WhatWouldKarlDo

One more disillusioned by the lies.

Whatever credibility the United States had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began. Members of civil society have refused to respond to my efforts to contact them. Our office seeks to support journalists in the Middle East; yet when asked by NGOs if the US can help when Palestinian journalists are detained or killed in Gaza, I was disappointed that my government didn’t do more to protect them. Ninety Palestinian journalists in Gaza have been killed in the last five months, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That is the most recorded in any single conflict since the CPJ started collecting data in 1992.

February 29 is the anniversary of publishing of The Kerner Commission Report in 1968. The previous year had seen over 150 riots, and the US president had commissioned the report to determine the causes of the riots, and what could be done to make them stop.

The media and the vast majority of white people thought that it was the fault of communist agitators or young black hooligans, as could be seen echoed in the earlier McCone Commission. The report released on today's date told a very different story. The report was an absolutely scathing indictment of the racist US society from the top down.

Instead of victim blaming, the report described police brutality, a racist justice system, unemployment, racist financial institutions, and suppression of political will. As we've seen time and time again in the US regime, a people pushed to the brink will rebel against their oppressors. Whenever this occurred, a recurring theme was that the regime would send in the military to squash the uprising and issue deadlier weapons to the police, fueling further violence and outrage. The media would then over-report the white casualties and under-report the black casualties, while blaming black agitators for the riots.

The report suggested that the solution to the problem would be to treat black people as equals, and increase the amount of opportunities available to them. Of course, this greatly upset the white populace, the president included. A mere 18% of white people believed that black people were discriminated in hiring processes.

In the end, the US president had this to say:

“The Johnson administration would not shift resources from the war in Vietnam to social reform, and Congress would not agree to tax increases. Further, state legislatures routinely blunted the local impact of federal actions.”

In other words, bombing Vietnam was more important than caring for their own people, and it's too hard anyway. Today we can still this reflected in the demographics of the US. Black people are second only to the native peoples for poverty rates. And over double the rates for white people. Riots over racial inequality are still seen today. The regime's response remains the same, although the current priority is bombing Russians and Palestinians.

December 13 is the anniversary of Operation Red Dawn in 2003. An event much celebrated in the US, this operation led to the capture of a foreign leader, where he would be tortured for 3 years, and finally executed after a show trial.

The leader of course was Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The US had invaded his country two years prior, because in the words of US President George W Bush, "He tried to kill my daddy". Those might be the only true words he ever said about the war, although whether Saddam was actually behind the assassination attempt or not is in question. It's now known that planning for the war began immediately after the attack on the World Trade Centres in New York, even though none of the attackers had links to Iraq. Eventually, he came up with some nonsense about "Weapons of Mass Destruction", which sufficiently terrified the home of the brave enough to manufacture support for the war.

So, on December 13, they finally captured him, after eight months of unrestricted war crimes in Iraq. After 3 years of "enhanced interrogation", they put him on trial without a hint of irony, for war crimes. This wasn't done in an international court of course, but on a US military base in Iraq, with US puppets overseeing the trial. The UN Human Rights Commission stated that it was a clear violation of human rights law. But of course, they ensured the results that they wanted, and executed him for killing 148 Shi'ites. Interestingly enough, this is the exact number of women killed by NATO forces in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2014. I wouldn't hold your breath on sending US President Obama to Afghanistan to face trial for war crimes.

December 12 is the anniversary of The Bombing of Piazza Fontana in 1969, killing 17 people, and wounding another 88. Although the bombing was initially pinned on Anarchists, eventually it was discovered that the fascist group Ordine Nuovo was behind the bombings. A group with links to the US.

Now, I wish to preface this by saying that US involvement in this particular incident has not yet been proven. However, it is known that Operation Gladio was a very real program ran by the CIA. During the time period in question, Italy had a powerful communist party, and the US was quite eager to prevent them from being elected. According to General Gerardo Serraville, who commanded Gladio for some time, Gladio's role during the 1970s, was to "Fill the streets, creating a situation of such tension as to require military intervention", speaking about terrorist attacks that he perpetrated during the 70s and 80s in order to generate fear of the communist party. A 2000 report from the Italian government also claimed that the CIA was at minimum aware of the attack during its planning, and failed to report or act, but also implicates them in funding various fascist terrorist groups in Italy. The BBC has a great documentary on the subject as a whole.

There's also the matter of how quickly the crime scene was cleaned up, and evidence was destroyed. The anarchist they arrested first, "accidentally" died in a fall from the fourth floor of a police station. Over the years, repeated attempts have been made to bring the truth to light. We get glimpses now and then, such as with the Gladio reveal, and some US officers have gone to trial. As I mentioned at the outset, we still have no hard proof. But it would be in keeping with state sponsored terrorism that we do know about from that time period, continuing through the 80s and beyond.

December 11 is the anniversary of The Largest Mass Execution of US Soldiers thus far, in 1917. It should be completely unsurprising that these were all black men, and their trials were conducted swiftly with no appeals allowed.

In 1917, the US military was segregated down racial lines. The racist officers had the idea that black troops were inferior to white ones, and the black units should be tasked with non-combat and menial tasks. In July of that year, one of these units was tasked with guarding white troops that were preparing to leave for the war in Europe. The local police force however, felt that it was a travesty that they were wearing military uniforms at all and could give the local black population ideas. They continuously harassed them. They would arrest them arbitrarily, beat them, and generally make life miserable.

The breaking point came on August 23 of 1917. A black soldier who by all accounts was a model soldier, was arrested, shot at, and beaten by the police. Rumours quickly circulated that he had been killed. 150 of the soldiers decided that it was time to do something, and assembled. History is unclear on what their plan was, but modern historians think that the plan was to march into Houston and protest at the police station.

But regardless of their intentions, they never even made it into the city. A large group of armed white men met them at the outskirts. A gunfight soon broke out, leaving 4 soldiers, 4 policemen, and 12 white civilians dead. The Army quickly brought charges against 110 of the black soldiers. They were put on three mass trials, represented by an officer with no legal credentials. It took less than 3 days to convict the first group. 13 were murdered on this day. The other two trials were conducted just as swiftly, resulting in death sentences for another 16 soldiers. Due to public outrage, 10 of those were spared, but in total, 22 people were hanged, and 50 were sentenced to life in prison. Eventually, due to the tireless work of the NAACP, their sentences were reduced. The last men were released from prison 21 years later, in 1938.

It wasn't until 2023 that the US military acknowledged their wrongdoing. They gave them all honourable discharges, and the convictions were overturned, perhaps because none of the men were still alive today. The US military continues to discriminate against their black troops.

December 10 is the anniversary of the signing of The Treaty of Paris in 1898. This formally ended the Spanish-American War, which had been ongoing for 6 months.

The treaty transferred control of Guam, Puerto Rico, and The Philippines from Spain to the US. It was not possible to annex Cuba in the treaty, as the war was partially justified by seeking "Cuban Freedom". However, the US would place troops there, and the following century would see much meddling in Cuba's affairs in an effort to bring it to heel. The additions of the Spanish colonies marked the first of the US conquests outside of North America. The US regime now had a significant foothold on the Pacific, which they could use to further their ambitions.

Manifest Destiny had now expanded its scope, and more colonies were added in the next decades. Eventually Cuba and the Philippines would slip away, and the US regime would move away from direct colonial administration. They've laid claim to the entirety of the Americas. Today, the US has over 800 military bases outside of its borders stretching over the globe. They dictate terms to the world, and the list of their interventions is extremely long for those who challenge their authority.

December 9 is the anniversary of the partial release of The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA Interrogations in 2014. It detailed the extent of the CIA's crimes against its detainees during their "War on Terror" from 2001-2009.

The contents we know about are damning. It details the torture, abuse, and suffering that 119 prisoners of the CIA endured. Nearly a quarter of them were wrongfully detained. People were raped, kept awake for days, beaten, waterboarded, and even froze to death. The mental damage done to the prisoners was immense. Many of them attempted suicide, and many more suffer from debilitating mental problems as a result of their ordeal. As nearly anyone could have predicted, these "enhanced interrogation techniques" didn't provide any useful intelligence. The whole thing was a blatant act of sadism on the part of the regime's secret police, and a clear human rights violation.

"Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" were officially banned in 2009. But the crimes still continue. Guantanamo Bay still holds 30 prisoners. Nobody ever even faced charges for torturing prisoners.

December 8 is the anniversary of The First SWAT Attack in 1969. It marked the beginning of a new form of militarised police force.

SWAT is an abbreviation for Special Weapons And Tactics. The awkward sounding name is a remnant of their original name "Special Weapons Assault Team", that more accurately conveys the purpose of the unit. It was changed quite early on because it was a little too on-the-nose. The stated purpose of the team is to use military hardware and techniques to overcome heavily armed and dangerous criminals, such as terrorists or hostage takers. The product of the famously racist LA police chief Daryl Gates, who once said casual drug users "ought to be taken out and shot", the real truth behind its creation was made clear on this day.

The targets of course, were The Black Panthers, a political group composed of black socialists. The FBI had been spreading propaganda about the Black Panthers, and the police were eager to start raiding them. On this day, over 350 policemen descended upon Black Panther headquarters. There were only 13 Panthers in the building at the time, and in response to a large group of men shooting and tossing grenades at them, they fired back. Thousands of rounds were fired, and the police even brought in a tank. Several people were wounded, but amazingly enough, nobody died. At their trial, the Black Panthers successfully argued that they acted in self defence, and were acquitted of most charges.

The whole thing was a farce. They obviously didn't have much reason to raid the Panthers, much less bring in military equipment. But the fact that armed black people existed was terrifying to the whites in power. They had previously enacted gun control laws to disempower the Panthers. When that failed, their raid, resembling the rifle clubs of the previous century was the beginning of a new era.

Today, SWAT teams are employed by nearly two thirds of police departments in the country. In over 95% of cases, they are used against similar targets, rather than the dangerous criminals they are ostensibly for. The military even has a special program to provide military equipment to police departments. They still disproportionately attack black neighbourhoods.

December 7 is the anniversary of The Dos Erres Massacre in 1982. This was one of the worst atrocities of the Guatemalan genocide.

This day saw a US supported elite team within the Guatemalan military enter a village of nearly 400 people suspected of supporting leftist guerillas. Males were locked in a school, and the females were locked in a church. After a search of the village produced no communist or guerilla literature, they got to work on the people. Babies were killed first. They cracked their skulls, they threw them against trees, or down wells. They interrogated the villagers, torturing then killing them one by one. Women and girls were raped, then thrown into the well. They filled in the well with the survivors still crying.

This was not an isolated incident. Over the course of the genocide of the Mayan people, they would wipe out over 600 villages, totalling more than 200,000 people. Eventually, the war ended, and much like My Lai, a few select men were chosen to take the fall. Of the 58 men present on that day alone, 4 men received lengthy prison terms. The US and Canada made a big show of extraditing them and declared that justice had prevailed.

But the truth of the matter is much more akin to another famous individual who received US aid. The truth is that the US knowingly provided training and funding for the Guatemalan military, through the 80s. The implication is clear that the US regime did NOT care about the ongoing genocide, but more on optics:

The point is the rather obvious one that only in time will we and the Guatemalans know whether President Lucas is correct in his conviction that repression will work once again in Guatemala. If he is right and the policy of repression is succeedinq and will result in the extermination of the guerillas, their supporters, and their sympathizers there is no need for the US to implicate itself in the repression by supplying the GOG with security assistance.

and how they would spin things after the war:

If the repression does work and the guerillas, their supporters and sympathizers are neutralized, we can in the aftermath of the repression work to restore normal relations with the successors to President Lucas.

Which appears to be exactly what they did. They upped the funding from 11 million in 1980 to 104 million to 1986, but they figured that so long as they weren't actively participating in the massacres, they could either enjoy the destruction of communism in Guatemala, or show their morality after the war by saying that they didn't support any genocide. Perhaps by offering up a few of the soldiers as scapegoats and making a big show of their extradition.

December 6 is the anniversary of The Banana Massacre in 1928. The Colombian government, at the demand of the United Fruit Company, sent in the military to break a strike that by the workers on a banana plantation owned by the United Fruit Company, resulting in thousands of deaths.

The strike was intended to force the United Fruit Company to submit to these demands:

1. Stop their practice of hiring through sub-contractors
2. Mandatory collective insurance
3. Compensation for work accidents
4. Hygienic dormitories and 6-day work weeks
5. Increase in daily pay for workers who earned less than 100 pesos per month
6. Weekly wage
7. Abolition of office stores
8. Abolition of payment through coupons rather than money
9. Improvement of hospital service

The exact involvement of the US regime in this mass murder is still debated, as is the number of casualties, as the regime still denies involvement and downplays the incident to this day. However, we do have several telegrams between officials that tell a different story. The US called the striking workers subversives (communists) as a result of their demands, and one telegram in particular strongly suggests that the US regime had threatened an invasion if the Colombian government did not put down the strike by force.

The Legation at Bogota reports that categorical orders have been given the authorities at Santa Marta to protect all American interests. The Department does not (repeat not) desire to send a warship to Santa Marta. Keep the Department informed of all developments by telegraph

This was followed by another telegram from the ambassador to the Department of State that said he had the "honor" of reporting "that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military exceeded 1000." There could be little doubt about the US regime's stance on the matter. The United Fruit Company continued to enjoy the full support of the US government continuing to commit atrocities, labour violations, and even violent coups. Today they are known as Chiquita, and are still promoting violence in South America.

December 5th is the anniversary of the true start of The California Gold Rush in 1848. On this day, the US president officially confirmed the discovery of gold in California, beginning the movement of over 300,000 new settlers to the area. This would ultimately lead to the annexation of California by the US regime, and the estimated deaths of over 120,000 native peoples in the California Genocide.

California at the time was a lawless place, having just been conquered from Mexico earlier in the year. The prospectors brought by the gold rush were initially of mixed origin, but as claims started to become more scarce, the Anglo-Americans quickly started ramping up their hostility towards races deemed inferior. By this point, manifest destiny was a commonly held view, having been officially endorsed by the president 3 years earlier. Combined with a devout belief that they were racially superior to the native people, this set the stage for mass murder in the name of racial purity. The first US Governor of California, Peter Burnett, had this to say about being "forced" to exterminate the Indians:

That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate this result but with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.

In 1848, nearly a third of the remaining native population in the US was located in California, over 150,000 strong. Over the next 12 years, that would drop to 35,000. By 1900, it was under 16,000, and the settlers numbered over a million. The methods for their extermination were many. The first step of course was to take their land and sell it to white settlers. Left on worthless lands, survival became a struggle. Diseases spread rampantly, and food was difficult to come by. When faced with starvation, tribes would then steal cattle or other food. White settlers would then retaliate with mass murder. The regime funded death squads to hunt down and kill any Indians they could find. These were not isolated incidents. Although slavery was officially banned, an exception was made for Indians. This of course was running in parallel to the destruction of the land by invasive mining techniques, which further reduced the native tribe's ability to provide for themselves. Eventually, the regime would move on to kidnapping children and forcibly sterilising women. These policies would run well into the late 20th century.

But let's not forget that it wasn't just the native populace affected by the eugenics laws. Asian immigrants were also outcast from society and freely slaughtered. They were subject to racial taxes and immigration quotas not enforced upon white settlers. Today, discrimination is once again on the rise.

December 4 is the anniversary of the US regime seizing the assets of The Holy Land Foundation in 2001. This Palestinian-run charity was the largest Muslim charity in the United States, and its purpose was to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Palestine.

The US regime of course did not appreciate this action. They declared the charity a terrorist organisation with the claim that they were providing material support to win the hearts and minds of Palestinian people for Hamas. They provided no evidence to back their claims, and even acknowledged that all of the money went entirely towards humanitarian aid. But an Israeli intelligence officer testified that he "could smell Hamas". That was good enough for the US regime. They sentenced 5 of their directors to very length prison terms for the crime of feeding the hungry.

Today of course, the situation isn't much better. Israel continues to label humanitarian groups as terrorists, and blocks humanitarian efforts in Gaza entirely when they get too upset with the uppity natives. To avoid appearing completely heartless, the US regime has recently promised $100 million dollars in humanitarian aid to the Palestine people. This is substantially less than the amount that another Palestinian charity was ordered to pay in another questionable court decision, not to mention the funds that were seized from the HLF.