Representative (Jim McDermott) Confronts American Empire on House Floor

[marmar]

from AlterNet:


Representative Confronts American Empire on House Floor

By Jim McDermott, AlterNet. Posted May 26, 2007.



Jim McDermott (D-WA) rescues some history from the Memoryhole, and puts Iraq into context: It's always been all about the oil.

Editor's note: After a week that saw Democrats cave to the White House in the worst possible way on Iraq, we thought this speech, offered on the House floor by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) last Wednesday, was worth highlighting. In a brief, five-minute commentary, McDermott does something almost unheard of in Washington: he looks at an issue in its larger historical context instead of pretending it just sprung up overnight like mushrooms after a rainfall.

Mr. Speaker:

This President and Vice President have vowed to repeat the mistakes of history, and they have put into motion a plan to do just that in Iran, even as the House is about to send the President a box of blank checks for Iraq, against the will of the American people.

The history is worth knowing.

In 1953, the United States and United Kingdom launched Operation Ajax, a covert CIA operation to destabilize and remove the democratically elected government of Iran, including then Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.

Why? Oil.

Under Mossadegh, the Iranian government decided to reclaim Iranís rightful ownership of its national oil treasure, which had been exclusively controlled by the British who were taking 85 percent of the profits.

Oh, and by the way, the UK also kept the books secret, merely telling Iran what its 15 percent take was.

As soon as Mossadegh began to reclaim Iranís oil treasure, it was all over. Operation Ajax was set into motion.

The U.S. embassy in Tehran provoked phony internal Iranian dissent, while the Brits engineered an Iranian financial crisis by orchestrating a global boycott of Iranian oil. We brought down the Iranian government and installed the Shah.

For two decades, we propped up the Shah against the will of the Iranian people. It was all about controlling Iran. It still is. Today, ABC News is reporting exclusively that this President has authorized a new covert CIA plot to bring down the Iranian government.

I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the journalism produced by chief investigative reporter Brian Ross and Richard Esposito of ABC News.

This is their lead sentence in the story.

“The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.”

We’re back in 1953 and that worked out so well. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/52388/

[babylonsister]

1. I applaud Rep. McDermott; I just thought 'that was very brave of him',

and am astounded. Is free speech now something to be cherished because we hear it so rarely?

[Vincardog]

2. No reality is that commodity. The American people want to forget

that We started the radical Islamic movement.
WE funded and trained OBL and the Madrases to gin up resistance to the Russians in Afghanistan.

We had the N. Korean atomic energy program locked down and buried in cement under video surveillance until Dim Sun decided not to send the food and aid we promised.

We aided and abetted Saddam so he could be our proxy in the fight against Iran.

We sold him the WMDs he used against the Iranians and his own people. Find the picture of Rummy.


WE are the ones who told Israel not to enter into the Mid East peace agreement in the 60s.

The CIA has engineered government overthrows and death squads in our name for decades and people ask "Why do they hate us?"

Duh maybe because they have a memory.

[badgerpup]

3. Too many people do not know this, and they need to.

For them, the Middle East "...just sprung up overnight like mushrooms after a rainfall..." when the Shah was deposed by the Ayatollah Khomeni. :eyes::banghead:

...and I'll cop a 'guilty' plea on that up to about three years ago meself. :blush:

[badgerpup]

5. kick

:kick:

[chknltl]

4. Representative Jim McDermott has been my hero for some time.

While cheney was running around warning us about nuke clouds being a smoking gun, Jim McDermott was over in Iraq, (again) doing his own research. He was labeled "Baghdad Jim" for doing this by the freepers. When he came back he gave a speech on his findings which was aired by C-Span. I MADE MY KIDS WATCH THAT SPEECH! He claimed that the folks of Iraq were suffering from depleted uranium poisoning and they needed urgent and immediate help. He claimed that Iraqi hospitals were crippled due to lack of medicines. He claimed that there were likely NO WMD in Iraq and then he pointed his finger at the camera and said, "Make NO mistake about it: This is about oil and regime change!" (not EXACT words but close)

My step kid has since moved in with his mother, A republican precinct commander. She is trying to turn him into a freeper but so far she has been unable to undo the speech by Jim McDermott that I made him watch.

If I was a bit more computer savvy, I would find a way to dig up Jim McDermott's speech from that day a few years ago and post it here. It would likely make greatest page in under an hour! Jim was absolutely dead on with everything he said and predicted...and yet he was labeled Baghdad Jim by those who hated him and all but ignored by everyone else. He still works to sponsor and/or support legislation on the depleted uranium issue. Jim McDermott is every bit a National Hero to me as Jon Conyers is to many of you...they both have earned this! :patriot: