US un-sanctions former Al Qaida leader and sanctions UN special rapporteur instead

Everything is upside-down

As the US removes sanctions from terror groups Al Nusra and HTS, it is imposing sanctions on UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. This is understood to be the first time the US has sanctioned a UN representative.

Albanese's crime? She wrote a report highlighting how big tech companies have been profiting from genocide. Those same big tech companies are now grandstanding, calling such criticism "antisemitic" in one breath, and calling the likes of Zohran Mamdani an "Islamist" in the next. I think we can take their antiracism credentials with a pinch of salt.

Albanese dared suggest the ICC take action against Israel due to the genocide in Gaza. Marco Rubio argues the US and Israel have a right to defend themselves from such legal threats. He's absolutely right, of course, they do have a right to defend themselves. In court! It's called due to process. Sanctioning and intimidating lawyers and judges is called perverting the course of justice.

Either the US believes in international law and due process or it doesn't, and it is making it loud and clear it doesn't. That's not opinion or hyperbole: Trump signed an executive order sanctioning anyone who cooperates with the ICC.

Marco Rubio accuses Albanese of "waging a campaign of economic and political warfare" for doing her job as mandated by the United Nations. Ironically, it's Rubio who is waging economic and political warfare against Albanese. He is also calling her an "antisemite" because antisemite just means anyone who criticises Israel.

Any assets Albanese may have in the US will be frozen - that's economic warfare - and both Albanese and her immediate family are not allowed to travel to the US - that's political warfare and also collective punishment. Imagine being barred from a country because of something your mother did!

You won't be surprised to hear the Anti-Defamation League has backed the sanctions against Albanese because this supposed anti-racist group appears to exist only to defend Israel under the guise of antiracism.

Albanese's critics rarely engage with her documented evidence and legal arguments, instead resorting to smears. As Albanese has pointed out, similar tactics were used against her predecessors because the only acceptable way to do her job would be to throw Palestinians under a bus. Albanese is supposed to say "genocide, what genocide?"

The US is claiming the renewal of Albanese's UN mandate was illegal which is confusing because I thought they rejected international law. Are they back to caring about it? If Albanese were replaced, she would have to be replaced with someone who does not have an ounce of integrity, just like our leaders.

Western leaders are lining up to meet with Al Golani, the guy who until recently had a $10 million price tag on his head. Meanwhile, Al Nusra and HTS are no longer designated as terrorist organisations because they're working for the empire.

David Lammy is happy to pose for pictures with Al Golani and shake a hand dripping with the blood of the civilians whose heads he has chopped off, but he will label Palestine Action "terrorists".

While the empire loves to tell us it's fighting terrorism and liberating women in the Middle East, its puppet in Syria is destroying women's rights: denying women the right to hold important jobs, making them wear burkinis at the beach, and torturing them to death if they object.

A guy like Al Golani is just fine to western liberators, but Francesca Albanese, someone who specialises in human rights, she must be stopped. It's not the human rights abusers who are the problem, it's the human rights experts - and the human rights protesters, of course.

Defunct activist group Palestine Action has been labelled a terrorist organisation in the UK for opposing genocide. Ordinary social media users, who have never participated in direct action, let alone terrorism, are being treated as terrorists for supporting Palestine Action's aim of stopping genocide.

Remember years ago when we said the west won't stop at Julian Assange? Well, we're seeing that process take place, right now. The establishment was remarkably effective in stamping out criticism of imperialism in the mainstream media and is now focusing on global institutions like the UN and ICC as well as regular protesters and social media users. We are seeing an attempt to rid the world of any objection to genocide.

Remember when the west's stated goals were human rights and free speech? Well, they're sacrificing free speech so they can abuse human rights. Remember when their stated goals were to stop terrorism and spread democracy in the Middle East? Well, their goals now are stop democracy and spread terrorism.

Welcome to upside-down world where censorship for Israel is free speech, where people who try to stop genocide are terrorists, where those who commit genocide are liberators, where concentration camps are humanitarian zones, where Donald Trump deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, where Al Golani is a respected statesman, and where Francesca Albanese is a dangerous extremist.

Can you think of anything I've missed?

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