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American Power, Iran, and the New York Review of Books

By David Peterson at Jun 03, 2007

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   For what is perhaps the single most cost-free public
   gesture that Western "intellectual" - types can take
   at the present moment (though perhaps tied-for-first-
   place with public lamentations over the "genocide" in
   Darfur and the Western "failure" to stop the Arabs in
                         Khartoum from perpetrating it), check out:

 "Release Haleh Esfandiari," New York Review of Books,
  June 28, 2007  

Reading high-profile proclamations such as this, I can't help but wonder what percentage of this exact same list of 139 signatories would have signed-onto the exact same petition, had the Washington regime not spent the last 48 months - plus demonizing successive governments in Tehran over its alleged nuclear-weapons program?  (See GOV/2003/40, June 6, 2003.)

Better yet: What percentage of the current crop of 139 do you suppose would be willing to sign their names to a petition denouncing the U.S. Government for the threat to international peace and security that it poses over the issue of Iran?  Or denouncing the U.S. Government's actual -- and monumental -- violations of international peace and security in theaters such as Afghanistan and Iraq (etc.)?  

Or how about in cases in which it is the U.S. Government and/or the American university system that does the caning?  

How many of these leading lights of the moral firmament would sign their names to a comparable open letter protesting (A) the underlying refusal among the Western powers to respect Iran's rights under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to research and development its nuclear program for peaceful purposes?  (B) The sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and the UN Security Council over its refusal to surrender precisely these rights?  (C) The threat to international peace and security posed by the United States with respect to Iran?  And, in general, (D) the relentless and indeed recidivist campaigns by these same Western powers against the most basic principles of human rights -- and not only in Iran?

Between zero and 139 of the current crop, how many?

You tell me. 

"The View from Tehran," Akbar Ganji, Boston Review, May/June, 2007
"Right Wing Itches to Strike Iran," John Tirman, AlterNet, May 26, 2007

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

 

Update (June 14): After a three-week-and-one-day-long delay, the International Atomic Energy Agency has finally derestricted access to its most recent report on Iran's nuclear program:

Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and Relevant Provisions of Security Council Resolutions[1] in the Islamic Republic of Iran (GOV/2007/22), IAEA, May 23, 2007

Statement on "Non-proliferation" by the President of the Security Council  (S/PRST/2006/15), March 29, 2006
UN Security Council Res. 1696 (S/RES/1696), July 31, 2006
UN Security Council Res. 1737 (S/RES/1737), December 23, 2006
UN Security Council Res. 1747 (S/RES/1747), March 24, 2007 

It's very short: Only four pages long. --  Still.  To save you some trouble: 

1. "Iran has not suspended its enrichment related activities" (20).  Since the spring of 2003 (at least), this has been the primary U.S. demand -- now hyperinflated into the demand of the major Western powers (U.K., France, Germany), the IAEA's Board of Governors, and no less than the UN Security Council.

2. In the field of enrichment, "Iran has declared that it has reached enrichment levels up to 4.8% U-235 at [the Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz]" (5).

3. "Since early 2006, the Agency has not received the type of information that Iran had previously been providing…" (6).  "Iran has not agreed to any of the required transparency measures which are essential for the clarification of certain aspects of the scope and nature of its nuclear program" (17).

4. In Section G, "Summary," the IAEA reports:

18. Although the Agency is able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, the Agency remains unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify certain aspects relevant to the scope and nature of Iran's nuclear programme….
19. As previously stated, unless Iran addresses the long outstanding verification issues, and implements the Additional Protocol and the required transparency measures, the Agency will not be able to fully reconstruct the history of Iran's nuclear programme and provide assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran or about the exclusively peaceful nature of that programme. It should be noted that because the Agency has not been receiving for over a year information that Iran used to provide, including under the Additional Protocol, the Agency's level of knowledge of certain aspects of Iran's nuclear related activities has deteriorated.

One question that needs to be answered is: Whose interests are better advanced by the fact that, "because the Agency has not been receiving for over a year information that Iran used to provide, including under the Additional Protocol, the Agency's level of knowledge of certain aspects of Iran's nuclear related activities has deteriorated" (19)?

Among the devious Iranians'?  Or among those of their tormentors inWashington and the related uncivilized tribes? 

Well. -- On the Iraq front, which provided more help to the Washington regime's war-effort: Having the weapons inspectors of UNSCOM (1991 through mid-December 1998) and UNMOVIC (November 27, 2002 through mid-March 2003) on the ground in Iraq?  Or not?

Well. -- If weapons inspectors could at last positively verify that the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran really does mean that there are no undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, whose interests do you think this would advance?

The Western warmongers'?  Or Iran's?

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

 

Update (June 21): According to the Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace, earlier today, in a U.S. Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered that the former University of South Florida Computer Science Prof. Sami Al-Arian must be

held until at least October, which will mark nine months since he was held in contempt, half way through the 18-month maximum of the citation....[Judge Lee]...made a finding that further confinement may coerce his testimony.  Dr. Al-Arian was acquitted of terrorism charges in December 2005 but remains behind bars due to his refusal to testify in a politically motivated grand jury investigation designed to punish him. While Judge Lee rejected the government's argument that Dr. Sami must spend 18 months in jail, the maximum under the civil contempt statute, he found that family considerations may still induce him to break his silence. Specifically, the judge pointed to the hundreds of letters and postcards he received from Dr. Al-Arian's supporters urging his release, and said these letters indicate that Dr. Al-Arian's strong bond with his family might convince him to testify in order to be reunited with them. In fact, Dr. Al-Arian's desire to rejoin his family is exactly the reason he will not testify, because he believes doing so is a road to entrapment, future prosecutions, and many more years of unjust incarceration.

The U.S. Department of Justice has strung-along the Al-Arian case now for something like four-and-one-half years.  (For some background -- though I caution you to be careful about what you'll find reported in establishment sources -- see the webpage that the Tampa Tribune devotes to the Al-Arian Case.) 

Now. I do not know how many Sami Al-Arian-type cases of monumental injustice at present there are locked-up behind bars in the American gulag.  That is to say, people prosecuted on political grounds.  People whose fates exemplify the relentless campaign by the leaders of the U.S. Government and the vast prosecutorial complex at their command to violate the most basic principles of human and constitutional rights -- and get away with it, because in this very screwed-up and dangerous country, no one can stop them.  

But sticking to the theme of the current blog (i.e., one of the services rendered on behalf of American Power by the New York Review of Books), I just ran a search of the New York Review of Books' website for mentions of the name 'Sami Al-Arian' in any document electronically archived therein. -- The results?  A grand total of one match: David Cole's "Are We Safer?" (March 9, 2006 -- a review of Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon's The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right (Times Books, 2005)).

Cole, whose work is outstanding, wrote this about the Sami Al-Arian case some 15 months ago:

  Several of the government's most prominent "terrorist" cases have disintegrated under close scrutiny. John Ashcroft repeatedly claimed that the prosecution of Sami al-Arian, a computer science professor at the University of South Florida, showed why the Patriot Act was essential. Yet after the prosecution presented eighty witnesses and hundreds of hours of taped surveillance over six months of trial, and after al-Arian's lawyers rested their case without calling a single witness, a jury in Tampa found al-Arian not guilty of the most serious charges against him, including conspiracy to murder and to aid a terrorist organization. The jury was deadlocked 10–2 in favor of acquittal on all the rest, including a charge of "material support" and an immigration violation. Time magazine quoted a former FBI official who stated that in late 2002 the FBI was pressured to make a case against al-Arian despite weak evidence: "'We were in shock, but those were our marching orders,' [said] the supervisor, who felt that the Justice Department was rushing to indict before it had really appraised the evidence."[9] 
  [9] Tim Padgett and Wendy Malloy, "When Terror Charges Just Won't Stick," Time, December 19, 2005.

But this single paragraph comprises the extent of mentions of Sami Al-Arian's case on the pages of the New York Review of Books.

So: The "intellectuals" at the New York Review of Books have no trouble getting-it-up over the Islamic Republic of Iran's clearly unjust detention and confinement of the Iranian-American academic Haleh Esfandiari.  (See "Release Haleh Esfandiari," New York Review of Books, June 28, 2007.)  

And these same "intellectuals" can even summon the courage from deep within their hearts to "call upon the international organizations, academic and professional associations, and other groups and individuals devoted to the promotion and defense of human rights to strongly protest and condemn the arbitrary detention of Dr. Esfandiari, to call for her immediate and unconditional release, and to urge the officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran to respect, guarantee, and implement the provisions and principles of human rights as specified in international conventions and treaties to which Iran has long been a signatory."

But for all intents and purposes, they've never before heard the name Sami Al-Arian. 

Or, in the very least, wouldn't dare permit their esteemed publication to decry such injustices -- tinged, as they invariably are in this often-no-bigger-than-a-navel-sized political culture, with its invidious anti-Arab and anti-Islamic rhetoric, and conspiratorial worldviews.

"The prime-time smearing of Sami Al-Arian," Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, January 19, 2002 


David Peterson
Chicago, USA


Update (June 27): Has any of you by any chance ever run across a phony clash-of-civilizations-category performer named Irshad Manji?  I just caught maybe 15 minutes of her highly polished shtick on CSPAN - 2.  (See "Irshad Manji on the Reformation of Islam," CSPAN - 2, June 25, 2007.  It's a video of her performance before the 2007 conference of the American Library Association in Los Angeles this past week.)

Irshad Manji is also the author of the book, The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith (St. Martin's Press, 2004). --

   Get a load of the image that the publisher chose for the cover of this one: A close-up of Manji's face, gazing skyward!

   I've also seen a few minutes of her shtick on "Islam" over PBS - TV in the past.

   The way she looks to me, she's a performance artist playing the role of a "critic of Islam" whose observations are crafted to reinforce the worst fears of The West towards "Islam" and some of the United States' pet targets in the predominantly Islamic countries -- Iran, say. 

   Also check out her website: Muslim Refusenik (Homepage). -- Every element of it oozes a publicity campaign: Promote the Irshad Manji brand because of its negative campaign against targets of The West.

   There must be some money behind all of this.

Can anybody tell me something about this performer?

Thanks. 

David Peterson
Chicago, USA


Another Update (June 27): The insights of the performance-artist known currently known as Irshad Manji -- part Ann Coulter, part Sacha Baron Cohen -- and 100 percent flatterer of Western power and superiority -- include the following ("Muslim Myopia," New York Times, August 16, 2006):

But violent jihadists have rarely needed foreign policy grievances to justify their hot heads. There was no equivalent to the Iraq debacle in 1993, when Islamists first tried to blow up the World Trade Center, or in 2000, when they attacked the American destroyer Cole. Indeed, that assault took place after United States-led military intervention saved thousands of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.  

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

 

Update (July 9): Another one that deeply interests me, as I find traces of this everywhere these days (and it's only gotten worse with the advent of the Internet):

"Native informers and the making of the American empire," Hamid Dabashi, Al-Ahram Weekly,  June 1-7, 2006

 

Damned powerful stuff herein.  Keep Dabashi's critical famework in mind with respect to efforts to destabilize Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria in particular -- though also think of Venezuela, Cuba, and even the fate of democracy in the States.

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

Update (August 22, 2007): Presumably AFP's list of "U.S.-Iranians held in Iran" is complete (see below) -- though I honestly don't know for certain.  But it doesn't begin to reflect the number of arbitrary and unjust detentions of single-citizenship Iranians by their regime.

However, one lovely bit, if only on the side.

While Haleh Esfandiari was detained by the Iranian authorities at Tehran's Evin Prison complex (May 8 - August 21), the percentage of reports about her detention that have used modifiers such as 'notorious' and 'infamous' and 'nefarious' when mentioning the name of this prison was huge.  At times, it even appeared that everybody who commented on where the Iranian authorities had detained Esfandiari also repeated the "Tehran's notorious Evin prison" line.

It is therefore amusing to hear Esfandiari herself describe the conditions of her detention over the BBC International as less than torturous -- or even ominous.  "They treated me very well in the section," she said. "I had a room. It was very big, it had a window. I could have air whenever I wanted. The food was very good."

"Iran frees U.S. academic," BBC International, August 21, 2007
"Iran frees U.S.-Iranian academic on bail," Hossein Jaseb, Reuters, August 21, 2007 
"Lawyer: Iranian-American scholar still faces charges in Iran despite release from prison," Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press, August 22, 2007 
"Iran frees US 'spy' on bail after three months," Robert Tait, The Guardian, August 22, 2007 
"US-Iranian academic freed after making TV ‘confession'," Anne Penketh, The Independent, August 22, 2007 
"Iran frees U.S.scholar on bail," Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi,  Los Angeles Times, August 22, 2007
"Jailed Iranian-American Academic Is Released on Bail," Nazila Fathi and Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, August 22, 2007 
"Iran Frees U.S. Scholar From Prison," Robin Wright, Washington Post, August 22, 2007  

"Native informers and the making of the American empire," Hamid Dabashi, Al-Ahram Weekly,  June 1-7, 2006
"Right Wing Itches to Strike Iran," John Tirman, AlterNet, May 26, 2007
"Countdown to War on Iran," Alain Gresh, Le Monde diplomatique, June, 2007 (as posted to CounterPunch)

 

Agence France Presse
August 21, 2007
The US-Iranians held by Iran

The release on bail of US-Iranian academic Haleh Esfandiari Tuesday is the latest episode in a long-running case that had cranked up tensions with arch-foe the United States. Her release leaves another two US-Iranians still believed to be held in jail in Tehran and a US-Iranian journalist unable to leave the country after her passport was confiscated. All but one of the accused are based abroad and returned to Iran to visit sick mothers. Iran does not recognize dual nationality and has told the United States the case is none of its business. Here are short profiles of the four accused:

-- Haleh EsfandiariEsfandiari, 67, a prominent academic who heads the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, was freed Tuesday after more than three months in jail. She was accused by prosecutors of harming national security and links to an alleged US drive to topple Iran's clerical authorities. While detained, she was interviewed in a controversial Iranian state television documentary -- "In the Name of Democracy." Esfandiari appeared to recognize she had been involved in work to make a network between scholars in Iran and the United States, but Washington expressed concern she was coerced into appearing. Esfandiari had returned to Iran last year to visit her sick 93-year-old mother. According to the Wilson Center, she was traveling in a taxi on December 30 to the airport for the flight homewards when three masked men armed with knives stopped the car and took her purse and passports. When she applied for replacement documents she ended up being interviewed by Iran's intelligence in interrogations that lasted six weeks. She was then arrested and taken to Tehran's Evin prison on May 7. The future of her case is unclear after the release.

-- Kian Tajbakhsh Tajbakhsh is an academic expert in urban planning who has taught in the United States and Iran. He has also worked for the World Bank and the Open Society Institute of US billionaire George Soros. Like Esfandiari, he has been accused of harming national security by harboring links to the US drive for a "soft revolution" in Iran. He also appeared in the controversial Iranian television documentary, saying the Soros Open Society Institute "wanted to create a gap between the government and the people" in Iran. According to Open Society Institute, he has been a "consultant" for the body in Iran for the past three years, focussing on public health issues. Unlike the other detainees, Tajbakhsh was based in Iran at the time of his arrest. He was taken from his home in Tehran on May 11, 2007, according to relatives.

-- Parnaz Azima Azima is a broadcaster with Radio Free Europe's Prague-based Persian language arm Radio Farda. According to Tehran prosecutors, Azima is accused of "collaboration with Radio Farda, a counter-revolutionary radio." Unlike the other accused Azima has not been jailed, but her passport has been confiscated. Her bail was set at an unusually high 550,000 dollars although the court is said to have accepted an appraisal for her mother's house. According to Radio Free Europe, Azima arrived in Tehran from Prague on January 25 to visit her terminally ill 90-year-old mother and her passport was confiscated on arrival at the airport. When she asked for it back she was referred to the security office of the revolutionary court.

-- Ali Shakeri Shakeri, 59, is a California-based businessman who is also a board member of a private conflict-resolution group called the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding based at the University of California in Irvine. Iran's foreign ministry on June 10 confirmed that he has been detained, but officials have yet to outline the charges against him. Tehran's deputy prosecutor Hassan Hadad has said his case was not linked to the other detainees. US media reports have said Shakeri was likely detained at Tehran airport on May 13 when he was scheduled to fly to Europe. Like two more of the accused, he had returned to Iran to visit his sick mother, who is reported to have died just days after his arrival.

 

 

 

 

Comment On This Blog Post  See All Comments (25)

Person

another UN rep

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 11, 2007 00:37 AM
Here another UN rep pick on Iran (yahoo)

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Person

FYI, MP3 of a discussion on

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 10, 2007 13:30 PM
FYI, MP3 of a discussion on Doug Ireland's take on treatment of gay people in Iran (starts around minute 31).

Reply this comment

50

Reply to Pangaea and Terence

By Peterson, David at Jun 09, 2007 22:17 PM
 

Friends:

Still virtually no mention of the fate of Norman Finkelstein in the print media.  Aside from this 145-word blurb in Saturday's Chicago Sun-Times:  

Chicago Sun-Times
June 9, 2007
No tenure for controversial professor
Maudlyne Ihejirika and Dave Newbart
Culminating a highly public battle, DePaul University has denied controversial assistant political science Professor Norman Finkelstein tenure. His case drew widespread interest because of the Jewish professor's blunt criticism of Jews and the state of Israel, and the attack on those views by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. In a statement Friday, DePaul confirmed that while the political science department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences had recommended tenure for Finkelstein, the college's dean and the University Board on Promotion and Tenure had recommended against it. DePaul's president, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, made the final decision. In an interview Friday, Finkelstein said he was "disappointed," but that the decision would not muzzle his views. "I met the standards of tenure required at DePaul, but it wasn't enough to overcome the political opposition to my speaking out on the Israel- Palestine conflict," he said. [#]

Clearly, Rev. Holtschneider has failed a lot more folk than just one superb professor in the Department of Political Science.

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

 

 

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Person

Finkelstein on 1967 war and tenure

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 09, 2007 19:04 PM
Radio interview with Finkelstein about the 1967 war and the DePaul tenure mud-slinging. The last roughly 10 minutes is about the tenure. I'm not in the US so I don't know how bad the stuff Dershowitz has said is. But based on this interview it sounds very, very bad. Pangaea Oslo, Norway

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Person

No media coverage of Finkelstein outrage?

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 09, 2007 14:03 PM
David, I've checked newspapers online--Chicago, New York, Boston, London--not a word (yet) about denial of tenure, although all these papers have plenty of past articles about the "controversy." Are they going to keep it under wraps? T

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Person

Outragous!!

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 09, 2007 06:45 AM
This is a fucking outrage!! Sorry for the undiplomatic Geldof-ish tone, but this too much. One of the best in his field, and he is denied tenure. Ridiculous. Welcome to North Korea. What reasons did they give? Too honest and knowledgeable? Pangaea Oslo, Norway

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50

Norman Finkelstein Denied Tenure at DePaul

By Peterson, David at Jun 08, 2007 19:57 PM

Friends:

FYI: Norman Finkelstein was informed Friday by DePaul University President, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider that the university has denied him both tenure and a promotion.

DePaul University News Page
President, Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider (Homepage)
Norman Finkelstein (Homepage)
Norman Finkelstein (DePaul Homepage)
Alan M. Dershowitz (Homepage -- devoted to anti-Finkelstein fare)

An absolute outrage, of course.  But it does make for a nice -- though imperfect -- comparison with the likes of the Iranian-American academics who run afoul of the regime in Tehran, and find support from many of the same intellectual-types who detest Norman Finkelstein.

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

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Person

Good article

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 08, 2007 15:23 PM
That's a good article well worth reading. Some facts there you'll never see in the media (as usual). (I keep pounding the media a bit extra these days as I'm currently reading Necessary Illusions ;)) Pangaea Oslo, Norway

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50

Interview with Chalmers Johnson

By Peterson, David at Jun 08, 2007 11:03 AM

Friends:

FYI: For a just-recorded interview on a topic of immense importance:

"The Fallacy of Full-Spectrum Dominance," George Kenney Interviews Chalmers Johnson (70 minutes), ElectricPolitics.com, June 8, 2007

And for the Chalmers Johnson's trilogy upon which the interview is based, see: 

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, Chalmers Johnson, 2nd Ed. (Metropolitan Books, 2004)
Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Metropolitan Books, 2004)
Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, Chalmers Johnson (Metropolitan Books, 2007)

By the way: Anyone interested in a solid grounding in this material can do no better than to take a look at: Deterring Democracy, Noam Chomsky, 2nd Ed., (Hill and Wang, 1992), esp. the Introduction; Ch. 1, "Cold War: Fact and Fancy"; and Ch. 12, "Force and Opinion". -- Unsurpassable critical literature.

To repeat the quote from Winston Churchill, which Chomsky used for the inscription to his book:

[T]he government of the world must be entrusted to satisfied nations, who wished nothing more for themselves than what they had. If the world-government were in the hands of hungry nations, there would always be danger. But none of us had any reason to seek for anything more. The peace would be kept by peoples who lived in their own way and were not ambitious. Our power placed us above the rest. We were like rich men dwelling at peace within their habitations. 

Of course, the specter haunting the contemporary world comes precisely from the rich nations which happen to combine both the peerless killing and threat-making apparatuses of the kind with which the United States dictates to the rest of the planet as well as the hunger and rapacity and willingness to steal from the poorer, less powerful nations whatever natural riches they possess.


David Peterson
Chicago, USA

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50

"Countdown to War on Iran," Alain Gresh

By Peterson, David at Jun 07, 2007 13:36 PM

Friends:

FYI: Here's one on the kind of dynamic that the extremely sharp Western focus on Tehran's arrests of Haleh Esfandiari et al. both comes-out-of as well as feeds-right-back-into:

"Countdown to War on Iran," Alain Gresh, Le Monde diplomatique, June, 2007 (as posted to CounterPunch)


David Peterson
Chicago, USA   

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Person

Humanitarianism and Its Detractors

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 07, 2007 10:40 AM

Friends:

For a favorable review of an important book (and I'll bet all takers that neither Doug Ireland nor Christopher Hitchens are too keen on the book in question):

"The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention," Steven Sherman, CounterPunch, June 6, 2007

Jean Bricmont, Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War, Diana Johnstone, Trans. (Monthly Review Press, 2007)

As the ICRC has defined authentic humanitarianism for the past 140-odd years: "The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance."  Period.


David Peterson
Chicago, USA

 

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Person

Gays in Iran and USA

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 07, 2007 10:26 AM
How about standing up for the rights of gays in the USA first? When that is completed, they can start worrying about gays in other countries (if that really is their agenda...) Pangaea Oslo, Norway

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Person

Reply to Keir et al.

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 07, 2007 09:38 AM

Keir et al.:

Good to hear from Keir. --

Never found much of anything inside the Doug Ireland oeuvre, I'm afraid.  Though if one hunts around, I'm sure something would turn up.

Incidentally, for a short commentary by one Ireland's fellow travellers -- a real howler, I warn you going in -- take a look at:

"The French Correction," Christopher Hitchens, Slate, May 28, 2007

Even Hitchens retains some redeeming traits from his much earlier days.  (Not in evidence above, however.)  As when he makes naughty remarks about all of that belief-in-God stuff.

Offhand, I honestly can't recall if Hitchens is equally good when he comments on all of the equally bad "post-" this-and-that kind of stuff. -- Though for someone who definitely is: "Postmodernism disrobed" (Nature, July 9, 1998). 

And, of course, the priceless "Postmodern Essay Generator."  The word is that a chair has been permanently reserved for this text-generator at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales.  Just in case anybody ever finds it. 

Which brings us back to the Doug Ireland oeuvre, I believe.

David Peterson
Chicago, USA 

 

Reply this comment

Person

gay issues

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 23:32 PM
Gay issues prevailed over the war in Iraq during last US elections, voters appears to have push same sex marriage on religious ground.. anti- gay and religious idiot were instrumental with re-electing a bad government..

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Person

Another footnote...

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 23:23 PM
I also find Doug Ireland's work on France useful, but unlike French culture and language, I suspect his experience of Iran and Persian culture comes from a limited array of sources, to put it mildly. Speaking of France, homophobia in places like Poland and Russia reminds me of something Emmanuel Terray wrote 3 years ago in his exploration of the then raging "Headscarf Hysteria" there:

In a series of mid-twentieth century essays the Hungarian historian, István Bibó, attempted to explain the blindness and irresponsibility that had characterized the interwar politics of the Central European states—-Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary—-and led them to catastrophe. In doing so he proposed a new concept, that of political hysteria. Bibó's central hypothesis was that when a community fails to find within itself the means or energy to deal with a problem that challenges, if not its existence, then at least its way of being and self-image, it may be tempted to adopt a peculiar defensive ploy. It will substitute a fictional problem, which can be mediated purely through words and symbols, for the real one that it finds insurmountable. In grappling with the former, the community can convince itself that it has successfully confronted the latter. It experiences a sense of relief and thus feels itself able to carry on as before. Anthropologists have explained the magical practices of ‘primitive' societies along similar lines. Communities which feel themselves defenceless before a nature that they cannot control will people it with invisible powers—gods, djinns, spirits—that are its masters. At a stroke, these communities provide themselves with a means not just to understand the forces of nature but to affect them, by propitiating their gods with sacrifices and incantations.


This is exactly what's going on in the second largest recipient of US Aid, Egypt:

Al-Aswany has said that ‘homosexuals in Egypt were always tolerated – probably not in the same way as in the West – but now I think this has changed. There is less tolerance.' The Egyptian authorities treat homosexuals more severely than sex offenders. In 2001, the police arrested 52 men whom they accused of ‘debauchery' and ‘defaming religion' – code for being gay. Twenty-three were found guilty and sentenced to hard labour. Periodic raids on gay bars and hammams are an easy way for the government to appease the Muslim Brotherhood, or their potential recruits, without having to enact real reform. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights doesn't dare raise the issue, for fear of undermining the whole movement.

In short, we'd we well advised to not consider such gay baiting, howsoever disturbing, as an entirely apolitical open and shut human rights "cause" whose bandwagon everyone on the left can unreservedly jump on. If we truly want to advance the cause of complete equality and dignity for sexual minorities, there are better ways of doing that than getting up on rooftops and regaling everyone with grisly tales of shady provenance that may not bear close scrutiny.

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Just a footnote...

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 22:04 PM
Just a footnote to the conversation: I think the Pourzal article at MRZine is excellent. But for the record, Doug Ireland has been doing some important writing lately on homophobic monkey business in Eastern European, where I believe foreign hysterics over official and unofficial conduct would be warranted if they existed. Keir The Hague

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re why-now and why-just-Iran

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 20:51 PM
Because the general purpose of these hysterics is to feed the destabilization of Iran David, yes why now and why iran?, i think its terrible, iran appear trapped and doomed into a war.. the answer again seem to be imperialist oil.. also, I think its frustrating to see that these thinkers find a way to focus on gay rights while Iraq has become a parking lot and palestinians conditions worsened..

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Reply to SK & Cyrano

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 18:44 PM

SK & Cyrano:

Thanks for the hyperlink to this superb article:
"Let's Not Trivialize Discrimination in Iran," Rostam Pourzal, MRZine, May 22, 2007

In the contemporary world, I wonder which state - civil society nexus is the greater discriminator: The one in Iran or the one in the USA?

If, for example, Doug Ireland in the States is as intellectually sloppy as Pourzal argues, then isn't Ireland advocating on behalf of groups trying to destabilize life inside Iran, and therefore acting in a discriminatory fashion (a less than perfect word here) against the Iranians who are left to bear the brunt of the program?

If someone smokes or grows his own "pot" in the USA, and he openly broadcasts his "lifestyle" choice from the rooftop, is it at all likely that he'll run afoul of law enforcement agencies?  Etc.  Etc.  Etc.  From evidence such as this, are we to conclude that the USA has a progressive, libertarian state and civil society?

My favorite sentence of all in Pourzal's article is this one: "active prejudice against homosexual conduct came to Iran with modernity, as historian Afsaneh Najmabadi told a Harvard audience in 2002" (Point 5).

Pourzal notes: "I am also suspicious about Tatchell's and Ireland's campaign because the fuss does not correspond to a detectable worsening of gay life in Iran" (Point 6). --

I strongly urge everyone who reads this to extrapolate from the various "Why-now? And why just Iran?" questions that Pourzal raises about foreign hysterics over the regime's take on gay conduct inside Iran, all the way to every other why-now and why-just-Iran question you can imagine to ask about the hysterics now governing the Western powers and their intellectual classes, on the one hand, and Iran on the other.  Because the general purpose of these hysterics is to feed the destabilization of Iran. 

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

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Al Arian, Iran etc

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 12:57 PM
I saw the documentary on Al Arian a while ago. It's absolutely outrageous what the Bush Gang has done to him and his family (and many, many others). It makes things even more outrageous when you take into account the kind of people and groups the US happily supports - both now and in the past. To take one example, a few days ago my suspicions got confirmed of US terrorist activities in Iran, as Iran came out with info about what the US were doing. The US are supporting terrorist groups who are trying to provoke Iran into handing the US a reason for aggression against Iran. This is the normal pattern of US actions ahead of military intervention. This piece of info have, for me, greatly increased my threat of US attacks against Iran, along the lines of what Seymour Hersh has outlined for at least a year now. That decision is very important, and is a majour blow for the Bush Gang. I honestly didn't expect them to do the right thing, and am pleasantly surprised they did :) Here we have people that are kidnapped and held for YEARS without charges or trial, or even a right to see lawyers or the Red Cross checking out conditions (bar an exception here and there) It is absolutely outrageous! Add gas, and you have a Nazi-style concentration camp. Pangaea Oslo, Norway

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Wow Sk

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 09:10 AM
Sk, the Workers Communist Party (WCP) appear to be really subversive and what they promote is truly misguided. I am a bit shocked , this come from a pseudo-socialist party that supposed to nourish altruistic values.. At any rate, WPC is espousing pervasive approaches which does not inspires my trust. Their advocacy is a huge contrast with the moderation and tolerance calls you can perceive from the leftists who blogs on Znet generally or otherwise..

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FYI, an interesting take

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 06, 2007 01:39 AM
FYI, an interesting take on how out of touch with reality--as experienced by natives--humanitarian advocacy by Western activists can become.


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Tribunal legitimacy..

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 05, 2007 23:24 PM
I can't see how the US could retain any legitimate right to put on trial resistants or warriors fighting against the illegal occupation of their country.. also being a chauffeur does not constitute a crime.. if it was so every chauffeur who droves any US presidents could deserve the electric chair..

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SK & Cyrano

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 05, 2007 13:40 PM

SK & Cyrano:

FYI:

Free Sami Al-Arian (Homepage)
Al-Arian Special Report (Homepage), Tampa Tribune

By the way: Monday's decision by the U.S. Army's judge before the court of military commissions at the Guantanamo Bay penal colony to dismiss the United States' cases against Salim Ahmed Hamdan (a Yemeni citizen) and Omar Ahmed Khadr (a Canadian) is immensely important: 

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld et al., 5-3 ruling (Chief Justice John Roberts recused himself) United States Supreme Court, June 29, 2006

"Guantanamo pair's charged dropped," BBC International, June 5, 2007
"Guantanamo trials in chaos after judge throws out two cases," Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, June 5, 2007
"Tribunals are dealt another legal setback," Carol J. Williams and Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2007
"Judges toss 2 war crimes cases," Carol Rosenberg, Miami Herald, June 5, 2007
"Khadr ruling blow to U.S.," Sheldon Alberts, Montreal Gazette, June 5, 2007
"Military Judges Dismiss Charges for 2 Detainees," William Glaberson, New York Times, June 5, 2007 
"U.S. terror trials in doubt as Khadr case crumbles," Paul Koring, Toronto Globe and Mail, Junr 5, 2007
"Victory puts Khadr in limbo," Michelle Shephard, Toronto Star, June 5, 2007
"Military Tribunals in Peril," Jesse Bravin, Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2007
"Charges Against Guantanamo Detainee Set for Trial Dropped Over Limit in Law," Josh White, Washington Post, June 5, 2007

"No Unlawful Enemy Combatants at Guantánamo," Marjorie Cohn, The Jurist, June 6, 2007

David Peterson
Chicago, USA

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Most are exiled Iranians

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 03, 2007 19:56 PM
Its rather interesting to see that most are Iranians. One could guess that for them being safe and away from war, it is now OK to risk another assault on an independent country and risk another civil war comparable to Iraq.. Its ok to risk OTHER LIVES as long as it isn't their own... I would believe these university scholar should focus their energy to find cures for the various drugs and chemical substances affecting our cities, drugs we are not sure the provenance and from which we do not really know who profit from it. There is actual poverty and complete despair that need to be fought at home, I dont mind having doctors signing petitions as long as they have a reflected approach before signing, thus having considered all information and discarded the irrelevant ones.. in the other hand you don't just put your name on a petition because your name is associated with Havarti Cheese university.

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A significant number of the

By Kissenger, Clark at Jun 03, 2007 17:49 PM
A significant number of the signers are of Iranian descent, and given their knowledge of what the regime is capable of they seem rightfully concerned about the fate of the aged Haleh Esfandiari. It'll be interesting to see how the "emplotment" of this case in mainstream media will compare with that of a similar case from a few years ago.

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