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gmePowerPointslidestopic5.pptIraq Population: 39,192,111 (July 2017 est.);
U.S. population: 323,995,528 (July 2016 est.)
Ethnic groups: Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkmen, Assyrian, Shabak, Yazidi, other 5%
Religions: Muslim (official) 99% (Shia 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian 0.8%
New CIA estimates: Muslim (official) 99% (Shia 55-60%, Sunni 40%), Christian <.1%, Yazidi <.1%, Sabean Mandaean <.1%, Baha'i <.1%, Zoroastrian <.1%, Hindu <0.1%, Buddhist <0.1%, Jewish <0.1%, folk religion <0.1, unafilliated 0.1%, other <0.1%
note: while there has been voluntary relocation of many Christian families to northern Iraq, recent reporting indicates that the overall Christian population may have dropped by as much as 50 percent since the fall of the SADDAM Husayn regime in 2003, with many fleeing to Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon (2010 est.)
Languages: Arabic (official), Kurdish (official), Turkmen (a Turkish dialect), Syriac (Neo-Aramaic), and Armenian are official in areas where native speakers of these languages constitute a majority of the population)
Iraq's oil provides more than 90% of government revenue and 80% of foreign exchange earnings
Iraq GDP (official exchange rate): $171.7 billion (2016 est.); U.S. GDP: $18.62 trillion (2016 est.)
Border countries (6): Iran 1,599 km, Jordan 179 km, Kuwait 254 km, Saudi Arabia 811 km, Syria 599 km, Turkey 367 km
Source: CIA
Geography of Iraq
Iraq is in the middle of the Middle East, it is a cradle of civilization and a historic seat of empires, it has both water and oil resources, and it borders six countries and straddles several cultural regions. Conflicts or wars in Iraq can spillover to the neighboring countries.
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The Iraq war divided the Arabs, the Europeans, the Americans and caused a structural damage to Iraq’s society, state, & infrastructure
Aljazeera
Origin of Iraq war (2mn:40s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmms5Eoixfs
Origin of ISIS (12mn)
http://truthinmedia.com/truth-in-media-the-origin-of-isis/
How is ISIS funded? (49mn) http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/07/29/george-galloway-isil-presstv-comment
US Vice President Biden blames US allies in Middle East for rise of ISIS (9mn)
https :// www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoQO81hKC3A
John Kerry In Leaked Audio Admits U.S. Allowed Rise Of ISIS To Force Assad Out Of Power, 1/6/2017, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3KfmjdviHM
Iraq conflict: Shia cleric Sistani issues call to arms, BBC, 13 June 2014, http:// www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27834462
Isis insurgents seize control of Iraqi city of Mosul, BBC, 6/10/2014,
https:// www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/iraq-sunni-insurgents-islamic-militants-seize-control-mosul
The Destruction of Islamic State is a Strategic Mistake, The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in Israel, 8/2/2016, http:// besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/destruction-islamic-state-strategic-mistake/
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1981: Israel bombs Baghdad [Osirak/Tammu] nuclear reactor on June 7, 1981 BBC, 5 June 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5020778.stm
Map of the Israeli Attack
The 10 planes fly about 1,000km (600 miles) through Jordanian and Saudi airspace unchallenged
No Longer a Secret: How Israel Destroyed Syria's Nuclear Reactor [2007],
Haaretz, 3/23/2018, https:// www.haaretz.com/world-news/MAGAZINE-no-longer-a-secret-how-israel-destroyed-syria-s-nuclear-reactor-1.5914407
Making History, First Flight to Israel Overflying Saudi Arabia Lands in Tel Aviv, Haaretz, 3/22/2018, https:// www.haaretz.com/israel-news/historic-flight-to-israel-over-saudi-arabia-takes-off-from-india-1.5935687
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Israel applied game theory to provoke the 1986 US bombing of Libya
“The potential use of game theory to provoke the U.S. invasion of Iraq dates from an earlier staged incident when Tel Aviv displayed its expertise in deceiving the U.S. to deploy its military in the region. As with the war in Iraq, that incident involved a provocation that induced the U.S. to rely on intelligence fixed around a predetermined goal.
The pre-staging: in February 1986, the Mossad launched Operation Trojan, a broadcasting operation in Tripoli meant [page 3] to make it appear that the Libyan leadership was transmitting terrorist instructions to their embassies worldwide.
The orchestration: though the Israeli transmissions failed to deceive Spanish or French intelligence, U.S. intelligence was reassured when a trusted ally (Israel) confirmed the messages were legitimate. With Mossad operatives tied into terrorist cells throughout Europe, it was only a matter of time before an American would become a victim.
The provocation: an April 5 terrorist attack on Berlin’s La Bell Discotheque killed an American serviceman.
The game theory deployment: on April 14, 160 American, British and German aircraft dropped sixty tons of bombs on Libya, killing 40 civilians, including the adopted two-year-old daughter of Libyan leader Moamer al Qadhafi....
With Israeli confidence boosted by its success in simultaneously deceiving, endangering and discrediting its ally, Iraq and Saddam Hussein became Tel Aviv’s next target. According to the assessment of a senior Mossad operative five years before the first Gulf War and 15 years before 9/11:
“After the bombing of Libya, our friend Qadhafi is sure to stay out of the picture for some time. Iraq and Saddam Hussein are the next target. We’re starting now to build him up as the big villain. It will take some time, but in the end, there’s no doubt that it’ll work” [cited in Victor Ostrovsky, The Other Side of Deception, New York,: HarperCollins, 1994, pp. 113-117].” Jeff Gates’ Guilt by Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War, State Street Publications, Ramsey, NJ, 2008, pages 3-4.
Israel applied game theory to provoke the 2003 US invasion of Iraq
Criminal State - Part 1 of 3: A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjb1MGmGDc
Criminal State - Part 2 of 3: A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxhMmjDlIC0
Criminal State - Part 3 of 3: A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkpcbmXAWE
While “decision theory” is made for contexts in which there is just ONE decision maker, “game theory” is designed to address rational decision making in a social context where MULTIPLE players are making interlocking decisions (Patrick Grim, The Philosopher’s Toolkit, 2013)
Bill Kristol, Keeping Iraq in the Cross Hairs
“Moments after the [1991] Persian Gulf War was halted, Bill Kristol got a call from columnist Charles Krauthammer, and both were fuming over what they saw as unfinished business.”
Source: Washington Post, March 18, 2003; Page C01
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A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s: The idea that all the Arab states should be broken down, by Israel, into small units, occurs again and again in Israeli strategic thinking. For example, Ze'ev Schiff, the military correspondent of Ha'aretz (and probably the most knowledgeable in Israel, on this topic) writes about the "best" that can happen for Israeli interests in Iraq: "The dissolution of Iraq into a Shi'ite state, a Sunni state and the separation of the Kurdish part" (Ha'aretz 6/2/1982). by Oded Yinon (with a foreword by, and translated by Israel Shahak), http :// cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0005345.html#6n
A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm [Israel], Prepared by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies' Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000: A report prepared in 1996 by a neoconservative study group led by Richard Perle for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We read in the report: “Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions.”
Participants in the Study Group on "A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000:"
Richard Perle [ https :// www.pbs.org/thinktank/transcript1017.html ], American Enterprise Institute, Study Group Leader
James Colbert, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Johns Hopkins University/SAIS
Douglas Feith, Feith and Zell Associates
Robert Loewenberg, President, Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies
Jonathan Torop, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
David Wurmser, Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies
Meyrav Wurmser, Johns Hopkins University http:// www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1438.htm
“ If we destroy the Taliban in Afghanistan, and I’m confident we will, and we then go on to destroy the regime of Saddam Hussein, and we certainly could if we chose to do so, I think we would have an impressive case to make to the Syrians… We could deliver a short message, a two-word message: “You're next.”---- Richard Perle, Chairman of the Defense Policy Board, an advisory panel to the Defense Department, and a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, “Next Stop, Iraq,” FPRI, 11/14/2001, http://www.fpri.org/article/2012/08/next-stop-iraq /
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has called on Syria and Lebanon to end all support for [anti-Israel] groups Washington classifies as terrorist organisations. BBC, 5/3/2003, http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2995483.stm
The Obama administration said repeatedly that Syrian President Assad “must go” before ending the Syria war which killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and threw millions into refugee camps, published 9/24/2014, https :// www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSBRk10E5R8
Hillary Clinton Email Achieve informs us that Assad “must go” because that is “the best way to help Israel,” US Department of State, 11/30/2015, https :// wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/Clinton_Email_November_Release/C05794498.pdf
Donald Trump, "We Spent $6 Trillion Dollars In The Middle East! We Could Have Rebuilt Our Country!" https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jF2M5-knXk
U.S. General Wesley Clark: U.S. Military Plan To Overthrow 7 Countries In 5 Years
General Clark mentioned a "policy coup" in which "some hard-nosed people [the pro-Israel neoconservatives] took over the direction of American policy and they never bothered to inform the rest of us." WATCH the first 2mn:40s video clip: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=hss1xDQPooo
Dividing Iraq – From Op-Eds, To News, To Truth. Global Research, 5/29/2017, https:// www.globalresearch.ca/tracing-the-history-of-the-partitioning-of-iraq/5592441
US Senator Biden proposes partitioning Iraq into 3 regions, NBC News, 5/1/2006, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12572371/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/biden-proposes-partitioning-iraq-regions /
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“A free Iraq will help secure Israel” ---U.S. President George W. Bush, September 2004 (NPR, 9/30/2004)
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“I'm going to get it right for those soldiers because it's important to Israel” --U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate John Kerry, September 2004 (NPR, 9/30/2004) “If you believe that the State of Israel will be more secure if the United States fails in Iraq, you and I have a disagreement.” --- Republican presidential candidate John McCain (JTA, 10/30/2007)
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Iraq was invaded 'to protect Israel' - US official
Philip Zelikow, a member of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2001—03), executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (2005-06), told a crowd at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts assessing the impact of September 11 and the future of the war on al-Qaeda:
“Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel… And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell.”
Emad Mekay, “Iraq was invaded 'to protect Israel' - US official,” Asia Times Online, 31 March 2004, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FC31Aa01.html
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux I, 2007, page 31
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“The war was about Israel’s security” Group* Urges Pro-Israel Leaders' Silence on Iraq; Memo Outlines Response If Hostilities Occur, Discourages Lecturing of Americans on Middle East” The Washington Post, November 27, 2002:
“You do not want Americans to believe that the war on Iraq is being waged to protect Israel rather than to protect America.”
The memo coached: "(A)s an Israeli, most certainly don't talk about why some Arab leaders and their people dislike the United States. Americans don't want to be told by an Israeli why we have problems in the Middle East or why people hate us."
*the Israel Project, a group funded by American Jewish organizations and individual donors.
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Israeli newspaper Haaretz 5 April 2003
The U.S. war in Iraq was conceived “by a small group of 25 or 30 neoconservatives, almost all of them Jewish.”
Amos Gilad, one of Israel’ premier spymasters, called the American invasion of Iraq a “miracle for Israel” --- Scott Ritter, Target Iran: the Truth about the White House’s Plans for Regime Change, New York: Nation Books, 2006, page 32.
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Moran steps down from leadership post Lawmaker under fire for saying Jews push war with Iraq
CNN, March 14, 2003. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/14/moran.remarks/index.html
CNN, March 11, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/11/moran.jews/index.html
Lawmaker under fire for saying Jews support Iraq war Moran apologizes; White House blasts comments
The War Began March 19, 2003
Watch [Former US Congresswoman] Cynthia McKinney: US Lawmakers FORCED to Support Israel!
https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_VNOk7Wv5A
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“Jews,” “Israel,” and “America”
Some times the words “Jews,” “Israel,” and “America” are interchangeable in the minds of many people in the Arab and Muslim worlds. For example, amidst the bloody chaos and destruction in U.S.-occupied Iraq, Scott Pelley of CBS News’s 60 Minutes was reported going around and asking Iraqis on the streets wondering if they had nicknames for Americans. He found that Iraqis “call American soldiers ‘The Jews,’ as in, ‘Don’t go down that street, the Jews set up a roadblock’”
Source: Thomas Friedman, 2004, “Jews, Israel and America,” The New York Times, October 24.
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“From Israel's perspective, the longstanding strategic threat of a massive military attack from the east led by Iraq through Jordan no longer exists because of the [Iraq] war.” --- Jewish Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham H. Foxman, August 2006 (ADL, 8/1/2006) Abe Foxman takes position at Israeli think tank (JTA) — Abraham Foxman, the former longtime head of the Anti-Defamation League, has accepted a role at an Israeli policy think tank. Foxman will be a distinguished nonresident fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, the organization announced in a news release sent Wednesday. He will work on “issues of combating anti-Semitism and assaults on the state of Israel,” according to the release. Foxman will perform research on Israeli-American relations, as well as the ties between Israeli and Diaspora Jews. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 9/30/2015, http:// www.jta.org/2015/09/30/news-opinion/united-states/adls-abe-foxman-takes-position-at-israeli-think-tank
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Israel’s 1957 secret plan to partition Iraq
Indian journalist Rustom Khurshedji Karanjia published the book The dagger of Israel (Bombay, Blitz Publications, 1957).
(ر. ك. كرانجيا، خنجر إسرائيل، شرح وتعليق بسام العسلي، دار المسيرة، بيروت، الطبعة الأولي، 1980، ص 61).
In the book, Karanjia published a secret Israeli plan involving, among other things, the partition of Iraq
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Ze'ev Schiff, the military correspondent of Israel’s leading newspaper Ha'aretz, wrote on 2 June 1982:
The “best” that can happen for Israeli interests in Iraq: “The dissolution of Iraq into a Shi'ite state, a Sunni state and the separation of the Kurdish part” (Ha'aretz 6/2/1982).
"Israel, which has had a close clandestine relationship with Kurdish groups that dates to the 1960s, has generally been supportive of Kurdish rights. In January, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked expressed support for Kurdish independence." The Jerusalem Post, 5/12/2016, http:// www.jpost.com/Middle-East/This-is-our-1948-Kurds-kindle-a-close-relationship-with-Jews-and-Israel-453715
Boots on the ground: U.S. Special Forces pictured fighting side-by-side with Kurds just 18 miles from ISIS capital Raqqa
U.S. Special Forces seen near the front line in Syria with Kurdish troops
They are believed to be just 18 miles from ISIS' de facto capital, Raqqa
Soldiers are meant to be advising Kurds but pictures suggest active role
Forces were seen in town of Fatisah just hours after ISIS militants left
Turkish fury after U.S. soldiers wore badges of Kurdish unit linked to PKK
Daily Mail, 5/27/2016, http:// www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3613190/U-S-Special-Forces-fighting-Kurds-line-Syria-just-18-miles-ISIS-capital-Raqqa.html
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Oded Yinon's “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” Oded Yinon's article which appeared in Kivunim (Directions), the journal of the Department of Information of the World Zionist Organization. Oded Yinon is an Israeli journalist and was formerly attached to the Foreign Ministry of Israel. This essay originally appeared in Hebrew in KIVUNIM (Directions), A Journal for Judaism and Zionism; Issue No, 14--Winter, 5742, February 1982, Editor: Yoram Beck. Editorial Committee: Eli Eyal, Yoram Beck, Amnon Hadari, Yohanan Manor, Elieser Schweid. Published by the Department of Publicity/The World Zionist Organization, Jerusalem. Published by the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, Inc. , Belmont, Massachusetts, 1982 , Special Document No. 1, (ISBN 0-937694-56-8), http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/The%20Zionist%20Plan%20for%20the%20Middle%20East.pdf
“The plan operates on two essential premises. To survive, Israel must 1) become an imperial regional power, and 2) must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states. Small here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian composition of each state. Consequently, the Zionist hope is that sectarian-based states become Israel's satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation.”--Khalil Nakhleh
“All the Arab States east of Israel are torn apart, broken up and riddled with inner conflict even more than those of the Maghreb… Lebanon's total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precedent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula and is already following that track. The dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel's primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short term target…. Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times
is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation will deepen this polarization.”--Oded Yinon
See also: http :// www.globalresearch.ca/greater-israel-the-zionist-plan-for-the-middle-east/5324815 and
http :// www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/The%20Zionist%20Plan%20for%20the%20Middle%20East.pdf
Israel sees opportunity in possible US strike on Iraq Israel promised support and assistance this week for a US war against Iraq
“If the Americans do not do this now,” said Israeli Deputy Defense Minister and Labor Party member Weizman Shiry on Wednesday, “it will be harder to do it in the future. In a year or two, Saddam Hussein will be further along in developing weapons of mass destruction. It is a world interest, but especially an American interest to attack Iraq.”
“And as deputy defense minister, I can tell you that the United States will receive any assistance it needs from Israel,” he added…
In the view of Bar-Ilan University political scientist Menachem Klein, "it is too pessimistic to think that under cover of an attack on Iraq and in an atmosphere of Palestinian pro-Saddam demonstrations, Israel can transfer out the Palestinian population. What Israel can do is to expel Arafat and completely destroy the Palestinian Authority."
Yuval Steinitz, a Likud party member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, says he sees another advantage for Israel. The installation of a pro-American government in Iraq would help Israel vis-à-vis another enemy: Syria.
"After Iraq is taken by US troops and we see a new regime installed as in Afghanistan, and Iraqi bases become American bases, it will be very easy to pressure Syria to stop supporting terrorist organizations like Hizbullah and Islamic Jihad, to allow the Lebanese army to dismantle Hizbullah, and maybe to put an end to the Syrian occupation in Lebanon," he says. "If this happens we will really see a new Middle East."
Source: The Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 2002,
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Gelb’s Idea of Partitioning Iraq
Leslie Gelb, former editor and columnist for The Times and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in The New York Times of 11/25/2003:
The United States should “move in stages toward a three-state solution: Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south.”
Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, picked up the idea, while The New York Times of 19 August 2007 dubbed it “The Biden-Gelb plan.”
10 new wars that could be unleashed as a result of the one against ISIS
[partly because the U.S. strategy relies on a variety of regional allies and local armed groups who are often bitterly at odds].
WAR NO. 1: U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed Arab forces
WAR NO. 2: Turkey and the Syrian Kurds
WAR NO. 3: Syrian Kurds and the Syrian government
WAR NO. 4: The United States and Syria
WAR NO. 5: Turkey and Syria
WAR NO. 6: Iraqi Kurds and the Iraqi government
WAR NO. 7: Iraqi Kurds and Shiite militias
WAR NO. 8: Kurds against Kurds
WAR NO. 9: Sunni Arabs against Shiites and/or Kurds
WAR NO. 10: The remnants of the Islamic State against everyone
The Islamic State still controls a big chunk of territory in Syria and Iraq. Offensives to control its twin capitals, Mosul and Raqqa, have yet to begin. If the groups who are supposed to participate in the offensives fight among themselves, those battles could be delayed indefinitely.
Even if they don’t, these other conflicts, left unresolved, will herald long-term instability in the region. Military gains are not being matched by political solutions to the wider chaos and dysfunction that enabled the rise of the Islamic State in the first place. If the current war begets new wars, the Islamic State may yet endure.
The Washington Post, 9/7/2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/09/07/10-new-wars-that-could-be-unleashed-as-a-result-of-the-one-against-isis /
The “best” that can happen for Israeli interests in Iraq: “The dissolution of Iraq into a Shi'ite state, a Sunni state and the separation of the Kurdish part” (Ha'aretz 6/2/1982).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday evening that Israel supports the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. Haaretz, 6/30/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/. premium-1.601997
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On 27 September, the Senate passed a resolution (75-23) urging the Bush administration to support "a political settlement among Iraq's major factions based upon the provisions of the Constitution of Iraq that create a federal system of government and allow for the creation of federal regions." CNN.com 9/30/07…. Heartland Eurasian Review of Geopolitics [originally created in China and Italy!?] apparently made and posted this map on its website, http://temi.repubblica.it/limes-heartland/iraqs-partition/1106
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-changing-maps-in-the-mideast.html
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How 5 Countries Could Become 14
Slowly, the map of the Middle East could be redrawn.
An analysis by Robin Wright, The New York Times, 9/28/2013, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/29/sunday-review/how-5-countries-could-become-14.html
SYRIA: THE TRIGGER?
Sectarian and ethnic rivalries could break it into at least three pieces:
1. Alawites, a minority that has controlled Syria for decades, dominate a coastal corridor.
2. A Syrian Kurdistan could break off and eventually merge with the Kurds of Iraq.
3. The Sunni heartland secedes and then may combine with provinces in Iraq to form Sunnistan.
SPILLOVER TO IRAQ
In the simplest of several possibilities, northern Kurds join Syrian Kurds. Many central areas, dominated by Sunnis, join Syria’s Sunnis. And the south becomes Shiitestan. It’s not likely to be so clean.
LIBYA UNGLUED
As a result of powerful tribal and regional rivalries, Libya could break into its two historic parts — Tripolitania and Cyrenaica — and possibly a third Fezzan state in the southwest.
YEMEN SPLITS
The poorest Arab country could break (again) into two pieces following a potential referendum in South Yemen on independence.
PRE-MONARCHY SAUDI ARABIA
Long term, Saudi Arabia faces its own (suppressed) internal divisions that could surface as power shifts to the next generation of princes. The kingdom’s unity is further threatened by tribal differences, the Sunni-Shiite divide and economic challenges. It could break into the five regions that preceded the modern state.
In a more powerful twist, all or part of South Yemen could then become part of Saudi Arabia. Nearly all Saudi commerce is via sea, and direct access to the Arabian Sea would diminish dependence on the Persian Gulf — and fears of Iran’s ability to cut off the Strait of Hormuz.
Ian Greenhalgh, "ESSENTIAL READING: The Zionist plan for the Middle East," VT, 1/9/2017,
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/01/09/the-zionist-plan-for-the-middle-east /
When asked by Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot to clarify whether there was any Israeli involvement in his decision to invade Iraq, President George W. Bush said “No, not at all. None whatsoever.”[1] Elsewhere in the same interview President Bush acknowledged that “one of the things in politics that happens often is people sometimes won't tell you really what's on their mind.” [1] The White House, “Interview of the President by Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer of Yediot Ahronot,” Oval Office, 2 January 2008, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080104-9.html
Tariq Aziz [was a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, a leader of the Ba'ath party, Iraq’s deputy prime minister, foreign minister]: 'Britain and the US killed Iraq. I wish I was martyred': .... "Bush and Blair lied intentionally. They were both pro-Zionist. They wanted to destroy Iraq for the sake of Israel, not for the sake of the US and Britain.".... http:// www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/05/iraq-us-tariq-aziz-iran
At a moment when almost all countries around the world were offering sincere sympathy and support to the United States after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush addressed the world in these terms:
“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” http:// www.voanews.com/english/archive/2001-09/a-2001-09-21-14-Bush.cfm
Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young reported that President George W. Bush said:
“I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. An I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq.”
Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young, “Introduction,” in Lloyd Gardner and Marilyn Young, eds. Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam, Or How Not to Learn from the Past, New York: The new Press, 2007, pp. 1-15, page 12.
March 19, 2008: President Bush spoke at the Pentagon to mark the fifth anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom: “The battle in Iraq is noble, necessary, and just.” The White House, 3/19/2008
March 19, 2008: President Bush spoke at the Pentagon to mark the fifth anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom:
“The battle in Iraq is noble, necessary, and just.”
“Defeating the enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home.”
“Because we acted against Saddam Hussein, the world is better and America is safer.”
“The ‘Surge’ Strategy Has Produced Dramatic Results In Iraq”
“The Stakes In Iraq Are Great”
“Political Progress Is Taking Place In Iraq” [10/2005: new constitution; 12/2005: election under new constitution]
The White House, 3/19/2008
President George W. Bush speaks to members of the Regimental Combat Team-2, Marine Wing Support Combat Patrol at Al Asad Airbase, Al Anbar Province, Iraq, Monday, September 3, 2007. White House photo by Eric Draper, The White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/09/images/20070903-1_d-0318-4-515h.html
Karen Hughes, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs , said she was tired of seeing the president presented as a “caricature.”
The New York Times, 10/31/2007
President Bush told the AEI neoconservatives: “You are some of the best brains in our country and my government employs about 20 of you.” …"Employs" is too weak a verb,” wrote James Atlas.
The New York Times, May 4, 2003
Israel
USA
Al-Majalla , 4/21/2001, http://www.al-majalla.com/ar/
A representation of the stereotypical view of US-Israel relations
26
America
Palestine
Iraq
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Libya
Lebanon
Syria
Sudan
Yemen
Iran
Islam
Etcetera
Israel
Adapted from Work by Ian Antonio, http://www.creative-holidays-spain.com/painting.html
A representation of the stereotypical view of US-Israel relations
“I know what America is.. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”--Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, 1996-99 & 2009-present, “Fibi Netanyahu, In 2001, PM boasted of manipulating Oslo accords,” Tablet: A New Read on Jewish Life, http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/39692/fibi-netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu, quoted in Naomi Zeveloff, “What Do Israelis Think About Americans?”, The Jewish Daily Forward, March 8, 2015, http:// forward.com/articles/216074/what-do-israelis-think-about-americans-start-with
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, 1996-99 & 2009-present, when asked what 9/11 would mean for American-Israeli relations, responded: "It's very good." Realizing his maladroit gaffe, he then added: "Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy" for Israel from the United States: http://www.counterpunch.org/sugg10252005.html
“The U.S. can no longer afford $725 billion each year for defense, much of it borrowed. Given the poor return on our investment, it’s clear we need another strategy, one free of Zionist goals that advance behind serial conflicts and the debt incurred to fund them. We know what to do. What’s required is the leadership to do it.” Jeff Gates, 12/29/2010, http://criminalstate.com/2010/12/a-commonsense-solar-defense/
“There’s no question in my mind that months before 9/11, some ranking leaders at the top of the government already anticipated this strike scenario, and decided that Iraq would pay the ultimate price if and when this 9/11 style of attack occurred. They were already prepping parts of the Intelligence Community to accept the inevitability of War with Iraq in the aftermath….
In mid June [2001], an Al Qaeda video became public, in which Osama bin Laden announced, “Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you. It’s time to penetrate America and Israel, and hit them where it hurts the most”—[“U.S. Asset”] Susan Lindauer, Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq , 2010, Made in the USA, Lexington, Kentucky, May 3, 2011, pages 21, 24.
“Of course, while Israel employs many proxies in the service of its security interests, the proxy of choice, and by far the most powerful and capable of these proxies, is the United States… America, in the eyes of those who formulate Israeli security policy, is but a tool to be wielded in support of the larger Israeli interest” --- Scott Ritter, Target Iran: the Truth about the White House’s Plans for Regime Change, New York: Nation Books, 2006. page 33-34.
"only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained"--US Army Lt. Col. Harold Hoskins, 1943
Attorney Brian Shaughnessy wrote, “Ms. Lindauer was always competent to stand trial, only the Justice Department wanted to avoid embarrassing revelations from her case”, page vii
‘a minnow swallowing a whale’ ‘the tail wagging the dog’
27
Islamic world
Israel
USA
alarabonline, http://www.alarab.co.uk/
A representation of the stereotypical view of US-Israel relations
President Bush Middle East Tour
A representation of the stereotypical view of US-Israel relations
The Israelis
The Americans
The Arabs
Millions Worldwide Protest Iraq War
LONDON, Feb.15 -- Several million demonstrators took to the streets of Europe and the rest of the world today in a vast wave of protest against the prospect of a U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Washington Post
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Madrid, Spain
Berlin, Germany
Istanbul, Turkey
Prague, Czech Rep.
Sydney, Australia
Seoul, South Korea
London, United Kingdom
Rome, Italy
New York, USA
John E. Peters and Howard Deshong, Out of Area or Out of Reach: European Military Support for Operations in Southwest Asia, National Defense Research Institute, Prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, RAND, 1995, pages 23-24, http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/2007/MR629.pdf
U.S.-Led Coalition Air and Ground Forces Deployed Against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War
In the wake of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003
Iraq did not even control its airspace, shorelines, or a third of its territory.
Iraq was still recovering from:
The Iran-Iraq war 1980-88
The Gulf war of 1991
The no-fly zone war 1991-03
CIA Covert Operations 1995-96
UN/US Sanctions 1990-2003 (Sanctions killed some 1.7 million Iraqis between 1990-2000, WRMA 12/31/00)
Depleted uranium 1991– present
Some have said that the DU used in Iraq makes the Agent Orange used in Vietnam look like “orange juice.”
DoD, http://www.defendamerica.mil/iraq/iraq_nofly.html
Professor Doug Rokke, the US army physicist in charge of cleaning up depleted uranium in Kuwait told film maker John Pilger (The Secret War on Iraq, 12/20/2002):
“I am like most people in southern Iraq. I have 5,000 times the recommended level of radiation in my body.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8PlJVhogs
40
“The conventional wisdom about Nixon-Kissinger relationship was that they worked as equals, or even that Kissinger was the teacher and Nixon the student” p. 135
“When I returned to government service in 2001, I invited Henry [Kissinger] to join the Defense Policy Board. He was routinely involved in advising me on national security issues. I also arranged for him to be able to meet regularly and privately with President Bush” p. 206
“Fifteen days after 9/11, the President asked me to join him in the Oval Office alone… He asked that I take a look at the shape of our military plans on Iraq… ‘Dick told me about your son’, he [Bush] said… What happened to [my son] Nick [who suffers from drug addiction]—coupled with the [9/11] wounds to our country and the Pentagon—all started to hit me. At that moment, I couldn’t speak… I had not imagined I might choke up in a meeting with the President of the United States” p. 425-426
"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down as one of the worst secretaries of defence in history”—Senator John McCain, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6377687.stm
Sentinel, 2011
In the book My Year in Iraq (Simon & Schuster, 2006), Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III wrote, “Among my own assignments during almost three decades and as an American diplomat, I’d been Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s chief of staff and ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism under President Ronald Reagan, jobs that had taken me to almost every capital in the region. Every one but Baghdad.” Page 4
Paul Bremer “ was a radical neocon ideologue who had cut his teeth working for Henry Kissinger”—Jeremy Scahill, Democracy Now, 10/3/2014, http:// www.democracynow.org/2014/10/3/jeremy_scahill_on_obamas_orwellian_war
2006
As the senior American in Baghdad, I would be President George W. Bush’s personal envoy. My chain of command ran through Secretary of of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and straight to the president. I would be the only paramount authority figure—other than dictator Saddam--Iraqis had ever known. Page 4
2006
Like Adolf Hitler, Saddam was convinced destiny had chosen him for greatness… On May 9 [2003], my last day of preparation at the Pentagon, Don Rumsfeld had given me my marching orders in a memo… Undersecretary Douglas Feith had shown me a draft order for the ‘De-Baathification of Iraqi Society.’ He had underscored the political importance of the decree. ‘We’ve got to show all the Iraqis that we’re serious about building a New Iraq. Page 39
2006
In early May [2003], before we left for Iraq, [Senior Advisor for defense and security affairs, Walt] Slocombe had began discussions with top Pentagon officials, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, about the policy implications of Saddam’s army having melted away. Page 54
Proposal to Arm Sunnis Adds to Iraqi Suspicions of the U.S.
"Iraqis have long suspected a nefarious plot by the Americans to break up their country... when news came out this week that congressional Republicans were proposing to directly arm Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds without the involvement of the Shiite-led central government, it was immediately and widely taken as proof that the American plot against Iraq had entered a new phase." New York Times, April 30, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/world/middleeast/proposal-to-arm-sunnis-adds-to-iraqi-suspicions-of-the-us.html
2006
On May 9, 2003, the day before our departure, I sent a memo to Secretary Rumsfeld, copied to Wolfowitz, DOD’s policy office and the General Counsel, summarizing these discussions and the tentative conclusion that we should formally dissolve Saddam’s army as well the security and intelligence services as a prelude to establishing Iraq’s new security services … and because we have to take into account the ethnic make-up and the history of the country, assembling a New Iraqi Army (NIA) would not be easy. Page 54
Iraq turmoil today a consequence of 2003 invasion – ex-UN chief Annan
The fragile state Iraq is now in is directly linked to the US-led invasion of 2003, which happened without a US Security Council mandate, Kofi Annan, who was UN Secretary General between 1997 and 2006, told RT.
“You cannot disassociate the situation in Iraq today from the US intervention of 2003. Because not only did the intervention take place, but they dismantled the Iraqi Army, which was the tool of Saddam to maintain law and order,” Annan said in Oksana Boyko’s Worlds Apart show.
“The civil service, the Baathist Party were all [dismantled]. So the structures and state institutions vanished overnight, creating a very serious vacuum, which has led to where we are today. So I don't think anybody can argue with that. The link is clear,” he added. RT, May 1, 2015, http://rt.com/news/254881-annan-interview-iraq-intervention /
2006
The “exiles” comprised the small Iraqi Leadership Council (ILC) who had been selected during a conference of several hundred Iraqis in London in December 2002, which in turn had been a product of the Iraqi Liberation Act that President Bill Clinton had signed into law in 1998. This law made it U.S. policy to support efforts to “… remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein.” Page 42….
On Friday [May 16, 2003] afternoon, we were expecting seven Iraqi representatives to meet us in the palace conference room where I held staff meeting. The group, whom we had come to refer to as the G-7, included:
Ahmad Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress,a Shiite
Ayad Allawi, leader of the Iraqi National Accord, also a secular Shiite, was Chalabi’s chief rival
The two Kurds were Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, and his sometime ally and sometime rival, Jalal Talabani of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
The ILC also included Naseer Chaderchi, a respected seventy-year-old Sunni lawyer, who led the small, secular National Party
The other Shiite Islamist party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), was represented by Dr. Adel Mahdi and Hamid al-Bayati, reportedly because the party’s most senior leader in Baghdad, Abdul Aziz Hakim, was ill. I suspected Hakim’s illness might be “diplomatic,” since he was known to be distrustful of the Coalition’s motives. Page 46
2006
On May 19, I sent a memo to Secretary Rumsfeld detailing our recommendations for the dissolution of the Iraqi Defense Ministry and its ‘related entities.’… At the Pentagon on May 22 [2003], Feith carefully reviewed our draft order, which would formally abolish Saddam’s security and intelligence services. He asked us to clarify some of the wording, which we did to his full satisfaction…. Later that day, when Rumsfeld authorized me to proceed, I informed the president of the plan in a video teleconference. On Friday, May 23, 2003, I signed CPA Order No. 2, “Dissolution of Entities” Page 57
2006
It was after 11:00 P.M. when Brian McCormack and I got into my armored SUV for the run back to the Green Zone. Our convoy, as usual, consisted of two “up-armored” Humvees sheathed in tan slabs of hardened steel, a lead-armored Suburban, our Suburban, another armored Suburban following, and two more Humvees. Overhead, we had a pair of buzzing Bell helicopters with two Blackwater snipers each. Page 245
Simon & Schuster, 2006
For the last time, and again in the sweltering heat of Baghdad summer, I took off from the Green Zone for the twenty-minute flight to Baghdad Airport. The Chinooks landed behind several camouflaged C-130s, one of which was designated to fly me out of Iraq….After a ninety-minute flight, we landed at the military airport in Amman, Jordan. I called Francie, who by now had seen news reports of the early transfer of sovereignty. “I’m safe and free,” I said. “And I’m coming home.” Pages 394 and 396
Simon & Schuster, 2006
I suppose the best place is to begin at the beginning and to thank my wonderful agent, Marvin Josephson. It was he, on a visit to Baghdad, who first suggested that I write this book. So readers disappointed that I have followed his advice should take their grievance to Marvin. To me, however, Marvin was gift. I thank him for his help identifying a publisher and willingness to give sound advice on the book as the writing proceeded. And I am further indebted to him for suggesting that I engage Malcolm McConnell as my collaborator on the project. Page 399
Simon & Schuster, 2006
Some media treat March 19, 2003 as the beginning of the war, but the conflict for ordinary Iraqis never ended in March 1991 following Iraq's defeat and exit from Kuwait. They [the Iraqis] would endure 12 years of punitive sanctions which the UN estimates killed nearly 1.7 million Iraqis.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80C83F02-A0D6-4624-8BD2-106439605C04.htm
Smoke rises from explosions during the first few minutes of a massive air attack on March 20, 2003 in Baghdad [GETTY]
“War is hell, but for Hollywood it has been a Godsend, providing the perfect dramatic setting against which courageous heroes win the hearts and minds of the movie going public. The Pentagon recognises the power of these celluloid dreams and encourages Hollywood to create heroic myths; to rewrite history to suit its own strategy and as a recruiting tool to provide a steady flow of willing young patriots for its wars....'Give a nineteen-year-old kid an automatic weapon, and it takes him four days to become God’” -- Watch “Hollywood and the war machine” at http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2010/12/2010121681345363793.html
US Human Cost of the Iraq War Over 4,398 dead and over 31,762 wounded in Iraq
93 dead and 722 wounded from Indiana
US dead and wounded in Iraq by state, 3/2003-3/2010
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/ http://icasualties.org/Iraq/USCasualtiesByState.aspx
No available estimates of Iraqi wounded
At the end of 12/2007, the number of Iraqi “detainees” stood at 51,133--- UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, December 2007, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Press/UNAMIJuly-December2007EN.pdf
Iraq’s cultural heritage (National Library and Archives, National Museum, and other significant cultural heritage sites) was looted
On 10 April 2003, the Baghdad National Museum was ransacked. More than 15,000 objects disappeared in two days and approximately 7,000 have been retrieved so far.2 A few days later, the National Library was set alight. Thousands of volumes and historical documents were destroyed. Outside the capital, looting at archaeological sites had started, especially in the south. The State of Iraq's Cultural Heritage in the Aftermath of the 2003 War, Gaetano Palumbo Director of Archaeological Conservation World Monuments Fund, https:// www.jstor.org/stable/24590678?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
“Over 1000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003” The British Opinion Research Business, January 2008.
Iraq conflict has killed a million Iraqis: survey, Reuters, 1/30/2008, https:// www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-deaths-survey-idUSL3048857920080130
What is the real death toll in Iraq?, The Guardian, 3/19/2008, https:// www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/19/iraq
New analysis ‘confirms’ 1 million+ Iraq casualties, Global Research, 1/31/2008, http :// www.globalresearch.ca/new-analysis-confirms-1-million-iraq-casualties/7950
4.7 million Iraqis were made refugees within the country or across the borders---United Nations News Centre, October 23, 2007, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24378&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=
Iraqi Human Cost of the War
54
Source: Iraq Body Count, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/ and http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/individuals/page1
Documented civilian deaths from violence
95,755 – 104,460
Confusion about the numbers produced by the project can be avoided by bearing in mind that: (1) IBC’s figures are not ‘estimates’ but a record of actual, documented deaths.; (2) IBC records solely violent deaths; (3) IBC records solely civilian (strictly, ‘non-combatant’) deaths.; (4) IBC’s figures are constantly updated and revised as new data comes in, and frequent consultation is advised. http://www.iraqbodycount.org/about/
Falluja doctors report rise in birth defects:
Doctors in the Iraqi city of Falluja are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion. BBC, 3/4/2010,
Financial Cost
“The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3 Trillion, and Much More
As we head toward November [2008], opinion polls say that voters' main worry is now the economy, not the war. But there's no way to disentangle the two. The United States will be paying the price of Iraq for decades to come. The price tag will be all the greater because we tried to ignore the laws of economics -- and the cost will grow the longer we remain”
Linda J. Bilmes, a former chief financial officer at the Commerce Department, teaches at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Joseph E. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. They are co-authors of "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. The Washington Post, 3/9/2008, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846_2.html
Iraq war costs U.S. more than $2 trillion: study
(Reuters) - The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest, a study released on Thursday said. Reuter, 3/14/2013, http:// www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314
President-elect Donald Trump said: "We've spent as of this week according to the latest count, we've spent $6 trillion in the Middle East." "THANK YOU" Rally in Cincinnati, Ohio (12-1-2016) Trump Live Ohio Speech, https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0fbDUWe4ko
“Three trillion dollars is a lot of money. In fact, for one sixth of that money, the US could put its entire social security system on a sound financial basis for the next 75 years.” BBC, 2/26/2008
US House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security Hearing on Wartime Contracting
There are 280,000 contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan (80 percent of the foreign nationals)—a ratio of 1 contractor per soldier deployed (C-Span, 8/21/2009)
“the State Department continues to award the company, formerly known as Blackwater, more than $400 million in contracts to fly its diplomats around Iraq, guard them in Afghanistan, and train security forces in antiterrorism tactics at its remote camp in North Carolina” (The New York Times, 8/21/2009)
An American flag flies in front of the United States Embassy in Baghdad.
By TIM ARANGO, New York Times, February 7, 2012
U.S. Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by as Much as Half
“BAGHDAD — Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country.
Officials in Baghdad and Washington said that Ambassador James F. Jeffrey and other senior State Department officials were reconsidering the size and scope of the embassy, where the staff has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly contractors.
The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.” New York Times, 2/7/2012
SYNOPSIS: These extraordinary times--unprecedented in modern history--are marked by a worldwide depression and regional wars involving all the major imperial powers. This book exposes the roots of the crisis in the unsustainability of the United States' military-driven empire building based on a volatile speculative economy, and influenced by Zionist policy makers committed to the colonialist state of Israel. It offers a critical study of the collapse of the empire and a profound indictment of the respectable and prestigious personalities either responsible for the debacle, or for its continuance. Petras provides clear insight into how the ramifications of the world depression and regional wars that originated in Washington and on Wall Street are extending throughout the world, provoking popular challenges especially in Latin America, while reinforcing the belligerency and increasingly fascistic nature of the state of Israel. He demonstrates how unending wars and a deepening capitalist depression have demolished the ideology of free market neo-liberalism and forced to the forefront the need for structural changes. He points out how the collapse of the capitalist free market and the need for large-scale, long-term interventions by the state have once again raised the question of whose interests states are presently promoting, and whose interests in actuality they should serve. Both in the United States and Latin America, center-left regimes are proposing economic reforms to try to save the capitalist system. However the deepening crisis is raising the prospect of mass support for 21st Century socialism, which focuses on public investment, ownership and control.
THE AUTHOR: James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.
Source: The James Petras Website, 8/21/2009, http://petras.lahaine.org/articulo.php?p=1785&more=1&c=1
U.S. debt overpowers National Debt Clock
NEW YORK (AP) -- The National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the growing figure. As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure -- the "1" in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion. The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars. The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.
CNN, October 30, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/09/national.debt.clock.ap/#cnnSTCText
U.S. national debt clock in Times Square, New York.
U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison
near Baghdad
U.N. expert says torture in Iraq worse than under Saddam, USA Today, 9/21/2006
ISIS leader was in US custody for 1 year, RT, 2/19/2015, http://rt.com/news/233583-isis-leader-baghdadi-files
On February 7, 2002, President Bush signs an executive order that says Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions does not apply to Qaeda and Taliban captives. NYT, 12/8/07
Moral Cost
Top interrogators attended an "anti-terror" training camp in Israel and their boss received an award from Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz—Robert Fisk, The Independent, 5/26/ 2004
Video--Inside the U.S. Torture Chambers: Prisoner’s Guantánamo Diary Details 12 Years of Abuse, Terror, Democracy Now, 1/22/2015,http ://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/22/inside_the_us_torture_chambers_prisoners
For two detainees who told what they knew, Guantanamo becomes a gilded cage
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032403135_pf.html
Did this barbarian savagery inspire ISIS?
‘I helped create ISIS’: Iraq War veteran says US policy caused 'blowback' in Middle East, RT, 12/30/2015, https ://www.rt.com/usa/327404-usa-helped-create-isis-marine /
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No diplomacy! No gaffe!
Vice President Joe Biden celebrated the 2009 Independence Day with US troops, including his soldier son Beau, at their base near Baghdad, giving a speech that mocked Saddam Hussein…. “We did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of nothing better… That SOB is rolling over in his grave right now.”
Alarabiya, 7/4/2009, http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/07/04/77806.html
Haaretz, 7/4/2009, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097692.html
Video: Unfinished Business An expose on the U.S. government’s overt and covert attempts to oust Sadam Hussein from power in Iraq By Peter Jennings, ABC News, 1997
The Anti-Saddam Comic Book: PETER JENNINGS (VO) “According to the Rendon group's own records, which we have obtained, Rendon spent more than $23 million in the first year of its contract alone. Rendon organized a traveling photo exhibit of Iraqi atrocities. He produced videos and radio skits that ridiculed Saddam Hussein, even an anti-Saddam comic book. The mission to eliminate the Iraqi dictator began as a covert public relations campaign.” http :// www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHHAI-eq2I
Mossad Tried to Kill Saddam With Exploding Book: Report, ABC News, 11/12/2012, http:// abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mossad-kill-saddam-exploding-book-report/story?id=17699228
The CIA considered even depicting Saddam as gay
“According to the Washington Post's security blog, some of America's spooks believed that shooting a fake video of Saddam cavorting with a teenage boy might destabilise his regime in the runup to the US-led invasion in 2003. "It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera. Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session," the Washington Post quoted one former CIA official as saying.
Nor was the Saddam sex tape the only idea floating around the more bizarre corners of the CIA's Iraq Operations Group. Other ploys involved interrupting Iraqi television with a false newsflash that would announce Saddam was handing over power to his hated and feared son Uday. The presumed idea was to shock the Iraqi people into rising up against their leaders and thus make the invasion a lot easier.
Perhaps thankfully, the tape and fake news broadcast were never made and the Post reported that top CIA brass repeatedly rejected the ideas.” The Guardian, 5/26/2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/26/cia-saddam-hussein-gay-sex-smear-plot
63
“Bush Makes Final [Sneak] Visit to Iraq A man, apparently a journalist, threw two shoes at President Bush during a news conference in Baghdad”---The New York Times, December 14, 2008--http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/12/14/multimedia/1194835546483/bush-makes-final-visit-to-iraq.html “Hitting someone with a shoe is a strong insult in Iraq. It means the person is as low as the dirt underneath the sole of a shoe, and the actions of Muntader al-Zaidi, a correspondent for an independent Iraqi television station, were condemned by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi government and other reporters at the news conference. Mr. Bush was unhurt and made a joke afterward, but the shoes have overshadowed other news coverage of the trip, including an attempt to showcase the new security agreement.” NYT, 12/15/2008
Video: Bush Dodges Shoes on Visit to Iraq:
Iraqi reporter shouting: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog."
http://www.alarab.co.uk/index.asp?fname=\2008\12\12-16\970c1.htm&dismode=x&ts=16/12/2008%2008:07:36%20ص
The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC)
The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) was created in 1991 as a subsidiary organ of the UN Security Council. Its mandate is to process claims and pay compensation for losses and damage suffered as a direct result of Iraq's unlawful invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
UNCC received approximately 2.7 million claims seeking approximately US$352.5 billion
So far UNCC awarded approximately US$52.4 billion in respect of approximately 1.55 million of these claims.
So far UNCC paid a total of US$26 billion to individuals, corporations, governments and international organizations. http://www2.unog.ch/uncc/ataglance.htm
“Iraqi parliamentarians are demanding Israel pay billions of dollars in reparations for a 1981 Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor, Baghdad's daily al-Sabbah reported Thursday [2/12/2009]. “Iraq MPs seek reparation for 1981 Israeli attack on nuclear reactor,” Haaretz, 2/12/2009, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1063718.html
U.S. Occupation and Iraqi Resistance
“Marines Cast as 'Mongols' in Baghdad.”
Time,4/19/2003
Corporal Edward Chin, an ethnic Chinese from Burma, told CNN's Paula Zahn (4/10/2003): "They wanted a flag on his head, the American flag."
Aljazeera
Iraq ranked at the bottom of the 149 countries on the Global Peace Index 2010, http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi-data/#/2010/iraq/IQ
Baghdad ranked at the bottom of the 221 cities of the world's best quality of living cities in 2010, http://www.vancouversun.com/life/food/Vancouver+Canucks+figure+they+need+momentum+Game+tonight/2944199/Vienna+world+best+city+live+Study/3073294/story.html?id=3073294#ixzz0qUeKeRCl
66
98.8 percent of the inmates in American detention centers in Iraq are Iraqis. The New York Times, 11/22/07
92.7 percent of coalition casualties in Iraq are Americans, CNN, 11/22/07
“Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq” “Signed in duplicate in Baghdad on this 17th day of November, 2008, in the English and Arabic languages, each text being equally authentic”
“Article 4: Missions: “The Government of Iraq requests the temporary assistance of the United States Forces for the purposes of supporting Iraq in its efforts to maintain security and stability in Iraq, including cooperation in the conduct of operations against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, outlaw groups, and remnants of the former regime.”
Article 12: Jurisdiction: “The United States shall have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over members of the United States Forces and of the civilian component for matters arising inside agreed facilities and areas; during duty status outside agreed facilities and areas; and in circumstances not covered by paragraph 1.”
Article 21: Claims: “With the exception of claims arising from contracts, each Party shall waive the right to claim compensation against the other Party for any damage, loss, or destruction of property, or compensation for injuries or deaths that could happen to members of the force or civilian component of either Party arising out of the performance of their official duties in Iraq.”
Article 24: Withdrawal of the United States Forces from Iraq: “All the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory no later than December 31, 2011”
Article 26 Iraqi Assets: “the United States shall ensure maximum efforts to: a. Support Iraq to obtain forgiveness of international debt resulting from the policies of the former regime. b. Support Iraq to achieve a comprehensive and final resolution of outstanding reparation claims inherited from the previous regime, including compensation requirements imposed by the UN Security Council on Iraq.”
Article 27: Deterrence of Security Threats: (1) “In the event of any external or internal threat or aggression against Iraq that would violate its sovereignty, political independence, or territorial integrity, waters, airspace, its democratic system or its elected institutions, and upon request by the Government of Iraq, the Parties shall immediately initiate strategic deliberations and, as may be mutually agreed, the United States shall take appropriate measures, including diplomatic, economic, or military measures, or any other measure, to deter such a threat… Iraqi land, sea, and air shall not be used as a launching or transit point for attacks against other countries.”
Source: The New York Times, 11/19/2008, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/20081119_SOFA_FINAL_AGREED_TEXT.pdf
Guide to groups competing in Iraqi polls
STATE OF LAW COALITION--This alliance is led by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and purportedly cuts across religious and tribal lines.
IRAQI NATIONAL ALLIANCE (INA)--This mainly Shia alliance is seen as one of the biggest rivals to the prime minister's coalition.
KURDISTAN ALL--The Kurdish coalition is dominated by the two parties administering Iraq's northern, semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
AL-IRAQIYYA (IRAQI NATIONAL MOVEMENT)--This alliance includes national Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia, and senior Sunni politician Saleh al-Mutlaq. They ran on a nationalist platform.
UNITY OF IRAQ COALITION--This group brings together a range of significant political figures, including Interior Minister Jawad Bolani and a leader of the Sunni anti-al-Qaeda militia in al-Anbar province, Ahmad Abu-Risha.
IRAQI ACCORD FRONT/AL-TAWAFUQ FRONT--The Iraqi Accord Front, an alliance of parties led by Sunni politicians, participated in the December 2005 elections but has since been weakened by splits and defections. It includes the Speaker of parliament Ayad al-Samarrai.
TRIBAL LEADERS--Tribal leaders were courted by major parties as it was thought they would play an important role in the election. Some of Iraq's Sunni tribal leaders sprang to prominence when US forces began backing local sheikhs against al Qaeda in 2006.
MINORITIES--Smaller minorities, including Turkmen, Christians, Yazidis, Sabeans, Shabak and others, were thought likely to ally with bigger electoral lists in areas where they were not dominant.
BBC, 3/8/2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8540347.stm
Dr. Dhari: Forthcoming Election is Formality
Dr. Sheikh Harith al-Dhari Secretary General of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (HEYET) stated his suspicion over the transparency and fairness of the elections scheduled for Iraq in the seventh of March.
Sheikh al-Dari in an interview with the agency of Quds Press told that the results of these elections were pre-prepared by the U.S. administration and distributed to political allies in Iraq...
He stressed that the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (HEYET) will not be part of the forthcoming legislative elections, nor of the political process which is under brutal occupation.
Prof. Dr. Harith al-Dari described the current political process as a way to legalize the occupation and the confirmation of American hegemony over Iraq saying: "We will not be a party in the electoral process and in the political process as long as the occupation exists in Iraq. It is a principle we abide by it and we will be at the same position till the withdrawal of the occupation. Because realities on the ground proved that the political process is not the right path to the security of Iraq and its liberation. But it has been and still the U.S. project to achieve the wishes of America and its allies. "
Sheikh Dari drew attention to the current political process saying: “It is fully built on the quota system and the constitution is biased and far from many communities in Iraq. Then the so-called security pact came to mortgage Iraq to decades and even centuries.
Secretary General clarified that the U.S. administration does not comply with provisions of the humiliated Agreement signed by the current government at end of 2008, as America will not withdraw from Iraqi cities during 2009 and will not withdraw from Iraq in 2011. It has also not committed to defending Iraq's borders and sovereignty...
He pointed out that Iran is now roaming in Iraq in full view and eyes of the world, even it occupied al Fakka oil well that is Iraqi oil without doubt. When it is asked about America, she said that it is an internal matter, as if Iran and Iraq are one thing!! . .
Prof. Dr. Harith al-Dari concluded his statement saying that the "next election will be a formality and seats will be deployed by U.S. forces to allied forces, which would extend the security agreement. So do not count on anyone to these elections and should not pay attention to the media in the Arab world." AMSI, 3/6/2010, http://www.heyetnet.org/eng/amsinews/5311-dhari-forthcoming-election-is-formality.html
Iraq election turnout 62%, officials say
Voting to elect 325-member parliament.
About 19 million eligible voters out of 28 million
Around 6,200 candidates from 86 factions competing
200,000 security personnel on duty in Baghdad
Key issues: Security, services and disqualification of alleged Baathists
Previous votes: Jan 2005 (transitional national assembly), Oct 2005 (constitution), Dec 2005 first post-invasion parliament, Feb 2009 (local elections)
BBC, 3/9/2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8556065.stm
Iraq coalition talks 'open to all' - Iyad Allawi
The leader of the secular alliance that narrowly won Iraq's parliamentary election has offered to work with all parties to form a coalition government.
Iyad Allawi said his Iraqiya bloc would start by talking with the rival State of Law alliance of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, which it beat by two seats.
Mr Maliki has refused to accept the result and said he would challenge the count through the
courts.
Both the UN and US envoys to Iraq have said the 7 March poll was credible.
There is concern that a challenge to the result could be lengthy and divisive, endangering progress towards greater stability.
Sectarian violence erupted in Iraq as politicians took months to form a government after the last parliamentary election in 2005.
Police on Saturday raised the death toll to at least 52 from twin bombings a day earlier near a restaurant in the town of Khalis, 80km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. More than 70 people were injured in the blasts. BBC, 3/27/2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8590630.stm
Iyad Allawi has appointed a member of his bloc to begin coalition talks
Talabani, Hill discuss political moves and talks among winning blocs
Baghdad (NINA) – President Jalal Talabani discussed on Thursday evening, Apr. 1, with American Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, the on going political moves and talks among political blocs that won the election. In the meeting, Talabani stressed, “The necessity to provide suitable ground for joint work and constructive cooperation toward entrenching genuine partnership in the coming government.” He pointed out to the efforts being exerted to activate and expand dialogue among political forces toward consolidating national unity. They also discussed the Iraq-American relations on all levels. For his part, Ambassador Hill asserted his country’s resolve to go ahead in supporting Iraq’s political and democratic process. / End
NINA, 4/1/2010, http://www.ninanews.com/English/News_Details.asp?ar95_VQ=ELLGEF
Video: The secret files: Washington, Israel and the Gulf WETA, Washington, 1 videocassette (VHS) (60 min.), DS63.2.U5 S34 1992, Scheduled to be shown
The video discusses how secret agreements and documents, since declassified, helped to shape U.S. foreign policy which led to our involvement in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. It reveals that in a 1943 secret memo to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, special envoy to the Middle East US Army Lt. Col. Harold Hoskins, warned against the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine: “… Not only you as President but the American people as a whole should realize that, if the American government decides to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine… they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained.”
The Palestine question (NOT oil) was the main concern during the historic encounter between President Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud in 1945, Source: Parker Hart, Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership, Indiana University Press, 1998, pp. 38-39. See also William Eddy’s memorandum of the conversation printed in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945, vol. 8, pp. 1-3 and 7-9, and in Eddy’s personal account, F.D.R. Meets Ibn Sa’ud, published in 1954.
"In a demonstration of his own support towards the Palestinian Arab cause, [Saudi King] Abdul Aziz publicly voiced his objections towards U.S. support for Zionism on myriad occasions. In private, however, the Saudi monarch repeatedly reassured U.S. officials that Palestine would not jeopardize his relationship with Washington." Maurice jr. Labelle, “The Only Thorn”: Early Saudi-American Relations and the Question of Palestine, 1945–1949, Diplomatic History, Vol.35, No. 2, (April 2011), pp. 257-281, page 257.
Video: Paying the Price: John Pilger exposes the devastating effect that UN sanctions have had on the children of Iraq. 2000
In a hard-hitting special report, award-winning journalist and filmmaker John Pilger investigates the effects of sanctions on the people of Iraq and finds that ten years of extraordinary isolation, imposed by the UN and enforced by the US and Britain, have killed more people than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
The UN Security Council imposed the sanctions and demanded the destruction of Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons under the supervision of a UN Special Commission (UNSCOM). Iraq is permitted to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for some food and medicine.
Pilger takes the former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Denis Halliday, back to the crippled country for the first time since he resigned in protest over the sanctions back in September 1998. Together, they reveal an extraordinary portrait of life in a country with a decaying infrastructure and a population that Pilger says is being held hostage to the compliance of Saddam Hussein.
Pilger has brought back disturbing evidence that the "holds" on humanitarian supplies have paralyzed the country and devastated millions of people, many dying from curable diseases because life saving drugs are only available intermittently. He also finds that the breakdown of the clean water system and health facilities are having a tragic effect on young children, contributing to an alarming rise in their mortality rate.
Pilger also exposes the suffering caused to the civilian population by the illegal bombing campaign being conducted by US and Britain in the "no-fly zones" in northern and southern Iraq.
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Video: Hijacking catastrophe: 9/11, fear, & the selling of American empire
This film discusses how the events of September 11, 2001 have influenced United States politics, from advancing a pre-existing military agenda to curtailing civil liberties and social programs. Places the Bush administration’s justifications for the war in the context of the struggle by neo-conservatives to increase American power globally by means of force. Contends that the administration has deliberately manipulated intelligence, political imagery, and fear to garner support for American military intervention.
Written & directed by Jeremy Earp & Sut Jhally; Produced by Jeremy Earp; Edited by Kenyon King; Includes the full 64 min. version, an abridged 34 min. version, and 161 min. of additional footage, 2004.
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Video: Iraqi Exodus: The Iraq War and the Middle East’s Refugee Crisis
This Wide Angle report travels to the front lines of the staggering refugee crisis that continues to unfold in the Middle East as Iraqis flee their war-torn hometowns to live either as exiles in neighboring countries or dislocated within Iraq’s borders. The situation in Syria and Jordan, where refugees cope with their new surroundings amidst government pressure and rising resentment from the local population, are spotlighted. In addition, Aaron Brown speaks with regional leaders about how the catastrophe is impacting the Middle East—and these millions of homeless Iraqis whose hope of return grows dimmer with each passing year. HV 640.5 .I75 I73 2008 (57 mn).
http://video.pbs.org/video/1163078349/search/Iraqi%20Exodus/tag/Iraqi%20Exodus
Think Tanks
In political strategy, a think tank is a group or an institution or a committee of experts organized to undertake intensive research and to give advice, especially to a government . Because they often receive funding from private donors, think tanks escape academic and government scrutiny and accountability.
“Think Tanks That Think One Way
Pro-Israel forces wield significant influence in think tanks, which play an increasingly important role in shaping public debate as well as actual policy on key issues. Instead of relying on government officials or academics to provide analysis and commentary, news media increasingly depend on experts from Washington-based think tanks, most of which have energetic public relations and media relations offices designed to promote their experts’ views in the public arena… former AIPAC president Larry Weinberg; his wife, Barbi Weinberg; AIPAC’s vice president; and AIPAC deputy director for research Martin Indyk founded the Washington Institute for Near East Policy [WINEP] in 1985…. WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel’s agenda. Its board of advisers includes prominent pro-Israel figures such as Edward Luttwark, Martin Peretz, Richard Perle, James Woolsey, and Mortimer Zuckerman… The lobby’s influence in the think tank world extends well beyond WINEP. As discussed in chapter 4, over the past twenty-five years, pro-Israel individuals have established a commanding presence at the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Security Policy, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs… Another indication of the lobby’s influence in the think tank world is the evolution of the Brookings Institution… Today, however, Brookings’s work on these issues is conducted through its Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which was established in 2002 with a $13 million grant, primarily financed by Haim Saban , an ardent Zionist. The New York Times described him as ‘perhaps the most politically connected mogul in Hollywood, throwing his weight and money around Washington and, increasingly, the world, trying to influence all things Israeli.’ This ‘tireless cheerleader for Israel’ told the Times, ‘I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.’ The man chosen to run the Saban Center was Martin Indyk, the former Clinton administration official who had previously served as AIPAC’s deputy director of research and helped found WINEP”---- John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2007, pages 175-176
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Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, Robert Kagan, Michael Ledeen, William Kristol, Frank Gaffney Jr. Source: The Christian Science Monitor, June 2005
John Bolton [the non-Jewish member of the above] received the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University’s Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, The Washington Post, 5/29/2017, http :// www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Ex-UN-envoy-Bolton-to-JPost-Trump-has-no-chance-at-ultimate-peace-deal-494261
“If there is an intellectual movement in America to whose invention Jews can lay sole claim, neoconservatism is it.” Source: Forward (Volume 109, Issue 31,583), January 6, 2006, page 12.
One of the political strategies of the neoconservatives is to talk about universalism to cover up their particularism
Key neoconservative figures
U.S. General Wesley Clark:
U.S. Military Plan To Overthrow 7 Countries In 5 Years
General Clark mentioned a "policy coup" in which "some hard-nosed people [the neoconservatives] took over the direction of American policy and they never bothered to inform the rest of us."
WATCH the 2mn:40s video clip: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=hss1xDQPooo
The Neoconservative Branch of the Israel Lobby
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"This book has maintained that the origins of the American war on Iraq revolve around the United States’ adoption of a war agenda whose basic format was conceived in Israel to advance Israeli interests and was ardently pushed by the influential pro-Israeli American neoconservatives, both inside and outside the Bush administration. Voluminous evidence, much of it derived from a lengthy neoconservative paper trail, has been marshaled to substantiate these contentions.
Some have questioned how such a small group as the neocons could wield so much power in influencing U.S. foreign policy. History, however, has shown that small numbers never have precluded success in the political realm, with minorities frequently dominating governments. Moreover, the neoconservatives were perfectly organized to be an influential minority. They were more than a congeries of individuals; rather, they represented people from an extensive, interlocking network of organizations whose very raison d’être was to shape American policy. It was this network that enabled them not only to influence the heights of government power – gaining important positions in the Bush II administration – but also to shape educated and mass opinion. The neocons essentially sold their war agenda to Congress and the American public. It is apparent that the neocons essentially did far more than simply get the president to accept significant parts of their war agenda; they played the major role in having their war policy implemented. Without that effort, it is unlikely that the Bush administration would have had the necessary political support to attack Iraq, even if Bush had personally converted to the neocon cause."
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Leo Strauss Fathered the Neoconservatives
Edward Rothstein wrote:
“Could any tyrant have plotted a more patient, thorough and ruthless path to power? Leo Strauss, the political philosopher who died in 1973, might have seemed just a harmless German-Jewish emigre, teaching Plato and Machiavelli at the University of Chicago.
But according to recent critics, he was actually preparing an intellectual putsch, which would take place 30 years after his death and culminate in the war in Iraq. His students and followers, these critics say, learned their lessons well and like good soldiers began a long march through a variety of institutions, seeking control. They maneuvered into foundations, institutes and departments of state and war. Then they began their shadow rule, leading the nation into foolhardy war.” …
Leo Strauss was “a believer in the use of ''noble lies'' to manipulate the masses.” Strauss has been linked to “Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense; and Richard Perle, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board” [emphasis added]…..
The New York Times, 10 July 2006.
Leo Strauss: the intellectual father of the Neo-Cons/Leo-Cons..The child of middle-class Orthodox Jews, Strauss converted to Zionism while still in his teens... He advocated Zionism as a kind of “honest atheism.” The neoconservatives “carry around literary or political magazines, not the Bible; they wear tweed jackets, not the petrol blue suits of Southern televangelists. Most of the time, they profess liberal ideas on social and moral questions. They are trying neither to ban abortion nor to impose school prayer. Their ambition lies elsewhere." By "elsewhere" is meant the world of Washington politics and power…” President Bush told them: “You are some of the best brains in our country and my government employs about 20 of you.” …"Employs" is too weak a verb,” wrote James Atlas. Leo Strauss, Leo Strauss: The Early Writings, 1921-1932, translated and edited by Michael Zank, State University of New York Press, 2002, page 64. The New York Times, May 4, 2003 “I wish to say that the founder of Zionism, Herzl, was fundamentally a conservative man, guided in his Zionism by conservative considerations. The moral spine of the Jews was in danger of being broken by the so-called emancipation which in many cases has alienated them from their heritage, and yet not given them anything more than merely formal equality; it had brought about a condition which has been called “external freedom and inner servitude”… Political Zionism is problematic for obvious reasons. But I can never forget what it achieved as a moral force in an era of complete dissolution. It helped to stem the tide of “progressive” leveling of venerable, ancestral differences; it fulfilled a conservative function.” Leo Strauss’ Letter to the Editor of National Review, January 5, 1956, http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/005967.html
Neoconservative Political Strategy
In his book Breaking Ranks, Norman Podhoretz pinpoints the focus of the neoconservative branch of the Israel lobby: (1) “The inextricable connection between the survival of Israel and American military strength” (page 351), and (2) therefore supporting Israel means supporting “the [U.S.] defense appropriations out of which aid to Israel had to come” (page 357).
The neoconservatives reinforce the belief that America is “the only force for good”
The neoconservatives praise Theodore Roosevelt’s "big stick" and some of Woodrow Wilson's ideals
The neoconservatives assert inspiring myths (true or not) that everyone could believe
The neoconservatives preach the myth in public without necessarily having to believe it in private
The neoconservatives talk about universalism to cover up their particularism
Norman Podhoretz, Breaking Ranks: A political Memoir (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1979), pages 357 and 351. See also Adam Curtis, The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear, A 2005 BBC film, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm
The Project for the New American Century Think Tank
“Established in the spring of 1997, the Project for the New American Century is a non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to promote American global leadership. The Project is an initiative of the New Citizenship Project (501c3); the New Citizenship Project's chairman is William Kristol and its president is Gary Schmitt.”
Source: http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm
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Signatories of the Letter Calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power in Iraq
Elliott Abrams
Richard L. Armitage
William J. Bennett
Jeffrey Bergner
John Bolton
Paula Dobriansky
Francis Fukuyama
Robert Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad
William Kristol
Richard Perle
Peter W. Rodman
Donald Rumsfeld
William Schneider, Jr.
Vin Weber
Paul Wolfowitz
R. James Woolsey
Robert B. Zoellick
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Neocons’ Letter to President Clinton (January 26, 1998)
“We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.”
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Neocons’ Letter to Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House, and Trent Lott Senate Majority Leader May 29, 1998
We recommended [to Clinton] a substantial change in the direction of U.S. policy: Instead of further, futile efforts to "contain" Saddam, we argued that the only way to protect the United States and its allies from the threat of weapons of mass destruction was to put in place policies that would lead to the removal of Saddam and his regime from power. http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqletter1998.htm
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President Clinton Signed The Iraq Liberation Act of October 31, 1998
“This is in our interest and that of our allies within the region” -----President Clinton
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Neocons’ Proposal of Rebuilding America’s Defenses, September 2000
The Neocons indicated that to speed up the process of transformation they had in mind they need:
“some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”
http:// www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
The twin towers of the World Trade Center burn behind the Empire State Building in New York, September 11, 2001.Photo by AP,
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/outside-edge/1.596298
One year later, 9/11 provided the ‘catalyzing event’ used by the neoconservatives to ‘justify’ the Iraq war.
The 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3000 people.
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Neocons’ Letter to President Bush (September 20, 2001)
…. "But even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the [9/11] attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq"
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Vice President Cheney Kicked off the campaign for Iraq war on 8/26/2002
6. 8/26/2002: “The risks of inaction are far greater than the risk of action,” Cheney told a meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/08/26/cheney.iraq/index.html
5. 8/16/2002: CBSNews.com reported: “Israel To U.S.: Don't Delay Iraq Attack”
4. 8/13/2002: Israeli Prime Minister Sharon told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Knesset that Iraq “is the greatest danger facing Israel.”
3. 6/8/2002, former Israeli Prime Minister Barak wrote in the Washington Post: Bush “should, first of all, focus on Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein.”
2. 5/12/2002: Israeli Foreign Minister Peres appeared on CNN to say that “Saddam Hussein is as dangerous as bin Laden”
1. 4/14/2002: former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu came to Washington to brief U.S Senators and the editor of the Washington Post on the removal of Saddam. Mearsheimer & Walt, p 234
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Bernard Lewis: Dick Cheney’s intellectual and political mentor on the Middle East
US Vice President Dick Cheney considers Bernard Lewis his intellectual and political mentor on the Middle East when he said “You simply cannot find a greater authority on Middle Eastern history -- from classical Islamic civilization, to the Ottoman Empire, to the modern period -- than this man [Lewis Bernard] and his works.”… After listening to Bernard Lewis’ advice on “the history and the way forward in the Middle East” following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said “I decided that day that this was a man I wanted to keep in touch with, and whose work I should follow carefully in the years ahead. Since then we have met often, particularly during the last four-and-a-half years, and Bernard has always had some very good meetings with President Bush… More than three decades ago, at the height of a secular era, he wrote a prescient article titled The Return of Islam. In the 1970s he studied the writings of an obscure cleric named Khomeini, and saw the seeds of a movement that would deliver theocratic despotism. In 1990, he wrote The Roots of Muslim Rage, which anticipated the terrorism of that decade. And in this new century, his wisdom is sought daily by policymakers, diplomats, fellow academics, and the news media.”[1]
[1] Dick Cheney, “Vice President's Remarks at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia Luncheon Honoring Professor Bernard Lewis,” Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1 May 2006,
The White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060501-3.html
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Bernard Lewis and the Iraq War
“When Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990, … Almost every Middle expert in the country was invited to Washington and was asked his comments on the situation. That was my first meeting with high-level official Washington, and more important, my first meeting with Dick Cheney, at that time Secretary of Defense. We met on subsequent occasions over the years… The general feeling was that this …could be ‘another Vietnam’… I told them that I thought that the war, when it came, would be ‘quick, cheap and easy.’… The prompt and effective American response not only saved Kuwait but also Saudi Arabia, which was threatened and whose rulers relied entirely on American action to save them. Indeed, a quip at the time was that the marching song of the Saudi Arabian armed forces was ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’ … I was invited to Cheney’s home twice after 9/11 to dine with him and a small group of staff. My task was to talk about the Middle East and Islam and I found them a receptive audience asking excellent questions… I was invited to meet President George W. Bush on three occasions’—Source: Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian, Bernard Lewis with Buntzie Ellis Churchill, Viking, New York, 2012, pages 324, 326, 330, 331 .
Jacob Weisberg regards Bernard Lewis, who received the National Humanities Medal from President Bush in 2006 and the Irving Kristol Award from his disciples at the American Enterprise Institute in 2007, as “the most significant intellectual influence behind the invasion of Iraq.”[1] [1] Jacob Weisberg, “Party of Defeat: AEI’s Weird Celebration,” Slate, 14 March 2007, accessed 30 June 2007, http://www.slate.com/id/2161800
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The Iraq war is one of the noblest things this country has ever attempted abroad
Thomas L. Friedman wrote in an “Editorial Desk” of The New York Times (November 30, 2003): “this [Iraq] war is the most important liberal, revolutionary U.S. democracy-building project since the Marshall Plan… it is one of the noblest things this country has ever attempted abroad and it is a moral and strategic imperative that we give it our best shot.”
Paul Wolfowitz: “Jerusalem Post’s Man of the Year” 2003
Paul Wolfowitz is “the principal author of the doctrine of preemption, which framed the war in Iraq” [and which became Bush Doctrine]….. he was declared the Jerusalem Post’s Man of the Year (the Jerusalem Post emphasized that “of course the year we are speaking of is the Jewish year”) in 2003 after U.S. forces invaded and occupied Iraq as he advised Bush to do so at a meeting in Camp David on September 15, 2001.
The Jerusalem Post, September 26, 2003.
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Shadia Drury documents [father of neoconservatives] German-Jewish émigré Leo Strauss’s understanding of the three types of men: the wise, the gentlemen, and the vulgar:
The wise are the lovers of the harsh unadulterated truth. They are capable of looking into the abyss without fear and trembling; for they recognize neither God nor moral imperatives. They are devoted above all else to their own pursuit of the ‘higher’ pleasures, which amount to consorting with their ‘puppies’ or young initiates.
The second type is the gentlemen, who are lovers of honour and glory. They are the biggest dupes for the conventions of their society, or the ‘illusions of the cave’, in Straussian lingo. Gentlemen are the true believer in God, honour, and moral imperatives; as a result, they are ready and willing to embark on acts of great courage and self-sacrifice on a moment’s notice.
The third type is the vulgar many who are lovers of wealth and pleasure. They are selfish, slothful, and indolent. They can be inspired to rise above their brutish existence only by fear of impending death or catastrophe.
The covert rule of the philosophers is facilitated by the overwhelming credulity of the gentlemen. For all his nobility, the gentleman is gullible and unworldly. And the more gullible and unperceptive he is, the easier it is for the wise to control and manipulate him. The philosopher must impart to him the harsh truths about the word and about his inferiors without destroying his ideals. The message is this. You are noble and honest; and the world is bound to be a better place if noble men such as yourself reign supreme. But virtue is bound to be defeated if she is naïve enough to play by the rules. If you want political power and success, you have to rely on deception, guile, and fraud. Besides, you know what the ordinary masses are like; they are content to live and die like beasts—eating, drinking, gambling, and fornicating. If you wish to move them to acts or courage and self-sacrifice, you must make them believe that their very existence is under threat. Anyone who thinks that politics is possible without guile and fraud is a fool. In this way, the wise provides the gentlemen with a brutalizing education. George W. Bush may well have been the perfect gentleman.”
Shadia B. Drury, The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss, Updated Edition with a New Introduction by the Author, New York: Palgrave Macmilla, 2005, pages xv-xvi.
President Bush’s academic credentials
President Bush received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University in 1968 and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. He began a career in the energy business. Source: The White House, “Biography of President George W. Bush,” http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/biography.html
Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal: Former US President's denial, grand jury, and admittance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV7zqaKHY3Y
http ://www.wrmea.org/1998-march/with-mideast-peace-and-clinton-presidency-about-to-both-go-over-a-cliff-is-there-a-connection.html
CNN Official Interview: George W. Bush reflects on no WMDs in Iraq, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18M70UgmV40
“This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile.” ---President Bush
Immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sep 11, 2001, US Pres George W. Bush referred to America's war on terrorism as a “crusade.”
Vern L Bullough, “Set a place for Islam,” Free Inquiry, Buffalo: Spring 2002, Vol. 22, Iss. 2; pg. 20, 2 pgs
Anonymous, “Crusade in Iraq?” The Christian Century, Chicago: April 5, 2005, Vol. 122, Iss. 7; pg. 60, 2 pgs
Gary Leupp, “Is the war on terrorism really a Crusade?” The Arab American News, Dearborn, Mich.: June 4-June 10, 2005, Vol. 21, Iss. 1008; pg. 13
“The war was about weapons of mass destruction”
No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq
No ties between Iraq and AlQaeda existed
No threats to US security existed in Iraq
How Zionists Corrupt Knowledge
Those who induced the U.S. to war in the Middle East deployed knowledge like a weapon. With lengthy pre-staging, a narrative emerged that made it appear plausible—even desirable—to invade Iraq in response to the provocation of 911. In retrospect, we now know that the knowledge on which the U.S. relied was false. All of it. Iraqi WMD. Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda. Iraqi meetings in Prague with Al Qaeda. Iraqi yellowcake uranium from Niger. Iraqi mobile biological laboratories. All false, all traceable to pro-Israelis and all portrayed as true by media outlets dominated by pro-Israelis. Jeff Gates, 1/10/2011, https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/author/jeff-gates /
“Iraqis have gas chambers for all Jews”
The Jewish Press, 2/15/1991
99
“The war was about spreading democracy”
US closest friends and allies in the Middle East are eight Arab monarchies (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) and one Jewish ethnocracy--the rule of one ethnic group--(The State of Israel).
The Iraqi resistance movements question the legitimacy of the Iraqi Constitution because it was written under foreign occupation. The same could be said about the Iraqi elections.
The democratically elected Palestinian government (2006) was greeted by sanctions and blockade because it was led by Hamas (Arabic acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, or Islamic Resistance Movement), which does not recognize Israel very much as Israel does not recognize Hamas.
100
“The war was about oil”
There is no public record of the big oil companies supporting the war in Iraq or the current confrontation with Iran. ---James Petras, Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York
President Bush repeatedly promised to replace more than 75% of US oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.
Third, President Obama’s ENERGY POLICY states explicitly that its central goal is to “end our addiction to foreign oil” and eliminate our current imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 Years.”
The American Jewish Committee’s top ENERGY POLICY is focused on ending US oil imports from the Middle East as a strategy to weaken Arab dominated OPEC
NB: oil prices increased from around $22 a barrel in 2002 (before the Iraq war) to $147 in July 2008
“instead of speculating on benefits to be derived by American oil companies from U.S. control of Iraq, it is much more reasonable to actually look at Big Oil’s position on attacking Iraq. Did oil companies actually push for war? On the contrary, the representatives of the U.S. oil industry
actually sought less hostile relations with Iraq. They had been solid in opposing the embargo on Iraq, which had kept them out of that country. After George W. Bush assumed the presidency in 2000, they lobbied hard for a repeal of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act and other embargoes that curbed their expansion of holdings in the Middle East. That put the oil industry at loggerheads with the neoconservatives, who for years had been calling for regime change in Iraq.” Stephen J. Sniegoski, Transparent cabal: the neoconservative agenda, war in the Middle East, and the national interest of Israel,” Enigma Editions, 2008, page 335
101
The Iraq Study Group Report concludes that the United States “will not be able to achieve its goals in the Middle East unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.” p. 39. http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/iraq_study_group_report.pdf
Population: 31,822,848 (July 2014 est.)
Ethnic groups: Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, other 4%
Religions: Sunni Muslim 80%, Shia Muslim 19%, other 1%
Languages: Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%, Pashto (official) 35%, Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much bilingualism
GDP per capita (OER): $1,100 (2013 est.), (U.S. GDP per capita: $52,800 (2013 est.)
Border countries: China 76 km, Iran 936 km, Pakistan 2,430 km, Tajikistan 1,206 km, Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km
Geography of Afghanistan
The Khyber Pass links Afghanistan and Pakistan
Afghanistan’s distinctive relief and ethnic makeup
104
The Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-89
When Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the CIA (under President Carter and his NSA Brzezinski, and under Reagan and Bush administrations) and its associates elsewhere in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and China organized and trained a mujahedeen army of Afghani, Arab, and Pakistani Muslims to fight and defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan
105
The Soviet-Afghan War, 1979-89
The Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) ended with the defeat of the Soviet Union and the destruction of Afghanistan.
The war killed between 700,000 and 1.3 million Afghans and threw another 4.5 million into refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran, while about 15,000 Soviet troops were killed and 37,000 wounded in Afghanistan
106
Movements of CIA-trained guerillas and drugs outwards from Afghanistan after the 1979-89 Afghanistan war. Cooley’s Unholy Wars, page vii.
107
Defining Terrorism: “Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant [including military personnel who at the time of the incident are unarmed or not on duty] targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience”--- Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f(d), http:// www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/1999report/intro.html
The Global Terrorism Index definition: “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation”. … This database does not include acts of state terrorism. Global Terrorism Index 2016, http:// economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2016.2.pdf
Body Count, Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the “War on Terror”: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, First international edition (March 2015), http:// www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf
Unworthy Victims: Western Wars Have Killed Four Million Muslims Since 1990, Stop the War Coalition, 6/16/2017, http :// www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news-comment/2615-unworthy-victims-western-wars-have-killed-four-million-muslims-since-1990
[Islamophobian and Roosterphobia [Alektorophobia]:] A Mauritanian folktale tells us about a roosterphobe, who would almost lose his mind whenever he encountered a rooster. "Why are you so afraid of the rooster?" the psychiatrist asked him. "The rooster thinks I’m corn." "You’re not corn. You’re a very big man. Nobody can mistake you for a tiny ear of corn," the psychiatrist said. "I know that, Doctor. But the rooster doesn’t." For years, I’ve been trying to convince the U.S. government that I am not corn. Mohamedou Ould Slahi: [read by Dominic West], "Inside the U.S. Torture Chambers: Prisoner's Guantánamo Diary Details 12 Years of Abuse, Terror," Democracy Now, 1/22/2015, https:// www.democracynow.org/2015/1/22/inside_the_us_torture_chambers_prisoners
Fear of Chickens Is Surprisingly Common, and It’s Called Alektorophobia, Huffposts, 3/30/2017, http:// www.huffingtonpost.com/modern-farmer/alektorophobia-fear-of-ch_b_9547596.html
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Senate study: Bin Laden was within our reach
WASHINGTON (AP) — Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says.
The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.
Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, as President Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, has long argued the Bush administration missed a chance to get the al-Qaeda leader and top deputies when they were holed up in the forbidding mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan only three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
USA Today, 11/29/2009, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-11-29-senate-report-bin-laden_N.htm
Excerpts: Bin Laden video BBC, 29 October, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3966817.stm
“I will speak to you about the reasons behind these incidents [9/11 attacks]. I will honestly tell you about the minutes in which the decision was made so that you will consider. …The events that influenced me directly trace back to 1982 and subsequent events when the United States gave permission to the Israelis to invade Lebanon, with the aid of the sixth US fleet. ... While I was looking at those destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust one in a similar manner by destroying towers in the United States so that it would feel some of what we felt and to be deterred from killing our children and women...”
“By his own account, KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks]'s animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experience there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. policy favoring Israel” p.147
When someone asked why he and Atta [one of the 9/11 hijackers] never laughed, Shehhi [one of the 9/11 hijackers] retorted, “How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine” page 162, The 9/11 Commission Report (2004), http :// www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf
Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America' (Q1) Why are we fighting and opposing you? (Q2) What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you? As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple: (1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us. a) You attacked us in Palestine: The Guardian, 11/24/2002, ttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver
Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton (co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission) wrote: “Commissioners who argued that al Qaeda was motivated primarily by a religious ideology—and not by opposition to American policies—rejected mentioning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the report. In their view, listing U.S. support for Israel as a root cause of al Qaeda’s opposition to the United States indicated that the United States should reassess that policy… Since neither U.S. policy in the Israel-Palestinian conflict nor U.S. policy in Iraq was covered in our mandate, we were not required to discuss the issues at length. Had that been the case, reaching consensus would have been difficult.” Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton with Benjamin Rhodes, Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2006, p. 284.
Report claims CIA used 'torture' BBC, 3/16/2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7945783.stm
'INTERROGATION METHODS'
CIA interrogation techniques used on al-Qaeda suspects "constituted torture", according to a leaked report by the international Red Cross.
Waterboarding
Beatings
Sleep deprivation
Prolonged stress standing
Prolonged nudity
Confinement in a box
Denial of solid food
Source: ICRC Report
“I was told that they would not allow me to die but that I would be brought to the 'verge of death and back again”---Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
CIA director: Tapes of interrogations destroyed
The tapes were made in 2002 and destroyed in 2005, CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a letter to CIA employees obtained by CNN. CNN, 12/7/2007
President Bush: “I cannot describe the specific methods used [against Abu Zubaida]” BBC News , 9/6/2006
David Rose, a Vanity Fair contributing editor, wrote: I ask [F.B.I. director Robert] Mueller: So far as he is aware, have any attacks on America been disrupted thanks to intelligence obtained through what the administration still calls “enhanced techniques”? “I’m really reluctant to answer that,” Mueller says. He pauses, looks at an aide, and then says quietly, declining to elaborate: “I don’t believe that has been the case.” David Rose, “Tortured Reasoning,” Vanity Fair, December 16, 2008, http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2008/12/torture200812?printable=true¤tPage=all
After reports of Abu Zubaydah’s torture, F.B.I. director Robert Mueller—pictured here before the Senate Intelligence Committee in February 2008—agreed that the bureau should play no part in future C.I.A. interrogations that use extreme techniques. By Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg News/Landov.
CIA report: 'Brutal' interrogations post-9/11 9 December 2014 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30404821
A committee of the US Senate has delivered a damning indictment of the interrogation methods used by the CIA in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, branding them both brutal and ineffective.
A report says one detainee froze to death after being chained to a concrete floor.
Others were deprived of sleep for up to 180 hours.
In a statement, the CIA insisted the interrogations had helped save lives.
China urges U.S. to 'correct ways' after torture report
(Reuters) - China urged the United States on Wednesday to "correct its ways", after the U.S. Senate said in a report the CIA misled the White House and public about its torture of detainees and acted more brutally and pervasively than it acknowledged.
"China has consistently opposed torture. We believe that the U.S. side should reflect on this, correct its ways and earnestly respect and follow the rules of related international conventions," China foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily briefing.
China is frequently accused by rights groups of using torture.
Reuter, 12/10/2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/10/us-usa-cia-torture-china-idUSKBN0JO0PW20141210
Terre Haute soldier killed in Afghanistan U.S. Army Sgt. Dale Griffin — a TH South graduate — killed by roadside bomb The Tribune Star, 10/28/2009 http://www.tribstar.com/news/local_story_301210400.html?keyword=topstory
By Arthur E. Foulkes The Tribune-Star TERRE HAUTE — A Terre Haute serviceman was among several U.S. military service personnel killed Tuesday in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Sgt. Dale Russel Griffin, a 1999 Terre Haute South Vigo High School graduate, died after the vehicle in which he was traveling with several other soldiers was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. wGriffin, who was a part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, joined the Army immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to his mother, Dona Griffin, who was interviewed by the Tribune-Star earlier this month. At the time of that interview, Dona Griffin and husband Gene were leading volunteers at the Terre Haute Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints making about 40 blankets for U.S. servicemen and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. While a senior at Terre Haute South, Dale Griffin was the state runner-up in wrestling in the 189-pound weight class. The following year, he won his weight class to help lead the Virginia Military Institute to a fourth-place finish in the All-Academy Wrestling Championship in 2000 at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He was named that tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. News reports from Afghanistan state that roadside bombs — also known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs — claimed the lives of eight American soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday. Seven military service members and an Afghan civilian were killed in one attack hen an IED struck the vehicle in which they were riding while on patrol. An eighth soldier was killed in a separate attack, also by a roadside bomb blast. According to an unnamed U.S. defense official quoted by the Associated Press, at least one of Tuesday’s blasts was followed by an intense exchange of gunfire with insurgents. A total of 55 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan this month. Funeral arrangements for Dale Griffin are pending. Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or [email protected].
Idea Exchange
U.S. Marines speak with elders during a meeting in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Sept. 1, 2009. The Marines, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, are meeting with residents to determine ways they can better serve one another. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Christopher R. Rye---US Department of Defense Official Website, 9/7/2009, http://www.defenselink.mil/
91,000 secret U.S. military documents on Afghanistan
“Summary
25th July 2010 5:00 PM EST
WikiLeaks has released a document set called the Afghan War Diary, an extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers, and mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related details.
The document collection is available on a dedicated webpage [http://wardiary.wikileaks.org].
The reports cover most units from the US Army with the exception of most US Special Forces' activities. The reports do not generally cover top secret operations or European and other ISAF Forces operations.
We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.” -- http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010
Similarity between the two Afghan wars
“On the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall [1989], it is now the US that is losing a war in Afghanistan, a war unlike the one that indirectly contributed to the breakup of the USSR. Where coalition forces today battle the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the Soviets in the 1980s fought the mujahideen, a Muslim army of volunteers that Moscow called terrorists. The anti-Soviet jihad, a brutal war funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Saudis, became too costly for Moscow, almost bankrupting the Soviet state. In a painful and humiliating withdrawal, the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989, just a few months before the implosion of the Soviet system… The similarities between the two Afghan wars are countless. The Soviet generals kept requesting more men in order to gain control of this vast land because its high-tech war machinery did not work against such evasive enemies… Perhaps the most remarkable similarity between the two wars resides in their final objective: to transform Afghanistan into a friendly country by turning its political status into a replica of the invading superpower’s”
Loretta Napoleoni, Terrorism and the economy: how the war on terror is bankrupting the world (Seven Stories Press, New York, 2009), page xvii
Taliban declare 'defeat' of U.S., allies in Afghanistan
(Reuters) - Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan on Monday declared the "defeat" of the U.S. and its allies in the 13-year-old war, a day after the coalition officially marked the end of its combat mission.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is shifting to a support mission for Afghan army and police more than a decade after an international alliance ousted the Taliban government for sheltering the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on American cities.
"ISAF rolled up its flag in an atmosphere of failure and disappointment without having achieved anything substantial or tangible," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in an statement emailed on Monday.
About 13,000 foreign troops, mostly Americans, will remain in the country under a new, two-year mission named "Resolute Support" that will continue the coalition's training of Afghan security forces to fight the insurgents, who have killed record numbers of Afghans this year.
While the U.S. and its allies say the Afghan army and police have been able to prevent the Taliban from taking significant territory, violence has shot up as the insurgents seek to gain ground.
For Afghanistan's new president, Ashraf Ghani, keeping government control of territory and preventing security from further deteriorating is a top priority.
Vowing to restore their former hard-line Islamist regime, Taliban spokesman Mujahid vowed that "the demoralized American-built forces will constantly be dealt defeats just like their masters".
The Taliban have launched increasingly deadly attacks this year. Nearly 3,200 Afghan civilians were killed in the conflict between the militant group and the army in 2014, and more than 4,600 Afghan army and police died in Taliban attacks.
Since 2001, nearly 3,500 foreign soldiers have been killed in the war, including around 2,200 Americans.
Reuters, 12/29/2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/29/us-afghanistan-war-idUSKBN0K70UC20141229
A U.S. soldier from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment casts a shadow on a sign painted on a blast barrier at Bagram Air Field in the Parwan province of Afghanistan December 23, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Nato marks transition to new Afghanistan mission
Nato has formally ended its 13-year combat mission in Afghanistan - heralding the start of a new phase of support for local Afghan troops...
At its peak, the US-led Isaf deployment involved more than 130,000 personnel from 50 countries...
"The security of Afghanistan will be fully in the hands of the country's 350,000 Afghan soldiers and police. But Nato allies, together with many partner nations, will remain to train, advise and assist them," said Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a statement...
This year has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since 2001, with at least 4,600 members of the Afghan security forces dying in the fight against the Taliban...
Nearly 3,500 foreign troops have been killed since the beginning of the Nato mission. BBC, 12/28/2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30616380
Population: 196,174,380 (July 2014 est.)
Ethnic groups: Punjabi 44.68%, Pashtun (Pathan) 15.42%, Sindhi 14.1%, Sariaki 8.38%, Muhagirs 7.57%, Balochi 3.57%, other 6.28%
Religions: Muslim (official) 96.4% (Sunni 85-90%, Shia 10-15%), other (includes Christian and Hindu) 3.6% (2010 est.)
Languages: Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashtu 8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, English (official; lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries), Burushaski and other 8%
GDP per capita (OER): $3,100 (2013 est.), US: $52,800 (2013 est.)
Border countries: Afghanistan 2,430 km, China 523 km, India 2,912 km, Iran 909 km --CIA
Geography of Pakistan
Pakistan’s millions displaced
Camp life for over 2 million Pakistanis displaced by conflict in the north-west region
United Nations Photo series http://www.un.org/apps/news/photostories_detail.asp?PsID=44
“America wanted to be here [in Afghanistan] to denuclearize, deislamise and delink Pakistan from China; a Zionist dream” --Raja Mujtaba, Managing Editor of Opinion Maker, http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/07/the-last-hiccups-of-the-falling-empire/
[Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi] Ashkenazi's India trip marks strong ties Jerusalem Post, 12/7/2009 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259831476468&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
“Amid a blossoming of Indian-Israeli defense relations, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi embarked on five-day visit to the Far East on Sunday, touching down in the Indian capital of New Delhi, where he will meet with his Indian counterpart, Gen. Deepak Kapoor.
The IDF Spokesman said the visit was part of the deepening of relations between the two countries and their armed forces. Kapoor was here for a working visit a month ago.
"In the past year, Israel has overtaken Russia as its main defense equipment supplier, and about 30 percent of India's defense imports come from Israel, and that number is growing," said Col. (Ret.) Behram A. Sahukar, a former fellow in India's Terrorism and Security Studies at the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses….
Israeli defense officials say India can obtain solutions to the threat of terrorism from Israel that cannot be obtained from other countries.
"In the light of the Mumbai attacks of November 2008 and the murder of all six Jewish/Israeli hostages at the Chabad House, India-Israeli multifaceted counter-terrorism cooperation has become even more urgently needed," Sahukar said.
At the same time, "the Indian experience in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency differs from Israel's in some ways, though the threat might be similar," he added.”
Population: 80,840,713 (July 2014 est.)
Ethnic groups: Persian 61%, Azeri 16%, Kurd 10%, Lur 6%, Baloch 2%, Arab 2%, Turkmen and Turkic tribes 2%, other 1%
Religions: Muslim (official) 99.4% (Shia 90-95%, Sunni 5-10%), other (includes Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian) 0.3%, unspecified 0.4% (2011 est.)
Languages: Persian (official) 53%, Azeri Turkic and Turkic dialects 18%, Kurdish 10%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 7%, Luri 6%, Balochi 2%, Arabic 2%, other 2%
GDP per capita (OER): $12,800 (2013 est.), US: $52,800 (2013 est.)
Border countries: Afghanistan 936 km, Armenia 35 km, Azerbaijan-proper 432 km, Azerbaijan-Naxcivan exclave 179 km, Iraq 1,458 km, Pakistan 909 km, Turkey 499 km, Turkmenistan 992 km
CIA
Geography of Iran
Population: 5,882,562 (July 2014 est.)
Ethnic groups: Arab 95%, Armenian 4%, other 1% note: many Christian Lebanese do not identify themselves as Arab but rather as descendents of the ancient Canaanites and prefer to be called Phoenicians
Religions: Muslim 54% (27% Sunni, 27% Shia), Christian 40.5% (includes 21% Maronite Catholic, 8% Greek Orthodox, 5% Greek Catholic, 6.5% other Christian), Druze 5.6%, very small numbers of Jews, Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, and Mormons
note:18 religious sects recognized (2012 est.)
Languages: Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian
GDP per capita (OER): $15,800 (2013 est.), US: $52,800 (2013 est.)
Border countries: Israel 79 km, Syria 375 km
CIA
Geography of Lebanon
In Any Future War, Only Israelis Fleeing From Occupied Palestine May Be Safe Al-Manar TV, 5/25/2010, http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=139021&language=en
“25/05/2010 Hezbollah marked the tenth anniversary of the Resistance and Liberation Day Tuesday at the Sayyed Al-Shouhada compound in Beirut’s southern suburb. Official, religious, military, and popular figures attended the ceremony in which Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah delivered a speech for the occasion and tackled recent developments in Lebanon and the region. The Hezbollah chief set a new formula that will be adopted in any new war with Israel saying that Hezbollah will attack Israel-bound ships if the Zionist entity imposed a sea blockade on Lebanon. "When the world will witness how these ships will be destroyed in Palestine's regional water nobody will dare to go there just as they will block (others) from coming to our coasts," his eminence told thousands of supporters. Sayyed Nasrallah's comments came amid a five-day drill in Israel- dubbed "Turning Point 4"- which was launched on Sunday to test the home front preparedness against possible missile strikes in any future war…
Israeli vessels used to deploy in Lebanese waters and besiege our shore; so today we add the sea to the terrain. I am not announcing that we possess a new weapon, but in 2006 we destroyed the Saar 5 vessel. What I am saying is that if you besiege our shore and our ports in any coming war, all of your military and commercial ships heading to Palestine will be under the fire of the Islamic Resistance across the Mediterranean. We are talking about the Mediterranean but we have not mentioned the Red Sea yet. We are determined to enter this new domain God willing. No one will dare sail to any port in occupied Palestine. However, if a ship with Israelis on board was leaving occupied Palestine, we might let it pass.”
Report of the National Commission on Terrorism (Submitted June 7, 2000)
“An astute American foreign policy must take into account the reasons people turn to terror and, where appropriate and feasible, address them.”
From the Forward by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III and Maurice Sonnenberg, Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively, of the National Commission on Terrorism. The report was submitted to the President of the United States, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House, and the Republican and Democratic parties leaders on June 7, 2000, that is six months after the National Commission on Terrorism began its Congressionally mandated evaluation of America's laws, policies, and practices for preventing and punishing terrorism directed at American citizens. The report was titled “COUNTERING THE CHANGING THREAT OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM,” Report of the National Commission on Terrorism. Pursuant to Public Law 277, 105th Congress. http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/commission.html
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U.S. announces new airport security measures By the CNN Wires Staff, April 2, 2010 3:39 p.m. EDT, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/04/02/airline.security/index.html?hpt=T2
Washington (CNN) -- All flights entering the United States now will be subjected to increased levels of security screening, the federal government announced Friday.
A senior administration official said racial or religious characteristics could be used to identify passengers requiring a more thorough review, though the official insisted the system would not constitute racial profiling.
Race or religion could be part of "fragmentary information" being used to select passengers but will be used "only when we have reliable intelligence that suggests that someone with that characteristic is a potential terrorist," the official said.
Among other things, passengers entering the U.S. from international destinations "may notice enhanced security and random screening measures throughout the passenger check-in and boarding process, including the use of explosives trace detection, advanced imaging technology, canine teams, or pat downs, among other security measures," according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
The new security measures are the result of a review President Obama ordered after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan, on December 25.
Andrew Gamble, The Spectre at the Feast, 2009, page 14
Osama bin Laden cost the U.S. “trillions”
CNN's Richard Quest says the estimated $2.5 trillion that Osama bin Laden cost the U.S. economy is only the beginning. CNN, 5/3/2011, http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/05/03/exp.arena.bin.laden.costs.cnn
Since Bin Laden has attacked the United States because of its support for the State of Israel, one can argue that the State of Israel has cost the United States much more than $2.5 trillion since 2001
Omar bin Laden had asked [his father Osama] why not attack Israel before America, given that Israel was a “small country near to us,” while America was a “huge country far away from our shores.”
My father paused before explaining it this way. “Omar, try to imagine a two-wheeled bicycle. One wheel is made of steel. The other wheel is made of wood. Now, my son, if you wanted to destroy the bicycle, would you destroy the wooded or the steel wheel? “The wooded wheel of course,” I replied. “You are correct my son. Remember this: America and Israel are one bicycle with two wheels. The wooden wheel represents the United States. The steel wheel represents Israel. Omar, Israel is the stronger power of the two. Does a general attack the strongest line when in battle? No, he concentrates on the weakest part of the line. The Americans are weak. It is best to attack the weakest point first. Once we take out the weak wooden wheel, the steel wheel will automatically fail. Who can ride a bicycle with only one wheel? He patted my knee with his hand. “First we obliterate America. By that I don’t mean militarily. We can destroy America from within by making it economically weak, until its markets collapse. When that happens, they will have no interest in supplying Israel with arms, for they will not have extra funds to do so. At that time, the steel wheel will corrode and be destroyed by lack of attention.” Michael Scheuer, Osama Bin Laden, Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 111-112. [Michael Scheuer was the chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit]
Statement from President Obama on death of Osama bin Laden
CNN, May 2, 2011 6:44 a.m. EDT
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON OSAMA BIN LADEN
East Room, 11:35 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/05/02/statement.obama/index.html
Bin Laden caught in 'trap' says Pakistani High Commissioner
Pakistan's High Commissioner in the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan believes the al-Qaeda founder and leader was led to the compound where he was found in an intelligence "trap".
BBC, 5/2/2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13262133
Al Qaeda, in Web message, confirms bin Laden's death
Al Qaeda released a statement on jihadist forums Friday confirming the death of its leader, Osama bin Laden, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist websites.
The development comes days after U.S. troops killed bin Laden in a raid on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
The statement, translated by SITE, lauded the late militant, threatened to take action against the United States, and urged Pakistanis to "rise up and revolt."
Bin Laden's death will serve as a "curse that chases the Americans and their agents, and goes after them inside and outside their countries," the message said.
"Soon -- with help from Allah -- their happiness will turn into sorrow, and their blood will be mixed with their tears," it said.
The statement said al Qaeda will "continue on the path of jihad, the path walked upon by our leaders ... without hesitation or reluctance."
"We will not deviate from that or change until Allah judges between us and between our enemy with truth. Indeed, He is the best of all judges. Nothing will harm us after that, until we see either victory and success and conquest and empowerment, or we die trying."
It said that Americans “will never enjoy security until our people in Palestine enjoy it.”
CNN.com, 5/6/2011, http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-06/world/bin.laden.qaeda.comment_1_site-intelligence-group-bin-laden-al-qaeda?_s=PM:WORLD
Phone call tipped off U.S. to bin Laden compound, source says
“(CNN) -- A single phone call by Osama bin Laden's trusted courier tipped off U.S. officials to his Pakistan compound, ultimately leading to the raid that killed the al Qaeda leader, a senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN Saturday.
The telephone call the courier made was "not the final one -- it was the initial piece of evidence" that sparked the focus on the compound in Abbottabad, the official said.
Four years ago, U.S. officials uncovered the identity of a trusted bin Laden courier -- later identified as a Kuwaiti named Abu Ahmad -- whom they believed was living with and protecting the al Qaeda leader.
The Washington Post, citing U.S. intelligence officials, reported Friday that Americans had intercepted a "catch-up phone call" Ahmad took from an old friend.
"This is where you start the movie about the hunt for bin Laden," one U.S. official briefed on the intelligence-gathering leading up to the early Monday raid on the compound told the Washington Post.
The Pakistani official told CNN the phone call was made by the courier, though he didn't know when….
Questions remain over why and how Pakistani intelligence officials could not have known bin Laden was hiding out in the city, which is home to a military academy and has a strong military presence.” CNN.com, 5/7/2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/07/pakistan.bin.laden/index.html?hpt=T1
Ten years ago today the debate over the Iraq war came to Congress in the form of a resolution promoted by the Bush administration. The war in Iraq will cost the United States as much as $5 trillion. It played a role in spurring the global financial crisis. Four thousand, four hundred and eighty eight Americans were killed. More than 33,000 were injured. As many as 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi civilians were killed. The monetary cost of the war to Iraq is incalculable. A sectarian civil war has ravaged Iraq for nearly a decade. Iraq has become home to al-Qaeda. The war in Iraq was sold to Congress and the American people with easily disproved lies. We must learn from this dark period in American history to ensure that we do not repeat the same mistakes. And we must hold accountable those who misled the American public. --Former presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 2012, Page 11,
http:// www.wrmea.org/wrmea-archives/520-washington-report-archives-2011-2015/nov-dec-2012/11464-what-they-said-iraq-ten-years-a-million-lives-and-trillions-of-dollars-later.html
Chilcot: Intelligence reports confirm Iraq war created ISIS . RT, 7/7/2016, https:// www.rt.com/uk/349872-invasion-created-isis-intelligence
Death toll from devastating ISIS truck bomb in Baghdad rises to nearly 300, CNN, 7/7/2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/07/middleeast/iraq-baghdad-bomb-toll-rises /
Iraq: Ten Years, a Million Lives and Trillions Of Dollars Later
Iraqis inspect the site of a car bomb in central Baghdad’s Karrada district, Sept. 30, 2012. Nine car bombs and a shooting occurred that day in six Iraqi cities and towns, killing at least 15 people and wounding 42, officials said. (W.G. Dunlop/AFP/GettyImages)
Civilian death toll in Iraq doubles to 17,000 in 2014 ‘due to rise of ISIS’---RT, 1/1/2015, http://rt.com/news/219223-iraq-civilian-death-toll/
An average of 20 American veterans committed suicide daily in 2014, the US Department of Veterans Affairs revealed in its “most comprehensive” study of vet suicide rates yet. RT, 7/8/2016, https://www.rt.com/usa/350048-20-veterans-committed-suicide-every /
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Lawrence of Arabia [Redux]: The British “successful trickster” in the Arab Revolt (1916-1918) against Turkey Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat her ally Turkey
“INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER: The story which follows was first written out in Paris during the Peace Conference, from notes jotted daily on the march, strengthened by some reports sent to my chiefs in Cairo. Afterwards, in the autumn of 1919, this first draft and some of the notes were lost. It seemed to me historically needful to reproduce the tale, as perhaps no one but myself in Feisal's army had thought of writing down at the time what we felt, what we hoped, what we tried… the book is just a designed procession of Arab freedom from Mecca to Damascus. It is intended to rationalize the campaign, that everyone may see how natural the success was and how inevitable, how little dependent on direction or brain, how much less on the outside assistance of the few British. It was an Arab war waged and led by Arabs for an Arab aim in Arabia… The only need was to defeat our enemies (Turkey among them), and this was at last done in the wisdom of Allenby with less than four hundred killed, by turning to our uses the hands of the oppressed in Turkey. I am proudest of my thirty fights in that I did not have any of our own blood shed. All our subject provinces to me were not worth one dead Englishman… For my work on the Arab front I had determined to accept nothing. The Cabinet raised the Arabs to fight for us by definite promises of self-government afterwards. Arabs believe in persons, not in institutions. They saw in me a free agent of the British Government, and demanded from me an endorsement of its written promises. So I had to join the conspiracy, and, for what my word was worth, assured the men of their reward. In our two years' partnership under fire they grew accustomed to believing me and to think my Government, like myself, sincere. In this hope they performed some fine things, but, of course, instead of being proud of what we did together, I was bitterly ashamed. It was evident from the beginning that if we won the war these promises would be dead paper, and had I been an honest adviser of the Arabs I would have advised them to go home and not risk their lives fighting for such stuff... I risked the fraud, on my conviction that Arab help was necessary to our cheap and speedy victory in the East, and that better we win and break our word than lose.”
T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935), Seven Pillars of Wisdom, http://www.wesjones.com/seven%20pillars/sevenpillars%2000.xml
Review this video and see how British intelligence officer Lawrence of Arabia used Arab tribal leaders during the First World War in a way similar to the use of Muslim mujahedeen rebels in the Afghanistan war of the 1980s and in the Syrian war since 2011---, https :// www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNumspRA8k4
The Arab Revolt
Petras, James, The Arab revolt and the imperialist counterattack, Atlanta, GA : Clarity Press, Edition: 2nd ed., 2012, ISBN: 9780985271008
Contents:
-- Washington faces the Arab revolts: sacrificing dictators to save the state
-- Egypt's social movements, the CIA and Mossad
-- Roots of the Arab revolts and premature celebrations
-- The Euro-US war on Libya: official lies and misconceptions of critics
-- Libya and Obama's defense of the "rebel uprising"
-- Contextualizing the "Arab spring": networks of empire and realignments of world power
-- NATO's war crimes in Libya: who grieves for the fallen heroes?
-- The assassination of Osama bin Laden: its uses and abuses
-- The assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki by fiat
-- The Obama doctrine: making a virtue of necessity
-- What future for the Washington-"Moderate Islamist" alliance?
-- Appendix: indicators of social well being in pre-invasion Libya.