The Evil Mr. Soros

I heartily applaud the alternative media for keeping the stories going in light of the duplicity of the mainstream media, keep up the good work! However, there are some blogs and news hubs that refuse to discuss a very important component-George Soros. While many decry Bush Jr as evil incarnate (or empty puppet), George Soros is to Bush Jr. as the Whale was to Jonah. In recent newspapers across the country, and several popular alternative web sites (Buzzflash, Common Dreams, Jeff Rense, and others)the webmasters and editors continue to promote Soros as a philathropist who has "called for a regime change in the White House"(Buzzflash), or as one of the funders who took out the one page ad in the NYT noting his contribution of a large sum of money for the DNC. He is touted as the founder of Humans Rights Watch, connected with the Helsinki Institute. While this is true, there is a flip side to Mr. Soros currently unacknowledged. Mr. Soros is a member of The Carlyle Group, along with GHW Bush. The reader must ask what kind of game is being played out in this macabre club of puppeteers if one member calls for the ousting of the son of another member? What does this strategy mean? Was Georgie just a sacrificial lamb, or has he outlived his usefulness? Is he just too dumb, and they miscalculated the degree of his incompetency?

Although heavily involved in the creation of the Human Rights Watch program, this man is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He thrives on conflict, war, death, and terror. He finances coups, and reaps the profits. He has serious ties to the CIA, the genocide in Yugoslavia and Bosnia. He finances indirectly NPR, Radio Free Europe, and several other organizations that, on the surface, look good, sound good, and reflect what any good 'progressive American' would promote, but it is all a smokescreen. He believes in an amoral market philosophy in which profits, not people are important, and promotes the outdated and seriously racist belief in the individual credo. The belief that anyone can make it big, the American Dream, the rugged solitary victory of Manifest Destiny, and white supremacy. He has figured prominently in the destruction of the Posse Comiatus Act, and finances the police state here in America and over seas in those troublesome 'old European' hotspots of anti-globalization riots. Mr. Soros is part and parcel to the Bilderbergers, the G8, the WTO/IMF, and no one has stated whether he was in Cancun, or at the Parisan talks last year at Avian. I am overwhelmed with work at this time or I would expound on this VIP story. But, for a recap, and background into this man, please see Heather Cottin's excellent investigation into this greedy, amoral bastard, in CovertAction Quarterly, Fall 2002 November issue for further details. Good luck, and keep up the good work. Don't let me down, the American public needs to know this, as do those who wish to sanctify this man. Wake up!

--G. Lefler, Portland OR

G.P. comments: Um, slow down. Soros has his warts--anyone that rich didn't get there without bloodying his hands and a lot more.

But for me this letter falls into a common trap. Wealthy capitalists are not monolithic. They're different people who can, at least, have different and sometimes conflicting agendas or concerns. Same goes for any grouping of political or economic elites. Sometimes they work at cross purposes. Sometimes they don't even like each other.

This fact of human nature is what makes such conspiracy theories of secret work domination so absurd; it presumes that just because two people, say, know each other, they're "in on it" together. Beyond being unfair to the figures involved, it's a political trap in two ways - first, because it leads us away from looking at systemic reasons why power gets abused regardless of who's wielding it; and second, it blinds us to possibilities for exploiting cracks in the walls. Or foundations.

But Is It War?

I read your "War Pimps" in the Aug 27 Eat the State!.

Uh...why do you join GWB, the NYT, Fox and the rest in calling this a "war"? It's an invasion, an attack, a massacre, an atrocity, a violation of International law, an unjustified assault, a crime, or whatnot...but it was/is not a war.

It was not a legally declared war. It was not an internationally sanctioned War. It was barely even a battle.

The word "war", to many, conjures up Audio Murphy, John Wayne and Luke Skywalker perhaps. All glorious and important and historical and exciting and all. Nice adrenalin. People love this crap. It's one step removed from entertaining "reality" TV. US citizens may not love, however, the idea of us swaggering flag-waving tough guys being illegal invaders violating international law.

Dr. Helen Caldecott said, at a talk in Philadelphia, that we must not let them take our language. She underlined it and put it in caps, so to speak, with multiple exclamation points.

If people are duped into thinking the US/UK attacks on Iraq constitute war, then those people will give it legitimacy, as if it were an exciting boxing match, with equally-weighty opponents and a "level playing field" or something.

The Bush league, of course, calls it "war" when it's convenient, but ten seconds later claims that anyone captured is not a participant in war but is an "illegal combatant," with no rights.

What has been done is no more War than it is Liberation or a quest for democracy.

--John Jonick, Philadelphia

Recycle Everything

Bon Appetite! I started something recently in Portland that might make sense in Seattle: Free cycle Portland. It's part of a bigger revolution (http://www.freecycle.org).

A place where one person's garbage is another person's treasure. Kind of like the Berkeley free-box, but on a bigger scale.

--Albert Kaufman, Portland OR