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
Chief Political Correspondent for Europe
Bulatlat.com

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

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