My Seditious Heart

by Arundhati Roy

  5.Maureen Dowd, “The Xanax Cowboy,” New York Times, March 9, 2003, 4, 13.

  6.George W. Bush, joint statement with Tony Blair after the Azores summit. See “Excerpts from Remarks by Bush and Blair: ‘Iraq Will Soon Be Liberated,’” New York Times, April 9, 2003, B7.

  7.“You Cannot Hide, Hoon Tells Saddam,” Birmingham Evening Mail, March 20, 2003, 2; Charles Reiss, “We Had No Option But to Use Force to Disarm Saddam, Says Straw,” Evening Standard (London), March 20, 2003, 11.

  8.General Vince Brooks, deputy director of operations, United States Central Command Daily Press Briefing, Federal News Service, March 27, 2003.

  9.CNN International, March 25, 2003.

  10.Remarks by President George W. Bush to Troops at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, FL, Federal News Service, March 26, 2003.

  11.See David Cole, Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (New York: New Press, 2003).

  12.Charles Lane, “Justices to Rule on Detainees’ Rights; Court Access for 660 Prisoners at Issue,” Washington Post, November 11, 2003, 1; David Rohde, “U.S. Rebuked on Afghans in Detention,” New York Times, March 8, 2004, A6. See also Cole, Enemy Aliens, 39–45.

  13.Jeremy Armstrong, “Field of Death—Total Slaughter: Amnesty [International] Demands Probe Be over Bloody Massacre of Taliban Prisoners,” Mirror (London), November 29, 2001, 6.

  14.“Injustice in Afghanistan,” editorial, Washington Post, March 21, 2004, B6.

  15.Bill O’Reilly, “Talking Points Memo,” The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News, March 24, 2003. See also Bill O’Reilly, “Unresolved Problems: Interview with Kenneth Roth,” The O’Reilly Factor, Fox News, March 27, 2003.

  16.See Rageh Omaar, Revolution Day: The Human Story of the Battle for Iraq (London: Viking, 2004).

  17.Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy, and Peter Beaumont, “Revealed: US Dirty Tricks to Win Vote on Iraq War,” Observer (London), March 2, 2003, 1.

  18.Marc Santora, “Aid Workers Fear Dangers of Delay: Basra, without Power and Water, Is at Risk,” International Herald Tribune, March 25, 2003, 1; John Pilger, “Gulf War 2: Six Days of Shame,” Mirror (London), March 26, 2003, 14.

  19.Patrick Nicholson, “The Cans and Buckets Are Empty and People Are Desperate,” Independent (London), April 5, 2003, 8.

  20.Agence France-Presse, “Iraq’s Weekly Oil Production Reaches New Levels,” July 23, 2002.

  21.Mark Nicholson, “Troops Prepare to Deliver Supplies,” Financial Times (London), March 27, 2003, 2.

  22.Nick Guttmann, “Humanitarian Aid—Wanted: 32 Galahads a Day,” Independent on Sunday (London), March 30, 2003, 26.

  23.Quoted in Noam Chomsky, For Reasons of State (New York: New Press, 2003), 67–69.

  24.Juan J. Walte, “Greenpeace: 200,000 Died in Gulf,” USA Today, May 30, 1991, 1A.

  25.Kim Cobb, “Vets Warn of Risks to Soldiers’ Health: Critics Fear Repeat of Gulf War Illnesses,” Houston Chronicle, February 9, 2003, 1.

  26.James Meikle, “‘Health Will Suffer for Years,’” Guardian (London), November 12, 2003, 17.

  27.Joel Brinkley, “American Companies Rebuilding Iraq Find They Are Having to Start from the Ground Up,” New York Times, February 22, 2004, 11; Tucker Carlson, “Hired Guns,” Esquire, March 2004, 130–38.

  28.Felicity Barringer, “Security Council Votes to Revive Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq,” New York Times, March 29, 2003, B7.

  29.Dan Morgan and Karen DeYoung, “Hill Panels Approve War Funds, with Curbs: Most Restrictions Aimed at Pentagon,” Washington Post, April 2, 2003, A26.

  30.Lou Dobbs, Lou Dobb’s Moneyline, CNN, March 27, 2003.

  31.Greg Wright, “French Fries? Mais Non, Congress Calls Em Freedom Fries,” Gannett News Service, March 12, 2003, www.gannettonline.com/gns/faceoff2/20030312-18100.shtml.

  32.Serge Bellanger, “Of Wal-Marts, BMWs and Brie,” Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2003, 9.

  33.George W. Bush, Camp David, Maryland, press briefing, September 16, 2001: “We’re going to do it. We will rid the world of the evildoers. We will call together freedom-loving people to fight terrorism. And so on this day of—on the Lord’s day, I say to my fellow Americans, thank you for your prayers, thank you for your compassion, thank you for your love for one another, and tomorrow when you get back to work, work hard like you always have. But we’ve been warned. We’ve been warned there are evil people in this world. We’ve been warned so vividly and we’ll be alert. Your government is alert. The governors and mayors are alert that evil folks still lurk out there.”

  INSTANT-MIX IMPERIAL DEMOCRACY (BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE)

  1.Molly Moore, “The USS Vincennes and a Deadly Mistake: Highly Sophisticated Combat Ship at Center of Defense Department Investigation,” Washington Post, July 4, 1988, A23.

  2.Apple, “Bush Appears in Trouble,” A1. See Lapham, Theater of War, 126.

  3.Tyler and Elder, “Threats and Responses,” A1.

  4.Dowd, “The Xanax Cowboy,” 13.

  5.President George W. Bush, address to the nation, State Floor Cross Hallway, the White House, Federal News Service, March 17, 2003.

  6.President George W. Bush, speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, Federal News Service, October 7, 2002.

  7.See Saïd K. Aburish, Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge (London: Bloomsbury, 2001). See also the PBS Frontline interview with Aburish, “Secrets of His Life and Leadership,” from The Survival of Saddam, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/interviews/aburish.html.

  8.See Anthony Arnove, “Indonesia: Crisis and Revolt,” International Socialist Review 5 (Fall 1998).

  9.Originally stated in a May 1980 interview on the MacNeil/Lehrer Report on PBS. Quoted in Philip Geyelin, “Forget Gunboat Diplomacy,” Washington Post, September 29, 1980, A13.

  10.See Arnove, Iraq under Seige, especially the chapter by Noam Chomsky, “US Iraq Policy: Consequences and Motives,” 65–74, and Arnove’s introduction, 11–31.

  11.See, among many other of Bush’s speeches, his address to the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, Denver, Colorado, Federal News Service, October 28, 2002, in which he reminded his audience that Hussein “is a person who has gassed his own people…. He’s anxious to have, once again to develop a nuclear weapon. He’s got connections with al Qaeda.” Bush also commented: “We love life, everybody matters as far as we’re concerned, everybody is precious. They have no regard for innocent life whatsoever. (Applause.) They hate the fact that we love freedom. We love our freedom of religion, we love our freedom of speech, we love every aspect of freedom. (Applause.) And we’re not changing. (Applause.) We’re not intimidated. As a matter of fact, the more they hate our freedoms, the more we love our freedoms. (Applause.)”

  12.See Arnove, Iraq under Siege, 68–69.

  13.“We are a nation called to defend freedom—a freedom that is not the grant of any government or document, but is our endowment from God.” See Eggen, “Ashcroft Invokes Religion,” A2.

  14.Michael R. Gordon, “Baghdad’s Power Vacuum Is Drawing Only Dissent,” New York Times, April 21, 2003, A10.

  15.Peter Beaumont, “Anger Rises as US Fails to Control Anarchy,” Observer (London), April 13, 2003, 3.

  16.Jim Dwyer, “Troops Endure Blowing Sands and Mud Rain,” New York Times, March 26, 2003, A1; Neela Banerjee, “Army Depots in Iraqi Desert Have Names of Oil Giants,” New York Times, March 27, 2003, C14.

  17.Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Defense Department operational update briefing, Pentagon Briefing Room, Arlington, VA, Federal News Service, April 11, 2003.

  18.Reuters, “Number Imprisoned Exceeds 2 Million, Justice Dept. Says,” Washington Post, April 7, 2003, A4; Sentencing Project, “U.S. Prison Populations: Trends and Implications,” May 2003, 1.

  19.Sentencing Project, “U.S. Prison Populations.”

  20.Fox Butterfield, “Prison Rates among Blacks Reach a Peak, Report Finds,” New York Times, April 7, 2003, A12.

  21.Richard Wi
lling, “More Seeking President’s Pardon,” USA Today, December 24, 2002, 3A.

  22.Paul Martin, Ed Vulliamy, and Gaby Hinsliff, “US Army Was Told to Protect Looted Museum,” Observer (London), April 20, 2003, 4; Frank Rich, “And Now: ‘Operation Iraqi Looting,’” New York Times, April 27, 2003, 2.

  23.See Scott Peterson, “Iraq: Saladin to Saddam,” Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2003, 1.

  24.Rumsfeld, Defense Department briefing.

  25.Martin, Vulliamy, and Hinsliff, “US Army Was Told to Protect Looted Museum,” 4.

  26.See Robert Fisk, “Americans Defend Two Untouchable Ministries from the Hordes of Looters,” Independent (London), April 14, 2003, 7:

  Iraq’s scavengers have thieved and destroyed what they have been allowed to loot and burn by the Americans—and a two-hour drive around Baghdad shows clearly what the US intends to protect. After days of arson and pillage, here’s a short but revealing scorecard. US troops have sat back and allowed mobs to wreck and then burn the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information. They did nothing to prevent looters from destroying priceless treasures of Iraq’s history in the Baghdad Archaeological Museum and in the museum in the northern city of Mosul, or from looting three hospitals.

  The Americans have, though, put hundreds of troops inside two Iraqi ministries that remain untouched—and untouchable—because tanks and armoured personnel carriers and Humvees have been placed inside and outside both institutions. And which ministries proved to be so important for the Americans? Why, the Ministry of Interior, of course—with its vast wealth of intelligence information on Iraq—and the Ministry of Oil.

  27.Carlotta Gall, “In Afghanistan, Violence Stalls Renewal Effort,” New York Times, April 26, 2003, A1. See also Rohde, “U.S. Rebuked on Afghans in Detention,” A6.

  28.Scott Lindlaw, “Accommodating TV-Friendly Presidential Visit Caused a Few Changes in Navy Carrier’s Routine,” Associated Press, May 2, 2003.

  29.Walter V. Robinson, “1-Year Gap in Bush’s Guard Duty: No Record of Airman at Drills in 1972–73,” Boston Globe, May 23, 2000, A1.

  30.David E. Sanger, “Bush Declares ‘One Victory in a War on Terror,’” New York Times, May 2, 2003, A1.

  31.James Harding, “Bush to Hail Triumph but Not Declare a US Victory,” Financial Times (London), May 1, 2003, 8.

  32.Quoted in John R. MacArthur, “In the Psychological Struggle, Nations Wield Their Weapons of Mass Persuasion,” Boston Globe, March 9, 2003, D12.

  33.General Tommy Franks, Sunday Morning, CBS, March 23, 2003.

  34.“‘Non’ Campaigner Chirac Ready to Address French,” Daily Mail (London), March 20, 2003, 13.

  35.Robert J. McCartney, “Germany Stops Short of Saying ‘I Told You So’: Opposition to War Vindicated, Officials Say,” Washington Post, April 3, 2003, A33: “Although Germany formally opposes the war, it is supporting the U.S. effort through such steps as overflight rights and special security at U.S. bases in Germany. Officials say Germany is doing more for the war than any country except Britain.” See also Giles Tremlett and John Hooper, “War in the Gulf: Clampdown on Coverage of Returning Coffins,” Guardian (London), March 27, 2003, 3.

  36.Judy Dempsey and Robert Graham, “Paris Gives First Signs of Support to Coalition,” Financial Times (London), April 4, 2003, 4.

  37.Interfax, “Putin Wants US Victory,” Hobart Mercury (Australia), April 4, 2003.

  38.Morton Abramowitz, “Turkey and Iraq, Act II,” Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2003, A12.

  39.Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004), 131.

  40.Angelique Chrisafis et al., “Millions Worldwide Rally for Peace,” Guardian (London), February 17, 2003, 6, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/17/politics.uk.

  41.Richard W. Stevenson, “Antiwar Protests Fail to Sway Bush on Plans for Iraq,” New York Times, February 19, 2003, A1.

  42.David McDonald and John Pape, “South Africa: Cost Recovery Is Not Sustainable,” Africa News, August 30, 2002; David McDonald and John Pape, eds., Cost Recovery and the Crisis of Service Delivery in South Africa (London: Zed Press, 2002). See also Ashwin Desai, We Are the Poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2002).

  43.“Africa’s Engine,” Economist, January 17, 2004.

  44.Betts, “Ciampi Calls for Review of Media Laws,” 8. For an overview of Berlusconi’s holdings, see Ketupa.net Media Profiles: www.ketupa.net/berlusconi1.htm.

  45.Frank Bruni, “Berlusconi, in a Rough Week, Says Only He Can Save Italy,” New York Times, May 10, 2003, A1.

  46.Tim Burt, “Mays on a Charm Offensive: The Clear Channel Chief Is Seeking to Answer His Group’s Critics,” Financial Times (London), October 27, 2003, 27. See also John Dunbar and Aron Pilhofer, “Big Radio Rules in Small Markets,” Center for Public Integrity, October 1, 2003, https://www.publicintegrity.org/2003/10/01/6587/big-radio-rules-small-markets.

  47.Douglas Jehl, “Across Country, Thousands Gather to Back U.S. Troops and Policy,” New York Times, March 24, 2003, B15.

  48.Frank Rich, “Iraq around the Clock,” New York Times, March 30, 2003, 2.

  49.Bagdikian, New Media Monopoly.

  50.Tom Shales, “Michael Powell and the FCC: Giving Away the Marketplace of Ideas,” Washington Post, June 2, 2003, C1; Paul Davidson and David Lieberman, “FCC Eases Rules for Media Mergers,” USA Today, June 3, 2003, 1A.

  51.David Leonhardt, “Bush’s Record on Jobs: Risking Comparison to a Republican Ghost,” New York Times, July 3, 2003, C1.

  52.Robert Tanner, “Report Says State Budget Gaps Jumped by Nearly 50 Percent, with Next Year Looking Worse,” Associated Press, February 5, 2003.

  53.Dana Milbank and Mike Allen, “Bush to Ask Congress for $80 Billion: Estimate of War’s Cost Comes as Thousands March in Protest,” Washington Post, March 23, 2003, A1.

  54.Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Senators’ Sons in War: An Army of One,” New York Times, March 22, 2003, B10. See also David M. Halbfinger and Steven A. Holmes, “Military Mirrors a Working-Class America,” New York Times, March 30, 2003, A1.

  55.Darryl Fears, “Draft Bill Stirs Debate over the Military, Race, and Equity,” Washington Post, February 4, 2003, A3.

  56.David Cole, “Denying Felons Vote Hurts Them, Society,” USA Today, February 3, 2000, 17A; “From Prison to the Polls,” editorial, Christian Science Monitor, May 24, 2001, 10.

  57.See Cole, “Denying Felons” and sidebar, “Not at the Ballot Box.”

  58.Kenneth J. Cooper, “In India’s Kerala, Quality of Life Is High but Opportunity Is Limited,” Washington Post, January 3, 1997, A35; Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999). See also Fareed Zakaria, “Beyond Money,” New York Times Book Review, November 28, 1999, 14.

  59.Linda Villarosa, “As Black Men Move into Middle Age, Dangers Rise,” New York Times, September 23, 2002, F1.

  60.Amy Goldstein and Dana Milbank, “Bush Joins Admissions Case Fight: U-Mich. Use of Race Is Called ‘Divisive,’” Washington Post, January 16, 2003, A1; James Harding, “Bush Scrambles to Bolster Civil Rights Credibility,” Financial Times (London), January 21, 2003, 10.

  61.Elizabeth Becker and Richard A. Oppel Jr., “Bechtel Top Contender In Bidding over Iraq,” New York Times, March 29, 2003, B6.

  62.André Verlöy and Daniel Politi, with Aron Pilhofer, “Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors,” Center for Public Integrity, March 28, 2003, https://www.publicintegrity.org/2003/03/28/3157/advisors-influence-nine-members-defense-policy-board-have-ties-defense-contractors.

  63.Laura Peterson, “Bechtel Group Inc.,” Center for Public Integrity, http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=6.

  64.Ibid.

  65.Bob Herbert, “Spo
ils of War,” New York Times, April 10, 2003, A27.

  66.Quoted in ibid.

  67.Karen DeYoung and Jackie Spinner, “Contract for Rebuilding of Iraq Awarded to Bechtel: U.S. Firm 1 of 6 Invited to Bid for $680 Million Project,” Washington Post, April 18, 2003, A23. In December 2003 the contract was raised by $350 million, to $1.03 billion. In January 2004 Bechtel won a contract worth another $i.8 billion. See Elizabeth Douglass and John Hendren, “Bechtel Wins Another Iraq Deal,” Los Angeles Times, January 7, 2004, C2.

  68.Stephen J. Glain, “Bechtel Wins Pact to Help Rebuild Iraq: Closed-Bid Deal Could Total $680M,” Boston Globe, April 18, 2003, A1.

  69.Robin Toner and Neil A. Lewis, “House Passes Terrorism Bill Much Like Senate’s, but with 5-Year Limit,” New York Times, October 13, 2001, B6.

  70.See Cole, Enemy Aliens, 57–69.

  71.Evelyn Nieves, “Local Officials Rise Up to Defy the Patriot Act,” Washington Post, April 21, 2003, A1.

  72.See Cole, Enemy Aliens.

  73.Amnesty International, “India: Abuse of the Law in Gujarat: Muslims Detained Illegally in Ahmedabad,” November 6, 2003, AI index no. ASA 20/029/2003, https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa20/029/2003/en/. See also “People’s Tribunal”; Sanghamitra Chakraborty et al., “Slaves in Draconia: Ordinary Folks—Minors, Farmers, Minorities—Fall Prey to POTA for No Fault of Theirs,” Outlook India, March 22, 2004.

  74.Greg Myre, “Shootout in West Bank Kills an Israeli Soldier and a Palestinian,” New York Times, March 13, 2003, A5.

  75.Wayne Washington, “More Opposition to Detentions in Terror Probe,” Boston Globe, May 13, 2002, A1; Tamar Lewin, “As Authorities Keep Up Immigration Arrests, Detainees Ask Why They Are Targets,” New York Times, February 3, 2002, 14.

  76.Neil King, Jr., “Bush Officials Draft Broad Plan for Free-Market Economy in Iraq,” Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2003, A1.

  77.Naomi Klein, “Iraq Is Not America’s to Sell,” Guardian (London), November 7, 2003, 27. See also Jeff Madrick, “The Economic Plan for Iraq Seems Long on Ideology, Short on Common Sense,” New York Times, October 2, 2003, C2.

  78.David Usborne, “US Firm Is Hired to Purge Schools of Saddam’s Doctrine,” Independent (London), April 22, 2003, 10; Steve Johnson, “Scramble to Win the Spoils of War,” Financial Times (London) April 23, 2003, 27; and Paul Richter and Edmund Sanders, “Contracts Go to Allies of Iraq’s Chalabi,” Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2003, A1.