Iraq war was 'blatant state terrorism': Nobel laureate Pinter

[deadparrot]

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - In a fierce critic ahead of the Nobel awards ceremony, literature laureate Harold Pinter branded the war on Iraq "an act of blatant state terrorism" and demanded the prosecutions of US President George W. Bush and Britain's Tony Blair.

"The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law," Pinter said in a pre-recorded lecture broadcast by the Swedish Academy.

The Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, aired the interview, recorded Sunday in London, because Pinter is too sick to travel to Sweden for the lecture or pick up the award in person at Saturday's ceremony.

"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?" Pinter asked.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/nobelliterature

[mike_c]

1. bravo, Mr. Pinter....

eom

[texpatriot2004]

9. Bravo. n.t

[dutchdemocrat]

40. Video and text up here.

I have the video up (I converted the RealMedia file) into Flash 8 and downloadable as a WMV file from here


http://www.chris-floyd.com/pinter/

It's a tribute page of sorts. Please spread the word. It's important that people see this video or read the speech and they are both on this page.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/pinter/

Cheers

DD.

[goodhue]

2. Pinter speaks the truth

http://www.haroldpinter.org/home/index.shtml

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. To answer his question, if you demonize them first, you can kill

quite a few without being described a mass murder and a war criminal.

[Megahurtz]

4. Yep, demonize them then

you can justify stealing their oil!

[bemildred]

5. Well said. nt

[patdem]

6. I did a google..Nobel Laureates 'against' / 'pro' bush

against I got 17,000+ posts...pro bush I got 897...I think the smarter you are the more you do NOT like bush and/or his policies!

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

16. Well, that makes me

FUCKING BRILLIANT!

[Synnical]

7. Don't forget to rate the story up. n/t

[roseBudd]

8. rated a 5

[ClayZ]

10. Bravo Harold Pinter!

[Cults4Bush]

11. Now if we can get an assload of Dems to say the same thing.

They wont though, no matter how true it is... all in the name of expediancy.

America including a good chunk of DU'ers dont even realize that we have fucked up beyond all reality. The repercusions have not even begun to happen but when they do there wont be anyone getting reelected who voted for the IWR.
If we are lucky enough to have elections again.

[evermind]

12. Read the whole text, or watch the video of the speech online

at http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html

Excellent stuff!

Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place throughout these countries. Did they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy. But you wouldn't know it.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.'

It's a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the US.

[rosesaylavee]

17. Ouch.

I love Harold - love his work. Even admire the way he phrased this piece. But I think he likes to hear himself blather a bit too much. I am one of the American People he refers to and I along with several million of my closest associates are not lying back on the couch being anesthetized right now. We are in extreme pain every day that * is in power. We are powerless at this point due to the machinations of these extremely evil men and women and our only hope - OUR ONLY HOPE is the 2006 elections and that the voters so overwhelmingly vote democratic ticket that no amount of tampering will keep them in power.

No, many of us here in the U.S. are NOT being bombed or killed outright by this admin but many have lost their lives thru the resulting poverty and hunger caused by their neglect and callousness... and I am not even talking about Katrina here.

So, thanks for the beauty of your writing Harold, but I will not own that I am one of the 'people' you refer to. READ a little deeper into what's happening here... know who you are criticizing. I am NOT Bush.

[evermind]

31. I don't think he's aiming this at all Americans

Just the ones who soporifically go along with the US foreign policy agenda.

In saying that a degree of sleepiness, induced by sweet-sounding phrases like "the American people", "keeping the world safe for democracy" and so on, has been an ingredient in the ability of the US to pursue its piratical foreign policy over the last 50-60 years, I don't think he's far wrong. If the majority of Americans were aware in a concrete way of the actual behaviour of their government, things might have a chance to improve. Let's face it: most of them are laying back on those oh-so-comfortable cushions...

I think he's right on the money.

[rosesaylavee]

34. I know. I just don't want to be included in that group.

It would be some small comfort if he would acknowledge that it is not a condition of living here, that we are all drinking the koolaid... that many of us are writhing in shame and not sitting comfortably by while all this mayhem is going on.

[PurpleChez]

13. Pinter gets my vote

for the Nobel Prize in Punking W.

[chiffon]

14. Hooorahhhh!

Daayumm.

He is sure not one to mince words.

[Stockholm]

15. Powerful lecture!

kick

18. kick !

Pinter says it all!!

[In Truth We Trust]

19. To the Hague NOW!!!

[In Truth We Trust]

20. Paper Ballots NOW! Hand Counts NOW!! IMPEACHMENT NOW!!!

To the Hague NOW!!!

[Clara T]

Pinter Demands War Crimes Trial for Blair

Pinter demands war crimes trial for Blair

David Fickling
Wednesday December 7, 2005

 
The Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter has called for Tony Blair to be tried for war crimes, in his acceptance speech to the Nobel committee.

The 5,000-word speech excoriates the US government over Guantánamo Bay and its attempts to destabilise Nicaragua in the 1980s.

But he saves his most savage comments for the UK, described as "pathetic and supine" and a "bleating little lamb" tagging along behind the US in its support for the Iraq war.

<snip>

"The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public ... a formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.

"We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people, and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1661531,00.html


Nobel laureate Harold Pinter. Photograph: Max Nash/AP

[EndElectoral]

21. Great article

[NanceGreggs]

22. YESSSSSSS!!!!!

Thank you, Mr. Pinter! :applause:

[Oceansaway]

23. great !!!

[VegasWolf]

24. House of Cards! nt

[NVMojo]

25. Love it, now can the USA put Bush on trial with the rest of his neocons?

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

26. Link to video & text of speech

"How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice. But Bush has been clever. He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice. Therefore if any American soldier or for that matter politician finds himself in the dock Bush has warned that he will send in the marines. But Tony Blair has ratified the Court and is therefore available for prosecution. We can let the Court have his address if they're interested. It is Number 10, Downing Street, London."

http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html

[Clara T]

27. More of this speech

"Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed."

http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html

The entire world will see this in their morning paper. Almost the entire world. What kind of coverage will it receive here in the US? Not hard to guess.

[Oversea Visitor]

28. Poor guy suffering from cancer

Dont think he be around for long.

I thank him for the gesture he is making for humanity.
A truly great gifts to all of us from a guy that knows his time on this earth soon be done.

Words from a dying man.

[Matilda]

29. Kick, and recommended.

Pinter has always been courageous in his views, and he expresses the thoughts of many on this
topic.

The media have sheltered Blair and Bush for far too long.

[Vidar]

30. Great idea!

[tiptoe]

32. k&r

[leftchick]

33. This man is my hero!

:loveya:



<snip>

"The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War.

"I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile," he said.

"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.

"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force of universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."

:applause:

[Up2Late]

35. NPR did a story on this on Friday, here's the link:

(some how, I don't think this will make Faux News.)

Nobel Laureate Pinter Lashes Out at U.S. Policy

Listen to this story...(at link above)

All Things Considered, December 9, 2005 · In his Nobel Prize speech
Wednesday, British playwright Harold Pinter delivered a scathing
critique of U.S. and British foreign policy. Some reviews of his
speech praised it for its dramatic force, while others derided it
as childish and uninformed. We hear two excerpts from that speech.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5047057>

[petgoat]

36. Pinter has endorsed WorldCantWait

http://www.worldcantwait.net/

They're raising money to organize massive demonstratios in DC the Saturday
after the State of the Union Address.

[Martin Eden]

37. International Criminal Court

We now know that Bush opposed the ICC not to protect lowly American troops but to exempt his own sorry ass from prosecution for war crimes.

[twaddler01]

38. You can say that again

:toast:

[dutchdemocrat]

39. Video and text up here.

I have the video up (I converted the RealMedia file) into Flash 8 and downloadable as a WMV file from here

http://www.chris-floyd.com/pinter/

It's a tribute page of sorts. Please spread the word. It's important that people see this video or read the speech and they are both on this page.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/pinter/

Cheers

DD.

[0007]

41. bttft & nominated