Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic

by Chalmers Johnson

  86. Mayer, “Outsourcing Torture”; CBS News, “CIA Flying Suspects to Torture?” March 6, 2005, http.7/www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678155.shtml.

  87. Ibid.

  88. Dana Priest and Joe Stephens, “Secret World of U.S. Interrogation: Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light,” Washington Post, May 11, 2004.

  89. Douglas Jehl and David Johnston, “Rule Change Lets CIA Freely Send Suspects Abroad,” New York Times, March 6, 2005.

  90. Ibid.

  91. Stephen Grey, “U.S. Accused of ’Torture Flights,’” Times Online, November 14, 2004, http://www.timesonline.co.Uk/printFriendly/0,, 1-524-1357699-524,00.html; CBS News, “CIA Flying Suspects to Torture?” Also see Amy Goodman’s interview with Stephen Grey, “U.S. Operating Secret ’Torture Flights,’” Democracy Now, November 17, 2004, http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/17/1525208.

  92. Ian Cobain, Stephen Grey, and Richard Norton-Taylor, “Destination Cairo: Human Rights Fears over CIA Flights,” Guardian, September 12, 2005, http://ww.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5283268-105744,00.html.

  93. Dan Bilefsky, “European Inquiry Says CIA Flew 1,000 Flights in Secret,” New York Times, April 27, 2006, http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042706N.shtml; Ian Silva, “Probe of CIA Prisons Implicates EU Nations,” Associated Press, June 7, 2006; Stephen Grey and Ian Cobain, “From Logistics to Turning a Blind Eye: Europe’s Role in Terror Abductions,” Guardian, June 7, 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0329498686-l10878,00.html; “Europeans Assisted CIA with Abductions,” Financial Times, June 8, 2006.

  94. Quoted by Isabel Hilton, “The 800 lb Gorilla in American Foreign Policy,” Guardian, July 28, 2004, http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/073104F.shtml.

  95. Priest and Stephens, “Secret World.”

  96. See, inter alia, Dana Priest and Scott Higham, “At Guantanamo, a Prison Within a Prison; CIA Has Run a Secret Facility for Some Al-Qaeda Detainees, Officials Say,” Washington Post, December 17, 2004; Dana Priest, “Long-Term Plan Sought for Terror Suspects,” Washington Post, January 2, 2005; Priest and Stephens, “Secret World”; James Risen and Thorn Shanker, “Saddam Enters Shadowy Realm of Foreign Detainees,” New York Times, December 18, 2003; Inigo Gilmore and Robin Gedye, “Jordan ’Ghost’ Jail Is Holding Senior al-Qaeda Leaders,” Telegraph (London), October 14, 2004; BBC News, “Jordan Denies ’Secret U.S. Prison,’” October 14, 2004; Mayer, “Outsourcing Torture”; Jeffrey St. Clair, “The Road to Rendition: Torture Air, Incorporated,” CounterPunch, April 9-10,2005; Grey, “U.S. Accused of ’Torture Flights’”; Dana Priest, Washington Post, “CIA Holds Suspects in Secret Prisons,” San Diego Union-Tribune, November 2, 2005; Dana Priest and Josh White, “Policies on Terrorism Suspects Come Under Fire,” Washington Post, November 3, 2005; Editorial, “The Prison Puzzle,” New York Times, November 3, 2005; Carlotta Gall, “Rights Group Reports Afghanistan Torture,” New York Times, December 19, 2005; Reuters, “Poland Was Main CIA European Destination,” December 9, 2005; Tom Walker and Sarah Baxter, “Revealed: The Terror Prison U.S. Is Helping Build in Morocco,” Sunday Times (London), February 12, 2006.

  97. Quoted by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark,” [Afghanistan:] One Huge U.S. Jail,” Guardian, March 19, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1440836,00.html. See also Ken Silverstein, “U.S., Jordan Forge Closer Ties in Covert War on Terrorism,” Los Angeles Times, November 11, 2005; Yossi Melman, “Jordanian Spy Agency Replaces Mossad as Key CIA Ally,” Haaretz (Tel Aviv), November 12, 2005.

  98. Mark Hosenball, “No Secrets: Eyes on the CIA,” Newsweek, March 7, 2005, http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9261/printer.

  99. Stephen Grey, “U.S. Accused of’Torture Flights’”; Dana Priest, “Jet Is an Open Secret in Terror War,” Washington Post, December 27, 2004; Farah Stockman, “Terror Suspects’ Torture Claims Have Mass. Link,” Boston Globe, November 29, 2004; John Crewdson, “Mysterious Jet Tied to Torture Flights,” Chicago Tribune, January 8, 2005. On Air America, see Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991); http://www.air-america.org/index.html; William M. Leary, “Supporting the ’Secret War’: CIA Air Operations in Laos, 1955-1974,” Central Intelligence Agency, Studies in Intelligence, Winter 1999-2000, http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter99-00/art7.html.

  100. See http://www.aahs-online.org/. Cf. Chalmers Johnson, “A Survey of Lockheed Orion History,” Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society1, no. 1 (June 1956), pp. 4-7; and ibid., “Thirty Years of Lockheed Vegas,” 2, no. 1 (January-March 1957), pp. 1-35.

  101. Priest, “Open Secret.”

  102. See, for example, http://www.airliners.net/; http://users.pandora.be/michel.vandaele/air1.htm; http://www.jetspotter.com/;http://www.planespotting.com/ (see also the links section on this Web site).

  103. Seth Hettena, Associated Press, “Navy Secretly Contracted Jets Used by CIA,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2005.

  104. Ibid.

  105. Tim Thursday, “CIA Torture Jet Sold in Attempted Cover Up,” Independent Media Centre Ireland, December 9, 2004, http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id-67864&print_page=true; Crewdson, “Mysterious Jets.”

  106. Hettena, “Navy Secretly Contracted Jets.”

  107. Scott Shane, Stephen Grey, and Ford Fessenden, “Detainee’s Suit Gains Support from Jet’s Log,” New York Times, March 30, 2005; Bob Herbert, “Torture, American Style,” New York Times, February 11, 2005; Mayer, “Outsourcing Torture”; Hilton, “800 lb Gorilla.”

  108. Scott Shane, Stephen Grey, and Margot Williams, “CIA Expanding Terror Battle Under Guise of Charter Flights: Planes Owned by Shell Companies Move Suspects,” New York Times, May 31, 2005.

  109. Crewdson, “Mysterious Jets.”

  110. See “The Broken Promise,” transcript, TV4 Monday, 17th May 2004,” http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/may/Sweden.pdf.

  111. In addition to the TV4 transcript, see Grey, “U.S. Accused of Torture”; Stockman, “Torture Claims Have Mass. Link”; CBS News, “Flying Suspects to Torture”; Tim Reid, “Flight to Torture: Where Abuse Is Contracted Out,” Times Online, March 26, 2005, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/01-10889-1542390-10889,00.html; and Cobain, Grey, and Norton-Taylor, “Destination Cairo.”

  112. See Tom Engelhardt, “The CIA’s La Dolce Vita War on Terror,” TomDispatch .com, July 21, 2005, http://www.tomdispatch.com/indexprint.mhtml/?pid=7789.

  113. Aidan Lewis, “Italy Judge Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Agents,” Associated Press, June 24, 2005; Barbara McMahon, “Italians Hunt Covert CIA Snatch Squad,” Observer, June 26, 2005; “European Warrant Issued for Arrest of CIA Agents,” Corriere della Serra (Italy), June 27, 2005; Victor L. Simpson, “Italians Discuss Purported CIA Case,” Associated Press, July 28, 2005; Simpson, “Italy to Seek Extradition of CIA Agents,” Associated Press, June 28, 2005; John Crewdson and Alessandra Maggiorani, “Prosecutors in Italy File Request to Extradite 22 CIA Operatives,” Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2005.

  114. Craig Whitlock, “Europeans Investigate CIA Role in Abductions,” Washington Post, March 13, 2005; John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, “Abducted Imam Aided CIA Ally,” Chicago Tribune, July 3, 3005.

  115. Daniel Williams, “Italy Probes Agency’s Link to CIA in Cleric’s Abduction,” Washington Post, May 12, 2006.

  116. Crewdson and Hundley, “Abducted Imam”; “Italy Asks U.S. to Explain CIA’s Role in Kidnapping,” Bloomberg News, June 30, 2005. Because of the involvement of Ramstein Air Base, the Germans are also investigating this abduction: “Deutsche Justiz ermittelt gegen US-Geheimdienst,” Spiegel Online, November 12, 2005, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,384681,00.html.

  117. Craig Whitlock, “Italians Detail Lavish CIA Operation,” Washington Post, June 26, 2005; Tracy Wilkinson, “CIA Said to Leave Trail in Abduction,” Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2005.

  118. Simpson, “CIA Case”; “European Warra
nt,” Corriere della Serra.

  119. Tim Weiner, “Langley, We Have a Problem,” New York Times, May 14, 2006.

  120. Thomas Powers, “Spy vs. Spy,” New York Times, May 10, 2006.

  121. Quoted by Weiner, “Langley.”

  4: U.S. MILITARY BASES IN OTHER PEOPLE’S COUNTRIES

  1. George Cahlink, “Pentagon Certifies Need for Base Closures,” Government Executive Magazine, March 23, 2004.

  2. See Laurence M. Vance, “The Problem with BRAC,” LewRockwell.com, September 17, 2005.

  3. See maps of the Roman and British Empires in “The Next American Empire,” Economist, March 18, 2004.

  4. Department of Defense, Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Installations and Environment), Base Structure Report, Fiscal Year 2005, p. DOD-78.

  5. Amy Holmes, “The Bases of Empire: The Impact of U.S. Military Installations on Germany and Turkey,” Institute for Global Studies, Johns Hopkins University, February 19, 2004, pp. 7, 17-18.

  6. Arkin, Code Names, pp. 6-7.

  7. “Enough Time for Iraq to Implement UN Resolutions—[Foreign Minister Marwan] Muasher,” Jordan Times, August 11, 2002; and Arkin, Code Names, pp. 4,10.

  8. Mark Sappenfield and Patrik Jonsson, “As Military Realigns Bases, the South Wins,” Christian Science Monitor, May 16, 2005.

  9. William M. Arkin, “War Plans Meaner, Not Leaner,” Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2004.

  10. Martin Sieff, “Analysis: Bush Pushes Global Force Reform,” Linked Press International, November 25, 2003; Alan Bock, “Repositioning on the Titanic,” Antiwar.com, August 20, 2004; David Isenberg, “Reshaping Washington’s Global Footprint,” Asia Times, August 20, 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FH20AaO1.html.

  11. The White House, “President Speaks at Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040816-12.html.

  12. See Douglas J. Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Department of Defense, Strengthening U.S. Global Defense Posture, Report to Congress, September 2004, http://www.defensecommunities.org/ResourceCenter/Global_Posture.pdf.

  13. “Pentagon to Close 35 Percent of Overseas Bases; ’Forward Operating Sites’ to Replace Cold War-era Bases,” Associated Press, September 23, 2004.

  14. Jan Erickson and Leonard Tengco, “Congress Endangers Military Women’s Health with Ban,” National Organization for Women, May 28, 2003, http://www.now.org/issues/military/052803ban.htmPprintable; Johnson, Sorrows of Empire, pp. 105-6.

  15. Diana B. Henriques, “Temptation Near for Military’s Problem Gamblers,” New York Times, October 19, 2005.

  16. Quoted by Michael T. Klare, “Imperial Reach: The Pentagon’s New Basing Strategy,” Nation, April 25, 2005, pp. 13-14.

  17. Mark Mazzetti, “Pax Americana: Dispatched to Distant Outposts, U.S. Forces Confront the Perils of an Unruly World,” U.S. News & World Report, October 6, 2003. Also see Eric Schmitt, “Pentagon Seeking New Access Pacts for Africa Bases,” New York Times, July 5, 2003.

  18. Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure, Report to President and Congress, Washington, DC, May 9, 2005, http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/obc.pdf, p. 7.

  19. Edward Harris, Associated Press, “U.S. Green Berets Train Mali Troops to Guard Desert Interior Against Terrorists, Bandits,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 17, 2004; Martin Plaut, “U.S. to Increase African Military Presence,” BBC News, March 23, 2004; Michael Peel, “U.S. Urged to Turn Attention to Oil-Rich States in Africa,” Financial Times, April 1, 2004.

  20. Pepe Escobar, “The Algerian Connection,” Asia Times, July 29, 2005; Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure, Report, pp. Fl 1, F12, H11.

  21. Vernon Loeb, “New Bases Reflect Shift in Military,” Washington Post, June 9, 2003.

  22. Mark Sappenfield, “Pentagon Stirs Tensions in Foreign Base Shuffle,” Christian Science Monitor, August 1, 2005, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0801/p02s01-usmi.htm.

  23. Thomas Donnelly and Vance Serchuk, “Toward a Global Cavalry: Overseas Rebasing and Defense Transformation,” AEI National Security Outlook, July 1, 2003, http://www.aei.org/include/pub_print.asp?pubID=17783.

  24. David Morris, “Senators Seek to Shutter Overseas Military Bases,” GovExec.com, April 29, 2003; Office of Senator Dianne Feinstein, “Senators Hutchison and Feinstein Introduce Legislation Creating an Overseas Military Base Commission,” April 29, 2003; “S. 949, The Overseas Military Facility Structure Review Act,” Congressional Record (April 29, 2003), p. S5495; Office of Senator Tim Johnson (Democrat from South Dakota), “Johnson Urges Study of Overseas Military Bases,” May 2, 2003.

  25. Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure, Report, p. M9.

  26. Ibid., p.M7.

  27. Ibid., p.M2.

  28. Ibid.; Robert Burns, Associated Press, “Panel Urges Slow Return of Troops to Bases,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 9, 2005.

  29. William Pfaff, “U.S. Military Abroad: More Bases Won’t Curb Terrorism,” International Herald Tribune, August 2, 2003.

  30. Tom Engelhardt, “Bases, Bases Everywhere,” TomDispatch.com, June 1, 2005, p. 4, http://wvvw.tomdispatch.com/indexprint.mhtml?pid=3025; James Sterngold, “After 9/11, U.S. Policy Built on World Bases,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 21, 2004.

  31. Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson, “U.S. Evicted from Air Base in Uzbekistan,” Washington Post, July 30, 2005.

  32. Raymond Whitaker, “A UK Diplomat Says Britain Is Part of a Worldwide Torture Plot,” Independent, February 20, 2005; Grey, “U.S. Accused of ’Torture Flights’”; Lutz Kleveman, “The New Great Game,” Guardian, October 20, 2003; Will Dunham, “Pentagon Set to Pay Uzbekistan for Use of Air Base,” Reuters, September 20, 2005.

  33. See Christian Deitch (a former Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan), “Kyrgyzstan: Democracy Stalled?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January-February 2005, pp. 16-17, 72; Justin Burke, “Kyrgyzstan Revolution: Be Careful What You Wish For,” EurasiaNet, March 25, 2005; Ariel Cohen, “Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution,” Washington Times, March 27, 2005; Andrea Peters, “U.S. Money and Personnel Behind Kyrgyzstan’s ’Tulip Revolution,’” World Socialist Web site, March 25, 2005; Simon Forrester, “Political Change in Kyrgyzstan,” INTRAC: International NGO Training and Research Centre, April 25, 2005 (the writer is a member of the INTRAC Representative Office in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan); Martin Sieff, United Press International, “U.S. Bases Face Flak,” Washington Times, July 16, 2005.

  34. Ann Scott Tyson and Robin Wright, “Crackdown Muddies U.S.-Uzbek Relations,” Washington Post, June 4, 2005; “Uzbekistan Restricts U.S. Military’s Use of Air Base,” Agence France-Presse, June 15, 2005; Vince Crawley, “Uzbekistan Sets January Deadline for Withdrawal from Base,” Air Force Times, August 1, 2005; “U.S. Confirms Uzbek Base Departure,” BBC News, September 27, 2005; Will Dunham, “U.S. Pulls Out of Uzbekistan Base After Eviction,” Reuters, November 21, 2005.

  35. Bruce Pannier, “Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek Presents New Air-Base Terms to U.S.-Led Coalition,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, January 25, 2006; “Kyrgyzstan Reportedly Wins Massive Rent Hike for U.S. Base,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, February 15, 2006; Isabel Gorst, “U.S. Facility Faces Eviction from Kyrgyzstan,” Financial Times, May 19, 2006; “Kyrgyzstan: Negotiations Over U.S. Base End Inconclusively,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, June 1, 2006.

  36. Stephen Graham, “U.S. Army to Leave 13 Bases in Germany,” Associated Press, July 29, 2005. See also Steve Liewer, “Building Continues as if the U.S. Is Staying in Germany: Army Spending Millions to Upgrade Bases Bound for German Hands,” Stars & Stripes, September 6, 2005.

  37. Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure, Report, pp. F7, F8.

  38. Bertrand Benoit, “U.S. Bases Undermine Sovereignty, Says Lafontaine,” Financial Times, August 29, 2005.

  39. “Last Spanish Combat Troops Leave Iraq,” MSNBC, April 27, 2004, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4845463
/; Michael R. Gordon, “A Pentagon Plan to Sharply Cut G.I.’s in Germany,” New York Times, June 4, 2004.

  40. Tracy Wilkinson, “Sardinia Says It’s Time for the U.S. Navy to Leave Port,” Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2005; Brian Wingfield, “U.S. to Shut Base in Italy That Aids Nuclear Subs,” New York Times, November 25, 2005.

  41. Kent Harris, “Life Isn’t Just Sun and Sand for Soldiers at Camp Darby in Italy,” Stars & Stripes, May 12, 2002; Richard Owen, “Italians Alarmed at Discovery of Huge U.S. Munitions Base,” Times Online, January 18, 2003; “Anti-War Protesters Block U.S. Military Train in Italy,”Agence France-Presse, February 23, 2003; “Italian Protests Block Arms Trains,” BBC News, February 24, 2003.