Saturday, October 10, 2009

UPDATED: SURREAL DAYS FOR OBAMA, the USA and the World at large!

Surprise Nobel for Obama Stirs Praise and Doubts here

This post has been updated to include items from October 10th

(Quick simple ACTION at end of this post)

Down-Payment for the future? OR more Orwellian intimations of our future world?
WARMONGER Wins Peace Prize By Paul Craig Roberts 10 October, 2009, Countercurrents.org here It took 25 years longer than George Orwell thought for the slogans of 1984 to become reality.“War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” “Ignorance is Strength.” I would add, “Lie is Truth.” The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Obama, the person who started a new war in Pakistan, upped the war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran...

Obama has done nothing to hold the criminal Bush regime to account, and the Obama administration has bribed and threatened the Palestinian Authority to go along with the US/Israeli plan to deep-six the UN’s Goldstone Report...The US Ministry of Truth is delivering the Obama administration’s propaganda that Iran only notified the IAEA of its “secret” new nuclear facility because Iran discovered that US intelligence had discovered the “secret” facility. This propaganda is designed to undercut the fact of Iran’s compliance with the Safeguards Agreement...The Nobel committee has bestowed the prestige of its Peace Prize on Newspeak and Doublethink//Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

War And Peace Prizes By Howard Zinn 10 October, 2009, The Guardian here
I was dismayed when I heard Barack Obama was given the Nobel peace prize. A shock, really, to think that a president carrying on two wars would be given a peace prize. Until I recalled that Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Kissinger had all received Nobel peace prizes. The Nobel committee is famous for its superficial estimates, won over by rhetoric and by empty gestures, and ignoring blatant violations of world peace. Yes, Wilson gets credit for the League of Nations – that ineffectual body which did nothing to prevent war. But he had bombarded the Mexican coast, sent troops to occupy Haiti and the Dominican Republic and brought the US into the slaughterhouse of Europe in the first World War, surely among stupid and deadly wars at the top of the list. Sure, Theodore Roosevelt brokered a peace between Japan and Russia. But he was a lover of war, who participated in the US conquest of Cuba, pretending to liberate it from Spain while fastening US chains on that tiny island. And as president he presided over the bloody war to subjugate the Filipinos, even congratulating a US general who had just massacred 600 helpless villagers in the Philippines. The Committee did not give the Nobel prize to Mark Twain, who denounced Roosevelt and criticized the war, nor to WILLIAM JAMES,leader of the anti-imperialist league//Howard Zinn is the author of “A People’s History of the United States,” “Voices of a People’s History” (with Anthony Arnove), and “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.” © 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited

AUDACITY in Norway: here By Kim Petersen 10 October, 2009, Dissident Voice
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has seen fit to award a peace prize to a man less than a year into elected presidential office in the United States. So what are Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize credentials? Obama is a man who has yet to shut down a global gulag, who has yet to end the warring in Iraq, who has yet to oversee the return of the elected president of Haiti (deposed by US, Canadian, and French forces), who stands unflinching on the coup d’etat in Honduras, who runs cover for Israeli massacres of Palestinians and Israeli violations of the Geneva Conventions (i.e., supporting war crimes), who seeks to proliferate military bases in Columbia, who has ramped up the killing in Afghanistan, and who has overseen the spillover of war into Pakistan...Obama did something most unusual in acknowledging that the US was behind the 1953 coup d’etat in Iran? Did he offer an apology? Did he offer compensation? ...when one state with a long history of violence stands supremely powerful and claims itself to be a beacon onto all other states, that is where transformation must first occur in a world whose people long for a just peace.
That will require more than wishful thinking. It will require the audacity to mobilize the masses to a revolution for peace. Kim Petersen is co-editor of Dissident Voice. He can be reached at: kim@dissidentvoice.org.

More notes: Jimmy Carter, whose administration instigated a war in Afghanistan that claimed a million lives, was given the same award in 2002.

The committee cannot be accused of violating its own principles, such as they are. The founder of the prize, Alfred Nobel, was the inventor of dynamite. He would no doubt be intrigued by the Pentagon’s efforts to speed up production of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 30,000-pound bomb designed to obliterate underground targets. The weapon is being readied for possible use against Iran.

here Tarnished Gold By Guy R McPherson Professor Emeritus
10 October, 2009 , Countercurrents.org
...there is no more political act than awarding the Nobel Peace Prize.
If they were giving the Nobel for results instead of empty hope, Obama would have been awarded the Prize for War, not Peace. Consider the following accomplishments, which represent a partial list of the best-known examples...The war has spilled into Pakistan and now includes political conversations with the Taliban, our allies during the Reagan administration and mortal enemies during the last decade or so. Can we enlist our former foes to help us kill more civilians? Yes, we can.Obama has postponed his promise of closing the torture camp at Guantanamo Bay, despite many promises to the contrary. At the current rate, Gitmo will never be closed. Can we continue imprisoning and torturing people without cause? Yes, we can.
Obama has maintained Bush-era programs of extraordinary rendition and legalized torture. Can we spread our culture of torture throughout the civilized world under the false flag of quashing terrorism? Yes, we can...War is peace. Life is death. Left is right. And this Orwellian world grows more Orwellian with each passing day.

MEANTIME: US Scrambles to Save Pakistan Aid Package (with sleight of hand?)here

AT THE SAME TIME: Legal Case Filed Against 4 U.S. Presidents And 4 UK Prime Ministers
By The Brussels Tribunal 09 October, 2009, Countercurrents.org here
A legal case was filed at the Audiencia Nacional against four United States presidents and four United Kingdom prime ministers for commissioning, condoning and/or perpetuating multiple war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Iraq ...Iraq: 19 years of intended destruction - The intended destruction — or genocide — of Iraq as a state and nation has been ongoing for 19 years, combining the imposition of the most draconian sanctions regime ever designed and that led to 1.5 million Iraqi deaths, including 500,000 children, with a war of aggression that led to the violent deaths of over one million more.

Obama's Nobel puzzles Pakistanis living close to war here

Veterans React to President Obama Receiving Nobel Peace Prize
here FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, October 9, 2009, 12:43 PM
CONTACT: Veterans for Peace Mike Ferner, 419-729-7273

TEXT of Nobel Prize Citation: here

Warmonger Wins Peace Prize - By Paul Craig Roberts
The non-cynical can say that the Nobel committee is seizing on Obama's rhetoric to lock him into the pursuit of peace instead of war. We can all hope that it works. But the more likely result is that the award has made "War is Peace" the reality.
here

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize - By Thomas DiLorenzo I'm still surprised, though, that he won the prize after killing so few people. (Mentions Obama on Pakistan! Shameful!z) here

10/9, Glenn Greenwald, Salon, Obama's Nobel Peace Prize here

HAVE YOUR SAY - READER'S COMMENTS ON BBC: here

here

10/9, Leslie Harris, Huffington Post, Obama versus Obama on the PATRIOT Act
CONGRESS NEEDS TO DO THE RIGHT THING - EVEN IF OBAMA WON'T here

10/9, Legislative Analysis by Kevin Bankston, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Obama Sides with Republicans; PATRIOT Act Renewal Bill Passes Senate Judiciary Committee Minus Critical Civil Liberties Reforms - THIS IS BEYOND CONSCIENCE and for a Nobel Peace Prize winner???? here

10/9, Senator Russ Feingold, Daily Kos, It's Not the Prosecutors' Committee, it's the Judiciary Committee here

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ACTION suggested (with follow-up needed): The people of Afghanistan have always forced occupying powers to withdraw at high cost — no one has successfully occupied Afghanistan since Genghis Khan, and there is little reason to believe that our military presence will be more successful than that of the Soviets or the British before us. Yet the Obama administration is now weighing its response to a recommendation from General Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 additional American soldiers to Afghanistan in an attempt to improve the military situation there.

We need a new strategy that gets us out of Afghanistan, protects civilians (particularly girls and women) and does not further destabilize Pakistan. None of this will be accomplished if Congress does not stand up and stop handing out blank checks for the war in Afghanistan. Tell your Senators: Don't write a blank check for war in Afghanistan. Tell them to make any funding contingent on an exit strategy and timetable to end the occupation of Afghanistan. Click here to add your name to our petition.Thank you for working to build a better world. Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets

SIGN THIS here

Personally, I think we need to follow this up or send simultaneous actions with much more decisive requests because many such demands are simply for slow exit strategies which go nowhere.

8 comments:

CN said...

HOW might we REMIND OBAMA now and in the days ahead of his VERY WORDS?

From: President Barack Obama
Subject: A call to action

Friend --

This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I'd been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I've said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won't all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award -- and the call to action that comes with it -- does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we've begun together. I'm grateful that you've stood with me thus far, and I'm honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

CN said...

http://www.thelocal.se/22560/20091009/
Obama Nobel win shocks Swedish peace group
Published: 9 Oct 09 12:45 CET

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (Svenska Freds) has classified as "shameful" the decision by the Nobel Committee in Oslo to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to Barack Obama.

"The choice of Barack Obama as the recipient of the world's foremost peace prize is shocking," said the group's chairwoman Anna Ek in a statement.

Ek conceded that the US president had sent "positive signals" with regard to his future commitment to global peace.

"But at the same time Obama is the president of the biggest military power in the world and is waging two wars in the world. That should certainly disqualify him from a peace prize," said Ek.

The leader of the Swedish opposition, Social Democrat Mona Sahlin, said the prize award would serve to increase expectations that Obama can deliver concrete results.

"It's a pleasing political turnaround from the years with George W Bush, who disregarded the UN's rules and regulations," she said in a statement.

Moderate Party parliamentary group leader Lars Lindblad said that, though he was glad Obama had been elected president of the United States, awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize was a "historic mistake".

"In my view the Peace Prize should go to somebody who has achieved something," he told Dagens Nyheter.

Social Democrat foreign policy spokesman Urban Ahlin confessed to being caught off guard by the award.

"I was quite surprised I have to say. The efforts Barack Obama has made for peace do not currently correspond to a peace prize," he told news agency TT.

Ahlin noted that while Obama has mapped out an exit strategy for Iraq, fighting still continues. War also continues to rage in Afghanistan; the Guantanamo Bay detention facility remains operative; and the president's Middle East initiative has not yet borne fruit.

"I'd like to have seen Obama get the peace prize in a few years when he can show the results of his efforts. Now is too early," he added.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/09-8

Published on Friday, October 9, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
===================================Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!
by Michael Moore
Friday, October 9th, 2009

CN said...

Why does Obama get a prize whilst Bush gets shoes

By Iyad Burnat

Today, when I came home from our nonviolent demonstration in Bil'in, after the soldiers shot tear gas and after seeing the violence of the Israeli soldiers, I heard that President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize. When I heard this from the media I started to go crazy. I asked myself why. The Americans are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Palestine is still occupied. In the recent news I saw that the Israeli soldiers closed Jerusalem, and I heard that many people were injured. We haven't seen anything changed. Why didn't the committee give the prize to Bush? I remember nine years ago Bush had a good speech about the establishment of a Palestinian state in the year of 2005. We saw after the speech that Sharon invaded Al Aqsa mosque, and the American army invaded Iraq. Why didn't you give the prize to this man at that time, and he got shoes instead? This is injustice!

I am so sorry Mr. Bush. You worked very hard, eight years with killing children, starting wars and supporting the occupation, and they gave the prize to another man.

I ask you our friends in the Nobel Committee, why didn't you choose quality? I think your prize makes the people more violent. Do you think that Obama can make peace, and why didn't you wait until he actually made the peace? Maybe he will invade another country. Sorry, but we are still under occupation and it makes us very crazy because we see every day and night the suffering of our children, and it's killing us. We hear in the speeches that the president talks about peace, but nothing has changed. To deserve a Nobel prize you need to work, not talk. We need the work to be done now, not tomorrow. We need our land now, not tomorrow.
http://www.bilin-ffj.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=201&Itemid=1

Thank you for you continued support,

Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
co-founder of Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin

Email- bel3in@yahoo.com
Mobile- (00972) (0) 547847942
Office- (00972) (2) 2489129
Mobile- (00972) (0) 598403676
www.bilin-ffj.org

CN said...

* As US Continues Afghan, Iraq Occupations and Quashes Accountability for Gaza Assault, Critics Decry Awarding of Nobel Peace Prize to Obama *

President Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, less than nine months after taking office. The award comes despite Obama's continuation of the Iraq war and escalation of the US occupation of Afghanistan. We get reaction from author and journalist Naomi Klein and London-based author and commentator Tariq Ali.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/9/as_us_continues_afghan_iraq_occupations

CN said...

* Guam Residents Organize Against US Plans for $15B Military Buildup on Pacific Island *

The United States is planning an enormous $15 billion military buildup on the Pacific island of Guam. The project would turn the thirty-mile-long island into a major hub for US military operations in the Pacific in what has been described as the largest military buildup in recent history. We speak with Julian Aguon, a civil rights attorney from the Chamoru nation in Guam.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/9/guam_residents_organize_against_us_plans

CN said...

* Forcibly Exiled Nearly 40 Years Ago, Diego Garcia Natives Fight to Return to Island Home Now Used as Key US Military Outpost *

We turn now to another island that is a key military outpost for the United States. Located in the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia has often been used for strikes on Iraq and Afghanistan and played a critical role in the US extraordinary rendition program. Unlike Guam, Diego Garcia has no inhabitants resisting the US military. All of the island's residents were forcibly removed in the early 1970s. For the last four decades, former residents of Diego Garcia and their descendants have been fighting for the right to return. We speak with Olivier Bancoult, a leader of the exiled people of Diego Garcia and president of the Chagos Refugees Group; and David Vine, author of the book Island of Shame: The Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/9/forcibly_exiled_for_nearly_40_years

CN said...

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html 2678 Readers' Comments
including: "A decision born of desperation on behalf of the human race?"

CN said...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/46906 Theatre of the Absurd Missy Comley Beattie