Hydra Wolf

"It's a multi-headed Hydra with Paul Wolfowitz's face on every head." -- The Guardian

"there are some serious issues between us and the Red Cross about Guantanamo...[but] they have nothing to do with the kinds of abuses that we've been hearing about in Iraq." -- wolfowitz to the Red Cross

There was once a protest march in NYC. It remains the most amazing protest march for sheer numbers and the lack of violence. Hundreds of thousands filling the avenues of Manhattan, jammed on the Brooklyn Bridge, despite the cold winter, to register their protest against the war on Iraq. It was a protest against unilateral US-led action, in defiance of the UN, to invade Iraq. Popular sentiment against what was seen as an unjustified war. A fact clearly exposed when no WMDs were found in Iraq. It cost Tony Blair his last ounce of credibility. Bush Jr? Well, he is on his way out anyway.

Bush and Blair are the most obvious targets of ridicule. But for the ignominious War on Terrorism to fully crank, they need soldiers. Good soldiers like Mr Paul Wolfowitz, who is currently in Singapore as World Bank President, and the de facto Champion of civil society. It is ironic to the extreme how a wolf can change his skin into a sheep so quickly. Fortunately, for most of the civil society groups against the IMF/WB, they know the Wolf for who he is. They know that his Championing for them against the authoritarian Singaporean government is but a sham. Thats why the calls persist to boycott the IMF/WB by the CSOs. They know a hypocrite when they see one.

Paul Wolfowitz was the Deputy Secretary of Defence in the crucial aftermath of Sep 11 2001. He was the man brought in for the War on Terror. He headed a special intelligence unit known as the Office Special Plans which has been accused of cherry picking intelligence to justify the war on Iraq. He is acknowledged as the most hawkish of Bush soldiers for the war on Iraq. He has admitted that plans to invade Iraq were already discussed just two days after Sep 11. He was the one who sanctioned and built Guantanamo, a modern day gulag, perhaps even more brutal than those of the Soviets. He was heading the oxymoron Military Intelligence. He probably supplied the C-130s which ferried Islamic militants to East European farmsteads for summary trials and imprisonment in Guantanamo. In his governance of the Pentagon, he was as authoritarian as his policies. He was the good soldier. When he was sent into the Pentagon, he knew what role he had to assume. So long civil liberties, say yes to militarism. Invasion of Afghanistan? Approved. Operation Infinite Justice. War against Iraq? Lets go. Operation Enduring Freedom. Sending his precision lasers across the deserts hunting for Osama. Innocent casualties? Its war baby. We call them collaterals. Infinite Justice and Enduring Freedom, because of good soldiers like Wolfowitz, war is now a norm and a routine.

So Wolfowitz calls Singapore authoritarian? Putting this distance between himself and these authoritarian Singaporeans. Its bullshit. Mr Wolfowitz is as authoritarian as the Singapore Government. Make no mistake about that. If he is told to head the CIA tomorrow, he would lease Singapore for Guantanamo II, the unseen resort. That is his mien.

And now Wolfowitz is World Bank head? To lend money, a helping hand to countries which he personally OK-ed the razing of? You destroy a country and now you come in as banker to develop them? To create the next Osama? That is hypocrisy too.

But Wolfowitz has better spin sense. He is an American after all. He has mildly but surely pushed the Singapore Government into a corner. He has placed himself in the corner of the CSOs. Helping them. Facilitating them. Fighting for those who were banned. Claiming the moral victory when he is as guilty as the host country. As guilty, but he has manouevred himself well. Shows that he is a bigger hawk. A smarter hawk, a more deceptive hawk. He is teaching the Singaporean authoritarians how to be smiling tigers.

This is what the paralysed Singapore government cannot say now. Because it has effectively gagged itself with its vow of welcome. Come on Ms Bhavani, why not have a Commandment Release now? To tick this wolfowitz off? Or is your perogative merely to crush little Singaporeans at the behest of your Minister? Where is the Government's spin? Wolfowitz is dancing now, beyond the abilities of the Singapore Government to follow. Any pre-arranged dance with regard the CSOs is now slightly skewed. Wolfowitz is blowing the pipes and we are following in the hood. The Government is outspun because Wolfowitz is siding with the CSOs, something the Government totally did not expect as evinced in its paralytic handling of the CSO issue. Wolfowitz has saved his face and outplayed Singapore in the face game. Perhaps the Government should have let the 400 Frowns Campaign persist. But the Government's inaction is to be expected. He is the master authoritarian after all.

Quotes of the Day --

"The first thing that strikes the lay student of military commissions is the enormous power vested in the US deputy secretary of defence, Paul Wolfowitz, who is the commissions' 'appointing authority'. The judges - seven in a capital case - are appointed by Wolfowitz. Any judge can be substituted up to the moment of verdict, by Wolfowitz. The military prosecutors are chosen by Wolfowitz. The suspects they charge, and the charges they make, are determined by Wolfowitz. All defendants are entitled to a military defence lawyer, from a pool chosen by Wolfowitz. The defendants are entitled to hire a civilian lawyer, but they have to pay out of their own funds, and by revealing where the funds are, they risk having them seized on suspicion of their being used for terrorist purposes, on the order of Wolfowitz. Defendants need not lose heart completely if convicted. They can appeal, to a panel of three people, appointed by Wolfowitz. When it has made its recommendation, the panel sends it for a final decision to Wolfowitz ... And Wolfowitz's role? 'It's right out of the Mikado, isn't it... the government has created something as close to being hermetically sealed as the human mind is capable of creating." The Guardian, Dec 3 2003

The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding himself under the bedclothes, "Put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me." Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes and got into bed. She was greatly amazed to see how her grandmother looked in her nightclothes, and said to her, "Grandmother, what big arms you have!". "All the better to hug you with, my dear." "Grandmother, what big legs you have!" "All the better to run with, my child." "Grandmother, what big ears you have!" "All the better to hear with, my child." "Grandmother, what big eyes you have!" "All the better to see with, my child." "Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!" "All the better to eat you up with." And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up. -- Little Red Riding Hood, Charles Perrault