Tariq Ali's Blog, page 21

Tariq Ali: From Cairo to Madison

Tariq Ali spoke at Brooklyn's Galapagos Art Space on Tuesday May 17th for a sell-out event co-sponsored by Verso and Haymarket Books, entitled "From Cairo to Madison: The Arab Revolution and a World in Motion." With thanks to Noel Benford for filming the event.

The Douglas Robb lectures on Radio NZ: A series of three lectures by Tariq Ali

Radio New Zealand is broadcasting Tariq Ali's Douglas Robb lectures.

In a changing world with American military power transcending US economic weaknesses, the amazing rise of China and the continuing occupations in the Arab world and South Asia, what are the likely outcomes? Is it the case, as many argue, that the US empire is now in irretrievable decline? Will China flex its military muscles one day?

In the first Douglas Robb Lecture

Tariq Ali explores the contemporary landscape of Islam, focusing on the Middle East, analysing the challenges for Western governments which have supported the regimes now being overthrown by internal rebellions. (duration:49′ 56")

Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3

The second lecture will be broadcast on Sunday 8 May 2011 in which

Tariq Ali considers how USA power has played out across the world, arguing that although its imperial ambitions have been manifested for centuries, overstretch is beginning to set in.

The third lecture will be broadcast on Sunday 15 May 2011.

Ali considers how global markets have moved eastwards towards China, and discusses where this superpower on the rise will be in thirty years' time.

Visit Radio New Zealand to listen to the lectures.

'Bin Laden's death: 'Why kill the goose?"

'Bin Laden's death: 'Why kill the goose?" by Tariq Ali for the Guardian, May 4 2011

Blinded by the thirst for vengeance, the United States targets and kills another enemy. Its citizens celebrate. And functionaries of the George W Bush period tell us that what it proves is torture at Guantánamo worked, after all. Europe applauds. Vassals elsewhere (including Pakistan's president) congratulate the US on mission accomplished.

This is slightly bizarre, given that Bin Laden had apparently been in a safe house near the Pakistan military academy for six years. Nobody believes this could have happened without the knowledge of senior intelligence officials. A meeting with one such person in 2006, which I recounted in my last book on Pakistan, confirmed that Bin Laden was in the country and being kept safe. The person concerned told me the Americans only wanted Bin Laden dead, but that it was in Pakistan's interest to keep him alive. In his words: "Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?" – a reference to the billions in aid and weaponry being supplied to the army. At the time I wasn't sure whether my informant was fantasising to amuse or misinform me; he was obviously telling the truth.

Pakistan is in the grip of a fierce debate, its politico-military establishment damned whatever the case. If they admit they were in the know, they stand condemned within their own ranks. There is a great deal of dissension among junior officers and soldiers unhappy about border missions in which they are forced to target their own people. If it turns out that the US didn't even bother to inform the Pakistanis that helicopters were on the way to clip Bin Laden, they stand exposed as leaders who permit the country's sovereignty to be violated at will.

The departing CIA chief Leon Panetta has said the decision was made early not to tell Pakistan so as not to compromise the operation. But stories are changing rapidly, and nothing can be taken at face value. As WikiLeaks revealed, there was a US-Pakistan agreement, that while the latter would tolerate drone attacks they would be forced to denounce them because of public anger. On the other hand, given that within the CIA the ISI is referred to as a terrorist organisation, there may have been anxiety about leaks. The helicopters that entered Pakistan airspace would have been cleared as part of routine reconnaissance, though in the past Pakistani radar has been jammed to facilitate raids. This time it was not.read more

'Beyond bin Laden' – Tariq Ali on "Empire" on Al Jazeera

Watch Tariq Ali on the "Empire" show on Al Jazeera, 'Beyond bin Laden.'

Osama bin Laden is dead. The world's most wanted man has finally been killed after a hunt that lasted more than a decade, triggered global wars, and cost the lives of tens of thousands of people.

What does it mean for US wars in the Muslim world?But will this be the end of terrorism, or is al-Qaeda now a global franchise that will replicate itself no matter what has happened to its most famous founder?

And will the US actions unleash a new wave of attacks around the world?

Joining us to discuss these issues are: Tariq Ali, a historian, political activist and the author of The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad; Farwaz A. Gerges, a historian, the director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and the author of Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy; and Vali Nasr, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, a former senior advisor to the Obama administration for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What it Will Mean for the World.

GRITtv: Tariq Ali, Sonali Kolhatkar, and Voices from Ground Zero

"If the aim was to show us that state terror was more powerful than individual terrorists, we already knew that," says Tariq Ali of the US special forces action that reportedly killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. As Americans celebrated outside of the White House and gathered at Ground Zero to remember those lost, Tariq reminds us that bin Laden's death will not make the US safer. read more

"Who told them where he was?"

In a post for the London Review of Books blog today, Tariq Ali wonders whether the war "that has already led to civilian casualties that are, at the very least, four times higher than the casualties of Twin Towers," will be brought to an end following Osama bin Laden's death … "Like hell [it] will."

A US Special Forces operation in Pakistan has taken out Osama bin Laden and a few others. He was in a safe house close to Kakul Military Academy (Pakistan's Sandhurst). The only interesting question is who betrayed his whereabouts and why. The leak could only have come from the ISI and, if this is the case, which I'm convinced it is, then General Kayani, the military boss of the country, must have green-lighted the decision. What pressure was put on him will come out sooner or later.The event took me back to a conversation I had a few years ago.

In 2006 on my way back from Lahore I encountered an acquaintance from my youth. Shamefacedly he confessed that he was a senior intelligence officer on his way to a European conference to discuss better ways of combating terrorism. The following conversation (a lengthier version can be found in The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power) ensued:

"Is OBL still alive?"

He didn't reply.

"When you don't reply," I said, "I'll assume the answer is yes."

I repeated the question. He didn't reply.

"Do you know where he is?"

He burst out laughing.

"I don't, and even if I did, do you think I'd tell you?"

"No, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Does anyone else know where he is?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

I insisted: "Nothing in our wonderful country is ever a secret. Someone must know."

"Three people know. Possibly four. You can guess who they are."

I could. "And Washington?"

"They don't want him alive."

"And your boys can't kill him?"

"Listen friend, why should we kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?"

Now the Americans have killed the goose themselves. What was the bounty promised and to whom? Would that they also now brought to an end the war and occupation that was supposedly fought to take out Osama and that has already led to civilian casualties that are, at the very least, four times higher than the casualties of Twin Towers. Will they? Like hell they will. read more

"Did Pakistani Gov't Know Where Osama bin Laden Was Hiding?"

Visit Democracy Now! to listen to the full segment.

'Who will reshape the Arab world: its people, or the US?'

'Who will reshape the Arab world: its people, or the US?' by Tariq Ali for the Guardian, April 29 2011

The patchwork political landscape of the Arab world – the client monarchies, degenerated nationalist dictatorships and the imperial petrol stations known as the Gulf states – was the outcome of an intensive experience of Anglo-French colonialism. This was followed after the second world war by a complex process of imperial transition to the United States. The result was a radical anticolonial Arab nationalism and Zionist expansionism within the wider framework of the cold war.

When the cold war ended Washington took charge of the region, initially through local potentates then through military bases and direct occupation. Democracy never entered the frame, enabling the Israelis to boast that they alone were an oasis of light in the heart of Arab darkness. How has all this been affected by the Arab intifada that began four months ago?

In January, Arab streets resounded to the slogan that united the masses regardless of class or creed: "Al-Sha'b yurid isquat al-nizam!" – "The people want the downfall of the regime!" The images streaming out from Tunis to Cairo, Saana to Bahrain, are of Arab peoples on their feet once again. On 14 January, as chanting crowds converged on the ministry of interior, Tunisia's President Ben Ali and his family fled to Saudi Arabia. On 11 February the national uprising in Egypt toppled the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak as mass rebellion erupted in Libya and the Yemen.

In occupied Iraq, demonstrators protested against the corruption of the Maliki regime and, more recently, against the presence of US troops and bases. Jordan was shaken by nationwide strikes and tribal rebellion. Protests in Bahrain spiralled into calls for the overthrow of the monarchy, an event that scared the neighbouring Saudi kleptocrats and their western patrons, who can't conceive of an Arabia without sultans. Even as I write, the corrupt and brutal Ba'athist outfit in Syria, under siege by its own people, is struggling for its life.

The dual determinants of the uprisings were both economic – with mass unemployment, rising prices, scarcity of essential commodities – and political: cronyism, corruption, repression, torture. Egypt and Saudi Arabia were the crucial pillars of US strategy in the region, as confirmed recently by US vice-president Jo Biden, who stated that he was more concerned about Egypt than Libya. The worry here is Israel; the fear that an out-of-control democratic government might renege on the peace treaty. And Washington has, for the time being, succeeded in rerouting the political process into a carefully orchestrated change, led by Mubarak's defence minister and chief of staff, the latter being particularly close to the Americans.

Most of the regime is still in place. Its key messages are the need for stability and a return to work, putting a stop to the strike wave. Fevered behind-the scenes negotiations between Washington and the Muslim Brotherhood are continuing. A slightly amended old constitution remains in force and the South American model of huge social movements producing new political organisations that triumph at the polls and institute social reforms is far from being replicated in the Arab world, thus not posing any serious challenge, until now, to the economic status quo.

The mass movement remains alert in both Tunisia and Egypt but is short of political instruments that reflect the general will. The first phase is over. The second, that of rolling back the movements, has begun.read more

'A prolific author'

By Jean McKeowin for Rhodes University, April 11  2011

Tariq Ali brought his charismatic presence and gift for oratory to the Rhodes University Faculty of Science's Graduation ceremony last week. In his speech, before he was presented with an Honorary Doctorate by the University, Ali showed that none of his fire has died out, although it is over forty years since he gained his reputation as one of the twentieth century's most outspoken activists.

Born in 1943 in Lahore, now in Pakistan, into a family of some privilege, he grew up as both an atheist and a communist. As a student at Punjab University, Ali was elected President of the Young Students Union, and led several public demonstrations against Pakistan's military dictatorship. This resulted in his being banned from further participation in student politics and his parents sent him to study further at Oxford University's Exeter College.

After graduating, Ali almost single-handedly founded the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) becoming its leader and outspoken envoy.

Throughout the last years of the 1960s the VSC became a rallying point for those in opposition to the Americans' involvement in Vietnam. Ali's articulate and well argued anti-war stance gained him a great deal of prominence in the media, and a reputation for passionate anti-Americanism, which he retains to this day; indeed in his speech he regretted the lack of tangible change introduced by Barack Obama's election as President of the United States.read more

'Dr Tariq Ali on history and politics'

By Sarah-Jane Bradfield for Rhodes University, April 14  2011

Writer, journalist, filmmaker and public intellectual Dr Tariq Ali addressed a capacity crowd at Eden Grove this week on the current uprisings in the Arab world and their links to contemporary history and the international community.

In his talk entitled "The West, the Arab World and its Discontents", Dr Ali, who was born in Lahore in 1943 and educated at Oxford, attributed the current uprisings in the Arab world to widespread dissatisfaction with the neo-liberal capitalism system.

"This particular system punishes the poor and rewards the rich, who are blinded by greed. Things reached a breaking point and uprisings were triggered because of the inability of the elite to deal with the discontent and the refusal of the poor to continue living in dire conditions," he said.

To fully understand the current dynamics of the Arab uprisings, Dr Ali said it is necessary to consider the history of South America's 1990s revolts against neoliberalism and imperial globalisation. "The interesting thing about the South American struggles, which I believe have had a huge impact on the Arab world, is they marked a new type of struggle in which social movements from below were organised differently from traditional labour movements.

They built new layers of action and cadres and gave rise to new political parties who contested elections, promised certain things and actually delivered when they were elected," he said. Dr Ali said he believes there are links between the current Arab uprisings and the struggles in South America, because "in both cases the people were just fed up. This took the western world by surprise. They were not expecting it," he said.

In considering the trigger of the recent Egyptian uprisings, Dr Ali said he believes recent events in Tunisia, in which the unemployed took on the elite in a series of riots after building discontent following the economic crisis of 2008, played a crucial role. "After the Tunisians, who are regarded as soft-natured people in the Arab world, had taken on their government and demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the level of greed in the administration, the rest of the Arab world thought, 'Well if the Tunisians can do it, so can we.' Tunisians are generally a people who carry on with their lives without too much fuss, so when they marched and got rid of their dictator, the whole Arab world erupted," he said. Before long, , the Tunisian ripple became a wave and engulfed the Arab world.

Ideology also played a crucial role in the uprisings as explained by Dr Ali. "One of the most powerful things that has huge consequences is a widespread loss of fear of death. When people lose one of the most important fears in the lives of human beings, that of dying, they are capable of performing political miracles. The repression was heavy enough to cause this to happen, and when it gave, anything was possible," he said.

Although Dr Ali acknowledged the importance of the current Arab uprisings and their potential effect on the international community, he said he would not go so far as to classify them as revolutions. "I wouldn't classify them as such because they are not systemic in nature. They are uprisings to get rid of dictators who have sat on the neck of people for up to 40 years and the people had just had enough," he said.

How the uprisings pan out will depend largely on what the people demand and whether they attain these demands, Dr Ali said. "The cancer of corruption runs deep in these societies, and the people need to create visible alternatives to the existing structures to rid themselves of the problems," he added.read more