chomsky says Obama same policies as bush

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0911/S00052.htm

Chomsky: Obama Continues Bush Policy Wednesday, 4 November 2009, 1:31 pm Column: Sherwood Ross

Chomsky Says President Obama Continues Bush Policy To Control Middle East Oil

by Sherwood Ross

Political activist Noam Chomsky says that although President Obama views the Iraq invasion merely as “a mistake” or “strategic blunder,” it is, in fact, a “major crime” designed to enable America to control the Middle East oil reserves.

“It’s (“strategic blunder”) probably what the German general staff was telling Hitler after Stalingrad,” Chomsky quipped, referring to the big Nazi defeat by the Soviet army in 1943.

“There is basically no significant change in the fundamental traditional conception that if we can control Middle East energy resources, then we can control the world,” he said.

In a lecture at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London Oct. 27th, Chomsky warned against expecting significant foreign policy changes from Obama, according to a report by Mamoon Alabbasi published on MWC News.net. Alabbasi is an editor at Middle East Online.

“As Obama came into office, (former Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice predicted he would follow the policies of Bush’s second term, and that is pretty much what happened, apart from a different rhetorical style,” Chomsky said.

Chomsky said the U.S. operates under the “Mafia principle,” explaining “the Godfather does not tolerate ‘successful defiance’” and must be stamped out “so that others understand that disobedience is not an option.”

Despite pressure on the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq, Alabbasi reported, Chomsky said the U.S. continues to seek a long-term presence in the country and the huge U.S embassy in Baghdad is to be expanded under Obama.

“As late as November, 2007, the U.S. was still insisting that the ‘Status of Forces Agreement’ allow for an indefinite U.S. military presence and privileged access to Iraq’s resources by U.S. investors,” Chomsky added. “Well, they didn’t get that on paper at least. They had to back down,” Alabbasi quotes him as saying.

Chomsky said Middle East oil reserves are understood to be “a stupendous source of strategic power” and “one of the greatest material prizes in world history.”

Concerning Iran, Chomsky said the U.S. acted to overthrow its parliamentary democracy in 1953 “to retain control of Iranian resources” and when the Iranians reasserted themselves in 1979, the U.S. acted “to support Saddam Hussein’s merciless invasion” of that country.

“The torture of Iran continued without a break and still does, with sanctions and other means,” Chomsky said. According to Alabbasi, Chomsky “mocked the idea” presented by mainstream media that a nuclear-armed Iran might attack nuclear-armed Israel. Iranian leaders would have to have a “fanatic death wish” to attack Israel, which reportedly has 200 nuclear weapons or more.

“The chance of Iran launching a missile attack, nuclear or not, is about at the level of an asteroid hitting the earth,” Chomsky said. He said the presence of U.S. anti-missile weapons in Israel are really meant for preparing a possible attack on Iran, not for self-defense, as they are often presented.

Chomsky is professor emeritus of linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

*************(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based media consultant who formerly reported for the Chicago Daily News and worked as a columnist for wire services. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com

More Obama lies, big surprise. saying that is like saying the sun rises in the East

Obama 'Af-Pak ' mission allows Blackwater to kill more
Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:33:38 GMT
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The Obama administration is still using Blackwater in Afghanistan-Pakistan drone killings
The Obama administration has retained services of the notorious Blackwater guards to carry out drone attacks in Afghanistan, a new report reveals.

Despite controversial records of indiscriminate civilian killings in Iraq during the Bush administration, the shadowy US-based paramilitary security company has continued its ongoing relationship with Washington under President Barack Obama.

A fresh report by the New York Times revealed on Friday that Blackwater USA has been contracted to work with the unmanned Predator drones that carry out assassinations and terrorize villages in eastern and southern Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan.

It added that Blackwater personnel also 'assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs' -- a work formerly carried out by the CIA.

Blackwater, which has changed its name to Xe Services LLC, began assisting the CIA in Afghanistan after gaining a contract to protect a new intelligence station in Kabul in 2002.

The drone assassination program under Obama's 'Af-Pak theater' mission -- which has left many civilians dead -- shows no substantive distinction to the Bush administration's hiring of Blackwater to carry out 'targeted assassinations' in Iraq with snipers and ambushes.

All the more, the security firms' deployment in Pakistan is in clear violation of international law, as the US has never declared war on the South Asian state.

The new report comes in the wake of Thursday's revelations that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had hired Blackwater in 2004 to carry out assassinations of those who Washington called 'terror suspects' over alleged links to al-Qaeda militant group.

The multimillion-dollar covert contracts had enabled the North Carolina-based group to execute its military tactics generally accepted as 'excessively' forceful.

In its most infamous episode, in September 2007, Blackwater agents killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in an 'unprovoked' attack, after opening random fire on pedestrians with machine guns and rocket launchers.

The bloody incident drew the public's Ire in Iraq and worldwide condemnation, forcing the company to change its name to be able to return to Iraq.

However, even though the current US administration has barred Xe Services LLC from carrying guns in Iraq, a considerable number of former CIA authorities continue to work in collusion with the notorious security provider.

These relationships reveal that what has so far been exposed regarding Washington's pacts with Blackwater -- pacts concluded behind the backs of the American people -- is only the tip of the iceberg.