Harold Pinter spelled out why we need to prosecute the war criminals who run Washington.

[Octafish]

The guy won the Nobel prize for Literature in 2005 and delivered a public address for the Ages.

Art, Truth & Politics

EXCERPT...

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort - all other justifications having failed to justify themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.

How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London.

Death in this context is irrelevant. Both Bush and Blair place death well away on the back burner. At least 100,000 Iraqis were killed by American bombs and missiles before the Iraq insurgency began. These people are of no moment. Their deaths don't exist. They are blank. They are not even recorded as being dead. 'We don't do body counts,' said the American general Tommy Franks.

SNIP...

The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm's way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds of graves.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html

Pinter's gone now, another Buddha we can only hear through his words.

Our world would be a far better place were we to base our policies and actions on his principal ideal: Truth.

[tblue]

1. Yes. A missed opportunity if there ever was one.

We had a chance to right our ship and we took a pass. But the crime hasn't gone away and, because we let it slide, it never will.

[Octafish]

9. With every missed opportunity, it becomes more difficult to correct course...

Now, banksters can collapse the global economy, get bailouts to replace what they loot, and launder drug billions with impunity. Happy days.

Traitors, warmongers and gangsters have run America since JFK was assassinated. For evidence, consider what fifth-generation warmonger George W Bush said:

"Money trumps peace."

Made during a press conference broadcast live on Feb. 14, 2007, the telling remark never aired on national news program. I also didn't see it reported in the newspapers.

Cindy Sheehan wrote about it that day, though:

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0215-29.htm

[tblue]

10. I could cry.

[JEB]

2. We are all rotting in our graves.

Somehow we allowed this monumental pile of atrocity to occur and then we chose to let the perps have a pass. We definitely dug our own graves. I was against the war and all for prosecuting our leaders for their crimes, but still I am guilty. Still an American.

[Octafish]

15. Agree about the rot. Not sure if We the People are the rotters.

From what I understand, I vote for a candidate who says he will do certain things. Once in office, I assume that candidate will do what he or she promised. What bugs me, is how often that doesn't happen.

During the time of the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Johnson got Earl Warren to attest a lone nut did it, without considering any other possibility, allegedly in the name of national security. Nothing resembling the truth was released by the government, to the detriment of democracy.

During the Vietnam War election of 1968, LBJ found Richard Nixon and his team were doing their utmost to sabotage the Paris peace talks. Despite the FBI tape-recorded evidence, LBJ kept quiet and Hubert Humphrey lost to Tricky Dick. Nothing resembling the truth as now understood was released by the government, to the detriment of democracy.

During Watergate era, Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon before the Crook even went to trial. While Ford lost to Carter a couple of years later, nothing resembling the truth as now understood was released by the government, to the detriment of democracy.

During the October Surprise investigation, Lee Hamilton and the Congressional committee found there was no evidence that William Casey and George Herbert Walker Bush negotiated with the Iranians to continue holding the hostages and to throw public opinion against Jimmy Carter. Nothing resembling the truth as now understood was released by the government, to the detriment of democracy.

In treason that links directly to those Iranian contacts, George Herbert Walker Bush pardoned the Iran-Contra felons. That meant there would be no trial exposing his own pimply backsides to scrutiny. It also kept clear the path for the elevation of his Dim Son to the Oval Office, courtesy of Antonin the Fascist and his four co-conspirators. Nothing resembling the truth as now understood was released by the government, to the detriment of democracy.

In the aftermath of September 11, Henry Kissinger and Lee Hamilton found that 19 terrorists got together at the behest of al Qaeda to hijack jetliners, ignoring the roles of Bush and Cheney in the process. Nothing resembling the truth as now understood was released by the government, to the detriment of democracy.

So, yes, I'd agree if we were still a Democracy, JEB. That's when government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Going by the evidence of my time observing the government's actions, it's clear someone other than the American people has been pulling the strings since Nov. 22, 1963.

Still, I appreciate the responsibility as a citizen. Zombies, up and at 'em!

[JEB]

16. Set up, knocked down and kicked around, again and

again and again. Always another promise of transparency and accountability. What's a Zombie to do?

[RobertEarl]

3. More than 2,000 US

Read something the other day making the case that the soldiers who died from injuries after they left Iraq are not counted as casualties of the war. That there are many more soldiers than the stated 4,550+- that are officially counted as Iraq caused deaths.

[Octafish]

18. That is most heartbreaking.

Their needless deaths and wounds make the prosecution of those who lured America into all these illegal, immoral, unnecessary and disastrous wars even more of a priority. The fact Congress has failed to investigate makes the duplicity of the People's representatives in these wars for profit obvious.

[RobertEarl]

20. Who is really to blame?

The politicians of course. But...

Seems to me, the military, in due respect for its soldiers and their families, would make sure the true numbers were known.

The article I read a few weeks ago (can't remember where - old timers disease) seemed to make the case that the number of soldiers who died from injuries in Iraq were many more than those from the Vietnam mistake.

What is the Pentagon afraid of? Bush is gone. Who else can threaten them enough to keep the Pentagon from telling the truth?

[Kurovski]

4. K&R. (nt)

[Octafish]

19. Pinter Demands War Cimes Trial for Blair

EXCERPT...

"The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public ... a formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

"We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people, and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'."

SNIP...
Op
One of the original "angry young men" who revolutionised British theatre in the 1950s, he has lost none of his fury in the speech.

"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought," he said.

"Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the international criminal court of justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the international criminal court of justice ...

CONTINUED...

http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2005/dec/07/iraq.booksnews

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. K&R

[russspeakeasy]

6. + 1,000 !!

[lastlib]

7. Bookmarking!

[Demeter]

8. Two words: Fallujah's babies

[just1voice]

11. But, but we've got to give criminal banks trillions and keep torture camps open

otherwise everything will fall apart, LMFAO! The era of corruption we're living in is so horrific it's laughable along with all the lies and propaganda we all hear everyday. Today the lies are all about how inferior gays are as human beings and we're supposed to listen to that bigoted crap as if it's someone's valid opinion.

We live in a propaganda society, an era of corruption.

[Octafish]

12. The 21st Century Information Environment is the Most Polluted of all for Democracy.

As you noted, the propaganda society makes all the treason, warmongering and sundry criminality possible.

So, to spread light, Maria Galardin created TUC (Time of Useful Consciousness) Radio:

Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda
The Attack on Democracy

The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.

John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.

Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.

This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.

SOURCE: http://tucradio.org/new.html

Thank you for standing up, just1voice. If you find a moment, here's the first part (scroll down at the link for the second part) on Carey.

http://tucradio.org/AlexCarey_ONE.mp3

Helps explain how we got here and what we need to do to move forward, starting with taking the corporate out and putting the "Public" in to the Airwaves again.

[indepat]

13. The Iraqi War will define us as a people and a nation imo until the public repudiates this war of

aggression and all who played key roles leading up to aggression, including high-ranking governmental officials, the MSM, and other cheerleaders; and the government fully acknowledges what it has done and make amends, including appropriate reparations. Only then imo will a cleansing of a national soul and reputation commence.

[just1voice]

21. Hi Octafish, I've actually read "Taking The Risk Out of Democracy"

It's a great book about the history of propaganda and it's easy to read too. If it were required reading in high schools the U.S. would have a much more informed population.

[dmr]

14. Boy, that's some powerful writing!

And, I agree with him 100%.

The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law.

Powerful!

Thank you for posting this.

[slipslidingaway]

17. knr nt