Glen Ford: Susan Rice’s Political Legacy-‘Genocide in Africa on Her Watch’

Hard Knock Radio logoOver the past couple of weeks there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding UN Ambassador Susan Rice. She’s been under fire, accused of misleading the American public about the circumstances that led up to the slaughter 4 Americans including Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya on September 11th of this year.

Hard Knock Radio weighed in on this issue with an insightful conversation featuring long time journalist Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report….He breaks down the political legacy of Rice and whats she’s been about long before most of us were introduced to her via the work she’s done under President Obama..

click the link below to listen to the HKR interview w/ Glen Ford on Susan Rice

Susan Rice

Susan Rice

As you listen to the interview here’s a little bit of background. ..Rice was the point person on Sunday morning talk shows in the days that followed those attacks, where she emphatically explained that attacks was the result of enraged Muslims reacting to an obscure anti-Muslim Youtube movie produced in the US. Below is one of those TV appearances she made that has now become the basis for this recent controversy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxf77xQ_NLU

Since that interview, we have come to know that the official story is it was in fact an act of terror carried out by Al Qaeda operatives. Many have questioned how Rice was so off on her assessment. It’s been determined that the intelligence around the Benghazi attacks being the work of terrorists at the time Rice spoke, was classified information. It was kept classified as to not tip-off the assailants. That realization has not calmed President Obama’s political rivals including Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who have come out swinging, threatening to block Rice’s anticipated nomination to be the next Secretary of State.

John McCain

John McCain

The crassness of McCain and Graham along with right-wing political pundits has led many to see their harsh criticisms of Rice as racially motivated political sour grapes. This in turn has led to many women’s groups and civil rights organizations circling the wagon determined to back Rice to the hilt. That in turn has led to many overlooking or remaining unaware of Rice’s political legacy.

Long time journalist Glen Ford has been following the career of Susan Rice for over 15 years. He’s well aware of her track record and the roles she played when she worked under Bill Clinton all the way up to now. In our Hard Knock radio interview (HKR) Ford gives a very detailed no holds bar breakdown of Rice and the type of impact she and the policies she’s championed have had on countries like Rwanda, Sudan,  Somalia, Libya and the Congo.

When asked what word comes to mind when he here’s the name Susan Rice, Glen Ford responded ‘Genocide’.  In a recent column penned by Ford titled A Second Wave of Genocide..he notes;

Susan Rice has abetted the Congo genocide for much of her political career. Appointed to President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council in 1993, at age 28, she rose to assistant secretary of state for African affairs in 1997 as Rwanda and Uganda were swarming across the eastern Congo, seizing control of mineral resources amid a sea of blood. She is known to be personally close to Rwanda’s minority Tutsi leadership, including President Paul Kagame, a ruthless soldier trained at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and mentored by Ugandan strongman (and Reagan administration favorite) Yoweri Museveni, who is believed to have pioneered the use of child soldiers in modern African conflicts.

GlenfordFord also writes:

Rice is widely credited with convincing Obama to launch NATO’s bombing campaign for regime change in Libya. She parroted false media reports that Muammar Gaddafi’s troops were raping Libyan women with the aid of massive gulps of Viagra, refusing to back down even when U.S. military and intelligence officials told NBC news “there is no evidence that Libyan military forces have been given Viagra and engaging in systematic rape against women in rebel areas.” Yet, Rice said not a word about ethnic cleansing and racial pogroms against black Libyans and sub-Saharan African migrant workers, including the well-documented erasure of the black city of Tawergha.

In our interview Ford describes Susan Rice as some one who is more hawkish and ‘thuggish’ then Condoleezza Rice who served under George Bush. He notes its an act of betrayal for Black leadership to back her nomination in lieu of her track record. Ford notes many have reacted to in such a way that perceived racial comments are more important to push back on than the genocide of millions of people in Africa on Rice’s watch. You can peep the interview by clicking the link at the beginning of this article

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Comments

  1. Yo Mr. Moon Allah Bombastic Davey jour nails,…want some inter connexion_s about trade unions,..but hash me out of Maroc’s crwon,..the semitic mis_utilities apprehend my Drag Lady..so let me state,..that the eco nuts on ya prime state debates adjourn the fact, that heteroo_doxixxs and homo_komeidicks never want a bash about gas chambers re_vision…..pHackID!..So my repsect for ya income and stay rude,..stay rebel ole Skinhead against raciall pre_juidices!

  2. Obama’s National Security Council Advisor for Multilateral Affairs Samantha Powers is also credited with persuading Obama to bomb Libya “to stop genocide.” Like Rice, she is heavily invested in the Hotel Rwanda/Wikipedia version of the Rwanda Genocide and its political use to justify interventions in Africa – even to justify the Rwandan and Ugandan invasions of Congo and the death of millions more.

  3. Africa shall unite 11

  4. Dear friends of the planet:

    I have launched a Change.org petition (http://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-do-not-nominate-susan-rice-for-secretary-of-state-4) to President Obama asking him NOT to nominate US Ambassador Susan Rice to be US Secretary of State.

    Her extensive financial holdings in all things tar sands and other destructive fossil fuels should disqualify her for this position, for as I state in my petition, “If we humans are to avoid a global climate-change disaster, the US must provide extraordinary, out-of-the box global leadership in the next 4 years, and our Secretary of State must be able to carry the necessary messages with great credibility.”

    Susan Rice does not have that credibility.

    1. It seems to me to be crucial that we work hard to make sure Amb. Susan Rice is not nominated or confirmed as the US Secretary of State, because of her abominable environmental history as revealed by the Natural Resources Defense Council
    http://www.onearth.org/article/susan-rice-obama-secretary-state-tar-sands-finances

    2. Time is short to build an effective voice against this potential nomination; please sign and forward to others who will sign.

    Now, full disclosure about me: First, you can read a short bio and resume on my website http://www.earldjames.com. I’ve been a social change advocate for over 40 years on such campaigns as establishment of the International Criminal Court opposing the destructive
    practices of the extraction industries in NM, worked with numerous Native American environmental advocacy groups and tribes in New Mexico, served as an International Election Monitor in Bosnia, and others.

    I am a writer for the Green Fire Times monthly magazine about all things sustainable in NM (www.greenfiretimes.com) and published an award-winning eco-novel in 2011.

    Earl James

  5. See. I was very worried about Marcia Fudge taking over the leadership of the CBC, and it seems I was right to be worried. Particularly if she’s defending Susan Rice along racial lines and ignoring the warmonger that she is.

  6. In this vein, I worry not only about Susan Rice becoming Secty. of State, but her alliance with Marcia Fudge, who seems to be dumb as a rock, could severely damage Haiti even more, where the battle for Haiti’s natural resources – plus an ongoing genocidal war waged by U.S./UN occupation is in full swing, w/ Martelly bleeding the Haitian treasury dry in a way not seen (IMO) since the 1915-1934 U.S. Marine invasion and occupation of Haiti.

  7. Does anyone know when the FBI went global? Didn’t the FBI’s role used to begin and end in a national as opposed to an international context? Someone correct me if I’m wrong. Hoover’s COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) is in effect extensively within U.S. borders. Rice talks about an ongoing FBI investigation in Benghazi, Libya. Anyone who knows, please comment.

  8. The Shameless Vacuity of Susan Rice’s Black Boosters
    http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/shameless-vacuity-susan-rices-black-boosters

  9. #datzhott (purple)

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