Caitlin Johnstone

A year ago, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson received a memo from a top adviser explaining to the political outsider how things are done in DC when it comes to human rights.

With adversaries of the United States like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, the memo explained, the human rights violations of those governments should be used to criticize and undermine them to advance US agendas against them. Human rights violations of US allies like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines, however, should be overlooked in the interest of maintaining positive relationships with those governments.

For DC insiders, human rights are nothing other than a tool of manipulation and control. They have no intrinsic value in and of themselves as far as these depraved swamp creatures are concerned; they’re only valuable insofar as they advance the interests of the US power establishment.

A stunning setback for women’s rights in Saudi. They’ve even arrested women in their 60s & 70s who took part in the 1990 driving protests. They could get 20 years. By @LovedayM https://t.co/4ew2gkbRoJ

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) May 21, 2018

A new story by the Washington Post, normally a prolific promoter of the narrative that Saudi Arabia is undergoing exciting new reforms, reports that several women’s rights activists have been arrested in a brutal crackdown. They were arrested for seeking an end to the government’s draconian male guardianship laws and the right for women to drive. They are each facing the possibility of 20 years in prison.

This comes just weeks after Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s wildly celebrated tour of the US, in which he met with powerful individuals like Donald Trump, James Mattis, Jeff Bezos, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Rupert Murdoch, as well as celebrity superstars like Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

As you would expect, there has been no statement about the arrests by Tillerson’s successor, Mike Pompeo. He has, however, had a giant mouthful to say about human rights in Iran.

“As seen from the hijab protests, the brutal men of the regime seem to be particularly terrified by Iranian women who are demanding their rights,” Pompeo bloviated in a half-hour speech for the Heritage Foundation, a mainstream conservative DC think tank. “As human beings with inherent dignity and inalienable rights, the women of Iran deserve the same freedoms that the men of Iran possess.”

Pompeo’s stupid, ugly face said the words “the Iranian people” no less than sixteen times during his performance for the think tank swamp creatures. “The protests of the past few months show that the Iranian people are deeply frustrated with their own government’s failures,” “the Iranian people cry out for a simple life with jobs and opportunity and with liberty,” “the Iranian people are deeply frustrated with their own government’s failures.”

Throughout the speech, Pompeo made a series of demands from and threats against the Iranian government which many  analysts in both mainstream media and alternative media say add up to an open policy of regime change. This should surprise nobody who’s been paying attention. The US government is planning to use crippling sanctions and CIA covert ops to stir up unrest and violence in Iran in order to effect an overthrow of its government, similar to what it accomplished in Libya and has been attempting in Syria. Failing that, a conventional military invasion of some sort may be in the cards later on.

Mike Pompeo does not care about the Iranian people. Mike Pompeo does not care about the American people. Mike Pompeo cares about punishing a disobedient nation until it is absorbed into the US-centralized western empire (or “rejoins the league of nations”, as he bizarrely put it in his speech). Ensuring the continued expansion of the empire is what he’s there for. That’s why he got Rex Tillerson’s old job, which is evil swamp monster Hillary Clinton’s old job, which is evil swamp monster Condoleeza Rice’s old job, which is evil swamp monster Madeleine Albright’s old job.

.@SecPompeo: U.S. condemns fraudulent election that took place in #Venezuela on May 20, stands with democratic nations in support of the Venezuelan people and will take swift economic and diplomatic actions to support the restoration of their democracy. https://t.co/W9nwXse0mQ

— Department of State (@StateDept) May 22, 2018

On the same day as his song and dance about “the Iranian people”, Mike Pompeo released a statement calling Venezuela’s election “fraudulent” because the Venezuelan people didn’t elect who the US wanted them to. The nation will now be hit with new sanctions, because the will of the people only counts when it aligns with the will of the swamp.

Was Venezuela’s election fraudulent? As is so often the case, we are seeing aggressive actions taken long before all the facts can possibly have been examined, which of course means that those aggressive actions have nothing to do with the reasons being given and everything to do with advancing a preexisting agenda.

I’ll tell you one thing about Venezuela’s democratic system for sure, though: it is literally infinitely better than Saudi Arabia’s.

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