The Joke At The Heart Of American Foreign Policy Toward The Middle East

Posted on March 10, 2009 by Mash

If you ever doubt who controls American foreign policy, consider the case of Chas Freeman. Freeman was, until today, Barack Obama’s appointee to chair the National Intelligence Council. No more. Today Freeman was forced to withdraw from the position.

Why you ask? Because, as Josh Marshall puts it, Freeman has been “far more critical of Israeli policy than is generally allowed within acceptable debate in Washington.” So, the Isreal First crowd launched a furious campaign to make Obama bow to their will. Today, Obama bowed and Freeman pulled out.

Barack Obama should be ashamed of himself. Good luck trying to bring “peace” to the Middle East if you can’t even stand up to the Israel Lobby in Washington.

At least Chuck Schumer is happy. He was licking his lips today:

“Charles Freeman was the wrong guy for this position. His statements against Israel were way over the top and severely out of step with the administration. I repeatedly urged the White House to reject him, and I am glad they did the right thing.”

Barack Obama’s rhetoric toward the Muslim world will not nearly earn him enough goodwill to overcome the actual reality that underpins American foreign policy. Until that reality changes, nothing on the ground in the Middle East will change. Washington is not even prepared to discuss the Middle East conflict honestly – even internally among policy makers. How is Washington going to convince the Muslim world that it is capable of solving it?

Barack Obama may as well concentrate on domestic issues. I am sure he will have his hands full. His foreign policy toward the Middle East is a joke – the same as it ever was.

Update (March 10, 2009 10:19PM): Chas Freeman has released a statement to Laura Rozen of Foreign Policy:

I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office.  The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue.  I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country.  I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign.

…

I am not so immodest as to believe that this controversy was about me rather than issues of public policy.  These issues had little to do with the NIC and were not at the heart of what I hoped to contribute to the quality of analysis available to President Obama and his administration.  Still, I am saddened by what the controversy and the manner in which the public vitriol of those who devoted themselves to sustaining it have revealed about the state of our civil society.  It is apparent that we Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public discussion or exercise independent judgment about matters of great importance to our country as well as to our allies and friends.

The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful  lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East.  The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.  The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.

There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government – in this case, the government of Israel.  I believe that the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics has allowed that faction to adopt and sustain policies that ultimately threaten the existence of the state of Israel.  It is not permitted for anyone in the United States to say so.  This is not just a tragedy for Israelis and their neighbors in the Middle East; it is doing widening damage to the national security of the United States.

The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions about the Middle East and related issues.  I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.

Prior to today’s withdrawal, Max Blumenthal wrote on the campaign against Chas Freeman:

The effort to dislodge Freeman still has the potential to impact the Obama administration’s policies toward Israel, however discredited its architect may be. This is, of course, the underlying objective of many of Freeman’s critics. “Freeman is stuck in the latest instance of the deadly power game long played here on what level of support for controversial Israeli government policies is a ‘requirement’ for US public office…” foreign-policy analyst Chris Nelson wrote in his Nelson Report, an influential private daily newsletter read by Washington policy makers. “If Obama surrenders to the critics and orders [Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair] to rescind the Freeman appointment to chair the NIC, it is difficult to see how he can properly exercise leverage, when needed, in his conduct of policy in the Middle East. That, literally, is how the experts see the stakes of the fight now under way.“

Posted in Foreign Policy, Israel-Palestine, Middle East Conflict, Politics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Who Cares About YouTube Anyway?

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Mash

About a year and a half ago I uploaded three videos to YouTube. For more than three and a half decades these videos, and the truth they held within them, remained largely hidden from the Bangladeshi people. Few had read about these videos and fewer still had actually seen them. A generation of Bangladeshis has grown up not fully grasping the brutality that had been visited upon the emerging nation in 1971. For decades these videos lay hidden in dusty archives and in the purview of scholars and academics. The truth in the videos, and the larger truth about the genocide of 1971, was muddied by successive rewritings of Bangladesh’s history by those who ruled its people by force. Bangladeshi history and the genocide of 1971 became a playground for genocide deniers.

Some of us have been fighting back to reclaim our history. In this fight, the Internet and YouTube have been our weapons. As part of this fight, I uploaded the three videos.

I uploaded a NBC News report from January 7, 1972 that showed chilling video of Pakistani soldiers executing students, professors and workers at Dhaka University on March 26, 1971. This was video taken by a university professor that was kept hidden until the end of the war. It documented the killing spree that began the genocide that would eventually take up to 3 million Bengali lives.

I uploaded a CBS News report from February 2, 1972 that showed evidence of mass graves and widespread killings in Khulna district that took approximately 100,000 lives.

I uploaded a NBC News report from February 20, 1972 that showed interviews of pregnant Bengali women and girls who were victims of genocidal rape. Some of the girls were as young as 13.

NBC News anchor Gerrick Utley, reflecting on the rapes and massacres of the 1971 genocide, said in his February 1972 report:

“We Americans are aware of what is happening in Cambodia and South Vietnam because this country has a big stake there. But, Bangladesh is a different case. There is no major American involvement or commitment there – nothing that approaches the needs of that young and impoverished nation. And so, the memory of what happened there may already be growing dim in many of us. But, what did happen there will never be forgotten by the people of Bangladesh, especially the women.”

It is a national shame for Bangladesh that much of what happened in 1971 has been forgotten, distorted or buried under the weight of lies and genocide denial. A generation of Bangladeshis has grown up denied access to their history.

So, I uploaded these videos hoping someone, some young Bangladeshi, would see and learn what they did to us. Since I uploaded these videos, Bangladeshis by the thousands have watched – most for the very first time. The three YouTube videos have been watched by over 300,000 people. The videos have been downloaded and reposted by many others – on YouTube and on other video hosting websites on the Internet. The videos have been reposted on social media sites like Facebook, and they have been emailed countless times to Bangladeshis who were watching for the first time what they did to us.

That is the power of the Internet. And that is the power of YouTube. What was once hidden away in dusty archives is now available for all the world to see.

After seeing the videos, a commenter wrote on my blog:

Thank You. Thank You for shocking me again after all these years. Thank you for making me cry. Thank you for making me angry. Thank you for making me feel that feeling. Thank you for making it real, once again.

Thank you for reminding me again how it had felt the first time I had seen these footages, many, many years ago.

Thank You for giving me few precious moments to share with my twelve-year-old and explain why Baba has trouble using his Muslim identity to overlook some inconvenient truth from his past.

Thank you for restoring my faith on the Internet and reminding me that just the plain truth sometimes can be the most powerful equalizer and our greatest weapon against all things evil – whether appearing in the guise of an affable general or a well-published scholar.

It is our history. For us to carry. For us to preserve and pass on to our children.

Unfortunately, the Bangladesh government has now banned YouTube to try to block an inconvenient audio tape that was leaked to the public. In so doing, the government has also blocked access to those three videos I uploaded and many others like them that tell our story, that expose the truth of our past, and that shame the genocide deniers. These same genocide deniers thrive on ignorance and on hiding facts and evidence. Censorship and disinformation are the tools of their trade.

The Bangladesh government needs to rethink its policy of censorship. It needs to ask itself who benefits from such censorship, and who suffers.

To illustrate the point, I invite Bangladeshi government officials, members of the Bangladesh military, and Bangladeshi citizens to watch the three videos below – all hosted on YouTube:

NBC News (1/7/1972): Dhaka University Massacre
Video of Pakistani soldiers executing students, professors and workers at Dhaka University on March 26, 1971.

CBS News (2/2/1972): Khulna Massacres
Evidence of mass graves and widespread killing in Khulna. Approximately 100,000 people were killed in Khulna.

NBC News (2/20/1972): Rape Victims
Genocidal rapes of Bangladeshi women and girls during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The report interviews pregnant girls held at Pakistani army barracks and repeatedly raped. Some of the girls are as young as 13.

Posted in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Liberation War | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments

Bangladesh Bans YouTube

Posted on March 8, 2009 by Mash

Bangladesh has blocked YouTube and some other file sharing websites after audio of a meeting between the Prime Minister and a large gathering of army senior officers was leaked and posted on YouTube. The AFP reports:

Bangladesh has blocked the video sharing website YouTube for hosting a recorded conversation between the newly elected prime minister and the country’s powerful army officers, officials said Sunday.

Internet users were unable to access the site after it hosted the audio tape, which appeared to show angry officers shouting at Sheikh Hasina over her handling of a bloody mutiny that has threatened Bangladesh’s recent return to democracy.

The violence in the capital Dhaka 10 days ago left at least 74 people dead including 56 army officers who were butchered and buried in shallow graves by mutinous border guards.

…

A senior government official told AFP the site has been blocked after it hosted “contents subversive to the state.”

“The government can block any site that contains anti-state or subversive contents, which may cause unrest. We took the measure temporarily. It will be lifted soon,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

I guess the army is embarrassed because the audio from the meeting showed the senior staff to be undisciplined and angry. On the audio, army officers can be heard shouting at the Prime Minister, demanding she answer their questions, and generally conducting themselves badly. The officers are especially angry because the government did not allow the army to launch an ill-advised assault on the BDR headquarters compound during the recent hostage crisis. This is not the image of the disciplined army that the top brass would like the Bangladeshi citizen to fear and respect.

Since the massacre at BDR headquarters that took the lives of over 70 people, majority of whom were army officers, there has been fear in Bangladesh of another army coup. The government and the media have been bending over backward to praise the army for its “restraint”. In other words, the army is being praised for doing what armies are supposed to do: maintain discipline and obey the civilian government. However, in Bangladesh, that is no small task – the army has a habit of taking over when it feels it necessary. The army has just recently returned to the barracks after ruling for 2 years. Democracy in Bangladesh is conducted at the mercy of the army.

Now, the leak of the audio tape threatens to test the army’s mercy. So, in true Third World fashion, they have decided to cut off YouTube to prevent the spread of this audio. Of course the audio has been out for a week now and many people have already downloaded it and listened to it. No matter. If you want to be feared in the Third World, you have to take action against the Internets.

So much for democracy in Bangladesh. They say the Pakistan army tolerates civilian governments only if they “play within the wickets”. It appears that the Bangladesh army also wants to umpire this game of cricket. Two months after the restoration of democracy in Bangladesh, the civilian government is playing nicely within the wickets.

For those of you who may be YouTube challenged at the moment, listen to the audio at Live Leak (until the Bangladesh government decides Live Leak is also “anti-state”). For those of you who do not understand Bengali, shouting sounds the same in any language. Listen below:

Link to part 1 of audio:

Link to part 2 of audio:

Link to part 3 of audio:

Update (March 8, 2009 2:18PM): Via BDNews24, a Bangladesh government official defends blocking of YouTube and eSnips:

Dhaka, Mar 08 (bdnews24.com)—A top regulatory official has defended blocking of Websites to Bangladeshi visitors in the national interest, saying it is permitted by law.

Popular video site YouTube and blog site esnips.com could not be accessed by visitors from Bangladesh territory in the last two days, leading to reports that the Websites might have been blocked by the authorities.

“Nothing has been done which is beyond the jurisdiction of the government,” BTRC chairman Zia Ahmed told bdnews24.com, when asked to confirm the reports.

An audio on the proceedings of the Mar 1 meeting between prime minister Sheikh Hasina and hundreds of army officers at the Dhaka cantonment in the wake of the Feb 25-26 BDR mutiny was posted on both the sites, and visitors passed on the links through emails.

Some newspapers also carried abridged versions of the texts of the audio, leaked apparently by rogue intelligent agents.

“The government can take any decision to stop any activity that threatens national unity and integrity,” said retired brigadier general Zia Ahmed.

Update (March 8, 2009 9:04PM): MediaFire.com also appears to be blocked in Bangladesh at the BTTB gateway (thanks Ehab for the hat tip). At this rate, the government will have to block all peer-to-peer activity as well, not to mention a growing list of web servers that are hosting the audio files. I’d recommend they spend their time finding out who recorded and leaked the audio from the meeting. I am guessing the suspect list is finite and is limited to all the army officers there, the Prime Minister, her military advisor, and one civilian minister who attended. Trying to stop the audio file from being distributed after it has already been out there for a week is foolish. The government’s censorship attempt is making more news than the original audio files did.

Posted in Bangladesh | Tagged , , , , , , | 42 Comments

Pilkhana: Armchair Hostage Rescue

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Mash

The above is a Google Earth image of the sprawling BDR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka [click the image for a larger image]. Pilkhana is a sprawling compound surrounded by densely populated neighborhoods of Dhaka. Take a moment and ponder the size of the BDR compound.

After a 33 hour standoff with the government, the so-called BDR mutiny came to an end earlier this week. During the standoff, according to newly lowered estimates from the Bangladesh army, at least 59 army officers were killed by those inside the BDR compound. It is estimated that about 4000 heavily armed BDR soldiers were inside the compound holding, it was assumed, around 160 hostages. It is not known exactly when the army officers were killed, but reports from surviving officers suggest that they were killed within the first hour of the BDR soldiers’ rebellion.

The government, seeking to avoid massive bloodshed in the middle of Dhaka city, chose to hold talks with the BDR soldiers inside the compound. This led ultimately to the release of the remaining hostages and the end of the standoff after 33 hours.

Now, however, it is being argued by many in Bangladesh, within and outside the military, that the government should have allowed the army to launch an assault on the BDR headquarters. It is being argued that such an assault may have saved the lives of the army officers who were killed. Apparently, the government’s failure to order an assault caused the deaths of the army officers.

I am no expert in hostage rescue, but it seems to me that an assault with 10 or 12 tanks of the army, APCs, anti-aircraft weapons (!), and other assembled weapons of war against a heavily armed force of 4000 holding up to 160 hostages in a sprawling compound (in the middle of a densely populated city) would be neither quick nor easy. It seems to me that such an assault would have been a mass casualty event. I would think an assault on such a large target without knowing where the hostages were or what their condition was would require a great deal of planning – planning that would not be measured in minutes, but in hours and perhaps days. As a reference, one can look at the many long hours it took Indian army commandos to flush out only a handful of lightly armed terrorists from three buildings, an area of operations that is dwarfed by the BDR headquarters (and its many buildings). These things are only quick within the span of a 2 hour movie. In real life, it takes a little longer.

So, take a look at the image at the top of this post again. Does it look like an easy takedown?

Posted in Bangladesh | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

After The Massacre

Posted on March 1, 2009 by Mash

When a crisis strikes in a country like Bangladesh, the civilian government usually faces two main challenges. First, it must deal with the crisis itself. Second, it must deal with the ever present possibility that the army may intervene and take control of the government. The latter challenge is no theoretical concern: in its short history as a nation, the army has intervened at least three times.

In the latest crisis that has struck Bangladesh, up to 170 army officers have been massacred at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka. The tragedy has been termed a mutiny by the BDR soldiers against their superior officers. However, it is far from clear what motivated the actual killings, and for that matter who planned and carried out these killings. The only thing we know for certain is where the killings took place and who were the victims.

What is noteworthy about the massacre at the BDR headquarters is that it merges the two challenges faced by the government. The crisis itself involves the army. It is the army that has suffered the brunt of this attack, with many of its officers now murdered. Added to the concern that the army may move on its own to restore “order”, there is now a desire for revenge within the army’s ranks. Public sentiment in Bangladesh is one of outrage and shock. There is justifiably tremendous sympathy for the army officers for the great loss of life and for the shattered families left behind in the wake of this tragedy. It is also no small matter that the killings have taken place at Pilkhana – a site of slaughter that launched the 1971 genocide against the Bangladeshi people. Pilkhana is embedded in the national consciousness.

There is tremendous pressure from within the army to act, and in turn, pressure on the government from the army. In the face of this pressure, the army chief Moeen U Ahmed has declared publicly that the army remains “subservient to the government.” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in a bid to quell rising army anger, went to the army headquarters in Dhaka to discuss the situation face to face with army officers. Perhaps as a result of those discussions, comes this news:

The government today decided to deploy the members of the armed forces across the country to arrest the fugitive rebels of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and seize missing firearms.

A home ministry official preferring anonymity said the troops would be deployed in aid of the civil administration under the ‘Operation Rebel Hunt.’

“Army will help the police to arrest the rebels and seize their arms,” the official told The Daily Star last night.

He said the army would be withdrawn after having the situation under control.

The decision came hours after the meeting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with army officers at Sena Kunja at Dhaka Cantonment.

This is a very troubling development. The army is being deployed for law enforcement purposes across the country on a mission to hunt down those that have killed the army’s own. This holds the potential for further bloodshed. Whether the civilian government can keep control of the army once it is out of its barracks and amongst the population remains to be seen. Whether the army chain of command holds or can restrain the lower ranks remains to be seen. In an atmosphere where the army ranks are in a mood for revenge, putting them in charge of hunting down the perpetrators is ill advised. The urge for revenge combined with the natural and historical urge of the army to take control make for a volatile situation.

The government of Sheikh Hasina dealt with the initial crisis in a measured way designed to prevent further bloodshed. Some government officials, most notably the Home Minister Sahara Khatun, risked their own lives to bring the crisis to an end. It is the kind of bravery Bangladeshis have seldom seen from their rulers in recent years. The government’s performance in dealing with the initial crisis should be commended.

Now, however, the government faces the second challenge that all crises bring to Bangladesh. The fate of her government and that of democracy in Bangladesh depend on how she manages to navigate this challenge.

Posted in Bangladesh | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments