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why don't you check the facts yourself, including the thing about the book and Einstein's death?
by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 04:33:52 PM EST
by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 04:50:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
sorry, I did not explain myself well.

I am paraphrasing the author in the post above because I couldn't do a cut and paste.  Here is the integrality of the passage.

Although Meyssan might be discredited by some due to

his questionable 9/11 conspiracy-theories, it has become increasingly clear that more

mainstream reports have accepted Meyssan's reservations about how Sharp's theories

and his organization, the AEI, are being used to further western control and interests. In

a recent Counterpunch article, Paul Craig Roberts, discussing the fact that the Foundation

for Democracy announced funding for the "promotion of democracy and internationally

-recognized standards of human rights in Iran" adds, "By now we all know what that means. It means that the US finances a "velvet" or some "color revolution" in order

to install a US puppet.11 Mark MacKinnon, twice-winner of Canada's top reporting

prize, recently published (both in the US and Canada) his book on the subject that also

describes "the links between these democratic revolutions and the forces that are quietly

reshaping the post Cold-War world."12

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 04:56:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
also from the same source:

Engdahl has summarized the situation thusly:

In short, virtually every regime which has been the target of a US-backed soft
coup in the past twenty years has involved Gene Sharp and, his associate,
Col. Robert Helvey. Notably, Sharp was in Beijing two weeks before student
demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989. The Pentagon and US intelligence
have refined the art of such soft coups to a fine level. RAND planners call it
swarming, referring to the swarms of youth...who can be mobilized on command
to destabilize a target regime.34

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:00:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
hmm.  this student has investigated Meyssan's claims and seems to be saying the same thing about Sharp.

It was a reviewed thesis, so I suppose they did a better job than they did for von and zu Guttenburg.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:02:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The benign empire? Nonviolent imperialism

Due to the fact that these movements have been triggered by outside interests rather

than inspired from within the countries permanent change has been elusive. The Gene

Sharp inspired street protests and regime changes have not resulted in the expected stable

democracies. For instance, Orange Revolution supporters were discontented in August,

2004 when pro-Western Yushchenko was forced to back his arch-rival, Yanukovych,

as prime minister.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:03:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
sorry, also a quote from the dissertation.
by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:03:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
another citation:

Since these regime changes have resulted in power changes that favor the wishes

of the United States, it can be argued that Gene Sharp's theory on nonviolence has ended

up serving the goals of imperialism and been masked in the promotion of democracy.

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:04:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
here is the quote from Engdahl in its original context:

The concert-master of the tactics of Saffron monk-led non-violence regime change is Gene Sharp, founder of the deceptively-named Albert Einstein Institution in Cambridge Massachusetts, a group funded by an arm of the NED to foster US-friendly regime change in key spots around the world. Sharp's institute has been active in Burma since 1989, just after the regime massacred some 3000 protestors to silence the opposition. CIA special operative and former US Military Attache in Rangoon, Col. Robert Helvey, an expert in clandestine operations, introduced Sharp to Burma in 1989 to train the opposition there in non-violent strategy. Interestingly, Sharp was also in China two weeks before the dramatic events at Tiananmen Square.

http://oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Myanmar/myanmar.html

by stevesim on Mon Feb 21st, 2011 at 05:16:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I have read every comment, every link. This link is a good example.
The description of events here and of the evil "Concertmaster" is a travesty of honest reporting, and is typical of the links you have posted.
oilgeopolitics offers not a shred of proof, but only a lurid soap opera of manipulation and deception.
It's believable only because the tactics of the United States have for so long been, indeed, manipulation and deception.
We all know that.
 But to use this fact as a club to beat someone, without a shred of evidence but more self-referential screed, to sink to the level of guilt by association masquerading as reporting is below the standards of honest inquiry.
Endless repetition is not evidence, but the tired tool of a propagandist.
I'd like to think we can do better than that, here.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.
by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 05:25:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Where do you get that this was a "doctoral thesis" and "reviewed"? It was a paper for a conference at Illinois State. As for review, the conference seems to have voted on the many papers presented. This one, "Making the Pipelines Conquerable", didn't make it to the top three undergrad or grad papers. It has not been otherwise published, being available only as an MSWord document.

It contains little in the way of evidence other than vague association of ideas. To take the example you quote, presumably approvingly:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com etc...

Meyssan also asserted that the Albert Einstein Institution is backed financially by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)[10] and that in September, 2002, Sharp trained members of Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Council to return to Iraq, and that Sharp organized the leaders of Sumate to demonstrate against Hugo Chavez after the failed CIA coup in April of 2002.  Not ready to accept Meyssan's thesis and his notes, I searched for additional conclusions.  Although Meyssan might be discredited by some due to his questionable 9/11 conspiracy-theories, it has  become increasingly clear that more mainstream reports have accepted Meyssan's reservations about how Sharp's theories and his organization, the AEI, are being used to further western control and interests.  In a recent Counterpunch article, Paul Craig Roberts, discussing the fact that the Foundation for Democracy announced funding for the "promotion of democracy and internationally -recognized  standards of human rights in Iran"  adds, "By now we all know what that means.  It means that the US finances a "velvet" or some "color revolution" in order to install a US puppet.[11]   Mark MacKinnon,  twice-winner of Canada's top reporting prize, recently published (both in the US and Canada) his book on the subject that also describes "the links between these democratic revolutions and the forces that are quietly reshaping the post Cold-War world."[12]

As an example of "more mainstream reports", we have the single instance of Paul Craig Roberts in Counterpunch making a general point about the "color revolutions" and specifically tying it to

Paul Craig Roberts: A Religion Divided Against Itself

neoconservative Kenneth Timmerman, head of the Foundation for Democracy, which describes itself as "a private, non-profit organization established in 1995 with grants from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to promote democracy and internationally-recognized standards of human rights in Iran."

Paul Craig Roberts does not mention Gene Sharp, though the writer of this paper insinuates that is what he is talking about. "Research" providing "evidence", not.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 09:03:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Also, while the "colour revolutions," taken as a whole, stink to high heaven, there is no reason that they have to be connected, or even that they all have to be outside operations. There is no immediately obvious reason why Declan Ganley and Michail Saakashvili should be part of the same operation, or why the Ukrainian oligarchs that revolted against the other faction of Ukrainian oligarchs should have needed outside help to do so.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 10:09:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I will post more in the next few days, but they are connected, and so in Gene Sharp, via his colleagues in his institute.
by stevesim on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 03:25:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
afew - stevesim is a complete waste of time, I was tired yesterday and needed some adrenaline so launched into the fray :-) and I enjoy checking things out.

But he "argues" like typical conspiracy nuts: someone authoritatative, Prof "Angry Arab" in this case, has alleged this. Refute that because, despite his academic qualifications, he gets simple things wrong about what was actually said in the NYT report he criticises, and you get accused of racism. There's no acknowledgment of any error.

Then further junk is added, refute that, they move on to other allegations, smears, etc. Refute them, they dig up an obscure paper of little merit and quote selectively from that. Show the inadequacies of that - no admission - they will move on in the next few days.

Then they go back to the original source, etc.  Round and round. Chomsky wisely pointed out that he doesn't get into debating conspiracy theories like 9/11 was a gov job, obviously ludicrous, but you can get sucked into debating at what temperarture  metal melts etc. As Chomsky says, having people get into these arcane debates about patently absurd ideas suits those in power very well. But it was fun :-) and I agree with Progressive Mag's editor that Gene Sharp is an international treasure and worth defending.

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.

by Ted Welch (tedwelch-at-mac-dot-com) on Tue Feb 22nd, 2011 at 06:06:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I thought it was worth investigating the "reviewed doctoral thesis", and I note that stevesim avoided recognizing the facts. It's from the rulebook: when your specious "evidence" is debunked, talk about something else.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Feb 23rd, 2011 at 01:39:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Ted Welch:
Chomsky wisely pointed out that he doesn't get into debating conspiracy theories like 9/11 was a gov job, obviously ludicrous, but you can get sucked into debating at what temperarture  metal melts etc. As Chomsky says, having people get into these arcane debates about patently absurd ideas suits those in power very well.

Not getting into such debates is written into ET's guidelines:

European Tribune - ET Editorial Guidelines

Users are free to write diaries on any subject they want, as long as these are not

  • personally offensive,
  • defamatory,
  • do not blatantly falsify scientific or historical facts or
  • advocate theories involving pervasive high-level conspiracies
and to comment on contributions by other users.

You are free to write whatever you want - from whatever perspective you choose, as long as what you write is not offensive, defamatory, blatantly false scientifically and/or historically or propounding a conspiracy theory.

Just a reminder.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Feb 23rd, 2011 at 04:02:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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