"The U.S.A. has supplied arms, security equipment and training to governments and armed groups that have committed torture, political killings and other human rights abuses in countries around the world."
~ Amnesty International, "United States of America — Rights for All," October 1998.
~ Amnesty International, "United States of America — Rights for All," October 1998.
An update on the information about Ralston, Lockheed Martin and the PKK . . .
I metioned last week that a heval was working to get the information published. The article is now in print, in the UK, and can be seen online at the Socialist Worker Online.
It's actually pretty nice to have an editor.
Gelek sipas, heval, you know who you are.
Ditto to all those hevals who are working to spread the word.
My reason tells me that I shouldn't be surprised, shocked, stunned, or otherwise flabbergasted, that the mainstream media has not noticed the obvious evidence of the connections between Joseph Ralston, Lockheed Martin, the ATC, The Cohen Group, the American administration, the defense industry and the continuation of the war against the Kurdish people.
Another part of my reason tells me that I should be outraged that something so obvious is not reported by "professionals."
Yeah, outraged . . . that's the word.
By the way, Old Joe Ralston will be in Turkey on 11 October to coordinate the F-35 . . . uh, sorry, to coordinate the PKK. He'll be joined by all the usual suspects.
3 comments:
I thank you very much for this exposition of the conflict between Joseph Ralston's business interests and his role as a special envoy countering the PKK.
It is astonishing that a person who is on the payroll of a major arms manufacturer is appointed as an envoy to bring peace to turkey and Kurdistan.
It is outrageous that, while on behalf of the USA this special envoy is engaged with his Turkish counterpart in drawing a road map for a solution to the conflict between Turks and Kurds, his other employer, Lockheed Martin, is making arrangements to sell dozens of F-16 war planes to this already frighteningly large, unpredictably aggressive Turkish military.
This is nothing less than a huge scandal that directly affect the destiny of our people and the Kurds should have no bar of it.
It is even more scandalous when you think about the fact that none of the professional media outlets, Turkish, Kurdish or American, bothered to report this conflict of interests.
I assume the Kurdish media, being limited in resources, was caught unaware. It seems it occured to no one to make a background check or, until now, to Google up Joseph Ralston and follow the threads. This is a shameful neglect on our part.
But such extensive background checks are usually carried out by professional media, often as a standard procedure for people appointed to sensitive posts. So it will be impossible to imagine that no one in the US or Turkish media knew about this conflict of interests when Ralston was appointed. Not while he has such extensive ties to both the turkish lobby in the USA and the arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
I bet they knew of his ties all along; they knew there was a conflict of interest in discharging his duties; but they decided to keep mum about it, no doubt at the Kurds expense.
The Kurds must never allow and resist the US attempts to sub-contract its northern Kurdistan policy to an arms manufacturer.
Shexmus Amed
Reprinted in Kurdmedia.com:
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=13413
You are welcome, Heval.
I do not believe that Ralston, or any of the other PKK coordinators, were appointed to "bring peace" to anyone. If peace had been the goal, non-military coordinators would have been appointed, there would have been a positive response to PKK's proposed resolution in August, and there would have been a positive response to the current ceasefire. It is clear that not the US, nor Turkey, nor Iraq have any intention of peace and the "PKK coordinating committee" is tainted.
This appears to be an example of business-as-usual for the American administration. No one can say that the administration was ignorant of Ralston's connections.
As for Kurdish media being limited in resources, well, they are online, so they are as limited in resources as I am.
The problem is that Kurdish media may not realize the depth of the ties between the US and Turkey, or the activity between the two in American politics. Sibel Edmonds' information is very enlightening in this regard, because one sees the same names, repeated over and over again, in connection with the same corporations, government agencies, propaganda tanks, and special interest groups.
Obviously, the mainstream media does not examine the backgrounds of anyone, unless it will serve the interests of their masters. Since when is mainstream media any more legitimate than anything else anyway?
Because the connections between the US government, the defense industry, and the Turkish lobby are extensive, I am certain that Ralston is the tip of an iceburg. Another one to dig into is Marc Grossman and his job as "adviser" to Ihlas Holding. Grossman was a former ambassador to Turkey, from 1994 to 1997--significant, no? Coincides with Ciller's dirty government. Grossman is also a vice-chairman of The Cohen Group, along with Joe Ralston.
What will Baghdad get out of this deal, as part of the trilateral "PKK coordinating committee?" What did Talabani get out of it? What exactly are KDP and PUK doing in DC? With whom are they lobbying? For what are they lobbying? Whose interests do they serve?
See, the problem with digging up dirt is that you create more questions than you answer.
The F-16s are merely a temporary measure. The F-35 is the upcoming deal. It's an aircraft that is planned to be the premier attack aircraft until at least 2040. Turkey will decide to purchase either the F-35 or the Eurofighter (or a combination of both) by the end of this year.
It's odd that Shirwan al-Waili has had to express regrets, and will miss the meeting of the trilateral "PKK coordinating committee." But, that frees Ralston and Baser to talk alone, heart to heart, as it were.
I have no doubt Lockheed Martin's agenda will be THE agenda in Ankara today.
Thanks for the notice, Anonymous.
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