| The puppet makers |
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| by Mumia Abu-Jamal | |
| Tuesday, 26 June 2007 | |
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Wherever we look in this chaotic world, we see the U.S. trying to install a network of puppets who owe more to the U.S. than to the people of their own countries. In simplistic terms, the corporate media pushes the idea of good guys and bad guys, silly symbols that take us back to mythic cowboy movies. In fact, any given leader can be a good guy and a bad guy, depending on the time you’re talking about. The late Saddam Hussein, now derided almost universally as a dictator, was an American ally just a brief time before, receiving a bounty of U.S. arms and, yes, weapons of mass destruction. As long as Saddam was using his weapons against Iran, all was well. Today, an Iraqi puppet sits on the national throne, a creation of U.S. power as surely as was the late Shah of Iran. Afghanistan presents an almost identical snapshot: a “leader” supported on a throne of U.S. bayonets – in a word, a puppet. Why is it the business of the U.S. to appoint leaders for other nations? What’s right about that? What’s democratic about it? We don’t question it, because it’s so deep in our national and international experience. Why national? Well, while many people know about the FBI’s harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., how many of us know that the government tried to replace him as a Black leader with someone who was malleable and less committed to civil rights? During the 1975 Senate Select Committee Hearings on FBI crimes and misdemeanors against American citizens – otherwise known as Cointelpro – Sen. Walter Mondale, D-Minn., summarized the January 1964 memo which described this attempt: “Sen. Mondale: That was the memo in which it was proposed that King be destroyed as a civil rights leader and that the FBI ought to sponsor his replacement by another person not in the civil rights movement? “Mr. Epstein: That is correct. “Sen. Mondale: And Hoover personally appreciated that suggestion; is that correct? “Mr. Epstein: He OK’d it.” The FBI wanted to replace King with Samuel Pierce, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Reagan, someone who Reagan incidentally greeted as a guest to the White House, not recognizing him as a member of his own cabinet. The imperial instinct, of placing puppets over other people, didn’t begin abroad; it didn’t start when one crossed the border. It began in the U.S., in an attempt to control and channel a popular movement. That’s because empires begin at home; in essence, they export the methods they use at home, abroad. Editor’s note: The passage quoting Sen. Mondale is on page 59 of Intelligence Activities Volume 6: Hearings Before the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities of the U.S. Senate, 94th Congress, first session. FBI Nov. 18, 19, Dec. 2, 3, 10 and 11, 1975. The Bay View thanks Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio for this information. © Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia’s latest book, “We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party,” winner of the 2005 People’s Choice Award, available from South End Press, www.southendpress.org or (800) 533-8478. Keep updated by reading Action Alerts at www.mumia.org and www.moveorg.net. To download Mp3s of Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries to inspire progressive movement and help call attention to his case. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370. |
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