Another Israeli War Criminal of the Year Award

by Stephen Lendman

America represents the worst of rogue governance. So does Israel. They menace humanity. They persecute their best. They honor their worst.

Peacemakers are scorned. Waging war on humanity's rewarded. On March 21, Obama received Israel's Medal of Distinction. It's also called the President's Medal.

It's Israel's highest civil award. It's for individuals "who have made an outstanding contribution to the State of Israel or to humanity, through their talents, services, or in any other form."

In 2012, Henry Kissinger won. His rap sheet includes decades of crimes of war, against humanity and genocide. Israel rewarded his New World Order ruthlessness. It didn't surprise.

Obama replicates his viciousness writ large. Bill Clinton has his own cross to bear. He's Israel's newest honoree. Shimon Peres established the award.

One war criminal honored another. Peres bears direct responsibility for decades of colonialism, apartheid, militarized occupation, and regional wars of aggression.

His rap sheet includes no-holds-barred state terror. He helped institutionalize it. He ordered innocent victims slaughtered on his watch. He's a serial killer multiple times over. He's a menace in his own time.

For eight years, Clinton was Wall Street's man in Washington. He's a corporate America tool. He's a war criminal multiple times over.

Michel Chossudovsky exposed his sinister Rwanda agenda, saying:

Rwanda's civil war raged from October 1990 - August 1993. Bush I and Clinton bear full responsibility.

"(E)thnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy," said Chossudovsky. They "were carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objectives."

"From the outset of the Rwandan civil war in 1990, Washington's hidden agenda consisted in establishing an American sphere of influence in a region historically dominated by France and Belgium."

"America's design was to displace France by supporting the Rwandan Patriotic Front and by arming and equipping its military arm, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA)."

Clinton continued what Bush I began. Both men bear full responsibility for ethnic massacres. Rwanda's civil war "set the stage for the participation of Ugandan and Rwandan RPA in the civil war in the Congo."

Washington funded and trained their militaries. US special forces were involved. Ethnic rivalries were exploited for profit and dominance. Rwanda's genocide served US "strategic and geopolitical interests."

Clinton remains unaccountable for war crimes. He's got much more blood on his hands. He's responsible for genocide against innocent Iraqis. He did so by intermittent bombings.

He maintained lawless sanctions. They caused about 1.5 million deaths. Most were young children. Up to 7,000 died monthly. Former UN humanitarian coordinator Dennis Halliday resigned in protest. He refused to be part of what he called "genocide."

Hans von Sponek quit the same post. He denounced the sanctions, saying:

"It cannot continue that (UN authorities) punish the most vulnerable and the most innocent."

Jutta Burghardt also stepped down. She headed the World Food Program's Iraq operations.

"It is a true humanitarian tragedy what is happening here," she said, "and I believe any human being who looks at the facts and the impact of the sanctions on the population will not deny that (von Sponek) is right."

James Rubin was Clinton's Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. He also served as chief State Department spokesman. He denounced von Sponek and Halliday. He did so disgracefully. He called them unsuitable humanitarian coordinators, saying:

Their "job is to work on behalf of the Iraqi people and not the regime….The United States is, and will remain, second to none in enforcing sanctions."

Rubin dismissively ignored US sanctioned mass murder. It's one of history's great crimes. Clinton bears full responsibility. He remains unaccountable.

So do stooges like Rubin. He's a Columbia University adjunct professor. He poisons young minds. Hopefully students wise enough to know better avoid him. He represented the worst of rogue governance. He shames legitimate academia.

He fronted for Clinton's ruthlessness. His rap sheet reveals shamelessness. He helped institutionalized extraordinary renditions.

In June 1995, his Presidential Directive (PDD 39) authorized "all legal means available to exclude from the United States persons who pose a terrorist threat and deport or otherwise remove from the United States any such aliens."

Black site torture prisons followed. Guantanamo's one of many. They exist globally. They hold innocent victims. Few, if any, committed crimes. They're brutalized for political advantage. At issue is unchallenged imperial dominance.

In 1999, Clinton waged war on Yugoslavia. He did so lawlessly. He ravaged it for 78 days. He massacred and displaced thousands. A humanitarian disaster followed.

Homes and communities were destroyed. Around two million people lost livelihoods. Environmental contamination was extensive. Imperial priorities alone matter. Much worse lay ahead.

At home, Clinton served Wall Street crooks. He helped institutionalize grand theft.

He facilitated public misinformation, deregulation, market manipulation, insider trading, Ponzi schemes, false accounting, embezzling, bilking investors with impunity, and practices leading to housing bubble disaster for millions.

He ended Glass-Steagall. It prevented commercial/investment banks/insurance company combinations. He signed into law the Commodity Futures Modernization Act.

It legitimizes swap agreements and other hybrid instruments. It permits some of the worst financial crimes. It ended regulatory oversight over derivatives and leveraging.

It turned Wall Street more than ever into a casino. It lets banksters speculate on financial derivatives and an alphabet soup of securitized garbage.

It includes asset-backed securities (ABSs), mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), collateralized bond obligations (CBOs), credit default swaps (CDSs), and collateralized fund obligations (CFOs).

They're combined, sliced, diced, packaged, repackaged, and sold in tranches to sophisticated and unwitting investors. Doing so continues unabated. Who said crime doesn't pay?

Clinton's telecommunications deregulation let media and telecom giants combine. Doing so destroys competition. TV owners got new digital television broadcast spectrum space. The public lost out hugely.

His 1994 Reigle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act let bank holding companies operate in more than one state.

On January 1, 1994, NAFTA became US law on his watch. It's hugely destructive. It supersedes national laws and sovereignty. It violates fundamental rights. It avoids environmental responsibility.

On January 1, 1995, the World Trade Organization was established. Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch director Lori Wallach called it a "slow motion coup against democracy."

It's a supranational trade authority. It established one size fits all rules. "Humans are either labor or consumers," said Wallach.

"Water, trees, animals-basically all of nature-is a resource to be exploited. To exploit these human and natural resources most efficiently, all barriers breaking up this single world market must be eliminated-so as to maximize efficiency of scale."

So-called "free trade" permits grand theft, plunder, exploitation, ecocide, and virtually anything goes unrestrained for profit.

Level playing fields don't exist. High pay/good benefit jobs are offshored and destroyed. Menial low pay/part-time/temp/low or no-benefit ones replace them.

Clinton waged war on social safety net protections. Thirdworldizing America became policy. Welfare reform punishes disadvantaged families.

In 1996, Clinton's Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) became law. Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) ended.

Time limit harshness replaced it. Five years and out became policy. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) mandates it. States are given diminishing amounts of federal funding.

Fixed block grants provide it. They're free to administer policy freely. They take full advantage during harder than ever hard times.

To qualify, recipients must work or train for jobs. Single mothers with small children are cheated. Millions are left on their own out of luck. Bush II and Obama hardened what Clinton began.

He established "managed competition" healthcare. It reflects the worst kind of marketplace medicine. It sacrifices health for profits. Obamacare raised it to a higher level.

Clinton called himself a "New Democrat." He helped found the Democratic Leadership Council. It's hard-right agenda reflects neoliberalism harshness.

It's corporatist, anti-populist, anti-labor, anti-welfare, and anti-government serving everyone equitably. It supports the worst of imperial America's ruthlessness. Wealth, power, privilege and unchallenged global dominance matter most.

Clinton's reflects shamelessness. His record speaks for itself. On June 19, one war criminal honored another. Shimon Peres awarded Clinton Israel's Medal of Distinction.

It reflects shame, not honor. Ceremonies were a celebration of lies. Lawlessness and immorality substituted for virtue, integrity and righteousness. Illusion replaced reality.

Peres' 90th birthday was celebrated. He was presented as a man of peace and vision. He represents the worst of institutionalized state terror. Clinton has his own cross to bear.

"Let us pray together for tomorrow's peace, said Peres." He deplores it. He waged war for decades to prevent it.

"It's nice to receive an award," said Clinton. "I accept (it) because I feel like a poor pilgrim on a constant journey to expand the definition of 'us' and shrink the definition of 'them.' "

Peres responded saying:

"You are receiving just as much out of office as you did in it….You really are the most loved leader and a friend of all human beings and the Jewish state."

Both men reflect the worst of rogue leadership. Honoring them reflects hypocrisy writ large.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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