Southwest Asia News Digest
'Anonymous' CIA Book Issues Blistering Attack on Bush Admin.
A senior active duty CIA analyst, writing under the name "Anonymous," has released a bitter attack on the Bush Administration's war in Iraq and its failing war on terror, in Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror. According to the June 19 London Guardian, the author worked in Afghanistan and South Asia, and spent years tracking Osama bin Laden. The book is being published by Brassey's, Inc.
In the interview, Anonymous does not hold back his contempt for the Bush Administration, calling the Iraq War, "an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantage. Our choice of timing, moreover, shows an abject, even willful failure to recognize the ideological power, lethality and growth potential of the threat personified by bin Laden, as well as the impetus that threat has been given by the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Muslim Iraq."
Speaking on the expanding threat, he said, "What I think we're seeing in al-Qaeda is a change of generation. The people who are leading al-Qaeda now seem a lot more professional group." He fears that they will acquire weapons of mass destruction, including dirty bombschemical and biological weaponsthat could be made by their own experts, many of whom were trained in the U.S. and Britain.
"I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now. One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the President." Anonymous argues that the Bush Administration is taking the U.S. exactly where bin Laden wants: towards all-out confrontation with Islam.
A sense of the blistering criticism can be had from the chapter headings alone: Chapters 6, 7, and 8 are respectively titled: "Blinding Hubris Abounding: Inflicting Defeat on OurselvesNon-War, Leaks, and Missionary Democracy"; "When the Energy Sets the Stage: How America's Stubborn Obtuseness Helps Its Foes"; and, "Preparing for War: Know the Enemy, Debate Everything, Kill the Generals, and Put Away the Warrants."
Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA operations officer who knows the author, said that Anonymous feels vindicated by events. "He is very well respected, and looked on as a serious student of the subject."
Iraqi Resistance Mounts Coordinated Attacks
Just a week before the planned transfer of sovereignty set for June 30, the Iraqi resistance organized coordinated attacks against police stations and government buildings in several cities in the Sunni areas of Iraq. Upwards of 90 people have been killed, including three U.S. troops, and 318 or more have been wounded. In Mosul, 44 were killed and 216 injured, in attacks which included several car bombs. Other attacks were reported on Baqouba, Ramadi, Baghdad and other cities, where car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars were used.
A U.S. patrol was ambushed in Baquba. Military spokesman Major Neal O'Brien said: "The patrol returned fire, killing two insurgents. There also have been reports of indiscriminate fire, landing in populated areas. They're firing mortars indiscriminately."
In Mosul: There were at least four car bombs that went off in the al-Wakhas district and at the Wadi Hajar police station in the south of the city. The Iraqi Police Academy, another police station, and the al-Jumhuri hospital were also attacked.
In Baquba: 55 km (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, witnesses said masked men in black took control of the main road and attacked a police station with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Two U.S. soldiers died in the fighting and seven were wounded, the U.S. Army said.
In Ramadi: 100 km west of the capital, black-clad insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at two police stations; police said seven people were killed and 13 were wounded in the attack. Hospital officials said two other groups of insurgents attacked a second police station and a government building.
In Falluja: The U.S. military said a Cobra helicopter was shot down, but there were no casualties. U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships flew low over the city in response to gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades; residents were seen fleeing the city.
In Baghdad: Four members of Iraq's national guard died, and two people were hurt in a car bomb blast.
The nature of the attacks shows a higher level of coordination than seen in earlier fighting. As Iraq experts have told EIR in recent weeks, the resistance forces are expected to launch a new phase of the war against the occupation, as the June 30 date nears.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told BBC: "I think we underestimated the nature of the insurgency that we might face during this period. "The insurgency that we're looking at now has become a serious problem for us, but it's a problem that we will deal with."
Kurdish Leader Denies Covert Military Aid from Israelis
Jalal Talabani, lead of the U.S.-allied Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) visited Turkey on June 23-24, and assured Turkish leaders that the Kurds have no intention of dominating the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. During talks in Ankara, Talabani denied reports published in the New Yorker magazine by U.S. investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, that the Israelis were cooperating with the Kurds. He proposed a joint civilian fact-finding committee to investigate.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan also received Farouq Abdallah Abdurrahman, leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, to discuss concerns that the Turkmen minority is not adequately represented in Iraq's new government. Erdogan said he would raise the issue with U.S. President Bush, when the latter arrives in Turkey for the NATO summit meeting on June 27.
Turkish officials have reiterated their position, that they would not block a federal administration in Iraq, if the territorial integrity of the country were secured, and if all Iraqi groups were to agree. Otherwise, "If no consensus emerges and a civil conflict follows such a dispute, then neighboring countries will have the right to have a say," according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan.
Bombs Go Off in Turkey Days Before Bush's Arrival
A bomb attack in Istanbul killed five people and injured several others, hours after another explosion in Turkey's capital, Ankara June 24. The explosion in Istanbul destroyed a bus. The governor of Istanbul province, Muammer Guler, said the bomb on the bus was being carried by a woman in her early 20s, and that it is believed to have exploded at the wrong time in the wrong place. "It is understood that the target was neither the bus nor the passengers aboard."
The bomb in Ankara went off outside the Hilton Hotel where President Bush was scheduled to stay during the NATO summit which begins June 27. Two people, including a police officer, were injured in that incident.
In a separate incident, Turkish police on June 24 defused a time bomb, made of a mixture of fertilizers and diesel, which had been placed outside a car shop.
The bombs come as preparations are being completed for Bush's visit to the city for the NATO summit. The visit by the U.S. President has provoked demonstrations, organized by leftist and communist groups. According to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, Bush's plans remain unchanged. "As for the schedule, nothing has changed," McClellan told reporters in Washington, adding that the attacks were an attempt to disrupt preparations for the NATO summit.
Congress Gives Full Support to Bush-Sharon Land Grab
The U.S. House of Representatives has given George W. Bush another "green light" for war against Arab populations, by passing a resolution, on June 24, endorsing Bush's notorious April 14 letter to Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ha'aretz reported June 24.
The letter claims that Israel doesn't have to withdraw to the 1967 borders and that Palestinian refugees do not have the right to return to the homes that they were driven out of by the war. Bush's letter unilaterally destroys the U.S. commitment to dozens of UN Security Council resolutions, dating back to 1949. The resolution passed 407 to 9, with three Congressmen abstaining.
The resolution was proposed by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) who said, "Put simply, Israel must not retreat behind its 1967 borders, and there is no so-called right of return." DeLay, a Christian fundamentalist fanatic, believes that a Palestinian state is a violation of the Biblical prophecy. The vote shows that the Congress has not gotten any smarter, or any more courageous than they were in Oct. 2002, when they voted to approve the Bush policy on Iraq, which was based on lies and misrepresentations to Congress. Information given to Congress on the Palestinians is even more distorted!
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) opposed DeLay's resolution, and declared that past resolutions on the Mideast have always been one-sided in favor of Israel. He asked, "Where were the Palestinians in this dialogue?... Where are the Palestinians involved in the discussions on the no-return issue."
Gitmo Prison Commander Brags: Torture Gets Results
A 12-page report, filed by U.S. Army General Jeffrey Miller, after his 2003 trip to occupation prisons in Iraq, bragged that torture gets results, according to USA Today June 23. The newspaper obtained a copy of the report filed by Miller after his August/September 10-day visit to Iraq from his post as head of the Guantanamo prison. The report is part of the classified section of the Taguba Report on the abuses. Miller explicitly describes the need for the Military Police (MPs) to work with the interrogators in "setting the conditions to exploit internees to respond to questions," which confirms what the scapegoated MPs have insisted all along. Also, Miller promised that "a significant improvement in actionable intelligence (i.e., intelligence that leads to the capture of insurgents) will be realized within 30 days." Not only did the intelligence not improve, but the insurgency has grown in size, and in sophistication, against the U.S. occupation.
Saudis Give al-Qaeda One Month To Surrender
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah has announced an offer to the al-Qaeda members opposing the Saudi Royal House, whereby the militants who surrender in the next month will not face the death penalty. The Crown Prince said the offer is open to anyone who has not been "arrested for carrying out terrorist acts."
On June 23, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the Saudi Arabian authorities have struck a blow against al-Qaeda by killing its leader, but "getting rid of one cell does not mean this issue is over."
Indeed, there are many indications that "the issue is not over." In the last two weeks, terrorists calling themselves al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, kidnapped and beheaded two foreign workers, American Paul Johnson, and Korean Kim Jong Il. On June 23, some militant clerics in Saudi Arabia gave call to the Saudi faithful to travel to Iraq to join insurgents battling the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies. Prince Saud al-Faisal said the calls are "illegitimate" and that the kingdom would not permit its citizens to go to the neighboring state to fight the U.S-led forces.
Meanwhile, the Saudi English-language daily Al Bawaba, reported June 24 that the British are bringing in troops from the UK to protect their own embassy in Riyadh. This means removal of all Saudi personnel from the embassy's outer security.
|