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STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec 8, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Nobel Prize-winner Harold Pinter used his acceptance speech to rail against U.S. foreign policy.
The British playwright, who is suffering from cancer, recorded the speech that was played during the ceremony at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm Wednesday, the New York Times reported.
In his speech, Pinter, 75, said the United States lied to justify the war against Iraq while it "supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship" in the last 50 years.
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them," Pinter said. "You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
The author of "The Caretaker" and "The Homecoming" was awarded the $1.3 million Nobel literature prize in October.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
