On Conspiracy Part 3
Over twenty years ago Martin Jacques - editor of Marxism Today at the time - accused me of 'gross anti-intellectualism' at a London District Committee. He was presenting a paper on the future of MT which had been circulated beforehand. I challenged the basic concept of the magazine being, in his words, 'hegemonic' and got slapped down. Now I'm accused of 'intellectual elitism' from another leftist. Blimey, how confusing.
The reason for it this time, besides me being a nasty person?
I Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, a card carrying member of the neocons has been indicted for perjury - lying - along with other charges. The chief of staff to Cheney had been caught out trying to dissemble under oath to a grand jury and the FBI investigating the outing of a CIA agent, Plame. A lot of play is being made about a possible conspiracy amongst a cabal that includes the neocons usual suspects - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle et al. I am not convinced.
The neocons policy has been public knowledge since at least the late '90s via policy-papers written for the Project for a New American Century and other rabidly right wing 'think tanks' and magazines. PNAC itself was established in 1997, quite late compared to others.
On 25.02.03 - a month before the war - Information Clearing House carried an article by William Rivers Pitt which clearly shows the centrality of imperialism to the thinking of PNAC. In Sept 2000 PNAC published a White Paper titled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century'. This document is the 'essence' of the neocons militarist ideology. Stories about its publication were published in the European press at the time if I remember correctly.
The architects of this policy achieved positions of power in the Bush administration following the stolen 2000 election. One was even on the ticket and elected Vice President. It may seem strange that an elected official should put into practise policies with which he is publicly associated, but not unknown.
"Once policy is decided organisation is all." A quote associated with both Lenin and Stalin. My preference is Lenin as it is the foundation of 'democratic centralism', the organising basis for the Communist Party and the Trotskyite grouplets which followed.
Whats Lenin and Trotsky to do with war on Iraq?
The neocons contain in their ranks many ex-Trots and those claiming to have been influenced by his disciples. Leading neocons like Irving Kristol and Seymour Martin Lipset are ex-Trots. Others follow the politics of Shachtman, an American Trot whose final ideological home was the Social Democrats USA which supported the war in Vietnam. Perle and Wolfowitz were young acolytes of Shachtman, in fact Wolfowitz was a speaker at Social Democrats USA conferences during the '70s.
On 15th January 2004 Mother Jones (via ICH) carried an article about the establishment of The Office of Special Plans at the Department of Defence by Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest headlined 'The Lie Factory'. Even before Bush's formal inaugeration Wolfowitz was pulling the team together that evolved into the OSP. It was from here the lies whipping up fear and support for the invasion of Iraq were concocted.
All of this information has been in the public arena for quite some time before, or 10 months into, the paramount crime committed when the Anglo-American coalition invaded and occupied Iraq. It is inconceivable that this part of the process leading upto the war can be described as a 'conspiracy' it having been so open.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Special Counsel has not pursued the path of conspiracy at this point for a reason. That reason, I think, is to do with the forged 'yellow-cake' documents eminating from Rome via the Niger embassy/consulate there. If that criminal act of forgery can be found to have originated from the OSP then you may have a case of conspiracy by establishing the existance of a secret parallel organisation outwith the state apparatus. A parallel organisation whose reach could include the state apparatus in Italy, Britain, Niger and the USA. But why use conspiracy when treason will do.
Probably the first thing I ever learnt when joining the army aged 15 was that 'ignorance is no excuse'. It is a concept that applies to every adult in every situation. Both the American and British publics could have used their own volition to acquire the above knowledge. Being ignorant of what is being done by your government when the information is in the public domain does not make it's decisions and actions conspiritorial.
Not being a conspiracy phobe, but recognising its use by the state's courts as a means to quash opposition with the admission of hearsay as evidence (see previous post), I have always been wary of labelling anything a conspiracy.
During a period of activity in the Trades Union movement I used to attend CP meetings of members from the same union. A caucus or a conspiracy? Harold Wilson when he was Labour Prime Minister thought this form of organising was 'a conspiracy of tightly knit men'. I don't. I think it's a legitimate caucus. A place where people with a semblance of a common political attitude can discuss and plan how to further the interests of their union members as well as spread the CP's ideas and influence in the union. This was common knowledge amongst non-CP trades union activists. The Trots, the right and the 'broad left' all held, and I assume still hold caucus meetings and which are not outwith the majority of British Trades Union rules.
Two scientists meeting and discussing their latest research could even be considered a conspiracy if some peoples definitions were applied, but that would be ridiculous. Though not to a paranoid state that places bans on people meeting in two's or more.
A couple of years ago I completed what I hoped was going to be a novel. It didn't work as a novel - to autobiographical as some friends who read the completed manuscript thought as well as some parts of the story being 'horribly and vividly evoked'. Being over biographical was confirmed with a pile of rejection letters from publishers. My Mum thought it 'full of resentment' because of the critique of my father. I was considering some of the advice that suggested I try and publish a few short stories or travel journalism pieces that can be found in the manuscript.
The reason for writing it was to try and gain an understanding of what was happening to me following the diagnosis of MS and, at the same time, a campaign by the state to deliberately initiate a massive relapse (see previous post). A campaign that I thought had ended. But obviously not now the blog is up and being read.
It seems that 'Empathy is not a colour' or extracts from it - probably taken out of context - have now appeared on a list server. I did send out some CDs with it on and was told it was copied to a hard drive for safety. It could have come from there or the time I spilt tea over my lap top, frying it. A shop sent it off to get fixed and refused to tell me who they had sent it to after I discovered some emails missing on its return, one a reply from Ron Jacobs. Also old correspondence files to my bank had been opened. The shop did say somewhere in Derbyshire. But who knows. I emailed the relevent chapter to my daughter at least a year ago. She's assured me that it wasn't forwarded anywhere.
The manuscript contains a lot of my history - the good, the bad and the downright disgraceful. If I could apologise to all those I've hurt, damaged or slighted in some way I'd be in an elite of one. There is a period in my childhood that I did apologise for twenty years ago. It is something for which I've carried a deep remorse since it happened. The acceptance of my apology has since been recinded.
This year in Britain it is the 400th anniversary of the Gun Powder Plot, a celebrated 'conspiracy' in British history. A group of affluent catholics were supposed to have conspired to blow up King James 1 and all members of Parliament. All it produced was an anti-Catholic pogrom and because of that it is also believed the 'conspiracy' was a set-up by the King's advisors. Whatever. The usefullness of conspiracies is that they are open to infinite interpretations. The Gun Powder Plot is the classic bourgoise conspiracy and case in point. The Aristocracy/Establishment in Britain are fond of their conspiracies, it's the way they think the world goes round.
Now I'm to believe that in an attempt at feminisation of the left, conspiring is a legitimate organising principle in the movement. Nonsense. The practise of conspiring is fundamentally elitist in that it is conducted in secret, is exclusive - 'we will do it for you'. Whoever 'you' is. Conspiritorial organising has a clear correlation with the urban terrorist groups that plagued Europe through the '70s. They are open to infiltration and manipulation (see previous post). The 'false flag' suicide bombings attributed to Al Qa'ida in Iraq show how 'conspiracy theory' is being exploited to divide and rule in Iraq and couch the illegal occupation for the control of oil as a 'war against terrorism' to the rest of the world.
'False flag' operations are not restricted to Iraq. They are also being conducted in Britain and the USA through 'left' organisations and the blogosphere. 'Full spectrum domination' includes the internet. It would be foolish to think otherwise.
'Heroic' figures can attract the young, politically inexperienced and easily influenced who are starting to see the contradictions of capitalism become more pronounced and who are seeking answers. But they are still affected by the propaganda from Hollywood, TV, schools and press that emphasis the violent individual hero and not mass non-violent participation in civil disobedience as the motor for change. Ex-military hero's claiming to have changed sides will have 'added value' for the starry-eyed idealist.
There is a certain attractiveness to conspiritorial politics for some young people with a romantic view of revolutionary politics. That they are in the know, have new and special knowledge while the rest of us are to ignorant and cannot be included in the discussions and decisions taken on our behalf.
No. It is not secret cabals that change the world but the mass participation of those who grasp and turn an idea into a material force. Progressive movements develop and grow with honesty and openness from those who claim to lead them. Not with hidden agendas or ulterior motives (two of the reasons Communist Parties around the world fell). People change their ideas and practise when involved in struggle together with others and their history and actions criticised in the open, collectively. Everything else benefits the bourgoise state.
Those who know me, who I have worked with on campaigns, in the Trades Union movement, community politics or the CP will know the affect the womens movement had on my thinking and practise during the '70s and '80s. It changed who I was. Not enough I know, but it changed me all the same.
I now am also to understand that the 'no hands operation' that has been conducted against me over the past few years is a feminist conspiracy. That the deliberate relapsing of my MS and 'psychological torture' is accepted practise within the womens movement. Ludicrous. No, this is the State conducting an operation against somebody they don't like posting critical articles against the war in the blogosphere and using a spurious claim to feminism as cover. The blogosphere is after all an arena of struggle which Imperialist forces are trying to control and deny access to.
A couple of days before the article I'm responding to appeared on the internet and the day after I posted a piece partly about my erstwhile friend Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, an American male turned up in the cafe I visit for my breakfast of tea, nicotine and the daily paper. It wouldn't have been unusual but for the glare I received from a flat, stoney face and the intimidatory body language - exactly the same as someone who attempted to 'befriended' me over a six month period last year. I also noticed the same behaviour from various others through June to Aug 2004 when I was still living in London. I can only assume they must have trained together and/or America and Britain have exchanged information on psychological torture techniques, which is more than likely. My political history leaves me open to this I suppose but it must be costing them a fortune.
Everything I have been trying to do with this blog since starting it has been to re-iterate the need for extra-parliamentary, non-violent, mass political activity to remove those responsible for the instigation of the war - the paramount crime - from power. To find the widest unity possible amongst the poor, the oppressed and the disenfranchised to achieve this. It's why I promote the Declaration from the World Tribunal on Iraq as the top link on this blog. The principles and guidlines for action the WTI have put forward for the international anti-war movement is the only game in town for civil society in America and Britain.
So what do I do now? The following 15 posts are the manuscript. Some of it is excruciatingly difficult for me to re-read but somebody might get something from it. It could do with a bloody good edit and if there are any out there get in touch. Unless of course you think it totally destroys your political credibility being associated with it.
You didn't think I'd leave it there did you?
The reason for it this time, besides me being a nasty person?
I Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, a card carrying member of the neocons has been indicted for perjury - lying - along with other charges. The chief of staff to Cheney had been caught out trying to dissemble under oath to a grand jury and the FBI investigating the outing of a CIA agent, Plame. A lot of play is being made about a possible conspiracy amongst a cabal that includes the neocons usual suspects - Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle et al. I am not convinced.
The neocons policy has been public knowledge since at least the late '90s via policy-papers written for the Project for a New American Century and other rabidly right wing 'think tanks' and magazines. PNAC itself was established in 1997, quite late compared to others.
On 25.02.03 - a month before the war - Information Clearing House carried an article by William Rivers Pitt which clearly shows the centrality of imperialism to the thinking of PNAC. In Sept 2000 PNAC published a White Paper titled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century'. This document is the 'essence' of the neocons militarist ideology. Stories about its publication were published in the European press at the time if I remember correctly.
The architects of this policy achieved positions of power in the Bush administration following the stolen 2000 election. One was even on the ticket and elected Vice President. It may seem strange that an elected official should put into practise policies with which he is publicly associated, but not unknown.
"Once policy is decided organisation is all." A quote associated with both Lenin and Stalin. My preference is Lenin as it is the foundation of 'democratic centralism', the organising basis for the Communist Party and the Trotskyite grouplets which followed.
Whats Lenin and Trotsky to do with war on Iraq?
The neocons contain in their ranks many ex-Trots and those claiming to have been influenced by his disciples. Leading neocons like Irving Kristol and Seymour Martin Lipset are ex-Trots. Others follow the politics of Shachtman, an American Trot whose final ideological home was the Social Democrats USA which supported the war in Vietnam. Perle and Wolfowitz were young acolytes of Shachtman, in fact Wolfowitz was a speaker at Social Democrats USA conferences during the '70s.
On 15th January 2004 Mother Jones (via ICH) carried an article about the establishment of The Office of Special Plans at the Department of Defence by Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest headlined 'The Lie Factory'. Even before Bush's formal inaugeration Wolfowitz was pulling the team together that evolved into the OSP. It was from here the lies whipping up fear and support for the invasion of Iraq were concocted.
All of this information has been in the public arena for quite some time before, or 10 months into, the paramount crime committed when the Anglo-American coalition invaded and occupied Iraq. It is inconceivable that this part of the process leading upto the war can be described as a 'conspiracy' it having been so open.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Special Counsel has not pursued the path of conspiracy at this point for a reason. That reason, I think, is to do with the forged 'yellow-cake' documents eminating from Rome via the Niger embassy/consulate there. If that criminal act of forgery can be found to have originated from the OSP then you may have a case of conspiracy by establishing the existance of a secret parallel organisation outwith the state apparatus. A parallel organisation whose reach could include the state apparatus in Italy, Britain, Niger and the USA. But why use conspiracy when treason will do.
Probably the first thing I ever learnt when joining the army aged 15 was that 'ignorance is no excuse'. It is a concept that applies to every adult in every situation. Both the American and British publics could have used their own volition to acquire the above knowledge. Being ignorant of what is being done by your government when the information is in the public domain does not make it's decisions and actions conspiritorial.
Not being a conspiracy phobe, but recognising its use by the state's courts as a means to quash opposition with the admission of hearsay as evidence (see previous post), I have always been wary of labelling anything a conspiracy.
During a period of activity in the Trades Union movement I used to attend CP meetings of members from the same union. A caucus or a conspiracy? Harold Wilson when he was Labour Prime Minister thought this form of organising was 'a conspiracy of tightly knit men'. I don't. I think it's a legitimate caucus. A place where people with a semblance of a common political attitude can discuss and plan how to further the interests of their union members as well as spread the CP's ideas and influence in the union. This was common knowledge amongst non-CP trades union activists. The Trots, the right and the 'broad left' all held, and I assume still hold caucus meetings and which are not outwith the majority of British Trades Union rules.
Two scientists meeting and discussing their latest research could even be considered a conspiracy if some peoples definitions were applied, but that would be ridiculous. Though not to a paranoid state that places bans on people meeting in two's or more.
A couple of years ago I completed what I hoped was going to be a novel. It didn't work as a novel - to autobiographical as some friends who read the completed manuscript thought as well as some parts of the story being 'horribly and vividly evoked'. Being over biographical was confirmed with a pile of rejection letters from publishers. My Mum thought it 'full of resentment' because of the critique of my father. I was considering some of the advice that suggested I try and publish a few short stories or travel journalism pieces that can be found in the manuscript.
The reason for writing it was to try and gain an understanding of what was happening to me following the diagnosis of MS and, at the same time, a campaign by the state to deliberately initiate a massive relapse (see previous post). A campaign that I thought had ended. But obviously not now the blog is up and being read.
It seems that 'Empathy is not a colour' or extracts from it - probably taken out of context - have now appeared on a list server. I did send out some CDs with it on and was told it was copied to a hard drive for safety. It could have come from there or the time I spilt tea over my lap top, frying it. A shop sent it off to get fixed and refused to tell me who they had sent it to after I discovered some emails missing on its return, one a reply from Ron Jacobs. Also old correspondence files to my bank had been opened. The shop did say somewhere in Derbyshire. But who knows. I emailed the relevent chapter to my daughter at least a year ago. She's assured me that it wasn't forwarded anywhere.
The manuscript contains a lot of my history - the good, the bad and the downright disgraceful. If I could apologise to all those I've hurt, damaged or slighted in some way I'd be in an elite of one. There is a period in my childhood that I did apologise for twenty years ago. It is something for which I've carried a deep remorse since it happened. The acceptance of my apology has since been recinded.
This year in Britain it is the 400th anniversary of the Gun Powder Plot, a celebrated 'conspiracy' in British history. A group of affluent catholics were supposed to have conspired to blow up King James 1 and all members of Parliament. All it produced was an anti-Catholic pogrom and because of that it is also believed the 'conspiracy' was a set-up by the King's advisors. Whatever. The usefullness of conspiracies is that they are open to infinite interpretations. The Gun Powder Plot is the classic bourgoise conspiracy and case in point. The Aristocracy/Establishment in Britain are fond of their conspiracies, it's the way they think the world goes round.
Now I'm to believe that in an attempt at feminisation of the left, conspiring is a legitimate organising principle in the movement. Nonsense. The practise of conspiring is fundamentally elitist in that it is conducted in secret, is exclusive - 'we will do it for you'. Whoever 'you' is. Conspiritorial organising has a clear correlation with the urban terrorist groups that plagued Europe through the '70s. They are open to infiltration and manipulation (see previous post). The 'false flag' suicide bombings attributed to Al Qa'ida in Iraq show how 'conspiracy theory' is being exploited to divide and rule in Iraq and couch the illegal occupation for the control of oil as a 'war against terrorism' to the rest of the world.
'False flag' operations are not restricted to Iraq. They are also being conducted in Britain and the USA through 'left' organisations and the blogosphere. 'Full spectrum domination' includes the internet. It would be foolish to think otherwise.
'Heroic' figures can attract the young, politically inexperienced and easily influenced who are starting to see the contradictions of capitalism become more pronounced and who are seeking answers. But they are still affected by the propaganda from Hollywood, TV, schools and press that emphasis the violent individual hero and not mass non-violent participation in civil disobedience as the motor for change. Ex-military hero's claiming to have changed sides will have 'added value' for the starry-eyed idealist.
There is a certain attractiveness to conspiritorial politics for some young people with a romantic view of revolutionary politics. That they are in the know, have new and special knowledge while the rest of us are to ignorant and cannot be included in the discussions and decisions taken on our behalf.
No. It is not secret cabals that change the world but the mass participation of those who grasp and turn an idea into a material force. Progressive movements develop and grow with honesty and openness from those who claim to lead them. Not with hidden agendas or ulterior motives (two of the reasons Communist Parties around the world fell). People change their ideas and practise when involved in struggle together with others and their history and actions criticised in the open, collectively. Everything else benefits the bourgoise state.
Those who know me, who I have worked with on campaigns, in the Trades Union movement, community politics or the CP will know the affect the womens movement had on my thinking and practise during the '70s and '80s. It changed who I was. Not enough I know, but it changed me all the same.
I now am also to understand that the 'no hands operation' that has been conducted against me over the past few years is a feminist conspiracy. That the deliberate relapsing of my MS and 'psychological torture' is accepted practise within the womens movement. Ludicrous. No, this is the State conducting an operation against somebody they don't like posting critical articles against the war in the blogosphere and using a spurious claim to feminism as cover. The blogosphere is after all an arena of struggle which Imperialist forces are trying to control and deny access to.
A couple of days before the article I'm responding to appeared on the internet and the day after I posted a piece partly about my erstwhile friend Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, an American male turned up in the cafe I visit for my breakfast of tea, nicotine and the daily paper. It wouldn't have been unusual but for the glare I received from a flat, stoney face and the intimidatory body language - exactly the same as someone who attempted to 'befriended' me over a six month period last year. I also noticed the same behaviour from various others through June to Aug 2004 when I was still living in London. I can only assume they must have trained together and/or America and Britain have exchanged information on psychological torture techniques, which is more than likely. My political history leaves me open to this I suppose but it must be costing them a fortune.
Everything I have been trying to do with this blog since starting it has been to re-iterate the need for extra-parliamentary, non-violent, mass political activity to remove those responsible for the instigation of the war - the paramount crime - from power. To find the widest unity possible amongst the poor, the oppressed and the disenfranchised to achieve this. It's why I promote the Declaration from the World Tribunal on Iraq as the top link on this blog. The principles and guidlines for action the WTI have put forward for the international anti-war movement is the only game in town for civil society in America and Britain.
So what do I do now? The following 15 posts are the manuscript. Some of it is excruciatingly difficult for me to re-read but somebody might get something from it. It could do with a bloody good edit and if there are any out there get in touch. Unless of course you think it totally destroys your political credibility being associated with it.
You didn't think I'd leave it there did you?
posted by les at 10:20
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