KUFUOR DARES US, WE RESPOND

By Kwasi Adu

While speaking on Asempa FM’s ‘Ekosii Sen’ political programme in Accra at the end of last week former President John Kofi Diawuo Agyekum Kufuor denied sharing properties under the affordable housing scheme  his government built among his cronies. While at it, he dared his critics to publish the list for Ghanaians to ascertain the truth. “I know we did nothing wrong and I challenge our people on the other side to publish the list of beneficiaries for the whole world to see” he stated.

Today, we are calling the bluff of former President Kofi Diawuo Kufuor. We publish below, the list of beneficiaries. The offer letters were signed by Hon. Abubakar Saddique Boniface on or around 18^th. December 2008, when the NPP knew that they were about to lose the second round of the Presidential Elections. We have copies of the letters with the signature of the then NPP Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing. If they dare us, we will publish them.

Below is part of the list.

	BENEFICIARY	ADDRESS OF BENEFICIARY	ALLOCATION
	Stephen Owusu-Sekyere	235 Airport West, Accra (President Kufuor's House)	C1/9 Block E, Kpone-Tema
	Nana Boakye Kufuor	235 Airport West, Accra (President Kufuor's House)	C1/10 Block E, Kpone-Tema
	Nana Bema Kufuor	P.O. Box 4449, Accra	C12/2 Block I, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Hajia Aisha	235 Airport West, Accra (President Kufuor's House)	Unnumbered Block, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Nana Akomea	NPP, Head of Nana Akufo Addo’s Communications Team, P.O. Box NK 345, North Kaneshie, Accra	C3/5 Block I, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Cpl. Daniel Nyame	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C10/1 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Eric Mensah-Bonsu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C17/12 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Joseph Obeng-Poku	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C17/13 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Richard Gaisie	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C17/14 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Sgt. H.O. Manu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/10 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Sgt. Thomas Addae	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/11 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Const. Jonas Ampofo	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/12 Block B. Kpone, Tema
	Cpl. Emmanuel Bordoh	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/14 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Cpl. Robert Owusu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/16 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Mr. Adu Acheampong-Sarpong	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/2 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Cpl. Hansel Yeboah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/3 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Mark Kyei Ahengua	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/4 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	PW/Cpl Joyce Asare	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/5 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	SGt. Peter Kwarteng	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/6 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Sgt Evans Kesseh	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/9 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	E.O. Frimpong	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/2 Block A. Kpone, Tema
	Kwadwo Bonsu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/3 Block A, Kpone-Tema
	George Oduro	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/4 Block A. Kpone, Tema
	Kofi Afriyie	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/5 Block A, Kpone, Tema
	Sarfo Addo	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/6 Block A, Kpone-Tema
	ASP E.R. Asante	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/8 Block A, Kpone-Tema
	E.K Frimpong	VVIPU, Castle, Osu	C1/7 Block E, Kpone-Tema
	Bonsu Kwadwo	VVIPU, Castle, Osu	C1/5 Block E, Kpone-Tema
	Issaka Samande	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C1/1 Block E, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Fuseini Salifu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C1/6 Block E. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Yakubu Iddrisu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C1/7 Block E. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	A.S.P. Paul K. Nsowah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/1 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	L/C F.J. Narh	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/13 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	L/Cpl Bokyerewa	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/15 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	ADC Obed Akwa	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/2 Block B Borteyman, Nungua
	ACP Nana Bediako Poku	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/3 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Cpl. Kwadwo Tuffuor	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/3 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Lt. Col. Akohen-Mensah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/4 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Supt Okyere Darko	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/5 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	DSP Corfie	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/6 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	DSP Kofie	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/6 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	A.S.P. Kingsley Amankwah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/7 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	L/Cpl Baffoe-Antwi	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/7 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Sgt. Emmanuel Borden	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/8 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Insp. Peter Boadu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C2/8 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	A.S.P Anthony Omane	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/1 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Cpl. Owusu Antwi	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/3 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Sgt. P.S.K. Asiome	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/4 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	L/Cpl John Larbi	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/5 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Sgt. B.O Lamptey	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/6 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Abigail Baah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/7 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Sgt. Samuel Agyalewah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C3/8 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	PW/Insp. Patricia Akuamoah Boateng	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/2 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	PWC/Insp. Mary Watts Amissah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/4 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	PWC Juliana Siaw	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/5 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Insp Obeng Awisi	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/7 Block A, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Patrick Manu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/7 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Insp. Victor Kwakye	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C4/8 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Cpl. Kwadwo Tuffuor	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C8/2 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Sgt Clement Nimako	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C9/1 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	PW/Insp. Patricia Akuamoah Boateng	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C9/2 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Insp. K.O. Kumi	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C9/3 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	PWC/Insp. Mary Watts Amissah	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C9/4 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Insp. Love Ayensu	Office of the President, Castle, Osu	C9/6 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Baaba Mensah	Castle, Osu	C4/20 Block H. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Alhaji Alhassan Aliu	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C8/11 Block H, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Gandah Labiri	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/11 Block E, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Mohammed Musah	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C2/2 Block E, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Hassan Gabga	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/5 Block E, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Awaab Achumpari	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/10Block E, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Awudu Alidu	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/9 Block E, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Nashiru Soale	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	Unnumbered House, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Shamsudeen Mahama	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	Asokore Mampong, Kumasi
	Alhaji Armiyao Haruna	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C12/8 Block I, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Alhassan Ziblim	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/3 Block E. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Madam Salma Kadiri	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C127 Block I. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Abdul Rahaman Salisu	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C14/1 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Abdul Wahab Alhassan	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C13/1 Block B, Kpone-Tema
	Fayad Mahama	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C12/6 Block I. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Yakubu Adam	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/8 Block E. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Mohammed Awal Ziblim	Office of the Vice-President, Castle, Osu	C1/4 Block E. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Victoria Boaten-Sarpong	c/o Hon. Asamoah Boateng (Minister of Information	C6/5 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Zuleika Lornia	c/o Hon. Asamoah Boateng (Minister of Information	C6/6 Block B. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Rex Ohemeng	c/o Hon. Asamoah Boateng (Min. Of Information)	C6/4 Block B, Borteyman, Nungua Accra
	Dr. Abena Amoako	c/o Hon. A. Osei Adjei (Min of Foreign Affairs)	C8/7 Block C. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Rita Adoma	c/o Hon. A. Osei Adjei, (Min of Foreign Affairs)	C6/13 Block A, Asokore Mampong, Kumasi
	Ivy Apraku	c/o Hon. A. Osei Adjei (Minister of Foreign Affairs)	C8/6 Block C Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Akua Konadu	c/o Hon. A. Osei Adjei (Minister of Foreign Affairs)	C6/14 Block A Asokore Mampong, Kumasi
	Afuah Pomaa	c/o Hon. D.K. Fobih (Min of Education)	C7/1 Block J. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Yaw Tandoh	c/o Hon. D.K. Fobih (Min of Education)	C4/7 Block J. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Abena Akobin	c/o Hon. D.K. Fobih (Min of Education)	C4/8 Block J, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Kwaku Kutin	c/o Hon. Dr. D.K. Fobih (NPP Mins of Education)	C7/2 Block J, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Kofi Poku	c/o Hon S.K. Boafo (Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs)	C13/11 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	David Kwabena Adade	c/o Hon S.K. Boafo (Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs)	C13/13 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Hon. S.K. Boafo	Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, Accra	C13/12 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Hon. Nii Adu Darku Mante	(NPP MP)	C8/3 Block I Borteyman, Nungua
	Hon. Nii Adu Darku Mante	(NPP MP)	C4/3 Block I Borteyman, Nungua
	Hon. Bintim Charles Binipon	NPP MP, Mins of Local Government,  Box 42, Saboba, N/R	C4/1 Block I, Borteyman, Nungua Accra
	Hon. Abangah Abdulai (NPP MP)	P.O. Box AD 999, Adabraka	C4/2 Block I Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Hon. Abangah Abdulai (NPP MP)	P.O. Box AD 999, Adabraka	C8/2 Block I Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Mohammed Amin Anta	NPP Parliamentary Candidate P.O.Box 1211, Cantonments, Accra	C1/5 Block C, Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Hon. Oppey Abbey (NPP MP)	Parliament	C8/3 Block C. Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	David Aidoo	c/o Hon Gladys Asmah, (NPP Mins of Fisheries)	C7/3 Block J Borteyman, Nungua
104.	Vincent Yaw Kusi	c/o Hon Gladys Asmah, (NPP Mins of Fisheries)	C7/4 Block J Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Elizabeth Donkoh	c/o Hon Gladys Asmah, (NPP Mins of Fisheries)	C7/5 Block J Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Elsie Panyin Ansah	c/o Hon S. Owusu Agyei (MOPSR)	C1/5 Block J Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Jeff Armoo Brown	c/o Hon S. Owusu Agyei (MOPSR)	C1/4 Block J Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	K. Siakah	c/o Prof. Ameyaw Akumfi (NPP MP)	C13/10 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Francis Quaye	c/o Prof. Ameyaw Akumfi (NPP MP)	C13/8 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Kofi Korsah	c/o Prof. Ameyaw Akumfi (NPP MP)	C13/9 Block F, Kpone-Tema
	Ibrahim Baryeh	Chairman of Lands Commission, Accra	C5/6 Block B Borteyman, Nungua, Accra
	Nana Juaben-Boateng	NPP Chief Director, Mins of Finance	C8/3 Block C, Borteyman, Nungua Accra
	Margaret Baah Wiredu	Box 11297, Accra North	C8/1 Block C, Borteyman, Nungua Accra

Out of 113 allocations, 64 of thm were allocated to the children and people working for ex- President Kufuor. 18 were allocated to persons under Aliu Mahama.  The remainder were for NPP Ministers and their relatives, party people and friends.

Next time Ex-President Kufuor opens his mouth to deny that there was corruption under his administration, he should be careful about daring people. 

Editorial

WE AGREE

 President John Dramani Mahama’s insistence that Presidents ought to pay tax to serve as an example to ordinary citizens is most welcome.

We have always wondered why the most powerful and perhaps prosperous in the Ghanaian society insist that they should be exempted from paying tax.

They make tax payment look like some gruesome punishment.

We believe that the most fundamental principle in taxation ought to be those who have more should pay more and not the other way round.

In our view there cannot be any good reason why Presidents and other public office holders should be exempted from paying tax.

 

We support the position of President John Mahama and urge Parliament and those in charge of the constitutional review process to make sure that Presidents pay their taxes like all other citizens.

This is indeed a most welcome statement from the President.

Presidents Must Pay Tax - Mahama

President John Mahama

By Ekow Mensah

In an interview likely to become controversial, President John Dramani Mahama has described the arrangement under which Presidents are exempt from paying tax as unfair”.          

 He said “The President must set the example by being the first to pay his taxes”

In an exclusive interview with “Africawatch” President Mahama said “the constitution says the President should not pay tax on his or her income. So the Presidents salary is not subject to taxes. I believe it is unfair”.

He expressed the hope that the constitutional review process will change his arrangement and subject the earning s of Presidents to taxation.

 On his personal situation, he said “I am the son of a farmer and I enjoy farming. I have a farm and I earn income from my farm. I also earn money from family prosperities that were left to us by my father.

“I have also published a book. All of these bring me additional income other than my salary as president.

 “I have always declared my income and paid my taxes prior to becoming President.”

According to him, on becoming President, he sought the advice of lawyers and they told him that while his salary was constitutionally exempt from taxes, any additional income was subject to tax.

 He said “I dutifully declared those incomes and paid tax on them.

 “A few are all knowing people criticised me and questioned why I  was earning  extra- income aside from my salary and why I was paying tax.  Isn’t that interesting?” he asked.

 The issue of Presidents’ being exempt from paying taxes has been a controversial one for a very long time.

Some firmly believe that Presidents as high earners need to pay  more taxes than poor people.

 It has also been argued that Presidents as leaders need to set the example by paying taxes on all their earnings.

Where is President Rawlings’s autobiography?

Jerry John Rawlings

Almost 13 years after leaving office after 19 years in power, President Rawlings has
not written a single book on his momentous political life!

Five years post presidency, President Kufuor has failed to write a single word
on what influenced the major decisions of his tenure!

President John Mills— four years as Vice President, four as President. Dead! No
autobiography! Vice President Aliu Mahama— eight years in office. Dead! Without
a book. Justice Daniel Francis Annan—for eight years, Speaker of Parliament and
an experienced political hand. Dead! No autobiography! Peter Ala Adjatey—four
years, Speaker of Parliament and past leader of a major political party. Dead!
Without a book. Major Courage Quashigah, probably the only first class US Army-
trained ranger, national party organiser, and Minister of State for eight
years. Dead! No book!

How many more of our leaders are waiting to die without sharing their
experiences with a younger generation? How many are woefully failing in their
social obligation to prevent avoidable governance pitfalls with carefully
documented historical accounts to be learned from!

William Jefferson Clinton left office in the same year as Jerry Rawlings.
Within four years, “My Life” was published. When Clinton decided to dedicate
his post presidency to so-called citizen activism, he went beyond the
traditional presidential library and formed the Clinton Global Initiative.

Within three years of “My Life”, he published his second book, “Giving: How
Each of Us Can Change the World.” Vice President Al Gore; within six years of
losing the presidency, released “An Inconvenient Truth” in which he argued
that, “The truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one …” George
Walker Bush Jnr, his foibles in Iraq and Afghanistan notwithstanding, wrote
“Decision Points” within two years of leaving office, reflecting on the major
decision points that defined his presidency. Tony Blair, his British
conspirator, also reflected on “A Journey”. Vice President Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, Barack Obama, and even Monica Lewinsky have all shared something with
us!

What makes their leaders routinely document their learning and move on to new
conquests while some of ours sometimes appear only too happy to remain slaves
of past glories and too scared to embrace a new future?

The conduct of President Rawlings’ post presidency is especially less than
impressive, especially where documenting his reflections on momentous national
events of historical significance are concerned. Kufuor’s shortcomings in not
writing a book notwithstanding, he seems to have a clear plan with his
foundation. But still, both they and others painfully refuse to write. Is it
selfishness? Is it lack of awareness of its importance? Is it lack of adequate
technical support? Is it for fear that we will not read? Whatever the reason, a
lot of our leaders have woefully failed to prioritize this.

Some leaders, desirous of documenting their legacies, have, perhaps, either
found inspiration in or been intimidated by Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew,
reputed for moving underdeveloped Singapore, bereft of so called natural
resources, “From Third World to First” over a 35 year period. What they lacked
in natural resources, they more than made up for in what Henry Kissinger called
“superior intelligence, discipline, and ingenuity.”

Today, Lee Kuan Yew’s book appears to have become standard reference text for
students of transformational leadership. Would this have been possible had he
not taken the painstaking trouble to document his views, experiences and his
learning? Mandela took us on a “Long Walk to Freedom” while Nkrumah gifted us
an entire golden collection.

Various strategies have been deployed by some of these leaders in their
unquenchable quest to write for younger generations amidst busy schedules.
Fundamental to these strategies has been the deployment of research assistants
and writers to assist these former presidents dig through voluminous government
materials and minutes of crucial meetings, etc.

The research for Yew’s book took almost five years. If the country truly values
the documentation of historical events through the eyes of principal actors in
those events, then there would be the need to facilitate the writing of same.
This may take the form of a supporting secretariat of writers and researchers.

Clinton wrote long hand in 22 big note books, leaving gaps where further
research/fact check was needed. Assistants then filled it up, printing outputs
for his edits. Hettie Jones co-wrote “My Life with Bob Marley” with Rita Marley
in the latter’s words.

Jerry John and wife, Nana Konadu

This is much the same way that Alex Haley, through extensive interviews with
Malcolm X, enabled Malcolm X to write his autobiography as “told to Alex
Haley.” So, our leaders can sit with writers and talk through the various
chapters while it is recorded on tape for later transcription and editing.

Kwame Nkrumah had an energized private secretary who, for want of a better
word, was especially relentless. Erica Powell continuously hounded the Osagyefo
while in office to complete his books. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons for
Nkrumah’s prolific writing; Powell will herself take notes and advance the book
project.

After the Osagyefo, the only other high profile Ghanaian political leader to
have bothered to write anything has been the then Vice President John Dramani
Mahama with his “First Coup d’Etat.”

In it, he writes eloquently about Africa’s “lost decade,” describing how “For
many individuals, there is a moment that stands out as pivotal to the awakening
of their consciousness. Often, that moment can feel like a harbinger of
disaster: the first tremors of an earthquake or rains of a hurricane, the
eruption of civil war or riots. An assassination or a coup d’etat. It is a
moment that serves as the line of demarcation, separating the certainty of what
was from the uncertainty of what lies ahead. It is a moment in which you
suddenly become aware of who you are; you become aware of the fragility and
unpredictability of the world in which you live. Ghana’s descent into the “lost
decades” began with such a moment, with the coup d’etat that unseated our first
president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. When I look back on my life, it’s clear to me that
this moment marked the awakening of my consciousness.”

An aha! moment if ever there was one!

Fortunately, it is not only President John Mahama who gives us hope about a
newer crop of leaders who do not fear to document their stories. An even
younger generation inspires greater hope: Robert Nii Arday Clegg’s, (first
class political science and philosophy student and the 2004 best graduating law
student) “10 Strategies for Making Top Grades At The University”; Dr. Yaw
Perbi’s numerous books on Christian leadership, finance and investment;
journalist Ato Kwamina Dadzie’s “Pretending To Be President” and whatever book
the grapevine maintains the intelligent broadcaster Bernard Avle is writing.

While commending the above, it bears investigating what it would take for the
mythical Captain Kojo Tsikata (distinguished intelligence capo who did much,
saw everything and said little) to write everything –well, almost everything,
from the Ghana Army through Angola to heady revolution days. We need Dr. Obed
Asamoah (Ghana’s longest serving Minister for Foreign Affairs) to write a
scorching critique of Ghana’s foreign policies from Nkrumah to date, evolving
key lessons on what could have been done differently. We need J.H. Mensah,
reputed to be one of the very few to have experienced it all from Nkrumah
through Kufuor to share. Prof. Kwesi Botchwey’s personal account of the tough
decision-making that turned the Ghanaian economy from abject stagnation and
decline of the late 1970s to growth in the 1980s is painfully missing.

Dr. Christina Amuako-Nuamah (dedicated mother and grandmother, staunch
Christian, accomplished academic, political strategist and politician) cannot
refuse to inspire young women and men alike with her compelling story. A book
by the Ahwoi brothers, spelt Ato and Kwamena, on grassroots political mobilisation
and critical decision-making in the corridors of power will be worth killing
for. Dan Botwe’s distinctive focus and quality as a young party General
Secretary, unmatched since, proved crucial in Kufuor’s successful 2000
presidential run. He too must share.

Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Kweku Baako Jnr., Kweku Sakyi-Addo, Azumah Nelson, Abedi
Pele, and Kojo Antwi must all rise from the current slumber and write! It is a
great failing and they all owe us many books which we must see by 2015!

I am reading Professor Kofi Awoonor’s affirmatively disruptive “African
Dilemma.” Erudite, thought provoking and poetic, it reads like music on paper.
His previous major work covering poetry, fiction and nonfiction
notwithstanding, the acclaimed writer and statesman too, could gift us with
another book covering these latter years. I almost allowed him to escape!

Cultural factors in the fight against HIV

By Dr. Cesar Chelala

The latest UNAIDS report on HIV informs that approximately 35.3 million people are HIV-infected worldwide, but deaths from AIDS are falling and the number of people receiving treatment is going up. Also, the number of people newly infected with the disease dropped from 2.5 million in 2011 to 2.3 million in 2012.

One of the cultural factors that has proven to be significant in increasing the risks of HIV-infection is cross-generational relationships - in which at least a 10-year age difference exists between partners. In the "sugar daddy" phenomenon, as it is called, young women take older men as sexual partners.

For the young women, this is a sign of prestige among their peers and a way for them to pay for luxuries (or sometimes for education) that they otherwise could not afford. In some cases, poor families even encourage young girls to enter into these relationships in the belief that they will improve the family's overall economic situation.

Older men, for their part, are attracted to younger women because it is a sign of status among an older man's friends to have one or more young girlfriends. Older men believe that younger women are virgins and therefore less likely to be infected and pass the infection to them.  

This phenomenon clearly illustrates the powerful link between women's health and their lack of empowerment, since young women are frequently unable to negotiate a safe sexual relationship with older, more powerful men. For example, in traditional African societies, because of the respect shown to elders, it is difficult for young women to reject advances by older men. This places young women at a disadvantage in demanding the use of condoms. 

The reluctance by men, both young and old, to use condoms is one of the primary catalysts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It has been demonstrated that the older the man is with regard to his female companion and the more money he gives her, the less likely he is to use a condom. Studies have also shown that the greater the age difference between partners, the more frequent is the practice of unsafe sexual behavior.

Another dangerous social practice is the use of some specific sexual techniques that make women vulnerable to the infection. One of those techniques is the act of having sex without the natural lubrication of the vagina. In addition, to increase men's pleasure, some women, particularly in some African countries, apply cosmetic powder or alum into the vagina to make it drier. However, as a result of this increased friction, abrasions or lesions to the lining of the vagina may occur which increase the possibility of transmission of the HIV.

In regions of some countries such as in Kenya, practices such as "wife inheritance" and "widow cleansing" can be significant contributing factors to the spread of the disease. In wife inheritance, the brother of a deceased man "inherits" his brother's wife, even if he died from AIDS. Since his sister-in-law will probably be infected, the surviving brother will probably acquire the infection from her.  Custom also determines that because a widow is "unclean", she is obliged to undergo a cleansing ritual by having sex with another man immediately after her husbands' death, even if he died from AIDS.

In addition to those factors, alcoholism and drug abuse are also risks factors for increased transmission of HIV. Since it is known that in those cases judgment is impaired, adolescent boys and girls may feel more tempted to engage in risky sexual behavior.

Women's lower status, the social stigma still surrounding the infection and poverty are all important contributing factors to the more rapid spread of the infection. Since women's lower status is usually associated with low or no personal income, many activities are now being conducted across Africa aimed at empowering young women by providing them with life skills, micro-credit loans and vocational training.

Among the many examples of how poverty may affect the HIV/AIDS epidemic is the case of the poor farmers in Henan Province in China. It is estimated that, in central Henan Province alone, more than one million people contracted HIV from selling their blood in unsanitary collection stations. Although Henan constitutes the best-known case, 22 other provinces have also what is known as "AIDS villages" where the infection is most widespread.

However, there should be increased cooperation between the ministries of health and education to improve health curricula in schools and to sensitize lawmakers to pass enforceable legislation that addresses the seduction of minors and cultural risk factors for HIV. Although many countries have legislation, it is seldom enforced. 

To continue those advances in the fight against HIV/AIDS, increased emphasis should be placed on prevention efforts, particularly with regard to social and cultural factors that affect its growth rate. Unless these factors are properly addressed, they will continue to have significant social and demographic consequences in the regions most affected: Sub-Saharan countries, the Caribbean and South East Asia, among others. 

Dr. Cesar Chelala, an international public health consultant, is the author of "AIDS: A Modern Epidemic," a publication of the Pan American Health Organization

Should ICC indict itself for war crimes?

By Gordon Duff

The 54 nation African Union stands ready to remove itself from the Treaty of Rome (2002), the concord that established the authority of the International Criminal Court at The Hague. 34 of its members are signatories.

Watchers of the court note that like other organizations theoretically intended to protect human rights, groups like the Simon Wiesenthal Center or Southern Poverty Law Center, the ICC has also been corrupted, turned into a weapon for spreading smears, for intimidation and even protection of war criminals and tyrants. 

ICC promotes genocide 

There is a school of belief that the ICC chooses to indict individuals either in marginal or, in some cases, very poorly documented cases so as to set a “standard of engineered failure” that provides cover and deniability for high profile war crimes committed on a global scale. 

Those perpetrators, typically the US, Britain, France, Israel and their surrogates are being “inoculated” by the ICC in order to create a precedent for legalized genocide. 

Targeting Africa 

Currently, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto stand indicted for inciting violence during the 2007 elections. Both deny the allegations. Kenyatta has characterized the court as a “toy of the declining imperial powers.” 

At a meeting on Friday, the Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom characterized the court as a “political instrument.” This was an understatement, the court is, in actuality a weapon. The Foreign Minister went on, "We should not allow the ICC to continue to treat Africa and Africans in a condescending manner." 

"Far from promoting justice and reconciliation, and contributing to the advancement of peace and stability in our continent, the court has transformed itself into a political instrument targeting Africa and Africans." 

Ongoing controversies 

With the UN General Assembly voting overwhelmingly in 2012 to award Palestine non-member observer status, that nation was then afforded the right to join the ICC and file war crimes charges against Israeli leaders who have openly attacked civilian populations with white phosphorous and cluster bombs, prohibited weapons whose use is designated a “war crime.”

Israel’s response was to threaten more attacks, more war crimes, in response to initiating proceedings. The ICC chose to turn a blind eye to this open act of obstruction which is, in itself, also a “war crime.” 

Similarly, the ICC has failed to act on hundreds of charges brought before it by member states demanding the prosecution of George W. Bush and Tony Blair for countless well-documented charges. 

Thus far, the ICC has only indicted Africans. Major nations, India, China, Russia and the United States are not signatories. 

Argentina fiasco 

Israel, a non-signatory to the Treaty of Rome, is seeking prosecution of Iranian officials tied to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Israel’s efforts are ongoing despite recent developments in the case that have, in actuality, cited Israel as the offending party in what is now characterized as a “false flag” attack. 

According to the Israeli news service JTA, “The Jewish ex-interior minister of Argentina will be investigated for his ties to the AMIA Jewish center bombing.” 

“The Buenos Aires Federal Appeals Court last week ordered the probe of Carlos Vladimir Corach in connection with an illegal payment of $400,000 to Carlos Telleldin, an auto mechanic who was among those charged in the 1994 attack that left 85 dead and hundreds wounded.

Telleldin, who allegedly provided the car bomb that blew up the Jewish center, has not been indicted. 

The three Appeals Court justices called on Federal Judge Ariel Lijo to investigate “the existence of concrete allegations involving Carlos Vladimir Corach, which have not been investigated until now” regarding the illegal payment to Telleldin.

Corach was interior minister during the Carlos Menem government in the 1990s. He was responsible for obtaining the building for the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires and was the main speaker at its inauguration.” 

Why would Israel, a non-signatory to the Treaty, a nation cited nearly 200 times for war crimes by the UN General Assembly, believe the ICC would choose to ignore facts in order to serve their political aims? 

What do they know about the ICC that we should? 

9/11 
Despite the 2005 9/11 Commission inquiry, those involved have distanced themselves from or openly debunked, the events of 9/11, perhaps the most documented and investigated in history. 

As the events of 9/11 can be directly tied to the onset of the War on Terror, now clearly an expression of the goals set by the Project for a New American Century, any evidence that associates “means, motive and opportunity” involving 9/11 to perpetrators other than “cave trained super-pilots” should be of interest to the ICC. 

In fact, since its inception in 2002, there have been hundreds of attempts to present evidence to the ICC over 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the tens of thousands of subsequent war crimes, whose origins were proven a “false flag” attack, could lead to a cascade of historic indictments. 

Considering the timing of the ratification of the 1998 Treaty of Rome, just after 9/11, the signing of the treaty by President Clinton and the failure of the US to ratify the treaty, the chain of events, in itself, is more than coincidental. 

ICC deception
Plans to “burn down the world” were coming together in the 1998/1999 timeframe, culminating with a predetermined plan to stage a “Pearl Harbor” type attack to bring the US into a war we now know, according to statements revealed by General Wesley Clark. 

Seven nations were targeted for destruction and a criminal conspiracy was entered into that involved, among others, the governments of Britain and Israel. 

Thus, the greatest war crimes, the greatest abuses of power, aggressive war, ethnic cleansing, torture and kidnapping, planned economic and social devastation, would remain “untouched” as the only potential mechanism for prosecution was, in itself, designed to facilitate these acts and, in fact, sanctify them.

As of this writing, the ICC manages to continue its myopic practices, a lens on Africa alone. 

Jacob Zuma of South Africa

South African President Jacob Zuma

By Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

The "moral decay" President Jacob Zuma complains about is plainly visible in the ANC's echelons of power.

The recent comment by Zambia's Vice-President Guy Scott likening President Jacob Zuma to former president FW de Klerk is unfair to De Klerk. At a critical moment in South African politics, De Klerk listened to the voices that called for change. 

He was not blind to the unpalatable reality that it was time for apartheid to go whatever pressures prevailed to "force" him, as some might say, to release Nelson Mandela in February 1990, and to use his power to call a referendum in March 1992 to determine white voters' support for political negotiations. De Klerk could have ignored wise counsel and dug in his heels like his predecessor PW Botha did.

Zuma relentlessly ignores warnings about consequences that are apparent to others. It is like the proverbial writing on the wall, a man entangled in a network of associations from which either he or his family benefits, blind to the potential negative impact that these relationships might have on his office as president of the country.

An opinion article that I wrote for this newspaper during one of Zuma's trials in April 2009 still resonates: "At a time when we need leaders who will be moral role models for the next generation of leaders, one wonders what the future holds when our president's strength of popularity is not matched by the strength of his reputation for moral stature. How will he speak with authority on matters of corruption?"

From the very beginning, Zuma's presidency was destined to corrupt the soul of the country. The dramas that unfolded during his court trials and after his acquittal have been burned into our collective consciousness. Among these, members of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, who abandoned pupils in the middle of examinations in order to join Zuma's supporters at his trial, scenes of aggressive protest against the young woman who accused Zuma of rape; the extraordinary admission by Zuma inside the courtroom that he had had unprotected sex and took a shower to minimise the risk of HIV infection, and Julius Malema leading the crowds of Zuma's supporters and threatening to "kill for Zuma" if he were not acquitted. These were disturbing images and, in my view, laid the foundation for what Zuma has called the "moral decay" that has gripped our country.

Recently the problem of violence in South African society has been discussed at several forums around the country, on radio, at institutions of higher learning and by civil society. The president also had his own initiative related to this matter, calling on religious leaders to help address this problem. Yet the "moral rot" to invoke Zuma once again is visible in plain sight in the ANC's ­echelons of power. It is exemplified in the multiple extramarital love affairs of some of the most senior members of the ANC (and children born from some of these affairs), gory details of allegations of physical and emotional abuse of a spouse and workers by a Cabinet minister in the ANC government, the rampant corruption scandals involving ANC officials from the highest level of leadership in government to the very lowest in provincial offices and the country's border gates and the assassination of ANC provincial leaders and/or allegations of ANC leaders hiring hit men to murder their opponents or those threatening to expose corruption. Moral rot at the top can breed lack of trust in government, disillusionment and chaos in society, but wise leaders with moral stature bring stability to paraphrase a biblical text.

Born frees

The cruelest of all features of Zuma's presidency is the continuing injustice of the failure of service delivery, the collapse of health institutions and the dire state of many schools. All this cuts to the core of the soul of our country, rupturing the very essence of our being as a nation. It is not surprising that we have now descended to the level of our young raping our old.

These young people who are raping their grandmothers are not the "lost generation" of apartheid; they are the "born frees" of the new South Africa. They were promised a future that would open up into an horizon of hope and opportunity. Instead, they have become disenchanted, waking up daily to the yawning void of emptiness. Very few of them will escape the fate of intergenerational poverty in their homes and communities. Worse, the conditions under which many of our young people grow up are irreconcilable with the promises of change under the ANC government. 

Under Zuma, our government seems to be edging inevitably closer to becoming a government of broken promises, corruption and unaccountability. Who can forget the shocking images in this newspaper of the appalling conditions of some of the schools in the Eastern Cape? If children are treated as if their lives do not count, they are likely to grow up with very little or no pride in their identity and a sense of worthlessness. If they grow up feeling that their lives do not count, that they do not matter in the larger scheme of things, how can they be expected to bestow a sense of worth on others?

The life circumstances of marginalised young people in our country are similar to those of their parents and grandparents under apartheid except that they are worse off than their forebears.

Their parents and grandparents, relegated to second- and even third-class citizenship, "expected" the apartheid government to treat them inhumanely.

In this democracy of ours, however, many young people feel a deep sense of betrayal by a government they trusted. The broken promises of politicians, who seem more concerned about winning elections than about delivering on their promises, are a pain that cuts very deep and explodes many young people's sense of hope. At the same time, as witnesses to the excesses of political elites and their business partners, they see that ours is a democracy that has benefited corrupt officials, the president, his family, and those with close ties to the president.

This culture of patronage you stroke my back and I stroke yours has defined the ANC's leadership over the past several years. It was epitomised most dazzlingly in Malema's rapid accumulation of wealth; his shameless use of the coffers of a province as his private bank account. The brazen flaunting of this ill-gotten wealth by Malema when he was still protected by his close ties with Zuma reflects the kind of impunity that permeates the entire system.

Hypocrisy

This brazen display of disregard continues, as exemplified in the Gupta family's breach of national security at Waterkloof. Like the silence that repeatedly followed Malema's outrageous public statements, Zuma's deafening silence and failure to publicly condemn the Guptas for overstepping the limits of their relationship with him as head of state speaks louder than words. Why doesn't Zuma see the contradiction between this entanglement with the Guptas and his position as head of state?

It seems clear that the president's permission was not sought for the Gupta's plane to land at Waterkloof; however, the hypocrisy of emphatic statements from senior government officials trying to distance the president from the actions of the Guptas was not lost on some observers of this saga.

This collective response from the top brass of the ANC government reminds me of FW de Klerk's attempt to distance himself from Eugene de Kock, the most highly decorated officer under apartheid who was appointed to head the security department's covert operations unit. The comparison may seem extreme. However, there is an unwritten agreement operating among political elites that when they feel ashamed because behaviour that they sanction in private has become public, the person responsible for the behaviour should not under any circumstances be portrayed as reasonable.

De Klerk, for example, has always suggested that De Kock was one of the bad apples of the apartheid security apparatus. If De Kock is a "bad apple" then we need not look any further; the matter has been explained. On the other hand, the more we humanise him, the more we are forced to conclude that there were factors that led him to do what he did. One must then ask, what were those factors? And that is the fear from which the more guilt-ridden layers of those in power, the politicians and social elites who could have wielded influence, try to shield themselves.

To echo Zambia's Scott, like it or not, in very subtle and not so subtle ways, there are parallels between the way apartheid leaders used power as a system of social control and the strategic ways in which the ANC uses its power.

How a Ruthless Cartel Was Beaten

By Katherine Corcoran

For lime grower Hipolito Mora, it was time to organize and pick up arms when a packing company controlled by a brutal drug cartel refused to buy his fruit. For Bishop Miguel Patino Velazquez, it was seeing civilians forced to fight back with their own guns that made him speak out. For Leticia, a lime picker too afraid of retribution to give her last name, it was the day she saw a taxi driver kidnapped in front of his two young children that convinced her to join those taking the law into their own hands.

In Mexico they call it "the drop that makes the glass overflow," and it came at different points for the people living for years under the brutal Knights Templar in the western Valley of Apatzingan, an emerald green tapestry of orchards bordered by blue-gray peaks.

 
"We lived in bondage, threatened by organized crime," said Leticia, 40, who ekes out a living picking fruit and selling chicken on the side. "They wanted to treat people like animals."
Eight months after locals formed self-defense groups, they say they are free of the cartel in six municipalities of the Tierra Caliente, or "Hot Land," which earned its moniker for the scorching weather but whose name has also come to signify criminal activity. What's more, the self-defense group leaders, who are clearly breaking Mexican law by picking up military-style arms to fight criminals, say the federal government is no longer arresting them, but recruiting them to help federal forces identify cartel members.

 
The Mexican government, which has been fighting cartels in Michoacan for years with little to show for it has reached its limit as well: an Oct. 27 attack by alleged cartel agents on power distribution plants and electrical sub-stations in 14 towns and cities that were intended to terrorize the public. At least 400,000 people were left in the dark.

 
Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam arrived by helicopter to the ranch town of Tepalcatepec two days later to meet with self-defense group leaders and pledge the government's help.

 
"The attorney general came with two army generals to speak to me and said ‘We've come to help. What do you want us to do?'" said Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, self-defense group leader in Tepacaltepec, speaking over breakfast in a grove of fat mango trees, his two-way radio crackling with movements of his patrols.

 
He said the government promised operations in major cities around the state. Federal security spokesman Eduardo Sanchez did not respond to several requests for comment about the government's cooperation.

 
On Monday, military and federal police moved into the Michoacan port of Lazaro Cardenas, a major source of cartel income due to the trafficking of drugs and precursor chemicals, as well as extortion. They dismissed 113 local police and took over security. About 40 officers were bused to Mexico City for questioning into rumors of corruption, according to one security official who wasn't authorized to speak on the record.
On Thursday, the army arrested the entire 25-officer police force of Vista Hermosa, also in northern Michoacan, a violent area where the Knights Templar are battling the New Generation, a cartel in neighboring Jalisco state.

 
The self-defense groups started small with just a few dozen civilians from two communities: lime pickers, ranchers and business owners who began patrolling the streets, setting up roadblocks and ambushing the Knights Templar as the drug men roamed with their heavy artillery and grand SUVs. The ragtag groups now claim several thousand members in a valley of more than 300,000 people, competing with the cartel in raw numbers if not firepower.

 
Despite some success in the six municipalities of Tierra Caliente, the cartel continues to enforce a stranglehold on other parts of Michoacan, a rich farming state that is a major exporter of lime, avocado and mango. Reports of violence continue almost daily.

 
While cartels terrorized communities all over Mexico, many say Michoacan is a case unto itself. The region has long tolerated marijuana and poppy growers, and corruption and organized crime have permeated the social, political and economic fabric of the region for years.

 
"Michoacan has all the characteristics of a failed state," Patino, the bishop of Apatzingan, wrote last month in an unusually candid letter naming the Knights Templar and other cartels. "Municipal governments and police are in the service or colluding with criminals and the rumor continues to grow that the state government is also in the service of organized crime,"

 
The archdiocese this week denied reports that the clergyman was threatened for speaking out and is in protective custody, saying he is at a pastoral retreat.

 
Rumors circulate that some self-defense groups have been infiltrated by the New Generation cartel, charges the groups vehemently deny. A rebel band of former Knights Templar, curiously nicknamed "Los Viagra," have also tried to use self-defense groups as cover for illegal activities, according to residents.

 
Self-defense leaders say they are simply ordinary citizens trying to defend themselves against unending violence because the state has proved unable to do it for them.
Mireles, the self-defense group leader, says the big trouble began 12 years ago, when the local community unwisely made a deal with a local cartel known as La Familia to oust upstarts from an even more brutal cartel, the nationally powerful Zetas. When La Familia fell apart under heavy attack from the government of former President Felipe Calderon, the faction that was left took up the name Knights Templar. Initially, the gang told people it wouldn't bother them. But then the cartel realized it could make more money from extorting local businesses than it could from selling drugs.

 
"They were very ambitious," said Mora, who leads the self-defense group in La Ruana. "And that was their mistake, getting involved with civilians, with honest employment. They started step-by-step to take over all of the farm production."

 
Earlier this year, the people had had enough, and that's when they formed the self-defense groups. Leaders say they plan to continue their attacks on the cartel in other cities, despite being stopped by the military on Oct. 26 when they tried to take over Apatzingan.
They negotiated a peaceful march, unarmed, with the protection of the military. As some 3,000 entered the square, sharpshooters believed to be from the Knights Templar opened fire on the crowd from a church tower and city hall, where municipal police were standing watch. Several were injured.

 
Now the self-defense groups say they are working to help federal forces identify criminals in the city, and their joint efforts resulted Monday in the capture of Leopoldo Jaimes Valladares, a mid-level cartel dealer believed to control the extortion of businesses in the central lime market.

 
In the Valley of Apatzingan, daily life continues, under the watch of military helicopters and around sandbags marking dozens of checkpoints, some by soldiers and others by self-defense groups. Fruit trucks rumble by in the heat, and school children practice their civic marches, the sounds of drumming and brass filling the dusty streets.
Outside of Apatzingan, men roam with hunting and semi-automatic assault rifles.
It's a fragile peace.

Obama’s Rogue State

US President Hussein Obama

The US calls on other nations to abide by the treaties it violates.

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 9th September 2013

You could almost pity these people. For 67 years successive US governments have resisted calls to reform the UN Security Council. They’ve defended a system which grants five nations a veto over world affairs, reducing all others to impotent spectators. They have abused the powers and trust with which they have been vested. They have collaborated with the other four permanent members (the UK, Russia, China and France) in a colonial carve-up, through which these nations can pursue their own corrupt interests at the expense of peace and global justice.

Eighty-three times the US has exercised its veto. On 42 of these occasions it has done so to prevent Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians from being censured. On the last occasion, 130 nations supported the resolution, but Obama spiked it. Though veto powers have been used less often since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the US has exercised them 14 times since then (in 13 cases to shield Israel), while Russia has used them 9 times. Increasingly the permanent members have used the threat of a veto to prevent a resolution from being discussed. They have bullied the rest of the world into silence.

Through this tyrannical dispensation – created at a time when other nations were either broken or voiceless – the great warmongers of the past 60 years remain responsible for global peace. The biggest weapons traders are tasked with global disarmament. Those who trample international law control the administration of justice.

But now, as the veto powers of two permanent members (Russia and China) obstruct  its attempt to pour petrol onto another Middle Eastern fire, the United States suddenly decides that the system is illegitimate. “If”, Mr Obama says, “we end up using the UN Security Council not as a means of enforcing international norms and international law, but rather as a barrier … then I think people, rightly, are going to be pretty skeptical about the system”. Well, yes.

Never has Obama, or his predecessors, attempted a serious reform of this system. Never have they sought to replace a corrupt global oligarchy with a democratic body. Never do they lament this injustice – until they object to the outcome. The same goes for every aspect of global governance.
 

Barack Obama warned last week that Syria’s use of poisoned gas “threatens to unravel the international norm against chemical weapons embraced by 189 nations”. Unravelling the international norm is the the US president’s job.

In 1997, the United States agreed to decommission the 31,000 tonnes of sarin, VX, mustard gas and other agents it possessed within 10 years. In 2007 it requested the maximum extension of the deadline permitted by the Chemical Weapons Convention: five years. Again it failed to keep its promise, and in 2012 it claimed they would be gone by 2021. Was the world’s richest nation unable to complete this task on time? Or just unwilling? Russia has now urged Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control. Perhaps it should press the US to do the same.

In 1998, the Clinton administration pushed a law through Congress that forbade international weapons inspectors from taking samples of chemicals in the US and that allowed the president to refuse unannounced inspections. 

In 2002, the Bush government forced the sacking of José Maurício Bustani, the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He had committed two unforgiveable crimes: seeking a rigorous inspection of US facilities and pressing Saddam Hussein to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention, to help prevent the war George Bush was itching to wage.

The US used millions of gallons of chemical weapons in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. It also used them during its destruction of Falluja in 2004, then lied about it. The Reagan government helped Saddam Hussein to wage war with Iran in the 1980s, while aware that he was using nerve and mustard gas. (The Bush administration then cited this deployment as an excuse to attack Iraq, 15 years later).

Smallpox has been eliminated from the human population, but two nations – the US and Russia – insist on keeping the pathogen in cold storage. They claim their purpose is to develop defences against possible biological weapons attack, but most experts in the field consider this to be nonsense. 

While raising concerns about each other’s possession of the disease, they have collaborated to bludgeon the other members of the World Health Organisation, which have pressed them to destroy their stocks.

In 2001, the New York Times reported that, without either Congressional oversight or a declaration under the Biological Weapons Convention “the Pentagon has built a germ factory that could make enough lethal microbes to wipe out entire cities.”

It claimed the purpose was defensive, but, developed in contravention of international law, it didn’t look good. The Bush government also sought to destroy the Biological Weapons Convention as an effective instrument, by scuttling negotiations over the verification protocol required to make it work.

Looming over all this is the great unmentionable: the cover the US provides for Israel’s weapons of mass destruction. It’s not just that Israel – which refuses to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention – has used white phosphorus as a weapon in Gaza (when deployed against people, phosphorus meets the convention’s definition of “any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm”.

It’s also that, as the Washington Post points out, “Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile results from a never-acknowledged gentleman’s agreement in the Middle East that as long as Israel had nuclear weapons, Syria’s pursuit of chemical weapons would not attract much public acknowledgement or criticism.”

Israel has developed its nuclear arsenal in defiance of the non-proliferation treaty, and the US supports it in defiance of its own law, which forbids the disbursement of aid to a country with unauthorised weapons of mass destruction.

As for the norms of international law, let’s remind ourselves where the US stands. It remains outside the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, after declaring its citizens immune from prosecution. The crime of aggression it committed in Iraq – defined by the Nuremberg tribunal as “the supreme international crime” – goes not just unpunished but also unmentioned by anyone in government. The same applies to most of the subsidiary war crimes US troops committed during the invasion and occupation. Guantanamo Bay raises a finger to any notions of justice between nations.

None of this is to exonerate Bashar al-Assad’s government – or its opponents – of a long series of hideous crimes, including the use of chemical weapons. Nor is it to suggest that there is an easy answer to the horrors in Syria.

But Obama’s failure to be honest about his nation’s record of destroying international norms and undermining international law, his myth-making about the role of the United States in world affairs and his one-sided interventions in the Middle East all render the crisis in Syria even harder to resolve. Until there is some candour about past crimes and current injustices, until there is an effort to address the inequalities over which the United States presides, everything the US attempts, even if it doesn’t involve guns and bombs, will stoke the cynicism and anger the president says he wants to quench.

During his first inauguration speech, Barack Obama promised to “to set aside childish things”. We all knew what he meant. He hasn’t done it.

www.monbiot.com