Archive for March 26th, 2008
The Role of the CIA: Behind the Dalai Lama’s Holy Cloak
The Role of the CIA:
Behind the Dalai Lama’s Holy Cloak
The Dalai Lama has been on the CIA payroll since the late 1950s. He is an instrument of US intelligence.
by Michael Backman
(Global Research)
Global Research Editor’s note
This incisive article by Michael Backman outlines the relationship of the Dalai Lama and his organization to US intelligence.
The Dalai Lama has been on the CIA payroll since the late 1950s. He is an instrument of US intelligence.
An understanding of this longstanding relationship to the CIA is essential, particuarly in the light of recent events. In all likelihood US intelligence was behind the protest movement, organized to occur a few months prior to the Beijing Olympic games.
M. C. 23 March 2008
Rarely do journalists challenge the Dalai Lama.
Partly it is because he is so charming and engaging. Most published accounts of him breeze on as airily as the subject, for whom a good giggle and a quaint parable are substitutes for hard answers. But this is the man who advocates greater autonomy for millions of people who are currently Chinese citizens, presumably with him as head of their government. So, why not hold him accountable as a political figure?
No mere spiritual leader, he was the head of Tibet’s government when he went into exile in 1959. It was a state apparatus run by aristocratic, nepotistic monks that collected taxes, jailed and tortured dissenters and engaged in all the usual political intrigues. (The Dalai Lama’s own father was almost certainly murdered in 1946, the consequence of a coup plot.)
The government set up in exile in India and, at least until the 1970s, received $US1.7 million a year from the CIA.
The money was to pay for guerilla operations against the Chinese, notwithstanding the Dalai Lama’s public stance in support of non-violence, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The Dalai Lama himself was on the CIA’s payroll from the late 1950s until 1974, reportedly receiving $US15,000 a month ($US180,000 a year).
The funds were paid to him personally, but he used all or most of them for Tibetan government-in-exile activities, principally to fund offices in New York and Geneva, and to lobby internationally.
Details of the government-in-exile’s funding today are far from clear. Structurally, it comprises seven departments and several other special offices. There have also been charitable trusts, a publishing company, hotels in India and Nepal, and a handicrafts distribution company in the US and in Australia, all grouped under the government-in-exile’s Department of Finance.
The government was involved in running 24 businesses in all, but decided in 2003 that it would withdraw from these because such commercial involvement was not appropriate.
Several years ago, I asked the Dalai Lama’s Department of Finance for details of its budget. In response, it claimed then to have annual revenue of about $US22 million, which it spent on various health, education, religious and cultural programs.
The biggest item was for politically related expenditure, at $US7 million. The next biggest was administration, which ran to $US4.5 million. Almost $US2 million was allocated to running the government-in-exile’s overseas offices.
For all that the government-in-exile claims to do, these sums seemed remarkably low.
It is not clear how donations enter its budgeting. These are likely to run to many millions annually, but the Dalai Lama’s Department of Finance provided no explicit acknowledgment of them or of their sources.
Certainly, there are plenty of rumours among expatriate Tibetans of endemic corruption and misuse of monies collected in the name of the Dalai Lama.
Many donations are channelled through the New York-based Tibet Fund, set up in 1981 by Tibetan refugees and US citizens. It has grown into a multimillion-dollar organisation that disburses $US3 million each year to its various programs.
Part of its funding comes from the US State Department’s Bureau for Refugee Programs.
Like many Asian politicians, the Dalai Lama has been remarkably nepotistic, appointing members of his family to many positions of prominence. In recent years, three of the six members of the Kashag, or cabinet, the highest executive branch of the Tibetan government-in-exile, have been close relatives of the Dalai Lama.
An older brother served as chairman of the Kashag and as the minister of security. He also headed the CIA-backed Tibetan contra movement in the 1960s.
A sister-in-law served as head of the government-in-exile’s planning council and its Department of Health.
A younger sister served as health and education minister and her husband served as head of the government-in-exile’s Department of Information and International Relations.
Their daughter was made a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile. A younger brother has served as a senior member of the private office of the Dalai Lama and his wife has served as education minister.
The second wife of a brother-in-law serves as the representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile for northern Europe and head of international relations for the government-in-exile. All these positions give the Dalai Lama’s family access to millions of dollars collected on behalf of the government-in-exile.
The Dalai Lama might now be well-known but few really know much about him. For example, contrary to widespread belief, he is not a vegetarian. He eats meat. He has done so (he claims) on a doctor’s advice following liver complications from hepatitis. I have checked with several doctors but none agrees that meat consumption is necessary or even desirable for a damaged liver.
What has the Dalai Lama actually achieved for Tibetans inside Tibet?
If his goal has been independence for Tibet or, more recently, greater autonomy, then he has been a miserable failure.
He has kept Tibet on the front pages around the world, but to what end? The main achievement seems to have been to become a celebrity. Possibly, had he stayed quiet, fewer Tibetans might have been tortured, killed and generally suppressed by China.
In any event, the current Dalai Lama is 72 years old. His successor — a reincarnation — will be appointed as a child and it will be many years before he plays a meaningful role. As far as China is concerned, that is one problem that will take care of itself, irrespective of whether or not Australia’s John Howard or Kevin Rudd meet the current Dalai Lama.
17 US soldiers captured by Mahdi Army in Basra (not confirmed yet)
17 US soldiers captured by Mahdi Army in Basra
(not confirmed yet)
-Many killed by U.S. strike in Iraq’s Hilla-
-2 US soldiers killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad-
Mar 26, 2008
News: Mahdi Army arrested 17 American soldiers……Update……
Reported, Abu Al-Khasib another city close to Basra, now under Mahdi Army control, Iraqi government calls special forces from Karbala led by Maliki’s “brothers in law” to move to Basra.
…….End update…..
Just reported from Alwasatonline reporter in Basra, Mahdi Army managed to arrest 17 American soldiers, and seizes 7 hammer military vehicles, because of these developments the Iraqi government offered to negotiates with MA but Muqtada Al-Sadr refused any negotiations, also 250 Iraqi soldiers gave themselves up to Mahdi Army.
Key bridge, connecting Basra city to Al-Kurnah is destroyed by Mahdi Army.
Sotaliraq reported that Maliki refused to meet Basra’s mayor “Mohammad Al-Walili (from Al-Fadhilah Party), the mayor threaten if he removed from his position as mayor he will burn all the oil wells around Basra.
There is also reports about American warplanes involvement in the fights, and the Green Zone was bombed again at 8 O’clock p.
There are fighting in Al-Shurta neighborhood in Baghdad in the Karkh part (East, across the river)
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/03/25/news-mahdi-army-arrested-17-american-soldiers
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Many killed by U.S. strike in Iraq’s Hilla
U.S. forces confirmed the air strike and said they were not certain how many people had been killed but denied that there were large numbers of casualties.
One police source said at least 11 people were killed and 18 wounded in the strike, launched after Iraqi security forces called for support following street battles with Shi’ite militia members in the city’s Thawra neighborhood.
Another police source said 29 people were killed and 39 were wounded. He said six houses were destroyed in the strikes which lasted for an hour late on Wednesday evening.
Two other security sources said the combined total of dead and wounded was in the dozens, although they were unable to give precise casualty figures. All of the sources spoke under condition they not be named, as is usual practice in Iraq.
Major Allayne Conway, spokeswoman for U.S. forces south of Baghdad, said U.S. helicopters had responded to a call for help from SWAT special police units in Hilla.
“The Hilla SWAT guys were on the ground. They were engaged. Our attack helicopters were called in. They engaged,” she said.
“We’re still checking how many enemy personnel were killed. The initial report I had was four.”
Iraqi security forces have battled Shi’ite militia in several southern cities and Shi’ite areas of Baghdad for the past two days.
(Reporting by Sami al-Jumaily and Habib al-Zubaidy; writing by Peter Graff; editing by Sami Aboudi)
2 US soldiers killed by small-arms fire in Baghdad
The Associated PressPublished: March 26, 2008
BAGHDAD: The U.S. military says two American soldiers have been killed by small-arms fire in separate attacks in Baghdad.
A second soldier was shot and killed later in eastern Baghdad.
Wednesday’s shootings bring the overall American death toll to at least 4,003 since the Iraq war started in March 2003. That’s according to an Associated Press count.
The soldiers’ identities have not been released because relatives have not yet been notified.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/26/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-US-Casualties.php
