afar (exchanging ams for hostages and using the profits o supply tho Contas,) George got mighty tasty in his rocont tak" with Dan Rathor. Wil the Domecrats follow this load in an election year? “Tho real quoston hor is: how wil the mainstream mada in the US. handle it (it at al)? |s hore sucha thing as truth in “America”? Itcan bo sad thal tho U.S.A. and ourselves are the ‘cream on th top ofthe mik and we suro dont want the mk to corde under us. We can only hope that these who consciously or subconsciously “know” wil use any and every opportuni to educate themselves and speak tothe: ends and to engage in non-violent rect acion tal possible. lovels. | wil rover want tobe called an “Amorian™ in tho context hata US. Prosigont or plician ‘or businossman uses it | would be ashamed and disgusted, Richard Bidwell - arch 21,89 vancouver, Canada 1 James Baldwin is black american cl rights wrtr who dod recent 24.3 Thanks to Noam Chomsky (MLLT. Professor for finally laying out tho basics in his ‘books in such a forceful and aréculato way that | could only read afow pages ata time betore ‘becoming so angry that | had to constant leave tho book for saveral days before picking i UP again. Some of his books are Turning the Tide, Prates and Emporrs, The Fatoll Tange. ‘Thanks to the Now York Times for having 4 to 6 times more column inchos on any story than any other newspaper, for having a suticiony large roadorship to enable ito have independant reportars throughout the world, and for sil managing to retain the American Stant. 7. Don't smoke.