Another imperialist scam by the USA

Another imperialist scam by the USA

By Alfred de Zayas
[This article posted on 6/20/2024 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://globalbridge.ch/eine-weitere-imperialistische-masche-der-usa/.]

Alfred de Zayas, professor at the Geneva School for Diplomacy and International Relations, dares to address a particularly sensitive issue of US foreign policy and to criticize its cooperation with Israel. In doing so, he makes statements about Israel that no one else dares to make quickly, because they are usually used to silence the argument of anti-Semitism. This article was published yesterday, June 19, on the US platform Counterpunch. (cm)

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The US State Department's toolkit of unilateral coercive measures (UCMs) is used to blackmail, intimidate and bully states that do not willingly accept US hegemony. The inclusion of a country on the US list of countries sponsoring terrorism is intended to lend a semblance of legitimacy to the measures imposed on the targeted states.

Unilateral coercive measures are not "sanctions", because the United States has neither the legal nor the moral right to sanction or "punish" other states. Nor do UCMs meet the legal criteria to be considered "retaliatory measures" or "countermeasures" in the sense of the International Law Commission's Code of State Responsibility [1]. UCMs constitute a use of force prohibited by Article 2, paragraph 4 of the UN Charter [2], violate numerous international treaties and fundamental principles of international law, including the sovereign equality of states, the self-determination of peoples, freedom of trade and navigation, and cause economic chaos and humanitarian crises that may constitute crimes against humanity as defined in Article 7 of the Rome Statute [3]. UCMs kill.

For decades, the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have adopted annual resolutions condemning the imposition of UCMs as incompatible with the UN Charter, which states that the only legal sanctions are those imposed by the Security Council under Chapter VII [4]. The US trade and financial "embargo" against Cuba has been condemned by the General Assembly in 31 resolutions [5], which the US has violated and continues to violate. Far from lifting the UCMs, the US has tightened the "bloqueo", the blockade. Despite the draconian regime that Cuba has had to endure for the last 64 years, the UCMs have not had the desired effect: there has been no regime change. Due to the systematic abuse of the US veto power in the Security Council, the US continues to violate international law with impunity.

The first list of countries allegedly supporting terrorism was published in 1979 [6]. The list originally included Iraq, Libya, South Yemen (disbanded in 1990), Sudan and Syria. Cuba was added to the list in 1982 under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. In 2024, the list consists of Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria, all countries that are targeted for regime change. Countries that have since been removed from the list are Iraq, Libya, South Yemen and Sudan. The US State Department maintains the list under section 1754 of the National Defense Authorization Act, the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act.

Many countries have called for Cuba to be removed from the list of states that sponsor terrorism [7], and indeed Cuba was removed from a separate list of countries that do not fully cooperate with the US in the fight against terrorism on May 15, 2024. However, this is not the same as being removed from the list of “states that sponsor terrorism”, which has been and continues to be used as a pretext for the UCMs. It sounds incoherent because it is. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez tweeted: “US gov. The announcement is a small step in the right direction. This decision in no way changes the blockade, Cuba's fraudulent inclusion on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism, or most of Trump's maximum coercive measures that still affect the Cuban people." On June 15, 2024, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and China issued a statement [8] calling for Cuba's immediate removal from the list and also demanding a halt to the UCMs directed against the Cuban people. The statement denounced the fact that Cuba's inclusion on the terrorism list lacked any factual, legal or moral basis [9].

And why is Israeli terrorism not being punished?

The arbitrariness of the US list is obvious to any observer. In fact, none of the US's allies and friends can be found on the list. As we know from many whistleblowers, the work of the CIA and the revelations before the US Congress, the US itself is one of the main sponsors and perpetrators of terrorism. The US has supported Israeli terrorism since its inception in 1946-48. It is no exaggeration to say that Israel was born in terrorism. One need only recall the indiscriminate killings by Zionist paramilitaries, the Nakba, the terrorization of the Palestinian population in the former British Mandate, the terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel [10] on July 22, 1946 , the assassination of the mediator in the UN Security Council, Count Folke Bernadotte, by Zionist extremists on September 17, 1948, a terrorist act that was the subject of an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in 1949[ 11] , etc.

Today, we are witnessing a continuing genocide of the Palestinian people, despite UN Security Council Resolution 242, the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of July 9, 2004 [12] and the three separate orders for "interim measures" issued by the ICJ in January, March and May 2024 in connection with South Africa's genocide complaint against Israel [13] pursuant to Article 9 of the 1948 Genocide Convention. In fact, the United States has been the main sponsor of Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians since 1946, providing military, political, economic, financial, technical and propaganda support, which makes the United States complicit in Israeli genocide under Article III e of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Among the countries that have asked to join South Africa's complaint against Israel at the ICJ are Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Ireland, Libya, the Maldives, Mexico, Nicaragua, Palestine, Spain and Turkey [14]. Countries that have condemned Israel as a state that sponsors terrorism include Bolivia, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Yemen.

US weapons and intelligence services supported Israel in the targeted assassination of four Iranian nuclear scientists, Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi. Another scientist, Fereydoon Abbasi, was wounded in an assassination attempt. At the time, unnamed US officials confirmed that the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) had been funded, trained and armed by Israel. If US laws had been applied objectively, this would have made Israel (and the US) a state sponsor of terrorism, as the MEK was then classified as a foreign terrorist organization.

Examples of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism include the 1954 Lavon Affair, an unsuccessful bombing in Egypt that led to the resignation of the Israeli defense minister [15]. In the 1970s and 80s, Israel was a major arms supplier to dictatorial regimes in South America, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In Indonesia, as Noam Chomsky reports, Israel served as a proxy for the United States, providing aircraft that were used by Indonesia to massacre the Timorese [16]. More recently, Israel has been accused of sponsoring and supporting several terrorist groups in its proxy wars against Iran, Lebanon and Syria.

The U.S. has actively sponsored terrorism in Latin America, Africa and Asia, been involved in the overthrow [17] of countless governments in Latin America, Africa and Asia, supported military juntas that terrorized their own populations, and organized and funded “color revolutions” in Europe to install U.S.-friendly governments in former Soviet republics, including Ukraine and Georgia [18]. In October 1965, the U.S. supported the coup against the leader of the Indonesian independence movement, President Sukarno, and installed the genocidal regime of Suharto, who carried out widespread killings and purges that may have claimed as many as one million victims. In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the U.S. supported Miami-based terrorist cells that carried out bombings and other terrorist acts in Cuba. The US provided safe haven to Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles [19], a CIA agent responsible for the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 on October 6, 1975, which killed 73 civilians [20]. Posada later confessed to a series of bombings that took place in 1997 at Cuban hotels and nightclubs. Protected by the United States, Posada died in Miami, Florida, in 2018 at the age of 90.

There are endless lists...

In the 1980s, the United States funded terrorist groups in Nicaragua (the Contras) that used terrorist methods against the government of Daniel Ortega [21]. Also in the 1980s, the United States funded terrorist groups in Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The list of the United States' involvement with radical Islamist groups is endless.

Why was Cuba ever put on the list of state sponsors of terrorism? The State Department tries to explain this with Cuba's support for national liberation movements in Africa and Latin America. However, national liberation movements are recognized as legitimate in countless UN resolutions, for example in Resolution 2625, which states: "In the exercise of their right to self-determination, peoples have the right to seek and receive support in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter." National liberation movements are widely recognized by the international community [22] and should not be labeled as "terrorists". Article I (4) of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 1977 extends protection to members of national liberation movements, including "armed conflicts in which peoples, in exercise of their right to self-determination as in the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on the Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, fight against colonial domination and foreign occupation and against racist regimes.” [23]

The United States has unjustly accused Cuba of supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which pursued the legitimate goal of national liberation against dictatorial, corrupt and thoroughly undemocratic governments that are subordinate to the United States.

On April 14, 2015, President Barack Obama announced that Cuba would be removed from the list. But on January 12, 2021, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put Cuba back on the list because it allegedly “repeatedly supports international terrorist acts” by providing refuge to U.S. fugitives and Colombian rebel leaders. Doesn't that sound hypocritical?

In a letter to the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Cuba pointed out that it had enshrined the fight against terrorism in its 2019 constitution: "In the new national constitution, which was adopted by referendum on February 24, 2019, following a constitutional reform and a broad consultation of the population, Cuba's commitment to the fight against terrorism was elevated to the level of the constitution. Article 16(l) of Chapter II, which is devoted to international relations, states: The Republic of Cuba … “rejects and condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, in particular state terrorism”. This decision reaffirms Cuba's long-standing rejection and condemnation of all acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, even when states are directly or indirectly involved, by whomever, against whomever and wherever they are committed, regardless of the motives. In a fair decision in 2015, our country, which has been the victim of hundreds of terrorist attacks that have cost the lives of 3,478 people and left another 2,099 disabled, was removed from the list of states that support international terrorism – a unilateral mechanism that it should never have been included in. Terrorism remains a serious challenge for the international community. We therefore reiterate that it is the duty of the United Nations to take the lead in the international fight against terrorism.” [24]

It is time for the United States to abandon its arbitrary and imperialist list of “countries that sponsor terrorism” and to rescind all UCMs based on this political and defamatory designation. Ultimately, this list is a fraud supported by U.S. propaganda that the global majority in Latin America, Africa and Asia no longer wants to accept.

To the original article by Alfred de Zayas on Counterpunch in US English. Translation by Christian Müller, who also set the two subheadings.

About the author: Alfred de Zayas is a professor of law at the Geneva School for Diplomacy and International Relations and served as an independent UN expert on the international order from 2012 to 2018. He is the author of twelve books, including "Building a Just World Order" (2021), "Countering Mainstream Narratives" (2022) and "The Human Rights Industry" (Clarity Press, 2021).

Notes

[1] https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/9_6_2001.pdf
[2] Alfred de Zayas, Security Council, Arria Formula meeting, 25 March 2024
[3] https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/rome-statute-international-criminal-court
[4] https://www.ohchr.org/en/unilateral-coercive-measures. GA Res 78/202 of 19 December 2023 https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n23/423/58/pdf/n2342358.pdf?token=R2W4iUoezC3VbNtjVS&fe=true
[5] Most recently Resolution 78/7 of 2 November 2023 https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n23/336/44/pdf/n2333644.pdf?token=XVrKJbxgcrfN0zgLOS&fe=true
[6] https://www.state.gov/state-sponsors-of-terrorism/
[7] https://vietnamnet.vn/en/vietnam-calls-on-us-to-remove-cuba-from-state-sponsors-of-terrorism-list-2289148.html
[8] https://www.transcend.org/tms/2024/06/nam-and-group-of-77-demand-the-exclusion-of-cuba-from-the-list-of-terrorism-sponsors-countries/
[9] https://cubasi.cu/en/news/intl-organizations-call-removal-cuba-us-terrorism-list
[10] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-07-23/ty-article-magazine/.premium/70-years-on-perpetrator-and-victim-recall-king-david-hotel-bombing/0000017f-e739-d62c-a1ff-ff7b96bc0000
[11] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/4
[12] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/131
[13] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192
[14] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/6/which-countries-have-joined-south-africas-case-against-israel-at-the-icj
[15]https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/publications/the_lavon_affair_how_a_falseflag_operation_led_to_war_and_the_israeli_bomb
[16] https://archive.org/details/NoamChomsky-05-21-82-IndonesiaAndTimor
[17] Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow, America's Century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq, Times Books, New York 2006. William Blum, Killing Hope, Zed Books, London 2014.
[18] https://chomsky.info/the-leading-terrorist-state/
[19] https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/
[20] https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/09/us/cuban-exile-could-test-us-definition-of-terrorist.html
[21] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/70/judgments
[22] https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0072.xml
[23] https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/icrc_002_0321.pdf
[24] https://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/74/int_terrorism/cuba_e.pdf