{"id":135580,"date":"2023-07-11T17:12:51","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T00:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=135580"},"modified":"2023-07-11T17:12:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T00:12:51","slug":"us-envoy-threatens-bribes-sri-lanka-telecom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/07\/11\/us-envoy-threatens-bribes-sri-lanka-telecom\/","title":{"rendered":"US Envoy Threatens & Bribes Sri Lanka\u00a0Telecom"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News July 2023 Part 2<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018When the trumpet sounded<\/p>\n\n\n\n

everything was prepared on earth,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and Jehovah gave the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to Coca-Cola Inc, Anaconda,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ford Motors, and other corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United Fruit Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n

reserved for itself the most juicy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

piece, the central coast of my world,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the delicate waist of America\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Pablo Neruda, Document #35: United Fruit Co, Canto General<\/em>, 1950<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018At President Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/strong>\u2019s reception for the diplomatic community at his Nuwara Eliya official residenc<\/strong>e last week, US Ambassador Julie Chung<\/strong>: \u2018spotted a centuries-old telephone system at the residence and pretended<\/strong> to be calling President Joe Biden. Given the age of the telephone system, President Wickremesinghe laughingly said the Ambassador\u2019s call might be answered by John Foster Dulles, <\/strong>who served as US Secretary of State in the 1950s.\u2019 \u2013 see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, US envoy\u2019s trunk call to Biden: Ranil diverts it to Foster Dulles<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018According to US State Department<\/strong> papers released recently,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US State Secretary Foster Dulles<\/strong> had spent $5 million<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to defeat [SWRD] Bandaranaike at the elections in 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandaranaike was assassinated in 1959.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That the hidden hand of the<\/strong> CIA <\/strong>was behind this<\/p>\n\n\n\n

assassination came out at the Commission<\/p>\n\n\n\n

investigating this assassination. Sirima Bandaranaike<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

who came to continue the Bandaranaike legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

had to face a military coup<\/strong> to dislodge her,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by anti-Sinhala & anti-Buddhist<\/strong> elements\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Foster Dulles\u2019 involvement in the SWRD assassination was recalled by the novelist Gunadasa Amarasekera at the launch of Sena Thoradeniya\u2019s latest book, Galle Face Protest: System Change or Anarchy<\/em>. (US consul Bernard Anthony Gufler met SWRD Bandaranaike on the very day he was assassinated \u2013 see ee<\/em><\/strong> 12 October 2019, Exposing the Real Assassins<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Amarasekera went on to note:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Rajapaksas<\/strong> were put in power by the people to carry on this Bandaranaike legacy. With the help of Sinhala nationalist Buddhist forces<\/strong> Mahinda Rajapaksa was able to destroy Prabhakaran and his terrorist outfit. This was an unbearable humiliation<\/strong> for the Western powers (Defence Ministers of England & France flew down to take away Prabhakaran). In 2015 Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated at the elections for which $30mn were spent, as admitted by John Kerry<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In 2019 <\/strong>when the entire Sinhala Buddhist people voted to bring Gotabhaya back to power, it would have been a shock to these Western powers. The only way to prevent a repetition in the future was to alienate the youth<\/strong> who were destined to continue the traditional role as bearers of that civilisation, and also, to get them to despise and disown their inheritance.\u2019 \u2013 see ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, Taking the lid off the Golden Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018In 1948, George Kennan helped craft the infamous<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Security Council Directive<\/strong> 10\/2,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which officially authorized the CIA \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with consultation & oversight from the State Department<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 to engage in \u2018covert operations\u2019 in the fight against the communist menace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The directive gave the CIA carte blanche to do<\/p>\n\n\n\n

whatever was required: everything from economic warfare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to assassinations, sabotage, propaganda, subversion,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and support for armed guerrillas.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Media<\/em><\/strong>, A Portrait of a Soviet CIA Propagandist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 John Foster Dulles<\/strong> was once an attorney for the eponymous United Fruit Company<\/strong> of Neruda\u2019s ode, a company whose role is played out in Sri Lanka by England\u2019s Unilever<\/strong>. John\u2019s brother Allen, also a lawyer, rose to become head of the CIA (1953-61)<\/strong>, and is also held responsible for the escalating the US policy of assassinating Asian, African & American leaders. Where there was no \u2018communism\u2019, the US would help create a caricature of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The CIA\u2019s Allen Dulles and later US National Security Advisor & Ford Foundation President McGeorge Bundy had analysed in 1949 the role of the Marshall Plan in the CIA\u2019s intellectual world war on communism. An annual $200mn of Marshall Plan funds \u2018financed the work of anticommunist intellectuals, journalists, union leaders, politicians, and other leading figures in Western Europe\u2019. The \u2018classic\u2019 US media campaign with the UFC to overthrow Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala was conducted by General Electric shill Edward Bernays, the so-called \u2018father of corporate public relations\u2019, \u2018double-nephew\u2019 of the Freuds, and muse of the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     At the Thoradeniya launch, Amarasekera also noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Julie Chang is the guiding spirit behind the Aragalaya;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

she is really a remarkable woman, an ambassador,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the likes of whom we have never witnessed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She not only gives garden parties,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but also advises both Gotabaya Rajapakse<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the Aragalaya protesters. She patronizes the JVP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She gives hope and succour to the Red Sahodarayas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in their pursuit of the armed struggle, knowing too well<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that it would provide an opportunity for Ranil Wickremasinghe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to accede to the fourth request of the CIA chief<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to bring in his troops to the country\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Sovereignty<\/em><\/strong>, Taking the lid off the Golden Bowl<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no surprise therefore at the news that the US government\u2019s envoys were involved in the bribing (\u2018threats & incentives\u2019) of Sri Lanka Telecom<\/strong> to sabotage a bid by a more capable China to build oceanic internet cables. And it turns out that all cables lead to Washington via another giant blob sucking on the eyes, ears and other orifices of this world \u2013 the Texan multinational AT&T<\/strong>, which claims lineage all the way back to Alexander Graham Bell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018On the sweetener side, the US Trade & Development Agency (USTDA)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

told Reuters<\/em> it offered training grants<\/strong> valued at a total of $3.8mn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to 5 telecom companies<\/strong> in countries on the cable\u2019s route in return<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for them choosing SubCom as the supplier. Telecom Egypt<\/strong> & Network i2i<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a company owned by India\u2019s Bharti Airtel<\/strong>, got $1mn apiece\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Djibouti Telecom<\/strong>, Sri Lanka Telecom<\/strong> & Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the Maldives each received $600,000.\u2019 (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 ee<\/em><\/strong> is unclear why Thomson-Reuters<\/em> has chosen to supposedly \u2018expose\u2019 these \u2018threats & incentives\u2019 \u2013 perhaps to imbue a cachet of intrigue, <\/strong>their articles are peppered with \u2018No Comment\u2019 by almost everyone from officials in the US government to those from Alphabet\u2019s Google, Amazon, Microsoft & Meta<\/strong>. The lesson Thomson<\/em>\u2013Reuters <\/em>\u2013 itself very much part of the US\u2019 military strategy \u2013 wishes to teach us, is that the US will visit war, chaos & other economic sanctions on any country that dares not do its will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018General, your tank is a powerful vehicle<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It smashes down forests and crushes 100 men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it has one defect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It needs a driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General, your bomber is powerful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it has one defect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It needs a mechanic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General, man is very useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He can fly and he can kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he has one defect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He can think.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Bertolt Brecht<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the hype around AI & ChatGPT reveals, the US simply cannot deliver \u2013 all it does like that famous dog who does not eat hay but refuses to let others who do, do so \u2013 that dog in a manger \u2013 is to bark create chaos and prevent others from getting on in this world. This ee<\/em><\/strong> therefore demystifies the torrential hype around AI, ChatGPT etc, as well as the USA\u2019s inability to compete on what even they call a \u2018level playing field\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee <\/em><\/strong>also looks at the accusations of unfair industrial practices made against China. It turns out that the USA is accusing China of doing exactly what they and Europe themselves have done (and still do) to develop their own countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018India has been engaged in licensed manufacture<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of Soviet\/Russian, French and English aircraft and engines for many decades,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

but knows this\u00a0cannot<\/strong>\u00a0be considered\u00a0a technology transfer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

which involves not merely manufacturing but also design-development<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>, US-India Drone, Jet Engine Deals Impact Indigenous Development<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 How unique is China\u2019s industrial policy strategy?<\/strong> US President Eisenhower\u2019s 1961 farewell address called attention to the USA\u2019s powerful military-industrial complex \u2018as the linchpin of far-flung US efforts at state-sponsored, taxpayer-funded innovation\u2019<\/strong>. The US\u2019 massive military budget<\/strong> developed many major US technological advances, such as the internet<\/strong>, the global positioning system (GPS)<\/strong>, semiconductors<\/strong>, etc. Japan\u2019s <\/strong>\u2018plan rational development state<\/strong>\u2019, had their Ministry of International Trade & Industry<\/strong> perfect the art of \u2018state-subsidized credit allocation & tariffs<\/strong> to protect Japan\u2019s sunrise industries\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Germany\u2019s Wirtschaftswunder <\/strong>had <\/strong>strong state support for the Mittelstand<\/strong> of small & medium-size enterprises. Their recent Industrie 4.0 (2013)<\/strong> compares to China\u2019s Internet Plus <\/strong>plan. France\u2019s famed model of \u2018indicative planning\u2019,<\/strong> dates back to President Charles de Gaulle\u2019s 5th Plan of 1966-70<\/strong>, with its \u2018fusion of economic & political power\u2019 that merged the French industrial system with the state\u2026 The attack on China turns out to be an attack on and a warning to any country that makes its own plans for modern industry-based independence (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     In Sri Lanka, the English media almost with one voice demands the destruction of a strong state. Discussion of what modern industrialization really is \u2013 is not allowed\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
US Envoy Threatens & Bribes Sri Lanka Telecom<\/a><\/blockquote>