{"id":110200,"date":"2020-12-29T18:26:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T01:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110200"},"modified":"2020-12-29T18:26:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T01:26:18","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c4a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/29\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-part-2-c4a\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 C4a"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The US is well known for its political and\nmilitary interventions. USA started to meddle in the politics of other\ncountries in the 1950s.  The first coup\nwas in 1953. This was in Iran where the duly elected and highly popular\nMossadegh was removed and the Shah of Iran installed. Mossadegh was going to nationalise\nBritish oil assets in Iran. Anglo\nIranian Oil Company   had full control of\nall the Iranian oil, which it was pumping and taking away. The coup was carried\nout by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency<\/a> (CIA) with Britain\u2019s MI6 helping.  The Shah was very unpopular. He ruled cruelly\nusing the secret service SAVAK. USA eventually had to come and take him and his\nfamily to USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The matter did not end there. In 2013, Iran\u2019s\nparliament approved a bill to asking the Iranian government to sue the US for\nits involvement in the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran\u2019s democratically elected\nPrime Minister, Mossadegh and replaced him with Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.  Media\nreported that USA and UK are\nnow trying to hide the documents related to this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second coup was in Guatemala in 1954. This was a covert\noperation carried out by CIA that deposed<\/a> the democratically elected<\/a> Guatemalan President Jacobo\n\u00c1rbenz<\/a> and  installed the military dictator<\/a>  Carlos Castillo Armas.<\/a> This was the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian\nrulers in Guatemala<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coup was pushed through due to the United Fruit Company, an\nAmerican company which owned all of Guatemala’s banana production and banana\nexports. UFC also owned Guatemala\u2019s telephone and telegraph system, and almost its\nentire railroad track. President \u00c1rbenz engaged in land reform and granted\nproperty to landless peasants. The United Fruit Company<\/a>   feared that this would\naffect their highly profitable business. They contacted USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 USA President Eisenhower authorized the CIA to\ncarry out the operation. The CIA armed, funded, and trained a force of 480\nmen.  US also launched a heavy campaign\nof psychological\nwarfare<\/a>. A radio station broadcast anti-government propaganda and a\nversion of military events favorable to the rebellion. The psychological\nwarfare and the fear of a U.S. invasion succeeded in intimidating the Guatemalan\narmy<\/a>, which refused to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The coup was widely criticized\ninternationally. It helped to strengthen the long-lasting anti-U.S.\nsentiment in Latin America<\/a>. Castillo Armas quickly assumed\ndictatorial powers, banning opposition parties, imprisoning and torturing\npolitical opponents, and reversing the social reforms of the earlier ruler.\nNearly four\ndecades of civil war<\/a> followed in Guatemala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a third well known regime change\ncarried out by USA, that of Chile.By\n1973 Chile had enjoyed 41 years of peaceful democratic rule and the popular\nAllende was leading the country. Allende was going to nationalize the copper\nmines which USA was eyeing. CIA had tried and failed to stop Allende becoming\nPresident.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allende was over thrown by a covert CIA\noperation. His successor, Pinochet ran a military dictatorship for 17 years.\nPinochet kidnapped, tortured and killed nearly 13,000 citizens. Pinochet cut\ngovernment expenditure and removed price control. Pinochet abolished the public\nschool system, privatizing even kindergartens and cemeteries. He got rid of\nfree milk for school. Pinochet was deposed in 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There were suspicions\nabout the death of Pablo Neruda as well in connection with Chile. He had been\nplanning to leave for Mexico to lead the opposition to Pinochet regime when he\ndied in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US bolstered repressive and murderous military dictatorships all\nover Latin America.  Bolivia was ruled\nfor nearly two decades by military dictatorships<\/a>. Bustamante, president of Bolivia had in the mid 1990s,    sold off the national oil company, railway,\nelectricity and phone companies to foreign firms. There were also plans to\nprivatize water. Carlos Menem sold Argentinean assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela said\nin 2014 that US wants our oil and that is why they are encouraging a Ukraine\nlike coup against the government. Analysts\nnoted that in Venezuela, US had moved from its usual strategy of supporting\nopposition parties and NGOs to obtaining the support of the youth. US funding\nin Venezuela was directed towards youth and student groups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student\nleaders were sent to US for workshops and conferences on internet activism and\nmedia networking.  They were trained in\nthe use of social networks to mobilize political activism. They were trained in\ntactics to promote regime change via street riots, also the strategic use of\nmedia to portray the government as repressive. In 2007 these student groups\ntook to the streets in Caracas. The protests were composed mainly of middle and\nupper class youth and opposition politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 US are opposing the current Venezuela President,\nMaduro. Washington tried to oust Maduro with economic sanctions, including an\noil embargo in April 2019.  In 2019 USA\nrecognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the President. Guaido\u2019s wife was\ninvited to Washington where she was photographed with President Trump. Guaido\nwas also recognized by some countries, with others opposing.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Maduro\nhad in 2017, sidelined the opposition controlled National Assembly by creating\nin 2017 an all-powerful Constituent Assembly stacked with his supporters. The\nSupreme Court   declared legislation\npassed by the National Assembly null and void. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 2020,\nMaduro seized total control of Venezuela\u2019s political institutions with a\nsweeping victory in the 2020 elections. The elections were boycotted by the\nmain opposition parties  and turnout was\nlow with 69 percent abstaining. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the\npolls as a fraud and a sham\u201d engineered by Maduro. Canada and the Organization\nof American States said they would not recognize the election result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  However, the election gave Maduro\u2019s ruling\nSocialist Party control of an expanded 227-seat National Assembly, which had\nbeen the only official body held by the opposition. This further weakened the\nposition of Juan Guaido. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA said Central America came under USA\u2019s \u2018sphere of influence\u2019\nand was a special concern for the US. Instead of helping Central America\nblossom, US installed corrupt regimes and crime syndicates in Central American\ncountries. These regimes crushed progressive social movements, unleashed death\nsquads, and killed peasants, students and workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three of these Central American interventions are well known. The most\nprominent is the case of Cuba. The animosity between Cuba and USA is well\nknown. In the 1960s, US had approved Operation Mongoose, a secret plan aimed at\ncreating a rebellion in Cuba that the United States could support. While the\nKennedy administration planned Operation Mongoose, Soviet Premier Khrushchev\nsecretly introduced medium-range nuclear missiles into Cuba. Cubans later used\nthese to shoot down a U.S. reconnaissance plane. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy wrote to Khrushchev asking him to remove the missiles\notherwise USA would remove them. There was an exchange of letters between\nRussia and USA. Russia said it would remove its missiles provided USA pledged\nnot to invade Cuba and promised to remove its medium range ballistic missiles\nfrom Turkey. USA agreed. Russia removed its missiles, including medium-range\nIl-28 bombers, from Cuba. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was presented to the world as a great victory for USA. It was\nnothing of the sort. Khrushchev\u2019s intention was to get US missiles out of\nTurkey. His strategy was successful, said analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nicaragua,\nthe US created and funded a rebel group known as Contras. Contras were active\nfrom 1979 to 1990. They used terrorist tactics and committed numerous human\nrights violations<\/a>. The Contras were heavily dependent on the US. After US support\nfor Contras was banned by Congress<\/a>, the Reagan\nadministration<\/a> covertly continued the support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CIA had a\nsuccessful coup in Honduras against President Zalaya in 2009. In the predawn\nhours of June 28, 2009, heavily armed Honduran soldiers descended upon the\nTegucigalpa residence of the nation\u2019s president, Manuel Zelaya, and carted him\noff to Costa Rica in his pajamas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelaya had\nbeen sympathetic to those affected by mining and other toxic operations of\ninternational corporations. He had raised the monthly urban and rural minimum\nwages to a whopping $290 and $213. The capitalists wanted him removed. This\nmilitary-led ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya<\/a> was\ncondemned by the UN and most other countries, as illegal. They said US was\nbehind the coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Middle East was relatively peaceful till US started meddling,\nsaid analysts. US support for Saddam Hussein initially in Iraq and the story of\nthe weapons of mass destruction is well known.  US thought that the removal of Saddam Hussein\nwould destabilize the entire Middle East. \nThe governments in Syria, Iran, Lebanon would fall. Palestine leaders\nlike Arafat would also fall and US would be able to re-draw the map of the\nMiddle East and reshape it to the benefit of Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing\nUS intervention in Syria is also becoming well known. US supported the rebels\nin the Syrian Civil war which started in 2011. US gave arms and training to the\nrebels. Pentagon and CIA were involved in this. Then from 2017, there were a\nseries of direct military actions by U.S. army<\/a> against the\nSyrian government. In 2019, the head of U.S.\nCentral Command<\/a> stated there was no “end date” on the U.S.’s\nintervention in Syria. Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria, said that peace would\ncome to Syria only when the west and its Middle Eastern allies stopped\ninterfering.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libya was a country without a national debt and her people were\nsocially and economically much better off than people under similar regimes in\nthe region. Muammar al-Gaddafi was head of state in Libya from 1969-2011. Libya\nattained the highest standard of living in Africa during Gaddafi\u2019s rule. Gaddafi\nwas planning to establish a Middle Eastern currency when he was removed from\npower.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaddafi also encouraged African unity, African culture and African\nsolution to African problems. He pointed out that African traditions are being\nreplaced by western culture and multiparty politics. Africans, including those\nfrom South Africa, went to live in prosperous Libya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaddafi also co-funded the African investment bank in Libya, the\nAfrican monetary fund, in Cameroons and African Central bank in Nigeria. This\nlatter move angered France as it affected its control over 13 West African\ncountries.  The west turned against\nGaddafi at this point and froze the money which was going into these projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rebellion was engineered in Libya. The Libyan army was defeated\nby US and allies .Gaddafi was forcibly removed, tortured and murdered. US had destroyed a country which was a\nbuffer against Islamic terrorists, and instead created another haven for them,\nobserved Sriyan de Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions are asked regarding the \u2018revolt\u2019 in Libya, and the Gaddafi\nkilling. Who provided the heavy artillery and sophisticate weapons used by the rebels?\nWho armed them against the state army. Rebel groups cannot afford such\nexpensive weapons, said the media. There was a CIA unit in the US\nembassy at Benghazi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is\ngeneral agreement that US was wholly or partially responsible for the creation\nof militant Islamic groups in the Middle East. The creation of militant\nIslamist groups and movements such as the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS were\nencouraged by US. The groups that the US armed and trained in Afghanistan to\nfight the Russian forces became the Taliban. \nUS armed both Bin Laden and the Muhajideen in Afghanistan, creating\nal-Qaeda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US is\ndefinitely blamed for ISIS. (Islamic state of Iraq and Syria)  The US government armed and trained rebel\nfighters in Syria who became the formidable ISIS. ISIS leader Abu bakr al Baghdadi set up IS\ntraining camps In Jordan under the supervision of the US marines. US sent USD 500 million to the Free Syrian\nArmy to fight ISIS, knowing that the FSA was one of the biggest suppliers of\nfighters and weapons to the ISIS. US  also sent the FSA  powerful weapons such as anti-aircraft\nmissiles, knowing that  they would soon\nbe in the hands of the ISIS, said analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISIS is part\nof the western strategy, said Kamal Wickremasinghe.    Otherwise how could such a powerful\norganization as ISIS spring up so suddenly? Kamal\nWickremasinghe said that ISIS is used for several purposes. Launching aerial\nattacks against Syria under the pretext of tackling IS, dividing Iraq into\nKurdish, Sunni and Shiite enclaves, and the formation of a Kurdish homeland\nthat would include parts of northern Iraq, Syria and Turkey, i.e. the\nbalkanization of the Middle East. Iraq, Turkey and Syria will lose, Israel will\nbenefit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The West\nunderestimated the threat from ISIS. It was more intelligent and dangerous than\nthe West realized. It was much stronger and was supported by an almost ecstatic\nenthusiasm. Each day hundreds of new recruits arrived from around the world.\nWithin months ISIS had conquered in Iraq an extent of territory larger than\nGreat Britain and became a greater power than Al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through its\nintervention in the Middle East, the US created a power vacuum enabling\nterror groups to move in to fill the vacuum. Al-Qaeda and Taliban moved into\nthe breach created in Afghanistan. The US armed the freedom fighters who, after\nthe ouster of the Russians, transformed into the Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the\nouster of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003 there was an unstable\ncentral government and strife amongst the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. This\nenabled a splinter group of al-Qaeda to entrench itself in Iraq. Al-Qaeda was\nitself originally armed and trained by the US. Israel gave birth to Hamas by\ncrippling the PLO and Arafat\u2019s dominant Fatah faction. Hezbollah emerged from\nthe power vacuum in Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a tight\nrelationship between the Israel-U.S. partnership and the Middle East policy of\nthe US, said analysts. Israel wants the fragmentation of any Middle Eastern\nstate that might be a threat to Israel.  Israel\nalso wishes to weaken Palestine by knocking off its allies, one by one, making\nit easier for Israel to finish off the Palestinians.  Cuba said   \nthat   Mossad, the secret service of Israel, was\nresponsible for creating the ISIS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Asia, the\nmain US aggression which comes to mind, apart from bombing      Hiroshima, is the Vietnam War. That is\nwell known and needs no discussion here. In addition to Vietnam, USA also dropped 2\nmillion tons of bombs on Laos over nine year period up to 1973. US wanted to\ncrush the communist forces in Laos and break the Ho Chi Minh supply line. The\nLaos war was conducted by the CIA and kept secret from the American public. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In Laos US enlisted the help of the Hmong a stateless minority in Laos. CIA promised that if they fought\nfor CIA, USA would take care of them. Even perhaps helping them to gain a\nhomeland. But after the war CIA abandoned them, taking only a small number to\nUSA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Africa,\nUSA played a key role in promoting the South Sudan secessionist movement, using\nAmerican evangelical groups. USA has been quietly playing a key role in\nengineering the breakup of Sudan, said the media. South Sudan\u2019s Christian\nsecessionist movement has long been advised and finance by British and US\nChristian Missionaries. American evangelical groups including ones which are\nfiercely anti- Islam have been playing an important role in promoting South\nSudan secessionist movement, the media said . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US has engineered electoral changes in countries important to them.\nThere was the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, the Orange revolution in Ukraine\nand Rose revolution in Georgia. None of them were genuine, they were all\nengineered by US and they all failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tulip revolution was clearly Washington inspired, it showed the same\ncharacteristics as the Orange revolution it promoted in Ukraine.  The US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan had a\ndetailed plan of the Kyrgyzstan revolution. Kyrgyzstan was strategically\nimportant for US. Its Manas airport was vital for the war in Afghanistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is argued\nthat the Ukraine political change was a USA backed coup. This is been openly\nannounced in several western sources. This was not a peaceful revolution, it\nwas a violent terrorist action, and armed guerrillas took over government\nbuildings. It could destabilize the entire Caucasus region, said analysts in\n2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia said that what happened in Ukraine was a US, EU backed\nconspiracy. The Ukraine is yet another example of Neo-con influence creating\nchaos rather than stable democratic governments, said Sriyan de Silva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy in the colour revolutions was to sow\npopular discontent with the existing regime and then engineer a protest which\noverthrows the regime. Hundred\nof citizens were mobilized to gather in city canters after the election, allege\nfraud and vote rigging, and demand the resignation of the government. USA used\nthis strategy to take out east European governments, such as Czech, Bulgaria,\nSerbia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.  NGOs\norganized the resistance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong\u2019s\nOccupy Central is also US backed color revolution.  Every \u2018occupy\u2019 leader is directly or\nindirectly linked to the US state Department or is an agent of a person who is,\nsaid an analyst. Names were given.  (continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The US is well known for its political and military interventions. USA started to meddle in the politics of other countries in the 1950s.  The first coup was in 1953. This was in Iran where the duly elected and highly popular Mossadegh was removed and the Shah of Iran installed. Mossadegh was going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}