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March 23, 2006 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
45:54
156 The Social Contract Part 2: Facts
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Time Text
Good afternoon, everybody.
It's Steph.
It is 4.30, March the 23rd, 2006.
Oh, you people with your facts.
I guess everybody just want the facts, like unfounded ranty opinions just aren't enough for you people.
You always want more.
Well, good for you.
Facts are always important.
Now, we've been talking just a little bit about the social contract, so let's go just a little bit further and look at some examples, and this may be seen as a slight foreshadowing to the Foreign Policy Podcast series, which is coming up in June of 2011, I think it is, if I check my schedule.
No, it's July.
It's July of 2011.
But let's talk a little bit about some foreign interventions that have occurred.
We're going to pick on the U.S., not any particular reason.
I don't think that there's anything worse or better than the U.S.
government in terms of foreign policy than any other government.
It's just that the U.S.
tends to be a little bit more self-righteous about how it goes about doing these things.
So, for instance, I grew up in England where the British Empire was pretty much, well, we wanted to keep people from killing each other, but mostly We were competing with the other European nations and we wanted the sun never to set on the British Empire and it was kind of like a land grab and we needed someplace to send the second sons of the aristocracy and so we have this empire and blah blah blah.
There really wasn't a whole lot about bringing civilization to the benighted savages of the world.
There was a little bit of that.
But England, in the time of Empire, and even looking back, and at least when I was growing up, didn't feel this compulsive need to cloak all of its imperialistic ambitions in this unbelievably hypocritical rhetoric, which is a little bit of the American government.
I know that the American people aren't so much this way a little bit, but the American government is just savage in its rhetoric, and in that it is very much in common with the Soviet Union.
So, when we're talking about the social contract, let's have some sort of clear idea of a couple of dozen changes in governments, or institutions of governments, and then those who feel that the social contract is a valid theory are more than willing to believe that.
But if you could just drop me a line and let me know how you feel these particular situations fit into the social contract theory, I would be eternally grateful.
Now when the CIA was formed in 1947 it was ostensibly focused for sort of gathering information and so on and of course what it actually did was start meddling in foreign affairs which is exactly what you would expect from a government agency that was designed To help protect US citizens, it would immediately start attacking foreign citizens.
So let's see what the cocaine import agency, sorry, the Central Intelligence Agency has been up to since 1945.
And this is part of the whole social contract idea.
How much of this do you believe falls into the concept of social contract?
Since 1945, the USA has been responsible either directly or indirectly, helping remove dozens of governments, many of them democratically elected.
Sometimes these events are kept secret for years, slowly come out.
Other times they're immediately horrible and demonstrated about and there is mass anger and so on.
Now, of course, what does the CI do?
It gives a cover reason, which is sort of what it says, you know, oh, we want to get rid of communism, ooh, there's terrorism, human rights violations, we want to bring freedom, liberation, weapons of mass destruction, you know, the usual suspects.
And of course, there's the second reason, which is the actual reason.
And basically, these sort of include things like mercantilist business interests, they want to get at particular resources, they want to have access to particular markets, not free markets.
They would like to get military bases in there, strategic value, political support, all of this kind of stuff.
So let's have a look at what the CIA has been up to in terms of regime change, and then we can sort of focus on it relative to something like the idea of a social contract.
So let's go.
1949, Syria.
Okay, so they said, what are we going to do?
Well, we want to change the government because of communism.
That's bad, right?
Now the real reason the elected government was against U.S.
political interests and was pro-Palestinian, and of course the U.S., what it usually did, it didn't send troops in, it would back the military coup that deposes the elected government of Syria.
Colonel Alzheim becomes a dictator.
His government is immediately recognized by the USA.
The CIA, of course, assists in the suppression of political opposition.
1949, ban a year.
Greece, again.
We're scared of the communists, that's no good.
And what actually goes on?
Again, the USA backs a military coup in Greece, helps the new government set up a secret police, which is called the KYP.
The military rules there until 1952.
Well, 1952, everybody knows about this.
The military coup occurs in Cuba.
The elected government of Carlos Prío Socorro is deposed by Fulgencio Batista.
The USA supports the new Cuban dictator who's particularly brutal.
And of course, under his regime, Cuba becomes a haven for drugs, gambling, vice, mobsters, and all of the mercantilist business interests within the U.S.
benefit.
Freedom of speech is curtailed.
Hundreds of teachers, lawyers, public officials are fired from their jobs.
You get the nice death squads and torture and murder of thousands of, sort of, quote, communists, in other words, people who just disagree with the government.
1953, the biggie, Iran.
The coup in Iran is particularly a proud moment for the CIA.
They in fact celebrated quite hard into the night when this was first announced.
And it's not like these countries are virtuous.
Please don't misunderstand me.
It's not like these countries are virtuous and they're getting rid of these little paradises, which is some of the sort of socialist view of it.
It's just, it's gang warfare.
It's gang versus gang.
So in Iran, Reza Pahlavi, the Shah, who was the king of Iran, he takes power in a coup planned and supported by the USA and the UK secret services.
This is called Operation Ajax.
He throws over the flourishing and popular democracy of Mohammed Mossadegh.
Mossadegh stated that the mineral wealth of the country should benefit its citizens.
Of course, this was not so good for the Western oil companies.
The Parliament had nationalized, which is basically stolen, all of the British oil concessions and they were reaping 88% of the profits of the country's oil industry.
Iran had offered the UK 25% of the profits.
The UK responded by imposing a blockade on Iran and freezing Iranian assets.
Now, after the coup, oil concessions are given to the USA and UK companies.
Anglo-Iranian oil is renamed British Petroleum, which again only goes to show that the foundations of most wealthy families is a fairly horrible crime.
Now, after the coup, internal dissent is crushed.
You get the secret police, you get the death squads, all the normal stuff.
This is a brutal regime, terrorizes the entire population for a quarter of a century.
And then, of course, in 1979 you get Ayatollah Khomeini comes in and they replace this sort of more humanistic or secular dictatorship with a theocratic dictatorship.
And the New York Times in the 6th of August 1979, this new regime is described as good news.
And this is described in the New York Times from 6th August 1979.
Here's the quote.
Underdeveloped countries with the rich resources now have an object lesson in the heavy cost that must be paid by one of their number, which goes berserk with fanatical nationalism.
It is perhaps too much to hope that Iran's experience will prevent the rise of Mossadeghs in other countries, but that experience may at least strengthen the hands of more reasonable and more far-seeing leaders.
Isn't that wonderful?
They call this fanatical nationalism when it just means that they're stealing from countries that are companies, oil companies, that are sort of stealing from their own population and so on.
So that is something that's very, very important and they were very proud of that.
And, of course, it led them to further and greater exercises in the overthrow of foreign governments.
So, again, in 1953, the British, with the help from the Americans, overthrow the, again, democratically elected government of Chedi Jagan in British Guyana.
And this guy, Jagan, he wins three elections in 11 years.
Each time, the combined strength of the US and the UK would prevent him from taking office, so using techniques like strikes, terrorism, legal challenges, disinformation, and so on.
And of course, the new regime that they put in ensures the flow of cheap sugar and bauxite, which is an ore of aluminum.
and continues to flow to the UK, so they're very happy.
And again, I'm not saying that these countries are wonderful socialist paradises which the evil imperialist empires overthrow.
I mean, they would have been miserably.
The average person is miserable under either regime, but it's just important to understand that there's no particular example here of anything like a social contract.
So, in Guatemala, the USA organized a military coup to remove the President Jacobo Arbenz.
Now, Guatemala had been democratic since 1944.
They had free expression, legalized unions, diverse political parties.
And the U.S.
Embassy had actually described this government as having, quote, an unusual reputation for incorruptibility.
And the Guatemalans actually called the previous 10 years before 1954 as the 10 years of spring.
Now, after the coup and for the next 31 years, repressive governments rule with American support.
The CIA gives the new government lists of people to be eliminated, identifies political and intellectual leaders as military targets.
Adevelo is driven out of Guatemala and dies in exile.
Peasant cooperatives are destroyed.
Unions and political parties are crushed.
Dissidents are hunted down.
And many indigenous villages are cleared, leading to urban sprawl and poverty.
Thousands are killed by government death squads, and many more flee the country.
And, of course, one of those is a young physician, Che Guevara, who becomes the cheesy and evil poster for an entire generation of idiotic college students.
And sort of a few years after this coup, about 100,000 people, mostly the Maya, are murdered.
And it's sort of hard to think that these people are voluntarily engaging in a social contract.
Now, of course, the USA says, well, we had to do this because there was going to be a takeover by the USSR.
And what the hell did Russia care?
They didn't even have an embassy there.
Of course, the real reason was economics.
American companies, especially the United Fruit Company, in which the CIA director, Alan Dulles, had an interest.
They benefit from cheap labor, bad safety laws, helpful government, and so on.
Coca-Cola benefits when striking workers are killed by the military, and so this is sort of what happens in Guatemala, and I've actually been to Guatemala.
They still remember this, and they will remember this for generations, and this is where attacks on America will often come from.
So, 1955.
War in South Vietnam.
So, civil war begins in South Vietnam between factions who support American and French-backed governments, and those who want unity with the Communist North, run by Ho Chi Minh.
So, the USA backs Ngo Dinh Diem, and this deposes the French-backed Bảo Đại.
The USA continue their support of the South.
President Dwight Eisenhower admits that, quote, had elections been helped, possibly 80% of the population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh, the Communist leader.
Again, this is not any kind of thing which says that they should have.
This is just governments imposed from outside through violence and through force.
Now, in 1957, they have a go at Haiti.
And they say, well, why are we doing it?
Because it's close.
So Francis Duvalier, Papa Doc, takes over Haiti.
And in 1957, supported by America, he rules the country.
He's a corrupt, brutal, autocratic dictator until 1971.
Under his regime and that of his son who succeeds him, 60,000 people get murdered, thousands are tortured by the Tonton Makuti's death squads, and of course Haiti then becomes the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
And of course, we're back to a podcast from about a week or so ago, the Devaliers get fantastically rich by stealing foreign aid money. 1958!
Coup in Laos.
So the CIA and State Department from America engineer a coup in Laos.
The Lao political party Pathet Lao always wins elections or wins enough support to be in any coalition.
The party is disliked by the USA, even though it's got a lot of popular support.
Over the next several years, the USA engineers several coups to topple this political party, and eventually they arm a bunch of rebels to destabilize Laos.
So this is Laos.
Kind of close, right?
On we go!
So then in 1959 they're back and they engineer another coup in Laos which is the second in two years.
And then we get to 1960 Korea.
So rigged elections in South Korea.
This was a country that's armed and extensively supported by the USA cause riots.
The American-backed political aspirant Park Chung-hee, an army general, takes power in a military coup.
Park's security forces favor the water torture, which leaves no physical marks on the victim.
This is cold water gets forced up the nose through a tube, and a cloth is placed in the victim's mouth to prevent breathing.
One victim tells Amnesty International, quote, my hands tied together and I was tied to a chair.
I was not allowed to have any sleep.
At night they would drag me to the basement where they would beat me with a long heavy stick and jump on me.
They were trying to make me confess that I was a spy.
So this is the American backed guy and the lovely things that he's doing to his own people.
Not sure I see the contractual element here.
Perhaps I'm missing something.
Feel free to let me know if I am.
Park Chang-hee would be assassinated by his own security forces in 1979.
So there's a nice tasty 20-year rule.
Laos, we're back.
We have another coup that is engineered by the CIA and the State Department in Laos.
This is the third in three years.
And the pro-USA political aspirant Fumi Nossavan is helped to power by ballot rigging.
Of course, the U.S.
is not entirely unfamiliar with that practice.
Let's have a look at Ecuador the same year, 1960.
So the U.S.
infiltrates the government of Ecuador and eventually removes the president, José María Velasco.
Aren't you proud of me taking on all these foreign names?
They're only foreign to me, not to our Spanish friends.
So, they are not too happy because Ecuador has good diplomatic relationships with Cuba, and they are not clamping down on dissidents, and the new leader also refuses to break relations with Cuba until threatened by a CIA-backed military leader.
So that's their little adventures in Ecuador, a couple of years off, 1963.
And these are only the successful ones.
There's lots that they didn't get to go the way they wanted, which I'm not including here.
These are just the successful ones, so feel free to think of more.
And of course, these are only the ones we know of.
So, in 1963, the democratically elected government of the Dominican Republic is removed by a military coup.
Juan Bosch had become the first democratically elected president of the country since 1924.
So, he's a socialist, land reform, affordable housing, the avoidance of exploitative foreign investment.
And he's big on civil liberties and nationalization and so on.
Not exactly that those two are the same.
After the coup, USA Marines are sent in to look after American business interests and support the new regime.
South Vietnam.
It all begins here.
So, South Vietnam.
A Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Duc, sets himself on fire in Saigon.
You've probably seen this picture in protest against the USA-backed authoritarian government of South Vietnam.
This government had discriminated against Buddhism, which is the dominant religion of the country, The USA, shaken because this immolation was televised around the world, give approval for a military coup that toppled Ngo Dinh Diem, whom they put in power in 1955.
And you see this quite a bit.
I mean, the latest, of course, being Saddam Hussein, that they put people in power, and then when those people end up catering to the special interests, or maybe even the voters within their own countries, they get put out of power again.
The Asset leaders are all murdered in cold blood.
The South Vietnamese do not get so much of a chance to vote for their leaders.
And right after this, seven more monks commit suicide.
So death toll there is relatively low compared to the other ones.
1963, Honduras has a military coup that takes place.
The president eventually resigns after accepting bribes from an American company.
The US controls the country, gains access to the raw materials by giving huge amounts of aid to the military.
I've written about this in antiwar.com.
You simply can't have these things happening unless the government is subsidizing it through all of the tax money.
Coup in Guatemala 1963.
The CIA overthrows the dictatorship of General Miguel de Gómez in Guatemala.
De Gómez had been planning to step down in 1964 and hold elections.
Who knows if he was or wasn't going to.
The USA fears that the previously elected president, Juan José Aravelo, remember him?
He might regain power and so they overthrow the dictatorship.
They put some new guy in place.
Sadly, no elections whatsoever.
Ecuador, 1963.
The C.I.A.
backs a military coup that overthrows President Aracemana of Ecuador because of his independent policies.
A military junta assumes command, cancels the 1964 elections, and begins abusing human rights.
So again, I don't care so much about the elections, but it is important to understand that there's not a lot of social contracting going on here.
1964, a military coup occurs in Brazil.
The new leader is General Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, who has support from the USA.
The USA government sends the new regime oil during the coup.
The previous president, he was a guy who traded with communist nations, maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba, supported the labor movement, and limited the profits multinational companies could take out of the country.
This is, I mean, the site that I'm here for is crystal, K-R-Y-S-S-T-A-L dot com forward slash democracy, and you can tell from the language, of course, that there are loony lefties, but from what I understand, and in the research I've done separately in preparing for the foreign aid podcasts, this stuff seems pretty good, but of course, go and check it out for yourself.
After the coup, labor and trade unions are banned.
Criticism of the president becomes unlawful.
Thousands of suspected communists, including children, are arrested and tortured.
Land is stolen from indigenous people and their culture destroyed.
The region's first death squads are set up and trained by the USA CIA.
Over 70,000 people murdered between 1964 and 1985.
Drug dealers, many of them government officials, are given protection because they maintain national security interests.
The West recognizes the new regime and trades with it.
Very nice.
There would not be a civilian government in Brazil until 1985.
Again, 20 or so years.
Bolivia.
The president of Bolivia, Victor Paz, is removed by the CIA, and of course Bolivia had refused to support USA policies against Cuba.
I think it was in the 60s, by the by, that a Mexican politician found it very, very funny that the USA had asked him to go back to Mexico and talk about how dangerous Cuba was.
And he said, if I go back to tell my constituents how dangerous Cuba is, about 30 million Mexicans will die laughing.
Which I thought was kind of funny.
So, in Zaire, formerly the Congo, a military coup occurs.
The new American-backed ruler is Moboto Sese Seko.
Who allows American companies access to the country's cobalt, copper and diamonds.
In the coming years, Moboto amasses a personal fortune of over 5,000 million.
I guess that would be 5 billion.
Every foreign company setting up in the country has to pay a tribute to the president.
So this charming Mobutu fellow rules like a brutal savage for 30 years.
And of course the Zairean people become incredibly impoverished despite the fact that there's huge natural wealth all over the country.
1966.
A coup in Ghana.
Kwame Nkrumah, leader of Ghana, attempts to lessen his country's dependence on the West.
He strengthens his military and his economic ties to those ghastly Russians and Eastern Europeans and Chinese.
And the CIA not so big on this, so this fellow gets removed from power in a coup backed by the CIA.
According to a CIA internal memo dated 25th February 1966, which was declassified in 77, the CIA and Ghana's military leaders had been plotting the coup for over a year.
Let's go back to Greece.
What goes on in Greece?
In Greece, a military coup in 1967 led by ex-Nazi George Papadopoulos overthrows the elected government of Andreas Papandreou.
During World War II, Papadopoulos had been a captain in the Nazi security battalions, whose purpose was to catch members of the Greek resistance for Germany.
So, the coup was planned by the Greek monarchy, the Greek military, and the American military stationed in Greece, and the CIA, of course.
So, during the first month of the new regime, 8,000 people are imprisoned and tortured.
Greece is expelled from the European Commission on Human Rights, but continues to receive aid from the USA in return for housing American military bases.
The country continues to be part of NATO and trade with the West, because, you know, NATO's all about freedom.
Amnesty International later reports that, quote, American policy on the torture question is expressed in official statements and official testimony has been to deny it where possible and minimize it where denial was not possible.
This policy flowed naturally from general support for the military regime.
The American writer James Beckett describes many victims being told by Basil Lambrou, one of the chief interrogators, Behind me there is the government.
Behind the government is NATO.
Behind NATO is the USA.
You can't fight us.
We are Americans.
Greece doesn't return to democratic government until 1974, so at least they didn't have to do the whole 20-year thing.
Cambodia, 1970.
USA and South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia.
The king, Norodom Sihanouk, is deposed in a USA-backed coup by Loll Noll.
The king had refused USA requests to participate in the Vietnam War.
The new leader immediately commits troops to this conflict.
This unpopular policy strengthens minor movements like the Khmer Rouge, who will eventually become powerful enough to cause chaos in the country.
These are the Killing Fields guys.
Pretty nasty group.
Bolivia, 1970.
A military coup overthrows the government of Bolivia.
This coup is led by American-trained officer and Gulf oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, with direct support from America.
During the coup, Banzer's forces have a breakdown in radio communications.
The USA Air Force radio is placed at their disposal.
The previous president, Juan José Torres, had nationalized Gulf oil properties and tin mines owned by American companies.
So, you know, this is sort of back and forth stuff where, you know, someone steals from you, you steal back from them, and so on.
Within two years, 2,000 people are arrested and tortured without trial.
The native Aymara and Quechua people are ordered off their land, deprived of tribal identity.
Tens of thousands of white South Africans are enticed to immigrate, with promises of the land stolen from the indigenous people.
Catholic clergy who aid the victims are harassed and murdered.
El Salvador, 1972.
Juaze Duarte wins the election in El Salvador, but is immediately removed and exiled by the USA-backed military.
Just 14 families run most of the country's businesses, which is mainly coffee growing.
Chile, 1973.
There is a coup.
Augusto Pinochet takes power in an American-backed military coup against the democratically elected government of Chile.
President Salvador Allende is killed when the palace in San Diego is bombed.
The Americans had attempted to sabotage his election campaigns in 64 successfully and 1970 unsuccessfully.
This is the end of 150 years of democracy in the country.
So we look at South America, we see this economic basket case.
Not necessarily the case.
They had democracy for 150 years, at least in Chile.
According to Pinochet, democracy is the breeding ground of communism.
During the coup, you know, it's all the same horrible stuff.
Hundreds are hurt into football stadiums where they're mostly executed by the military.
At least 5,000 people are murdered, tens of thousands are tortured, 9,000 are exiles, and around a quarter million are interred in concentration camps.
Specifically trained dogs are used to sexually molest female prisoners.
Women are stopped in the street and have their trousers slit by soldiers.
In Chile, women wear dresses.
Many books are burned.
The political singer Victor Jara is tortured and shot, his body dumped in the street.
Even nationals of other countries are victims, including citizens of the UK, Spain and even Americans.
Charles Holman and Frank Tarugi, these events are shown in the USA made film Missing.
Now, America and most Western governments recognize, praise and trade with the new regime that rules with terror for the next 17 years.
The coup was the culmination of three years of American planning.
In 1970, of course, our favorite USA Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, had commented on the results of the elections in Chile that had brought Allende to power.
Quote, I don't see why we have to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.
During this period, the director of the CIA, Richard Helms, informed his staff that, quote, President Nixon has decided that an Allende regime in Chile was not acceptable to the United States.
The president asked the agency to prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him.
The CIA had planted news articles around the world about, quote, Chile's peril.
These articles are part of a covert propaganda campaign which the CIA boasts resulted in at least 726 stories broadcast in editorials against an Allende presidency.
The USA began planning to remove Allende in secret.
CIA memo states, quote, Dr. Kissinger discussed his desire that the word of our encouragement to the Chilean military in recent weeks be kept as secret as possible.
A cable from CIA headquarters to Henry Hexter, the CIA station chief in San Diego, revealed, quote, It is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup prior to October the 24th, but efforts in this regard will continue vigorously beyond this date.
We are to continue to generate maximum pressure towards this end, utilizing every appropriate resource.
It is imperative that these actions be implemented clandestinely and securely so that the American governments and the American hand be well hidden.
Please review all your present and possibly new activities to include propaganda, black operations, surfacing of intelligence or disinformation, personal contacts, or anything else your imagination can conjure up, which will permit you to continue to press forward towards our deleted objective.
Economic pressure gets put on the regime at the World Bank.
American officials work behind the scenes to ensure that Chile will be disqualified for a pending $21 billion livestock improvement credit, as well as future loans.
So it all works.
You've got economic sabotage, political propaganda, and army prodding.
Allende finds himself confronted by a growing disorder, soaring inflation, and on September 11, 1973, amid the mounting chaos, Chile's military strike.
In a classic coup d'etat, the army seizes control of strategic sites throughout the country and corners Allende in his presidential office.
He dies in a firefight, apparently shooting himself in the head to avoid capture.
Yeah, I'm sure that's what happened.
A report written by the USA's Marine Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ryan in Valparaiso asserts that, quote, Chile's coup d'etat was close to perfect.
A few years later, Kissinger would assure Pinochet that, in the United States, as you know, we are sympathetic with what you are trying to do here.
We wish your government well.
Three weeks after the coup, the USA's President Nixon authorizes $24 billion in commodity credits to buy wheat.
A second $24 billion in commodity credits for Chile to feed corn is authorized to destroy a transfer to the Chilean Navy.
Arnando Fernandez Larios, who actually murdered 72 political prisoners, later moves to America, where his extradition to a democratic Chile is refused.
In 2005, a film biography of Allende would have senior CIA operatives saying he was, quote, an exceptionally civilized man.
His warning about multinational companies at the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 has been proven correct.
He warned of, quote, A coming conflict between multinationals and democratic governments.
They operate without assuming their responsibilities.
They share no instinct for the common interest.
The political system of the world is weakening as a result.
Amen, brother.
Isn't that the truth?
Now, surprisingly, we move to Australia in 1975.
In Australia, the Labour government of Goh Wittiam had been elected three years earlier and embarked on a program of extending education, healthcare and welfare.
So, your general socialist nightmare.
Whitlam had called home military personnel from Vietnam and had denounced the US bombing of Hanoi.
This government is removed by an executive order from the British-appointed and unelected Governor General John Kerr.
This follows a vendetta against the Prime Minister by the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The Australian, as well as agitation by the American, British and Australian oppositions.
So it's not always the Third World.
Let's continue on to South Korea in 1979.
General Chun Doo-hwan takes power in a coup in South Korea.
His regime is armed and supported by America.
One year later, the general orders the killing of hundreds of civilians in Gwangju.
Liberia, 1980.
In Liberia, the American-backed Samuel Doe takes power in a bloody coup.
All opposition parties are barred from future elections.
The president and his family become very rich from bribery, corruption and foreign aid.
Revenues from oil and hotel taxes go directly into the Doe's bank account.
His fellow tribes, people, 4% of the population, are elevated into a ruling elite who savagely oppress the rest of the population.
According to the American newspaper the Chicago Tribune, 22nd August 1990, In an article by Howard Witt entitled U.S.
Fingerprints, not Heart, are all over Liberia.
A USA official admits that, quote, our strategic interests are more important than democracy.
Witt describes Doe as a, quote, brutish, nearly illiterate army sergeant who seized power after disemboweling the previous president in his bed.
The U.S.
gives the new regime military and economic aid.
USA companies Firestone and BFGoodrich prosper under the new regime.
And again, I'm not particularly blaming the capitalist people here because they are just sort of dealing with the existing state brutality that is there.
I'm not saying I would do it, but as far as the evil goes, I don't put the capitalists front and center.
1982.
America and Chad.
In 1981, the CIA had set up, financed and trained a Chadian military force in Sudan, led by Hussein Habre.
This force overthrows the government of Chad, ruling for eight years with American support.
This regime kills tens of thousands of people, tortures over 200,000.
Many dissidents simply disappear, and in 2000, Habre would be tried for his crimes in Senegal.
And we're sort of coming to the end of this list, so don't panic.
It's not going to be a five-hour podcast, but it's easily good for each one of these.
1983, Grenada.
Grenada, Grenada.
American troops invade Grenada to remove the leader, Maurice Bishop, and to replace him with a pro-American government.
During the invasion, nearly 500 people are killed, including 85 construction workers from Cuba.
Although Granada is a member of the British Commonwealth and the British Queen is the head of state, the British government is not informed of the invasion and does not comment.
The invasion makes the island a, quote, haven for offshore banks, according to the American newspaper Wall Street Journal, because you see the ruling classes need to park their money somewhere where they don't have to pay their taxes.
Reporters are banned from Grenada.
Those who attempt to land on the island are arrested and imprisoned on American ships offshore.
This happens to Morris Thompson of the magazine Newsday.
Fiji!
1987.
A coup in Fiji.
Dr. Timotei Bavadra defeats the pro-American Prime Minister Ratu Slerkamismara in Fiji after free elections.
The new government supports a nuclear-free South Pacific, which is fairly welcomed by the local population, but not so much welcomed by America.
The America wants its nuclear power chips to use the country's ports.
32 days after this victory, Dr. Bhavadra is overthrown by the pro-nuclear General Sittiveni Rabuka with the help of America.
For the first time in the history of the country, cases of illegal detention and torture are reported by Amnesty International.
The coup was greeted by a Pentagon source in America who told the Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald, quote, we're kind of delighted.
All of a sudden our ships couldn't go to Fiji and now all of a sudden they can.
In 1972, when a previous Fijian government had attempted to ban nuclear ships, the U.S.
Ambassador William Bard had stated that a nuclear free zone would be unacceptable to the USA given our strategic needs.
The USA must do everything possible to counter this movement.
Now Venezuela.
We're back to Venezuela, 2002.
A coup removes Hugo Chavez.
Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela.
Although he regains his position after 24 hours, America publicly welcomes his overthrow.
The New York Times reports that senior USA administration officials had met the business and military leaders behind the coup several times and had expressed an interest in Chávez being removed.
Chávez had defended America by establishing good relations with Iraq and Cuba and by establishing sympathy with dissidents in Colombia who were being targeted by an American-backed military offensive.
Haiti.
So we're back to Haiti.
In 2004, American forces kidnapped the elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, after destabilizing the country and strangling the economy with sanctions and supporting an insurgency.
When asked by Elliot C. McLaughlin of Associated Press if he had left Haiti voluntarily, Aristad's reply was, No, I was forced to leave.
Agents were telling me that if I didn't leave, they would start shooting and killing in a matter of time.
Now, America says it escorted the president out of the country.
At the airport, he handed a letter of resignation to Louis Moreno, the deputy chief of the American embassy.
Father Michael Graves, an American-born preacher who'd worked in Haiti for 18 years, contradicted this account, saying that the President was escorted out of the country at gunpoint after being forced to sign his resignation.
I am outraged that the U.S.
has stepped into a sovereign country, a fledgling democracy, and forced out a leader who was elected.
Aristide's concierge Joseph Pierre confirmed that, "White Americans came by helicopter to get him.
They also took his bodyguards.
It was around 2 o'clock in the morning.
He didn't want to leave.
The American soldiers forced him to.
Because they were pointing guns at him, he had to follow them.
The Americans are second only to God in terms of strength." Now, America ensured that $500 million in emergency humanitarian aid from America, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the IMF was suspended.
Several of the paramilitary leaders of the insurgency are men who were behind the previous USA-backed coup and its aftermath, 1991 to 1994.
Louis-Jodel Chamblain is a former member of the paramilitary death squads from that period.
Close, but no cigar.
The American controlled the President's security until American Secretary of State Colin Powell informed Aristide that the USA would not protect him.
In other words, resign and leave, or be killed.
After a 20-hour fight, Aristide found himself in a French military base in the Central African Republic.
Now, this coup occurs after America has been destabilizing the country and strangling the economy with sanctions and supporting a rebel insurgency since 2001.
The new government is immediately recognized by America and France.
America and the media describe the exile of Aristide as a voluntary departure which allowed for the restoration of democracy.
In 2002, America commissioned a report into the elections in the country which had actually verified them.
The report was suppressed by the American government.
Now, since 2001, human rights activists and humanitarian workers in Haiti had documented numerous killings of government officials and bystanders in attacks on health clinics, police stations and government vehicles.
None of these killings had ever been condemned by the American government.
The rebel gangs responsible are linked to two groups financed by America.
The Convergence for Democracy, supported by George Bush the Elder and his party, And the pro-business Group of 184, represented by Andy Epaid, a supporter of the former Duvalier dictatorship and now an American citizen.
Now, France backed American calls for the president to resign.
Aristide was accused by America of becoming dictatorial, even though he had abolished the USA-created army in 1995.
The Caribbean community, CARICOM, and the African Union call for a formal investigation into Aristide's removal.
This is unreported by the Western media, which barely covers the events in the country.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth poorest country in the world.
50% of the country's wealth is owned by 1% of the population.
Life expectancy is 52 years for women and 48 for men.
Unemployment is about 70%.
About 85% of the population live on less than $1 a day.
Now, 60% of the country's trade is with America.
The manufacture of baseballs, textiles, cheap electronics and toys, the country's sugar, bauxite and sisal are all controlled by American companies.
As an example, the American entertainment company Disney has used sweatshops in Haiti to produce Pocahontas pajamas, among other items, at the rate of about 11 cents per hour.
Aristide had attempted to raise the minimum wage.
The country has a debt of $1.134 billion About 40% of this debt stems from the loans from America to the brutal Duvalier dictators who had been backed by the USA.
Little of the money, of course, actually benefited the population.
Do you see how it's all coming together?
In July 2003, Haiti had to send over 90% of its foreign reserves to America to pay off some of the debt.
And, of course, all the horrible spoils of ghastly war are taken by the military.
A thousand political murderers, dozens are killed by USA Marines during March of 2004.
In December, a report from the human rights group Carly reports hundreds of cases of rape by the USA backed military.
In the month of August, for example, more than 50 cases of rape by former military were reported to our hotline.
In the three months July to September, 81 women, all under the age of 30, were admitted to health centers run by GESCIO for treatment and counseling following sexual assaults.
The majority of assaults took place in the metropolitan region of Port-au-Prince.
According to GESCIO, 54% of rapes are committed by armed men in the victim's home.
And a UNICEF team was deployed to the city of Guanaves from 20th of October to 2nd of November because of a problem of the rape of teenage girls.
And street children are killed by soldiers or former soldiers.
And of course, none of this stuff is ever reported.
Of course, human rights organizations report that poor neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince continue to be targeted by death squads.
Bodies are often found in an area called Titanien, long a favorite dumping ground for bodies by the FADH and paramilitary killing squads.
Now, of course, none of this is reported by the Western media, for reasons which we'll get into another time, and, I mean, you could go on and on with this kind of stuff.
I'm sure you get the idea.
So this is exactly the kind of result that comes from governments who have tax money.
Governments have access to tax money.
They're not accountable to anyone.
They can go and do anything they want.
They're drawn towards this kind of violence and control of other people.
So when people say we pay our taxes for our roads, I get to tell you that's not exactly how I see it.
We'll get into taxes a little bit more another time.
But taxes are used for murder.
Taxes are used for murder.
Taxes are used for imprisonment of the innocent.
Taxes are used for death squads.
Taxes are used for rape.
Taxes are used for the firebombing of agricultural lands in South America.
Taxes are used for the importing of drugs.
Taxes are used for this is what governments do.
You don't end up with 170 million to 250 million people murdered in one century alone because the government's out there building roads.
My God!
It's like these people have no humanity.
These people who defend tax regimes have absolutely no humanity.
And I would love to give them five minutes in a Chilean prison after an American-backed coup just to get them some sense of the kind of living hell that they are putting other people into just so that they can keep their little roads and keep, oh, we want fluoride in the water because God knows without government nobody would want clean water.
This is the package deal that you get, people.
This is what you get when you get a government.
You get collusion between private tyrannies, in other words, corporations and public tyrannies.
You get murder.
You get death squads.
You get endless rape.
You get torture.
You get assassination.
You get bodies piled up in the street.
This is what you get when you have a government.
So people who say, well, you know, you've got to pay taxes, you see, because you've got to have roads, and we've got to have public schools.
This is just a front.
This is not what government is all about.
All of these things can be provided far better by the private sector.
The one thing the private sector won't give you, though, It's Death Squads.
Not much profit in that.
Only profit in that for people who are sadists, who enjoy doing this kind of stuff.
So, as far as the social contract goes, and we'll finish this up.
I'm just on my way home.
Christina has a patient tonight, so I'm recording from my office just before heading home.
As far as the social contract goes, though, it would be hard, I think, to logically defend the proposition that these people who are subject to these dozens upon dozens of coups, and this is just one country, this is just America, and I apologize if I'm picking on America.
I don't mean to.
You can look at the Soviet Union.
It's mass annexation of all of the Eastern European countries and all of the brutality that went on in Afghanistan during the 80s and its funding of Cuba for all of the repressive regimes down there.
In six of one, half a dozen of the other, the British Empire with its ruling of these foreign countries, the German Empire, the Austrian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the French Empire, I mean, the Italian Empire, you could go on and on.
But this is the cycle of violence that we have.
There's no such thing as a social contract in one single one of these.
In fact, if you could say that there was even a minor variation of a social contract, insofar as you could say that Well, some of these governments were democratically elected.
That's a very minor variation on a very theoretical social contract.
Well, all of these were just overthrown by dictatorships who just went around slaughtering people by the millions.
And this is how governments come into being.
I mean, this is how states come into being.
We can see this happening over and over and over again in the modern world.
There's no situation we can see in the world where people are sort of wandering around free, and they have these terrible lives, and they say, hey, you know what?
Let's get together and hand over all our rights to some dictator, because that's really going to help us.
Of course not.
People are free in a state of nature and can actually defend themselves, right?
There's a balance of power.
Once you get a government, there's no balance of power.
There's forced taxation, brutally developed
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