Our Interesting Times"May you live in interesting times." | |
| Hugo Turner on Ted Shackley: A Life in the CIA
March 27, 2017 02:50 AM PDT
Hugo Turner joins Our Interesting Times for a discussion on his article "Ted Shackley: A Life in the CIA." We talk about the career of CIA agent Theodore Shackley and how the biography of the infamous spymaster provides a window into the intrigues of the Deep State and the secret history of the American Empire.
Hugo's website is Anti-Imperialist-U.
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March 23, 2017 02:40 AM PDT
Dr. Katherine Horton joins Our Interesting Times to discuss her experience and research regarding electronic harassment, the phenomenon of targeted individuals and her work regarding psychopathology.
Dr. Horton was a research fellow at St. John's College, Oxford when she believes she became a target of British Intelligence. We talk about the various reasons why some people become targeted individuals and the psychopathology that afflicts modern world's economic, political and governmental institutions. Dr. Horton's website is stop007.org.
*Please consider a donation to support this podcast.
March 19, 2017 03:58 AM PDT
Chris Kendall returns to Our Interesting Times to discuss several issues he has recently addressed on his weekly program Hoax Busters Call. Included in our discussion are the issues of transgenderism, identity politics, globalism, Scientism, media fakery cultural degradation and the broader topic of psychological warfare.
*Please consider a donation to support this podcast.
March 14, 2017 03:10 AM PDT
James Perloff returns to Our Interesting Times to discuss his article "Revisiting the Vietnam Era: Are Soros and the Deep State Updating an Old PSYOP to Depose Trump?"James reflects on his experiences as a hippie activist in the 1960's and we talk about how today's protests against Donald Trump, like the protests of the Sixties, are billionaire-funded.
James is the author of several books including Shadows of Power and Truth is a Lonely Warrior. His website is jamesperloff.com.
*Please consider a donation to support this podcast.
March 09, 2017 03:28 AM PST
| |
Monday, March 27, 2017
Interview: Ted Shackley and America's Hidden History
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Hugo Turner: Deep Politics of Iran/Contra V.2
Hugo Turner
Iran/Contra, WACL, World War 3, and Studying Deep Politics
The following is an interview with Hugo Turner, a researcher with a passion for studying the covert operations of the 70's and 80's. We discussed his four part series on the history of the Iran-contra scandal. They can be found at his blog here: part I, part II, part III, part IV. This interview first appeared on his blog.
Our Hidden History interviewing Hugo Turner @hugoturner1969
The following is an interview with Hugo Turner, a researcher with a passion for studying the covert operations of the 70's and 80's. Unfortunately there were some technical difficulties with the recording but this transcript of the talk is available.
Hugo has reviewed the transcript and added to the text to provide more information.
Interviewer: We've got Hugo Turner here who has a blog called Anti-Imperialist U.
We are going to talk about the Iran-Contra affair and everything surrounding that. The fact is Iran-Contra was a lot more than just - maybe, people think of it as a little set of hearings and a little arms deal and a little war in Central America, but it's really a lot more. It directly touches everything from the Bay of Pigs to the Drug Wars of 1990s, but examining it root and branch takes you from about 1917 all the way to today.
Interviewer: We've got Hugo Turner here who has a blog called Anti-Imperialist U.
We are going to talk about the Iran-Contra affair and everything surrounding that. The fact is Iran-Contra was a lot more than just - maybe, people think of it as a little set of hearings and a little arms deal and a little war in Central America, but it's really a lot more. It directly touches everything from the Bay of Pigs to the Drug Wars of 1990s, but examining it root and branch takes you from about 1917 all the way to today.
Hugo wrote an amazing, four-part article that uses Iran-Contra as the center but lays out all of the events surrounding it - from the success of the Vietnamese people in getting the United States out of Vietnam through the end of the Cold War and right up to today. I really suggest people read it because there's a lot of really good stuff in there. There's a lot of stuff that I've never heard about. We'll also go over your sources because there was so much there that was new to me. So, it is a very interesting article.
Do you want to start out talking about what Iran-Contra was - the aspect the public is familiar with? Kind of how it got started, the scandal itself?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. The more well-known aspect of the scandal is that Reagan made a secret deal to sell arms to Iranians in exchange for the release of hostages. Then he diverted that money to fund the war in Nicaragua, which had been forbidden by Congress from funding in any way, direct or indirect. Then a plane crashed in Nicaragua and it was revealed. The Iranians were angry so, they leaked the story about that. That arms deal. They told Lebanese Newspaper and it was a huge scandal. The media tried to focus just on that one question of how much money was diverted? Did Reagan know? Trying to keep people from seeing the bigger picture of the long history from Cuba to Vietnam that proceeded the whole scandal that was all closely linked into it. Then you have Daniel Sheehan who’s the person who tried to expose more of the deep history of the Iran-Contra affair. He was the Jim Garrison of the '80s (Who attempted to prosecute the deep state for their role in the murder of JFK) because Sheehan tried to take George Bush and all his CIA friends and have them tried as the gangsters they were. Obviously, it didn’t go well. George H.W. Bush became president in 1988. Sheehan and the Christic institute were ordered to pay 1 million dollars in damages.
Interviewer: How did you become interested in this scandal?
Hugo Turner: Well I remembered it from childhood it was my first hint that the government was involved in all sorts of sinister stuff behind our backs. Actually before the scandal even broke one of my most vivid childhood memories was being taken by my parents to hear a priest and some nuns describe their torture and mock execution in El Salvador while the CIA looked on. Later I would discover after years of drug war propaganda as an 80's kid that all along the Reagan Administration had been involved in drug smuggling. However my renewed interest was inspired by learning about the the Sheehan investigation.
Interviewer: Talk about that a little bit because Mr. Sheehan actually has a lot of interesting talks on YouTube. The Christic case was something that I had not really heard of at the time, but he kind of really did dig into this group of people that were involved in the Iran-Contra scandal and investigate their careers going all the way back to the 1950s. Do you want to talk a little bit about his case and kind of what he was looking at, some of the people, and what he found?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. Well, to the public the main figure would be Oliver North. But according to Sheehan the central figure would be Theodore G. Shackley. The reason Sheehan went after this guy is because he had been the CIA's Chief of Station in Miami during the JFK assassination. Sheehan had learned about the JFK assassination during the Watergate era because he had worked for this law firm that represented Santo Trafficante, who was the son of this Cuban gangster. His father had gotten in control of the mob in Cuba for like 30 or 40 years before Castro kicked him out.
Interviewer: Right, right, right. The CIA was all working with them at the time.
Hugo Turner: Theodore G. Shackley was in Miami and he trained his army of Cuban exiles, to try to overthrow the government or at least wage a terrorist bombing campaign and try to assassinate Castro. This was after the initial Bay of Pigs failed. They tried a second operation called Operation Mongoose. They brought in Special Forces, trained these Cubans, and these same Cubans were involved in Watergate, drug dealing, Terrorism, dirty wars, and then Iran-Contra. People like Felix Rodriguez, Louis Posada Carriles and Rafel "Chi Chi" Quintero.
Interviewer: Yeah. Those were all those guys that were just the same set of people see involved in Iran-Contra and even Watergate, right? What Sheehan called "The Secret Team"?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. They would all work with Shackley. They followed him. From there, Shackley moved to Laos and the CIA guys like Thomas Clines and Cuban exiles from Miami like Felix Rodriguez followed him there. Then in Laos he was working with the drug dealing Laotian generals and also these tribesman, the Hmomg, who were kind of this indigenous people there that lived in the hills and were excellent at Guerilla warfare and were recruited to be in a "secret army" (secret only to the US public) in exchange their general Vang Pao Got to get super rich off the heroin trade. The same CIA agents that had smuggled drugs and waged a terror campaign in first Cuba and then Laos and Vietnam were the same people were recruited to run the Iran-Contra operation, which also involved drugs.
Do you want to start out talking about what Iran-Contra was - the aspect the public is familiar with? Kind of how it got started, the scandal itself?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. The more well-known aspect of the scandal is that Reagan made a secret deal to sell arms to Iranians in exchange for the release of hostages. Then he diverted that money to fund the war in Nicaragua, which had been forbidden by Congress from funding in any way, direct or indirect. Then a plane crashed in Nicaragua and it was revealed. The Iranians were angry so, they leaked the story about that. That arms deal. They told Lebanese Newspaper and it was a huge scandal. The media tried to focus just on that one question of how much money was diverted? Did Reagan know? Trying to keep people from seeing the bigger picture of the long history from Cuba to Vietnam that proceeded the whole scandal that was all closely linked into it. Then you have Daniel Sheehan who’s the person who tried to expose more of the deep history of the Iran-Contra affair. He was the Jim Garrison of the '80s (Who attempted to prosecute the deep state for their role in the murder of JFK) because Sheehan tried to take George Bush and all his CIA friends and have them tried as the gangsters they were. Obviously, it didn’t go well. George H.W. Bush became president in 1988. Sheehan and the Christic institute were ordered to pay 1 million dollars in damages.
Interviewer: How did you become interested in this scandal?
Hugo Turner: Well I remembered it from childhood it was my first hint that the government was involved in all sorts of sinister stuff behind our backs. Actually before the scandal even broke one of my most vivid childhood memories was being taken by my parents to hear a priest and some nuns describe their torture and mock execution in El Salvador while the CIA looked on. Later I would discover after years of drug war propaganda as an 80's kid that all along the Reagan Administration had been involved in drug smuggling. However my renewed interest was inspired by learning about the the Sheehan investigation.
Interviewer: Talk about that a little bit because Mr. Sheehan actually has a lot of interesting talks on YouTube. The Christic case was something that I had not really heard of at the time, but he kind of really did dig into this group of people that were involved in the Iran-Contra scandal and investigate their careers going all the way back to the 1950s. Do you want to talk a little bit about his case and kind of what he was looking at, some of the people, and what he found?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. Well, to the public the main figure would be Oliver North. But according to Sheehan the central figure would be Theodore G. Shackley. The reason Sheehan went after this guy is because he had been the CIA's Chief of Station in Miami during the JFK assassination. Sheehan had learned about the JFK assassination during the Watergate era because he had worked for this law firm that represented Santo Trafficante, who was the son of this Cuban gangster. His father had gotten in control of the mob in Cuba for like 30 or 40 years before Castro kicked him out.
Interviewer: Right, right, right. The CIA was all working with them at the time.
Hugo Turner: Theodore G. Shackley was in Miami and he trained his army of Cuban exiles, to try to overthrow the government or at least wage a terrorist bombing campaign and try to assassinate Castro. This was after the initial Bay of Pigs failed. They tried a second operation called Operation Mongoose. They brought in Special Forces, trained these Cubans, and these same Cubans were involved in Watergate, drug dealing, Terrorism, dirty wars, and then Iran-Contra. People like Felix Rodriguez, Louis Posada Carriles and Rafel "Chi Chi" Quintero.
Interviewer: Yeah. Those were all those guys that were just the same set of people see involved in Iran-Contra and even Watergate, right? What Sheehan called "The Secret Team"?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. They would all work with Shackley. They followed him. From there, Shackley moved to Laos and the CIA guys like Thomas Clines and Cuban exiles from Miami like Felix Rodriguez followed him there. Then in Laos he was working with the drug dealing Laotian generals and also these tribesman, the Hmomg, who were kind of this indigenous people there that lived in the hills and were excellent at Guerilla warfare and were recruited to be in a "secret army" (secret only to the US public) in exchange their general Vang Pao Got to get super rich off the heroin trade. The same CIA agents that had smuggled drugs and waged a terror campaign in first Cuba and then Laos and Vietnam were the same people were recruited to run the Iran-Contra operation, which also involved drugs.
The Cuban operation also involved drugs because of the Santo Trafficante thing. This actually evolved out of an even earlier generation of the OSS/OPC/CIA in Asia, during World War II and after World War II with the OSS and Operation Paper Clip and this massive heroin smuggling ring that had gone back before the war, basically. It's like 50 years of "deep history". Drug dealing, arms dealing, the mafia, all leading up to Iran-Contra. Then you could go into the future.
Looking back from our era, you could see that what I call World War 4 (aka the War on Drugs, aka the War on Terror, Cold War 2.0 all different names for what The Pentagon calls "The Long War") World War 4 grew out of the Iran-Contra era. The same players were involved in creating what would later be called Al Qaeda and in the massive heroin smuggling operation being run by the CIA out of Afghanistan.
You can see the Origins of the war in Ukraine for example brought on in part through WACL (The World Anti-Communist League a bunch of fascist terrorists, gangsters, and death squads) which was also deeply involved in the Iran-Contra affair raising funds for the Nicaraguan Contras (Counter-Revolutionaries) and similar groups like UNITA, the Afghan Mujahideen. As You can see the connections go on and on.
That's why I like studying the Iran-Contra affair, basically. Syria today is in many ways a replay of what happened to Afghanistan and Nicaragua in the 1980's.
Interviewer: Yeah. Well, that's what's really interesting about the way that you set it up because you used it to tie so much of recent US history together. Iran-Contra was just a tiny little tip of the iceberg of what people saw but there was a lot going on under the surface. For instance, you just mentioned WACL - the World Anti-Communist League - which didn't pop up in the hearings I don't think, but was very important to the period. You see them in this kind of worldwide movement that linked all of these far-right dictatorships in South America and Asia. You wrote a ton about this. You wrote two big articles (here and here). Can you talk a little bit about their history and how they were tied into Iran-Contra?
Hugo Turner: You can see the roots of WACL actually, going back to World War I basically, when the white Russians, which are were their era's contra forces opposing the communists. They lose and they were sort of proto-facist. This isn't really talked about today, but they're the ones that came up with much of what would become the Nazi Ideology. Like the idea that the Jews were behind the Bolshevik Revolution. The Czars ruled thru divide and conquer and thru terror campaigns. They incited Pogroms against the Jews and other minorities and massacres against rebelling workers and peasants using these proto-fascists death squads called the "Black Hundreds" especially during and after the failed 1905 Revolution in Russia. They were the ones that actually gave the, the Nazis a lot of their ideas. It was the Czars secret police who created The Protocols of Zion plagiarized from a French satire on the regime of Napoleon the III. During the Russian Civil War when 14 western countries tried to crush the Russian revolution they used these "white" Russian proto-fascists as foot soldiers they murdered millions of people and caused incredible destruction but were finally beaten by the Red Army.
Interviewer: Yeah. Well, that's what's really interesting about the way that you set it up because you used it to tie so much of recent US history together. Iran-Contra was just a tiny little tip of the iceberg of what people saw but there was a lot going on under the surface. For instance, you just mentioned WACL - the World Anti-Communist League - which didn't pop up in the hearings I don't think, but was very important to the period. You see them in this kind of worldwide movement that linked all of these far-right dictatorships in South America and Asia. You wrote a ton about this. You wrote two big articles (here and here). Can you talk a little bit about their history and how they were tied into Iran-Contra?
Hugo Turner: You can see the roots of WACL actually, going back to World War I basically, when the white Russians, which are were their era's contra forces opposing the communists. They lose and they were sort of proto-facist. This isn't really talked about today, but they're the ones that came up with much of what would become the Nazi Ideology. Like the idea that the Jews were behind the Bolshevik Revolution. The Czars ruled thru divide and conquer and thru terror campaigns. They incited Pogroms against the Jews and other minorities and massacres against rebelling workers and peasants using these proto-fascists death squads called the "Black Hundreds" especially during and after the failed 1905 Revolution in Russia. They were the ones that actually gave the, the Nazis a lot of their ideas. It was the Czars secret police who created The Protocols of Zion plagiarized from a French satire on the regime of Napoleon the III. During the Russian Civil War when 14 western countries tried to crush the Russian revolution they used these "white" Russian proto-fascists as foot soldiers they murdered millions of people and caused incredible destruction but were finally beaten by the Red Army.
Later Hitler recruited these people so did the western imperialists like Britain, France and the US. They were used to wage covert war and run propaganda campaigns vilifying the communists. To name one famous example, Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazis chief "racial theorist and ideologue" was one of these "white Russians" from the Baltic (although ethnically German) who had been forced to flee the Revolution. British super spy Sidney Reilly recruited these fascists into his World Anti-Bolshevik League. Later Hitler created an Anti-Comintern Pact, which united the fascists of Central Europe and the world. During the war they would create fascist death squads like the Ukrainian OUN-B and the Croatian Ustashi that committed horrific atrocities and genocidal mass murder through out Eastern Europe.
Then after the war, the US just sort of absorbed the Anti-Comintern Pact and eventually transformed it into WACL, which is like a worldwide fascist movement. In Asia it was named APACL: the South Koreans, the South Vietnamese, the Taiwanese. They're the official backers. They were also deeply involved in the global heroin traffic. Then you also have the ABN made up of Ukrainians, the Croatians, all these people that escaped - at the end of World War II, escaped the war crimes trials thanks to the OSS, CIC OPC and CIA and went to work for Americans, waging war on the Soviet Union. In Ukraine, for example, the CIA and the Nazi Gehlen Org backed the OUN-B in a covert war involving terrorism, mass murder and assassination that lasted until 1952.
Then after the war, the US just sort of absorbed the Anti-Comintern Pact and eventually transformed it into WACL, which is like a worldwide fascist movement. In Asia it was named APACL: the South Koreans, the South Vietnamese, the Taiwanese. They're the official backers. They were also deeply involved in the global heroin traffic. Then you also have the ABN made up of Ukrainians, the Croatians, all these people that escaped - at the end of World War II, escaped the war crimes trials thanks to the OSS, CIC OPC and CIA and went to work for Americans, waging war on the Soviet Union. In Ukraine, for example, the CIA and the Nazi Gehlen Org backed the OUN-B in a covert war involving terrorism, mass murder and assassination that lasted until 1952.
While the CIA was busy driving the world into a panic over the the nonexistent threat of a Russian invasion they were secretly waging covert war on the Soviet Union and China. A typical example of imperial hypocrisy and the power of propaganda since to this day few realized that it was America that was the aggressor during World War 3 not the Soviets. There was also a Latin American Branch - CAL - made up of fascist death squads in places like Guatemala, Bolivia, and El Salvador.
Fast forward to 1980 during the election, WACL was one of the forces that put Ronald Reagan into office. They do illegal campaign fundraising in Guatemala and other WACL countries. Their friends are releasing propaganda in Italy, framing Carter's brother for being in bed with Gaddafi. All sorts of dirty tricks like the infamous October Surprise whereby the Reagan Campaign got the Iranians to agree not to release the American Hostages before the election and in fact to wait until the day of Reagan's Inauguration. Once Reagan gets into power, he totally empowers these WACL forces and goes and speaks in front of them, has his picture taken with Ukrainian fascists and announced "Your Dream is Our Dream" meaning the destruction of the Soviet Union and the return of the fascist exiles to their home countries. Of course it was George HW Bush who really ran things during the Reagan Era.
As we all know, the Soviet Union did fall and then these people went in and took over. That is why today there is fascists governments in Croatia, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. Because during the Cold War, the CIA kept all these forces active through WACL. Alive, influential, well-funded. The children joined up and it's just like, a multi-generational fascist conspiracy that amazingly few people know about considering that WACL is undoubtedly one of the most sinister and scandalous groups ever created. It's also involved with drug dealing, arms dealing, it's members included Apartheid South Africa, Fascist Argentina, the Death Squads of Guatemala and El Salvador. The drug dealing Cuban exiles were also members. These are the WACL countries and strangely, Israel was an ally with the top seven WACL countries. Argentina, South Africa, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Guatemala.
Interviewer: They were everywhere, including Israeli Special Forces in Central America. It really was a world-wide phenomenon. There was no geographical center to it. There was no place untouched by these groups.
Hugo Turner: Yes Israel played a far greater role in both Africa and Latin America then is generally realized they helped train central american death squads and even sent the infamous Mossad Mercenary Michael Harari "The Master of Disaster" to train Medellin Cartel death squads in how to wage a massive terror campaign in Colombia.
As for WACL They would all meet together and they'd have a huge conference of all these terrorists, gangsters, all the fascist people of the world. Also invited would be with these "respectable" conservative politicians from the west like Ronald Reagan who never met a fascist he didn't like. They'd all meet together and it was just this great dirty little secret of the Cold War that nobody talked about.
Interviewer: Were these public meetings?
Hugo Turner: Yeah, and after the Cold War they just changed their name to something about freedom democracy instead of World Anti-Communist League. Now they are the World League for Freedom and Democracy. But they do they did the same things as always. They’re still backing the war in Ukraine for example. They are lobbying to have the Waffen SS declared national heroes all over Europe.
Interviewer: So, this still exists?
Hugo Turner: Oh, yeah.
Interviewer: Oh, okay. There's an organization now that's kind of the extension of WACL?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. I forget what the new name is. It's in the article it's something like World League for Freedom and Democracy, something like that.
Interviewer: It's an interesting article. People should read it. You've just got so much in here. So many names, so many connections. You're really extending out what Iran-Contra is. You really get a whole history of - like you said, the last 100 years. I saw you were really careful about listing all your sources, which is really cool. Do you want to talk about some of the sources for where you found some of this information and how you put it all together?
Hugo Turner: Oh. Well, one of my favorites of course is Peter Dale Scott. He's a major influence on me. He taught literature at Berkley and in his spare time he would write these essays on parapolitics and deep politics. Everything he says is confirmed by at least three sources. He deals with what he calls deep politics, but the media calls it "conspiracy theory" basically. The history of how corporate power, the underworld, and the intelligence agencies are all working together behind the scenes. How the world as we are conditioned to see it by the corporate media and much of academia is a facade. He writes about the world that's going on behind the scenes the world of spies, gangsters corrupt businessman, lobbyists, politicians. The forces that lie behind deep events like the Kennedy Assassination, Watergate, Iran/Contra, and 9/11. I recommend his Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, American War Machine, The Road to 9/11, and The Deep State.
I first heard about WACL in his book on the Iran-Contra affair called The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations In the Reagan Era which he co-wrote with Jonathan Marshall and Jane Hunter, (who also wrote a great book on Israel called Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America). Dave Emory and Nip Tuck also did a great series of radio shows during the '80s on the Iran-Contra affair and WACL. He helped me see an expanded version of Iran/Contra like how this relates to the shooting of the Pope and all the other crazy stuff that happened around this time.
Interviewer: Talk a little more because Dave Emory, he is One of the great researchers
Hugo Turner: Dave Emory is a researcher and radio show host who is still going strong. He's probably the worlds leading expert on fascism from it's origins to the present day. I discovered him thanks to a friend and fellow researcher @arrghshell. Dave Emory was a disciple of Mae Brussell, who's a legendary conspiracy researcher. He was covering all these people before the Iran/Contra scandal publicly broke in the fall of 1986 because Mae Brussell’s was obsessed with Ed Wilson, Theodore Shackley, and Ed Clines and other players in the scandal long before the Iran-Contra scandal broke. They were following the Ed Wilson scandal and these other interlocking scandals like the failed assassination attempt on the Pope by the Turkish Grey Wolves group which the Reagan Administration tried to blame on the Soviets.
Fast forward to 1980 during the election, WACL was one of the forces that put Ronald Reagan into office. They do illegal campaign fundraising in Guatemala and other WACL countries. Their friends are releasing propaganda in Italy, framing Carter's brother for being in bed with Gaddafi. All sorts of dirty tricks like the infamous October Surprise whereby the Reagan Campaign got the Iranians to agree not to release the American Hostages before the election and in fact to wait until the day of Reagan's Inauguration. Once Reagan gets into power, he totally empowers these WACL forces and goes and speaks in front of them, has his picture taken with Ukrainian fascists and announced "Your Dream is Our Dream" meaning the destruction of the Soviet Union and the return of the fascist exiles to their home countries. Of course it was George HW Bush who really ran things during the Reagan Era.
As we all know, the Soviet Union did fall and then these people went in and took over. That is why today there is fascists governments in Croatia, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. Because during the Cold War, the CIA kept all these forces active through WACL. Alive, influential, well-funded. The children joined up and it's just like, a multi-generational fascist conspiracy that amazingly few people know about considering that WACL is undoubtedly one of the most sinister and scandalous groups ever created. It's also involved with drug dealing, arms dealing, it's members included Apartheid South Africa, Fascist Argentina, the Death Squads of Guatemala and El Salvador. The drug dealing Cuban exiles were also members. These are the WACL countries and strangely, Israel was an ally with the top seven WACL countries. Argentina, South Africa, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Guatemala.
Interviewer: They were everywhere, including Israeli Special Forces in Central America. It really was a world-wide phenomenon. There was no geographical center to it. There was no place untouched by these groups.
Hugo Turner: Yes Israel played a far greater role in both Africa and Latin America then is generally realized they helped train central american death squads and even sent the infamous Mossad Mercenary Michael Harari "The Master of Disaster" to train Medellin Cartel death squads in how to wage a massive terror campaign in Colombia.
As for WACL They would all meet together and they'd have a huge conference of all these terrorists, gangsters, all the fascist people of the world. Also invited would be with these "respectable" conservative politicians from the west like Ronald Reagan who never met a fascist he didn't like. They'd all meet together and it was just this great dirty little secret of the Cold War that nobody talked about.
Interviewer: Were these public meetings?
Hugo Turner: Yeah, and after the Cold War they just changed their name to something about freedom democracy instead of World Anti-Communist League. Now they are the World League for Freedom and Democracy. But they do they did the same things as always. They’re still backing the war in Ukraine for example. They are lobbying to have the Waffen SS declared national heroes all over Europe.
Interviewer: So, this still exists?
Hugo Turner: Oh, yeah.
Interviewer: Oh, okay. There's an organization now that's kind of the extension of WACL?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. I forget what the new name is. It's in the article it's something like World League for Freedom and Democracy, something like that.
Interviewer: It's an interesting article. People should read it. You've just got so much in here. So many names, so many connections. You're really extending out what Iran-Contra is. You really get a whole history of - like you said, the last 100 years. I saw you were really careful about listing all your sources, which is really cool. Do you want to talk about some of the sources for where you found some of this information and how you put it all together?
Hugo Turner: Oh. Well, one of my favorites of course is Peter Dale Scott. He's a major influence on me. He taught literature at Berkley and in his spare time he would write these essays on parapolitics and deep politics. Everything he says is confirmed by at least three sources. He deals with what he calls deep politics, but the media calls it "conspiracy theory" basically. The history of how corporate power, the underworld, and the intelligence agencies are all working together behind the scenes. How the world as we are conditioned to see it by the corporate media and much of academia is a facade. He writes about the world that's going on behind the scenes the world of spies, gangsters corrupt businessman, lobbyists, politicians. The forces that lie behind deep events like the Kennedy Assassination, Watergate, Iran/Contra, and 9/11. I recommend his Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, American War Machine, The Road to 9/11, and The Deep State.
I first heard about WACL in his book on the Iran-Contra affair called The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations In the Reagan Era which he co-wrote with Jonathan Marshall and Jane Hunter, (who also wrote a great book on Israel called Israeli Foreign Policy: South Africa and Central America). Dave Emory and Nip Tuck also did a great series of radio shows during the '80s on the Iran-Contra affair and WACL. He helped me see an expanded version of Iran/Contra like how this relates to the shooting of the Pope and all the other crazy stuff that happened around this time.
Interviewer: Talk a little more because Dave Emory, he is One of the great researchers
Hugo Turner: Dave Emory is a researcher and radio show host who is still going strong. He's probably the worlds leading expert on fascism from it's origins to the present day. I discovered him thanks to a friend and fellow researcher @arrghshell. Dave Emory was a disciple of Mae Brussell, who's a legendary conspiracy researcher. He was covering all these people before the Iran/Contra scandal publicly broke in the fall of 1986 because Mae Brussell’s was obsessed with Ed Wilson, Theodore Shackley, and Ed Clines and other players in the scandal long before the Iran-Contra scandal broke. They were following the Ed Wilson scandal and these other interlocking scandals like the failed assassination attempt on the Pope by the Turkish Grey Wolves group which the Reagan Administration tried to blame on the Soviets.
In Dave Emory's archive series he provides an excellent history of CIA and military involvement in drug trafficking. He talks about and reads from classic books like The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia and The Great Heroin Coup. Another great series was on the history of fascism in America which saw a surge in the 1980's just like today and he talks about all the crazy stuff that's going on during the 70's and 80's in Italy and the middle east which was Italy's own version of Iran-Contra involving drug smuggling and weapons dealing. There's like a whole Italian Iran-Contra scandal thing that was connected to the GLADIO the P2 Masonic lodge and the Vatican, all sorts of crazy scandals that were going on there with funding terrorism, arms dealing, drug dealing in Europe. Forgotten scandals like SITBAM.
He also covered the Iran-Contra scandal itself including the original "Pizzagate" scandal involving mafia heroin dealing out of chains of East Coast pizza places. It's like a much wider ranging view of the Iran-Contra scandal. Of course Iran/Contra is only a small part of what he discusses. He's also done great work on 9/11 but is best known for his encyclopedic knowledge of fascism from 1917 to today and what he calls the "Underground Reich" - the postwar fascist movement who's important role in recent history have been completely suppressed because America's love affair with fascism around the world completely discredits the Cold War rhetoric that America was fighting for freedom and democracy. With the war in Ukraine heating up again and of course with the grim rise of Trump now is the time to check into Emory's decades of research available free on his website.
Another of my favorite sources is of course, Doug Valentine. He's the worlds leading expert on the CIA. He also wrote books about the DEA. His books include The Phoenix Program which he wrote by conning his way into the confidence of former CIA director William Colby who vouched for and introduced Valentine to scores of CIA and military people who told him far more then they should have resulting in the definitive book on the CIA in Vietnam.
He also covered the Iran-Contra scandal itself including the original "Pizzagate" scandal involving mafia heroin dealing out of chains of East Coast pizza places. It's like a much wider ranging view of the Iran-Contra scandal. Of course Iran/Contra is only a small part of what he discusses. He's also done great work on 9/11 but is best known for his encyclopedic knowledge of fascism from 1917 to today and what he calls the "Underground Reich" - the postwar fascist movement who's important role in recent history have been completely suppressed because America's love affair with fascism around the world completely discredits the Cold War rhetoric that America was fighting for freedom and democracy. With the war in Ukraine heating up again and of course with the grim rise of Trump now is the time to check into Emory's decades of research available free on his website.
Another of my favorite sources is of course, Doug Valentine. He's the worlds leading expert on the CIA. He also wrote books about the DEA. His books include The Phoenix Program which he wrote by conning his way into the confidence of former CIA director William Colby who vouched for and introduced Valentine to scores of CIA and military people who told him far more then they should have resulting in the definitive book on the CIA in Vietnam.
His next books, The Strength of the Wolf and Strength of the Pack, were based on a series of interviews with these old DEA agents and agents of the FBN and BNDD it's predecessors. Their story about what was really going on is wonderfully shocking. They weren't allowed to go after the top drug dealers who invariably turned out to be working for the CIA. It's about how how it was all totally politicized. Some people were allowed to deal drugs, like the "nationalist" Chinese KMT or the Nicaraguan Contras while the government blamed their enemies "Red China" or Sandinista Nicaragua for the drug problem.
The war on drugs was also completely racist, too. They would only bust small time blacks and latinos for drug dealing and leave the big time white gangsters alone, usually. Doug Valentine has a new book out called the CIA as Organized Crime. I recommend people actually start with this book because it provides a great introduction to his previous work although it is also packed with new information for people like me who've already read his earlier work. For example there is a great discussion of the relationship to the CIA and Media as well as the best discussion I have read about what is going on in Afghanistan.
Interviewer: Yeah. His Phoenix Program book is really good. There's so much about these mafia connections and how the CIA uses criminal elements in their operations. That's a really great book. You listed Killing Hope by William Blum too. How is that one?
Hugo Turner: If you want to get one book that will tell, in short chapters, many of the coups and covert wars that took place during the Cold War - a lot of which are totally forgotten - that's a good book to get. American foreign policy works because people are focused on the latest things. They always have "a really good reason" why we need to invade and occupy some country thousands of miles away. We're going in to "help people" to bring freedom and democracy preserve human rights. Or alternately some tiny country like Nicaragua or Grenada is portrayed as a danger not only to the United States but the entire region. It would be laughable if people didn't fall for the same lies again and again leading to millions of deaths, untold destruction, and misery. They want you to forget everything you know about the past and no, this time it's going to be different. It's about democracy. It's about freedom. If you read a book like William Blum's where you just read about these different interventions, one after another, you realize this has nothing to do with democracy. Obviously since most of them involves overthrowing democracy and installing right-wing dictators and helping them wage war on their people. There have been over 70 of these coups and covert wars. Even his book is not a complete list. It doesn’t have Argentina in there. He doesn’t have Mexico and he doesn’t have other stuff, but he manages to cover 56 different coups and covert operations - more if you count the repeating coups in some countries. If you wanted one book that would tell you about all these different covert wars and coups, that's the one to get.
Another book that I highly recommend for understanding US foreign Policy is Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America by J. Patrice McSherry who is one of the most brilliant and courageous scholars I have ever read. It tells the horrifying story of the interlocking fascist dictatorships the US set up trained and indoctrinated in their cold war "National Security Doctrine" which trained the military intelligence and police to view their own people as the enemy and to wage a brutal campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination that lead tens of thousands to suffer very ugly deaths often after months of torture. She also connects operation condor to the Phoenix program and even Operation GLADIO which most scholars would rather pretend didn't exist. I also highly recommend her book Incomplete Transition: Military Power and Democracy in Argentina which provides a history of the country from the turn of the century thru the dirty war and junta period into the 1990's. It provides fascinating information on the links to GLADIO, fascism and "false flag terror" as the alt-media calls it.
Interviewer: Nice. Oh, and you listed a Sibel Edmonds interview I'm interested in. You said it dealt with Iran-Contra, 9/11, and much more. You want to talk a little bit about what's in that one? I'll put a link to some of this stuff.
Hugo Turner: Sibel Edmonds was recruited as a translator by the FBI and she quickly discovered the whole war on terrorism was complete fraud. Of course, America is protecting these terrorist groups and the Turkish lobby today is like the "China lobby" of the 50's. They are funneling all these heroin profits from Afghanistan to buy members of congress. She tried to blow the whistle on the fact that the CIA is basically protecting al-Qaida and they silenced her and she wasn't allowed to talk. Then the press did cover her, but they only covered that she wasn't allowed to talk and they weren't interested at all about what she had to reveal. She did a series of interviews with this alt media guy, James Corbett where she tells everything that she wasn't supposed to tell. She introduces the world to the concept of GLADIO B as the FBI secretly began calling Al Qaeda. In the mid-90's the CIA Switched from supporting the fascist grey wolves to supporting the muslim brotherhood and Al Qaeda. Watching her GLADIO B interviews give you an entire account from inside the FBI where the war on terror and the war on drugs are revealed to be a complete farce.
Interviewer: She was a translator in the FBI, translating?
Hugo Turner: Yeah she translated Turkish and Farsi for the FBI. Because these FBI guys don’t know anything about the Middle East and she grew up in Iran, and Turkey she became actually, more of an analyst. They'd come to her with info and ask "what does this mean?" She knows way more about it than they did, so she became an analyst too. That's why she knows so much because everyone was coming to her, like can you explain what's going on? She met with these - different FBI guys across the country trying to put away these al-Qaida guys, or their backers and every time they're about to move in, the State Department (fronting for CIA) would call 15 minutes ahead of time and call off the raid.
Interviewer: She grew up in Iran and she was an analyst there. She was basically saying when the FBI will go find some al-Qaida members, they would end up letting them go or something, right?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. They weren't allowed to pursue these people. The funders of Al Qaeda the rich Saudis and the NATO intelligence people. They weren't allowed to pursue them because they're just a tool of our government basically.
Interviewer: Right. And that's what we see going on in Syria today, right?
Hugo Turner: Well, yeah. In Syria we're funding al-Qaida to try to overthrow the Syrian government. Thankfully Russia intervened and the tide of war was turned , but if they hadn't Syria would have ended up like Libya. Libya complete is currently in chaos because it's ruled by al-Qaeda death squads that NATO bombed into power. Our "first black president" green lit a war that involved attempted genocide of darker skinned Libyans. The vast majority of the people there supported Gaddafi's government. Libya was a form of direct democracy known as the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya the people received free housing, education, and health care along with a cut of the oil revenues. It had the highest standard of living in Africa. NATO decided to destroy everything and they used Al Qaeda as foot soldiers backed by NATO special forces and a massive bombing campaign. NATO killed between 250,000 and 450,000 and reduced the country to a chaotic failed state. Currently there's a Green resistance movement to bring back Libya to how it was before the war but almost nobody knows about it. My friend Alexandra Valiente is one of the only independent sources of news on whats going I did some interviews with her on the topic people should check out. Also visit her sites Jamahiriya news, Viva Libya, Libya 360, and Syria 360.
Interviewer: I want to kind of read this list of wars that you have in the article. You call the Cold War "World War III". Why do you call it that?
Hugo Turner: Because from the American perspective it's a Cold War because as long as the nuclear weapons don’t go off and nothing happens to them, it's like we're not at war. For the rest of the world, millions of people are being killed all over the planet, it's was a world war. From a third world perspective, it's World War III. Not just some Cold War that could have happened but never happened. It did happen. It was a very hot war in Korea, Vietnam, Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Korea, and all these different places.
Interviewer: I'll read some of these on this list you've got. Just in the 1980's alone, there's the war in Nicaragua, you have the Iran-Iraq War. The war in Lebanon, Uganda...
Hugo Turner: Yeah, the Iran-Iraq war was an important backdrop to the Iran-Contra affair which also helped pave the way for the three wars the US has waged on the Iraqis.
Interviewer: El Salvador. Yeah, Iran/Iraq War. That's huge. A million people died in that war.
You listed just practically every country Latin American Country from Mexico to the tip of South America that basically had a "dirty war" going on inside of it. Then you mentioned Israel, Palestine, Lebanon - kind of similar to what was going on now. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Hugo Turner: Like today the Middle East was the scene of huge wars. There was an attempt to destroy Syria during the 1980's They tried the same thing that they are doing now with the Muslim brotherhood instead of al-Qaida. They tried to start a sectarian war. But fortunately Hafez al-Assad crushed it. Syria was also battling Israel in Lebanon the scene of a viscous civil war thats way to complex to go into here. Then There's the Iran/Iraq War where the US is giving weapons and advice to both sides. They kill each other and a million people died there, with softened up Iraq for the later Persian Gulf War and the Iraq Invasion and now we're in like, a third Iraq War.
Interviewer: Yeah. His Phoenix Program book is really good. There's so much about these mafia connections and how the CIA uses criminal elements in their operations. That's a really great book. You listed Killing Hope by William Blum too. How is that one?
Hugo Turner: If you want to get one book that will tell, in short chapters, many of the coups and covert wars that took place during the Cold War - a lot of which are totally forgotten - that's a good book to get. American foreign policy works because people are focused on the latest things. They always have "a really good reason" why we need to invade and occupy some country thousands of miles away. We're going in to "help people" to bring freedom and democracy preserve human rights. Or alternately some tiny country like Nicaragua or Grenada is portrayed as a danger not only to the United States but the entire region. It would be laughable if people didn't fall for the same lies again and again leading to millions of deaths, untold destruction, and misery. They want you to forget everything you know about the past and no, this time it's going to be different. It's about democracy. It's about freedom. If you read a book like William Blum's where you just read about these different interventions, one after another, you realize this has nothing to do with democracy. Obviously since most of them involves overthrowing democracy and installing right-wing dictators and helping them wage war on their people. There have been over 70 of these coups and covert wars. Even his book is not a complete list. It doesn’t have Argentina in there. He doesn’t have Mexico and he doesn’t have other stuff, but he manages to cover 56 different coups and covert operations - more if you count the repeating coups in some countries. If you wanted one book that would tell you about all these different covert wars and coups, that's the one to get.
Another book that I highly recommend for understanding US foreign Policy is Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America by J. Patrice McSherry who is one of the most brilliant and courageous scholars I have ever read. It tells the horrifying story of the interlocking fascist dictatorships the US set up trained and indoctrinated in their cold war "National Security Doctrine" which trained the military intelligence and police to view their own people as the enemy and to wage a brutal campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination that lead tens of thousands to suffer very ugly deaths often after months of torture. She also connects operation condor to the Phoenix program and even Operation GLADIO which most scholars would rather pretend didn't exist. I also highly recommend her book Incomplete Transition: Military Power and Democracy in Argentina which provides a history of the country from the turn of the century thru the dirty war and junta period into the 1990's. It provides fascinating information on the links to GLADIO, fascism and "false flag terror" as the alt-media calls it.
Interviewer: Nice. Oh, and you listed a Sibel Edmonds interview I'm interested in. You said it dealt with Iran-Contra, 9/11, and much more. You want to talk a little bit about what's in that one? I'll put a link to some of this stuff.
Hugo Turner: Sibel Edmonds was recruited as a translator by the FBI and she quickly discovered the whole war on terrorism was complete fraud. Of course, America is protecting these terrorist groups and the Turkish lobby today is like the "China lobby" of the 50's. They are funneling all these heroin profits from Afghanistan to buy members of congress. She tried to blow the whistle on the fact that the CIA is basically protecting al-Qaida and they silenced her and she wasn't allowed to talk. Then the press did cover her, but they only covered that she wasn't allowed to talk and they weren't interested at all about what she had to reveal. She did a series of interviews with this alt media guy, James Corbett where she tells everything that she wasn't supposed to tell. She introduces the world to the concept of GLADIO B as the FBI secretly began calling Al Qaeda. In the mid-90's the CIA Switched from supporting the fascist grey wolves to supporting the muslim brotherhood and Al Qaeda. Watching her GLADIO B interviews give you an entire account from inside the FBI where the war on terror and the war on drugs are revealed to be a complete farce.
Interviewer: She was a translator in the FBI, translating?
Hugo Turner: Yeah she translated Turkish and Farsi for the FBI. Because these FBI guys don’t know anything about the Middle East and she grew up in Iran, and Turkey she became actually, more of an analyst. They'd come to her with info and ask "what does this mean?" She knows way more about it than they did, so she became an analyst too. That's why she knows so much because everyone was coming to her, like can you explain what's going on? She met with these - different FBI guys across the country trying to put away these al-Qaida guys, or their backers and every time they're about to move in, the State Department (fronting for CIA) would call 15 minutes ahead of time and call off the raid.
Interviewer: She grew up in Iran and she was an analyst there. She was basically saying when the FBI will go find some al-Qaida members, they would end up letting them go or something, right?
Hugo Turner: Yeah. They weren't allowed to pursue these people. The funders of Al Qaeda the rich Saudis and the NATO intelligence people. They weren't allowed to pursue them because they're just a tool of our government basically.
Interviewer: Right. And that's what we see going on in Syria today, right?
Hugo Turner: Well, yeah. In Syria we're funding al-Qaida to try to overthrow the Syrian government. Thankfully Russia intervened and the tide of war was turned , but if they hadn't Syria would have ended up like Libya. Libya complete is currently in chaos because it's ruled by al-Qaeda death squads that NATO bombed into power. Our "first black president" green lit a war that involved attempted genocide of darker skinned Libyans. The vast majority of the people there supported Gaddafi's government. Libya was a form of direct democracy known as the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya the people received free housing, education, and health care along with a cut of the oil revenues. It had the highest standard of living in Africa. NATO decided to destroy everything and they used Al Qaeda as foot soldiers backed by NATO special forces and a massive bombing campaign. NATO killed between 250,000 and 450,000 and reduced the country to a chaotic failed state. Currently there's a Green resistance movement to bring back Libya to how it was before the war but almost nobody knows about it. My friend Alexandra Valiente is one of the only independent sources of news on whats going I did some interviews with her on the topic people should check out. Also visit her sites Jamahiriya news, Viva Libya, Libya 360, and Syria 360.
Interviewer: I want to kind of read this list of wars that you have in the article. You call the Cold War "World War III". Why do you call it that?
Hugo Turner: Because from the American perspective it's a Cold War because as long as the nuclear weapons don’t go off and nothing happens to them, it's like we're not at war. For the rest of the world, millions of people are being killed all over the planet, it's was a world war. From a third world perspective, it's World War III. Not just some Cold War that could have happened but never happened. It did happen. It was a very hot war in Korea, Vietnam, Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Korea, and all these different places.
Interviewer: I'll read some of these on this list you've got. Just in the 1980's alone, there's the war in Nicaragua, you have the Iran-Iraq War. The war in Lebanon, Uganda...
Hugo Turner: Yeah, the Iran-Iraq war was an important backdrop to the Iran-Contra affair which also helped pave the way for the three wars the US has waged on the Iraqis.
Interviewer: El Salvador. Yeah, Iran/Iraq War. That's huge. A million people died in that war.
You listed just practically every country Latin American Country from Mexico to the tip of South America that basically had a "dirty war" going on inside of it. Then you mentioned Israel, Palestine, Lebanon - kind of similar to what was going on now. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?
Hugo Turner: Like today the Middle East was the scene of huge wars. There was an attempt to destroy Syria during the 1980's They tried the same thing that they are doing now with the Muslim brotherhood instead of al-Qaida. They tried to start a sectarian war. But fortunately Hafez al-Assad crushed it. Syria was also battling Israel in Lebanon the scene of a viscous civil war thats way to complex to go into here. Then There's the Iran/Iraq War where the US is giving weapons and advice to both sides. They kill each other and a million people died there, with softened up Iraq for the later Persian Gulf War and the Iraq Invasion and now we're in like, a third Iraq War.
In Africa, there was the war in Angola where Cuba was fighting against South Africa and the US, to try to preserve the newly liberated country from becoming a puppet of apartheid South Africa. South Africa trying to impose its death squad forces called Unita. In Mozambique there was Renamo, who was just like the Contras too, and waging a dirty war on the revolutionary government of Mozambique. Basically the Reagan Era massively expands these types of wars. There were like at least 40 wars going on during the '80s.
Interviewer: Wow. Then it is very fitting to call it World War III. Well, it's really interesting, all this stuff you put together here. Is there anything else you want to talk about? I mean, you really covered so much here - you've even got a part about the pre-Civil War in the United States: "The Negro Comrades of the Crown". What's that about?
Hugo Turner: Yes the US had it's own proto-fascist death squads called "Copperheads" before the civil war even started who went around lynching anyone daring to question slavery. After the Civil War there were the KKK and similar groups fascist paramilitary movements that waged war on blacks and progressives. America's home grown fascism that also became incorporated into WACL. It was racist segregationists who often staffed the infamous house un-American activities committees.
People can also checkout my site Anti-Imperialist U where I study history from a radical perspective. Also, from the perspective of deep politics. I try and combine those two kinds of world views. Gerald Horn is great - if anyone reads wants to read some black history I highly recommend they check out his work. Gerald Horne has written these great books about the true origin of America. How the colonists rebelled because they were worried Britain might abolish slavery basically. It was actually all done in defense of slavery. So much for freedom and democracy. I would definitely recommend him. This guy is a genius, he's super prolific. He's written like 20 books. Check out his "Counter-Revolution of 1776" and "Negro Comrades of The Crown"
Interviewer: He's alive now and writing?
Hugo Turner: He's written like 20 books. And is still writing more. I wrote an article on his counter revolution of 1776. You can find that on my site or search for the great lectures he did on YouTube as well.
Interviewer: Oh, okay. Cool. Cool. I'll post the links to that stuff, too. That sounds great. How often can people expect to find a new article on your site?
Hugo Turner: Ideally, I write once every week or two. I usually take winter off so I can recharge because I try to read a book a week, write an article a week on current events or history and by the end of the year I'm usually a bit burnt out, or whatever. I've also started taking more time with my history articles. Like the Iran-Contra thing took like three weeks for each one. It just depends. I'm on vacation but I'll be back to work soon.
Interviewer: They're really amazing.
Hugo Turner: A lot of the stuff that inspired me to start my site is stuff that you've collected together on your site. Stuff like John Stockwell, Philip Agee, Michael Parenti, and Alternative Views this great show from the 80's and 90's we're both fans of so I'd also like to plug your OurHiddenHistory YouTube channel.
Interviewer: Thanks for saying that. Stockwell, Agee, Parenti, Alternative Views - those are definitely some people to try and live up to. Amazing.
Hugo Turner: John Stockwell is the one who came up with calling the Cold War "World War III" because it was a war on the third world, actually. National Security types people actually called it World War III, too. They loved calling it that and the fascist types in Argentina loved calling it World War III, the War of Ideologies. A global war. A war without boundaries.
Interviewer: Right, right. The war of civilizations and all this shit. That's what the power elite wants us to be engaged in today.
Well, cool, Hugo. Thanks for doing this. And once again, your work is really something that people have to check out.
Hugo Turner: Thank you for this interview.
Interviewer: No, definitely. I'll hopefully get it up soon and try to cut some - the links into it and try to make something. Hopefully get a couple more people over to your site because you really do a good job, man. It's cool that you're doing all this stuff.
Hugo Turner: Thanks a lot.
END OF RECORDING
Interviewer: Wow. Then it is very fitting to call it World War III. Well, it's really interesting, all this stuff you put together here. Is there anything else you want to talk about? I mean, you really covered so much here - you've even got a part about the pre-Civil War in the United States: "The Negro Comrades of the Crown". What's that about?
Hugo Turner: Yes the US had it's own proto-fascist death squads called "Copperheads" before the civil war even started who went around lynching anyone daring to question slavery. After the Civil War there were the KKK and similar groups fascist paramilitary movements that waged war on blacks and progressives. America's home grown fascism that also became incorporated into WACL. It was racist segregationists who often staffed the infamous house un-American activities committees.
People can also checkout my site Anti-Imperialist U where I study history from a radical perspective. Also, from the perspective of deep politics. I try and combine those two kinds of world views. Gerald Horn is great - if anyone reads wants to read some black history I highly recommend they check out his work. Gerald Horne has written these great books about the true origin of America. How the colonists rebelled because they were worried Britain might abolish slavery basically. It was actually all done in defense of slavery. So much for freedom and democracy. I would definitely recommend him. This guy is a genius, he's super prolific. He's written like 20 books. Check out his "Counter-Revolution of 1776" and "Negro Comrades of The Crown"
Interviewer: He's alive now and writing?
Hugo Turner: He's written like 20 books. And is still writing more. I wrote an article on his counter revolution of 1776. You can find that on my site or search for the great lectures he did on YouTube as well.
Interviewer: Oh, okay. Cool. Cool. I'll post the links to that stuff, too. That sounds great. How often can people expect to find a new article on your site?
Hugo Turner: Ideally, I write once every week or two. I usually take winter off so I can recharge because I try to read a book a week, write an article a week on current events or history and by the end of the year I'm usually a bit burnt out, or whatever. I've also started taking more time with my history articles. Like the Iran-Contra thing took like three weeks for each one. It just depends. I'm on vacation but I'll be back to work soon.
Interviewer: They're really amazing.
Hugo Turner: A lot of the stuff that inspired me to start my site is stuff that you've collected together on your site. Stuff like John Stockwell, Philip Agee, Michael Parenti, and Alternative Views this great show from the 80's and 90's we're both fans of so I'd also like to plug your OurHiddenHistory YouTube channel.
Interviewer: Thanks for saying that. Stockwell, Agee, Parenti, Alternative Views - those are definitely some people to try and live up to. Amazing.
Hugo Turner: John Stockwell is the one who came up with calling the Cold War "World War III" because it was a war on the third world, actually. National Security types people actually called it World War III, too. They loved calling it that and the fascist types in Argentina loved calling it World War III, the War of Ideologies. A global war. A war without boundaries.
Interviewer: Right, right. The war of civilizations and all this shit. That's what the power elite wants us to be engaged in today.
Well, cool, Hugo. Thanks for doing this. And once again, your work is really something that people have to check out.
Hugo Turner: Thank you for this interview.
Interviewer: No, definitely. I'll hopefully get it up soon and try to cut some - the links into it and try to make something. Hopefully get a couple more people over to your site because you really do a good job, man. It's cool that you're doing all this stuff.
Hugo Turner: Thanks a lot.
END OF RECORDING
Doug Valentine's Site
http://www.douglasvalentine.com
http://www.douglasvalentine.com
Recordings of Doug Valentine's Phoenix Program interviews
http://www.cryptocomb.org/Phoenix%20Tapes.html
http://www.cryptocomb.org/Phoenix%20Tapes.html
Peter Dale Scott Archive
http://peterdalescott.org/q.html
Dave Emory's Site Spitfire List
http://spitfirelist.com
http://peterdalescott.org/q.html
Dave Emory's Site Spitfire List
http://spitfirelist.com
Dave Emory's Anti Fascist Archives
http://spitfirelist.com/audio/afa-complete-audio/
Sibel Edmonds: Interviews collected on Libya 360 or search for "Sibel Edmonds Gladio B" on YouTube
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/usa-the-creator-sustainer-of-chechen-terrorism/
Sibel Edmonds runs her own independent media site
http://www.newsbud.com
Alexandra Valiente runs Jamahiriya News Agency and other sites
https://jamahiriyanewsagency.wordpress.com
William Blum Author of Killing Hope
https://williamblum.org
http://spitfirelist.com/audio/afa-complete-audio/
Sibel Edmonds: Interviews collected on Libya 360 or search for "Sibel Edmonds Gladio B" on YouTube
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/usa-the-creator-sustainer-of-chechen-terrorism/
Sibel Edmonds runs her own independent media site
http://www.newsbud.com
Alexandra Valiente runs Jamahiriya News Agency and other sites
https://jamahiriyanewsagency.wordpress.com
William Blum Author of Killing Hope
https://williamblum.org
@arrghshell has a great blog/podcast
https://n0p3.net
And of course you can find Hugo's work at Anti-Imperialist U
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com
https://n0p3.net
And of course you can find Hugo's work at Anti-Imperialist U
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com
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Monday, March 6, 2017
Confronting Black Jacobins
Confronting Black Jacobins : How the Haitian Revolution Smashed Slavery Worldwide
The Haitian Revolution which ran from 1791-1804 was one of the most important events in modern history. It was the first successful anti-slavery revolution. Not only did Haiti's slaves manage to liberate themselves they also inflicted crushing defeats on three empires the Spanish, French, and British suffered catastrophic losses trying and failing to take back the island from it's heroic defenders. I dealt with this glorious moment in human history in my "Revolution in Haiti" based on C.L.R James classic "The Black Jacobins." I also dealt with the enormous importance that slavery held in the global economy and it's role in fueling the industrial revolution in "Capitalism and Slavery" based on the classic book of the same title by Eric Williams. Next I tackled the role of Slavery as the prime motive behind the launching of the so called "American War for Independence" in the "Counter Revolution of 1776" based on Gerald Horne's instant classic of the same title. Now I will deal with the part the Haitian revolution played in not only ending slavery on the island but throughout the americas relying on yet another masterpiece from Gerald Horne "Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, The Haitian Revolution, and The Origins of the Dominican Republic" which is both a sequel to "The Counter-Revolution of 1776" and a companion to his excellent "Negro Comrades of the Crown" which covers the same time period and is about the alliance between american blacks and the British empire which hoped to use the issue of slavery to destabilize it's former colony turned imperial rival the United States.
In "Black Jacobins" once again Gerald Horne revives the suppressed history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries which has been thoroughly mythologized and whitewashed turning truth on it's head. Instead Gerald Horne reveals a world in embroiled in what I call world War Zero which began around 1483 When De Gama the pirate began his raids on Asia and Africa followed shortly by the infamous and genocidal voyages of Columbus which opened the Americas to the Horrors of genocide slavery and plagues. It would last until 1914 when with the whole world conquered the Imperial Powers would launch World War 1 on each other. When World War Zero began for what would become the third world a centuries long apocalypse had begun. World War Zero was a war of Europe upon the rest of the world but also a centuries long geopolitical power struggle between the european powers. Those resisting these empires had to learn to play one off against the other. The "Slave Holding Republic" as Horne refers to the US had declared it's independence to protect it from the danger of the Abolition of Slavery. London overburdened by the endless but forgotten guerrilla wars it constantly had to fight against revolting slaves and whole communities of liberated africans known as maroons escaped slaves that had carved out their own liberated territories throughout the Americas. Britain wanted to focus more attention on conquering the rich and massive territories of India and eventually China. In the Americas if Britain was going to compete with Spain it realized it would have to start relying on armed africans since white colonists were too busy trying to keep their slaves in line and waging genocidal wars of conquest against the indigenes to volunteer to fight Britons wars across the Americas and the Caribbean.
These were the cynical motives that prompted the ruthless British to slowly phase out first the slave trade and then slavery itself. The american counter-revolution was launched in direct reaction to this trend as Horne proves in his "Counter-Revolution of 1776." Hence it is no surprise that the US would become the center of the global slaveocracy It sought to defend and expand slavery everywhere it could. Ironically however the french who had helped fund this counter-revolution in revenge for the loss of it's mainland colonies during the "French and Indian Wars" would be bankrupted by the effort and would fall prey to the French Revolution. The French Revolution would spark the revolution in Haiti when conflicts between the whites and free people of color provided an opening for a slave revolt to turn into a slave revolution. Slavery would be abolished and Haiti would also liberate itself from the french empire becoming the first revolution in the third world.
As can be imagined the news was greeted with utter horror in the United States or at least among the whites that is. Both Washington and Jefferson reacted with horror Gerald Horne amusingly qoutes them. Jefferson called Haiti the "Cannibal Republic" Both feared that what happened in Haiti could spread to the US and throughout the new world. For the slaves the news was an inspiration spoken of in triumphant whispers across the land. Haiti would inspire most of the major slave revolts and often it was rumored that the Haitians were actively involved in aiding these rebellions. The Isle of freedom as Horne refers to Haiti was surrounded by slave states and knew that it's survival depended on changing the balance of power. Haiti was in direct communication with the leading abolitionists of Britain, France and the US. Haiti's efforts would actually help liberate latin America and it was with Haitian aid and supplies that Simon Bolivar set out to liberate Latin America in exchange for his promise to abolish slavery. Thus Haiti and the US would become involved in a cold war prefiguring the US reaction to the Russian, Chinese, and Cuban Revolutions during what I call World War 3.
At least on the Issue of Slavery Haiti would win this cold war although it was nearly destroyed in the process. In fact Haiti would be the target of a destabilization and balkanization Campaign and would nearly suffer a "Humanitarian Intervention" by which the US hoped to conquer the island and re-institute slavery. Haiti would be forced to fight a bloody civil war and would loose half it's territory thanks to one of America's first covert ops masterminded by John C. Calhoun. This would result in the creation of the Dominican Republic. Yet these events would help to fuel the US civil war as the merchants of the north were constantly seeking to expand trade with the island at the same time the south sought to destroy it. Southern racism prevented the US from being able to reap the rewards of it's dirty war when the south rejected a treaty with the mullatos of the Dominican Republic. The tensions would soon explode into the US civil war during which Haiti would prove the North's only true ally. Yet even with the victory of the North the United States would remain as malevolent and racist as ever concocting a scheme to annex first the DR (Dominican Republic) and then Haiti itself so that it could deport all it's newly freed slaves to the island. In the 20th century Haiti would suffer the terrible revenge of the empire suffering 20 years of brutal military occupation which they met with heroic resistance. Next they would suffer for decades under a brutal military dictatorship. The Brief ray of Hope of Aristide was crushed in two US backed coups and currently the people of Haiti are resisting the sham elections being held as part of their UN occupation. As we shall see the people of the world owe Haiti a tremendous debt especially those like myself descended from African slaves who owe our freedom to the courage and cunning of the Haitian Revolutionaries. We must do all we can to see that Haiti is liberated from it's occupiers and that Haitians are once again allowed to guide the destiny of their country.
But we must return to the 18th century to answer the question of How Haiti Managed to have such a huge impact on history. Even before the Revolution had succeeded the US had sent aid to the island to try to suppress the revolution. Once it succeeded the Haitian revolution became a polarizing event. For the US it was their worst nightmare come to life the very thing they had fought their revolution to prevent. Worse many of the former Haitian slaveholders became penniless refugees in America although many would also rise to positions of influence. These angry emigrees like the "White" Russians, or the right wing cuban exiles would plot their revenge from exile. Their tales of woe what the press dubbed the "Horrors" of Haiti" would stiffen american resolve to preserve slavery and would lead it to become even more racist. They blamed the "Mullatos" for the revolution who's calls for equal rights for non-slaves had sparked a civil war that created the chaotic conditions for the successful slave revolution. Thus they became determined to keep anyone with the slightest bit of African blood in an inferior role which only heightened the tensions and dangers. In the Spanish colonies for instance they had managed to buy the allegiance of the "free people of color" with special privileges (like owning slaves) and even the sale of "honorary whiteness". In the US on the contrary the "free people of color" were in constant danger of being deported, murdered and even re-enslaved. Haiti would profit from this american ultra-racism as many free people of color who were often skilled craftsmen would emigrate to the island providing a boost to the economy and often rising to positions of prominence.
While the Haitian revolution pushed the US to become ever more harsher advocates of slavery and racism; It had the opposite impact in London where it accelerated the abolition movement as the imperial planners realized they were creating a powder keg. Slavery lead to insurrection and Britain must change it's tactics or risk loosing control of it's colonies. In Jamaica they had been embroiled in a seemingly endless war against rebellious slaves and maroons but it was only the most dramatic example. All across the Caribbean there were periodic slave revolts and dangerous conspiracies for liberation that brought endless terror to the slaveholders. With the Haitian example the situation would only intensify. In addition to a danger Haiti also signaled the rewards Britain could hope to gain by instead pursuing it's abolitionist policy. It's outlawing of slavery in England itself along with it's offers to free slaves who fought on their side during the American counter-revolution had already already won it a great deal of goodwill among blacks. Haiti which had been the most valuable possession the richest colony not just belonging to France but to any empire. Now English merchants were receiving preferential treatment in Haiti as a result. Haiti was a valuable ally against both France and "The Slave Holding Republic." It was located at an extremely valuable Geo-Strategic location allowing which made it a key in controlling the Americas.
Haiti was able to play the various powers off against each other thus insuring it's survival despite being surrounded by hostile slave powers. It had Diplomats stationed around the world closely following the global geo-political situation. It's trade was so valuable that even the US hungrily sought to expand it's trade with the island. However as Horne delights in recounting the racist americans came in for constant abuse and danger often having their cargoes impounded and their lives threatened. Perhaps even worse from their perspective they were forced to treat the blacks of the island with respect or face the potentially dire consequences which was a major humiliation for people so thoroughly steeped in their ideology of white supremacy. Like communist China later the US Stubbornly refused to officially recognize Haiti which meant their traders and diplomats were at a constant disadvantage with their european competitors. US traders were saddled with an extra 10% tariff for their racist arrogance.
Haiti sought to create an alliance with the blacks of the Americas and Caribbean. They were quite successful in the attempt. Haiti became a magnet for blacks both slave and free. The "Isle of Freedom" was soon flooded with slaves escaping from all over the caribbean. Black sailors would jump ship deciding to stay in free Haiti. The Haitians even used their Navy to capture slave ships enrolling the liberated in their armies. In Toussaint's time his 55,000 man army dwarfed the 22,000 men Washington could muster. The American counter-revolution was not exactly covered in military glory barely defeating a halfhearted British campaign with french help while Haiti had smashed Napoleons finest troops and inflicted the most catastrophic defeat the British would suffer in a century. No wonder Washington and Jefferson feared Haiti might invade it's armies provoking a slave revolution that would have drowned the infant imperialist power in blood and fire. Unfortunately that never happened but indirectly Haitians were involved in inspiring revolts across the Americas including in the US. The famous revolts by Gabriel, Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey were all inspired by the Haitian example and in fact slaves imported from Haiti were involved in Turner's Revolt while Vesey had traveled to Haiti and was inspired by what he saw there. America was the scene of a decades long black scare similar to the red scare wherever their was discontent and revolt america saw the Haitian hand at work and Horne believes that this was not always mere paranoia. Everywhere blacks were menacingly singing the songs of the black jacobins. Though in bondage slaves had their own communications network and were surprisingly well informed about what was going on in the world. They closely followed news of abolitionist debates in London, Slave revolts in the Caribbean, and of course the triumph and continued independence of Haiti. As Horne writes there were dozens of slave revolts between 1791-1815 many inspired by the Haitian example.
Haiti was also able to form alliance with free US blacks many who would choose to emigrate there. The Black press defended the island against the machinations of the empire and journalists like Frederick Douglas praised it's heroic example just as W.E.B. Dubois would later do. Haiti was in close contact with the worldwide abolitionist movements closely allied to figures like William Loyd Garrison in America and Wilberforce in England. The Haitian example proved the complete falseness of the myth of white supremacy which declared that blacks were naturally subservient and further incapable of self rule. Haiti ran a sophisticated global diplomacy maintaining ties not just with Europe and the Americas but even with Asia. It managed to play the great powers against each other and hence insure it's own survival.
The second major triumph of the Haitian revolution was it's role in ending the slave trade. Not only had the American counter-revolution unintentionally set the conditions for the french revolution by bankrupting France. It Had also helped set the stage for the Haitian revolution with US merchants quickly becoming the biggest slave traders on the planet. By flooding Haiti with slaves they had set up a dangerous demographic imbalance in which slaves far outnumbered their masters which in Haiti resulted in victory for the slaves. It was in order to curtail this dangerous trend that the British quickly moved towards ending the slave trade. Even the US in the immediate aftermath of the Haitian Revolution tried to halt this trade passing laws banning it. Unfortunately the greed for profits outweighed the risks and the US became masters of the illegal slave trade while the British would attempt to police the trade using it as an excuse to expand their african empire. Still whatever progress was made in ending this horrifying trade that killed tens of millions of Africans on the voyage and countless millions more who were killed in wars fueled by the guns for slaves trade was due to the triumph of the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian revolution also slightly improved the lives of slaves in British colonies when Britain was forced to pass "black codes" regulating the treatment of slaves in an attempt to quiet the never ending slave revolts Britain faced. In the US of course they choose an opposite course becoming ever more ruthless and cruel after every slave revolt and passing ever more draconian security measures.
Unsurprisingly the "Slave Holders Republic" did not sit Idly by while the black Jacobins of Haiti were having such a dangerous effect on the future of slavery. It pressured Haiti to pay France reparations while France threatened invasion. The Haitians were saddled with a massive debt which helps explain why what was once the richest country in the new world became the poorest. Haiti became one of the first Neo-Colonial experiments. America profited hugely from these reparations since many of the former slaveholders had since moved to the US. Louisiana where they were most concentrated became the richest state in the union as a result of the reparations payments. However the US wasn't satisfied with economic warfare, Instead it would turn to the tactics that have become infamous trademarks of the Empire of Chaos ever since. The US launched a covert destabilization campaign in Haiti, sparked a brutal civil war along racial lines and were successful in dividing the island creating the Dominican Republic. John C. Calhoun sent weapons and advisers while corrupt businessmen/spies like William and Jane Cazneau worked behind the scenes to manipulate events. Haiti was subjected to a constant propaganda campaign. The brutal war the US had helped start was used as an excuse to lobby for a "Humanitarian Intervention" supposedly to protect the Mullatos (who the US despised) from the blacks (who the US hated) but in reality they hoped to reconquer the island and re-establish slavery. Thankfully the Haitians were tough fighters and the Haitian people were always ready to wreak revenge on scheming foreigners in their midst. US envoys could come in for brutal treatment beaten by angry mobs, and imprisoned while their homes and offices were looted. Thus these decades long schemes to invade and conquer the island as a first step to seizing the Caribbean would be delayed because of the dangers until Woodrow Wilson launched his invasion and occupation just prior to world war one. However the US and the french were successful in keeping the island in a constant state of civil war. A war from which the Dominican Republic (DR) would emerge with 3/4 of the islands territory even though it had a tiny population. Yet the US was unable to fully reap the rewards of this successful balkanization strategy because the racist southerners who had backed the war in the first place were too racist to accept a treaty with the DR because they didn't want to accept mulatto diplomats. This helped fuel the US civil war as did Haitian Support for the famous John Brown who's attempt to arm the slaves so that they could destroy slavery would be another factor pushing the nation towards civil war. As Horne writes the Haitian Revolution by causing ever increasing world polarization on the issue of slavery inevitably resulted in the US civil war.
The Civil War would make the US vulnerable to the machinations of it's rivals. The offended DR would actually call in Spain to reclaim it's colony which was a unique event in the history of colonialism. France would try to take over Mexico while the US was distracted. England would toy with the idea of recognizing the confederacy in hopes of weakening the US an imperial rival destined to become the dominant empire of the 20th century absorbing the French and British empires. The north was forced to finally officially recognize Haiti. Haiti proved a valuable ally closing it's ports to confederate ships and allowing the northern navy to resupply at it's ports. Some Haitians and also US blacks who had immigrated there to escape US racism would even return to fight on the side of the Union. The confederacy on the Other hand plotted to conquer the island and re-enslave the Haitians. In fact they even sent a slave ship on a doomed raid to kidnap and enslave either Haitians or US blacks living in the DR. Luckily their plot was discovered and the captain a wealthy businessman would spend years in prison narrowly avoiding the death sentence he deserved. After the war the US would force Haiti to pay him reparations as well after a long legal battle which soured relations between the countries.
Yet despite this alliance during the war once the north won it's evil schemes against Haiti continued. In Horne's final chapter he discusses another forgotten chapter in American history. The US sought to annex the DR and then Haiti and deport all of it's newly freed slaves to the island. Thankfully due to fierce Haitian resistance which had also managed to evict the Spanish the schemes for annexation were foiled. Unfortunately the events revealed the faustian bargain US blacks had made in exchange for their freedom. They were now expected to support the US empire. Blacks would be recruited to help exterminate the indians. In the Case of the plan to conquer the island Frederick Douglas was recruited as the front man for this sinister plan forever staining his career as a voice for black liberation. His reward was to suffer one humiliation after another at the hands of the empire. Thus thankfully 20 years later he would once again come to his senses and praise the glory of the Haitian revolution as he once did in his youth. Other US blacks remained loyal to their Haitian allies many elements of the black press opposed the schemes to destabilize and later annex Haiti even leveling harsh criticism at Frederick Douglas's ignoble role. They would form a counter-current to those who hoped by obediently serving them empire they might one day be granted equal rights rights which have yet to materialize 150 years later as blacks can be shot and killed with impunity and locked up en masse here in the empire of Chaos. The black presses role in opposing US imperialism in Haiti would prefigure the more recent tradition of black opposition to imperialism from men like Paul Robeson, Martin Luther King Malcolm X, and Huey P. Newton. No doubt Horne included the tale of Douglas as a subtle commentary on America's first black emperor Barrack Obama. Now with the election of Emperor Trump Horne's terrifyingly prophetic ending to the Counter-Revolution of 1776 should also be revisited since he wrote of the nearly successful gubernatorial campaign of Neo-Nazi Klansman (and CIA operative) David Duke in Louisiana in 1992. He warned that believing in the liberal myths of America's Origins would blind people to the deeply racist and reactionary nature of the settler colonial mindset of the american public. Horne was one of the few commentators on the left who predicted Trump would win.
The US has remained true to it's origins a brutal and murderous empire destabilizing dividing and balkanizing the planet. It's allies are the western imperialist countries and the fascist axis powers from world war 2. It's allied to the genocidal fanatics of Saudi Arabia and the Settler colonial state of Israel with it's apartheid system so similar to America's. It was able to carry out it's dreams conquering Haiti in a brutal military occupation launched by that grand hypocrite and doctrinaire racist Woodrow Wilson who also brought Jim Crow to the capital. The Haitian people heroically resisted fighting an endless Guerilla War. After a bloodbath the US installed "Papa" Doc Duvalier and Later his son to rule the country like a brutal latin American dictatorship. They helped set up the Haitian secret Police SIN and the hated death squads which terrorize the island. After "Baby" Doc Duvalier was finally overthrown Jean Bertrand Aristide a liberation theology priest who wanted to help the poor majority would become president. He would be overthrown in two US backed coups. After the 2010 earthquake and the the of intentionally trying to destroy the Haitian state replacing it with foreign NGOs the US used the chaos to invade and occupy the island under UN cover. Now the US with typical racism claims the Haitians cannot be allowed to rule themselves and is attempting to force another puppet on them thru sham elections. All those opposed to slavery and imperialism must support the struggle of the Haitian People to liberate themselves from this new form of "Humanitarian" Imperialism which is meant to keep the Haitians poor while foreign companies get rich looting Haiti's natural resources and exploiting it's people in sweat shops. Meanwhile Haitians are murdered with impunity for resisting. Free Haiti!
The Story of the Haitian Revolution also reminds us that we have many battles left to fight in the United States which has been waging centuries of warfare on Blacks, Asians, Indians, Mexicans, and even poor whites when necessary. There is a reason that American policemen like Dan Mitrione were sent to train Latin American torturers. Countless Horrors are being committed in Prisons and police stations and on the streets of American cities. We must end this Mass incarceration system and this endless low intensity warfare on the american public. Horne would also remind us that we should look abroad for allies in the struggle. Without the Assistance of Haiti Slavery might never have ended in the US. Without the help of Russia jim crow might never have been abolished. Since America despite it's history of Genocide, Slavery, and Imperialism continues to lecture the world on Human Rights it is time the world fought back by demanding america grant human rights to blacks and other minorities that it end it's modern forms of slavery and rein in it's trigger happy police force. Free Haiti and Abolish the Mass Incarceration system. We must also oppose schemes to deport latin americans and muslims which are so similar to what the US planned for the black population after the civil war. Let the heroic tale of Haiti's centuries long struggle inspire the world in it's struggles against racism, exploitation, and imperialism.
Sources
My main source was of Course Gerald Horne's "Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States the Haitian Revolution and the Origins of the Dominican Republic." I couldn't do this book justice in this article Horne provides a complex and detailed account written in his wonderfully exuberant style. I also Highly recommend "The Counter-Revolution of 1776" and "Negro Comrades of the Crown" also by Gerald Horne since they are all closely related. For those shocked into a rude awakening by the Trump administration these books will explain why people shouldn't be surprised. Be sure and check out Gerald Horne's many lectures and interviews available for free online. I also highly recommend "The Black Jacobins" by C.L.R. James and "Capitalism and Slavery" By Eric Williams.
I'd also liked to recommend a film I watched for inspiration "Birth of a Nation" (The 2016 version) about Nat Turner's Slave Revolt that struck terror into "The Slave Holding Republic" as Horne calls the US. After lamenting the racism and cowardice of Hollywood in ignoring the rich history of slave revolts I must offer proper praise to Nate Parker for directing this masterpiece which Gerald Horne himself recommends you watch.
Interview with Gerald Horne on the Impact of the Haitian Revolution
http://youtu.be/r-jXJM-xXt8
Interview with Gerald Horne on "Confronting Black Jacobins"
https://beta.prx.org/stories/168948
Revolution in Haiti
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2015/08/revolution-in-haiti.html
Capitalism and Slavery
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/02/capitalism-slavery.html
Counter Revolution of 1776
http://anti-imperialist-u.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-counter-revolution-of-1776.html