MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST
Iraq War Is On, Neo-Cons Say 'Fire Some Generals' Who Oppose the War
"Fire Some Generals," is the New Democrat/neo-conservative New Republic's advice to President Bush, in an editorial which was reprinted in the June 9 New York Post. The Post, owned by Australian Sir Rupert Murdoch, is one of the flagships for the views of the rightwing Likud lobby in the U.S., and the neo-conservatives.
The advice of the editorial has it that Bush should fire the military brass (i.e., the Joint Chiefs of Staff) who have been leaking to the media their opposition to invading Iraq; the piece adds that "timidity is one thing; insubordination is another."
Reflecting that the "Iraq attack is on," is an across-the-board offensive, in a series of op-eds and articles buttressing actions by Administration officials, including Vice President Cheney (see U.S. NEWS DIGEST) and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to push for the war. On June 9, New York Post columnist John Ringo wrote that, hopefully, Bush won't let the generals turn him away from lauching a war on Saddam Hussein. Ringo contends that if Bush hesitates to attack Iraq, the Democrats could take the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections, and this could even cost Bush the Presidency.
A day later, the Washington Times reported on its front page that, while Central Command commander Gen. Tommy Franks had said that 200,000 troops, at least, involving five ground-combat divisions, would be needed for the Iraq war, now CENTCOM is studying contingency plans for a "quick war" that would rely on "psychological warfare" to create dissension and revolt in Iraqi ranks against Saddam Hussein. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times asserts that the "Bush Doctrine"that is, you are with us or against ushas been transformed after Bush's recent West Point speech to one in which "states that support terror are terrorists."
Murdoch's Fox-TV network also was reporting that when Bush "makes the decision" on Iraq, the U.S. military will be ready to strike within 90 days.
Administration Meeting Iraqi Opposition Figures
Well-informed Middle East sources have told EIW that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld held secret talks with Kurdish leaders who oppose the Saddam Hussein government in Iraq, prior to Rumsfeld's recent trip to Kuwait and other Gulf countries on his way to India. In Kuwait, Rumsfeld railed against Saddam Hussein as a "world-class liar," and indicated that he himself is opposed to United Nations weapons inspectors returning to Iraq, favoring instead ousting Saddam. Other indications show that "Clash of Civilizations" British intelligence agent Dr. Bernard Lewis is in the middle of working over Vice President Dick Cheney to launch a full-scale war against Islamic countries. According to the Wall Street Journal of June 14, Lewis met with Cheney to press the case that the U.S. "has gone wobbly" on Middle East policy, by supporting an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.
Lewis was one of the architects of the "Arc of Crisis" doctrine that was run by Zbigniew Brzezinski during the Jimmy Carter Presidency, which engineered the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, and the buildup of radical Islamist networks such as the "Afghansi" organizations that became al-Qaeda and Taliban.
At a lower level, State Department officials met with several Iraqi opposition groups some time around June 12 to attempt to put together a unified opposition. The leading group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), was cut off from State Department funds that were mandated by Congress because of financial reporting irregularities. INC head Ahmed Chalabi is a known huckster, indicted in Jordan for defrauding his own bank. Despite Chalabi's background, he was included in the leadership meeting.
Iraqi Opposition Gathers at American University
On June 8, an all-day conference at American University brought together the gaggle of Iraqi "resistance groups," including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), to discuss a post-Saddam "federalist" Iraq. The conference was entitled "Iraq's Kurds: A Key to Stability in Iraq."
The first panel consisted of "regional perspectives" and included a Kuwaiti, an Iranian, and a Turk, all of whom expressed concerns about a breakup of Iraq. While nobody was openly proposing Kurdish independence, it was clear that the organizers envisioned some form of federalist entity evolving, essentially, carving up Iraq into a Kurdish north, a Sunni center, and a Shiite south.
Peter Galbraith, now with the National Defense University, but a lifelong fomenter of ethnic conflict (he briefly served as a "member" of the East Timor government), was the real wild card in the pack. While most of those present skirted the issue of a U.S. military move against Iraq, Galbraith upbraided people for avoiding the subject, and claimed that the issue was, indeed, "impending U.S. operations against Iraq."
Alan Makovsky, an aide from the House International Relations Committee, another supporter of "regime change" in Iraq, also fretted that the biggest problem the U.S. would have, which would be to convince the Turks to support military action. The Turkish speaker, Ozdem Samberk, a former adviser to President Turgut Ozal, had warned clearly against opening "a Pandora's box" in the region through military actions against Saddam.
One afternoon panel consisted of representatives of the (Shiite, Iran-based) Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Iraqi National Accord, the Kurdish PUK and KDP, and Sharif Ali bin Al-Hussein, the heir to Iraq's throne, who represented the Iraqi National Congress. INC chief Ahmed Chalabi had been invited, but was unable, or unwilling, to come. On the surface, the mood was very chummy, with the Iraqi groups promising to give Kurds full representation in "the new Iraq," and the Kurdish groups promising to put their differences aside in order to battle the common enemy.
Tehran Conference Maps Out Continental Rail Lines for Development
Peace through economic development is a familiar theme to readers of economist Lyndon LaRouche, particularly centered around the development of the Eurasian Land-Bridge as a driver for global economic recovery.
A conference in Tehran, Iran in early June brought together representatives from over 30 nations, including transport ministers and deputy ministers from Russia, India, Afghanistan, Syria, Georgia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Romania, Turkey, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, to address the particulars of continental rail lines going from north to south, and going from Iran, the crossroads of the region, east to Eurasia. Also gathered in Tehran for the conference were representatives opf 20 international organizations, including the World Bank, UN, international road transporation agencies, railways, port and harbor unions, to name a few.
The title of the conference, opened by Iranian President Khatami, was "Iran: Opportunities for Transit." Khatami called for foreign and domestic investment in the sector, as Iran is "determined to exploit its transit privileges in order to promote cooperation and coexistence in the region as well as the world." The north-south transit corridor was slated to be at the center of the conference.
Syrian Minister of Transportation Mukram Ubeid told the Iranian news agency IRNA that he would be discussing ways and means of expediting an Iran-Syria railway through Iraq. Syria has allocated $7 billion for a 150-km rail stretch between the Syrian city Deir ez Zor and the Iraqi border city of al-Qaem. The line between Iran and Syria requires construction of a 40-km stretch between Khorramshahr and Al-Basrah.
At the inaugural ceremony for a second rail line from Tehran-Mashhad, which goes into Central Asia, President Khatami lauded the efforts of managers, engineers, and workers in expanding the national railway grid, which has become a priority of Iran. "Iran has linked the Central Asia to the Caucasus and Europe on the one hand, and has connected them to the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman on the other," he said, adding, "The country is a route linking southern seas and Europe." Khatami said, according to IRNA, that such a situation was "unique in the world," and added that the strategic Bandar Abbas-Sarakhs rail line would be operational in two years. This will link Central Asia and the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
War Crimes Expert Exposes Sharon Crimes in Lebanon and Jenin
Chibli Mallat, the Chief Counselor in the Belgian war crimes trial against Ariel Sharon, gave a chilling briefing on Sharon's 1982 war crimes in Lebanon, and asked his Washington, D.C. audience on June 11, "Why is President George W. Bush meeting so frequently with a twice-indicted war criminal, when he will not meet with President Yasser Arafat?" Mallat, who teaches at Université Saint Joseph in Beirut and graduated as an attorney from Georgetown University in Washington, returned to the U.S. to break the press blackout in this country on the indictment of Sharon on three counts for his role ("like Hitler") in ordering the genocide against Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatilla Palestinian refugee camps in 1982. Mallat spoke at the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine in Washington.
Descriptions of Mallat's legal arguments and the background on the Belgian case against Sharon can be found using the Search engine of www.larouchepub.com.
At the June 11 Washington event, Mallat explained why Israel was so fearful of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the events in Jenin. He said that it had been the Director General of the Israeli Defense Department, who is an attorney, who warned Prime Minister Sharon not to accept even the compromise Commission of Inquiry into events at Jenin, because he warned that it would lead to a trial on the basis of war crimes violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Mallat said there was no question of large-scale, deliberate murder of civilians, but said that an area the size of 20% of Jenin had been bulldozed without first checking if there were people in the houses being demolished. However, he stressed that such a case requires "serious investigation"including the gathering of "forensic evidence"adding, "It is just a matter of time before one or more indictments are brought against high-ranking IDF [Israel Defense Force] officers and other soldiers."
Jewish Leaders Warn, 'We Cannot Be Occupiers'
Both in Israel and the United States, Jewish leaders are voicing a deep concern about Israel's fascist brutality toward Palestinians.
In Israel, two prominent officials briefed the convention of the Meimad Party, which has two members of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), and both called for Israel to dismantle all settlements in the Occupied Territories. Former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon and Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior were the speakers.
Ami Ayalon said: "The need to leave Judea and Samaria is not connected to the security issue but to the continued existence of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.... If we don't leave the territories, either we will no longer be a democratic society, or we will not be the home for the Jewish people."
Melchior said: "We need to leave the settlements as soon as possible, with or without an agreement with the Palestinians.... We simply cannot afford to be an occupier in today's world." Both also cited demographics, noting that the average age of Palestinians is 13, while that of Israelis is 40.
In New York, Henry Siegman, who is the Council on Foreign Relations' Senior Fellow on the Middle East, gave an interview published in the June 13 New York Times, where he denounced the current Jewish lobby trend toward making a pariah of any moral Jewish leader who opposes Sharon et al. Siegman and his family had to flee the Nazis at the time of the British retreat from Dunkirk; they fled through Vichy France to Casablanca, and eventually to the United States. He says what he went through makes it easier for him to understand what it is like to be a Palestinian living under the "fear and humiliation" of Israeli occupation.
Siegman, who was ordained a rabbi, had been a student of Rabbi Abraham Heschel, with whom he later marched in the U.S. civil rights movement. Heschel taught him to think of "truth and justice as the keystone to Judaism," Siegman said.
In contrast, Siegman says, "American Jewish organizations confuse support for the state of Israel and its people with an uncritical endorsement of the actions of Israeli governments even when those governments do things that in an American context these Jewish organizations would never tolerate. It is inconceivable that a Jewish leader in America 20 or 30 years ago would be silent if a political party in the Israeli goverment called for the transfer of Palestiniansin other words, ethnic cleansing. Today, there are at least three such parties, but there has not been a word of criticism from American Jewish organizations."
Moussaoui Trial: British/U.S. Tracked Him Before Sept. 11
Zaccarias Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker," told the Federal court in Alexandria, Va., "This government was following me since I entered the United States of America, and they were engaging in covert operations against me." Moussaoui made his statement in a June 13 hearing where he fired his court-appointed lawyer and was granted the right to act as his own attorney. At the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, Moussaoui, a French national who had lived in Britain and France, was in a U.S. prison on visa violations, and had been there for some time.
He used his June 13 Virginia court appearance to reveal for the first time, "My address [was] surveilled by British armed police in 1998, okay, 1998 following the Embassy bombing." In August of 1998, car bombs exploded outside of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with hundreds killed. London press sources have told EIR that British surveillance of Moussaoui prior to his departure for the U.S. has never become an issue, due to the discreet "professionalism" of the British services. Moussaoui claimed he was not linked to the other 19 alleged hijackers and that "material evidence" could prove his innocence, which is important, he said, "because the people of America, they want to know who done September 11th and if I am responsible."
Although there is at this point no reason to believe Moussaoui would have information about the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks, nor clarity on who ultimately was behind his U.S. flight school activities and the money transfers to him, he might have information pointing to a "false trail," designed to protect the actual authors of the attacks.
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