The Illusion Of Sovereignty
By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
29 September, 2008
Countercurrents.org
Perhaps sovereignty is relative; how else can one explain
the subjugation of the most powerful industrial nations to the will of another
while under the delusion of independence, national interest, democracy, and
even capitalism? A single country, Israel
and its powerful lobby AIPAC have altered the course of history in America and by
extension, the rest of the world.
In order to understand the argument being made and the power of manipulation
of this extraordinary group, one must revisit the Arab economic boycott of Israel dating
back several decades. To defeat the boycott, the Israeli lobby went into full
gear and argued before the House that the Arab boycott constituted "a
harassment and blackmailing of America, an interference with normal business
activities ... that the boycott activities were contrary to the principles of
free trade that the United States has espoused for many years … and the Arab
interference in the business relations of American firms with other countries
is in effect an interference with the sovereignty of the United
States."[i] Bowing to AIPAC, the US adopted and enforced
comprehensive anti-boycott legislation which Jimmy Carter signed into law in
1977. The law called for fines to be levied on American companies which
cooperated with the boycott.
However, in spite of pressure from the Lobby, Congress refused to enforce
sanctions on the Arab League on the grounds that “extraterritorial measures
that impermissibly impinge on the sovereignty of other nations”[ii] was not
acceptable. Yet in an about face, America
has yielded its own sovereignty and has demanded other nations subjugate theirs
and impose sanctions on Iran.
Surely one must wonder what made the United
States bow to the Israeli demands and impinge on the
sovereignty of Japan as an
example when it had to forgo its exclusive rights to develop part of Iran's Azadegan
oil field, the country's largest in compliance with the Iran-Libya Sanction Act
(ILSA).
For not only is it believed that AIPAC wrote the ILSA, but today, using
their foot soldier, the neocon influenced US government, it is holding the
United Nations hostage as three rounds of illegal sanctions have been passed
against Iran with a recent House approved tougher sanctions bill [iii] as Iran
pursues nuclear technologies that are put in the service of humankind on every
continent. Surely those whose lust for power blindly led them to office must
come to realize that their power is an illusion for the reins are held by
another. They are the puppets and the Lobby and the neoconservatives the
puppeteers. Should we not question how we got to this point in our history?
Was it the power of the vote or the ally’s treachery? In the 60’s and 70’s
while the Lobby was asking for American sacrifice, Israel
was busy betraying America.
Within the CIA as elsewhere in the intelligence community, there is a
"widespread belief" that in the 1960s Israeli intelligence spirited
about two hundred pounds of weapons- grade uranium from the Nuclear Materials
and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) in Apollo, Pennsylvania. John Hadden, a
former CIA station chief in Tel Aviv, states that NUMEC was an "Israeli
operation from the beginning.” The NUMEC case was investigated by the GAO and
the House Interior Committee in 1978, but their reports have never been
declassified”. Lyndon Johnson who was the first of a string of administrations
to bury the NUMEC affair[iv], not only covered up the report but it would seem
as if the audacity of their act merited further cover up - the killing of
American servicemen on board the Liberty by Israelis.[v] To their credit, the
Israelis, confident that they could do as they pleased with American
administrations, smuggled 810 krytons to Israel[vi] (krytons can be used for
electronic triggers for nuclear weapons). Not long after this outrageous
thievery, Ronald Reagan punished Iran by reinstating trade sanctions
(Exec. Ord. No.12613) (first imposed by Carter and lifted in accordance to the
Algiers Accords). It would seem that the trend for punishing other nations for Israel’s
dangerous betrayal continues.
On every continent nuclear technology is being made available to promote
progress. In South America, nuclear technology
is being used to map underground aquifers, so that water supplies can be
managed sustainably. The Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI) which was
changed to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) because of the negative
connotations associated with the word nuclear in the late 1970's would be
explored to diagnose and treat patients. In Vietnam farmers plant rice with
greater nutritional value that was developed with IAEA assistance – rice is
also the staple food of Iranians. Within the next few years (estimates are
10-25 years) over 2 billion people will be without drinking water. Research in
desalination technology initiated in 1970 using Advance Heavy Water Reactor
(AHWR) will make salt water drinkable. These are the components of nuclear
technology that are the fundamentals of ‘Atoms for Peace’. These are the
inalienable rights of Iran
under Article IV for which it is being sanctioned.
AIPAC had previously contended that the Arab boycott constituted "a
harassment and blackmailing of America.....”, yet today, with all nations
blackmailed by a country that has an illegal nuclear arsenal capable of
unimaginable destruction, a country which has no regard for international law
and norms or loyalty, is demanding that sanctions be imposed on Iran for
pursuing its inalienable right within the framework of the NPT.
“What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is
that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this
one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity
of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.” - Hannah
Arendt
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher with a
focus on U.S.
foreign policy and the influence of lobby groups. She is a peace activist and
political analyst.
[i] H. Alikhani, Sanctioning Iran, Anatomy of a Failed Policy, New York, 2000, p.321
[ii] Alikhani (2000), p.312.
[iii] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080927
/ap_on_go_co/iran_sanctions
[iv] Duncan L.Clarke, “Israel's
Economic Espionage in the United States”,
Journal of Palestine
Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4. (Summer, 1998), pp. 20-35.Quoted in Cockburn and
Cockburn, Dangerous Liaison, pp. 78-81., also Hersh, The Samson option', pp.
188-89, 242; Raviv and Melman, Every Spy a Prince, pp. 197-98., and Interview,
congressional source, Washington, D.C., August 1994.
[v] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17901.htm
[vi] "Israelis Illegally Got U.S. Devices Used in Making Nuclear
Weapons," NewYork Times, 16 May 1985
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