French president François Hollande will be visiting President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday. He will visit Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday. For upcoming events, see accuracy.org/calendar.
Brussels, with 170,000 residents — and seat of the headquarters of NATO and the EU — is under lockdown.
DIANA JOHNSTONE, diana
Johnstone, a Paris-based journalist, recently wrote the piece “Terrorist Attacks in Paris: Can Tragedy Bring Change?” for Counterpunch. Her new book is Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton. She writes: “By stressing that now we are ‘at war,’ President Hollande seemed to be mimicking the U.S. reaction to 9/11. But at war with whom exactly? France has been a foremost supporter of the ‘Assad must go’ line. Does France need to change wars? Should it, could it, possibly change foreign policies?
“President Obama went on television with statements of solidarity while the attacks were still going on. These statements were naturally played up by media wishing to use these attacks to secure and strengthen current U.S. domination of French foreign policy.
“Israeli condolences were quickly used by the usual commentators to stress that Israel understands us and stands by us, because Israel is a perpetual victim of such terror attacks, these days with ‘knife attacks…’ No, the attacks by desperate Palestinians are not the same as the gratuitous murders in Paris. That claim is familiar: because of 9/11, and now because of November 13, we are all in the same boat with Israel, fighting the same enemy. But which enemy, after all? The enemy of Israel is Hezbollah, which just suffered a devastating attack in Beirut from the same sort of people who massacred Parisians.” [see “Nasrallah’s Speech Right After the Paris Attacks: Condemns ISIS, Embraces Syrian Refugees.” Johnstone previously wrote Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions.
DEMBA MOUSSA DEMBELE, dembuss at hotmail.com
Demba Moussa Dembele is an economist from Senegal and member of African Social Forum. He said today: “Mali is one of the main collateral victims of the destruction of Libya and the assassination of President Gaddafi by NATO imperialist forces, led by the U.S., France and the UK.
“The invasion of Northern Mali was a direct consequence of Libya’s destruction. As the world is witnessing every day, Libya has become a nest of terrorist groups.
“So, what happened in Bamako this Friday, November 20th, is another manifestation of the spread of terrorism to the Sahel region as a result of NATO’s invasion of Libya.
“Therefore, it is fair to say that the U.S., France, the UK and their NATO allies are the main parties responsible for the terrorist attacks in Bamako and in other countries of the Sahel region.”
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at illinois.edu
Boyle is professor at the University of Illinois College of Law. In his book on Destroying Libya and World Order, Boyle predicted the outcome of the Libya intervention would be a collapsed state and increased jihadi elements in nearby countries including Mali and Algeria. The New York Times reports now: “Mali Hotel Attackers Are Tied to an Algerian Qaeda Leader.”
He said today: “The UN Security Council resolution passed over the weekend was not a Chapter 7 resolution, so legally it doesn’t authorize the use of force, but the U.S. and France will use it to give legal cover for their illegal bombing of Syria, which has gone on for more than a year now. It appears that British Prime Minister Cameron will now be doing the same. The Russian bombing of Syria is technically legal because they have the explicit permission of the Syrian government, but of course Putin will ultimately act in accord with his interests, not what is best for the Syrian people.” Boyle’s other books include Tackling America’s Toughest Questions and Biowarfare and Terrorism.
