Terror Most Imperial
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
17 May,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Part I
For
centuries the colonizers exploited and dominated the third world.
Today, one of the more subtle tools of imperialism is the use of value-laden
language that seeks to define the Arab and Muslim world. With labels
such as ‘terrorists’ and ‘Islamofascism’,
they wish to establish an ‘Orientalist’ perspective of
otherness denoting barbarism as set apart from Israel and the West
which represents admirable qualities. It is imperative to reject this
imperial imposition of characterization and for each state, individually
and collectively, to self-rule, foremost through self-definition.
The case of Mojahedeen-e Khalg (MEK) showcases the ever present imperial
influence of the West in defining the ‘other’ due to the
ownership of language. The hypocrisy is stark given that the U.S.
with the help of her ally the British waged a ‘war on terror’
which has resulted in the death of over a million people to date.
Yet, a certain Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, a member of the House
of Lords from Gordon Brown's ruling Labor Party, has coauthored an
opinion piece with Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), both of whom promote
the terrorist organization of the MEK. In their opinion, these two
argue that engagement with Iran would risk, among other things, a
“support for international terrorism”[i].
Lord Colbert does not do his title justice; to paraphrase Samuel Butler, a degenerate nobleman is like a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is under ground. Else how can he explain throwing in his lot with terrorists who are in the employ of Israel? "Israel is said to have had a relationship with the M.E.K at least since the late nineties, and to have supplied a satellite signal for N.C.RI. broadcasts from Paris into Iran” [ii]. Their servitude to the Israelis was after they had committed treason, murder, and terrorism while under the tutelage of Saddam Hossein – the man that the Americans and the British considered a threat to world peace, and whose demise and the invasion of Iraq has now caused a threat to world peace.
While innocent Iraqis were being killed en masse in the ‘war on terror’, the Commander in Chief gave ‘special persons status’ to Saddam’s pet terrorists in Camp Ashraf while an associate from the powerful Republican lobbying group of Barbour Griffith & Rogers invited Neil Livingstone, the C.E.O. of Global Options, an international risk-management firm, and Gregory Minjack, who was an executive at Public Strategies, a Washington-based crisis-management company” to remove the group from the FTO designation. The lobby group was not without help. Congressman Filner has been on the Hill promoting the group. But perhaps one of their most ardent admirers is Cuban-born Congresswoman Senator Ros-Lehtinen who is not new to the game.
In February
1988, Orlando Bosch had been arrested in Miami and implicated in the
1976 Cubana plot, a terrorist act which had resulted in the downing
of flight 455 killing 73 passengers. Joe D. Whitley, associate United
States Attorney General at the time, called Bosch “a terrorist,
unfettered by laws or human decency, threatening and inflicting violence
without regard to the identity of his victims”[iii], had the
distinct advantage of having Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) Bosch’s
release as one of the cornerstones of her 1989 congressional campaign.
This murderer of 73 innocent lives had the more good luck. Ros-Lehtinen’s
campaign manager was Jed Bush, the President’s son. In July
1989, a month after meeting his son Jed and Ros-Lehtinen to discuss
the Bosch case, President Bush rejected his Justice Department’s
recommendation and authorized Bosch’s release who became a resident
of the United States two years later.[iv] In granting the MEK terrorists
asylum in Iraq, George W. is following a family trend.
Bosch’s terrorist partner, Cuban-born, Luis Posada Carriles
dedicated his life to the over throw of Fidel Castro and was a CIA
recruit who participated in the calamitous 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion,
“he was part of Operation Southern Front…and he worked
for the Hammer [Oliver North]…From 1967 to 1986, Luis was a
compensated agent of the CIA. And George Bush, the vice president,
knew what he was doing.”[v] Yet for blowing up a plane and causing
73 people to be killed, he was arrested in 2005 on immigration charges
and released in 2007[vi] . It is interesting to note that George H.W.
Bush was director of the CIA when the Cubana airliner exploded. What
makes the Cuban-born Ros-Lehtinen support the MEK terrorists, does
she have a fatal attraction towards assassins and murderers? Or are
she and the rest of Congress following the leader of nation that has
waged ‘war on terror’?
Perhaps they believe that by imposing the colonial language of calling the ‘other’ ‘uncivilized’ and state sponsor of terrorists, their mass murder and moral annihilation will go unnoticed. “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” – J.F. Kennedy.
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an Iranian-American studying at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She is a member of World Association of International Studies society, Stanford. Her research focus is U.S. foreign policy towards Iran, Iran’s nuclear program, and the influence of lobby groups. She is a peace activist, essayist, radio commentator and public speaker.
[i] http://www.iranfocus.com/en/iran-world-press/
dont-enable-irans-offenses.html
[ii] Connie Bruck, “A reporter at large: Exiles; How Iran’s expatriates are gaming the nuclear threat”. The New Yorker, March 6, 2006
[iii] Quoted in Weiner, “Case of Cuban Exile Could Test the U.S. Definition of Terrorist,” p. A1.
[iv] Bardach, “Twilight of the Assassins.”
[v] Bardach, “Ibid
[vi] “The Good Terrorist: The United States and Cuba,” The Economist vol. 383, iss. 8526. 28 April 2007. p. 44.