Dec. 1, 2023 ❧ Henry Kissinger dead, Corruption at COP28, and Florida students walk out for trans rights
Plus: George Santos expelled from Congress, Greece calls out the UK for stealing its statues, Michigan's new clean energy bill, drunk pigeons, and more...
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BIG STORY
HENRY KISSINGER DEAD AT AGE 100
Former Secretary of State and unrepentant war criminal Henry Kissinger died at the age of 100 on Wednesday evening at his home in Connecticut, his consulting firm announced. An advisor to twelve different presidents, and Secretary of State under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, he was one of the quintessential architects of America’s ruthless Cold War foreign policy. After his long career in politics, he remained as a kind of celebrity elder statesman, raking in exorbitant speaker’s fees, appearing at foreign policy conferences, and being treated like a god at numerous celebrity galas.
America’s foreign policy establishment heralds him as a practitioner of pragmatism and realpolitik, and a defender of the liberal international order and American interests in the third world. What this meant in practice was the total abnegation of morality, resulting in one of the most blood-soaked political careers of anyone in recent memory. From the beginning to the end of his time in power, there was no democracy he wouldn’t topple, no murderous dictator he wouldn’t back, no bombing he wouldn’t sanction, and no underhanded trick he wouldn’t undertake if he believed it served the nation’s, and his own, power. As veteran war crimes prosecutor, Reed Brody told The Intercept, “Few people…have had a hand in as much death and destruction, as much human suffering, in so many places around the world as Henry Kissinger.” In his book Kissinger’s Shadow, biographer Greg Grandin estimates that Kissinger has the blood of more than 3 million people on his hands. A few of his worst crimes are as follows:
❧ VIETNAM: As the Johnson administration attempted to negotiate an end to the Vietnam War in 1968, Kissinger covertly persuaded the Nixon campaign as it sought to “throw a monkey wrench” (Nixon’s words) in any possible peace deal that could improve his opponent Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s election chances. Kissinger first alerted Nixon to the possibility of a deal, which prompted the Republican candidate to use a back channel to persuade the South Vietnamese to stall and boycott the talks. As a result of the sabotage, the peace deal ultimately fell apart and the war lasted another seven years, increasing the death toll by millions. It also launched Kissinger’s career, as Nixon took the White House and appointed him national security advisor.
❧ CAMBODIA: Beginning in 1969, Kissinger was the architect of the Nixon Administration’s secret, illegal carpet-bombing of Cambodia—known as “Operation Menu”—to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines through the country. The bombing campaign is estimated to have killed anywhere from 150,000 to 500,000 Cambodian civilians over four years. Historians also attribute the rise of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, which killed 2 million more people, to the destruction of the US bombing. Many Khmer Rouge recruits cited the US bombing as their inspiration for joining the Communist insurgency, which would go on to perpetrate one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.
❧ EAST PAKISTAN (NOW BANGLADESH): In the early 1970s, as separatists fought to free East Pakistan from oppressive dictator General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan—who’d already arrested the leader of the separatist movement—Kissinger ignored cables from his ambassador in the country detailing atrocities by Yahya’s military and warning of a genocide. Since Yahya was an American ally and Kissinger feared his becoming an obstacle to attempts to open American relations with China, Kissinger stayed mum while the army slaughtered more than 300,000 Bengalis.
❧ SOUTH AMERICA: In Chile and Argentina Kissinger helped to foster the overthrow of democratically-elected left-wing leaders by US-friendly military dictators in the 1970s. He then advised those dictators as their death squads murdered, kidnapped, and tortured tens of thousands of labor, student, and community activists. In a bloodcurdling quote about his choice to help General Augusto Pinochet overthrow President Salvador Allende—which ushered in nearly two decades of dictatorship, Kissinger said, “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.” Pinochet would end up on trial for war crimes but died in jail before he could be convicted. Records show that Kissinger was also aware and supportive of the wider “Operation Condor” in which the CIA worked hand-in-glove with right-wing dictatorships across South America, which were responsible for killing an estimated 50,000, disappearing 30,000 and imprisoning 400,000 political dissidents.
❧ EAST TIMOR: Kissinger gave the green light to US-backed dictator Suharto of Indonesia to invade and annex neighboring East Timor, which had just declared independence from Portugal and posed the possibility of electing socialists to power. Using weapons provided by the US (a fact which Kissinger sought to conceal) Indonesia launched a bloody 25-year occupation in which the Indonesian army perpetrated numerous massacres and held opposition in concentration camps. More than 200,000 people are estimated to have died, including 100,000 who perished from famine while in detention.
We do not have the space to chronicle the entire list of atrocities Kissinger approved or helped to author throughout his career. For more discussion of his deeds and broader impact on the direction of American foreign policy, we recommend reading the eulogies written by Nick Turse in The Intercept and by Spencer Ackerman in Rolling Stone. For a more comprehensive account of his crimes, there are books The Trial of Henry Kissinger by the late Christopher Hitchens and Kissinger’s Shadow by the aforementioned Greg Grandin. Jacobin also just released a new book immediately following Kissinger’s death titled The Good Die Young: The Verdict on Henry Kissinger, which can be ordered now.
The long-awaited death of Henry Kissinger has elicited predictable responses from virtually everyone. Legacy outlets are whitewashing his crimes: To The Wall Street Journal he’s “a master of grand strategy,” while Forbes echoes Niall Ferguson’s guileless description of him as a “pragmatic idealist.” Politicians herald him as a towering figure: Senator Mitt Romney lauds “his lifetime of diplomacy, wisdom, and love of freedom” and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says Kissinger raised diplomacy to “a form of art…Henry was an artist.”
Kissinger’s detractors, meanwhile, are taking the time to excavate his many crimes, while others take the opportunity to enjoy a long-awaited dance upon his grave. And indeed, some of the memes have been delectable.
But it’s hard to feel too triumphal about a historically awful 100-year-old man dying comfortably. In any sense that matters, Kissinger won. He got away with everything. Despite the world being well aware of his many crimes for decades, to the point where he avoided traveling to certain countries out of fear of being detained for questioning, he never came close to facing justice. Kissinger’s death is a tragedy because it demonstrates a colossal failure of our institutions to render even a modicum of accountability on Western leaders.
STORIES THAT SHOULD BE BIGGER
THE UAE IS USING COP28 TO PROMOTE FOSSIL FUELS
As world leaders come together for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference—more commonly known as COP28—the general idea is that they’ll share ideas on how to address the planet’s climate crisis, make deals with each other about reducing carbon emissions, and try their best to steer the world away from its disastrous reliance on fossil fuels. Instead, a set of documents leaked to the BBC reveal that the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the event in Dubai, is in fact using COP28 as an opportunity to sell more fossil fuels and worsen the problem they’re supposed to be solving.
According to the leaked files, officials from the Emirates planned private meetings with representatives of at least 27 different countries, all with the goal of striking deals to trade oil and natural gas. They even had detailed “talking points” planned out, like telling a minister from Colombia that the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) “stands ready” to help develop and extract its fossil fuel reserves or letting China know that ADNOC is “willing to jointly evaluate international LNG [liquefied natural gas] opportunities" with them in places like Mozambique. According to the BBC, UAE officials planned to hold closed-door meetings with dignitaries from “the UK, United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kenya,” among others. The scale and boldness of the grift would almost be impressive if it weren’t directly harming the long-term prospects for life on Earth.
The bigger question, though, is why on Earth anyone thought it was a good idea to hold a conference on climate change in the middle of a petrostate. It’s kind of like having a meeting about free speech in Pyongyang, or a seminar on nutrition at a Burger King. And of course, Joe Biden hasn’t done us any favors by skipping the event entirely, just months after approving an enormous expansion of oil drilling in Alaska. As climate-related natural disasters continue to kill thousands of people annually, the world desperately needs decisive action. Instead, our political leaders are giving us nothing but corruption and cowardice.
FIGHTING BACK
FLORIDA STUDENTS HOLD WALKOUTS AGAINST DESANTIS' TRANS SPORTS BAN
At Florida’s Monarch High School, hundreds of students walked out of their classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, and launched a protest nobody could ignore. They were unified, well-organized, and determined, carrying signs that said “Trans Rights are Human Rights,” “Protect Trans Kids,” and “Let Her Serve,” while chanting “Trans Lives Matter!” among other slogans. It was a loud, angry rebuke to the state’s ban on transgender students competing in school sports, and just the latest of many student protests in Florida since Governor Ron DeSantis took office.
The controversy at Monarch High School began in 2021, after Florida Republicans passed a now-notorious state law banning transgender athletes from sports “designated for females, women or girls”—which they did by attaching it to an unrelated bill about charter schools, during a late-night legislative session, prompting accusations of “shady, backroom tactics.” Soon afterward, the family of a transgender student sued both the state of Florida and her school district, arguing—entirely accurately—that the law was both unconstitutional and unjust, since it would “force her to abandon the sports that mean so much to her” solely on the basis of her gender identity, violating the right to equal protection. While the lawsuit was ongoing, it appears the school’s staff allowed the student to continue playing with her volleyball team. And on Monday, four members of that staff were reassigned to non-school locations pending an investigation, including the two volleyball coaches. A spokesman for DeSantis’ Department of Education said that it was “completely unacceptable” for the student to play on the team, and that “we expect there will be serious consequences for those responsible.” Meanwhile, district superintendent Peter Licata promised to “have an extra level of investigation on making sure everyone is eligible for the sport they’re playing, in all aspects” going forward. If that sounds creepy and ominous, there’s a reason: one of the forms of “investigation” allowed by the Florida sports ban is mandatory genital examinations for any student whose gender is “disputed.” (In Republicans’ minds, apparently, you have to violate kids’ medical privacy in order to protect them.)
This protest demonstrates, more than ever, that anti-trans educational policy has little or nothing to do with the wishes of the people who actually learn and work in schools. Instead, it’s imposed artificially from above, by petty bigots like Ron DeSantis who seek to enforce their will on others. In their quest to both-sides the issue, the local NBC affiliate could find exactly one student who misgendered the trans athlete and objected to her playing sports, compared to the hundreds who walked out to support her. By defending their classmate and their school against this wave of state-sponsored transphobia, the students have proven themselves wiser than their elected leaders. They understand that there’s an important difference between obeying the law, and doing what’s right—and that when those things come into conflict, the unjust law must be defied.
AROUND THE STATES
❧ Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed a series of bills to convert the state to 100 percent “clean” energy by 2040. But there’s a catch. The most important of the bills is Senate Bill 0271, which defines what “clean” actually means: 60 percent renewables, like solar and wind, and a further 40 percent consisting of nuclear, hydrogen, and natural gas. In other words, only 60 percent of Michigan’s energy industry would actually be clean, in the sense that it produces little or no waste that damages the environment. The rest would be “clean” only in the sense that it’s marginally less polluting than coal or oil. The inclusion of natural gas, in particular, has led the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition to issue a statement condemning the new legislation as a “betrayal of environmental justice” that will “fail to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” This might be a little harsh; 60 percent renewables is still a real gain, especially compared to the policy of Republican-run states like Texas that are actively increasing their use of fossil fuels. Still, there’s definitely room for improvement here. Sixty is a start, but a true 100 percent would get us closer to staving off climate disaster.
❧ [CONTENT WARNING: VIOLENCE AGAINST ANIMALS]
Four Maryland roommates are suing after police officers broke into their home and shot their dog. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court this Monday, alleges that members of the Prince George’s County Police Department illegally obtained a key to the shared apartment where Erica Umana, Erika Erazo Sanchez, Dayri Amaya Benitez and Brandon Cuevas lived in 2021, and burst in without a warrant. According to the Washington Post, cellphone and bodycam footage shows that the police committed vicious, unprovoked acts of violence:
Once inside the apartment, the officers pulled guns and Tasers and pointed them at the roommates. Amid the commotion, the dog ran out of a bedroom and past the officers — seemingly showing no aggression, according to the videos and the attorneys. One officer fired his gun, then another officer fired, and a third shocked the dog with a Taser, according to the video and the roommates’ accounts. They screamed and pleaded to be let go as they watched the dog writhe and bleed on their beige carpet. Again, they asked: Why were the police there without a warrant? “That’s what happens when you don’t answer questions,” one officer responded.
Sadly the dog, a boxer named Hennessy, was paralyzed by the police attack, and was euthanized by a veterinarian later that night. According to Umana, the county offered to pay for the service—but only on the condition that she not speak to anyone about what she’d experienced. It’s hardly the first time a U.S. police department has done this, either; by one estimate, cops kill 25 to 30 dogs every day, adding up to roughly 10,000 canicides a year. As our editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson wrote for the Washington Post in 2015, there can be no possible justification for this behavior, because there is another group of public sector workers who encounter angry dogs all the time, and do not feel the need to murder them: postal workers! But what’s unusual about the Maryland case is that there seems to be clear video evidence proving that Hennessy was not even aggressive, which neutralizes the usual claim that the cops in question were practicing self-defense. Now represented by attorneys William Murphy and Malcolm Ruff, the plaintiffs are asking $16 million in damages from the department, and they deserve every penny.
❧ Even as the Supreme Court has shown some restraint in gutting the Voting Rights Act, other Republican judges for lower courts are moving full speed ahead to weaken voting rights legislation. Ian Millheiser of Vox points to two recent rulings that could put the act into even more jeopardy than it already faces after it was weakened substantially by the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision. The most worrying new ruling is the Eighth Circuit’s opinion in Arkansas State Conference NAACP v. Arkansas Public Policy Panel strips private parties of the ability to bring lawsuits for violations of voting rights and limits it only to the Department of Justice. This makes the law nearly unenforceable, as 92 percent of victorious voting rights lawsuits over the past 40 years have been brought by private entities. Also concerning: the 11th Circuit’s ruling in Rose v. Secretary would allow states with multiple congressional seats to elect representatives “at large” (meaning the entire state votes) rather than by district, which has historically been used to minimize the influence of voters of color. These cases may be destined for the Supreme Court, which Millheiser points out, has pulled back on its previous hostility to the VRA, namely in this summer’s Allan v. Milligan case (which we covered in a prior briefing). That said, the logic of these cases, Millheiser says, are consistent with the “law free” interpretations the Court has deployed in the past and could give them the opportunity to further chip away at the VRA.
AROUND THE WORLD
❧ Turkey is reportedly nearing a deal to approve Sweden’s NATO membership “within weeks.” Sweden first applied to join the international organization back in May 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Like with Finland, which was eventually ratified as the 31st NATO member in April, the main obstacle in their way has been Turkey. NATO ratification has to be unanimous among the existing members, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been dragging his heels, attaching all sorts of terms and conditions before he’d agree. Most notably, Erdogan wants Sweden to crack down on supporters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which his government has branded a terrorist organization, and ban pro-Kurdish demonstrations. (For reference, Turkey itself has a long record of human rights abuses against the Kurdish people, and launched a brutal military assault against the Kurdish enclave in Afrin, Syria in 2018.) Sure enough, Sweden recently passed sweeping new laws criminalizing affiliation with “terrorist” groups, similar to laws in Britain that have been used to issue criminal penalties just for waving the flag of the PKK. It’s also considering a ban on publicly burning the Quran, in response to demands from Turkey. It seems Erdogan will now reward Sweden for doing his bidding—but for freedom of speech and political association, the deal is a losing one.
❧ Greece and England are once again fighting over the so-called Elgin Marbles. Properly speaking, the statues should be called the “Parthenon Marbles,” since most of them were originally part of that ancient Greek monument. However, an Englishman named Thomas Bruce—aka the Earl of Elgin—did what the British Empire did best, and stole them in the early 1800s. Bruce claimed, of course, that the Ottoman Empire had given him permission to take the statues back to England, but the letter that supposedly proved this has been lost. In any case, the Marbles are clearly a part of Greece’s cultural heritage, not Britain’s, and it’s unclear why the occupying Ottomans’ permission would be legitimate anyhow. At the time, Lord Byron wrote two scathing poems condemning the theft, and for more than 200 years, Greeks have been furiously demanding the statues’ return.
The dispute flared up again on Sunday, when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis explicitly used the word “stolen” to refer to the Marbles in a BBC interview, saying that the Parthenon is “essentially one monument” that’s been torn apart by British imperialism. In response, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with Mitsotakis that had been scheduled for Tuesday, and accused the Greek PM of trying to “grandstand and relitigate issues of the past.” On Wednesday, Greek cultural minister Lina Mendoni fired back, accusing the British government of “barbarism.” At this point, hanging on to the pilfered artifacts is more about the Conservative Party’s stubbornness than anything, since the Marbles are actively damaging the UK’s diplomatic relations. If a Labour government comes into power in the next election, which seems likely, perhaps they can finally be returned. In the meantime, the Turkish news site Haber 7 has compiled a very funny selection of tabloid headlines, which show the general feelings Greeks have for Sunak:
❧ North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un’s Worker’s Party has won re-election by the slimmest margin in recent memory. They received only a paltry 99.9 percent of the popular vote for local assembly positions. According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, it’s the first time the regime has reported dissenting votes in their elections. Of course, there were no actual opposing candidates on the ballot, though that is also now technically legal under North Korean law (though we can’t imagine it would end well for whatever intrepid soul dared to try). The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada says, “The portrayal of a more democratic society, particularly in comparison to South Korea and the U.S., is aimed at reinforcing the regime's legitimacy and authenticity on the world stage.” We here at Current Affairs will be the first to admit that America’s democracy is barely functional and hardly representative of the popular will. But at least our elections have multiple candidates most of the time.
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CROOKS vs. SICKOS (or, “What’s going on with our politicians?”)
❧ Our long, hilarious national nightmare is over…George Santos has been expelled from Congress. Following a devastating House Ethics report, which detailed how Santos “blatantly stole from his own campaign” to purchase Sephora products, Botox, and OnlyFans subscriptions, the congressman has become just the sixth congressperson in history to be kicked out of the chamber after 105 Republicans joined the Democratic coalition in his ouster. Thus ends perhaps the single most bizarre, incomprehensibly funny Congressional stint in history, in which Santos fabricated basically every aspect of his background and engaged in some of the most cartoonish small-bore corruption in recent memory. We can’t say we’ll miss him, exactly, but we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors as a carnival barker, Herbalife salesman, or credit card thief (and with his unmatched penchant for small-time scams we’d not be surprised if he finds a way to do all three at once).
❧ The Koch Brothers are throwing their weight behind Nikki Haley in the Republican primary in a last-ditch attempt to defeat Donald Trump. The political arm of the multi-billion dollar conservative fundraising network has promised virtually unlimited funds and activists to back Trump’s former Secretary of State. The Kochs would do just as well to throw all that money into a black hole. Trump currently leads the most recent GOP primary polls by nearly 50 points while Haley is in a bare-knuckle brawl with Ron DeSantis to see who gets to come in a distant second. Of course, there’s a good reason why the Kochs would seek to throw their money behind Haley even if she is a longshot. On the issue they care most about, namely hollowing out entitlements, she is their strongest soldier in the GOP field.
PAST AFFAIRS
Mainstream media often portrays Haley as a moderating force within her party. In an October Current Affairs article, Stephen Prager explained how her stately, even-keel affect helps to mask an even more ruthless policy agenda than Trump’s.
❧ The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has offered two different Democrats $20 million to launch primary campaigns against the outspoken Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. The only Palestinian-American in Congress has been public enemy number one for the Israel lobby ever since she entered in 2018 as she has been one of the chamber's few strong advocates for Palestinian rights. Tlaib was recently censured by the House of Representatives for comments calling for freedom for Palestine “from the river to the sea.” The congressman who received the offer, Michigan state senator Nasser Beydoun posted a video denouncing AIPAC for trying to buy his support. “We need to make sure that money is not a main catalyst to get people elected because the pro-Israel lobby’s only tool, and what they use to threaten politicians, is the amount of money they’re going to spend against them or for them.”
PIGEON FACT OF THE DAY
New Zealand’s kekerū pigeons love to get wasted!
These birds, which the conservation group Forest and Bird describes as “clumsy, drunk, gluttonous and glamorous,” enjoy feasting on rotting fruit they find on the ground, which becomes fermented and causes an intoxication effect. As a result, kekerū can sometimes be seen stumbling around in a stupor and occasionally even fall from trees. They sometimes need to be taken in by wildlife rehabilitators to get sober.
In 2018, New Zealand, enthralled by these birds’ inebriated antics crowned the kekurū “Bird of the Year” (an honor most recently bestowed on the gorgeous pūteketeke Australasian crested grebe). But fame and notoriety can be a lonely place, and we hope that it does not motivate the kekurū to seek solace in drink.
Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Fact-checking by Justin Ward. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.
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