Noam Chomsky / PressTV & William Blum / Voice of Russia – 2013-02-02 23:14:35
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33796.htm
Noam Chomsky: US, A Top Terrorist State
Press TV
MOSCOW (February 1, 2013) — American academic Noam Chomsky says the United States would be recognized as a leading terrorist state if international law is applied.
‘There Is A Drone With Assange’s Name On It’ — William Blum
John Robles / Voice of Russia
Assange will be assassinated if freed, expert says. In an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia, William Blum, an American author, historian, and critic of United States foreign policy spoke about CIA assassinations (one of his areas of expertise) and some of his past work. Mr. Blum is candid in his assessment of CIA assassination plots against such people as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. He also has some surprising things to say about Julian Assange and Osama Bin Laden.
(February 1, 2013) – John Robles: Hello Mr. Blum, nice to be speaking with you. You have a very long and interesting history… a lot of things you have written. You wrote a book about the CIA. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
William Blum: Well, American interventions carried out via the CIA and all the US military have been my specialty for many-many years. My books emphasize those things. As does my monthly newsletters “The Anti-Empire Report”.
As far as the backlash: the US government doesn’t bother American authors that much, because they know we don’t have that much influence, they can afford to have us write things and point to that as proof of freedom of speech in America. So they don’t care.
Robles: I see. They said that you had exposed more than 200 CIA employees.
Blum: That was in 1969 when I was working for the “Underground Press” in Washington D.C. and I and a colleague we parked our car outside the CIA headquarters in Virginia and for a couple of hours or so, we recorded the license plate numbers of all the cars going into the CIA. And with that information we were able to compile a list of names and addresses of these people, which we published in our underground newspaper.
Robles: That sounds very interesting! You talked about CIA assassination plots, you’re pretty much an expert on that. Can you tell us a little bit about what you know about the plot to remove Hugo Chavez?
Blum: Assassination attempts? That was in 2004, the US government met with the coup plotters both in Venezuela and Washington and these people then carried out a military coup which overthrew Chavez and the people took him to custody, but he was freed after about two days, because of a combination of public outcry and pressure from the remaining members of the military who were not part of the coup. So then he actually had and still has a lot of support in the military. He, himself, was a member of it. So a combination of the military and a public outcry forced the coup plotters to abandon their plans and after two days Chavez was released.
Robles: Can you tell us about your book Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower? And could you comment on an endorsement you received, at the time, in 2006 by Osama bin Laden?
Blum:It was supposed to be a mini-encyclopedia of all the nefarious things done by the US foreign policy. There’s a chapter on assassination, a chapter on bombings and so on. There are many chapters covering the gross and illegal aspects of US foreign policy. It’s compiled together many things, which most Americans, and most people in the world are not aware of.
Individual elements of each of these compilations one could find in some public area or other but to put it together into long tables of information was my contribution and that came out in about 2000. And then in 2006 the Arabic version of the book, the book had many foreign translations, there were two in Arabic and one of those two was read by Osama bin Laden and he, in one of his periodic audio recordings, mentioned that Americans would be well served if they read my book and get a better understanding of their enemy.
And I can only guess that the theme in that book Rogue State, which most caught his attention and his sympathy was one chapter dealing with the motivations of anti-American terrorists. Contrary to what we were being taught, and still now to a large extent, were that these people were: just hated America, or they hated Christianity, or they were just crazy, or they were just envious of democracy and our wealth, all of these reasons, but never even a hint that they were acting out of retribution for the decades of very serious military and other infringements upon people in the Middle East.
All kinds of bombings and overthrows of governments, supporting dictatorships, supporting Israel, all kinds of things I gave a long list of the American actions which created all these anti-American terrorists, and that is what I am assuming most appealed to Bin Laden.
Robles: What do you know about the assassination plot to kill Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa? Before the elections, he is supposed to be assassinated.
Blum:This month you are speaking about?
Robles: Yes sir. Correa made this statement that they had uncovered a plot to assassinate him before…
Blum:I wouldn’t doubt that. I would be surprised if the CIA did not attempt to assassinate him. I mean among other reasons, he’s sheltering Assange! That by itself is reason to assassinate him.
Robles: Are you saying that just the fact that he’s given asylum to Assange, that’s enough for the CIA to assassinate him?
Blum: The CIA attempts to assassinate people for much less reasons than that. Assange is the public enemy Number 1 in America. The US is obsessed with him and they are afraid that he will be issuing the release of more classified documents so they’d really like to put him out of the way, if they can.
They were all set to invade the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, when the British government was finally talked out of it by their own people: That it would set a terrible precedent, that the UK Embassies all over the world would not be safe then. That was the reason that they called off the invasion plan.
They’re very serious about Assange. I mean he has to go. He’s the most marked man in the world.
Robles: You think so? You said he’s enemy number one of the United States.
Blum: As far as being put out of the way? Yeah. I would say that if the US had a choice it would get him out of the way before anyone else.
Robles: So you think it’s pretty credible his fears of being assassinated by the CIA? Yeah?
Blum: There is a drone somewhere with his name on it, and if he walks around in the world and he is not in the midst of a big city, he’s a marked man. There’s a rocket with his name on it inside of a drone with his name on it. So I cannot imagine that would not be the case. The CIA has, if you delve as much as I have into the history of assassinations and so on, that is totally expected.
Robles: So as an expert you are saying that it is totally expected?! Wow! Okay
Blum: If he’s walking around free somewhere. Yeah.
Robles: Sure. I see. I see. Hey Bill thank you very much! I really appreciate you speaking with me!
William Blum is the author of several books on US foreign policy. He also sends out a monthly newsletter called “The Anti-Empire Report” http://killinghope.org/#essays
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