Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 6 March 9 - 15, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
U.S.
War Plans Target Oil, Liberation Movements – Sison The
United States (U.S.) is using the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as a license to
misrepresent as "terrorist" countries assertive of independence,
national liberation movements and progressive leaders. This was stressed by
Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the negotiating panel of
the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and formally tagged as
“terrorist” by the United States last year. By
D. L. MONDELO THE
HAGUE, The Netherlands – The United States (U.S.) is using the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks as a license to misrepresent as "terrorist" countries
assertive of independence, national liberation movements and progressive
leaders. Thus
stressed Filipino exile Prof. Jose Maria Sison in a lecture at the International
Coordinating Committee meeting of the International League of People’s
Struggle (ILPS) held March 1, 2003 in The Hague, The Netherlands. Sison is a
general consultant of the ILPS. The
ILPS is a worldwide alliance of more than 100 anti-imperialist organizations,
founded in May 2001 in The Netherlands. The ICC of the ILPS acts as the
alliance’s policy-making body in between assemblies. It meets once a year. Many
people say, according to Sison, that the U.S. could afford to cause the loss of
3,000 lives in the Sept. 11 attacks for far higher stakes. He
said that in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has been able to further
penetrate and tighten its control over Central Asia and South Asia and over
sources of oil in the Caspian Sea and Central Asia and has cleared the way for
an oil pipeline to the Indian Ocean via Afghanistan and Pakistan, under the
pretext of seeking to destroy Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But
after succeeding to install a new puppet government in Afghanistan but failing
to destroy Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, Sison argues, the U.S. has become
preoccupied with preparing a further war of aggression on Iraq under the pretext
that the Iraqi government is producing and stockpiling weapons of mass
destruction. The U.S., which is the biggest producer and stockpiler of WMD,
Sison said, cannot convince all its allies that Iraq is hiding such weapons. Lion’s
share "As
in previous wars of aggression, it is clear that the U.S. stands to grab the
lion’s share of spoils in its projected conquest and recolonization of
Iraq,” the NDF consultant said. “The U.S. wants to control directly the oil
resources of Iraq. In this country are 112 billion barrels of proven oil
reserves and over 250 billion of potential reserves. By controlling these, the
U.S. can completely dominate and render impotent the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC). It can thereafter have unquestioned hegemony over
the oil resources in all parts of the world." "Britain
plays close to the U.S. because British Petroleum has been absorbed by the
American Oil Company (AMOCO). The U.S. is also extremely anxious to reverse the
trend, started by Iraq in November 2000, to make the Euro the currency of oil
transactions among the OPEC countries," Sison added. Moreover,
Sison said, that while "the attention of the world is riveted on the
looming U.S. war of aggression on Iraq, the U.S. continues to encourage the
Sharon regime to slaughter Palestinians, expand the Zionist settlements and
dismantle the Palestinian authority. It also continues to increase its military
intervention and aggressive acts in the ‘second front against terrorism’ in
the Philippines and Southeast Asia." "It
(U.S.) has arrogantly announced, to the chagrin of its puppet Philippine
government that attempts to keep up the charade of ‘joint exercises’, that
U.S. special operations forces shall undertake combat operations against the Abu
Sayyaf group in Sulu, southern Philippines in flagrant violation of Philippine
sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is paving the way for military
aggression against the revolutionary forces and people represented by the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines," Sison said. Speaking
on the emergent anti-war movement, Sison says it is alright "that the broad
united front policy and tactics bring together the masses of various levels of
consciousness. Consequently, the progressive forces can spread anti-imperialist
consciousness among them. The anti-war movement must be consciously and
militantly given an anti-imperialist content. This can be done only if there are
revolutionary parties of the proletariat taking the lead, increasing their
initiative and growing within such a mass movement. This movement should be able
to expose and oppose the interventionist, aggressive, fascist, terrorist and
plundering character of imperialism." Strong
condemnation The
ILPS meeting in The Hague passed a resolution strongly condemning the U.S.’
war plans and called for strengthening links with the anti-war movement opposed
to the U.S. war of aggression on Iraq. It also passed a resolution demanding the
removal of its general consultant in the U.S. and EU lists of so-called
terrorists. Meanwhile,
Belgian, Dutch, Filipino and Turkish members of the ILPS-Netherlands and
Committee DEFEND joined the 80,000-strong anti-war demonstration in the heart of
the city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Feb. 15, to join the popular call to
oppose the U.S. war on Iraq. Members of Committee DEFEND linked the U.S.
labeling of terrorist on progressive leaders such as Sison, to its war agenda. The
campaign to defend Sison has generated a strong mass movement worldwide. This
mass movement, Committee DEFEND spokespersons say, would play an important role
in the legal battle against the terrorist listing of Sison. Last
Feb. 7, Sison’s lawyers filed before the European Court of Justice in
Luxembourg an application against the Council of the European Union that had put
him on its list of alleged "terrorists." Sison is demanding the
partial annulment of the Council Decision and that Council Regulation of 27 Dec.
2001 "on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and
entities with a view of combating terrorism" be declared illegal. The
Committee also announced that 50,000 new signatures would be presented before
the European Commission on April 15 this year. Philippine
people’s organizations are expected to deliver a big chunk of these
signatures. Since
last year, sectoral people’s organizations have conducted signature collection
in factories, churches, schools, urban poor communities, during protest rallies,
in government offices and in indigenous areas outside Metro Manila. To
illustrate how ordinary people in the Philippines support the campaign for Sison,
a community organizer told of a meeting with an indigenous community outside
Metro Manila. After the meeting which tackled the problem of land and food, the
organizer explained the violation of the rights of Sison, his persecution by the
Dutch government and unjust listing in the U.S. and EU as a terrorist. The members of the indigenous community readily manifested their support for the campaign by agreeing to sign the petition letter. But not knowing how to write, they offered to affix their thumbmarks instead to the petition to defend Sison. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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