Mideast News Digest
European Experts Hint Intelligence Agencies Behind Turkish Bombings
Israeli and Bush Administration officials were quick to blame the wave of terrorist attacks in Turkey on al-Qaeda, and therefore, by implication, on Iraq, which U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, the head of the neo-con coup d'etat group in the U.S., claims is the equivalent to al-Qaeda. But many intelligence experts are questioning this "instant" identification of the culprits as another "cooked" intelligence report without basis.
Even Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, on Nov. 23, told BBC, when asked of the Nov. 15 and Nov. 20 attacks that killed scores of people in four locations: "Is it an al-Qaida conglomerate?... Or is it some other terrorist organization? We are not 100% sure, at this point."
Two commentaries that appeared in Germany this week point in another directionthe involvement of intelligence services linked to the U.S. One retired U.S. intelligence source told EIR that Turkey is being destabilized as "payback" for refusing to go along with the urgent request from the U.S. to provide troops. Turkey reversed its earlier "decision" to send troops to Iraq. The decision had been made under the "carrot and stick" method, with the carrot being an $8.5 billion loan from the United States.
In a Nov. 21 interview with the Germany radio Station, NDR, Udo Steinbach, director of the Hamburg-based German Institute of Oriental Studies, and a veteran expert on the area, said that he is puzzled by the incidents in Istanbul. "Turkey has no tradition of a really militant and extremist Islam. We know Islamic parties, that have been a tradition in Turkey for decades."
"But in the 1980s, certain cells emerged, partially supported by the state, by the intelligence service, in the context of the struggle against the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). At that time, the intelligence service also encouraged the development of Islamist cells, known as Hezbollah, which were then to fight against the secular, Marxist PKK. This is a rather complicated context. The Turkish security forces tried to shut this down in the 1990s ... at least everyone thought so. But cells do still exist, apparently."
Writing from Ankara, where he is lecturing at Bilent University, Prof. Norman Stone (formerly at Oxford University in Britain), in an article in the Nov. 22 German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, poses the question in the headline: "Who Wants To Get at Turkey's Throat?" Stone writes that al-Qaeda is not the only enemy of Turkey's path into the West. There is relative political stability, and the economy is not so bad, either. Who would want to destabilize this rather stable Turkey?
Not spending one further word on al-Qaeda, Stone discards those who suspect the Turkish armed forces, saying that the armed forces are not at all involved in terrorist operations like this one. Nor are the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), because they were defeated. And, Stone remarks, there is remarkable improvement in Turkish-Greek relations, which actually could serve a model for the region as a whole. But, Stone writes, there is a linkage between this destabilization, and Turkey's opposition to the U.S. designs on Iraq:
"In Iraq, the Turks are categorically opposing a project which, in Western circles, has become of enormous significance: Kurdistan. The Kurdistan project would be an important factor for America to declare victory in Iraq, pull out troops and declare another non-Arab state which is friendly to the U.S.A. Also the Israelis would rejoice." Stone points to a previous wave of terrorism 20 years ago: Who is interested in weakening the state and the economy in Turkey? Let us think back 20 years, when there were 20 deaths a day, a collapsing economy, Stone says, and under those conditions, "Turkey was so weakened and became so dependent that it simply had to do what it was told by the U.S.A."
Bush Administration Backing Off Iran Nuclear Showdown
The U.S. is reported to have backed off from its demand for Iran's censure and referral to the UN Security Council on the nuclear issue, according to AP. Reports from Vienna on Nov. 22 indicate that diplomats involved in the IAEA discussions with Iran have been told by the U.S. that they will withdraw their demand that Iran be declared in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), or that the issue be sent to the UNSC for possible sanctions. IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei told the press Nov. 21 that there was progress in the negotiations, and that a consensus was being worked out. Earlier, he had rejected the statement by U.S. representative Kenneth Brill that ElBaradei was wrong to claim that there was "no evidence" of a weapons programthat he should at most say there was "no proof." ElBaradei called Brill's statement "disingenuous." The U.S., unable to get support for its demands, is now trying to get the board to "toughen up" the resolution submitted by France, Britain, and Germany, short of declaring Iran in non-compliance. The board is scheduled to meet again on Nov. 26.
N.Y. Congressman Pushing Saudi Accountability Act
Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has prepared a "Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2003" for introduction into the House of Representatives. The bill by Weiner (who worked with New York's Sen. Charles Schumer (D) for years, and took his Congressional seat, when Schumer ran for the Senate) contains the same belligerent tone as other such bills: Whereas the Saudis have been shown by the CFR, MEMRI, the New York Times, etc., to have supported terror, blocked investigations, sponsored Palestinian opposition to Israel, therefore it is the "sense of Congress that it is imperative that the Government of Saudi Arabia immediately and unconditionally: provide complete, unrestricted and unobstructed cooperation to the U.S." in all investigations; "close all charities, schools, or other organizations that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism anywhere in the world," and so forth. Sanctions include weapons export prohibitions and travel restrictions on all Saudi diplomats in the U.S.
Ha'aretz Editorial: Sharon Must Go
A Nov. 18 editorial in the widely-read Israeli daily Ha'aretz demands that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon be ousted. The title of the signed editorial by Yoel Marcus read, "The Captain Has to Go." Marcus writes: "It's not an easy thing to say that the Prime Minister is at a crossroads, fast approaching the last stop. It's no light-headed matter to say that the Prime Minister, wildly applauded at the opening of the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities of North America now in session in Jerusalem, has failed in his job of leading the country.
"But these nice people from the GA will be going home in a few days and the problems will remain in our lapsa Prime Minister with no vision, no plan, no horizon; a Prime Minister who has brought the country to where it is now and stands, at a critical juncture where he is doing more harm than good, no longer capable or worthy of manning the controls.... Since Sharon has been P.M., we have reached the point where people are asking if Israel will still be a Jewish state 30 years from now. Surveys in Europe show that Israel is perceived as a threat to world peace, the root of the problem. It's only a matter of time before it is saddled with all-out responsibility for global terror.
"Sharon and his oversized presence have blocked out every last ray of light."
Referring to the recent interview in Yedioth Ahronoth with four former Shin Bet chiefs, who issued a powerful indictment of Sharon, Marcus cites to Carmi Gillon, who said the country is going from bad to worse, preoccupied more with preventing the next terror attack than finding a solution to the whole rotten mess. Ami Ayalon says the problem is loss of hope. "The fact that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis foresee a better future is a consequence of what we are doing today...."
Marcus added, "Sharon did nothing to help Abu Mazen.... Sharon has no political plan.... As Ayalon astutely observed: 'When the captain doesn't know where he's heading, no wind in the world will get him there. There is only one thing we can say to a captain like this who endangers his ship and his passengers, and it is not said lightly. Go Home.' "
Israeli Public Opinion Turning Against Sharon
A senior Israeli intelligence source told EIR that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is coming under more and more pressure from the public. He said the latest attacks on his policy by four former heads of the Shin Beth security forces is dramatic, but only the latest manifestation of this pressure.
"The public is slowly but surely coming to the conclusion that this government has to move towards a solution to the conflict." He said that this is not felt just among the left but also growing numbers of Likud Party voters who put Sharon into power. This source recently attended a conference on the theme of whether Israel can be defended without the Occupied Territories. He said none of the speakers tried to argue that the territories were necessary for Israeli defense. That's despite the fact that some of the speakers could be considered right-wing.
He also said that the attempts by Sharon's people to discredit the Geneva Accords peace initiative are all backfiring. "The more they attack the Accords the more the public sees them as an alternative." The source said he was no longer pessimistic about the situation, and said that despite the fact that the Bush Administration will not pressure Sharon to implement the Road Map for a Middle East peace, pressure within Israel is growing to the point where, in the not-too-distant future, Sharon will have to change policy or leave office. In this regard he pointed to the fact that the Palestinians and the Israeli military are moving to implement a ceasefire, something Sharon does not support.
New Israel-Palestine Cease-Fire Negotiations
The intelligence chief of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, is in the process of negotiating a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire, or hudna. Suleiman, who is also a top aide to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has been in Israel and the West Bank since Nov. 17. He has already met Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, and other Palestinian leaders. He also met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer.
Unlike in earlier attempts, Suleiman is endeavoring to get guarantees from Israel that it would cease offensive operations in the occupied territories and stop targeted assassinations. An earlier effort failed, despite the fact that Hamas and other militant groups agreed to a cease-fire, because Israel continued its targetted assassinations, which led to revenge attacks.
According to press reports, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been under pressure from the Israeli military, as well as the security establishment, to support a ceasefire. The recent statement by four former chiefs of the Shin Bet security service, who were highly critical of Sharon, is an example of this pressure. Apparently, Israel has not conducted a targeted assassination in the last four weeks.
Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups are ready for a ceasefire, but want international and American guarantees that Israel will stop killing them.
Mossad Chief: Iran Is Existential Threat to Israel
Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan has issued a wild attack on Iran, claiming that the regime there poses an existential threat to the survival of Israel, Ha'aretz reported Nov. 18. Speaking in the Knesset, Dagan said, "We believe the Iranians will continue developing nuclear military projects, and in their hands, such weapons pose, for the first time, an existential threat to Israel." He also claimed that Iran was in the process of completing the construction of a uranium-processing plant in Kashan, which could produce 10 nuclear weapons. He also claimed that the Iranian nuclear power station at Bushehr would be used for the development of nuclear weapons. He said the nuclear power station "has no economic justification, unless they intend to arm themselves with nuclear arms."
Dagan, who is a crony of Sharon, is the first Mossad chief in 18 years to have publicly addressed a Knesset committee.
DeLay to Zionists: No Palestinian State
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay pumped up the crowd at a Nov. 15 New York fundraising dinner for the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). DeLay said that President Bush's peace proposal for a Palestinian state is wrong:
"Events continue to suggest there is nothing to negotiate .... Nobody should be negotiating a Palestinian state until the terror stopsor even thinking about it.... There is no middle ground."
DeLay gleefully boasted that the U.S. State Department has put his picture on a dartboard along with one of the ZOA's looneybird president, Morton Klein. "In case you need definitive evidence that I'm a defender of Israel, there it is," he said.
In his coverage of the dinner, a New York Sun reporter wrote that "Mr. DeLay framed his argument in almost Manichean terms."
This rug-chewing performance continues the role DeLay played in attacking the Adminstration's Middle East Road Map during his tour of Israel last summer. He told the Israelis to kill without restraint, saying in the Knesset: "There is no middle ground, no moderate position worth taking.... Israel's fight is our fightand so it shall be until the last terrorist on Earth is in a cell or a cemetery."
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