In this issue:

UPI Exposes Rafi Eytan Secret Ops in USA

IAEA To Discuss Israel's 'Rogue' Nuclear Weapons

Iran's IAEA Rep Recommends Enhanced Inspections

Egypt and Jordan Inaugurate Natural Gas Project

Syria and Turkey Launch Strategic Partnership

Turkish Parliament Votes Kurdish Amnesty

Iraqi Scientists All Say WMD Program Was Shut Down in 1998

Sharon's Son Under Police Probe

Bahrain Daily Serializes Children of Satan

Bush Pressured To Stand Up to Sharon by Eagleburger, Bronfman

From Volume 2, Issue Number 31 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Aug. 5, 2003
Mideast News Digest

UPI Exposes Rafi Eytan Secret Ops in USA

United Press International's seasoned national security correspondent Richard Sale posted a blockbuster story on July 29, charging that Israeli master spy and Ariel Sharon cohort "Dirty" Rafi Eytan, the recruiter and controller of Jonathan Jay Pollard, has been recently in the United States, and clearly up to no good. "The Israeli recruiter of convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard has reemerged on American soil and is being scrutinized by the FBI, according to well-placed intelligence and law enforcement sources," the Sale story began.

After reviewing Eytan's close ties to Sharon and his role in the Pollard affair, Sale returned to the current surfacings. "According to federal law enforcement officials, Eitan has, for the last year or so, been traveling to the United States on an Israeli passport, but using an alias. These sources told United Press International that Eitan lands at Columbus, Ohio, and then moves about the Midwest, to cities such as Indianapolis. Eitan has been seen and photographed in the company of 'known dealers who belong to a ring dealing in the drug Ecstasy,' one Federal law enforcement official said. He added, 'The FBI is looking for evidence that Eitan is, or has been engaging, in questionable activities related to this ring.' The FBI probe is continuing, this official said."

The Sale story conforms to reports received last year by EIR and reported at the time. EIR sources have linked Eytan's illegal travels to plans for a terrorist incident inside the U.S. that would be blamed on "Islamist" networks.

IAEA To Discuss Israel's 'Rogue' Nuclear Weapons

"Israeli nuclear capabilities and threats" will be included as an agenda item at the International Atomic Energy Agency's 47th General Conference on Sept. 15-19, according to the IAEA's official website. The item was placed on the agenda at the request of the Arab states, transmitted in a letter from the Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman. An accompanying memo concludes that "The General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency must take appropriate measures to ensure that Israel places all its nuclear installations under Agency safeguards and accedes to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons." The memo notes that all the Arab states have signed on to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but that Israel has refused to do so. "Israel's possession of nuclear weapons is likely to lead to a destructive nuclear arms race in the region, especially if Israel's nuclear installations remain outside any international control." The memo also lists several resolutions of both the United Nations General Assembly and the IAEA calling on Israel to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and place its nuclear installations under IAEA safeguards.

Iran's IAEA Rep Recommends Enhanced Inspections

In a July 28 interview with the state-run Iranian newspaper Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's IAEA representative said he hoped Tehran would take measures to satisfy international concerns about its nuclear program ahead of the International Atomic Energy Agency's September board of governors meeting. Asked if Iran should accede to the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), allowing more intrusive, short-notice inspections, he said, "Right now, we are in a situation where we can use the Additional Protocol as a tool for solving the problems which have been created and to close the politicized case of our nuclear activities. With a positive attitude toward the Additional Protocol, we can take necessary advantage of it."

Egypt and Jordan Inaugurate Natural Gas Project

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan inaugurated the biggest Arab integrated project to carry Egyptian natural gas to Jordan and other countries, on July 27. Egypt's natural gas will be carried from the Egyptian port of Taba to the Jordanian thermal station of Aqaba. Future stages in coming years, include carrying Egyptian natural gas to Syria via Jordan, to the Lebanese Al-Zahrani refinery by the year 2005, to Cyprus in the year 2006, and then to Europe via Turkey at a total cost of $1 billion.

Jordanian Minister of Energy Mohammad Batayineh told reporters July 26 that the King would head for Taba July 27, with a high-ranking delegation, to inaugurate the Egyptian part of the project with the Egyptian President The two Arab leaders, he added, would then head for Aqaba via the sea to open the Taba-Aqaba phase of the project. They were to tour the civil and electro-mechanical works, as well as ground facilities for extending gas to Jordan. They were also to tour the filtering station and facilities for the plan to feed the Aqaba power station, whose capacity hits 100,000 cubic meters.

The first stage of the Arab gas pipeline project (Arish-Taba), with investments up to $220 million, involves laying a line 248 kilometers long, with a diameter of 26 inches; then a maritime line will be laid to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, with a length of 15 kilometers and at depth of 850 meters.

Egyptian Ambassador to Jordan Dr. Mohamed Higazy said the project confirmed Mubarak's commitment to an Arab common market.

Syria and Turkey Launch Strategic Partnership

Syria and Turkey are developing a strategic relationship, according to Syrian Prime Minister Mustafa Miro, on conclusion of a visit to Ankara. Miro said he saw a "brilliant future," for relations between the "two brother countries." Turkey's Anatolia News Agency said Miro considered their relations to be strategic, and that they should set up an "economic and commercial union." Miro's trip to Turkey was the first by a Syrian Prime Minister in 17 years.

Turkish Parliament Votes Kurdish Amnesty

The Turkish Parliament approved a controversial bill on July 29, granting partial amnesty to Kurdish militants. Some 356 deputies of 427 present, voted for the change. The government believes this new bill will be a significant step towards national reconciliation in a country where tens of thousands of people died during 15 years of conflict. But the ruling Justice and Development Party has been criticized for giving in to yet more American pressure and ignoring national sensitivities. The main opposition, the Republican Party, rejected the bill, saying it was put forward under U.S. pressure, since the U.S. wants to see Turkish troops leave Northern Iraq, where they are keeping an eye on the Iraqi Kurds and any possible evolution of an independent Kurdistan involving Iraqi and Turkish Kurds.

Unless it is sent back by the President, the new law will grant a partial and conditional amnesty to the militants of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, at least those who were not involved in acts of violence. The partial amnesty excludes the leaders of the movement. Kurdish groups claim this is not a true amnesty, but another way of creating more informants for the state.

The government is hoping that the new legislation will pave the way for Kurdish militants in Northern Iraq to lay down their arms and return to Turkey. After the vote, the Interior Minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, thanked the deputies for choosing the path to peace and reconciliation. He rejected the charge that the government came under pressure. Instead, he said, Turkey had to learn the lessons of the past and to embrace all of its people, including some of its terrorists.

Iraqi Scientists All Say WMD Program Was Shut Down in 1998

In a front-page story, which should be devastating to the fraudulent story line of Iraq WMD purveyed by Dick Cheney et al., the Washington Post reported July 30 that all Iraqi scientists who have so far been interviewed by U.S. officials, have consistently denied that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, or developed and hidden chemical or biological weapons, after UN inspectors left in 1998.

This is true for every scientist interviewed, whether inside or outside of Iraq, and whether the scientist is in custody, or has been released.

For example, the much-cited case of Mahdi Obeidi, who had some nuclear plans and components buried in his back yard since 1991: Obeidi told interrogators that Iraq's nuclear program was dormant in recent years. He also disputed the Bush Administration's claim regarding Iraq's purchase of aluminum tubes, stating that they were for rockets, as Iraq had said.

"So far," reports the Post, "the United States has discovered no undisputed evidence that Hussein had stocks of chemical or biological weapons or was reconstituting his nuclear weapons programs."

Sharon's Son Under Police Probe

Gilad Sharon, who is a major suspect in at least two Israeli police investigations that could incriminate his father, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, continues to refuse to cooperate with the police. Gilad Sharon is accused of laundering $1.5 million, which he received from a friend of his father's, Anglo-South African businessman Cyril Kern; the money was then used to pay off Ariel Sharon's illegal campaign debts. He is also accused of a similar crime involving Israeli contractor David Appel.

On July 28, Gilad refused to give police documents they requested involving the Kern case. The prosecutors will now petition the court to hasten proceedings which will require Sharon to reveal the documents.

Only a few weeks ago, Gilad refused to answer police questions, claiming that he did not want to incriminate his brother Omri and his father.

It appears that all these investigations of Sharon will have to come to a head by Jan. 15, 2004, the date that Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein has announced for his resignation. Justice Minister Yosef Lapid has conditioned Rubinstein's resignation on completing these investigations. Rubinstein has to decide whether Sharon and others should be indicted by then. Rubinstein had hoped to retire without having made this decision, so as to clear his way to a nomination to the Supreme Court—which requires the approval of the Prime Minister.

Bahrain Daily Serializes Children of Satan

Following a visit by a Danish LaRouche Youth Movement member to Bahrain, Al-Wasat News, an opposition daily, started publishing a series based on the LaRouche in 2004 campaign pamphlet Children of Satan. The part run on July 22 was titled "The Liars Behind Bush's Destructive War against Iraq," which is part of Jeffrey Steinberg's article "The Ignoble Liars." The second part, "The New American Century and the Imperial Preventive War," was a continuation of Steinberg's article.

Al-Wasat News is the main daily of the Bahraini opposition, composed mostly of Shi'a Muslims. They have been active in the mobilization to restore the Bahraini Parliament, which was abolished in 1971, in the wake of independence from British rule. That independence was not complete at that time, because the British still controlled the country's security affairs through British intelligence officer, and Kenyan Mau Mau operative, Ian Henderson. Henderson was discharged in 1999, and Bahrain is now a constitutional monarchy, but not without troubles.

On July 25, EIR's Edward Spannaus was interviewed on a leading talk show on Al-Jazeera satellite television as part of a panel discussing the scandal in Washington over the lies used to justify the Iraq war. Spannaus discussed the primary role of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Bush Pressured To Stand Up to Sharon by Eagleburger, Bronfman

In extreme diplomatese, two leading North American power-brokers told President George W. Bush in a letter last week to "urge both sides 'to take the necessary steps to create stability and momentum in the peace process,' " with emphasis on "both sides" meaning Ariel Sharon. On July 30, the Christian Science Monitor carried a story by AP reporter Barry Schweid which reported that former Republican Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger (under President George H.W. Bush "41") and billionaire Edgar Bronfman, head of the World Jewish Congress, sent a "friendly" letter to President Bush, prior to his meeting with Sharon, telling him not to abandon the Road Map.

The letter has even more weight, given Eagleburger's statement to BBC on April 13 that if Bush invaded Syria (a high priority for Sharon and the Cheney Chickenhawks), "I would think that he ought to be impeached. You can't get away with that sort of thing in this democracy." The surfacing again of Eagleburger grids with reports that the Cheney cabal fears not only the Democrats in Congress, who are investigating the lies used to secure approval of the Iraq war—but also Republicans who are fed up with the neo-cons.

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