Alot of my work as a journalist has been dedicated to exposing the role of so-called “human rights” groups and “non-governmental organizations” (NGOs) as tools of US imperialism. But rarely is their status as an arm of Washington’s imperial power openly acknowledged.

That is what makes the follow remarks from blood-soaked war criminal Colin Powell so, well, explosive.

On October 26, 2001, top US military General Powell, who was then serving as secretary of state under the George W. Bush administration, gave a speech at the “National Foreign Policy Conference for Leaders of Nongovernmental Organizations,” held in the State Department.

This was well over a month after the 9/11 attacks, and the United States was already several weeks into its war on Afghanistan. The Bush administration was also setting the stage for its subsequent invasion of Iraq.

Powell gathered leaders of prominent NGOs in Washington to butter them up and emphasize the crucial supplementary role that they would be playing in the US government’s war efforts.

Powell heaped praise on NGOs that “shed light on human rights.” He noted that they were a key part of US military efforts, a “force multiplier” in Washington’s wars, and “such an important part of our combat team.”

Powell dispelled any pretense that American NGOs do work around the world in the interest of vague notions like “human rights.” Rather, he gloated, these NGOs serve the United States’ imperial interests, and it is in fact the illusion of their ostensible “independence” from the US government that is precisely what “makes [them] so valuable.”

[…]

Although he might be most well remembered for his infamous speech lying to the United Nations Security Council about non-existent “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in Iraq, never forget that Powell presided over the following atrocities:

the criminal US invasion of Panama, a blunt act of murderous neocolonialism, in which thousands of homes were burnt down and the bodies of civilians were shoveled into mass graves;

the first war on Iraq, the heinous Persian Gulf War, in which Washington intentionally bombed the country back to the stone age, devastating civilian infrastructure, even slaughtering fleeing Iraqi soldiers and Palestinian civilians on the abominable “Highway of Death”;

and the unspeakably criminal invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, in which more than 1 million Iraqis lost their lives, their country once again destroyed.

When Powell says purported “human rights” groups and other NGOs serve as “force multiplier” and “an important part of our combat team,” he means they help the US empire more effectively carry out blood-curdling war crimes like these.

All of this is only further confirmation that NGOs’ supposed support for “human rights” is just an imperial fig leaf to cover for Uncle Sam’s subjugation and exploitation of the planet.