Invisible Wars Bring Visible Casualties.

January 26, 2011 at 3:06 P.M. Spacing was affected and other "errors" inserted. I have now corrected those "errors."

January 21, 2011 at 3:26 P.M. "Errors" inserted since this morning. I am making necessary corrections at a public computer. I am devastated by these continuing defacements of my writings. Shocking, isn't it? ("More Censorship and Cybercrime.")

January 21, 2011 at 11:39 A.M. I was able to get on-line, briefly, from my home. I am working on an essay dealing with New Jersey's most recent ethical fiasco and continuing arrests in connection with La Cosa Nostra. I will speak to no representative of New Jersey's legal profession "off the record." I will have nothing to do with any politician or lawyer from the Garden State until we are in a federal courtroom with a transcript of all proceedings -- preferably, a transcript that is not altered or tampered with unilaterally by N.J.'s goons. I will post my comment on New Jersey's continuing disintegration from a public computer. ("An Open Letter to My Torturers in New Jersey, Terry Tuchin and Diana Lisa Riccioli.")

January 20, 2011 at 3:24 P.M. From a public computer: computer crime makes writing or accessing the Internet from my home computer difficult. Arrests of members of the seven Mafia families -- all of which are based in New Jersey's "friendly turf" -- have taken place today, as predicted in these essays. I understand that quite a few lawyers in New Jersey have been served with subpoenas. I look forward to seeing all of you soon. ... I scorn to change my state with kings ...

Joy Gordon, Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010).

One of the valuable lessons of the experience of evil is understanding dehumanization. A victim of evil learns quickly to identify with all of the people in many places in the world who are dehumanized. Billions of persons are seen by those who are richer or more powerful than they are (or ever will be) as "objects," things that are less than human, as the Nazis saw the Jews. Hence, any crimes or other harms done to us "subhumans" are permissible.

I am no longer surprised to discover that my security system has been disabled or that I cannot perform necessary security scans to protect my computer. I am not shocked to find that my copyright-protected writings have been defaced or plagiarized, or that I am prevented from writing or accessing the Internet. However, society's indifference to these crimes continues to amaze me. ("What is it like to be censored in America?")

Obviously, government resources and technology are used in this criminal activity aimed at me. American media will ignore this situation because I am not a Chinese dissident. The crimes committed against American dissidents, including censorship, present no problems for many of those concerned with human rights everywhere except in this country. ("Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal.")

How do people come to hold Nazi-like views? For some people, I think, abstract positions come to have overriding importance; concrete individuals seeking to be heard diminish by comparison. Winning is everything; people who may be hurt are nothing. The "War Against Fidel Castro" -- or against "terror" -- is real, the millions of children, old people, families injured or destroyed to fight these so-called "wars" do not matter. Victims are collateral damage. The Constitution is an inconvenience. Ethics is expendable. Stay the course. ("What is it like to be tortured?")

This sacrifice of humanity and compassion for political gain or so-called "success" is the accusation made by Cuban-American politicians against Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. These same politicians in Miami or New Jersey have earned the identical criticism for their ruthless tactics. Their cruelty and disdain for legality make Right-wing Cuban-American politicians unfit to govern anywhere. ("Is Senator Bob 'For' Human Rights?" and "American Hypocrisy and Luis Posada Carriles.")

"The destruction from the 1991 bombing campaign of electric generating plants, water purification, and sewage treatment facilities resulted in cholera and typhoid epidemics. In 1990 the incidence of typhoid was 11.3 per 100,000 people [in Iraq;] by 1994 it was more than 142 per 100,000. In 1988 there were zero cases of cholera per 100,000 people; by 1994 there were 1,344 per 100,000."

Gordon, Invisible War, at p. 34.

Pages of these statistics are delivered with a deadpan earnestness that makes the full horror for which the U.S., primarily, is responsible in Iraq painfully obvious. This is to say nothing of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where robot bombs are falling and warfare continues as I type these words. We are responsible for a colossal tragedy in Iraq. I am glad that Saddam Hussein is not there. I wonder, however, if the price was too high for Hussein's removal and whether it was up to us to remove him.

U.S. efforts to starve or strangle Cuba into submission with an embargo that hurts children and old people, mostly, together with decades of covert operations aimed at foreigners and destruction of airplanes filled with innocent people seem equally cruel and failed attempts to impose our will on a small country with plenty of troubles to struggle against without contending also with the hostility of the world's reigning superpower. Criticisms of human rights failures in Cuba or anywhere are always welcome. At the moment, we have our own human rights nightmares to deal with. ("America's Holocaust.")

Fidel Castro has left office. A new generation is rising to the ultimate positions of power in Havana. The Revolution belongs to the Cuban people, not to the fat cats and political bosses in Miami, Florida and/or Union City, New Jersey. ("Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me'" and "Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba.")
More than one million casualties is a highly conservative number for all of the various U.S. conflicts in the Middle and Far East, many more lives devastated by permanent injuries and diseases, shattered minds and bodies have and will result from a foreign policy "adventure" gone wrong. The "little brown people" are not cooperating with our lofty view concerning what is for their own good. We just want to help. ("Little Brown Men Are Only Objects for Us" and "The Experiments in Guatemala" then "American Doctors and Torture" and "John Rawls and Justice.")

I am not an abstract issue. I am not a means to your political or propaganda goals. I am not a slave. I am not a piece of bait for your law enforcement trap. My opinions are not subject to the "control" of others. I am a person. I am entitled to the recognition of the same rights that you and every other person enjoys, including rights to privacy, freedom of speech and expression, safety from physical harm or sexual violation, theft, slander, or economic harm. ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Is America's Legal Ethics a Lie?")

To hurt any person who disagrees with you is not to disprove that person's arguments. To insult me is not to affect the merits of my philosophical opinions. The overwhelming evidence of corruption in N.J. politics and law is untouched by the computer crimes and censorship against me that are designed to cover them up by silencing me. New Jersey needs a "colonoscopy" administered by the FBI -- and they're getting it! I am rarely able to make use of my computer these days because of cybercrimes and intrusions into my computer from New Jersey's hackers. ("More Mafia Figures Arrested in New Jersey" and "Mafia Influence in New Jersey Law and Politics.")

New Jersey's political and/or legal system has failed in this matter. This failure is obvious to observers from all over the world. Furthermore, the disaster is aggravated by continuing attempts to ignore what is staring us in the face: this situation must be dealt with and resolved -- sooner rather than later, Mr. Christie. ("Will Governor Christie End the Nightmare?")

My protest will not go away. The evil exposed in my writings and in my daily experiences of censorship and cruelty is blatant and hideous. The question now is whether America -- not just New Jersey -- will allow these crimes to remain unpunished. Each violation of my copyright and use of government power to offend First Amendment principles amounts to defecating on the Bill of Rights and over the graves of men and women who have died to defend Americans' freedoms. This defecation comes easily to New Jersey's corrupt politicians and judges. ("Does Senator Menendez Have Mafia Friends?")

I hope that those individuals responsible for the crimes committed against me over many years will be prosecuted and, if convicted, punished severely for their offenses. I will persist in my efforts to confront responsible officials in New Jersey until that prosecution and punishment takes place. ("Deborah T. Poritz and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" and "James T. Zazzali and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey" then "Stuart Rabner and Conduct Unbecoming to the Judiciary in New Jersey.")

All three of New Jersey's most recent "Chief Justices" are unethical and should be disbarred. Do you wish to debate our respective ethical qualities, Mr. Rabner? ("Law and Ethics in the Soprano State" and "American Doctors and Torture" then "America's Unwilling Experimental Animals" and "The Experiments in Guatemala.")

"The sanctions regime on Iraq," Professor Gordon concludes, "as it was designed, interpreted, and enforced by the United States, evinced a willingness to see appalling things done in the name of security, ["ethics"?] and this requires us to consider that measures equally damaging and indiscriminate may be pursued in other circumstances, whether in the name of stopping aggression, drug trafficking, or terrorism. We must come to grips with the perversity of this. It is simply not good enough to say that atrocities committed for the right reasons, or by respected international organizations, [OAE?] are not really atrocities after all."

Gordon, Invisible War, at p. 240.