IMPORTANT NOTE: This article was posted October 3, 2006. There is at least one paragraph that was lifted from this article and plaguraized directly by writer “F. William Engdahl on 20 May 2007 in his article: Darfur? It's the Oil, Stupid...China and USA in New Cold War over Africa's oil riches. Engdahls’s article appeared on Global Research (20 May), Asia Times (25 May) and European Tribune (22 May).

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WAKE-UP AND SMELL THE OIL!

Challenge and Protest Mythmakers on “Genocide”—and Sweatshop Promoter—New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof and Smith College English Professor Eric Reeves.

THIS IS NOT A SHOW OF SUPPORT FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN NOR AN APOLOGY FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN! IT IS A CHALLENGE TO CARING WESTERNERS TO WAKE-UP AND SMELL THE INTERESTS AND SEE THAT IT IS A WAR, AND IT INVOLVES HUMANITARIAN CONCERN AS A TOOL OF STATECRAFT.

This announcement calls for protests against Nicholas Kristof (lectured Tuesday Oct. 3 at Amherst College) and for a widespread challenge to the works of Darfur genocide “expert” Eric Reeves. Nicholas Kristof is willingly deceiving the American public and openly calling for slavery in Africa. His writing on Sudan are part of the latest Western corporate foray in the ongoing campaign to invade and overthrow the Government of another sovereign, and Islamic, country. Eric Reeves has been deceiving the US public for a decade.

In at least 20 major pieces that have appeared in the New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof has peddled disinformation about “genocide” in Darfur, Sudan. Kristof is promoting a corporate military line that seeks to overthrow the government of Sudan and seize strategic resources. Smith College English Professor Eric Reeves has been published almost everywhere, and repeatedly.

Above: The bleak, hopeless landscapes of Sudan as re-presented in the New York Times feed stereotypes about wind-blown deserts and wandering nomads—indeed, there is nothing there. The “breadbasket of Africa,” Sudan is actually rich in lush, green agricultural lands, and not barren blackness, more heart of darkness, and it is through such images that consciousness is controlled to enable corporations and governments, and “humanitarian” agencies, with widespread public support or acquiescence, to expropriate and control Sudan. The text of such articles give only disinformation, ever attuned to the atrocities committed by roving murderers, but never to the people who fund, arm or advise them. Desert landscapes certainly exist, but so do plantation lands and vast oil concessions coveted by Western Agribusiness and Petrowarriors.

Nicholas Kristof is also aggressively advocating that ruthless multinational corporations should set up sweatshops in Africa to exploit poor black people. Claiming that “only no exploitation is worse than exploitation,” Kristof is furthering the racist discourse that suggests that Africans “choose and would prefer to be exploited” rather than “abandoned” to their own fate: being Africans in Africa. This is dishonest, deceptive, and blatant racism, and it is not far from the immoral and unethical agenda of pharmaceutical companies that intend to use live Africans for experimentation.

Nicholas Kristof hides the fact that multinational corporations are already involved in slavery all over Africa, and the public relations campaigns that Kristof serves @ New York Times never illuminate the pitiful slavery, despair and death which insures that diamonds, gold, coffee, chocolate, timber, oil and countless other resources are freely pillaged from Africa, while markets are expropriated, the environment is destroyed, and local people die like flies. Kristof hides the massive extractive mining operations ongoing in Africa, including coltan and cobalt, two of the most strategic resources found in abundance in the Congo and Zambia. Most of this infrastructure of exploitation operates under the protection of private military companies—mercenaries—and clandestine “rebels”—proxy armies—that are funded, armed and trained by corporate interests connected to the US, UK, Europe and Israel—even to trustees and alumnae of Amherst College.

Above: Funding behind the “Save Darfur” and Stop Genocide” campaign is remarkable. It is not as if the powers that be have suddenly developed a conscience. Fancy brochures, countless web sites, T-shirts, bumper stickers—even Save Darfur! Video-war-games. This is big business, no matter how you look at. Empire. The most pertinent question: What if we started it?

Like erstwhile Sudan “expert” Eric Reeves, Nicholas Kristof is intellectually dishonest. Both dismiss the resource grab for Darfur—the geopolitical flashpoint of the entire war for Sudan. Even New York Times insider, bureau chief and journalist Howard French, author of Africa: A Continent for the Taking, has conceded (interview) that Dr. Eric Reeves has been willfully dishonest.

African Union forces are trained and armed by the US and Israel. AU forces from Rwanda and Nigeria have committed massive war crimes and crimes against humanity in their own regions. Rwandan troops have pillaged and massacred in Congo and—if we apply the same standards used to define “genocide” in Sudan—have committed genocide against Hutus. Dyncorp and Military Professional Resources Inc., two ruthless Pentagon-connected mercenary outfits, are training Nigerian troops loyal to the Obasanjo Government, and these shock troops are at war with the indigenous people of the Niger River Delta: that too is all about oil, and it is no more, and no less, a genocide. But all the Christians have abandoned the Ogoni crusade, now, because they got rid of the unpredictable dictator, Abacha the butcher, and installed the businessman, Obasanjo the Obedient.

Above: More selective New York Times imagery selling confusion and hopeless and darkness about Darfur, and Sudan. This image is intentionally blurred (original) and the photographer for the NYT Magazine series won a major national award: not for the quality of the images, or the humanity of them, but for t he choice of subject matter and the propaganda campaign to which they are applied: Islamic “genocide” in Darfur. The image infers confusion, a muddling of the facts, which is exactly what the Western mass media apparatus has done to manufacture consent for the overthrow of the Government of Sudan on “humanitarian” grounds, the white man again running to rescue the not-so-noble savage, who is being killed by her not-so-noble African brothers.

US military objectives in Darfur—and the Horn of Africa more widely—are being served at present by the US/NATO backing of the African Union. In Darfur, NATO provides ground and air support for AU troops ever categorized as “neutral” and “peacekeepers,” but AU troops are another fighting force involved in the conflagration. Sudan is at war on three fronts, and each involves countries with a significant US military presence and ongoing military programs: Uganda, Chad, and Ethiopia. War in Sudan involves both US covert operations and U.S. and Israeli trained “rebel” factions coming in from South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and Uganda.

The Judeo-Christian front against Sudan is linked to right-wing think tanks and policy institutes in the USA, including Zionist groups and the Christian Coalition, and the “genocide” theme has its origins in these institutions, not in the realities on the ground in Sudan. These religious groups, with backing from the Holocaust industry in the US and the Jewish Affairs Council, from Henry Kissinger and Samantha Power, have today constituted a massive public relations campaign in an ongoing Holy War against the Islamist government of Khartoum, and Islamic people more generally. This is an affront to Holocaust victims and survivors, and it is all about money, power and it is founded on the fear and manipulation of Holy War.

Above: More New York Times imagery selling the fear of Islamic Jihad to the American public. Such photographs are re-presented in a proscribed corporate media environment that takes them out of context, while simultaneously excluding the full spectrum of images, and realities, that exist. Such realities include the presence and structures of western civilization, multinational corporations, American military agents, Christian missionaries, and expensive equipment and high-paid workers of the multinational “humanitarian relief” sector—an industry unto itself.

Of course, innocent men, women and children are caught in the middle, the victims caught in the middle of this nasty Western campaign aimed—as Dr. Eric Reeves from Smith College has openly advocated (Washington Post August 2004)—at regime change in Sudan. In their many columns and forums advertising the “genocide” in Darfur, these advocates of aggressive US foreign policies hide from the public the evidence of a massive resource grab in the Darfur region and the country as a whole. At stake in Sudan are vast petroleum reserves coveted by Exxon-Mobil, Total, Halliburton, Schlumberger and Chevron, and the entire Darfur region is one vast concession that is being fought over today. Almost the whole of Sudan is awash in oil: see it for your self on the oil industry maps at www.traprockpeace.org and www.allthingspass.com. Israel seeks to control the uranium reserves of Darfur. Coke and Pepsi and Pfizer and Merck and Unilever (owns Ben & Jerry’s) seek to control the Gum Arabic plantations of Darfur: home to some 80% of world supply and the best quality Gum Arabic in the world—and the source of USAID research projects in the 1980’s that were cancelled when the Sudanese decided to control their own destiny, and their own resources. When the Sudan government defends itself or fights back it is automatically committing genocide, no matter who actually does the killing, or who else is involved in the war. He same thing happened in Rwanda in the early 1990’s. The Rwandan Patriotic Front shot its way to power, but it was only the then government of Rwanda, who was justifiably defending itself from a foreign invasion, who was responsible for atrocities: the genocide label was discussed as early as 1989, and that occurred in Washington, at a meeting organized by US Committee for Refugees head Roger Winter. Winter, today, is head of USAID in Sudan. Recalling the darkened desert image above, there is a chilling winter in Sudan, indeed.

Above: Save the Children. More New York Times imagery saturating the Western public with the fear of Islamic Jihad. The message can be interpreted to have multiple meanings useful for manipulation of the cultural reading by the western news consuming public: this is Islam, and in juxtaposition to the dagger image selling Jihad, these children are being educated to become Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. This is simply not acceptable to the Christian Right, or the Zionist movement, who pursue religious fundamentalisms of their own, and a Holy War against Islam. Finally, these are victims of “genocide” whose bodies (and souls) must be saved—from the Islamic terrorists, and never from the clandestine and covert military interests from the West, who, as all the media make invisible, are not even there.

It was from his office at Smith College in the late 1990’s that Dr. Eric Reeves decided that “genocide” was being committed in South Sudan (not Darfur). This was NEVER substantiated, because it wasn’t true. Indeed, the “genocide in Darfur” claims originated from USAID operative Roger Winter, who has been feeding Dr. Reeves, and the theme first appeared based on Dr. Reeve’s imaginative, but corporatized, agenda advocating Holy War against the government of Khartoum. In this Holy War the victims have always been the Christians of the “beleaguered” south—where the US has maintained a massive covert war through their proxy forces the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Indeed, Sudan People’s Liberation Army leader John Garang was trained at Ft. Benning Georgia, the School of America’s killing and torture academy. Never have Reeves or Kristof publicized the atrocities committed by this or any other western-backed faction, and it is true today of their writings on “genocide” in Darfur: never are the US interests identified, never is anyone from the West involved, never are the clandestine military crusaders held accountable for their role in dismembering Sudan and wiping out her people. We instead get Nicholas Kristof holding up photos of dead and decaying bodies—the Secret Genocide Archive—that have been taken completely out of context. Like a criminal hiding his own role in a killing, Kristof—on the “irrefutable” pages of the New York Times—points the American public toward the Government of Sudan and screams: they did it.

The Secret Genocide Archives (blurring occurred through digitization: not in original).

Don’t miss the J.P. Morgan Chase advertisement, patting good Christians on the back, at the bottom of the same page….as if there is no connection. J.P. Morgan Chase is a major corporate ally of CARE and Refugees International, and certainly more than an interested observer waiting for the dust to settle over Darfur and its bloody oil fields. Directors are linked to Merck, Exxon, and other curious entities. Lockheed Martin supports CARE, and that company—the largest purveyor of conventional and futuristic weapons—does not care, we can be assured, about suffering Africans.

While the media has widely sold the “genocide” theme, progressives in the US have widely bought it. This includes women’s organizations, peace activists, religious groups, even Amy Goodman and Michael Moore. For experts on Sudan, Amy Goodman continues to look to Dr. Eric Reeves and Samantha Power, and she knows better. Democracy Now! recently ran a speech by Madeleine Albright about the importance of “humanitarian” intervention in Darfur. Albright’s mentors include Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger, and Albright ran the Clinton show for the invasions of both Yugoslavia and Congo. These are war criminals. Amy Goodman is failing us, and when she appears at Mt. Holyoke Wednesday night she deserves to be challenged as well.

George Clooney illustrates the Pentagon’s power over Hollywood. Turns out that the agency with the lucrative contract for Clooney’s publicity and management, Creative Artists Agency, was founded by William Haber, who is also on the board of directors of Save the Children, another agency with multi-millions-of-dollars-of-business concerns in the Sudan/Chad conflict. Count the corporate media connections on the Save the Children board and maybe you conclude that is why Save Dafur! is running so widely. These institutions won’t benefit the people of Sudan, they are tools of foreign policy, throwing crumbs to crying children, providing lush salaries for white “professionals”. It’s no coincidence that Save the Children gets funding from Exxon-Mobil to build a road connecting to the Darfur area, or that George Clooney has suddenly become concerned about starving Africans, or that the Save the Children board is stocked with media professionals from almost every major media corporation. If George Clooney really cared about human life he would think twice about investing in another three billion dollar entertainment complex, with strip tease poles planned for every room, in places like Las Vegas. If women’s groups care about the rights and freedoms of women, they should challenge George Clooney, not applaud him.

While using the face of suffering as a tool to manipulate the US public, these advocates of “intervention” in Sudan are not revealing their hidden agendas, or the people and organizations that they are linked to, or advocating for. Indeed, “humanitarian” relief in Sudan is a billions of dollars business, and the World Food Program, for example, is merely a conduit for dumping of polluted, spoiled, or surplus grain stocks, often genetically modified, purchased by the USDA from nasty agribusiness corporations like Cargill, ConAgra, Monsanto and—National Public Radio sponsor—Archer Daniels Midland—ADM—the “supermarket to the world.” This is why people are starving to death.

Running cover for big business, using food as a weapon, are “friends” of Africa like former Senator Bob Dole and former Ambassador Andrew Young, and organizations like the Bread for the World and Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in America, which have exclusive access to Congressional Hearings on pertinent issues. Bob Dole’s campaign is financed by ADM. Affiliated with both of the above, Bob Dole is also on the Committee On Conscience at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum—“responding, today, to threats of genocide”—and a leading cheerleader to Save Darfur. But these are not programs to cut poverty and hunger, but partnerships in plunder and profit, in the name of God.

It should be no surprise that Robert Dole and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni are Partners Against Hunger and Poverty in Africa: Museveni has supported US/UK military and economic imperatives since he shot his way to power (1985). And if there is a genocide in Sudan there is also one in both Congo and Uganda, but it is always those tribal elements—or the fanatical Christian’s of the Lord’s Resistance armies—that are doing the killing, never the US-backed factions, because these—thanks to the Kristofs and Reeves of the world—are not even there. War in Africa, indeed, proceeds in a vacuum. Or else we get tribals, drugged and naked, marching backward into war, impervious to bullets, with bathroom fixtures mounted on their heads, just like Newsweek tells us.

Above: Sudan People’s Liberation Army troops oversee a United Nations flight into South Sudan as part of the massive billions-of-dollars Operation Lifeline Sudan.

Any just accounting of events in Africa should instead challenge Amherst College students to explore and expose the role of trustees and alumnae like Edward N. Ney—a member of the board of directors of Barrick Gold Corporation, a G.H.W. Bush interest. Barrick is behind the brutal war in neighboring Congo—where at least seven million people have died—and is currently plundering gold reserves in nine Third World Countries (six in Africa). Barrick directors also include former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and former US Senator Howard Baker. Mulroney is also a director of Archer Daniels Midland. Goodworks International, the consulting firm of Andrew young, counts both ADM and Barrick Gold as clients. Barrick Gold interests are clearly connected to the ongoing campaign to deconstruct Darfur and dole out the resources. Amherst College affiliate Edward N. Ney is also the director of Burson-Marsteller, perhaps the world’s most secretive and massive public relations corporation. Their product? PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT. He is also on the American Ad Council board. Wake-up and smell the oil, and take appropriate action to hold the US and Israel accountable for war crimes in Darfur, Sudan, and every neighboring country in the region. Boycott the New York Times, and its agents, for what they are: purveyors of deception, despair and death.

For the innocent victims—

and I have just scratched the surface.

keith harmon snow

www.allthingspass.com

413 626 3800

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keith harmon snow has worked on the Horn of Africa as a consultant on genocide and humanitarian aid for the United Nations (2005), and he worked in Ethiopia, Sudan and the Congo as a human rights researcher and genocide investigator for Genocide Watch (2004, 2005) and Survivors Rights International (2004, 2005). A journalist and four-time PROJECT CENSORED award-winner, keith has also worked extensively (2004-2006) with the multinational peacekeeping forces of the United Nations Observers Mission for Congo (M.O.N.U.C.). In 2001 he reported from the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda, and he has worked or reported from 17 countries in Africa. In 2006 he has been working in Congo and Afghanistan: keith.harmon.snow@gmail.com <http://www.althingspass.com > .