Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
June 9, 2019
Hello All – Eight-five years ago – in July 1934 – the US Senate Committee on Munitions convened a hearing about arms trafficking and corporate-profits made by arms makers before and during the First World War. The hearing, lead by North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye, revealed a network of war-profiteers soon dubbed "The Merchants of Death." Private profiting in arms and munitions, the Committee found, led to a vested interest in war; and the Committee proposed nationalizing the industry.
Who are today's "Merchants of Death"? Certainly too many to mention in a few newsletter paragraphs, but US support for the Saudi war on Yemen, and the role of arms sales in cementing the US-Saudi alliance, illuminates a present incarnation of the Death Merchants.
Shortly after the beginning of his presidency, Trump went to Saudi Arabia and then boasted that he had secured contracts for $110 billion in arms purchases from US corporations. But there was growing concern in Congress that the Saudis were killing too many civilians with American bombs and missiles; and Sen. Menedez (D-NJ) put a "hold" on a significant shipment of arms already in the pipeline. In September, Sec. of State Pompeo issued a "certification" that the Saudis had improved their record re: civilian killings, but this was rejected as ludicrous. And then in October 2018, following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis, there was a strong call from congressional leaders and the mainstream media to punish the Saudis by ending or delaying the arms sales. Trump resisted, citing the money to be made and the jobs supposedly at risk, and perhaps mindful of the profits of the arms manufacturers. Stymied by Congress, Trump and Pompeo then cooked an "Iran Emergency," which supposed gave them the power to by-pass Congress and congressional approval on arms sales. And now Congress, both the House and the Senate, is working to block the Emergency declaration, and thus the weapons deliveries to Saudi Arabia.
This past week two new features of the "Merchants of Death" scheme were revealed. A report in The Wall St. Journal about the "resignation" of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charles Faulkner noted his role in persuading Sec. of State Pompeo and other State Department players to use the "Iran Emergency" ploy to by-pass Congress and allow $2 billion in weapons made by Raytheon to be shipped to Saudi Arabia. And it turns out that Faulkner had formerly been employed by Raytheon as a lobbyist. As promoting such a sale that would benefit a recent employer is contrary to the supposed ethical guidelines of the Administration, it may turn out that Faulkner's role in promoting the "Emergency" and thus the arms sales may generate additional congressional opposition to the sales. [Link] and [Link].
In another development, we learn that the Trump administration is allowing Raytheon and other US arms makers to transfer the technology to Saudi Arabia that would allow them to manufacture advanced weapons themselves, without need for any congressional approval. Such transfers are not always done, because the USA then loses control of who will end up with these advanced weapons and whether they will be friend or foe.
Two weeks ago the Trump people informed Congress that they would be going ahead with 22 weapons deals with Saudi Arabia, worth a total of $8.1 billion. Last Wednesday Republican and Democratic Senators said they would propose and debate 22 legislative items to block each one of the proposed sales. Also, Congressman Engel's House Committee on Foreign Affairs has scheduled a hearing next Wednesday (June 12th) titled "What Emergency? Arms Sales and the Administration's Dubious End-Run around Congress," with testimony from Clarke Cooper, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. This will pave the way for possible legislation, parallel to that being developed in the Senate, that under the terms of the Arms Export Control Act gives Congress the right to stop a major weapons sale by passing a resolution of disapproval in both the Senate and House.
What can WE do? Although the Democrats in both the House and the Senate seem pretty solid in opposing these arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the devil may be in the details. I am told, for example, that Congressman Engel is wavering on blocking a particular class of weapons, which happens to include bombs and missiles. In any case, we can put our thumb on the scales by calling Senator Charles Schumer: (202) 224-6542; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand: (202) 224-4451; Congresswoman Nita Lowey: 202-225-6506; and Congressman Eliot Engel: (202) 225-2464 Just tell the phone answer/person that you want the Senator/Congressman to oppose each and every weapon sale to Saudi Arabia, no exceptions.
News Notes
As William Faulkner wrote, "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." This was illustrated once again during last week's celebrations of D-Day – the British/US/etc. landing in Normandy, France in 1944. While the Germans were invited to the official ceremonies, the Russians were not, despite the fact that they had been fighting Hitler for three years. While Americans are taught (as I certainly was) that the war was won in the West by General Eisenhower, the war was fought and won/lost primarily in the East, and by the time of D-Day the Germans had, for all practical purposes, been defeated. It is also worth remembering that hundreds of thousands of Moslem, Hindu, and other "non-Western" soldiers fought against Hitler.
The Nation magazine has inaugurated a "Next Left" podcast series. The first guest was Rep. Ilhan Omar; check out this interesting, 33-minute program.
So now Americans are once again banned from visiting Cuba. Last year 630,000 visited, mostly via "people-to-people educational travel." But this loophole in travel restrictions was closed last Tuesday. Why is our government doing this? Find out here.
June 30th will mark the 50th anniversary of the "Stonewall Rebellion." This date, often said to mark the beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement, has in recent years been celebrated with a Gay Pride Parade. But this year a ""Reclaim Pride's Queer Liberation March" will take place shortly before the traditional parade. The event promises no police, no corporate-sponsored floats, etc., and a March instead of a Parade. For more information, go here.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – Weather permitting, the CFOW stalwarts gather every Saturday from 12 to 1 PM at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) to protest war and other evils. Please join us!
Thursday, July 4th – Mark your calendars for the more-or-less annual CFOW 4th of July Picnic. All CFOW friends are invited to a picnic on the lawn/porch of the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 1 to 5 p.m. We'll have a grill and hot dogs and maybe a few other things. Come see old friends and make new ones!
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We (usually) meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. As always, we have some excellent "Featured Essays," I also highly recommend the articles on the Democratic Party's opposition to a presidential debate on our climate crisis; Jeremy Scahill's excellent/brief podcast about the significance of the US attempt to punish Julian Assange; and a "Rising Up with Sonali" interview with a leader of Jewish Voice for Peace discussing Jared Kushner's "Peace Plan" for Israel/Palestine. And of course there's lots more good stuff.
Rewards!
The Newsletter's Rewards are for those who have worked their way through the first part of the Newsletter, and deserve a brief rest stop before heading into the grisly news of the week. This week's Rewards are all about the great Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr. (a/k/a Dr. John), who passed away last Thursday. There are a zillion of his songs on line. Check out "Mac's Boogie"; "Such a Night"; "Goodnight Irene"; and "Didn't He Ramble/"Closer Walk with Thee." RIP Dr. John.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) "They Are Not the Central Park 5": Ava DuVernay's Series Restores Humanity of Wrongly Convicted Boys
From Democracy Now! [June 7, 2019]
---- We spend the hour with Ava DuVernay, whose damning new four-part television series "When They See Us" tells the story of five teenagers of color from Harlem—four African-American and one Latino—who were wrongfully accused and convicted of raping and nearly killing a white woman out for a jog in New York City's Central Park. The night that would come to define the boys' lives was April 19, 1989, more than 30 years ago. In the sensational trial that followed, they became known as the "Central Park Five." Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana served between six and seven years, and Korey Wise, the only teenager tried as an adult, served more than 13 years. In agonizing detail, "When They See Us" exposes the inner workings of a criminal justice system designed to fail people of color, laying bare the decades of trauma triggered by the boys' wrongful convictions. … Ava DuVernay says that her series reveals that "the system's not broken; the system was built this way." [See the Program]
(Video) The 2020 election: An Interview with Noam Chomsky
[FB – This 42-minute interview covers several issues, from Venezuela to the 2020 election. User-friendly]
[May 20, 2019] [Link]
How Bad Can Brexit Get?
By Gary Younge, The Nation [May 30, 2019]
---- Not only did Labour's realignment prove to be more popular than anyone—including Labour—had guessed; it reconnected the Labour leadership with its base, making the party more electorally viable. Though that synergy has since been strained by Brexit, Labour currently enjoys a 10-point lead over the Conservatives. It is in no small part the prospect of a Corbyn government, with its redistributive agenda, that has kept the Tories clinging to office. … The last thing the Tories wanted was a general election in which Labour might win. This is still true, and as fractious and fratricidal as the forthcoming leadership contest will be, one can expect Conservatives to close ranks once it is over. Tories remain fearful of the "bearded Marxist" waiting in the wings. [Read More]
The Seasons after the Arab Spring
By Gilbert Achcar, Le Monde Diplomatique [June 2019]
---- Images of popular protests that recall the revolutionary movement of 2011 have dominated news from the Arabic-speaking world for months. Uprisings began in Sudan on 19 December and in Algeria with the marches of Friday 22 February. They revived memories of the huge, peaceful demonstrations early in the Arab Spring that shook Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and Syria. Commentators have been more cautious this time, asking questions rather than commenting directly, mindful of the bitter disappointment that followed their initial euphoria over the Arab Spring. … Given this counter-revolutionary trend, the uprisings in Sudan and Algeria seem for now less like a new Arab Spring than isolated upsurges in a shifting, contradictory context. They might grow and spread, or be brutally halted; in any event, their outcome will greatly affect the region's future. They have however confirmed that 2011 was only the first phase of a long-term revolutionary process. … The problem in the Arab world is not adapting political systems to societies and economies that have reached maturity, like those of Latin America or East Asia, where political modernisation put the finishing touches to a process of socioeconomic modernisation; rather, it is eliminating political systems that have hindered social and economic development since the 1980s. The main symptom is youth unemployment, in which this region has long held the world record. [Read More] For an update what's happening in Sudan, see (video) "Massacre" in Sudan: Protesters Continue Call for Civilian Rule After Military Kills 100+ at Sit-in," from Democracy Now! [June 6, 2019] [Link]
WAR & PEACE
The Trump Administration's Intended Withdrawal From the INF Treaty Threatens National Security
By William A. Nitze, The Nation [June 7, 2019]
---- On February 2, 2019, President Trump notified Russia under Article XV of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) of the United States' intent to withdraw in six months. The president based his decision on the claim that Russia is building and deploying a new type of cruise missile known as the SSC-8 that violates the treaty and jeopardizes US national security. On the same day that President Trump announced his intention to withdraw, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a televised meeting that the Russian "response will be symmetrical"; he formally suspended Russia's compliance on March 4. … The Senate must respond to President Trump's recklessness by asserting its powers under Article 2 of the Constitution. The most persuasive interpretation of the Treaty Clause requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate to withdraw from the INF, just as it required a two-thirds majority for the treaty to enter into force. [Read More]
For the US and Israel, Iran Works Best as a Perpetual Threat
By Miko Peled June 03rd, 2019
---- According to a story in Haaretz, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said recently that "the United States will respond with military force if its interests are attacked by Iran." However, there are several reasons why Israel and the U.S. will not attack Iran, at least not directly. Al Jazeera reports that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, said that the idea of war is "far-fetched" because Washington and its allies know they would pay a heavy price. Nasrallah is most likely right. … While attacking Iran would prove to be fruitless, threatening an attack on Iran and not attacking is far more useful. Both Israel and the U.S. need Iran: they need to be able to point to Iran as a threat, as a menace, as the source of terrorism and evil in the world. That threat is also an important part of any election campaign for politicians in both countries. The fact that Iran is none of those things is beside the point. [Read More]
OUR HUMAN-CAUSED CLIMATE CRISIS
The Democratic Party Is Trying to Downplay Climate Change. Don't Let It.
By Justin Gillis, New York Times [June 7, 2019]
---- Now we know. The Democratic Party establishment in Washington really believes it is going to get away with running another round of presidential primaries in which the climate crisis is basically hidden in the attic. The proof came this week, when the Democratic National Committee informed one of the candidates, Jay Inslee, that it had turned down his call to hold a candidate debate specifically about climate change. People are roasting alive in California towns hit by the deadliest wildfires in the state's history. Midwestern cities are reeling from deluge upon deluge. Coastal communities are starting to drown from a relentlessly rising sea. None of that is enough, apparently, for the Democratic Party to choose to put this issue front-and-center in the primary campaign. Not only did the D.N.C. turn Mr. Inslee down; according to him, the party informed him that he would be banned from party-sponsored debates if he took part in any unofficial candidate debate on climate change. [Read More] For more on this DNC malpractice, read "Dammit, Democrats! Organize a Climate Debate!" by John Nichols, The Nation [June 7, 2019] [Link].
KILLING JULIAN ASSANGE
(Video) The Prosecution of Julian Assange is an Attack on Our Freedom of Speech
[FB – In this short video, Jeremy Scahill (The Intercept) gives us an excellent update and overview of the attack on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, and the reasons why the US government is doing this.] [See the Program]
WikiLeaks Warns US Justice Department Preparing More Charges Against Assange
By Oscar Grenfell, Popular Resistance [June 8, 2019]
---- The US Justice Department is preparing even more charges against journalist and publisher Julian Assange, WikiLeaks warned Thursday. The charges, WikiLeaks said, would be based on the testimony of Sigurdur Thordarson, an FBI informant previously convicted of fraud, who recently travelled to the United States to answer questions aimed at preparing a new indictment. The news came the same day as fresh warnings about the deterioration of Assange's health. Assange's father, John Shipton, was scheduled to visit his son in Belmarsh Prison but was turned away and told Assange was seeing a doctor for an apparently urgent visit. … Earlier this week, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer warned that Julian Assange could die in prison if his persecution is not stopped immediately. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Trump Administration Making It Harder to Find Out Whether It's Fighting White Supremacist Terror
By Natasha Lennard, The Intercept [June 8, 2019]
---- Instead of being a legal category, "domestic terrorism" is used by federal law enforcement as a framework to organize and describe cases and investigations. But thanks to a recent shift in how the FBI classifies its domestic terror categories, the answer to Tlaib's urgent question, "what happens" to white supremacist threats, writ large, is all the harder to discover. … The new nomenclature reflects the Trump administration's ideological commitment to enabling white supremacists. But the new classifications are more than semantic: They render it impossible for the public, or even elected officials, to know whether the FBI is dedicating resources to investigating the very real threat of white supremacist terror or if those resources are going toward the harassment of Black Lives Matter and civil rights activists. Only the former use of government time and money would be justified, but both cases would fall under "racially motivated extremism." [Read More]
The Scandal of Puerto Rico's Botched Disaster Relief
By Mark Weisbrot, LA Times [June 1, 2019]
---- Here is a scandal: Puerto Rico has a Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), created by the US Congress and appointed by the president of the United States, in charge of its finances. Its budget, financed by Puerto Rico's taxpayers, is $1.5 billion over five years, or $300 million a year. How much money is that relative to Puerto Rico's economy? Well, if it were the US economy, it would be more than $85 billion dollars a year. To be clear: this is not a government, but just a board that examines and projects the government's finances. Imagine if the US Congressional Budget Office had a budget of $85 billion a year (its actual annual budget is $50.7 million). The vast majority of the FOMB's budget ($1.1 billion) goes to advisers and consultants. And there are serious potential conflicts of interest among the board itself. How can this scale of corruption, overseen by the US Congress, even happen? It's because Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but they have no voting representatives in the US Congress. [Read More]
---- Here is a scandal: Puerto Rico has a Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB), created by the US Congress and appointed by the president of the United States, in charge of its finances. Its budget, financed by Puerto Rico's taxpayers, is $1.5 billion over five years, or $300 million a year. How much money is that relative to Puerto Rico's economy? Well, if it were the US economy, it would be more than $85 billion dollars a year. To be clear: this is not a government, but just a board that examines and projects the government's finances. Imagine if the US Congressional Budget Office had a budget of $85 billion a year (its actual annual budget is $50.7 million). The vast majority of the FOMB's budget ($1.1 billion) goes to advisers and consultants. And there are serious potential conflicts of interest among the board itself. How can this scale of corruption, overseen by the US Congress, even happen? It's because Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but they have no voting representatives in the US Congress. [Read More]
In the Heart of Real-Estate Power, a Housing Movement Nears Victory
By Jimmy Tobias, The Nation [May 30, 2019]
---- This crisis is not confined to New York City or even to New York State. In Capital City, a new book on the spreading urban-housing crisis, author Samuel Stein writes that there is "not a single county in the country where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford the average two-bedroom [rental home]." The disappearance of affordable rent has many and complex causes. On the one hand, wages in this country have been stagnant for decades. On the other, demand for rental housing is on the upswing, especially since the 2008 financial crisis, which, by 2016, had dragged homeownership in this country to a 50-year low. … Whether the housing-justice movement can persuade Cuomo to buck pressure from the real-estate industry and side with renters is the crux of its struggle. And with the June deadline to renew New York's rent regulations approaching, tenant activists and their allies say they aren't taking any chances. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
(Video) Why Kushner's Middle East Peace Plan is Doomed
From Rising Up with Sonali – An interview with Sonya Meyerson-Knox, Media Program Manager with Jewish Voice for Peace.
---- President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner thinks he knows enough about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to solve it. The White House advisor has apparently been working on a secret peace plan for two years and traveled to Israel in late May to roll it out. But his arrival coincided with political chaos in Israel as newly reelected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government. Meanwhile Kushner's position on Palestinian self-determination was on full view during a recent Axios interview where he doubted Palestinians' ability to rule themselves. Separately at a private event State Secretary Mike Pompeo's remarks were leaked to the Washington Post where he claimed that Kushner's plan was, "unexecutable." [See the Program] And this just in: "U.S. Ambassador Says Israel Has Right to Annex Parts of West Bank," New York Times [June 8, 2019] [Link].
'Blind Spot' on Palestine is consistent feature of US policy for past century
By Josh Ruebner, Mondoweiss [June 5, 2019]
[FB – This is a review of Khaled Elgindy, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians from Balfour to Trump]
---- Khaled Elgindy's conclusion that "the Trump era signaled a notable shift in US policy from ambivalence toward Palestinian leaders and Palestinian statehood to total indifference" (p. 246) seems a measured understatement. And while the Trump administration may differ from its predecessors in its bombast and flair for the dramatic policy announcements, as Elgindy persuasively demonstrates, "Trump's radical policy reversals on Jerusalem and refugees," by moving the US embassy to the contested city and cutting US funding to UNRWA, "were not so much a 'new approach' to resolving the conflict, as his administration has claimed, as they were the culmination of the old approach." (p. 249) "Long before Trump arrived in the White House, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and other presidents going back to Lyndon Johnson had already been working to sideline the issue of Palestinian refugee rights" and were guilty of "steadily chipping away at UN Security Council Resolution 242 and the 'land-for-peace' formula by lending tacit approval to Israeli settlement construction," (p. 250) Elgindy notes. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Africa's Lost Kingdoms
By Howard W. French, New York Review of Books [June 27, 2019 Issue]
---- There is a broad strain in Western thought that has long treated Africa as existing outside of history and progress; it ranges from some of our most famous thinkers to the entertainment that generations of children have grown up with. There are Disney cartoons that depict barely clothed African cannibals merrily stewing their victims in giant pots suspended above pit fires.1 Among intellectuals there is a wealth of appalling examples. Voltaire said of Africans, "A time will come, without a doubt, when these animals will know how to cultivate the earth well, to embellish it with houses and gardens, and to know the routes of the stars. Time is a must, for everything." Hegel's views of Africa were even more sweeping: "What we properly understand by Africa, is the Unhistorical, Undeveloped Spirit, still involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be presented here only as on the threshold of the World's History." One can hear echoes of such views even today from Western politicians. Donald Trump referred to a number of African nations as "shithole countries" in 2018, and French president Emmanuel Macron said in 2017, "The challenge Africa faces is completely different and much deeper" than those faced by Europe. "It is civilizational." It may remain a little-known fact, but Africa has never lacked civilizations, nor has it ever been as cut off from world events as it has been routinely portrayed. Some remarkable new books make this case in scholarly but accessible terms, and they admirably complicate our understanding of Africa's past and present. [Read More]
