the matrix:
DEPOPULATION &
PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT
by keith
harmon snow
Part One: SUDAN
"I donÕt know that thereÕs any significant
CIA role in Sudan."
Smith College Professor Eric Reeves
(AuthorÕs
Note of 3 September 2006: This article appeared in the Pioneer Valley Voice
newspaper in 2001. While the conflict has shifted from South Sudan to Darfur,
little else has changed. Eric Reeves is decidedly lying: recent claims are
that there are no natural resources at stake in the Darfur region. The spoils
appear to include oil, copper, uranium, sugar and gum Arabic – a
significant ingredient used in Coca Cola, Pepsi, and countless pharmaceutical
products. Whether or not these are all at issue in Darfur remains to be seen.
There is no disputing the petroleum and Gum Arabic links however.)
(AuthorÕs Note of 18
January 2007: I
no longer believe that Smith College Professor Dr. Eric Reeves is intentionally
lying; instead I am now convinced that he believes what he thinks and says.
Given his denial of the petroleum factor, and given that he has been presented
with sufficient evidence, one begins to wonderÉ Today I belive that Dr. Eric
Reeves is simply suffering from mental illness. There is a lot of this going
around.)
Raging in Sudan for the past 18 years is a "civil war" –
by implication Africans killing Africans -- which has devastated millions of human lives.
Human rights advocates have also documented horrific political repression by
the National Islamic Front (NIF) government of Khartoum. Using food as a weapon,
disrupting planting cycles and social services, and pillaging food stores, the
war has brought unmerciful suffering on millions of people. Some 1.7 million
Sudanese have died, often noncombatants, often women and children.
In the
Smith College lecture reported by the Voice (Dec. 2000), Professor Eric Reeves
decried the NIF as "the only party that wants the conflict to
continue." Voice correspondent Dimitri Oram says his article entirely
ignores the opposition Sudan PeopleÕs Liberation Army (SPLA) because the SPLA
was hardly discussed by Reeves. It is "a very one-sided war," Reeves
says. "For example: the government has an air force, while the opposition
forces lack even a single plane."
Reeves has
published about 40 Op-Eds, he says, in major U.S. and U.K. newspapers, and he
is "interviewed on a very regular basis by all major news media in the
U.S." He also produces a daily analysis on the Sudan situation, and he
persists in lobbying congressional legislators to forge a peace in Sudan. He
has never traveled to Sudan, and he admits that he is far less informed about
the geopolitical dynamics of Sudan's southern neighbors like Congo and Rwanda.
Respecting
Professor ReevesÕ righteous indignation about, and his attacks against
multinational oil conglomerates indifferent to the slaughter that they
perpetuate, Reeves should be commended for speaking up at all on Sudan. His
efforts toward capital markets sanctions against the oil companies
unquestionably deserve our complete support. Nonetheless, his picture is
significantly misrepresentative, and it is selective, and it is precisely
ReevesÕ incomplete picture or his naivete -- or his intentional obfuscation of
truth -- that dictates his privilaged access to the U.S. media.
Any failure
to articulate the roles of the U.S. government, the U.S. military, the United
Nations, the U.S. media, "humanitarian" aid organizations, or
powerful extra-governmental forces – e.g. multinational corporations and
their directorships and clandestine security and intelligence operatives
– serves, inadvertently, at the very least, to support these western
terrorist enterprises and their brutal agendas. Sound harsh? For the victims, it
is.
War does
not occur in a vacuum. Sudan's National Islamic Front government, the Sudan
People's Liberation Army, their allies and enemies, are entangled in the
international geopolitical struggle for control in Central Africa. The war in
Sudan also hinges on dynamic Arab-Israeli interests. Neither is war in Sudan
divorced from the Ethiopia-Eritrean conflict, from war in Angola or Sierra
Leone.
This
article examines the greater context of war in Sudan, that hidden, destroyed
and manipulated by the U.S. media. Here is the tip of the iceberg on foreign
intrigue, exploitation and espionage in Africa. It is based on research about
Africa over the past five years, and ten months of investigations in Africa.
The most recent visit ended in late December 2000. Because Rwanda and Uganda
comprise the power center for U.S. control of central Africa, the Sudan
conflict is explored here through a Uganda prism. Sources in Africa will not be
named: their lives are at risk as it is.
Please
consider that We, the U.S. public, nurtured by this insidious and perpetual
propaganda machine, are overwhelmingly misinformed, apathetic and racist about
Africa. Behind this shield of ignorance and indifference the U.S. government
prosecutes open war with impunity against virtually all peoples and lands
non-white. Africa is the extreme. Islam is the extreme. Sudan is the extreme.
It is
irresponsible to ignore, dismiss or deny the role of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) or US Special Operations Forces (SOF) in a country as
ideologically hostile and strategically lucrative as Sudan. To put this in
context of the scope and capabilities of these forces, SOF conducted over 2216
deployments involving more than 14,000 personnel in 139 countries in 1994
alone. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) overseas Navy Seals, Army Rangers and
Delta Force, elite units deployed for psychological operations,
counter-insurgency and tactical special exercises. Like the CIA, the SOF are
unquestionably hostile threats to Khartoum.
(Is Paved With US LandminesÉ)
Ties to
U.S. intelligence predate the current Islamic regime. From 1964 to 1984 Sudan
was run by the corrupt U.S. client dictatorship of Col. Jaafar Nimeiri. Within
three days of the March 4, 1984 visit by former CIA Director and then
Vice-President George Bush -- which came under the U.S. propaganda banner of
food AID for starving millions -- Nimieri instituted a purge against Islamic
society, including mass arrests, executions and torture. Draconian IMF and
World Bank "reforms" led to starvation, unemployment, mass riots and
state repression. As Nimieri stood arm-in-arm with Ronald Reagan for a New York
Times piece in April, the U.S. quickly sent $64 million of a $181 million aid
package to Khartoum to crush the insurrection which soon toppled "old
friend" Nimieri. The State Security Apparatus then employed 25,000 full-time
and 20,000 part-time agents and informers.
A 1989 coup
brought the National Islamic Front (NIF) to power. In the 1990's the Pentagon
and CIA increasingly targeted Sudan as a hotbed of terrorism [read: Islam]. CIA
Director John Deutch in 1996 visited Ethiopia to delineate preemptive strikes
on Sudanese "terrorists" and their sponsors. Bill Clinton dispatched
Tomahawk cruise missiles that destroyed a pharmaceuticals factory in Khartoum
that was duplicitously marked as a chemical weapons production site by CIA
operatives. The true motivation for this bombing remains cloaked in the secrecy
of the "National Security" apparatus, a euphemism for the private
accumulation of wealth and power at the expense of the public trust.
The Sudan
PeopleÕs Liberation Army SPLA leader John Garang is a Christian of the minority
Dinka tribe with a degree from Grinell College (Iowa) and advanced degrees from
Iowa State, and with military training from the U.S. ArmyÕs Fort Benning in
Georgia. Originally based in Ethiopia, the SPLA shifted to South Sudan and
Uganda after rebel leader Yoweiri Museveni seized power by force in Uganda in
1987. Several factions often at war with one another, the SPLA has for years
received covert military support from the U.S. and its clients.
In 1996,
the U.S. sent nearly $20 million in military hardware through the front line
states of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda. Since then the US has escalated its
covert support but U.S. military assistance is also routed through Egypt and
Israel, who have trained rebels and shipped weapons via Eritrea, Uganda and
Ethiopia. In 1998, U.S. military assistance to Egypt was $500 million, and to
Israel $1000 million. Uganda has contracted Israel to refurbish four Russian
Mig fighter aircraft recently acquired.
Yoweri
Museveni's presidency in Uganda came at the expense of hundreds of thousands of
refugees. A former Dar Es Salaam University (Tanzania) classmate of John Garang
-- and of Congolese figurehead Laurent Kabila (assassinated!) -- Museveni soon
became the primary conduit for US military support to the SPLA in Uganda.
Egregious
atrocities committed by the Uganda People's Defence Forces against President
MuseveniÕs opposition escalated in the late 1980s and 1990s and were mostly
ignored by human rights organizations. Ugandan opposition and human rights
activists claim that intimidation, torture and massacres perpetrated over the
14 years of MuseveniÕs control far overshadow the brutality under Idi Amin, the
Ugandan leader demonized by the West for balking at neocolonial policy forced
on Uganda by the West, or the atrocities committed under his sucessors during
the "civil war" of the 1980's.
The LordÕs
Resistance Army (LRA) is one of several military threats that sprung out of
peopleÕs disaffection to Museveni, his Anglo-American patrons, their private
agenda aimed at looting Uganda, and their silent war against the people. These
rebel factions are routinely demonized by the US media for strategic –
albeit horrible – tactics learned from Museveni and his rebel army and
pursued by the UPDF. The western press with a virtual media blackout favors
MuseveniÕs Uganda with very selective, expedient coverage.
The new
Museveni government after 1987 quickly forged cooperative military agreements
with John Garang and the SPLA to help defend Uganda from growing insurgencies.
The "insurgency" of the LRA for example, provided the U.S., the SPLA
and Museveni with a public relations pretext used to gain continued weapons
acquisitions and logistical support. In fact, the U.S. and Uganda were covertly
arming the SPLA in Sudan.
Having
eliminated most of the actual LRA rebels, but to support the pretext for arms
shipments to Uganda, UPDF forces disguised themselves as LRA insurgents,
attacked villages and raped, tortured and murdered innocent civilians, and then
returned to SPLA camps in Uganda and Sudan. (Such UPDF tactics persist.) When
the few legitimate LRA rebels emerged from the bush (1996) for "good
faith" peace talks with the Museveni government, their position was undermined:
Museveni tasked Col. Fred Torit (now a Minister in parliament) with frustrating
the peace accords. Forced back to the bush, the LRA sided with Sudan's National
Islamic Front. Armed and supplied by Khartoum the LRA pursued a massive forced
recruitment campaign. Suddenly the LRA was a serious force for both SPLA and
Museveni to contend with, and an effective obstacle to the covert U.S./SPLA
project in south Sudan.
The SPLA
has perpetrated its share of atrocities in Sudan and it is unreasonable to ignore
their responsibility in perpetuating war. March of 1997 saw a series of
coordinated assaults on southern Sudanese towns where the SPLA captured wounded
or killed 16,000 enemy soldiers. SPLA forces have looted relief supplies and
medical facilities, slaughtered civilians, torched villages. They have raped,
pillaged, and abducted and forcibly recruited child soldiers.
The U.S.
has consistently denied that it provides military aid for the SPLA or other
north/south factions of the pro- "democratic" and pro-
"Christian" Sudanese Allied Forces (SAF). Opposition members in
Uganda cite meetings between SPLA, Ugandan PeopleÕs Defense Forces (UPDF), and
U.S. military personnel. Weapons have been and continue to be flown in through
Entebbe (Uganda) and the neighboring airfield recently refurbished by U.S.
military contractors; from Tanzania weapons are shipped across Lake Victoria.
U.S.
Special Ops have trained guerillas in and out of Uganda for operations in
Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan, and for UgandaÕs own insurgencies. Ongoing programs
include the Joint/Combined Exchange Training (J/CET): From 1995-97 the J/CET
program ran operations in 34 of 53 African countries. The International
Military Education and Training (IMET), and Expanded-IMET (E-IMET) fund, arm,
and train foreign soldiers in the U.S. The Africa Crisis Response Initiative
(ACRI) missions are run by the U.S. Army Special Forces Command. The Africa
Center for Security Studies (ACSS) programs are reportedly run by retired U.S. military
experts involved in School of the Americas atrocities using death squads and
torture as policy.
Trained by
U.S. Green Berets, UgandaÕs 3rd Battalion was immediately deployed to crush an
insurgency in western Uganda. SPLA guerillas have also been trained by Special
Ops. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has foreign agents operating in
Africa who travel under U.S. passports to consult and direct clandestine
operations. South Africa – a staunch American ally – has shipped
military hardware to both sides in the Sudanese conflict.
Private
military companies (PMCs) like Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), run
by some 16 former U.S. generals out of Washington D.C., Sandline International
(U.K.), and Executive Outcomes (S.A.) operate with impunity across Africa,
typically securing sites and guarding private foreign enterprises. These elite
mercenary armies have certainly been contracted to defend oil operations in
Sudan. They deploy superior firepower and overwhelming lethal force.
(See Covert Action
Quarterly, Diamonds Are Forever: The Role of the US Military (Africa)
Spring/Summer 2000; see for US Firms, War Becomes a Business, Boston Globe,
2/18/97; see An Army of One's Own, Harpers, 2/97.)
The World
Bank/IMF have given Uganda at least $1.8 billion, funds routinely routed to
UgandaÕs war efforts and weapons stockpiles. Receiving some $1.5 million in
+transparent+ weapons assistance from Washington in 1998 and 1999, Uganda has
also purchased military equipment with minerals pirated out of Congo. No
coincidence, and in affiliation with PMCs and their intelligence networks,
Barrick Gold Corporation is mining the Kilomoto gold deposits just over
UgandaÕs western border in Congo. Former CIA Director and U.S. President George
Bush, U.S. Senator Howard Baker, and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney are just three of BarrickÕs big guns (Annual Report, Barrick Gold
Corporation). War on UgandaÕs northeast SPLA frontier revolves around gold
concessions controlled by a Branch Energy (UK) partnership with MuseveniÕs
gang. Such elite enterprises prosper because of their secret intelligence and
security links; all have numerous agents at the highest levels of governments,
all are pirating mineral wealth out of the Congo-Uganda-Sudan theater of war.
KhartoumÕs
bombing of civilian population centers may be deliberate and horrible, but SPLA
guerillas have intentionally set up bases in existing villages to use the
civilian population as human shields. Further, the one-sidedness of KhartoumÕs
air capacity is partially offset by the voluminous "humanitarian"
relief sorties ferried in and out of Sudan by land and air.
Operation
Lifeline Sudan (OLS) is a multi-billion dollar international enterprise
coordinating 35 major U.N. and foreign government (UNICEF, WFP, WHO, FAO,
UNHCR, USAID), non-government (OXFAM, CARE, ICRC, World Vision) and religious
relief and donor organizations working in Sudan. Journalist Wayne Madsen
reports that "while they are not actually CIA fronts, some of these
Christian and other ["humanitarian"] relief organizations have been
involved in shipping weapons to the SPLA with food and medicine relief
flights."
Southern
Air Transport – a known CIA front – shipped landmines and other
weapons on Norwegian PeopleÕs Aid (NPA) flights: NPA was a Nobel Prize
co-recipient for their campaign to ban landmines (1997). USAID is considered a
cipher for covert weapons shipments: "Skyways" out of Nairobi and
"Legion Express" out of Miami are two of the air transport companies
believed to be CIA fronts retained by USAID for OLS sorties (Wayne Madsen:
Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999).
Some 2.0
million people are said to have died in Sudan since 1983. In Congo, some 3.0
million people have died over the past three years. Given the interests of
western aid, intelligence, security and defense industries, of multinational
petroleum and mining conglomerates, of agribusiness, and of their public
relations, propaganda, diplomatic, and legal corps, war-by-design seems not
only plausible, but probable. In fact, it appears that one the
Reagan-Bush-Clinton administrationsÕ major foreign policy objectives on Africa
is depopulation. This policy is proliferating under George Bush Jr.
"Civilian
destruction and dispersal [by the Sudan government] are the means of ensuring
that the opposition military forces in the south are denied food, or the aid of
a cohesive society," wrote Professor Eric Reeves in the Washington Post.
"It is a crude but terribly effective weapon of mass destruction. To make
sure of the genocidal efficiency of the bombing campaign, the Khartoum regimeÉ
is attacking with much greater frequency the medical and food relief programs
of those trying heroically to save people of the south from disease and starvation."
This
certainly is a nasty and crude and horrible way to wage war. It is also the
favored way of the United States. War is war. Virtually every sector of
American society profits by the perpetuation of war and its concommitant
horrors in Africa. Barring
some significant US gesture of reconciliation, do we honestly expect the
Khartoum government to sit "in good faith" at the same table and talk
-- with the duplicitous agents of western multinational corporations,
intelligence and the military – about PEACE? (END)