[Nettime-bold] Diego Garcia

[Soenke Zehle <soenke.zehle@web.de>]

Diego Garcia offers United States easy access to targets
By JOHN SHULTZ -

The Kansas City Star Date: 10/07/01 22:15
http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/home.pat,local/3acd09c6.a07,.html

The British used Diego Garcia as a refueling depot for the Royal Air Force
during World War II.

Since then, the United States has helped turn the tiny British island in the
Indian Ocean into a military outpost. President Carter housed Delta Force
there briefly. President Reagan built it up as an isolated American
stronghold in a largely unsympathetic corner of the world. And the first
President Bush employed it as a staging ground during the Gulf War.

Diego Garcia, basically 15 square miles of American/British military
installation, is the allies' not-so-secret weapon in Mideast conflicts. The
island, with its air and naval refueling and support station, offers
America's bombers easy access to Middle Eastern, Asian and African targets;
and it keeps them out of the range of most enemies.

B-2 bombers launched from Missouri's Whiteman Air Force Base that took part
in Sunday's bombings continued straight on to Diego Garcia, defense
officials told wire services. The crews were expected to rest there before
making the return trip to Missouri.

The U-shaped island is about 1,100 miles south of India and about halfway
between Africa and Indonesia. It's an atoll -- hot, humid and rocky, with
palm trees and wildcats. There's a 12,000-foot airstrip and a naturally
protected harbor.

And, on any given day, there are as many as 1,700 U.S. and British military
personnel on hand, some 1,500 civilian contractors, and no natives.

The largest island in the Chagos Archipelago, Diego Garcia was discovered by
a Portuguese navigator in 1532, was once home to the vast majority of the
region's 1,200-strong population, mostly Ilois, plantation hands who worked
the island's coconut palms.

In 1965, the British gained control of the island from Mauritius and leased
it to the United States. Shortly afterward the British moved the entire
archipelago's population to nearby Mauritius.

A British court overturned the forced emigration last year. While families
may be moving back to some of the archipelago's five main islands, Diego
Garcia maintains its protected military status.

Civilians, outside of contractors, aren't welcome. The press is largely kept
out. Until the Ilois return en masse, there simply is no nonmilitary
business conducted in the region.

The United Kingdom is still responsible for its defense, but the U.S.
military treasures its outpost. During the Gulf War, ships stationed at the
atoll delivered ordnance and supplies to U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia about
three weeks quicker than if sealifted from America.

To reach John Shultz, call (816) 234-4427 or send e-mail to
jshultz@kcstar.com

(I had never heard of the Diego Garcia story, it came up in the context of
the follwing article on the new humanitarianism. S/Z)

Bombing The Truth

Well, where do you want to start? The war that seemed so likely is
commenced. Various Hollywood straplines and adjectives are applied to the
start of the bombing campaign by the media. You know, like, `America Strikes
Back` (CNN). And almost without effort the holes, discrepancies and
ridiculous geo-political non-starters are presented as fact. To some at any
rate.  

For a start the `humanitarian` side of the operation is emphasised over and
over again. Loyal party stalwarts from the media brush their free market
epaulettes and repeat the news they know will keep them their job. Voices
may be heard, questions may be asked, but the `war` is still a `war`. The
`terror` is still `terror`. The difficult questions are ignored.

So let us take the `humanitarian `effort. The BBC said that “wave after
wave" of planes attacked various targets around Afghanistan. General Richard
Myers in a press conference shown live on CNN and BBC went on to be
questioned by some sceptical journalists. Myers is the serving head soldier
of the US military, current spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He
admitted that 37,500 rations were being dropped. It was not all food. Some
was medicine. He then went on to admit that the drop method was “pretty
similar" to the drop methods used in Bosnia. You remember, the ones that
killed people. 

The reasons they kill is because they are dropped without parachutes. Great
big crates fall from the sky. You might remember the Bosnian pictures. But
one change has happened, the planes dropping the rations are now to fly at
“high altitude." One journalist asked how anyone would find the rations and
whether or not they would be destroyed on impact. Myers replied by taking
another question. Of the “wave after wave" of planes two were set aside for
`humanitarian` purposes, two C-17 transporters who made one trip each.

Major Bob Stewart, former commander of the UK forces in Bosnia, called the
drops “only a token effort" (BBC News 24) although he supported them. James
Rubin (“Tibet is part of China, that’s settled, Tibet is part of China," BBC
Radio 5 Live) the former Whitehouse spokesman and assistant secretary of
state under Clinton didn’t agree. He called it “a massive humanitarian
effort" (CNN). 

But the BBCs Adam Mynott on the ground at the Afghan border had a slightly
different tale. “There are hunger related deaths already happening here," he
said before he and presenter Chris Lowe went on to admit that the
`humanitarian effort` was only “symbolic" and that indeed “the drops may
fall in pretty remote areas" (Mynott) or that Afghans would be unlikely to
go near any drops they may see out of fear that “the drops could be bombs,"
(Lowe). Mynott then had a rush of honesty pointing out that the drops are
“targeted at the outside world." And he didn’t mean the high altitude
crates. 

Perhaps the most humanitarian effort the `allies` could now make is to open
the borders and let the fleeing, starving, dying, ebola-infected people out
of the war zone and into care. But maybe that is just a bit too
`humanitarian.` 

CNN as you would expect were not in a mood to question anything. What do you
think they are, journalists? One guest Robert Sobhani, a Professor from
Georgetown university was exultant. “We have to get out there and dehumanise
Bin Laden." As if he hasn’t done a good enough job himself. “We have to get
them (muslims) burning the effigies of him. We need to dehumanise that guy."

But the dehumanising has been done. We see the first sight of smart bombing
but we know that B-52s are being flown from Diego Garcia. B-52s are carpet
bombers. General Myers tried to miss questions on the use of B-52s but he
did end up having to admit their use. “We try to match ordinance with
targets." B-52s also carry a huge tonnage of bombs, far bigger than the B2
stealth bombers. We have yet to hear any concrete statistics on the tonnage
of bombs dropped by B-52s. In the Gulf War so-called `smart` bombing was 9%
of the total tonnage (Pentagon). The perversity of the fact that these
aircraft are leaving from Diego Garcia, a country ethnically cleansed of its
entire population by the British Labour Party and secret services in the
1960s, has also gone unmentioned.

BBC Radio 5 Live also lapsed into subtle discrimnation. One guest (whose
name I failed to get) did not accept that a civilian life lost in the WTC
attacks was the same as a civilian Afghan. Because the WTC attacks were
“terror" and the bombing of Afghanistan “is a strategic attack."

Once again the media is trying to give a shadow show of debate. To try and
pretend that ordinary people’s concerns (What are the aims? When does it
end? Where is the evidence? Will we make it worse?) are being voiced. But in
the end the strapline remains, “America Strikes Back". And there ain’t no
truths enough to stop them.

adam porter www.yearzero.org <http://www.yearzero.org> 

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