[Peace] satire --> Re: Sweden -free speech to US refugees

[Margaret E. Kosal]

This article went the rounds to many lists and the majority of 
sophisticated readers found it credible which suggests a fine line between 
reality and satire these days.

So what happened:
1) On the e-mail circulated on another list the footnote was not the same 
one - rather it said:
- Dennis Hans <mailto:HANS_D at popmail.firn.edu> files stories in the New 
York Times, Washington Post, National Post (Canada) and online at 
TomPaine.com, Slate and The Black World Today (tbwt.com), among other 
outlets. He has taught courses in mass communications and American foreign 
policy at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. Dennis is a 
contributing writer for Liberal Slant and can be reached at 
mailto:HANS_D at popmail.firn.edu

2) Recently there was an article going around the list serves about Ritt 
Goldstein an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement 
for US law enforcement accountability. ... who was in hiding in Sweden and 
seeking asylum there http://www.8thdaycenter.org/090500.html U.S. CITIZEN 
SEEKS ASYLUM FROM POLICE

Excerpt:
"In a move that stunned Amnesty International and other human rights 
groups, Sweden's Immigration Board did not challenge the facts of Ritt's 
claim but said that there is no need for asylum because the US is an 
'internationally recognized democracy with a just legal system.' Sweden's 
Alien Appeals Board upheld this decision which led to an order for his 
immediate deportation to the US. Ritt immediately went into hiding in 
Sweden as his case slowly grinds its way toward the European Court of 
Justice in Strasbourg. He has been described as 'the man who fled the US in 
search of freedom.' While Ritt's case receives little attention in the US, 
it has set off a wide debate in Europe. His supporters suspect that the 
Swedish immigration service simply does not want to embarrass the US by 
granting him asylum."

3) Here are some excerpts from that article which provides some background 
on Sweden's foreign policy position. For those familiar with the earlier 
Olaf Palmer days - the Eagle has landed in Sweden as well.

http://nnn.se/n-model/foreign/damage.htm
Collateral Damage : Sweden's Legacy of Peace
Al Burke, 21 October 2001
”You know how it is: When the big guys call, one is eager to do one’s bit.” 
- Swedish Prime Minister, Göran Persson, 2000
I"NTRO:  THE SANCTITY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, the resolution of conflict by 
peaceful means, the protection of weaker nations against aggression by the 
more powerful, an independent foreign policy based on peaceful neutrality, 
and related principles have long been cornerstones of Swedish foreign policy.
Not anymore. The dust had barely settled on the rubble of the World Trade 
Center in New York when Prime Minister Göran Persson announced his 
”unconditional support” for any measures that the United States might care 
to take in response to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. Two 
weeks into the massive bombing of Afghanistan, whose responsibility for the 
attacks has yet to be established, the Swedish prime minister’s support for 
the U.S. remains unshaken.

Here are a few excerpts from the lengthy article:
"An obvious question is whether this loss of bearings  hroughout Europe has 
occurred by some remarkable coincidence, or has been guided by the world’s 
sole remaining  superpower. For obvious reasons, evidence is hard to come 
by, and will likely remain so until the relevant archives are opened 
several decades hence, if ever. But there are some tantalizing indications...."
-----
"In Sweden’s case, the loss of bearings is intimately related to the 
country’s entry into the European Union in 1995. Since then, its once 
distinctive profile has suffered steady erosion as the result of at least 
three factors: the display of and, in many areas, the requirement of unity 
which EU membership implies; the  ideological collapse” of  social 
democracy lamented by Le Monde Diplomatique; and Prime Minister Persson, 
whose knowledge and understanding of foreign policy issues are (even 
according to party colleagues) quite limited."

(Although one can also question the EU association as causitive, since 
non-EU but NATO member Norway has also capitulated to US demands & 
intentions .. sigh ... margaret)
------
"In foreign policy matters, the EU’s has always been a submissive partner 
in NATO: What the United States wants, it usually gets, and the latest 
Balkan tragedy was no exception. Although Sweden is not yet a member of 
NATO, it is clearly being led in that direction....

"In short, the country that was once regarded as the western world’s ”one 
honourable exception” in its early and forceful opposition to the Vietnam 
War, is being inexorably drawn into the violent realm of Pax Americana by 
the government of Göran Persson."
------------
"But during the past year, several veterans of the Palme era have pointedly 
expressed their displeasure with various aspects of the Persson 
government’s foreign policy."
-----------
"”Time and time again," observes Åström [former UN ambassador], "the right 
of self-defence has been wrongly invoked to justify military action, 
especially by the U.S. and Israel. The Security Council has on several 
occasions condemned that broad interpretation. Now, a new praxis is being 
introduced which may become established, and that changes the entire 
situation. . . . It is an extremely important precedent which can lead to 
the law of the jungle. We have already seen that Russia uses it to justify 
its actions in Chechen. Israel uses the same argument to justify its 
behaviour in the occupied areas, and China may start using it at any time 
to crush resistance movements.

". . . What it does is to provide strong states with an excuse to go to 
military attack on the pretext that they have been subjected to terrorist 
actions.”

---------------
See at end of article link to
"Things by Their Right Names. A review of the process by which "The Legacy 
of Olof Palme" has been discarded by his successors."

Namaste,
Margaret

At 00:38 1/2/2003 +0100, Marianne Brun wrote:

>----------
>Von: linda kaucher <lindakaucher at hotmail.com>
>Antworten an: lindakaucher at hotmail.com
>Datum: Wed, 01 Jan 2003 11:49:54 +0000
>An: wilpf-news at igc.topica.com, ukwilpf at egroups.com
>Betreff: wilpf-news Sweden -free speech to US refugees
>
>Sweden offers Free Speech Refuge to US Officials
>
>
>Sweden Offers Free-speech Refuge To U.S. Officials
>By Dennis Hans | http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0212/S00082.htm
>From: Editor <changingplanet at supremalex.org
>[Changing Planet] Sweden Offers Free-speech Refuge To U.S. Officials
>
>Sweden Providing Platform for U.S. Officials Cowed by Bush
>
>Intimidated bureaucrats regain their voice as protected guests of a
>genuinely democratic regime.
>By: Dennis Hans - 12/11/02
>Also Published at www.liberalslant.com
>
>STOCKHOLM - Blaine Williams hasn't stopped grinning since he arrived in
>Sweden two weeks ago. Several times a day he'll approach a complete
>stranger,
>offer a handshake and a smile, introduce himself as a former CIA analyst
>from America, and proceed to tell the bewildered Swede all the things he
>knows that
>directly contradict President George W. Bush's declarations about Saddam
>Hussein's intentions and capabilities.
>
>"Free at last!" Williams exclaimed to a reporter as he sat on his front
>porch and waved to new neighbors. "I was stuck in a totalitarian bureaucracy
>for 14
>months. What a relief it is to say in public who I am and what I think."
>
>Williams is the first of dozens of former U.S. government employees expected
>to take refuge in Sweden over the next several months, courtesy of a bold
>project of the new social democratic government.
>
>On October 15, the Swedish Parliament appropriated 500 million dollars for
>the "Palme Plan." Named for former Swedish president Olaf Palme, it promotes
>the virtues of free and honest speech among government officials in
>underdeveloped democracies.
>
>"Swedes have always been generous in providing economic aid to countries
>with underdeveloped economies," said Erland Carlsson, the parliamentarian
>who
>conceived the Palme Plan. "But we've done little to promote democratic
>development in underdeveloped democracies."
>
>Some leaders of underdeveloped democracies have welcomed Sweden's "democracy
>teams," encouraging their efforts to create a culture of candor and
>transparency in the corridors of power. Those efforts comprise the overt
>component of the Palme Plan. The covert component kicks in when a leader is
>hostile
>to the very notions of candor and transparency.
>
>Palme, who was Carlsson's political mentor, believed his greatest failure as
>president was his inability, during the Vietnam War, to persuade U.S.
>officialdom of
>the virtues of public candor. "Palme believed that if the national security
>bureaucracy had not been cowed into silence in the face of a torrent of
>deceit from a
>determined White House, the U.S. would never have invaded and destroyed
>Vietnam," Carlsson said.
>
>An October 8 story in the Houston Chronicle, by Jonathan Landy and Warren
>Strobel ( http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/1607676), convinced
>Carlsson that the same suffocating environment had enveloped key sectors of
>the Bush administration.
>
>Thirteen officials from the CIA, State Department and Pentagon, many with
>vast experience in the Middle East and South Asia, told Landy and Strobel
>the same
>thing: The White House has squelched dissent, imposed conformity and
>silence, demanded skewed analyses to justify its hard line, and repeatedly
>exaggerated
>or falsified intelligence information to inflate the Saddam threat.
>
>What most alarmed the Swedish MP was that none of the analysts were willing
>to be quoted by name. Some were too frightened even to be quoted
>anonymously.
>
>"I couldn't help thinking that if these informed, respected patriots could
>raise their voices openly and in unison, they'd stop the administration's
>chicken hawks
>in their tracks," Carlsson said. "Public and congressional support for the
>war path would whither, and the president would be exposed as the world's
>most
>crooked 'straight shooter.'"
>
>Borrowing Bush's Brilliant Idea
>
>When Bush insisted that U.N. weapons inspectors be able to take Iraqi
>scientists and their families outside of Iraq for interviews, thus
>protecting the scientists
>from possible retaliation by Saddam's secret police, Carlsson had the
>solution that had eluded Palme so many years ago.
>
>"That's it!" he told a colleague. "We'll offer U.S. bureaucrats and their
>families safe passage to Sweden and a secure environment from which they can
>speak
>freely and publicly to the folks back home. They can stay here at our
>expense until a climate of openness and honesty prevails in the Bush
>administration."
>
>In addition to Williams, 28 other bureaucrats and their families are en
>route to Stockholm. All were spirited out of Washington by a team of Swedish
>secret
>agents who had honed their rescue skills in Yugoslavia and the Congo.
>
>Once the former officials settle into their new homes and get comfortable
>with saying who they are and what they think, they'll spend their time
>giving speeches
>an interviews.
>
>Former CIA analyst Williams is already a sensation on Swedish TV as a
>regular guest on the top-rated chat show, Nugen Farger ("Hard Rugby"). On a
>recent
>edition, he parsed a string of Bush's statements on Iraq, including
>assertions at a Republican fundraiser that Saddam Hussein hopes to deploy al
>Qaeda as his
>"forward army" against the West, and that "we need to think about Saddam
>Hussein using al Qaeda to do his dirty work, to not leave fingerprints
>behind."
>
>"I can assure you," Williams told Swedish viewers, "that no one at CIA
>believes a word Bush said. What's more, no one at CIA believes that Bush
>believes a
>word Bush said."
>
>Strong words, and Williams anticipates an echo chamber as more of Sweden's
>newest residents regain their voice. But he wonders if members of the U.S.
>news
>media, particularly those he calls "the boobs on the tube," will dare to
>listen.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace/attachments/20030101/1c092232/attachment.html