And the Award for Best Film goes to ... ... the Kidnapper - Torturer - Killer CIA
When HBO's Bill Maher, the well-known comedian, recently commented, "Israel is controlling our govt", it was no joke. When all the allies of the US Empire are fine-tuning themselves with the next US war-venture, Operation Iran, why will the Hollywood be left behind! Even the BRICS proved to be hollowed-solid; they miaowed a lot, boasted of buying petroleum from Iran without using US Dollars and etc, but didn't dare to flout illegal US embargo. So Hollywood prepared their winter feast serving ARGO and ZERO DARK THIRTY, both based on illicit and murderous CIA adventures, the first one in Iran (1979) and the other in Pakistan (to kill their once ally Laden). Both did business beautifully, bagging millions of Dollars and also several awards, with ARGO making a terrible finishing jab - bagging the award for Best Film at the OSCARS.
Many prominent Anti War persons in the US were shocked. Medea Benjamin, [who, in her own words, was "A nice Jewish girl" in her childhood] burst out in several tweets like:- "Michelle Obama giving #2013Oscars? What about separation of culture and state? PLEASE! And why is she surrounded by military???" "Oh no, I can't believe #Argo won!!! CIA propaganda film, presented by wife of Mr. #KillList Michelle Obama, surrounded by military!" "how anti-climatic at these #Oscars??? Argo was terrible. Pure propaganda." As the once nice little Jewish Girl grew to become a fierce anti-war campaigner, she became an eye-sore to the power elite and was greeted with tear-gas, forcible-police-custody and forced-deportation by US ally Bahrain govt for participating in pro-democracy rally there. (BTW: She was also at the Tahrir Square during those 2011 Jan-Feb days and several times in Freedom Flotillas to Gaza in support of Palestinian cause.)
Argo showed CIA operation of 'saving' six US consulate staff who fled the US embassy after the Iranian revolution deposed the notorious US backed King Shah and bringing them out of Iran. The US with its allies deposed the elected govt of Mohammad Mosaddegh by a coup d'etat in 1953 and put the king back on the throne. In fact, the erstwhile deposed king appeared in Tehran from the US Embassy. It was natural that people there would be apprehensive of probable mischief of the US Embassy again during their anti-US 1979 revolution and cordoned off the embassy. About 2 months later all US citizens of the embassy were released. The movie not only belittled the Persian people portraying them as bloodthirsty fanatics but also rumoured again that the 1979 revolution was nothing but a Shiite coup, whereas, in fact, there were many 'westerners', liberals and even many radicals among others who poured down on the streets of Tehran to overthrow the Shah. And Shah's supporter, the CIA, was glorified in this movie! It was just months before that we saw in the YOUTUBE the opening up of the prison gates, welcoming the political prisoners, the joyful family reunions etc of those days 33 years back.
The whole history was distorted to give CIA some claps for its operation and vilifying Persians. Hollywood just tried in its ways to make the public mind ready for the next anti-Iran imperial war as 0-DARK-30 glorified use of torture against 'suspected' 'Muslim' terrorists and secret killing operation of CIA! Only recently the Guardian reported ? "CIA 'tortured and sodomised' terror suspect, human rights court rules | Landmark European court of human rights judgment says CIA tortured wrongly detained German citizen "Masri's treatment at Skopje airport at the hands of the CIA rendition team - being severely beaten, sodomised, shackled and hooded, and subjected to total sensory deprivation - had been carried out in the presence of state officials of [Macedonia] and within its jurisdiction," the court ruled.
Masri was released in April 2004. He was taken, blindfolded and handcuffed, by plane to Albania and subsequently to Germany, after the CIA admitted he was wrongly detained. The Macedonian government, which the court ordered must pay Masri €60,000 (?49,000) in compensation, has denied involvement in kidnapping. UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, described the ruling as "a key milestone in the long struggle to secure accountability of public officials implicated in human rights violations committed by the Bush administration CIA in its policy of secret detention, rendition and torture". (http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/dec/13/cia-tortured-sodomised-terror-suspect). [Moreover, how can we forget so easily how they insulted our Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, India's ex-president APJ Abdul Kalam, even big capitalist owner of WIPRO Azim Premji, just because their names 'raised suspicion' at US airports!!]
Many persons lamented over Lincoln not getting the Oscars. But Lincoln's not getting the award doesn't even contradict the average US public mind. In a popular vote conducted by the Discovery Channel in 2005 where almost two and half million voted to determine who the Top20 US Citizens are, the answer was as follows: 1 Ronald Reagan; 2 Abraham Lincoln; 3 Martin Luther King Jr; 4 George Washington; 5 Benjamin Franklin; 6 George W Bush; 7 Bill Clinton; 8 Elvis Presley; 9 Oprah Winfrey; 10 Franklin D Roosevelt; 11 Billy Graham; 12 Thomas Jefferson; 13 Walt Disney; 14 Albert Einstein; 15 Thomas Alva Edison; 16 John F Kennedy; 17 Bob Hope; 18 Bill Gates; 19 Eleanor Roosevelt and 20 Lance Armstrong. (The greatest American? Lincoln? Einstein? No - it's Ronald Reagan | Jamie Wilson in Washington | The Guardian, Tuesday 28 June 2005 03.16 BST) So we see Regan brushing past Lincoln and Bush is seated in the 6th position. The Lincoln war was the last war for what US-Americans can be proud of. But then, the Lincoln movie is less about the bitter slavery (the external prop on which the 'great' 'libertarian' Capitalism stood at its birth) and its abolition by a great war or even about the life of Abraham Lincoln; it was more about, what can be called as 'board room manipulations' or subtle in-house moves, diplomacies, different intrigues, tactics employed for winning sufficient number of votes for legislating against slavery so that freed slaves cannot be enslaved again. If WIKI is to be believed ? "Though Lincoln and Seward are unwilling to offer direct monetary bribes to the Democrats, they authorize agents to quietly go about contacting Democratic congressmen with offers of federal jobs in exchange for their voting in favor of the amendment." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_%282012_film%29; retrieved 26/2/2013) How pathetic! In the then 'biggest democracy', how calculations were going on for getting some legislative votes, even 'buying' legislative votes in exchange of jobs!! And that was after a revolutionary war against slavery was almost totally over and won!!! Who was that who told bourgeois parliaments are ...
Anyway, what is heartening is that in this oppressing atmosphere too, that is inside the USA, there are thousands (and, at times, millions) who always show the courage of protesting the Empire's plans.
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