Whatever countries of the West preach, their record speaks volumes and should be nothing they or their citizens can be proud about. The question is, knowing that these countries of the West have lied, created false reports, false flag stories/campaigns, secretly trained & dispatched ‘rebels’ to stir trouble to justify their interference….can these countries be allowed to use the same formula and destroy Asia after destroying Africa, South America, Middle East & parts of Eastern Europe?

There is a basis to reject the US-sponsored resolutions against Sri Lanka. The US has produced manuals which are replicated in different countries. They proudly produce films showing off their ability to destabilize nations. Can such a country be a genuine friend? Can such a country be trusted? Can such a country who uses the hall of the UN to promote its plans using the terminology & Charters of the UN be allowed to ruin yet another country? Anyone defending the US, please produce a single country that the US has helped develop & prosper after militarily intervening in their internal affairs!

The CIA has been the key agent used in destabilizing operations worldwide. When anyone is termed a CIA agent, it is because CIA recruits influential intellectuals & charismatic personalities, the agency is also famed for threats, kidnappings, torture, enforced disappearances & even assassinations. Declassified CIA documents provide evidence. CIA has been associated with uprisings, military rebellions, economic chaos and even able to cause scarcity of food & water.

US bombing of countries

• Only country to use atomic bomb twice against Japan
• America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016 – Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Syria & Iraq. In 2015, the U.S. dropped 22,110 bombs in Iraq and Syria.

Regime Change / overthrowing democratically elected leaders & replacing with US-friendly puppets

• Hawaii 1893 – overthrowing Queen Lili’uokalani & annexed Hawaii to US by 1898.
• Syria 1949 – overthrowing democratically elected al-Quwatli centred around the construction of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline which the President-elect opposed, thus the reason for his ouster & approved by the junta leader US supported (these are all lessons for Sri Lanka)
• Iran 1953: overthrowing democratically elected PM Mosaddegh with the help of UK (Operation Boot/TPAJAX Project). US turned Iran to an authoritarian state.
• US regime change for Syria meant funding Syrian Opposition Groups to help topple President Assad though internationally denying involvement in any regime change. From 2013, US provided training, weapons, cash to Syrian Islamic & secular rebels.
• USAID’s twitter campaign (ZunZuneo,”) in Cuba
• In Paraguay, Obama administration staged a ‘soft coup’ to get rid of the democratically elected leader Fernando Lugo simply because he upheld land rights of the peasants!
• When Brazil’s Goulart attempted reforms to combat illiteracy, transfer profits by multinational companies, reform tax laws & redistribute lands what did US do? It carried out a military coup helped by then US envoy in Brazil, helping transport arms secretly!

Aiding secession

Panama 1903 – seceded from Colombia helped by US (the secession was helped by a private company that wanted to control the Panama Canal – this is relevant to the issue of Trincomalee Harbour)

US was key player in Kosovo liberation & independence

US also helped South Sudan independence

Military interventions / Invasions & Occupations

• Cuba 1898 – (1898 to 1902), 1906-1909, 1912, 1917-1922
• Peurto Rico 1898 – sea & land attack
• Philippines 1899
• China 1898-1901 (Boxer Rebellion) US & 8 countries (Japan, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary) with 20,000 troops defeated Chinese army & captured Beijing
• China 1946-1949 – US helped Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against the Chinese communist party forces as well as sending US troops. KMT had been given $4.43billion!
• Honduras – 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924, 1925 – (Banana Wars) to defend US corporate interests (United Fruit Company/Standard Fruit Company)
• Nicaragua – 1912-1933
• Mexico 1914 – Veracruz city occupied for 6 months)
• Haiti 1915-1934 –US banks requests US Govt intervention. US installed a new government, dictated how Haiti’s new constitution was to be and cancelled the previous ban on foreign ownership of land (notice the identical changes happening in Sri Lanka)
• Dominican Republic 1916-1924
• Russia invaded in 1918 – by US & Japan
• South Korea 1945-1950 – After People’s Republic of Korea declared itself independent in August 1945, US sent forces to Korea & established the US Army Military Government in Korea to govern Korea South
• Greece 1946-1949 – on request of Britain
• US militarily invaded Grenada in 1983 to get rid of the government that the Reagan Govt opposed. All that the UNGA did was to call the invasion a flagrant violation of international law’ and US vetoes a UNSC Resolution. So what good is a UN?
• In 1989, US invaded Panama and deposed leader Noriega.
• Use of all necessary means” adopted by US & Coalition forces against Iraq in 1991 known as the Gulf War. Saddam claimed he invaded Kuwait upon approval of US.
• US assisted Haiti’s military to oust elected leader Aristide. The coup leader Cedras & Francois received military training in US.
• Iraq invasion & occupation 1998 based on fake news & false allegations
• Libya military intervention by US & coalition in 2011. US & British troops fired over 110 cruise missiles.

Interfering in foreign elections

• Italy – 1948-1970s: CIA acknowledges giving $1m to Italian parties for the 1948 election (same scenario in Sri Lanka). CIA had also published forged letters/radio broadcasts, books, articles to discredit leaders. $65m had been spent to help elect politicians (the well-funded campaigns that brought about regime change in 2015 in Sri Lanka)
• A 2016 study by Dov Levin claims US intervened in 81 foreign elections between 1945 & 2000. Levin says 60 different independent countries have been the targets of such interventions,”
• 1950s Japan – according to former US envoy Douglas MacArthur II, US sent secret funding for Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party
• 1952 Iran – US state department declassified documents reveal US plot to undermine Mosaddegh wherein multiple methods were adopted by CIA (bribing media, civil society, false propaganda, false flags)
• 1964 Chilean – US funded candidate Montalva against Salvador Allende as well as funding to tarnish Allende’s reputation (methodology probably applied in Sri Lanka too).
• 1970 Chilean – Church Committee report claimed CIA supported kidnapping of Chilean Army Commander Gen. Schneider who died of wounds.
• 1996 Russia – Boris Yeltsin is said to have received assistance from US media & PR experts. There was wide speculations of election rigging too (isn’t this the case in Sri Lanka’s recent elections)
• 2002 Bolivian – US envoy warned Bolivians against voting for Evo Morales but the move backfired.

US support for dictators/Opposition Groups/assisting military coups

• Nicaragua – US supported groups rebelling against President Zelaya who was opposed to foreigners taking Nicaragua’s natural resources.
• Any democratically elected leader attempting to bring land & economic reforms to benefit the citizens will not go far as Brazil experienced in 1961-1964 when US Govt insisted Brazil impose a program of economic austerity refusal meant US would cut off aid and if that is not adhered to, it is ouster & installation of a military pro-US head.
• CIA working in tow with Indonesia army in 1965 to oust President Sukarno & replace with Gen. Suharto.
• US helped lead military coup using Gen. Banzer & toppled President Torres of Bolivia (1970s) another US-propped dictator. Under US-propped dictators the calls for freedom of speech, torture, disappearances never made it to any international forum or calls for action. Torres was assassinated in 1976.
• The US that talks on ‘war on terror’ is silent about how It secretly provided weapons & funding to the Mujahideen of Afghanistan in the 1970s to overthrow the Afghan government.
• Similarly the US has also been accused of secretly arming, training & funding the Contras in Nicaragua. CIA is accused of distributing ‘terror manual’ instructing how to blow up public buildings, assassinate judges, create martyrs, blackmail ordinary citizens (Psychological Operations in Guerilla War) – good for Sri Lankans to read this book & see how many have been enforced in Sri Lanka!
• CIA recruitment of Ayad Allawi head of Iraqi National Accord who opposed Saddam Hussein of Iraq & began a sabotage campaign including bombing against the government. Allawi was installed as PM of the Iraq Interim Governing Council in 2003. Has the US tapped military personnel in Sri Lanka?
• in Venezuela, US is said to have spent$90 million funding opposition groups against late Hugo Chavez.

Interfering in internal affairs of sovereign countries

• 1903, 1904, 1914 – Dominican Republic military interventions by US installing its personnel to key positions in government & controlling Dominican Army & Police (Is this not what is now happening in Sri Lanka)
• 1941 – Panama using US contacts developed in Panama National Guard which US trained to orchestrate a coup against the Govt when the Govt refused US over 130 new military installations inside & outside the Panama Canal Zone (has Sri Lanka’s leaders considered the possibilities that their ‘friend’ could be our ‘worst enemy’?)
• 1955-1960 – Laos – US Govt funded military budget & even paid salaries of the Laos Army. US also set up an office to field its civilian personnel with military experience. US also sent commando units in civilian attire to train the Royal Lao Army.
• US pressuring the Fatah faction of the Palestinian leadership to topple the Hamas government of PM Haniyeh whom people elected in 2006. Since Fatah faction had the blessings of the US the whole world was quiet when Fatah kidnapped, tortured civilians and even set fire to the university of Gaza!

Failed coups & lessons for Sri Lanka

• 1957 Syria – coup attempt to assassinate key Syrian officials & blame on Syria government as pretext to invade by Iraqi & Jordanian troops. The operation failed when Syrian military officers who were paid to stage coup revealed the plot to Syrian intelligence. US denied & US media accused Syria of being a satellite of USSR.
• Overthrowing democratically elected leaders like Guatemalan President Arbenz & installing US-friendly puppets became a model US to be used across the world
• Countries wishing to charter their own independent foreign policy not militarily committed to any side will end up like Indonesia in 1957-1959 when US staged a coup with rebel Indonesian military officers resulting in bombing of commercial shipping to frighten foreign merchant ships & weakened Indonesia’s economy. Of course US denied any involvement
• 1959 Iraq – US intelligence in collusion with Egyptian intelligence attempted to assassinate PM Qasim & recruited Saddam Hussein. Qasim ended up only wounded. Saddam Hussein an one-time US asset was eventually killed by US.
• 1961 Cuba – US training of Cuban exiles to invade Cuba to overthrow the Govt is another CIA-mastered tactic. The Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 failed.
• The US & its intelligence have been infamous for assassinations, economic warfare, embargoes, sabotage, working hand in glove with all types of mafia, diplomatic isolation, psychological operations that use multiple modes of media to turn people against their elected government and these are factors that every country dealing with the US need to take serious stock of.

Sanctions against countries

• US influenced sanctions on Iraq through UNSC in 1991 Resolution 687.
• Oil embargo imposed on Syria in 2011 as well as Libya ahead of the military interventions.

State sponsored terrorism

• 1981-1991 US provided weapons, training, financial & logistics support to Contra rebels in Nicargua.
• US provided training, arms & funds to Cuban exiles
• US assistance to the Kosovo Liberation Army ahead of Kosovo independence after the war KLA became Kosovo Protection Corps which worked with NATO to patrol the province! Many of the KLA leaders are now political leaders of independent Kosovo – it is a replica of the scenario unfolding regarding LTTE & TNA & their quest for self determination helped by US & EU too.
• US is also alleged to have direct links to ISIS, Al Qaeda & numerous other linked terror groups.

The US record against sovereign nations speaks volumes of why Sri Lanka’s leaders & even officials need to be well read & aware when dealing with American envoys & realize that what we see is certainly not what we are going to get.

Shenali D Waduge