In this issue:

Sharon's Government Will Be Unstable Without Labor

Mitzna Holds the Line; Still 'No' to Sharon's Calls for Unity Government

Sharon Orders Especially Bloody Assault on West Bank

Al-Bayan Arabic Daily Publishes Report on EIR Revelations

Maureen Dowd: Cheney, Libby Behind Iraq 'Lab Test' for Empire Policy

Say Blix Omitted Key Facts from Inspection Report

What the U.S. Knows About Iraqi Bioweapons

Iraq Makes Effort To Restart Negotiations with UN Inspectors

From Volume 2, Issue Number 5 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Feb. 3, 2003
Mideast News Digest

Sharon's Government Will Be Unstable Without Labor

Even with 38 Likud Party members of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), Ariel Sharon's new government will be unstable without the participation of the Labor Party. A review of the election results demonstrates that Sharon's election victory was not such a landslide. Furthermore, without the Labor Party, any coalition combination will be shaky. Thus, if Labor chairman Amram Mitzna—who was Sharon's opponent for Prime Minister in the Jan. 28 elections—keeps his promise to stay out of the government, new elections could soon be in the offing.

First, the election turnout was 68%, the lowest in Israel's history. Israeli observers indicate that Labor and the left suffered from this. Moreover, many of these non-voters were former Likud voters who were disgusted by the corruption and criminality that has taken over the party, but could not bring themselves to vote Labor. The Likud won its additional 18 mandates at the expense of the right-wing, ethnic Russian and Shas Parties. These parties lost no less than 13 mandates to the Likud. Another five or six of the Likud's new mandates came as the result of the dissolution of the Center and Gesher Parties, both of which had been led by former Likud leaders who simply rejoined the Likud for the recent elections.

All in all, many of these voters had always been Likud supporters but abandoned the party during last elections, and simply were convinced to return to the party this time. Although Likud is much larger, it is also more unstable, now that its left wing led by Dan Meridor, which supports territorial compromise, and a right wing led by Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, who refuses to accept a Palestinian state of any form, are back in the party. Thus, under certain conditions the party could split again as it did in 1999, when several of its old members joined the Labor-led government of Ehud Barak.

Labor lost six seats primarily because of the low voter turnout, and to the Shinui Party. The latter, led by former TV presenter Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, is a sort of virtual party; claiming to be liberal, it was formed on the basis of opposing the ultra-Orthodox religious parties, and went from a marginal six mandates to 15. It has a left wing which supports territorial compromise, and a right wing which does not. Meretz lost almost half its mandates, for much the same reason. Although Lapid would love to jump into the coalition bed with Sharon, he cannot join a coalition that includes the ultra-Orthodox Shas, a party which has carried out a considerable number of backroom deals with the Likud. If Lapid tried, his party would most likely split, with some of its Knesset members joining the ranks of the opposition. Lapid has called on the Labor Party to dump Mitzna and join a Sharon-led government.

Meanwhile, the trade-union-linked One Nation doubled its strength to four, and the Arab parties Ra'am and Baland, along with the Arab-Jewish party Hadash, increased their mandates to a total of nine.

The rest of the mandates were spread among the religious parties and the extreme-rightwing National Union.

Thus, despite Likud's 38 mandates, without the Labor Party, the arithmetic of coalition-building will not add up to a stable government. If Sharon decides to go for a rightwing government, he could be forced to go to war sooner than the war party in Washington would want, or his government could collapse, leading once again to elections.

Mitzna Holds the Line; Still 'No' to Sharon's Calls for Unity Government

Israeli Labor Party chairman Amram Mitzna appears to be prevailing over his colleagues, with his insistence that Labor must stay out of newly reelected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government and work for its downfall. Former Labor Party chairman Benjamin Ben Eliezer, who had served as Sharon's Defense Minister in the last government, and voiced his support for Mitzna, told the Israeli paper Ha'aretz Jan. 30 that a war in Iraq need not be a reason to join an unity government with Sharon. He added, "The most important thing to do now is rehabilitate the party, build the branches, and create a fighting spirit."

Nonetheless, Shimon Peres continues to take his cue from American Mega/organized-crime figures Marc Rich and Michael Steinhardt, who helped sabotage Miztna's election efforts because Mitzna would not join a unity government. According to Ha'aretz, Peres took the unusual step of calling his "old friend" Sharon to congratulate him on his victory, while telling the press that Labor should keep the door open to Sharon's overtures.

Many commentators are saying that Sharon will have a hard time enticing Labor into a coalition, and some are saying Sharon might even have a hard time with his "good friend" George W. Bush. Israeli political commentator Akiva Elder, writing in Ha'aretz, warned Sharon that he needs Labor more than Labor needs him. He cautions Sharon not to bank on financial aid and political support from Washington. "With the U.S. government cutting $28 billion from the Federal budget, even the most friendly-to-Israel President needs some very good reasons to explain to his public why he is giving money away to foreigners. Bush already has some growing problems with the public opposed to a war in Iraq that isn't backed by the Security Council.... The worse the economic crisis becomes in the U.S., the more Bush's popularity declines."

Sharon Orders Especially Bloody Assault on West Bank

Following his election victory, Ariel Sharon ordered a particularly violent assault on the West Bank. Israeli soldiers, protected by tanks, shut the vegetable market of Hebron by bulldozing over more than 100 market stalls (firing live rounds at Palestinians who protested this brutality by throwing stones), while, in the town of Rafah, Israeli soldiers closed two wells that provide water for thousands.

The Hebron operation was particularly heavy, as at least 20 armored vehicles moved in for an operation that was to last at least for days. A curfew has been imposed. Homes are being searched; three police stations were closed, and the criminals held in their jails released; two local television and one radio station were closed. The Palestinian police commander of Hebron, Khaled Madoun, charged that Sharon is out to create chaos. "It is Sharon's policy to destroy the last remnant of the Palestinian Authority in Hebron, the police force. The Palestinians can't even feel safe from criminals."

Twenty Palestinians were also wounded in clashes with Israeli troops which entered Tamun, near Jenin, and two Palestinians were killed in Tulkarm.

Al-Bayan Arabic Daily Publishes Report on EIR Revelations

The Arabic daily Al-Bayan has published a full-page report on EIR's revelations concerning the Likud Party's organized-crime supporters—Anton Chaitkin's article, "A Bigger Scandal: Illegal U.S. Funding of Sharon's Likud." The report in the Dubai-based paper was the lead item in the international affairs section of the daily on Jan. 27, the day before the Israeli elections.

The report was introduced by the editor of the Arab politics desk, Khalid Abu Krayim, who stressed many times that EIR is the magazine of Lyndon LaRouche, who is fighting to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party for the 2004 Presidential elections. Abu Krayim argues from the outset that "the Arab's carelessness about the drumbeat of war in the region and Sharon's likely emergence as the winner in Tuesday's elections will evaporate when the dangerously unprecedented details about the real people behind Sharon and his explosive agenda are exposed." Abu Krayim further states that "although the general slogan of 'unlimited U.S. support for Israel' is an axiomatic part of our life, however, the details implied in this slogan will turn our future into a feast on the table of a handful of gangs." He stresses that "the reformist current in the Jewish lobby in the U.S. has been defeated in the past few years through a coup by a group of fanatic organizations now allied with most extreme right-wing Christian groups."

Abu Krayim issues a warning to Arabs that they have lost a lot of time focussing on the Israeli government and making general statements about U.S. support for Israel, but never were able to look deeper into the real controllers of Sharon and Netanyahu, the mafia and organized-crime groups and their political machine inside the United States. This, he says is uniquely exposed by the "LaRouche magazine." Abu Krayim's short introduction is followed by a full translation into Arabic of Chaitkin's article, which was reprinted in a major Jordanian daily last week.

Abu Krayim has written many articles on the internal situation in the U.S., using material from EIR. Al-Bayan has published many articles and reports about LaRouche's campaigns and his ideas for shifting international economic and political strategies towards a just, new economic order. A search in the Al-Bayan website for the word LaRouche (in Arabic letters)yields 99 occurrences.

Maureen Dowd: Cheney, Libby Behind Iraq 'Lab Test' for Empire Policy

A Jan. 29 op ed in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd exposes Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, as being behind the Iraq war "lab test" case for the Empire "preemptive war" policy. Lyndon LaRouche's crucial role in the fight against the Iraq war was evidenced in the column by Dowd, written after President Bush's State of the Union and, "The Empire Strikes First." Not only did she identify Libby as hawk, she identified him as one of the authors of the 1992 Defense Department document that first called for the U.S. to adopt the empire policy. On Jan. 28, wrote Dowd, Bush accomplished nothing in his State of the Union address to justify war on Iraq. She zeroed in on Cheney and Libby as the center of the trouble.

It was Lyndon LaRouche, and nobody else who put the focus on Scooter Libby, for long the lead attorney for gangster Marc Rich. It was LaRouche who exposed Libby's role and the 1992 document, in tandem with the notorious 1996 "Clean Break" document prepared for Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. Unlike Wolfowitz, Perle, Woolsey, and other neo-con big mouths, Libby keeps a very low profile, so much so that the fact that his name is coming out so publicly is highly important. A well-informed Republican emphasized this to EIR. Dowd "has it right," said the source, and "that's because of what LaRouche did."

Dowd wrote that since Bush has no evidence, "The Bush team thinks the way to galvanize the public is with fear, by coupling Saddam to 9/11 and building him up into a Hitler who could threaten the world....

"But their reasons for war predate 9/11. The conservatives have wanted Saddam's head for a dozen years.

"Dick Cheney; his chief of staff, Scooter Libby; and the Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz also think Saddam is the perfect lab rat on which to test their new preemptive 'empire strikes first' national security strategy which Mr. Wolfowitz and Mr. Libby first drafted back in 1992, during the Bush 41 Administration when Mr. Cheney was defense secretary."

She wrote that Bush 41 "found the ideas too far out. But now his son has put them into play."

Say Blix Omitted Key Facts from Inspection Report

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix omitted key facts in his report to the UN Security Council, charged former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, as reported in the Gulf Daily News for Jan. 30. For example, when Blix raised what he called unanswered questions about certain biological weapons, why didn't he say that liquid anthrax becomes useless three years after its manufacture, or that any chemical weapon produced by Iraq between 1993 and 1998 was of such bad quality it would not be viable?

The government of Iraq itself has not denied that it produced such biological weapons, but it points out—for example in its Oct. 2, 2002 reply to British Prime Minister Blair's White Paper—that these biological agents could no longer be effective, because of limited shelf life. For instance, the Iraqi report stated, the botulinum protein converts to a non-toxic substance after three years, even under ideal storage conditions.

Ritter said that Blix's report "was probably the best favor he could have done to the Bush Administration in order to facilitate a military strike against Iraq."

What the U.S. Knows About Iraqi Bioweapons

When EIR last week asked White House spokesman Ari Fleischer if it isn't the case that during the 1980s the U.S. helped Saddam Hussein get biological and chemical weapons when the U.S. was supporting Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, Fleischer denied it, saying that he doesn't think anyone can provide specifics "in the case of Americans."

It is well-documented that U.S. laboratories provided a large variety of biological agents consisting of viral and bacteriological samples to Iraq. Materials provided to the U.S. Senate by the former Director of the Centers for Disease Control, David Satcher, and re-entered in the Congressional Record on Sept. 20, 2002 by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WVa) list numerous such shipments.

For example, pursuant to a license from the U.S. Commerce Department, American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) of Manassas, Va. shipped 24 types of biological materials to Iraq on May 2, 1986, which included four different batches of Bacillus Anthracis (the anthrax bacterium), and six different batches of Clostridium Botulinum (a bacterial source of botulinum toxin). And on Aug. 31, 1987, ATCC lawfully shipped three more batches of Bacillus Anthracis to Iraq.

According to a study by the Monterrey Institute for International Studies, in addition to more than 70 licensed private laboratory shipments of biological cultures to Iraq, the Centers for Disease Control itself sent more than 80 agents to Iraq between 1984 and 1989, including botulinum toxoid, dengue virus, and the West Nile antigen and antibody.

And of course, Donald Rumsfeld himself paved the way for such U.S. assistance to Iraq, with his 1983-84 visits to Baghdad.

In fact, California Senator Barbara Boxer (D) on Jan. 30, while questioning Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and UN Ambassador John Negroponte, entered into the record the Washington Post article by Michael Dobbs from Dec. 29, headlined "U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup: Trade in chemical arms allowed despite their use on Iranians and Kurds." She read portions on the Reagan-Bush (41) Administration, with Rumsfeld as their special envoy, providing "poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague," and discovering after the war "chemicals, missile components, and computers from American suppliers, including such household names as Union Carbide and Honeywell, which were being used for military purposes."

Boxer also quoted Secretary Colin Powell as of three and one-half three weeks ago stating: "The inspectors are really now starting to gain momentum," and added: "Now I sense he's joined with others in saying, you know, 'time's up.' It seems like a very rapid change of heart to me, and I want to know why." She also quoted General Norman Schwarzkopf: "It's important for us to wait and see what the inspectors come up with, and hopefully they'll come up with something conclusive." Boxer added: "When I heard of possible first use of nuclear weapons, I couldn't believe it, and I hope that that's not on the table."

Iraq Makes Effort To Restart Negotiations with UN Inspectors

Iraq has made an effort to restart negotiations with the UN's chief weapons inspectors before their Feb. 14 report to the Security Council. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed El Baradei said he and his fellow UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, would consider the invitation to visit Baghdad before their Feb. 14 report—but only if Iraq dropped objections to U-2 spy plane flights and did more to ensure that inspectors could interview Iraqi scientists in private. "We need to make sure before we go that they are ready to move forward on these issues," El Baradei is quoted as saying in Vienna.

In response, Iraqi Major General Hossam Mohammed Amin called for negotiations in Baghdad with Blix and El Baradei on the two outstanding issues. As for U-2 overflights, the General said that Iraq would permit them if they did not occur at the same time as other U.S.-U.K. overflights in the no-fly zones. And he said that Iraqi scientists were free to choose whether or not they wanted an Iraqi government official present during an interview with weapons inspectors: "It's up to each scientist. It's a question of freedom."

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