The critical thinking paper
black.flower.1990
gme_powerpoint_slides_topic_5_1.pptPopulation: 32,585,692 (July 2014 est.), U.S. population: 318,892,103 (July 2014 est.)
Ethnic groups: Arab 75%-80%, Kurdish 15%-20%, Turkoman, Assyrian, or other 5%
Religions: Muslim (official) 99% (Shia 60%-65%, Sunni 32%-37%), Christian 0.8%
Languages: Arabic (official), Kurdish (official), Turkmen (a Turkish dialect) and Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) are official in areas where they constitute a majority of the population), Armenian
Iraq's oil provides more than 90% of government revenue and 80% of foreign exchange earnings
GDP per capita (ppp): $7,100; U.S.: $52,800 (2013 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate): $221.8 billion (2013 est.); U.S.: $16.72 trillion (2013 est.)
Border countries: Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 181 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 352 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
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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
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1981: Israel bombs Baghdad [Osirak/Tammuz] nuclear reactor
BBC, June 7, 1981
Map of the Israeli Attack
Israel's Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered the raid
Source: BBC, 5 June 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5020778.stm
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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
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 Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm”
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:
- …. “removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq” is “an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right.”
Participants in the Study Group on "A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000:"
- Richard Perle, 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
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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:
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“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 on the World Wide Web.
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
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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)
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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).
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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
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.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 2002,
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0830/p08s01-wome.htm
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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.”
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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
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When asked in January 2008 to clarify whether there was any Israeli involvement in his decision to invade Iraq, President Bush said: “No, not at all. None whatsoever.”
Source: The White House, 1/2/2008.
- 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.”
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[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, 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
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America
Palestine
Iraq
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Libya
Lebanon
Syria
Sudan
Iran
Islam
Etcetera
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, 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’
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Islamic world
Israel
USA
alabonline, 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
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“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
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
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
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/2003/iraq/forces/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
“Over 1000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003” ---The British Opinion Research Business, January 2008, http://www.opinion.co.uk/Newsroom_details.aspx?NewsId=120
See also the impact of sanctions: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80C83F02-A0D6-4624-8BD2-106439605C04.htm
4.7 million Iraqis were made refugees within the country or across the borders---United Nations News Centre, October 2007, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24378&Cr=Iraq&Cr1=
Iraqi Human Cost of the War
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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
“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 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
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
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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.”
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
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“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
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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
- 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.
- The video 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.”
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.
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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
- “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.
Key neoconservative figures
Do not confuse ‘neoconservatives’ with ‘conservatives;’ the latter include those who SUPPORT Israel (such as Buchanan) and those who OPPOSE Israel (such as Duke)
Pat Buchanan: Hitler wasn't a threat to U.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srwk5WwroXY&feature=related
CNN - David Duke vs. Blitzer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTKbrgUz-s&feature=related
The Neoconservative Branch of the Israel Lobby
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The Power of Nightmares
- In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm
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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 myths 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.”
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]
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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
*
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.
*
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
“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.
http://criminalstate.com/2011/01/the-seduction-of-the-knowledge-based-society/
http://criminalstate.com/2010/01/criminal-state-documentary /
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“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 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.
*
“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
*
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
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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
*
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
*
Movements of CIA-trained guerillas and drugs outwards from Afghanistan after the 1979-89 Afghanistan war. Cooley’s Unholy Wars, page vii.
*
1532.unknown
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
Does Terrorism Work?
Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Israel accepted to negotiate with the Palestinians in 1993
Following Hezbollah’s attacks, Israel accepted to withdraw from southern Lebanon in 2000
Following Al-Qaida’s 9/11 attacks, the US accepted the principle of a Palestinian state in 20002
Following Hamas’ suicide bombing campaigns, Israel accepted to withdraw from Gaza in 2005
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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
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.
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
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
“There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security, and for that reason and many others addressing Iran’s nuclear program has been one of our administration’s priorities” –Vice President Joseph Biden, 3/9/2010, JTA, http://jta.org/news/article/2010/03/09/1010996/biden-no-space-between-us-israel
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.”
Gulf Cooperation Council
External Security Challenges
“Iran—and Iraq under Saddam Hussein—opposes the inclination of the GCC states to seek assistance from international powers to balance the region’s security equation, arguing that Gulf security affairs should be restricted to the states of the Gulf. We might recall that the GCC countries have been at the forefront of those calling for this, as was mentioned in the statement of their first summit in 1981. However, Iran and Iraq did not propose a viable alternative regional security vision, and their words were contradicted by their actions. The actions of these two countries over the past decades espoused the opposite of what they had called for; this led to complications and to a strengthening of the international component of Gulf security.”
HE Abdulrahman Al Attiyah, “Security in the Gulf Region,” in Arabian Gulf Security: Internal and External Challenges, The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, 2008, pp. 13-18.
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
*
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,
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)
Iraqi security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad, May 30, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Thaier al-Sudani
More than 1,000 killed in Iraq violence in May 2013—Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-iraq-violence-idUSBRE95004P20130601
More than 2,400 Iraqis had been killed in June 2014, Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/01/us-iraq-security-idUSKBN0F630G20140701
Lawrence of Arabia:
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
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.
European Union-Africa Summit, 29-30 November 2010, Tripoli, Libya
Gaddafi apologizes for Arab slave traders
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has apologized to African leaders on behalf of Arab nations for their involvement in the African slave trade.
"I regret the behavior of the Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologize for this," Gaddafi said on Sunday at the Second Afro-Arab summit in Sirte, Libya, Reuters reported.
Gaddafi: Africa's ‘king of kings’
A meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The rulers, wearing gold crowns, sequined capes and colourful robes met in the Libyan town of Benghazi in what was billed as a first of its kind.
Col Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity.
Africa's political leaders are lukewarm about his vision of merging their powers to create a single government.
"We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa," Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries, who come from countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The BBC's Rana Jawad in the Mediterranean town of Benghazi says Libya's leader wants them to create a grass-roots movement to press Africa's political leaders to sign up to his vision.
Sheikh Abdilmajid from Tanzania told the BBC that the traditional rulers could play an important role.
"The people believe in the chiefs and kings more than they believe in their governments," he said.
BBC, 29 August 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7588033.stm
The Real Reason for NATO Attacking Libya EXPOSED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35_Ai6EsMU&feature=related
Putin: Who gave NATO right to kill Gaddafi?
Gaddafi and Africa’s First Communications Satellite
“It was Gaddafi’s Libya that offered all of Africa its first revolution in modern times – connecting the entire continent by telephone, television, radio broadcasting and several other technological applications such as telemedicine and distance teaching. And thanks to the WMAX radio bridge, a low-cost connection was made available across the continent, including in rural areas. It began in 1992, when 45 African nations established RASCOM (the Regional African Satellite Communication Organisation) so that Africa would have its own satellite an slash communication costs in the continent. This was a time when phone calls to and from Africa were the most expensive in the world because of the annual $500 million fee pocketed by Europe for the use of its satellites for phone conversations, including those within the same country. An African satellite only costs a one-time payment of $400 million and the continent would no longer have to pay $500 million annual lease. Which banker would not finance such a project? … Not surprisingly, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the US and Europe made only vague promises for 14 years. Gaddafi put an end to these futile pleas to Western ‘benefactors’ with their exorbitant interest rates. The Libyans put $300 million on the table; the African Development Bank added $50 million more and the West African Development Bank a further $27 million – and that is how Africa got its first communications satellite on 26 December 2007” p. 170-171
Gaddafi, the opponent of apartheid
“For most Africans, Gaddafi is a generous man, a humanist, known for his unselfish support for the struggle against the racist regime in South Africa. If he had been an egoist, he would not have risked the wrath of West to help the African National Congress (ANC) both militarily and financially in the fight against apartheid. This was why Mandela, soon after his release from 27 years in jail, decided to break the UN embargo and travel to Libya on 23 October 1997. For five long years, no plane could touch down in Libya because of the embargo. One needed to take a plane to the Tunisian city of Jerba and continue by road for five hours to reach Ben Gardane, cross the border and continue on a desert road for three hours before reaching Tripoli. The other solution was to go through Malta, and take a night ferry on ill-maintained boats to the Libyan coast. A hellish journey for a whole people, simply to punish one man” p. 173
Mandela received his first military training in Algeria
Nelson Mandela, second from left, with members of the National Liberation Front in Algeria, 1962
http://www.sahistory.org.za/content/rivoniamandelaalgeria1962-0
Mandela undergoes training in demolition and mortar firing and attends army lectures
Excerpt from “The Arab Revolt”
NATO's War and the Phony "Rebel Uprising” Nothing is more obvious than the fact that the entire war against Libya was in every strategic and material fashion NATO's war. The casting of the rag-tag collection of monarchists, Islamist fundamentalists, London and Washington-based ex-pats and disaffected Gaddafi officials as "rebels” is a pure case of mass media propaganda. From the beginning the 'rebels' depended completely on the military, political, diplomatic and media power of NATO, without which the de facto mercenaries would not have lasted a month, holed up in Benghazi. A detailed analysis of the main features of the conquest of Libya confirms this assault as a NATO war. NATO launched brutal air and sea attacks destroying the Libyan air force, ships, energy depots, tanks, artillery and armories and killed and wounded thousands of soldiers, police and civilian militia fighters. Until NATO's invasion the mercenary 'rebel' ground forces had not advanced beyond Benghazi and could barely 'hold' territory afterwards. The 'rebel' mercenaries 'advanced' only behind the withering round-the-clock air attacks of the NATO offensive. NATO air strikes were responsible for the massive destruction of Libyan civilian and defensive military infrastructure, bombing ports, highways, warehouses, airports, hospitals, electrical and water plants and neighborhood housing, in a war of 'terror' designed to 'turn' the loyalist mass base against the Gaddafi government. The mercenaries did not have popular backing among Libyan civilians, but NATO brutality weakened active opposition against the 'rebel' mercenaries. NATO won key diplomatic support for the invasion by securing UN resolutions, mobilizing their client rulers in the Arab League, procuring US mercenary trained 'legionnaires' from Qatar and the financial backing of the rich rabble in the Gulf. NATO forced 'cohesion' among the feuding clans of self-appointed 'rebel' mercenary leaders via its ("freezing”) seizure of overseas Libyan government assets amounting to billions of dollars. Thus the financing, arming, training and advising by "Special Forces” were all under NATO control. NATO imposed economic sanctions, cutting off Libya's income from oil sales.. NATO ran an intensive propaganda campaign parading the imperial offensive as a "rebel uprising”; disguising the blistering bombardment [over 30,000 air and missile assault on Libyan civil and military institutions] of a defenseless anti-colonial army as 'humanitarian intervention' in defense of 'pro-democracy civilians‘—p. 76-78
Excerpt from “The Arab Revolt”
US and European rulers are neither ‘pro nor anti’ Islam, it all depends on their national and class position. Islamists who collaborate with Empire are “moderate” allies and if they attack an anti-imperialist regime, they become ‘freedom fighters’. On the other hand, they become “terrorists” or “fundamentalists” when they oppose imperial occupation, pillage or colonial settlements—p. 115
During President Carter’s administration, at the instigation of Brzezinski and Bernard Lewis, the CIA joined with Saudi Arabia’s ruling royalty in providing billions of dollars in arms and military supplies to Afghan Muslim fundamentalists in their brutal but successful Jihad overthrowing a modern, secular nationalist regime backed by the USSR—p. 116
The same ‘coalition’ of Islamists and the Empire has been glaringly obvious during NATO assault on Libya and continues in Syria. The Muslims provide the shock troops on the ground; NATO provides the aerial bombing, funds, arms, sanctions, embargoes and propaganda—p. 116
Emblematic of the “moderate Islamist” collaboration with US-UE imperialism is the role of Qatar, home to the ‘respectable’ Arabic media giant, Al-Jazeera, and the demagogic Qatari “spiritual guide” Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi. Sheikh Youssef quotes the Qur’an and Islamic moral principles in defense of NATO’s 8-month aerial bombing of Libya, which killed over 50,000 pro-regime Libyans (themselves Muslims)—p. 119
In Palestine, Washington, under the overweening control of Israel’s Zionist fifth column, has armed and financed Israel’s war against the popularly elected Islamist Hamas government in Gaza. Washington’s total commitment to the Jewish state and its colonial expansion and usurpation of Palestinian (Muslim and Christian) lands and property in Jerusalem and elsewhere reflects the profound and pervasive influence of the Zionist power configuration throughout the US political system. It regularly secure 90% votes in Congress, pledges of allegiance from the White House, and senior appointments in Treasury, State Department and the Pentagon —p. 117-118
Excerpt from “The Arab Revolt”
According to ‘rebel’ mercenary technocrats, NATO’s policy of systematic destruction will cost Libya at least a ‘lost decade’. This is an optimistic assessment of how long ‘reconstruction’ will take for Libya to regain the economic levels of February 2011. The major petroleum companies have already lost hundreds of millions in profits and over the decade are expected to lose billions more due to the flight, assassination and jailing of thousands of experienced Libyan and foreign experts, skilled immigrant workers and technical specialists in all fields, especially in view of the destruction of Libyan infrastructure and telecommunication systems. Sub-Sahara Africa will suffer a huge set-back with the cancellation of the proposed ‘Bank of Africa’, which Gaddafi was developing as an alternative source of investment finance and the destruction of his alternative communications system for Africa. The process of re-colonization involving imperial rule via NATO and UN mercenary ‘peace keepers’ will be chaotic, given the inevitable strife among hostile armed Islamist fundamentalists, monarchists, neo-colonial technocrats, tribal warlords and clans as they carve up their private fiefdoms. Intra-imperial rivalries and local political claimants to the oil wealth will further enhance the ‘chaos’ and degrade civilian life in a nation which had once boasted the highest per capita income and standard of living in Africa. Complex irrigation and petroleum networks, developed under Gaddafi and destroyed by NATO, will remain in shambles. As the example of Iraq has vividly proved, NATO is better at destroying than at constructing a modern secular state rooted in a modern civil bureaucracy, with universal free public education, a secular judicial system and modern health service—as enjoyed by Iraq before “shock and awe”—p. 78-79
Excerpt from “The Arab Revolt”
The following are only a few of the indicators of social well-being that speak to the efforts of the Gaddafi government to improve the lot of the Libyan people:
* Libya’s GDP per capita is $ 14,192.
* For each family member the state pays a $ 1,000 yearly subsidy.
* Unemployed are paid 730 $ monthly.
* The salary of a hospital nurse is $ 1,000.
* For every newborn $ 7,000 is paid .
* Newly weds are donated $ 64,000 to buy an apartment.
* To open a private business one gets a one-time financial aid of 20 000 $.
* Large taxes and duties are prohibited.
* Education and medicine are free.
* Education and Internships abroad are at government expense.
* There are chain stores for large families with symbolic prices for basic foodstuffs.
* For the sale of products past their expiry date large fines are levied, in some cases detention by the police is foreseen.
* A number of pharmacies have free dispensing.
* Counterfeiting medication is considered a major crime.
* No rental payments.
* No payment for electricity for the population.
* The sale and use of alcohol is prohibited, "prohibition" is a law.
* Loans for buying a car and an apartment are given at no interest.
* Real estate services are prohibited.
* If an individual decides to buy a car up to 50% of the price is paid by the state, to militia guards it donates 65% of the price.
* Gasoline is cheaper than water. A liter of gasoline costs $ 0.14. The profits from oil sale were spent on the population welfare and rising life standards.
* In Libya, much money is spent on irrigation by the country's groundwater, the amount of which is about 100 annual runoffs of the Nile. By its scale, this water project has earned itself the name of “the Eighth Wonder of the World." It provides 5-million cubic meters of water a day across the desert, greatly increasing the irrigated area. 4,000 kilometers of pipes are buried deep into the ground to secure them from the heat. All that was needed for the project was carried out mostly by Libya herself. Nothing was bought in the First World, which has never helped developing countries to rise from a supine position, and if it does, then with the further enslavement of the receiving country. With this water project, Libya was able to start a real "green revolution", in the literal sense, that would solve a lot of problems with food in Africa. And most importantly, it would ensure stability and economic independence. At one time, Gaddafi said that Libya's water project would be "the strongest response to America, which accuses Libya of supporting terrorism." p. 124-125
See further readings and references at:
http://left.ru/2 011/2/shelestiuk204.phtml
“when Gaddafi was caught, his treatment at the hands of the rabble who found him hardly suggested that Libya had turned a page for the better. After being tortured and sodomized with a stick, he was executed in cold blood. A few days later, Libya’s interim leader declared annulment of all laws that contravened sharia.”– John Bradley, After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts, Palgrave, New York, 2012, page 133
U.S. deployment and Israel’s regional security framework
“The reviewed literature indicates that the question of Arab normalization with Israel tends to set the thermostat of the U.S. deployment in the Maghreb and makes it distinguishable from the wider U.S. deployment in the global South. Therefore let us point out the Israeli regional security concept that appears to have inspired political and security initiatives such as the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Barcelona Process. A couple of years before the November 1995 Barcelona Conference, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres published a book entitled The New Middle East, in which he presented the Israeli strategic vision of a “regional framework” for solving the “problems of the region.”
First, he argued that Israel’s ultimate goal was the creation of a “systematized regional structure” to provide security for Israel and regional stability against Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. Second, he linked the success of the regional framework with the success of the “Arab-Israeli peace process.” Third, he recommended that individual members of the regional structure be bonded by both bilateral (nation-to-nation) and multilateral (nation-to-region) obligations. Fourth, he suggested that the regional structure should implement a system of data collection on military activities via the use of space satellites “in collaboration with the superpowers.” To sound the alarm and give more credibility and urgency to his proposed plan, Peres sent an extortionate warning against what he called the “astonishing Western shortsightedness” and the “naiveté” of “Western nations” after the First World War when they “failed miserably” because they “had no means of collecting information or of guarding peace” and lacked the support of friendly countries “outside” Europe. Finally, he concluded his scheme by citing the Roman proverb: “let him who desires peace, prepare for war” (Peres, 1993).
One can reasonably argue without sounding conspiratorial that Peres’ proposal served as the blueprint that partly guided some of the political goals and operational mechanisms within regional structures such as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue, the NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, and U.S. European Command’s (USEUCOM) Trans-Saharan Counter-Terrorism Initiative. These regional structures became a de facto crucible for normalization between Israel and the Arab world. For example, Arab joint chiefs of staff and/or defense ministers or their representatives meet now routinely with their Israeli counterparts within the framework of the NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue, something unthinkable before these regional structures suggested first in the book The New Middle East. These brainstorming ideas put “normalization with Israel” at the center of the Mediterranean Dialogue because joining the Dialogue means dealing with the Israelis one way or another.” Pages 236-238.
Mohameden Ould-Mey, "U.S.-Mauritania Relations and the Coriolis Force of Normalization with Israel," In Les Etats-Unis et le Maghreb; regain d’intérêt? sous la direction de Abdennour Benantar, Alger: Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée au Développement (CREAD), pp. 227-263, http://faculty.indstate.edu/melyassini/U.S.-Mauritania%20Relations%20and%20the%20Coriolis%20Force%20of%20Normalization%20with%20Israel.pdf
‘Common Solutions to Common Problems’: [NATO] Secretary General visits Israel
Addressing ways to increase dialogue and cooperation between NATO and the Mediterranean Dialogue partners, NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, visited Israel on 9 February. NATO, February 9, 2011, http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_70516.htm
Gaddafi attacks Sarkozy plan for Union of the Med
Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for a Mediterranean Union will fuel Islamist terrorism and will be regarded as "imperialism" by many in Africa and the Arab world, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi warned yesterday.
The comments by the Libyan leader are a major setback to the French President's Mediterranean project, his highest-profile initiative during France's turn at the European Union's six-month rotating presidency which began last week. Mr Sarkozy has invited all the EU's 27 leaders plus premiers from 17 Mediterranean countries to a summit launching the new "Union" in Paris next week.
But Libya, which will boycott the meeting, has accused the EU of trying to divide Africa and the broader Arab world by drawing a Mediterranean Union map that echoes old colonialist designs for the region. "We shall have another Roman empire and imperialist design," Col Gaddafi said in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, yesterday. "There are imperialist maps and designs that we have already rolled up. We should not have them again."
The Telegraph, July 8, 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/2277517/Gaddafi-attacks-Sarkozy-plan-for-Union-of-the-Med.html
During his visit, the Secretary General met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman. Following his meeting with the Prime Minister, Rasmussen highlighted that “I am here because Israel is a highly valued member of one of our partnerships, the so-called Mediterranean Dialogue.
17 Israelis make 'Forbes' 2013 billionaires list
http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-News/17-Israelis-make-Forbes-2013-billionaires-list
Simon Dawson/BLOOMBERG –
Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler talks on his smartphone while walking past mining rubble during a visit to Comide SPRL's Mashitu copper mine in the Katanga province of Congo.http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dan-gertler-earns-billions-as-mine-deals-fail-to-enrich-congo/2012/12/27/c37d0100-4e31 -11e2-8b49-64675006147f_story_1.html
Dan Gertler earns billions as mine deals fail to enrich Congo
...Gertler has stakes in companies that control 9.6 percent of world cobalt production. That’s just the beginning of his influence in Congo, the largest country of sub-Saharan Africa, with the world’s richest deposits of cobalt and major reserves of copper, diamonds, gold, tin and coltan, an ore containing the metal tantalum that is used in consumer electronics. His Gibraltar-registered Fleurette Properties owns stakes in various Congolese mines through at least 60 holding companies in offshore tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands. Gertler, whose grandfather co-founded Israel’s diamond exchange in 1947, arrived in Congo in 1997 seeking rough diamonds. The 23-year-old trader struck a friendship with Joseph Kabila, who then headed the Congolese army and today is the nation’s president. Since those early days, Gertler has invested in iron ore, gold, cobalt and copper as well as agriculture, oil and banking. In the process, he’s built a net worth of at least $2.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index... “Dan Gertler is essentially looting Congo at the expense of its people,” said Jean Pierre Muteba, the head of a group of nongovernmental organizations that monitor the mining sector in Katanga province, with most of Congo’s copper. “He has political connections, so state companies sell him mines for low prices and he sells them on for huge profits. That’s how he’s become a billionaire.”... As a youth, Gertler got up at 5 a.m. to learn how to polish gems before heading to school. He joined his grandfather, Romanian emigre Moshe Schnitzer, at business meetings to watch him negotiate diamond deals. When Schnitzer died in 2007, Benjamin Netanyahu, now Israel’s prime minister, gave a eulogy. Gertler recalled a business lesson his grandfather imparted: “He told me: ‘Dan, you meet your bankers and you ask for credit only when you don’t need it. Just to secure it. Because when you need it, it is too late.’... Gertler flew between war-torn nations such as Liberia and Angola and the major diamond centers in the United States, India and Israel, buying and selling gems, he said.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/dan-gertler-earns-billions-as-mine-deals-fail-to-enrich-congo/2012/12/27/c37d0100-4e31-11e2-8b49-64675006147f_story_1.html
Israel's ambassador to Senegal, Eli Ben-Tura, and Senegalese government minister Mamadou Talla speaking at an Israel Independence Day celebration at Dakar's grand theater, April 30, 2013. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA), http://www.jta.org/news/article/2013/05/07/3126016/amid-rising-islamism-in-africa-israel-senegal-ties-continue-to-flourish
Moroccan king funding preservation of Cape Verde Jewish heritage — but to what end?
Abdellah Boutadghart, right, of the Moroccan embassy in Senegal, and Rabbi Eliezer Di Martino from Lisbon on May 2 [2013] at Praia’s main cemetery. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project has a board stuffed with prominent Jewish Washingtonians, but its funding comes largely from one man — King Mohammed VI of Morocco. According to the group’s U.S. tax filings, the king was the organization’s sole listed donor in 2011, giving $100,000. Smaller donors make up about a quarter of the project’s funding, the CVJHP said… Unlike many Arab countries with once sizable Jewish communities, Morocco has taken wide-ranging steps to preserve its Jewish history. The Casablanca Jewish museum was restored, the small but colorful 17th century synagogue in Fez was renovated, and dozens of former Jewish schools and more than 100 synagogues were rehabilitated with funding from the crown.
In 2011, in a move that [Andre] Azoulay [a senior Jewish adviser to the king and a member of the project’s advisory board] calls unprecedented in the modern Middle East, the Moroccan constitution was changed to note that the country has been “nourished and enriched … [by] Hebraic influences,” among others… The king’s restoration activity already has brought benefits in the form of increased Jewish tourism. More than 19,000 Israelis entered Morocco in 2010, a 42 percent leap from the previous year, according to Israel’s Tourism Ministry. The World Federation of Moroccan Jewry says the kingdom receives another 30,000 non-Israeli Jews annually. Among them was Joel Rubinfeld, the Brussels-based co-chair of the European Jewish Parliament, who spent 12 days in Morocco in March meeting with government officials and visiting his mother’s hometown. Rubinfeld believes the government’s intention to honor the country’s Jewish past is sincere, but he said other considerations are at work as well.
“There may certainly be pragmatic incentives: attracting tourism and investments down the line,” Rubinfeld said. “For some, it is a political calculation to improve Morocco’s international standing.”
A Moroccan diplomat, who spoke to JTA on condition of anonymity, said the restoration project could bring political dividends for Morocco, which has been accused of human rights abuses in Western Sahara, a disputed territory to which the kingdom lays partial claim.
“To Morocco’s great consternation, the U.S. last month proposed the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara help monitor human rights,” the diplomat said. “It’s very useful for us to have someone — a strong lobby group, perhaps — to help talk the State Department out of this idea. The Jewish lobby is a very strong one.”
The board of the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project includes Howard Berman, a former California congressman who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee until his defeat last year; Daniel Mariaschin, the executive director of B’nai B’rith International; Herman Cohen, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state; and Toby Dershowitz, who heads a Washington public affairs consultancy.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 13, 2013, http://www.jta.org/2013/05/13/news-opinion/world/moroccan-king-funding-preservation-of-cape-verde-jewish-heritage-but-to-what-end
HM the King [of Morocco] chairs in Casablanca reception on occasion of Throne Day,
30 July 2013
“The sovereign gave the Alawite wissam of top officer rank to Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations”, Agence Marocaine de Presse,
http://www.map.ma/en/activites-royales/hm-king-chairs-casablanca-reception-occasion-throne-day
Malcolm Hoenlein receives award from King of Morocco
The sovereign gave the Alawite wissam of top officer rank to Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Mohammed VI, King of Morocco presented Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Conference of Presidents with the highest award given to a foreigner, reflecting the many years of friendship between the Conference of Presidents and Morocco during the tenure of his late father, King Hassan II at the Thrown Day Ceremonies. http://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/content/malcolm-hoenlein-receives-award-king-morocco
French Jews say Prime Minister Manuel Valls has their back
“And Valls has been filmed wearing a yarmulke at numerous Jewish community functions, exposing him to charges of hypocrisy since he supported banning Muslim head coverings for women at French universities.
Even more unusual, Valls has explicitly linked his pro-Jewish views to his Jewish wife, the violinist Anne Gravoin, saying in 2011 that his marriage connected him “in an eternal way” to Israel and the Jewish people.
“Without Jews,” Valls said last month, “France will no longer be France.”
Such statements are highly unusual in a country with a strong secularist ideology and where government officials are typically careful not to single out any minority or group for special treatment. But Valls is not a typical politician.”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 4/7/2014, http://www.jta.org/2014/04/07/news-opinion/world/french-jews-say-prime-minister-manuel-valls-has-their-back
Manuel Valls at the ceremony in which he assumed the power as French prime minister, April 1, 2014. (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Manuel Valls, then the interior minister of France, arriving at a state dinner with his wife, Anne Gravoin, Sept. 3, 2013. (Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images)
His Majesty King Juan Carlos I welcomes delegation of American Jewish Leaders on Conference of Presidents Leadership Mission
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Receives Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at Zarzuela Palace
“Sixty leaders of member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, on an historic first official visit to Spain by the American umbrella organization, met with His Majesty King Juan Carlos I at Zarzuela Palace… They praised the legislation being enacted by the Spanish government that will grant citizenship to Jews of Spanish Sephardic ancestry, as an important recognition of the tragic events 500 years ago and the importance of educating this and future generations about it, and for Spain to lead in efforts to counter anti-Semitism, extremism, and the threats of boycotts against Israel in Europe.”
Conference of President of Major American Jewish Organizations,
For a few months last year, I had a mission: To get a senior EU official to admit that Europe’s reluctance to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organization was motivated by its desire to avoid spoiling relations with Lebanon. I failed, and was forced to rely on experts to describe this public secret. So I was surprised to hear not one but several Spanish officials admit as much last week in talks with 40 American Jewish leaders visiting Madrid as part of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations annual mission. Such openness was only one of many courtesies Spanish officials extended to their visitors, who were treated like high-level diplomats, complete with round-the-clock police protection and motorcade escorts wherever they travelled.
For four-and-a-half days, cabinet ministers and senior officials made pilgrimages to the delegation’s hotel. In between, there were excursions for meetings with even more senior officials, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and King Juan Carlos I. Not only did his majesty pose for photos with each visitor, but he also broke with the script to exchange pleasantries with them. The COP mission is actually an Israel mission, in which the leaders annually travel to the Jewish state and one other country. Last year, the group visited Paris and met with President Francois Hollande, but there were fewer meetings with other senior officials and less openness than in Spain, organizers and participants told me. JTA, 2/17/2014, http://www.jta.org/2014/02/17/news-opinion/world/the-cop-goes-to-madrid
Spanish cabinet approves draft bill for Sephardic return
(JTA) — The Spanish government has approved a draft bill that proposes to grant citizenship to descendants of Sephardic Jews who were forced into exile 500 years ago...
Portugal’s parliament passed similar legislation in July, but the law, which retains discretionary powers for officials, is yet to be implemented. JTA, June 6, 2014 9:05am, http://www.jta.org/2014/06/06/news-opinion/world/spanish-cabinet-approves-draft-bill-for-sephardic-return
The Presidents Conference goes to Madrid
Meet Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, Bahrain's Jewish U.S. ambassador
One of Bahrain’s 36 Jews, Nonoo says she has never been discriminated against in her country, where woman are allowed to vote, choose to wear a headscarf and even drive.
The appointment of Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo (46), the first female Ambassador from Bahrain and the first Jewish Ambassador of an Arab country in Washington, was praised by U.S. diplomats when it was revealed recently in one of the Wikileaks cables.
It’s not rare to hear in diplomatic circles in Washington about the “smart move” the Bahrainis made, sending to the U.S. a Western-educated woman who represents a tiny minority of the kingdom's population…
She was credited with organizing the meeting between King Hamad and Bahraini Jewish immigrants in the U.S. and arranged a dinner at the home of Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of the Washington office of American Friends of Lubavitch, with the Bahraini foreign minister and representatives of U.S. Jewish organizations.
Haaretz, March 14, 2011, http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/meet-houda-ezra-ebrahim-nonoo-bahrain-s-jewish-u-s-ambassador-1.349208
King Hussein of Jordan lights [Israeli] P.M.Yitzhak Rabin's cigarette at royal residence in Aqaba. Photo: GPO,
The Jerusalem Post, July 25, 2013, http://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/This-Week-in-History-Peace-on-the-Eastern-border-320979
“While the nation [Jordan] cheered for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the [1991] Gulf War, its king was protecting Israel through its eastern frontier with Iraq.”
Hillary Clinton explains how the United States government overthrew the Libyan government
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
“After Iraq and Afghanistan, we weren’t going to risk looking like we’d launched another Western intervention in a Muslim country” [p. 357]… It was March 14, 2011... Now Jibril, a Libyan political scientist with a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, was on his way to meet with me on behalf of the rebels fighting Qaddafi's forces. I have flown through the night and arrived in Paris early that morning to meet with the Foreign Ministers of the Group of 8 leading industrialized countries--France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, and the United States--to discuss ways to stop Qaddafi from slaughtering his own people... Joining us were Ministers from several Arab countries[p. 363]… When I met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he urged the United States to support international military intervention to stop Qaddafi's advance toward the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya... In February, the UN Security Council, shocked by Qaddafi's brutal response, called for an immediate end to violence and unanimously approved a resolution to impose an arms embargo on Libya , freeze the assets of key human rights violators and members of the Qaddafi family, and refer the Libyan case to the International Criminal Court. The ICC eventually charged Qaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, and the military intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi with crimes against humanity. The United States also imposed sanctions of its own [p 364]…
Hillary Clinton explains how the United States government overthrew the Libyan government
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
At the end of February, I traveled to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to remind the international community that it had a responsibility to protect [p. 364] universal rights and to hold violators accountable. I said that Qaddafi has "lost the legitimacy to govern," and "the people of Libya have made themselves clear: It is time for Qaddafi to go--now without further violence or delay." A few days before, in the same chamber in the Palais des Nations, the Libyan delegation had dramatically renounced their allegiance to Qaddafi and declared their support for the rebels... A week later the rebels in Benghazi formed a transitional governing council [p 365]... Just a few days earlier, on March 9, I had joined the rest the rest of President Obama's national security team in the White House Situation Room to discuss the crisis in Libya [p. 366]... The very next day a development in Cairo began to change the calculus. After more than five hours of deliberation and debate, the Arab League, representing twenty-one Middle Eastern nations, voted to request that the United Nations Security Council impose a no-fly zone in Libya. The Arab League had previously suspended the Qaddafi government's membership, and now it recognized the rebel council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. These were major steps by an organization previously known as a club for autocrats and oil barons. One of the prime movers was the Egyptian diplomat Amr Moussa, who was serving as the Arab League's Secretary-General but ad his eye on the upcoming Presidential elections in Egypt... The Gulf monarchs went along, in part to show their own restive populations that they were on the side of change. And, off course, they all hated Qaddafi. If the Arabs were willing to take the lead, perhaps an international intervention was not impossible after all. Certainly it would put pressure on Russia and China, who might otherwise be expected to veto any Western backed action at the UN Security Council [p. 367]...
Hillary Clinton explains how the United States government overthrew the Libyan government
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
AbZ, the Foreign Minister of the UAE, a powerful behind-the-scenes player at the Arab League, was in Paris when I arrived. We met in my hotel before the G-8 dinner, and I pressed him on how far the Arab commitment went. Were they prepared to see foreign planes dropping bombs on Libya? Even more important, were they prepared to fly some of the those planed themselves? From the Emiratis, at least the answer to both questions was surprisingly yes. The Europeans were even more gun ho. I got an earful about military intervention from Sarkozy....Sarkozy was also influenced by the French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, who had hitched a ride in a vegetable truck from the Egyptian border to see for himself what was happening. They were both moved by the Libya people... When I saw British Foreign Secretary William Hague at dinner that night, he pressed the case for action... Back at the hotel I met with out Ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz, and our newly appointed Special Representative to the Libyan rebels, Chris Stevens, who had earlier served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge d'affaires in Tripoli. Cretz was a colorful character, a brash and funny diplomat from upstate New York. When his secret cables to Washington describing Qaddafi's excesses were published by WikiLeaks, Cretz had faced threats and intimidation in Tripoli, and in late December 2010, I made the decision to bring him back to Washington for his own safety. By late February 2011, with the revolution heating p , our remaining diplomatic staff evacuated. Many left on a ferry to Malta that hit unusually high and heavy seas, but thankfully everyone made it safely [p. 368].
Hillary Clinton explains how the United States government overthrew the Libyan government
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
Steven Chris was another talented diplomat with long experience in the region. A blond-haired, charismatic Californian who spoke French and Arabic, he had served in Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jerusalem... I asked Chris to return to Libya to make contact with the rebel council in their stronghold of Benghazi. It was a challenging and dangerous mission, but America needed to be represented there. Chris agreed and accepted the assignment... Later in the spring he and a very small team arrived in Benghazi on board a Greek cargo ship, like a 19th-century envoy, and got right to work building relationships with the civilian and military leaders of the rebellion. He did such an impressive job I would later ask the President to nominate him to succeed Cretz as our Ambassador to Libya. Finally, around 10 P.M., Jibril arrived at the Westin in Paris accompanied by Bernard-Henri Levy, who had helped arrange the meeting. They made quite a pair, the rebel and the philosopher [p. 369].
Hillary Clinton explains how the United States government overthrew the Libyan government
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
Afterward I reported to the White House what I had heard in Paris and my progress with our international partners. Our NATO allies were prepared to take the lead in any military action… The president decided to move forward with drawing up military plans and securing a UN Security Council resolution [p. 370]… On the morning of March 15 [2011], I flew from Paris to Cairo to meet with Amr Moussa and emphasize how important it was that the Arab League come out strongly for military intervention and agree to actively participate. This policy had to be recognized as being driven by Libya’s neighbors, not the West, or it wasn’t going to work. Moussa confirmed that Qatar and the UAE were prepared to contribute planes and pilots to the effort, a major step forward. Later Jordan would step up as well. I knew this support would make it easier to convince wavering Security Council members in New York… Now it was important to assure the Russians that this would not be like Iraq or Afghanistan…. I explained [to Lavrov] that our resolution would incorporate the Russian proposal for cease-fire, but that it had to also authorize a force-[p.371]ful response if Qaddafi refused to stop his advance. “We can’t vote in favor,” Lavrov said. “But we will abstain and it will pass.” That was all we needed… Next I called Luis Amado, the Foreign Minister of Portugal…He listened to my arguments and then agreed to vote yes…. President Obama called South African President Jacob Zuma and made the same case to him…Susan lobbied her counterparts in New York. The French and British were working hard as well. In the end the final vote was 10 to 0, with five abstentions; Brazil, India, China, and Germany joined Russia in sitting out of the vote. We now had a strong mandate to protect Libyan civilians with “all necessary means”[p. 372]…
Hillary Clinton explains how the United States government overthrew the Libyan government
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
Over the next seventy-two hours Libya's air defenses were successfully destroyed … President was later unfairly criticized as “leading from behind” in Libya. That’s a silly phrase. It took a great deal of leading –from the front, the side, and every other direction, to authorize and accomplish the mission… No on else could have played the role we did, both in terms of the military capability to land a decisive first blow against Qaddafi’s forces and the diplomatic capacity to build and hold together a broad coalition [p. 375]…In mid-October, with Tripoli liberated but Qaddafi still on the loose, I decided to visit Libya myself to offer America’s support to the new transitional government. With the country awash in shoulder-fired surface-to-[p. 377]air missiles, it was too dangerous to fly our usual blue-and-white 757 with “The United States of America” emblazoned from tip to tail, so the Air Force provided a C-17 military transport plane equipped with defensive countermeasures for the morning flight from Malta to Tripoli…. After landing safely, the door of the C-17 opened and I looked out from the top of the plane’s stairs and saw a crowd of armed and bearded militia fighters waiting below… I took a deep breath and started to walk down the stairs. To my surprise the militia fighters started chanting, “God is Great!” and “USA!” [p. 378]… I made my way t the office of Jibril, the rebel leader I had met in Paris who was now the interim Prime Minister. He greeted me with a broad smile, and I said, “I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya.” … I assured them [Jalil and Jibril] that NATO would continue its mission to protect Libyan civilians until the former dictator was found and fully defeated [p. 379]… Two days after I left Libya, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was captured and killed” [p. 388]
“In fact, my own personal experiences with the pro-Israel Lobby inside the United States demonstrate Israel’s intense interest in Africa. I have written about my experience with “the pledge” to support Israel that is forced on every candidate for the U.S. Congress; refusal to sign it, as I did, means not one dollar of the millions expended each election cycle in campaign contributions and can ensure the most vicious media demonization as the major descriptor of the un-cooperating candidate. The demonization of Alabama’s first Black Member of Congress since Reconstruction, Earl Hilliard, in his 2002 re-election campaign, with specific regard to his visits to Libya, immediately come to mind…
In fact, I was invited to lease my “Black” face to these very interests and get arrested in front of the Sudan Embassy to sow the very “Black versus Arab” narrative being tragically created in Libya which Nazemroaya describes so thoroughly in this current text. I note here that some Blacks inside and outside of the U.S. Congress did choose to accept this particular invitation and get arrested… While in Libya, I met many Africans who said that they chose to live there because of the pan-Africanism of the policies of the Libyan Jamahirya. In fact, while at an “Africans in the Diaspora Conference” there in January/February of 2011, I personally witnessed, along with a delegation of others from the United States, Muammar Qaddafi pledge $90 billion to a “United States of Africa” that would work together to build the Continent and counter the efforts to penetrate and recolonize it… Continental Africans attending these Tour-stops reminded audiences of Muammar Qaddafi’s support for Nelson Mandela and Africans struggling to rid the Continent of Apartheid at a time when Israel shared an alliance with that government. They also noted the Jamahirya government’s current support for many development projects throughout the Continent and for the budget of the African Union, itself. Therefore, many alarmed observers have pointed out that the U.S./NATO attack on Libya is actually an attack on all of Africa.”
Cynthia McKinney, 10 October 2011, http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-and-libya-preparing-africa-for-the-clash-of-civilizations/27029
U.S. Secretary of State Clinton told the African Union: "I know it’s true that over many years Mr. Qadhafi played a major role in providing financial support for many African nations and institutions, including the African Union... But... I urge all African states... to call for Qadhafi to step aside. I also urge you to suspend the operations of Qadhafi’s embassies in your countries, to expel pro-Qadhafi diplomats, and to increase contact and support for the Transitional National Council”—June 13, 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. http://www.nepad.org/system/files/US%20SECTRARY%20OF%20STATE%20SPEECH%20AT%20THE%20AFRICAN%20UNION.pdf
Israel and Libya: Preparing Africa for the “Clash of Civilizations”
Introduction by Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman
Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy:
“…Together with our Nato allies and coalition partners, the United States, France and Britain have been united at the UN Security Council, as well as the following Paris Conference, in building a broad-based coalition to respond to the crisis in Libya. We are equally united on what needs to happen to end it… so long as Gaddafi is in power, Nato and its coalition partners must maintain their operations…Today Nato and its coalition partners are acting in the name of the United Nations with an unprecedented international legal mandate…Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the United Nations Security Council resolutions have been implemented…”-The Times, The Washington Post and Le Figaro. The Telegraph, 4/15/2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8452877/The-bombing-continues-until-Gaddafi-goes.html
Libya: Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy pledge to fight until Gaddafi goes — The Telegraph, 4/15/2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8452627/Libya-Barack-Obama-David-Cameron-and-Nicolas-Sarkozy-pledge-to-fight-until-Gaddafi-goes.html
The New York Times (April 1, 2011), often considered the leading Zionist newspaper in the world, noted that the "One Man [who] Made Libya a French Cause" was Jewish Bernard-Henry Levy who “managed to get a fledgling Libyan opposition group a hearing from the president of France and the American secretary of state, a process that has led both countries and NATO into waging war against the forces of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.”
“At least 30,000 people were killed and 50,000 wounded in Libya's six-month civil war” –The Guardian, 9/8/2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9835879
.
At the same time, Qatar-based Egyptian Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, Head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and Osama Bin Laden Deputy Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri incited Libyans to overthrow Gaddafi and kill him.
Qaradawi
Zawahiri
Qaradawi (center) sitting between his Qatari hosts: Emir Hamad (left) and his son, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani http://www.almayadeen.net/ar/news/special_reports-0YMFBJkGKkm7NqOmASxVdQ/ لهذه-الأسباب-يستبعد-أن-تقطع-الدوحة-علاقتها-بـالإخوان
America's secret plan to arm Libya's rebels
Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi
Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later – to America's chagrin – also funded and armed the Taliban.
But the Saudis remain the only US Arab ally strategically placed and capable of furnishing weapons to the guerrillas of Libya. Their assistance would allow Washington to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain – even though the arms would be American and paid for by the Saudis.
The Independent, March 7, 2011, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/americas-secret-plan-to-arm-libyas-rebels-2234227.html
Qatar's decision to send planes to Libya is part of a high-stakes game
For a country the size of Belgium with a population of 1.7 million, Qatar has been playing an extraordinarily high-profile role. This weekend four Qatari fighter jets are set to join the allied forces already off the Libyan coastline. The combat deployment is the first by an Arab or Muslim-majority country and thus of critical diplomatic significance. Then there is the key role played in the "Arab spring" by al-Jazeera, the satellite TV channel set up by the emir in 1996… Qatari diplomacy is wide-ranging. Successfully bidding for the 2022 World Cup attracted global attention, as it was meant to. Qatar has good relations with the US, hosting its vast airbase at al-Udeid, and, relative to the rest of the region, with Israel too. The Guardian, 24 March 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/24/qatar-planes-libya-high-stakes
Qatar: A tiny country asserts powerful influence—CBS News 60 Minutes
U.A.E. Draws Praise From U.S. for Participation in Libya
U.S. officials announced Thursday that the United Arab Emirates followed through on its promise to provide warplanes to defend the U.N.-sanctioned no-fly zone over Libya.
This was welcome news to many coalition forces, who hoped to show the world that this is not another Western-only intervention in the Arab world.
“The U.A.E. further underscores the broad, international support for the protection of the Libyan people," the White House said in a statement.
The White House thanked the U.A.E. and called its participation in Libya “critical”….
The U.A.E. is the second Arab country to send fighter jets to the region. Qatar had sent two fighters and two military transport planes, Reuters reported. The U.A.E has now made the largest Arab commitment to the effort by sending 12 fighter jets.
FoxNews.com, March 24, 2011, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/24/uae-draws-praise-participation-libya/
Hillary Clinton checks her PDA upon her departure in a military C-17 plane from Malta bound for Tripoli, Libya October 18, 2011 [two days before the murder of Gaddafi on 10/20/2011]. The image would launch 1,000 memes. (Reuters/textsfromhillary.tumblr.com), Megan Garber, The Atlantic, Jan 29, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/hillary-clinton-traveled-956-733-miles-during-her-time-as-secretary-of-state/272656 /
Hillary Clinton Traveled 956,733 Miles During Her Time as Secretary of State
Clinton’s Remarks With Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril and at a Town Hall Meeting With Youth and Civil Society in Tripoli on 10/18/2011:
“We know that Qadhafi and those close to him are still at large. But the NATO and international coalition that came together on your behalf will continue to protect Libyan civilians until the threat from Qadhafi and those who hang to the past is ended… I am pleased that we are working together to return billions of dollars of frozen assets and that we have reopened our Embassy.” http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/10/175782.htm
“And as you know, we had a very hostile relationship with Qadhafi over many years because of his behavior and because of his actions, both inside of Libya and outside of Libya.… So we want to do everything we can to prevent him from causing trouble for the new Libya ... We don’t know where he is, but we hope he can be captured or killed soon” http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/10/175786.htm
Huge blaze out of control in Tripoli battle as Libya slides to chaos
Plumes of smoke rise in the sky after a rocket hit a fuel storage tank near the airport road in Tripoli, during clashes between rival militias July 28, 2014. Credit: REUTERS/Hani Amara
(Reuters) - A huge fuel depot in Libya's capital burned out of control on Monday, set ablaze in fighting between rival militias that has driven the country to chaos three years after the NATO-backed revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi… Foreign governments have looked on powerless as anarchy sweeps across the North African oil producer. Western countries have urged their nationals to leave, shut their embassies and pulled diplomats out, after two weeks of clashes among rival factions of former rebels killed nearly 160 people in Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi… the United States evacuated its embassy in Tripoli on Saturday, spiriting diplomats across the border into Tunisia under heavy military guard including warplanes and a Marine escort… A British embassy convoy leaving by road for Tunisia came under gunfire in an apparent attempted hijacking on Sunday outside Tripoli as it headed to the border… The Italian embassy has helped 100 citizens and other nationals leave by road or by military aircraft, foreign ministry officials said, while the Dutch embassy was preparing to temporarily close with the departure of its last citizens… Austria and the Philippines were also down to basic staffing on Monday, with Manila urging its nationals to evacuate "before all routes and options become extremely difficult.“ Reuter, 7/28/2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/us-libya-security-idUSKBN0FW09720140728
South Sudan President Visits Israel for First Time
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres met with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Tuesday during his first official visit to Israel. Peres touted Israel’s support of South Sudan, while Netanyahu raised the issue of illegal South Sudanese migrants in his meeting.
"This is an exciting and historical moment for me and for the State of Israel," Peres said. "Israel will continue to support your nation's development in all aspects. I know you fought, sometimes against all odds, for the birth of South Sudan as a nation. It has become a milestone in the history of the Middle East and in the promotion of values such as freedom, equality and the pursuit of good neighborly relations."
According to the president’s office, Kiir thanks Peres for the warm welcome. "I am very excited to be here, to set foot in the Promised Land … Israel has always supported the South Sudanese people—we wouldn’t exist without you.”
"You fought beside us to allow for the inception of South Sudan and we would like to learn from you,” Kiir continued. "We have shared values.”
"Throughout history we have overcome similar struggles. We will work with Israel in the future to bolster the strategic ties between out countries," he said.
Netanyahu later posted to his Facebook wall, “I met today with South Sudan President Salva Kiir and agreed that an Israeli delegation would leave for South Sudan soon. The delegation will examine means of assisting the South Sudan people who have suffered greatly in recent years, in developing their new country.”
Jspace, 12/20/2011, http://www.jspace.com/news/articles/south-sudan-president-visits-israel-for-first-time/6658
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and South Sudanese President Salva Kiir
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visits Africa to gain observer status in AU, Middle East Online, 6/10/2014, http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=66472
Video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KU5Ph5C83w
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
American Jews leave African Union summit after protests
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An American Jewish delegation at an African Union summit left after AU delegates objected to its presence.
The nine person delegation, which included Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, had been invited by summit organizers to attend this week’s events in Equatorial Guinea
Hoenlein said Friday he considers the visit a success. He and the members of the delegation, who attended in individual capacities and did not collectively represent any organization, had between 12 and 15 meetings with African leaders on Wednesday, the day before the official summit launch.
“We were received across the board with presidents who have not before with us, who are anxious for closer ties to Israel, with the Jewish community,” Hoenlein, who said that it was the first time there was a Jewish presence at such a summit, told JTA.
On Thursday morning, the group settled in to watch the opening ceremonies, when the Egyptian delegation, noticing that some of the men wore kippahs, objected to their presence, calling them an Israeli delegation.
The South African delegation also complained. JTA, 6/27/2014, http://www.jta.org/2014/06/27/news-opinion/united-states/american-jews-leave-african-union-summit-after-protests#ixzz35vou2gKZ
Powell pushes for Syria action
BBC, 5/3/2003, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2995483.stm
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has called on Syria and Lebanon to end all support for groups Washington classifies as terrorist organisations. Speaking after talks in Damascus and Beirut, Mr Powell said he had made it clear to the Syrian and Lebanese leaders that there was a "new strategic situation" following the fall of Saddam Hussein in Iraq…
Syria conflict: UK planned to train and equip 100,000 rebels
"The plan was called Extract, Equip, Train... a shock and awe attack that would allow the Syrians themselves to defeat Assad", reports Nick Hopkins
The UK drew up plans to train and equip a 100,000-strong Syrian rebel army to defeat President Bashar al-Assad, BBC Newsnight can reveal.
The secret initiative, put forward two years ago, was the brainchild of the then most senior UK military officer, General Sir David Richards.
It was considered by the PM and the National Security Council, as well as US officials, but was deemed too risky.
BBC, 7/3/2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28148943
Mr Powell says the US wants "specific action" from Syria
"It is time we believe for the Lebanese army to deploy to the border and end the armed Hezbollah militia presence" Colin Powell
United Nations Security Council resolution 1559 (2004) calls for foreign troops to leave Lebanon
The Security Council…
1. Reaffirms its call for the strict respect of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence of Lebanon under the sole and exclusive authority of the Government of Lebanon throughout Lebanon;
2. Calls upon all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon;
3. Calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias;
4. Supports the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory;
5. Declares its support for a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon's upcoming presidential election conducted according to Lebanese constitutional rules devised without foreign interference or influence;
6. Calls upon all parties concerned to co-operate fully and urgently with the Security Council for the full implementation of this and all relevant resolutions concerning the restoration of the territorial integrity, full sovereignty, and political independence of Lebanon;
7. Requests that the secretary general report to the Security Council within 30 days on the implementation by the parties of this resolution and decides to remain actively seized of this matter. BBC, 9/3/2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3623956.stm
SYRIA IN LEBANON
Military intervention begins in 1976
30,000 troops in Lebanon during 1980s, currently 14,000
Syrian forces help end Lebanese civil war in 1990 and maintain peace
Calls for Syrian withdrawal increase in 2000 after Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon
UN resolution calling for foreign forces' withdrawal in Sept 2004
The US and French-backed resolution got nine votes, the minimum needed to pass
Area: 185,180 sq km (slightly larger than North Dakota)
Border countries: Iraq 605 km, Israel 76 km, Jordan 375 km, Lebanon 375 km, Turkey 822 km. Coastline: 193 km
Population: 22,457,336 (July 2013 est.)
Age structure: 0-24 years: 54.7%
Ethnic groups: Arab 90.3%, Kurds, Armenians, and other 9.7%
Languages: Arabic (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian
Religions: Sunni Muslim (Islam - official) 74%, other Muslim (includes Alawite, Druze) 16%, Christian (various denominations) 10%, Jewish (tiny communities in Damascus, Al Qamishli, and Aleppo)
Life expectancy at birth: 75.14 years
GDP (official exchange rate): $64.7 billion (2011 est.)
Agriculture - products: wheat, barley, cotton, lentils, chickpeas, olives, sugar beets; beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, milk
Military service age and obligation: 18 years of age Manpower fit for military service: males age 16-49: 5,055,510; females age 16-49: 4,884,151 (2010 est.)
CIA
Syrian Arab Republic
Nearly half of the 100,000 rebel fighters in Syria are jihadists or hardline Islamists
But after more than two years of fighting they are fragmented into as many as 1,000 bands
Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors’ money, U.S. coordination
Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.
The Washington Post, May 15, 2012, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-05-15/world/35454790_1_baba-amr-neighborhood-syrian-rebels-homs
Syrian Rebels Describe U.S.-Backed Training in Qatar
WASHINGTON — With reports indicating that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad are gaining ground in that country’s brutal civil war, moderate Syrian rebels have told a visiting journalist that the United States is arranging their training in Qatar.
In a documentary to be aired Tuesday night, the rebels describe their clandestine journey from the Syrian battlefield to meet with their American handlers in Turkey and then travel on to Qatar, where they say they received training in the use of sophisticated weapons and fighting techniques, including, one rebel said, “how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush.”
The interviews are the latest evidence that after more than three years of warfare, the United States has stepped up the provision of lethal aid to the rebels.
PBS, 5/26/2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/syria-arming-the-rebels/syrian-rebels-describe-u-s-backed-training-in-qatar/
Warily, Jordan Assists Rebels in Syrian War
IRBID, Jordan — When rebels want to return to Syria to fight, Jordan’s intelligence services give them specific times to cross its border. When the rebels need weapons, they make their request at an “operations room” in Amman staffed by agents from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The New York Times, 4/10/2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/world/middleeast/syria.html?_r=0
McCain sneaks across Turkey-Syria border, meets with rebels
CBS News, 5/27/2013, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mccain-sneaks-across-turkey-syria-border-meets-with-rebels/
U.N. says 93,000 killed in Syrian conflict (6/13/2013)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/13/us-syria-crisis-toll-idUSBRE95C08G20130613
Saudi mufti: Clerics should unite in fatwa on Assad --Saudi religious leader Sheikh Ayed al-Qarni called this week for all Muslim scholars to issue a joint fatwa (religious ruling) against Syrian President Bashar Assad and his government... and even said that assassinating Assad would be justified. Jerusalem Post, 14 march 2013, http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=306404
WAR IN THE GULF: Muslims; Saudis Decree Holy War on Hussein--Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority has issued a decree sanctioning a holy war against Saddam Hussein by all Muslims and "those assisting them" to evict his forces from Kuwait. The "fatwa," or religious decree, authorizing the "jihad," or holy war, was issued by Sheik Abdulaziz bin Abdulla bin Baz, the head of the Council of Ulema, Saudi Arabia's most senior Islamic authority. It was written at the beginning of the coalition's offensive against Iraq, and published on Friday in a special edition of al-Muslimoon, the most popular Islamic weekly newspaper. Copies of the decree were posted today in several mosques across Riyadh…. "The fatwa removes any doubt about the religious justification for asking non-Muslims to help this country attack another Muslim country," said a religious scholar, who spoke on condition that he not be identified….
The New York Times, January 20, 1991, http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/20/world/war-in-the-gulf-muslims-saudis-decree-holy-war-on-hussein.html
France and Britain said they were prepared to arm Syrian rebels even without unanimous EU support, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday. Al-Arabiya, 14 March 2013, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/2013/03/14/Paris-and-London-to-fund-Syria-s-rebels-without-EU-support.htm
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
Former Mossad head Dagan: Israel should do whatever it can to bring down Syria’s Assad
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 29, 2013, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-mossad-head-dagan-israel-should-do-whatever-it-can-to-bring-down-syria-s-assad.premium-1.518081
Saudi preacher calls for ‘joint fatwa’ against [Syrian President] Assad
Alarabiya, March 12, 2013, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/12/Saudi-preacher-calls-for-joint-fatwa-against-Assad.html
Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Asheikh hailed on Thursday senior Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi’s stance against Iran and Hezbollah, Al Arabiya television reported.
Alarabiya, June 6, 2013 http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/06/06/Saudi-Grand-Mufti-praises-Qaradawi-s-stance-on-Hezbollah.html
US and its European, Turkish, and Arab allies discuss with Syrian rebels ways to topple the Syrian government (Istanbul, Turkey, 4/20/2013) http://almayadeen.net/ar/news/syria-w5etVW,cOUWfO6GmAFdXDA
Saudi Foreign Minister
Qatari Foreign Minister
Turkish Foreign Minister
Syrian rebel chief
U.S. Secretary of State
Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said: “The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews.”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 7, 2013 http://www.jta.org/2013/10/07/life-religion/ovadia-yosef-founder-of-shas-and-sephardi-sage-dies-at-93
[Labor Party Knesset Member Isaac] Herzog: Syrian rebels want peace with Israel
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4196944,00.html
“Our youth have become a commodity bought and sold by (Middle) Eastern and Western agencies … they became tools carrying out heinous acts… I urge religious scholars and preachers to explain the truth and take young people by the hand so that they see the reality” Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Aziz Al al-Sheikh said in a religious edict, or fatwa, published on the official SPA news agency. 10/1/2007, http://www.aawsat.net/2007/10/article55261298
U.S. admits supplying lethal aid to Syrian rebels
Haaretz, 6/7/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.597414
When Kerry was Kohn: The Jewish roots of John Kerry
- The new nominee for secretary of state only found out about his Jewish grandfather while running in the 2004 presidential election.
- BOSTON – Senator John Kerry, with his mother’s New England patrician pedigree and his Irish last name actually has a grandfather who was born a Jew in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
- The news was a revelation to Kerry himself, who only found out about his Jewish roots while running in the 2004 presidential election.
- His paternal grandfather Frederick A. Kerry, was born Fritz Kohn in a town in what today is the Czech Republic before changing his name ahead of his immigration to the United States a century ago...
- Kerry, if confirmed in the position, will not be the first U.S. Secretary of State to have discovered a Jewish family past later in life.
- In 1997 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was born in Prague, learned three of her four grandparents were Jewish.
- In more immediate Jewish family ties, Kerry’s brother Cameron converted to Judaism after marrying Kathy Weinman, a Jewish woman and fellow lawyer he met on the job at a Washington law firm.
- In 1994 as his brother campaigned for president, Cameron Kerry, known as Cam, traveled to Israel for the first time on what was termed a “private visit” that was arranged by a branch of AIPAC. Accompanying him on that trip was Kerry’s top advisor on Mideast and Jewish affairs.
- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-features/when-kerry-was-kohn-the-jewish-roots-of-john-kerry.premium-1.4892 09
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan prior to peace talks in Montreux, Switzerland, January 22, 2014. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann, http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTX17Q2G#a=17
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry: "We are extremely diligent in working with our friends in the region. I have just made, I don’t know, maybe my 14th – 20th trip to the region... Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. Iran is sponsoring Hezbollah... Hezbollah is a terrorist organization."
"There is no way that the [Syrian] opposition is ever going to consent to [Syrian President] Assad being part of that future... [Syrian President] Assad is the single biggest magnet for terrorists there is. He is a one-man super-magnet for terrorism. http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/01/220559.htm
Joint Chiefs chair [Gen. Martin] Dempsey meeting with Israeli military officials in Israel
… It is Dempsey’s fifth trip to Israel as chairman of the Joint Chiefs [since his appointment in 2011]. Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 3/30/2014, http://www.jta.org/2014/03/30/news-opinion/united-states/dempsey-to-meet-with-israeli-military-officials-in-israel
Syria's government and main political opposition have traded bitter accusations as a major peace conference begins in Switzerland.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged delegates to engage in constructive discussions, but neither side appeared prepared to abandon their positions.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said there was "no way possible" President Bashar al-Assad could remain in power…
Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said some states attending the talks had "Syrian blood on their hands" and were trying to destabilise the country.
"Syria the independent state will do all that is necessary to defend itself," he said, and, addressing US Secretary of State John Kerry, said: "No-one in the world has the right to confer or withdraw the legitimacy of a president, a constitution or a law, except for the Syrians themselves."
BBC, 22 January 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25836827
Syria Geneva II peace conference begins with bitter speeches 1/22/2014
Syria's foreign minister and the Syrian national coalition president delivered angry statements
*
Heartbreaking photo of Syrian orphan is a hoax
The child is pretending to be asleep. Those are not graves. This is not Syria
“It all started when Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba, tweeted the picture and wrote that the child is lying between his parents who were killed by Assad forces. But Reddit users soon discovered over the weekend that the picture was not taken in Syria but in Saudi Arabia and that the boy did not lose his mom and dad but was just helping out the photographer, his uncle, in an art project…
Half an hour after tweeting the picture, Jarba deleted it but it was already too late.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.569389
Ahmed Jarba, is a leader of the powerful Shammar tribe, which has branches in Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia… He is the president of the Syrian National Coalition, the political opposition’s umbrella group in exile… He is backed by Saudi Arabia...
“...CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the photographs, documents and testimony referenced in the report, and is relying on the conclusions of the team behind it, which includes international criminal prosecutors, a forensic pathologist, an anthropologist and an expert in digital imaging...
The lawyers were hired to write the report by the British law firm Carter-Ruck, which in turn was funded by the Government of Qatar, de Silva told Amanpour.” CNN, 1/20/2014,
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/world/syria-torture-photos-amanpour/index.html
EXCLUSIVE: Gruesome Syria photos may prove torture by Assad regime
(CNN) -- Photos that allegedly show the Syrian regime committing mass torture are "fake," Syria's Justice Ministry said Wednesday.
Syria: Photos charging mass torture by regime 'fake'
The experts' report was partly sponsored by the government of Qatar, which funded the British law firm Carter-Ruck to write it. Qatar and Saudi Arabia provide most of the outside support for Syria's rebel forces. CNN, 1/22/2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/world/meast/syria-torture-photos/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Seymour M. Hersh: Turkey and Erdogan planned Sarin attack in Syria
April 6, 2014
An article by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books provides some very interesting information pointing to Turkey as having been the prime mover behind the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta.
The article comes as the case that the Syrian government committed the atrocity is looking increasingly weak and desperate.
Hersh has used his intelligence sources to throw light on the covert (and illegal) supply of weapons to the Syrian rebels and the role of Libya and Turkey. According to Hersh, awareness in intelligence circles that the case against the Syrian government may not have launched the attack in Ghouta was crucial in Obama’s decision to cancel strikes against Syria.
Hersh quotes a former intelligence official who says:
‘We now know it was a covert action planned by Erdoğan’s people to push Obama over the red line. They had to escalate to a gas attack in or near Damascus when the UN inspectors were there. The deal was to do something spectacular. Our senior military officers have been told by the DIA and other intelligence assets that the sarin was supplied through Turkey – that it could only have gotten there with Turkish support. The Turks also provided the training in producing the sarin and handling it.’
The recent YouTube disclosures that highly placed Turkish officials were planning a false-flag attack on their own territory in order to justify direct military intervention in Syria can only add credibility to the allegations in Hersh’s article.
Syria: 80,000 children with polio, only 1 in 4 births assisted
Save the Children report finds 2 out of 3 hospitals destroyed
ANSAmed, 3/10/2014,
http://
www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/syria/2014/03/10/Syria-80-000-children-polio-1-4-births-assisted_10209167.html
(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 10 - War in Syria has left two out of three hospitals destroyed, vaccination programs in a state of collapse, 80,000 children affected by polio, only one out of four childbirths assisted by healthcare workers. These are the data emerging from the report, "An unacceptable price: the impact of three years of war on children's health in Syria," presented today by Save the Children.
Over 4.3 million children trapped in the Syrian conflict suffer every day the serious consequences of a healthcare system in a state of collapse and have desperate need for food, medicine, psychological support and a safe haven.
Half of Syria's doctors have abandoned the country. Others were killed or imprisoned. Among the medical personnel that has remained, on average, only 1 out of 300 is a doctor that is capable of dealing with emergencies. Many of the wounded who arrive daily in hospitals are children who often arrive with deep wounds or fractures. When the means or necessary medicines are lacking, doctors are forced to resort to the amputation of arms or legs to prevent life-threatening bleeding and thus save their lives.
Coverage by vaccination programs has fallen from 91% of the country at the beginning of the war to 68% after the first year.
Overcrowding in shelters and precarious hygiene conditions have caused a surge from 3,000 to 100,000 cases of leishmaniasis - a disease that severely affects internal organs, produces ulcers and can disfigure its victims forever.
Among the most vulnerable are the unborn and the newborn: three out of four women no longer have access to healthcare for childbirth. For the fear of undergoing labor during a bombardment, the number of caesareans has doubled from 19% to 45%. Premature infants, or infants who still need incubators, are put at even greater risk by frequent power blackouts.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon (archive)
Residents of Syria's besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, crowded a destroyed street during a food distribution led by the UNRWA, on January 31, 2014.
http://en.alalam.ir/news/1579967
Many of the survivors of the massacre committed by Jewish militias at the Palestinian village of Tantura on May 22, 1948 are among the current residents of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Pappe, The Ethnic cleansing of Palestine, p. 133-137
Syria among 'most dangerous places on Earth' for children: UNICEF
Reuters, 3/10/2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/10/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBREA291TC20140310
… "After three years of conflict and turmoil, Syria is now one of the most dangerous places on earth to be a child," said the UNICEF report. "In their thousands, children have lost lives and limbs, along with virtually every aspect of their childhood."
"They have lost classrooms and teachers, brothers and sisters, friends, caregivers, homes and stability," it said. "Instead of learning and playing, many have been forced into the workplace, are being recruited to fight, or subjected to enforced idleness” ….
The UNICEF report said 2 million children needed some form of psychological support or treatment while a total of 5.5 million children were affected by the conflict - some of them inside Syria and others living abroad as refugees.
This is more than twice the number of children affected by the conflict in March 2013, when UNICEF estimated it had impacted 2.3 million young Syrians.
The number of children displaced inside Syria has risen to nearly 3 million from 920,000 a year ago. Meanwhile, UNICEF said the number of child refugees has grown to 1.2 million from 260,000 since last year - 425,000 of them under 5 years old.
Arab ministers agree with France to ‘strengthen’ Syrian opposition
French President Francois Hollande agreed on Friday with three Arab foreign ministers to strengthen the Syrian opposition in its battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, AFP reported.
The ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates “agreed on the need to strengthen international support for the democratic opposition to allow it to face attacks by the regime,” the Elysee said in a statement.
France and the United States are the main countries calling for military action over the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Arabiya, 9/13/2013, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/09/13/Arab-foreign-ministers-visit-French-president-in-Paris-to-dis cuss-Syria.html
French President Francois Hollande welcomes Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal (L), United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2ndR) and Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh (R) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Sept. 13, 2013. (Reuters)
France's Hollande to visit Israel, reap reward for stance on Iran---Haaretz, 11/17/2013, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.558334
Kerry, Netanyahu to meet over Israel's concerns with Iranian nuclear proposal---CNN, 11/17/2013, http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/17/world/meast/iran-nuclear/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Sunday Times: Israel, Saudia Arabia cooperating to plan possible Iran attack---Haaretz, 11/17/2013, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.558512
Hollande: France takes Israel's position on Iran seriously; we will not cave --- Haaretz, 11/17/2013, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.558565
France vows tough Iran stance in Israel---Al Arabiya, 11/17/2013, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/11/17/France-vows-tough-Iran-stance-in-Israel.html
Arab states discussing steps with Israel to
stop Tehran Washington rapprochement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zu9wciRW9M
Hollande and Netanyahu to consider forming a joint French-Israeli-Arab front against Iran
DEBKA file, 11/17/2013, http://www.debka.com/article/23449/
Israel’s connection to Ukraine crisis
[Ukraine and surrounding countries are the original homeland countries of the overwhelming majority of contemporary Jews, including almost all Israeli prime ministers and presidents]
The ex-Israeli soldier who led a Kiev fighting unit
'Delta' has headed 'the Blue Helmets of Maidan' of 40 men and women - including several IDF veterans - in violent clashes with government forces--- Haaretz, 2/28/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.577114
‘Death to Jews’ graffiti sprayed on Crimean synagogue -- JTA, 2/28/2014, http://www.jta.org/2014/02/28/news-opinion/world/death-to-jews-graffiti-sprayed-on-crimean-synagogue
Russia supports Syria against Israel and its allies
Crimea
Autonomous republic within Ukraine
Transferred from Russia in 1954
Ethnic Russians - 58.5%*
Ethnic Ukrainians - 24.4%*
Crimean Tatars - 12.1%*
****************************************
Russia supplies discounted natural gas to Ukraine and Ukraine allows Russia to station:
161 aircraft at Kasha and Gvardeyska airbases
388 warships and other vessels in Ukraine’s waters
25,000 officers and sailors at Sevastopol and Feodosia
BBC, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26387353
Delta, the nom de guerre of the Jewish commander of a Ukrainian street-fighting unit, is pictured in Kiev earlier this month. Photo by Courtesy
Russia's Black Sea Fleet has its historic base at Sevastopol
John McCain addresses Ukrainian protesters in Kiev:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93eyhO8VTdg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlbN2GEYW9w
Bernard Henri Levy en Ukraine en 2014 -VS- Brzezinski en Afghanistan en 1970. Similitude?
Israel strikes Syrian army targets after border blast
Israel hits several Syrian military and security targets that 'enabled and aided' Tuesday's attack on IDF troops which left four Israeli soldiers wounded, IDF Spokesman says.
Haaretz, 3/19/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.580642
Syrian forces take last rebel stronghold on Lebanese border
Assad forces close off 14 of 18 crossings into Lebanon, military source tells Reuters.
Haaretz, 3/16/2014,
Syrian Rebels Thank Netanyahu for Israel's Compassion
One of the leaders of the Syrian opposition forces on Friday expressed his appreciation for the compassion and care offered to victims of Syria's ongoing civil war by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli people.
Speaking from Istanbul, Mohammed Badie told Israel Radio that he and other Syrian rebel leaders were deeply thankful for the goodwill fellow Syrians had experienced at the hands of Israel as they continue to struggle against the regime of Bashar Assad.
Badie said that Netanyahu's public visit to the Israeli army field hospital that processes wounded Syrians crossing the border had sent an "important message" both to average Syrians and the Assad regime.
Israel Today, 2/23/2014, http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24453/Default.aspx
Saudi Arabia to give Lebanese army $3 billion
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is giving the Lebanese army $3 billion in aid, Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman said on Sunday, calling it the largest grant ever to the country's armed forces. Some of the money was likely to be spent on weapons from France, Suleiman indicated in a televised address… The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be seeking to bolster the army as a counterbalance to Hezbollah… "The king of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is offering this generous and appreciated aid of $3 billion to the Lebanese army to strengthen its capabilities," Suleiman said. "His Highness suggested that weapons would be purchased from France, and quickly” French President Francois Hollande, currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia where he met King Abdullah, said France would supply weapons to the Lebanese army if it was asked to do so. Reuters, 12/29/2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/29/us-lebanon-saudi-army-idUSBRE9BS07W20131229
“We have decided to liberate the country of the occupation of illegitimate weapons to preserve its independence, its sovereignty and its civil peace,” said March 14 coalition member [and former Lebanese Prime Minister] Fuad Siniora. Al-Arabya, 12/29/2013, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/12/29/Anti-Hezbollah-coalition-wants-Lebanon-freed-from-group-s-arms-.html
Anti-Hezbollah coalition wants Lebanon ’freed’ from group’s arms
France affirms Saudi support on Syrian crisis
Al-Arabiya, 12/29/2013, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/12/29/France-supportive-of-Saudi-s-efforts-on-the-Syrian-matter-.html
“A Veteran Saudi Power
Player Works To Build
Support to Topple Assad
Officials inside the Central Intelligence Agency knew that Saudi Arabia was serious about toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud to lead the effort.
They believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn't: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it, wasta, Arabic for under-the-table clout….
For decades, wasta has been Prince Bandar's calling card. The prince also wins U.S. officials' trust in part because his background is, in its own way, so American. Though his father was a Saudi crown prince, his mother was a commoner, and he rose through the crowded royal ranks by force of will…
Saudi King Abdullah, whose mother and two of whose wives hail from a cross-border tribe influential in Syria, tried for a decade to woo Mr. Assad away from Iran's sway. He failed…
Prince Bandar flew to Paris soon after for talks with French officials. In July he was in Moscow to meet with one of Mr. Assad's prime supporters, President Vladimir Putin.
A generation ago, Prince Bandar, in a role foreshadowing his current one on behalf of Syrian opposition, helped the CIA arm the Afghan rebels who were resisting occupation by Soviet troops.”
The Wall Street Journal, 8/25/2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323423804579024452583045962.html
Video clip: Iran-Contra Redux? Prince Bandar Heads Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels, Topple Assad
The Times of London, August 8, 2013, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3837024.ece
Saudi prince offers $15bn to end Syria deadlock
Saudi Arabia has made a bold offer to Russia involving billions of dollars in arms sales and economic incentives if Moscow distances itself from the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The move is seen as an attempt by the Saudis to employ their vast financial resources to break the international diplomatic deadlock over the two-year war in Syria that has left more than 100,000 people dead and destabilised the Middle East.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan met with President Putin
ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP/GET
Second blast in Russia's Volgograd kills 14 on trolleybus---Reuters, 12/30/2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/30/us-russia-blast-trolley-idUSBRE9BT03N20131230
Suicide bomber kills at least 16 at Russian train station---Reuters, 12/29/2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/29/us-russia-blast-idUSBRE9BS02S20131229
Saudi Official Shakes Hands with Israelis in Rare Meeting
Saudi Prince Turki Al-Faisal speaks with MK Meir Sheetrit at conference in Monaco, but refuses invitation to visit the Knesset
A rare meeting took place on Sunday between a member of the Saudi royal family and Israeli officials, reports NRG/Maariv.
The meeting took place at the World Policy Conference in Monaco, where Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former head of the Saudi secret services and formerly his country’s ambassador to the United States, met MK Meir Sheetrit (Hatnua) and Itamar Rabinovich, formerly Israel’s ambassador to the U.S...
Saudi Arabia later denied the report, clarifying it "has no relations or contacts with Israel of any kind or at any level.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175228 #.Usf3M7Yo5LM
Meir Sheetrit
Flash 90
Prince Turki al-Faisal meets Israeli officials in Monaco
A meeting have taken place between a member of the Saudi royal family and Israeli officials in Monaco, Israeli media report.
High-ranking Saudi prince praises [Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi] Livni
Former Saudi intelligence chief says publicly that he understands why justice minister is chief negotiator for Israel
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator to the Palestinians, received public praise from a high-ranking Saudi official over the weekend in a rare instance of Israeli and Saudi officials interacting in the international spotlight...
Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, former director of Saudi intelligence and a former ambassador to the US, told Livni warmly that he understood “why you are the negotiator for Israel”...
“I wish you could sit with me on stage and talk about it,” Livni said in response to al-Saud’s comments, but the prince did not respond. He was later reportedly seen sitting next to, and in discussion with, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. The Times of Israel, 2/2/2014,
http://www.timesofisrael.com/high-ranking-saudi-prince-praises-livni/
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem, July 22, 2013 (photo credit: Flash90)
Livni Receives Compliments from Saudi Official
Israel National News, 2/2/2014, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176975 #.Uu6rkrYo5LM
Prince Turki al-Faisal
Reuters
Saudi royal snubs invite to Jerusalem by Israel’s ex-intel boss
Left to right, Amos Yadlin [headed the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate for four years until 2010], Turki bin Faisal Al Saud [director of the General Intelligence of Saudi Arabia from 1979 to 2001] and David Ignatius [Washington Post associate editor] in Brussels, May 26, 2014. JTA, 5/26/2014, http ://www.jta.org/2014/05/26/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/israeli-saudi-former-intel-chiefs-meet-in-brussels
Sources: U.S. urges Israel to attack Syrian forces threatening CIA-trained rebels in Golan
Special to WorldTribune.com, 4/10/2014
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/04/10/sources-u-s-urges-israel-attack-syrian-forces-threatening-cia-trained-rebels-golan/
LONDON — The United States is pressuring Israel to attack the Syrian military in the [Syrian] Golan Heights [occupied by Israel since 1967].
Western diplomatic sources said the administration of President Barack Obama has urged Israel to stop a Syrian Army advance toward U.S.-trained rebels in the Golan Heights.
The sources said the rebels, trained and sent from Jordan, reached the divided Heights last month.
“The Americans want Israel to stop a Syrian column from reaching rebel-held areas of the Golan, particularly where the Jordanian-based jihadists are located,” a source told Middle East Newsline.
The sources said this marked the first U.S. request for Israel’s military to intervene in Syria. They said Obama and his aides had repeatedly warned Israel to refrain from striking Syria, which transferred long-range rockets and air defense systems to Hizbullah in neighboring Lebanon.
The CIA has been training more than 1,000 rebels in Jordan in a program financed by Saudi Arabia.
A truck carries an Israeli Merkava tank to the Israeli-Syrian border at the Golan Heights. /EPA
Saudi Arabia counter-terrorism law goes into effect
Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism law passed by the council of ministers in December 2013 went into effect on Saturday. The legislation, made up of 40 clauses, is meant to combat terrorism and impose tough penalties on those who fund it. It defines terrorism as any act with a criminal motive that directly or indirectly undermines public order and the state’s security and stability, or endangers national unity. The law gives security forces the right to arrest and hold a suspect for up to six months with the possibility of extending the detention for another six months. The ministry of interior is charged with issuing arrest warrants to those suspected of committing terrorism-related crimes. Activists have voiced concern that the law is too broad and could be used to silence those calling for democratic reforms.“ Al Arabiya News, 2/2/2014, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/02/02/Saudi-Arabia-counter-terrorism-law-goes-into-effect.html
Saudi Arabia cracks down on youths joining Syria jihadis
Saudi Arabia will imprison citizens who fight in conflicts abroad as the kingdom seeks to minimise the flow of nationals fighting alongside extremist groups in Syria. A royal decree aiming to stem the flow of fighters and money to radical Islamist groups in the Syria civil war gives three to 20-year jail terms for Saudi nationals who fight abroad, or join or endorse domestic and international terrorist groups, according to state media. But clerics in Saudi Arabia have been encouraging youths to wage jihad in Syria, and constant promotion of the plight of Syrian Sunni muslims on social media has further fuelled an exodus of young men to fight. Financial Times, 2/4/2014, http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c98efe4e-8d88-11e3-bbe7-00144feab7de.html#axzz2tcYKz5le
http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/CartoonONLYTOLERATEOWNDICTATORS.jpg
Saudis Agree to Provide Syrian Rebels With Mobile Antiaircraft Missiles
U.S. Also Giving Fighters Millions of Dollars for Salaries
The Wall Street Journal, 2/14/2014, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304703804579382974196840680?mod=WSJ_article_SubOnlyEdPicks
King Abdullah II of Jordan (L) and US President Barack Obama meet at The Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, in Rancho Mirage, California, on February 14, 2014 (AFP, Brendan Smialowski)
Obama threatens new pressure on Assad regime
At the meeting Obama pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees to Jordan, as well as a renewal of a five-year memorandum of understanding.
The current five-year package, worth $660 million a year, expires in September…
Jordan has borne the brunt of much of the humanitarian overflow, with nearly 600,000 Syrian refugees on its soil, straining its infrastructure and finances.
The United States is the largest aid donor to Syrian refugees, so far donating $1.7 billion to the cause, according to the US Agency for International Development.
A senior administration official said that the $1 billion guarantee will make it easier for Jordan to access capital markets and borrow money. Google, 2/15/2014,
Saudi: Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group
Al Arabiya 3/7/2014, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/03/07/Saudi-Arabia-declares-Muslim-Brotherhood-terrorist-group.html
Saudi Arabia on Friday blacklisted the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, along with three other Middle East-based Islamist groups, Al Arabiya News Channel reported, citing a royal decree.
The Saudi terrorism list also includes the kingdom’s branch of the Shiite movement Hezbollah and Syria-based militant groups the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front.
Hundreds of Saudi fighters are believed to have joined ISIS and al-Nusra in Syria.
The royal decree gives fighters a 15-day ultimatum to return home. The declaration came after King Abdullah announced on Feb. 3 tough penalties for activities deemed as terrorism.
Under the previous decree, Saudi citizens fighting abroad face up to 20 years in jail. Similar punishments will be applied to “extremist religious and ideological groups, or those classified as terrorist groups, domestically, regionally and internationally,” the state news agency SPA reported at the time
U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia and meet King Abdullah this month. Christian Science Monitor, 3/8/2014, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0308/Saudi-Arabia-names-Muslim-Brotherhood-terrorist-group
President Obama met with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at his desert palace in Rawdat Khuraim on Friday [3/28/2014]. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
Obama Offers Assurance to Saudis on Syria Stance
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama reassured King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Friday that the United States remained committed to strengthening the moderate opposition in the Syrian civil war, administration officials said.
But aides declined to reveal whether Mr. Obama and the king agreed to any significant expansion of the covert program to train and arm the Syrian opposition…
Several groups had urged the president to raise the subject of the kingdom’s treatment of women and accusations of human rights abuses. Officials said it did not come up at the meeting.
The New York Times, 3/28/2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/world/europe/obama-saudi-arabia.html?_r=0
[Women in Saudi Arabia face an ban on car driving and need permission from their male guardians to travel, marry, work and enroll in higher education].
Turkey shuts off YouTube after 'Syria invasion plan' leak
Published time: March 27, 2014 15:00
Edited time: March 28, 2014 05:08
Access to YouTube has been cut off in Turkey after an explosive leak of audiotapes that appeared to show ministers talking about provoking military intervention in Syria. Other social media have already been blocked ahead of tumultuous local elections.
The latest leaked audio recording, which reportedly led to the ban, appears to show top government officials discussing a potential attack on the tomb of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
The tomb is in Syrian territory, but protected by Turkish soldiers.
http://rt.com/news/turkey-block-youtube-twitter-649/
Leaked Recording of Turkey's IC Discussing Attack On Syria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB5CF-tsKok
At some point in 1236, the Turkic warlord Suleyman Shah perished by the banks of the Euphrates river. Some say he drowned in its waters. At the time, he was one of an array of notables warring over parts of Anatolia and what's now Syria. And his legacy has less to do with his own achievements than that of his progeny: His grandson, Osman, gave his name to the Ottoman dynasty, a line that ruled one of the greatest empires the Middle East and Europe would ever see.
A shrine associated with Suleyman Shah has sat by the Euphrates for centuries since, within what's now modern-day Syria, but less than 20 miles from the border with Turkey. Moreover, it remains technically Turkish territory: So potent was the symbolism of this Ottoman ancestor's tomb that the new Turkish republic concluded an agreement in 1921 with France, then Syria's colonial ruler, guaranteeing Ankara's ownership over the site. Since at least the 1970s, when the tomb was relocated following the damming of the Euphrates, a Turkish guard has been posted there to protect it.
An image from the 1920s of the tomb of Suleyman Shah. The Washington Post, 9/26/2014,
How an ancient tomb is a fault line in Syria’s brutal civil war
Turkey has issued a warning that it will consider any assault on the tomb of Süleyman Şah, in Syria, as an attack on its territory.
“The tomb of Süleyman Şah [in Syria] and the land surrounding it is our territory. We cannot ignore any unfavorable act against that monument, as it would be an attack on our territory, as well as an attack on NATO land,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a televised interview late Aug. 5 [2012]. “Everyone knows his duty, and will continue to do what is necessary.”
The tomb of Süleyman Şah in Syria is guarded by Turkish soldiers and is considered Turkish territory, based on agreements made first with France and then with Syria.
The tomb of Süleyman Şah in Syria is guarded by a group of Turkish soldiers. Daily News, 8/7/2012,
Ankara warns against attack on tomb
How Saudi aid made a construction worker a top Syrian rebel commander
The Saudis appear to have chosen Jamal Maarouf as leader of the Syrian Revolutionaries' Front by ensuring he remains flush with cash. But money can't command loyalty forever
The Christian Science Monitor, By Dominique Soguel, Contributor / May 6, 2014
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/0506/How-Saudi-aid-made-a-construction-worker-a-top-Syrian-rebel-commander
As the US agonizes over which moderate Syrian rebel force it can comfortably support with its own money and weapons, the Saudis have already picked their man. In a mere three years, their deep pockets have propelled Jamal Maarouf, a former construction worker to become one of the most powerful rebel commanders in Syria's civil war.
Mr. Maarouf emerged in 2011 as the leader of the Jabal al-Zawiyah Martyrs Brigade, a modest fighting force of some 40 men. By 2012 he had secured the patronage of Saudi Arabia – and the money, guns, foreign contacts, and allegiances from other rebels that the Saudi connection enabled. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have poured money, trainers, and volunteers into rebel hands.
When his brigade merged with several other rebel groups in December 2013 to form the Syria Revolutionaries' Front (SRF), he was the clear choice for leader of a much larger coalition of fighters. But in recent months, skepticism has grown over whether Maarouf actually commands loyalty, or cash-starved brigades who want to tap his funds.
The SRF is vying for acceptance from the US as well, but the US appears to have picked another group, the SRF splinter group Harakat Hazm, to receive its much-sought-after military assistance. Maarouf says the US has been supplying him with nonlethal aid since March.
This week, the US announced that it will allow the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the main opposition group, to open a diplomatic mission in Washington. The SNC has worked closely with Maarouf – earlier this year, SNC leader Ahmed al-Jarba traveled into northern Syria with the SRF leader…
The problem is that Maarouf's support base is primarily drawn from unemployed youth who “only gathered around him to collect money and who fight for no doctrine," Hamad says. “Saudi Arabia and the US are trying to present him as a strong military commander with a strong army who is able to fight against the regime on the one hand, and fight against [ISIS] on the other, but the fact is he can defeat neither."
The Saudis appear to have chosen Jamal Maarouf, a former construction worker, to become one of the most powerful rebel commanders in Syria's civil war. Dominique Soguel
Number of foreign fighters in Syria nearly doubles
The Telegraph, 12/17/2013, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10523203/Number-of-foreign-fighters-in-Syria-nearly-doubles.html
Up to 11,000 fighters from more than 70 nations have joined the struggle in Syria against President Bashar al-Assad, almost doubling estimates made earlier this year.
The number of individuals from western Europe taking up arms has tripled to up to 1,900 and includes up to 366 from Britain, according to research by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College, London. The number reported from France has quadrupled while Belgium has the highest per capita rate.
The report showed that Arabs and Europeans made up the bulk of foreign fighters, with up to 80 per cent, but militants from southeast Asia, North America, Africa, the Balkans and countries of the former Soviet Union were also represented.
Syria is becoming as big a magnet for Muslim fighters as Afghanistan was in the 1980s when an estimated 35,000 foreigners joined the mujahideen ranks against Soviet invaders…
The five countries with the largest numbers of foreign fighters in Syria are all in the Middle East: Jordan is the single biggest contributor with up to 2,089, followed by Saudi Arabia (1,016), Tunisia (970), Lebanon (890), and Libya (556).
Moroccan father who reportedly took his five sons to wage jihad in Syria Photo: @REYADIRAQ
Suicide Bomber Is Identified as a Florida Man
WASHINGTON — An American who blew himself up in an attack in Syria on Sunday has been identified by law enforcement officials as Moner Mohammad Abusalha, a man in his early 20s who grew up in Florida and traveled to Syria late last year. The officials said they believed that Mr. Abusalha, who adopted the nom de guerre Abu Huraira al-Amriki, used a large truck in helping to carry out the bombing in the northern province of Idlib, where he had traveled after spending two months in a training camp of the militant group the Nusra Front in Aleppo... American officials say that about 100 Americans have traveled to Syria since the civil war began, mainly to fight for one of the hundreds of rebel groups combating the Assad government. New York Times, 5/30/2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/world/middleeast/american-suicide-bomber-in-syria.html
A photo circulated by jihadists was said to show Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the bomber.Credit SITE Intelligence Group
Map sources: areas of control and border crossings from the Syria Needs Analysis Project; all other geographical detail from humanitarian organisations and Google
Syria: Mapping the conflict
BBC, 3/13/2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-22798391
Exclusive: Kerry Told Syrian Rebels ‘We Wasted a Year’ in Fight Against Assad
The Daily Beast, 5/12/2014, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/12/exclusive-kerry-told-syrian-rebels-we-wasted-a-year-in-fight-against-assad.html
Iraq crisis: Sunni caliphate has been bankrolled by Saudi Arabia
Bush and Blair said Iraq was a war on Islamic fascism. They lost
“The story of Iraq and the story of Syria are the same – politically, militarily and journalistically: two leaders, one Shia, the other Alawite, fighting for the existence of their regimes against the power of a growing Sunni Muslim international army.
While the Americans support the wretched Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his elected Shia government in Iraq, the same Americans still demand the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his regime, even though both leaders are now brothers-in-arms against the victors of Mosul and Tikrit.
The Croesus-like wealth of Qatar may soon be redirected away from the Muslim rebels of Syria and Iraq to the Assad regime, out of fear and deep hatred for its Sunni brothers in Saudi Arabia (which may invade Qatar if it becomes very angry).”
Robert Fisk, Belfast Telegraph, 13 June 2014,
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/robert-fisk/iraq-crisis-sunni-caliphate-has-been-bankrolled-b y-saudi-arabia-30351679.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28092840
Iraq crisis: Fighting in Tikrit after 'caliphate' declared
US President Barack Obama has announced he is sending about another 200 troops to protect the US embassy in Baghdad.
This means nearly 800 US troops are in and around Iraq, but President Obama has ruled out sending combat troops to fight alongside the Iraqi army…
On Sunday, Isis said it was establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria.
It also proclaimed the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and "leader for Muslims everywhere".
BBC, 6/30/2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28092840
Security Council Adopts Resolution 2170 (2014) Condemning Gross, Widespread Abuse Of Human Rights by Extremist Groups in Iraq, Syria
Text Places Sanctions on Individuals Associated with those Organizations
Calling on all United Nations Member States to act to suppress the flow of foreign fighters, financing and other support to Islamist extremist groups in Iraq and Syria, the Security Council this afternoon put six persons affiliated to those groups on its terrorist sanctions list…
“Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
“1. Deplores and condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist acts of ISIL and its violent extremist ideology, and its continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law;
“2. Strongly condemns the indiscriminate killing and deliberate targeting of civilians, numerous atrocities, mass executions and extrajudicial killings, including of soldiers, persecution of individuals and entire communities on the basis of their religion or belief, kidnapping of civilians, forced displacement of members of minority groups, killing and maiming of children, recruitment and use of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary detention, attacks on schools and hospitals, destruction of cultural and religious sites and obstructing the exercise of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education, especially in the Syrian governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo and Idlib, in northern Iraq, especially in Tamim, Salaheddine and Niniveh Provinces;
“3. Recalls that widespread or systematic attacks directed against any civilian populations because of their ethnic or political background, religion or belief may constitute a crime against humanity, emphasizes the need to ensure that ISIL, ANF and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida are held accountable for abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, urges all parties to prevent such violations and abuses;
“4. Demands that ISIL, ANF and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida cease all violence and terrorist acts, and disarm and disband with immediate effect;
“5. Urges all States, in accordance with their obligations under resolution 1373 (2001), to cooperate in efforts to find and bring to justice individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida including ISIL and ANF who perpetrate, organize and sponsor terrorist acts and in this regard underlines the importance of regional cooperation;
“6. Reiterates its call upon all States to take all measures as may be necessary and appropriate and in accordance with their obligations under international law to counter incitement of terrorist acts motivated by extremism and intolerance perpetrated by individuals or entities associated with ISIL, ANF and Al-Qaida and to prevent the subversion of educational, cultural, and religious institutions by terrorists and their supporters;
August 15, 2014, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2014/sc11520.doc.htm
Watch this video clip: Former US Secretary Hillary Clinton explains how the US government created the Al Qada jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s but she did not explain that the reason was to force the Soviet Union to lift a ban on the emigration of Soviet Jews to Palestine, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQ2KZWfjgs
Jackson-Vanik [sanctions imposed by the US government against the Soviet Union and its successor states in order to allow the emigration of Soviet Jews] has been an extraordinary success in securing freedom of emigration in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Since 1975, 573,000 refugees -- many of them Jews, evangelical Christians and Catholics -- from areas of the former Soviet Union have been resettled in the United States. The Russian Jewish community in the United States today numbers between 750,000 and 1 million, though some estimates are twice as high. An estimated 1 million more Jews have immigrated to Israel during that time. For fiscal year 2001, 3,875 refugees from Russia were resettled, The White House, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-16.html
See the next four slides from topic 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQ2KZWfjgs
Bin Laden “was able to reinvigorate his fund-raising efforts [in the 1990s] by drawing on ties to wealthy Saudi individuals that he had established during the Afghan war in the 1980s”—The 9/11 Commission Report, 2004, p. 170
In November 1979 the Great Mosque was at the centre of a rebellion against the Saudi royal family when it was seized by a group of several hundred Islamic militants led by Juhaymān al-ʿUtaybī and Muḥammad bin ʿAbd Allāh al-Qaḥṭānī. The insurgents denounced the impiety of the Saʿūd family and claimed that Qaḥṭānī was the mahdī*, an Islamic messianic figure. After obtaining a religious ruling sanctioning the use of force within the Great Mosque, where violence is forbidden, government troops retook the mosque in a bloody battle in December.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/254837/Great-Mosque-of-Mecca
*mahdī, (Arabic: “divinely guided one”), in Islāmic eschatology, a messianic deliverer who will fill the Earth with justice and equity, restore true religion, and usher in a short golden age lasting seven, eight, or nine years before the end of the world. The Qurʾān (Islāmic sacred scriptures) does not mention him, and almost no reliable ḥadīth (saying attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad) concerning the mahdī can be adduced. Many orthodox Sunnī theologians accordingly question Mahdist beliefs, but such beliefs form a necessary part of Shīʿī doctrine. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/358096/mahdi
The peace treaty that Israel and Egypt signed in March 1979 closely reflected President Carter’s proposals at Camp David and formally ended the state of war that had existed between the two countries.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/91061/Camp-David-Accords/284489/A-framework-for-peace
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, invasion of Afghanistan in late December 1979 by troops from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union intervened in support of the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anticommunist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War (1978–92) and remained in Afghanistan until mid-February 1989. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1499983/Soviet-invasion-of-Afghanistan
Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, also called Islamic Revolution, Persian Enqelāb-e Eslāmī, popular uprising in Iran in 1978–79 that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on April 1, 1979, and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/909256/Iranian-Revolution-of-1978-79
Major Middle East Events of 1978-1979
The Fall of the Shah
“The Iranian disaster shattered the strategic pivot of a protected tier shielding the crucial oil-rich region of the Persian Gulf from possible Soviet intrusion. The northeast frontier of Turkey, the northern frontiers of Iran and Pakistan, and the neutral buffer of Afghanistan created a formidable barrier, which was pierced once Iran ceased to be America’s outpost… During the sixties Iran became our major strategic asset in the wake [p. 356] of the British disengagement from ‘east Suez.’ The pull-out created a power vacuum in the Persian Gulf region, and American policy was to fill it by building up the military capability first of Iran, then of Saudi Arabia, and by enhancing their political status as the two America-backed pillars of regional security… The high point of that policy was the decision made by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger to gratify the Shah’s desire for a rapid military buildup through massive U.S. arms transfers to Iran [p. 357].
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power and Principle: Memoirs of the National Security Adviser 1977-1981, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1983
See also:
Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Retrospect
http://dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/sites/dgibbs.faculty.arizona.edu/files/afghan-ip.pdf
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/c12820-32.jpg
President Reagan meeting with Afghan Freedom Fighters to discuss Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan, 2/2/1983
“Statement on the International Day of Concern for Soviet Jews
March 15, 1984
…The United States Government shares these goals. It has actively supported the right of Soviet Jews to practice their cultural traditions freely and to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. if they so choose” http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/search/speeches/speech_srch.html
President Reagan nominated Paul D. Wolfowitz to be an Assistant Secretary of State, October 28, 1982
On September 12, 1991, President George Bush complained on television about the Israel Lobby
- the “powerful political forces” lined up against “the lonely little guy” in the White House who wanted no more than a four-month delay of $10 billion loan guarantees requested by Israel to resettle Soviet Jewry in Israel following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Source: Jonathan Jeremy Goldberg, Jewish power: inside the American Jewish power establishment, New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1996, pages xvi-xvii.
The Soviet Jewry migration movement claimed that “the Soviet Jewish community was suffering a slow death of assimilation” Gal Beckerman, “Soviet Jewry: The Struggle to Lift the Iron Curtain,” JTA Archive, http://archive.jta.org/topic/soviet-jewry
Sen. Edward Kennedy – ‘A great friend of Israel’
Jerusalem Post, 08/27/2009
- <<Senator Edward M. Kennedy... will be remembered as "a great friend of Israel," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.... "Senator Kennedy broke down the iron curtain that separated Soviet Jews from official US politicians," Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.... "Kennedy was clearly a friend of Israel all the way, and in every place that he could help us he did," said President Shimon Peres... Kennedy consistently supported US aid to Israel. He battled for arms shipments to Israel during the Yom Kippur war, and in the 1980s, he fought proposed arms sales to Jordan and Saudi Arabia... Under Kennedy's chairmanship, the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs published a report citing the humanitarian needs of Russian Jews resettling in Israel. In 1992, when president George H.W. Bush opposed loan guarantees for the resettlement of Soviet Jews in Israel because of settlements, Kennedy publicly rebuked the administration... Kennedy was also a major force in fighting the Arab League boycott and criticized the UN's anti-Israel tone. He was a strong advocate for recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. "During his more than four decades in the US Senate, Kennedy consistently supported American assistance to Israel, particularly during the Jewish state's most trying times," the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said in a statement. His leadership in the Soviet Jewry movement, among other things, "are hallmarks of his historic career... Longtime associates recalled that Kennedy embraced a pro-Israel stance during his failed 1980 presidential run against Jimmy Carter. Though he ultimately dropped out of the race, the Jewish community came out solidly for Kennedy during the Democratic primary, said Morris Amitay, who served as president of AIPAC from 1974 to 1980... That year, Kennedy also spoke to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, calling Israel a "tried, trusted, and true" friend... "We must never barter the freedom and future of Israel for a barrel of oil - or foolishly try to align the Arab world with us, no matter what cost." ....>> http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=153120
NB: On the eve of the assassination of President JF Kennedy in November 1963, his administration was battling to (1) register the Israel lobby as a foreign lobby and (2) reverse Israel’s Dimona nuclear weapons development program through U.S. inspections.
Grant F. Smith, Spy Trade: How Israel’s Lobby Undermines America’s Economy, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, Inc., Washington, DC, 2008, page 29.
Israel clashed with the Soviet Union over Jewish emigration
- “The main objective of Zionism was to bring about mass immigration into Israel of Jews from the countries to which they had been ‘dispersed,’ with particular attention focused on the Soviet Union… Stalin might have permitted a small stream of emigration, as an investment in Israel’s socialist beginnings, but what the Israeli leadership had set in progress was a mass exodus, which could only be seen as a damaging brain drain. Israel staged a series of political propaganda events to further this end, some of them on Soviet territory. For example, Stalin himself was aware that Golda Meir, then Israel’s ambassador to Moscow, was very active among Soviet Jews; her sphere of influence included several high-ranking figures and their family members. The Soviet foreign ministry was irritated by Israel’s repeated demands for permission to hold ‘cultural and educational events’ on Soviet territory, events that would involve Soviet Jews… This gave rise to the Doctors’ Plot, an alleged attempts to poison Stalin; a campaign was also launched to combat the so-called cosmopolitans, and restrictions were placed on the number of Jews hired to work for the government apparatus or admitted to higher education and training for state institutions. Matters came to a head in February 1953 when a bomb was detonated outside the Soviet embassy in Tel Aviv, wounding three embassy staff. Although the Israeli government was quick to apologize and vowed to find the perpetrators, the Kremlin announced that it was breaking off diplomatic relations. Within four months of Stalin’s death, however, diplomatic relations with Israel had been restored. This came after a crackdown by the new Soviet leadership on the organizers or perpetrators of any blatantly anti-Semitic activity... During the Six-Day War, Israel ignored Soviet demands for an immediate cease-fire. After the Golan Heights were captured, the USSR severed its diplomatic relations.” Source: [former head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service] Yevgeny Primakov, Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present, Translated from the Russian by Paul Gould, New York: Basic Books, 2009, pages 255-259
- President Nixon was reported saying (in the Nixon-era Oval Office tapes released by the Nixon Library) that the United States “can’t blow up the world because of it [the emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union].”---JTA, 12/13/2010, http://blogs.jta.org/politics/
“During the Cold War, the United States and the West used the issue of human rights as a platform to question the policies and ultimately the legitimacy of the Soviet Union. One aspect of that strategy was the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the 1974 Trade Act, which denied normal trading relations to non-market economies that restricted emigration rights. The amendment was particularly targeted to the Soviet Union’s practice at the time to deny Jews permission to emigrate.” The Legacy and Consequences of Jackson-Vanik: Reassessing Human Rights in 21st Century Russia , When: February 4, 2010; Where: Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1424&fuseaction=topics.item&news_id=588828
American Neoconservatives: Leo Strauss (1899-1973), taught at the University of Chicago from 1949 to 1968. . . Attracted disciples -- Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Francis Fukuyama, William Kristol, Harvey Mansfield, Stanley Rosen. . . They would set out to recreate the myth of America as a unique nation whose destiny was to battle against evil in the world, and in this project the source of evil would be America�s cold war enemy, the Soviet Union. . .
1981: Neoconservatives mobilize religion; Republican Party forms alliance with the religious right. Wolfowitz, Perle, Pipes get policy positions in Reagan administration.
1981-1983: Reagan converted to neoconservative line, with the help of William Casey. Michael Ledeen as an example of someone who comes to believe his own propaganda (the report given to Reagan to prove that the Soviet Union was behind most of the terrorism in the world was largely based on the CIA�s own black propaganda, acc. to Melvin Goodman, Head of the Office of Soviet Affairs at the CIA, 1976-1987). . .
William Casey (1913-1987), director of the CIA, sends �stinger missiles and $1 billion� to help the mujahideen fight in Afghanistan, who act as proxies for the U.S. in the Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union, which sent troops to occupy Afghanistan in 1979. The mujahideen cross the Pakistan border after CIA training (including training in car bombing). Arabs also come to fight; Abdullah Azzam (1941-1989), known as the �emir of the Arab mujahideen� as well as �Godfather of Jihad� for his advocacy of global jihad, for his approach to recruitment and training, and for his contribution to the development of the al Qaeda movement, works out of Peshawar, Pakistan. His lieutenant Osama bin Laden (born 1957) arrived in Afghanistan in 1985. Many Middle Eastern states released radicals from prison in order to allow them to fight in Afghanistan; among them is the Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri (1951- ? [present whereabouts unknown]), a disciple of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) & bin Laden�s future mentor." DOCUMENTARY: 'The Power of Nightmares' by Adam Curtis -- summary of argument, http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/3394-documentary-the-power-of-nightmares-by-adam-curtis-summary-of-argument.html
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/book/the-jewish-movement-the-soviet-union
The Jackson-Vanik Amendment
[“the United States shall not conclude any commercial agreement with any such country, during the period beginning with the date on which the President determines that such country— (1) denies its citizens the right or opportunity to emigrate”]
“During the Cold War, the United States and the West used the issue of human rights as a platform to question the policies and ultimately the legitimacy of the Soviet Union. One aspect of that strategy was the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the 1974 Trade Act, which denied normal trading relations to non-market economies that restricted emigration rights. The amendment was particularly targeted to the Soviet Union’s practice at the time to deny Jews permission to emigrate.” The Legacy and Consequences of Jackson-Vanik: Reassessing Human Rights in 21st Century Russia , When: February 4, 2010; Where: Woodrow Wilson Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1424&fuseaction=topics.item&news_id=588828
According to some, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s duplicity regarding Jackson-Vanik “would come to involve hiding a secret letter in which the Soviets backed off from a deal under which they would be waived from Jackson-Vanik in exchange for allowing 60,000 Jews to emigrate. (The jig was up only when the Soviets angrily printed the letter in one of their newspapers.)” JTA, 12/13/2010, http://blogs.jta.org/politics/
- The Administration has begun consultations with Congress and interested groups on the possibility of graduating Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union from the provisions of the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
“The Jackson-Vanik Amendment is contained in Title IV of the 1974 Trade Act. It effectively denies unconditional normal trade relations to certain countries, including Russia, that had non-market economies and that restricted emigration rights. Normal trade relations may be extended, on a conditional basis, to a country subject to the law only if the President determines that it complies with the freedom of emigration requirements of the amendment. Semi-annual reports on continued compliance of that country must be submitted to Congress. The President may also waive the emigration requirements.
- Since 1994, Russia has been found in compliance with the Amendment's freedom of emigration requirements. It continues to be subject to semi-annual compliance reviews. Ending the application of the Jackson-Vanik provisions to Russia requires legislation by Congress. This is a prerequisite to the extending unconditional or permanent normal trade relations to Russia.
Jackson-Vanik has been an extraordinary success in securing freedom of emigration in the Soviet Union and its successor states. Since 1975, 573,000 refugees -- many of them Jews, evangelical Christians and Catholics -- from areas of the former Soviet Union have been resettled in the United States. The Russian Jewish community in the United States today numbers between 750,000 and 1 million, though some estimates are twice as high. An estimated 1 million more Jews have immigrated to Israel during that time. For fiscal year 2001, 3,875 refugees from Russia were resettled.”–The White House, http://georgewbush- whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011113-16.html
“That [Jewish] emigration [from the Soviet Union] existed at all was due to the actions of "realists" in the White House… In 1969, we introduced it into the presidential channel as a humanitarian issue because we judged that a foreign policy confrontation would lead to rejection and an increase of tensions with the Soviets. As a result, Jewish emigration rose from 700 a year in 1969 to near 40,000 in 1972. The total in Nixon's first term was more than 100,000. We also submitted, with some success, several hundred hardship cases at regular intervals. To maintain this flow by quiet diplomacy, we never used these figures for political purposes.” Henry Kissing, Washington Post, 12/26/2010, http :// www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/23/AR2010122304552.html
U.S. and Gulf Allies Pursue a Missile Shield Against Iranian Attack
WASHINGTON — The United States and its Arab allies are knitting together a regional missile defense system across the Persian Gulf to protect cities, oil refineries, pipelines and military bases from an Iranian attack, according to government officials and public documents…
Three weeks ago the Pentagon announced the newest addition to Persian Gulf missile defense systems, informing Congress of a plan to sell Kuwait $4.2 billion in weaponry, including 60 Patriot Advanced Capability missiles, 20 launching platforms and 4 radars. This will be in addition to Kuwait’s arsenal of 350 Patriot missiles bought between 2007 and 2010.
The United Arab Emirates acquired more than $12 billion in missile defense systems in the past four years, documents show. In December, the Pentagon announced a contract to provide the Emirates with two advanced missile defense launchers for a system called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, valued at about $2 billion, including radars and command systems. An accompanying contract to supply an arsenal of interceptor missiles for the system was valued at another $2 billion, according to Pentagon documents.
Saudi Arabia also has bought a significant arsenal of Patriot systems, the latest being $1.7 billion in upgrades last year.
Thom Shanker, “U.S. and Gulf Allies Pursue a Missile Shield Against Iranian Attack”, New York Times August 8, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/world/middleeast/us-and-gulf-allies-pursue-a-missile-shield-against-iranian-attack.html?_r=1
U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication Ben Rhodes (C) and Senior Advisor David Axelrod (R) in the Oval Office, in this White House handout photograph taken on May 21, 2010 and released on June 7, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Pete Souza/The White House/Files
Special Report: Inside the West's economic war with Iran
“Obama warned allies that oil sanctions were the only way to avert a new war between Israel and Iran. U.S. envoys pressed Iraqi, Libyan and, above all, Saudi officials to pump up their own crude supplies.”
Reuters, 12/28/2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/28/us-iran-sanctions-idUSBRE8BR04620121228
Hillary Clinton explains how Iran is a security threat to Israel & to Iran’s neighbors in the Gulf
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hard Choices, Simon &Schuster, New York, 2014
“Iran was once a Cold War ally of the United states. The country’s monarch, the Shah, owed his throne to a 1953 coup supported by the Eisenhower Administration against a democratically elected government thought to be sympathetic to Communism. It was a classic Cold War move for which many Iranians never forgave America. Our governments enjoyed close relations for more than twenty-five years—until, in 1979, the autocratic Shah was overthrown by a popular revolution… In November 1979, Iranian radicals stormed the U.S. Embassy in Teheran and held fifty-two American hostages for 444 days… The Iranian Revolution led to decades of state-sponsored terrorism. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah, which served as an Iranian proxy, carried out attacks across the Middle East and the world. Their crimes included bombings in Beirut, Lebanon, of the U.S. Embassy in April 1983, which killed sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans; the attack on the U.S. Marine barracks that October , which killed 241 Americans; and the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed nineteen U.S. Air Force personnel and wounded hundreds of others. Iran also targeted Jews and Israelis, including bombing an Israeli cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1994, killing eighty-five people and injuring hundreds more. On a regular basis the State Department designated Iran as the world’s “most active state sponsor of terrorism” and documented its link to bombings, kidnappings, hijackings, and other acts of terrorism. Iranian rockets, automatic weapons, and mortars were also being used to kill U.S. troops as well as our partners and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Given this history, the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran represented a serious security threat to Israel, Iran’s neighbors in the Gulf, and, by extension, the world” [p. 418]
Selected Articles from the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Article 16: Since the language of the Qur'an and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, and since Persian literature is thoroughly permeated by this language, it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study
Article 146: The establishment of any kind of foreign military base in Iran, even for peaceful purposes, is forbidden.
Article 152: The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based upon the rejection of all forms of domination, both the exertion of it and submission to it, the preservation of the independence of the country in all respects and its territorial integrity, the defence of the rights of all Muslims, non-alignment with respect to the hegemonist superpowers, and the maintenance of mutually peaceful relations with all non-belligerent States
Article 153: Any form of agreement resulting in foreign control over the natural resources, economy, army, or culture of the country, as well as other aspects of the national life, is forbidden.
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Adopted: 24 October 1979, Effective: 3 December 1979, Amended: 28 July 1989, http://faculty.unlv.edu/pwerth/Const-Iran(abridge).pdf
CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup
Washington, D.C., August 19, 2013– Marking the sixtieth anniversary of the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, the National Security Archive is today posting recently declassified CIA documents on the United States' role in the controversial operation. American and British involvement in Mosaddeq's ouster has long been public knowledge, but today's posting includes what is believed to be the CIA's first formal acknowledgement that the agency helped to plan and execute the coup.
The National Security Archive, August 19, 2013, http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB435/
Kermit Roosevelt, chief of CIA's Near East operations division, and on-the-ground manager of the U.S.-U.K. coup plan.
Donald N. Wilber, an archeologist and authority on ancient Persia, served as lead U.S. planner of TPAJAX (along with British SIS officer Norman Darbyshire). He wrote the first CIA history of the operation (Document 1).
After the overthrow, an uneasy alliance obtained between the Shah (right) and his new prime minister. (www.iichs.org
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/Shah_of_Iran_building_two_nuclear_plants.jpg
Advertisement from the 1970s by American nuclear-power companies
Takeover in Tehran: The Inside Story of the 1979 U.S. Embassy Capture
“Most of the Americans who lived in Iran behaved in a way that revealed their sense of self-importance and superiority. They had come to expect extra respect, even deference from all Iranians, from shoe-shine boy to shah.” page 61
“It is incumbent upon students in the secondary school, the universities and the theology schools to expand their attacks against America and Israel. Thus America will be forced to return the criminal, deposed Shah”---[Excerpt from Imam Khomeini’s message on the occasion of the thirteenth of Aban], page 58
“The students were acting under instructions to keep clam, to keep the hostages calm, and to avoid arguments at all costs. Only a few words were exchanged.
As the students tied their hands behind their backs, blindfolded them, and pushed them on ahead, the Americans asked, “Who are you?”
“Muslim students following Imam’s Line,” came the reply.
“What do you want?”
“For America to extradite the criminal shah.” page 68
“The system in use at the embassy classified documents: Limited Official Use, Confidential, Secret, Eyes Only and Top Secret. During the first few hours of the takeover, the Americans had succeeded in shredding most of the top secret and some of the secret documents”, page 97
The Washington-EU-Riyadh-Tel Aviv Axis
A Western military victory in Syria will merely feed the rising frenzy of militarism. It will encourage the West, Riyadh and Israel to provoke a new civil war in Lebanon. After demolishing Syria, the Washington-EU-Riyadh-Tel Aviv axes will move on to a far bloodier confrontation with Iran. The horrific destruction of Iraq, followed by Libya’s post-war collapse provides a terrifying template of what is in store for the people of Syria: A precipitous collapse of their living standards, the fragmentation of their country, ethnic cleansing, rule by sectarian and fundamentalist gangs, and total insecurity of life and property.” page 154-155
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, left, smiles with Yasser Arafat in Tehran in February 1979. The Ayatollah’s son has his hand on Arafat’s shoulder. The popular revolt against the shah raised alarm bells in the West, which saw the shah as a trusted ally and counterweight to hardline Arab regimes and Palestinian radicals. http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20110213/NEWS03/702139957/-1/News#sthash.cEq10ABA.dpuf
The Iranian Revolution and the Palestine-Israel Conflict
- Under the Shah monarchy, Iran had close ties with Israel. Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel after Turkey.
- January 1979: The Shah was forced out of Iran
- February 1979: Khomeini returned from exile to Iran
- Iran ended its alliance with Israel, severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel, expelled the Israelis from Iran, and considered Israel an illegitimate state.
- Iran began its support for the Palestinians by turning over the Israeli embassy in Tehran to the Palestine Liberation Organization
"Our concerns with Iran extend far beyond the nuclear issue... We will not relent in our efforts to confront Iran’s destabilizing behavior... That is exactly why Secretary Kerry was in the UAE yesterday, and it is exactly why the President will visit Saudi Arabia next month." U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns, Washington, DC, February 19, 2014, http://www.state.gov/s/d/2014/221809.htm
Saban Forum 2013: A Conversation with President Barack Obama, http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVRZOazaWKQ
Therefore Iran’s main “problem” with Israel is Iran’s support for Palestine, NOT Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s main “problem” with the United States is Iran’s main “problem” with Israel. Iran’s main “problem” with Saudi Arabia is Iran’s main “problem” with the United States.
'Jewish Quartet' of Leaders Gives Barack Obama 60 Days for Iran Nuclear Thaw
AIPAC, Presidents, ADL, and AJC Offer Two-Month Truce
Leaders of four major Jewish organizations have indicated to the Obama Administration that they will have a 60-day moratorium during which they will refrain from conducting any public campaign urging Congress to strengthen U.S. sanctions against Iran.
The understanding was reached during a sometimes tense meeting at the White House this week between a group of senior Administration officials led by National Security Adviser Susan Rice and executives and leaders from an ad hoc “quartet” of influential Jewish organizations: AIPAC, the American Jewish Committee, The Anti-Defamation League and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
http://forward.com/articles/186729/jewish-quartet-of-leaders-gives-barack-obama--da/
Two Months Grace Period: Vice President Joe Biden embraces ADL national director Abraham Foxman at the group’s centenary gala. Foxman and other Jewish leaders are giving the White House two months before they criticize the thaw with Iran.
1 of 9. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (3rd L) delivers a statement during a ceremony next to British Foreign Secretary William Hague, Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (L-R) at the United Nations in Geneva November 24, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse . http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/24/us-iran-nuclear-idUSBRE9AI0CV20131124
Mossad chief: Palestinian conflict top threat to Israel's security, not Iran
Suggesting that Iran's nuclear program is not an existential threat, Tamir Pardo says he wouldn't 'recommend rushing to obtain a foreign passport.'
The biggest threat to Israel’s security is the conflict with the Palestinians and not Iran’s nuclear program, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo said Thursday at a meeting at a private home attended by 30 businesspeople. Haaretz, 7/5/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.603249 #!
Interim nuclear agreement between Iran and six powers
(Reuters) - Iran and six world powers struck a deal on Sunday under which Tehran is to limit its nuclear energy program in exchange for initial relief from international trade and financial sanctions.
Following is a full text of the deal released by the U.S. government and Iran's state Fars news agency. (The "EU3+3" reference in the text denotes Britain, France and Germany along with the United States, Russia and China, while the "IAEA" denotes the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency).
Geneva, 24 November 2013
Joint Plan of Action
Preamble
The goal for these negotiations is to reach a mutually-agreed long-term comprehensive solution that would ensure Iran's nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful. Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop any nuclear weapons. This comprehensive solution would build on these initial measures and result in a final step for a period to be agreed upon and the resolution of concerns. This comprehensive solution would enable Iran to fully enjoy its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under the relevant articles of the NPT in conformity with its obligations therein. This comprehensive solution would involve a mutually defined enrichment programme with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the programme. This comprehensive solution would constitute an integrated whole where nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. This comprehensive solution would involve a reciprocal, step-by-step process, and would produce the comprehensive lifting of all UN Security Council sanctions, as well as multilateral and national sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme.
Reuters, 11/24/2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/24/us-iran-nuclear-agreement-text-idUSBRE9AN0FS20131124
Report: U.S. pressures Israel to halt assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists
- The Obama Administration is pressuring Israel's intelligence agencies to stop carrying out assassinations inside Iran, CBS News reported Saturday.
- Written by CBS national correspondent Dan Raviv, co-author with Israeli journalist Yossi Melman of the book "Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars," the article is based on information from "sources close to Israel's intelligence agencies"....
- According to the article, at least five Iranian scientists were murdered, most of them by bombs planted on their cars as they drove to work in the morning. "Remarkably, the Israeli assassins were never caught," the article states, "obviously having long-established safe houses inside Iran - although several Iranians who may have helped the Mossad were arrested and executed.”
Haaretz, 3/2/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.577360
The New Cold War:
Libya, Syria, and the Ukraine
Syria's not-so-civil war has been going strong for more than three years now and recently the news agency Reuters reported that "[a]t least 150,000 people have been killed" in that time span.
The figure cited by Reuters is based on data provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In spite of the fact that this source has been popping up all over the news media throughout the past three years, in the process receiving a veneer of academic impartiality and respectability, Reuters' Mohammed Abbas disclosed at the end of 2011, that the organization is basically run by one man, Rami Abdulrahman, from his "two bedroom terraced home in Coventry". Abbas describes Abdulrahman as "a Sunni Muslim" opposed to the Assad regime in Damascus. In fact, Abdulrahman explained his position in the following terms: "I came to Britain the day Hafez al-Assad died, and I'll return when Bashar al-Assad goes". Hence, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights can hardly be seen as an impartial source providing accurate data. Instead, it appears it is a propaganda outfit frantically feeding anti-Assad messages into the global news stream.
Even though the ostensible object of the armed conflict in Syria was (or is) to remove Bashar al-Assad from power, it seems abundantly clear that the reality of the conflict on the ground has been nothing but a proxy-war pitting the West, as represented by the US and its NATO and other allies, against the new unholy trinity of Russia-China-Iran. Over the past months, however, this straightforward narrative has changed ever so drastically that now the erstwhile war-on-terror has seeped into Syrian territory and the name al-Qaeda has now assumed the shape of Islamists opposing the Damascus regime and frightening western observers and leaders alike. As such, this line of argument has some time ago received unexpected confirmation by one of Europe's senior political leaders: the French lawyer and politician Roland Dumas (serving as François Mitterrand's Foreign Minister from 1984 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993) made a cable television appearance last year -- on the French channel LCP or La Chaîne Parlementaire -- where he said the following: "I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business [, corresponding to 2009]. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria. This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer minister for foreign affairs, if I would like to participate. Naturally, I refused, I said I’m French, that doesn’t interest me". Dumas went on to say "that this operation goes way back. It was prepared, preconceived and planned [interrupted by the show's host, Arnaud Ardoin] ... in the region it is important to know that this Syrian regime has a very anti-Israeli stance". If Dumas' statement bears any relation to reality that would mean that Gordon Brown's government was ultimately behind any master-plan to remove the Assad regime, and that would transform Gordon Brown into Tony Blair's real successor, in more than one way -- both are after all members of the parliamentary group Labour Friends of Israel. Can Erimtan, The New Cold War:
Libya, Syria, and the Ukraine, RT, 5/8/2014, http://rt.com/op-edge/157704-new-cold-war-victims/
A woman stands with an Orthodox icon at a Ukrainian checkpoint near the town of Slaviansk in eastern Ukraine May 2, 2014 (Reuters / Baz Ratner)
The UN Security Council vote on referring the Syrian crisis to the International Criminal Court for investigation of possible war crimes. Photo by AP. Haaretz, 5/22/2014, http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.592315
This is the fourth time Russia and China have used their veto power to deflect action against the Assad regime.
Russia, China veto UN Security Council bid to refer Syria to ICC [International Criminal Court]
Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev, China's President Xi Jinping, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov pose for a picture before a session of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, September 13, 2013. Reuters/Mikhail Klimentyev. RT, 9/10/2014, http://rt.com/politics/186588-putin-sco-dushanbe-summit/
The Russian president is starting his visit to Tajikistan to take part in a major SCO summit, discussing ways to boost cooperation and also the political bloc’s policies regarding the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization unites Russia, China and ex-Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, all of which are Russia’s allies in trade, politics and defense. Such regional majors as India and Iran hold observer status in the organization.
The combined population of SCO member-states amounts to 1.45 billion people, or a quarter of the world’s population. The summit will be dedicated to traditional topics – stepping up cooperation within the bloc and boosting its global influence… After the summit that is scheduled for September 11-12 Russia will take the rotating leadership in the bloc and begin preparations to the 2015 summit of the SCO’s heads of states that will take place in Ufa.
Putin says situation in Ukraine reminds him of Second World War
Russian President Vladimir Putin has compared Ukrainian military tactics to those used by German Nazi forces during the Second World War invasion of the Soviet Union. Speaking at an international youth camp in Western Russia Putin blamed the Ukrainian government for the crisis. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28985715t/
Putin to discuss Ukraine with Asian allies in Dushanbe
Russia will strengthen cooperation with the BRICS group of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in conditions of Western economic sanctions, Russian Vice-Premier Arkady Dvorkovich told ITAR-TASS. 9/10/2014, http://en.itar-tass.com/economy/748918
Defying the dollar Russia & China agree currency swap worth over $20bn
October 13, 2014, http://rt.com/business/195556-russia-china-currency-swap/
Russia and China may agree on Western gas pipeline in 2015 – Medvedev
October 13, 2014, http://rt.com/business/195412-russia-china-new-gas-route/
Hagel Wants Gulf States to Combine Missile Defense Systems
Defense One, 5/16/2014,
The U.S. defense chief on Wednesday used a trip to the Persian Gulf to prod the region’s countries to develop an integrated antimissile plan. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to attend a ministerial of the U.S.-Gulf Cooperation Council Defense Dialogue. He encouraged the council to designate a quarterly meeting hosted by the Air Force component of U.S. Central Command — the Air and Air Defense Chiefs Conference — as “the GCC’s primary military forum for regional air and missile defense policy,” according to a transcript of his introductory remarks.
[U.S.] Secretary of Defense Speech
Remarks to the Press at the U.S.-GCC Defense Dialogue
As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, May 14, 2014, http://www.defense.gov/Speeches/Speech.aspx?SpeechID=1848
The United States maintains strong bilateral defense relationships with our Gulf partners, and we are committed to sustaining those ties…
We reaffirmed our commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – and ensuring that its program is exclusively peaceful… we continue to share deep concerns about Iran’s destabilizing activities throughout this region, including its sponsorship of terrorism, its support for the Assad regime in Syria, and its efforts to undermine stability in GCC member nations. That is why we committed to continuing to work together to reinforce GCC defenses and capabilities. ..
We also discussed the tragic conflict in Syria, and we pledged to deepen our cooperation in providing aid to the Syrian opposition…
We agreed on the need for more cooperation in three areas: more integrated air and missile defense coordination; closer maritime security integration; and expanded cybersecurity cooperation. And I am pleased that we reached agreement that senior DoD leaders and military commanders will work closely with their GCC counterparts to develop the specific proposals I outlined today.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh (L), Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (2nd L) and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan (R), listen as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to the press before a meeting at the U.S. Chief of Mission Residence in Paris June 26, 2014. (AFP PHOTO/Brendan Smialowski). The Daily Star, 6/26/2014, http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jun-26/261702-kerry-hosts-iraq-talks-with-gulf-allies.ashx#axzz35lJyYwBm
Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, right, shakes hands with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the presidential palace in Irbil on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. (AP/Brendan Smialowski), The Times of Israel, 6/25/2014, http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-to-visit-saudi-arabia-on-friday-for-iraq-talks
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
Syria Crisis: Obama Requests $500M to Train, Equip Rebels
NBCNews, 6/26/2014, http://www.nbcnews.com/#/news/us-news/syria-crisis-obama-requests-500m-train-equip-rebels-n142006
Readout of Secretary Kerry's Meetings With Syrian Opposition Council President Ahmad Jarba, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, and Call With Iraqi Kurdistan Regional President Masoud Barzani
So the Secretary’s first meeting in Jeddah was with the President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, Mr. Jarba. Jarba thanked the Secretary for the announcements today of $500 million in U.S. support for a train and equip program for the Syrian opposition... The Secretary then saw King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. They discussed a lot of topics. It was a three-and-a-half hour meeting, a very, very positive, very warm, very substantive meeting that I’m not going to go into full details about... The king preemptively, with the Secretary raising it, rejected a notion that he had said he had seen a media reports that the kingdom was in any way supporting funding ISIL. Special Briefing, Senior State Department Official En Route to Shannon, Ireland, June 28, 2014, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/06/228557.htm
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 6/27/2014
Saudi Arabia names new intelligence chief
Saudi King Abdullah appointed Prince Khalid bin Bandar as head of the Saudi intelligence in a royal decree issued early on Tuesday.
Prince Khalid was relieved from his post as a Deputy Defense Minister on Saturday. He previously served as a Governor of Riyadh province, a position he held since February 2013.
He is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, is the first grandson of King Abdel Aziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia.
The appointed prince was a high ranking military personal and the commander of the Royal Saudi Land Forces. He was promoted from Lieutenant-General in 2011.
The decree also named Prince Bandar bin Sultan as an advisor and a special envoy of the king with the rank of a minister.
Prince Bandar served as head of intelligence and was relieved form his post in April at his own request.
Al Arabiya News, 1 July 2014, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/01/Prince-Khalid-bin-Bandar-appointed-as-head-of-Saudi-intelligence- .html
Prince Khalid bin Bandar is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, is the first grandson of King Abdel Aziz. (Al Riyadh newspaper
In response to
David Hearst
“Saudi Arabia in the past, now and in the future will do all it can to support the Palestinian people in their claim for the return of their own land …Any dealings by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Israel have been limited to attempts to bring about a plan for peace. Very little research by a professional analyst would show you that King Abdullah’s plan for peace – accepted by all Arab states – has always been and continues to be at the forefront of thinking in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have tried and will continue to try to do all we can to bring about peace – but we will never, ever support any action by anyone against the Palestinian people. ”---Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, Saudi Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, writes in response to allegations made by David Hearst, editor of the Middle East Eye, in an article claiming a Saudi-Israeli alliance against Gaza. Al Arabiya News, 7/26/2014, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/07/26/In-response-to-David-Hearst.html
Attack on Gaza by Saudi Royal Appointment
“The attack on Gaza comes by Saudi Royal Appointment. This royal warrant is nothing less than an open secret in Israel, and both former and serving defense officials are relaxed when they talk about it. Former Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz surprised the presenter on Channel 10 by saying Israel had to specify a role for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the demilitarization of Hamas. Asked what he meant by that, he added that Saudi and Emirati funds should be used to rebuild Gaza after Hamas had been defanged.
Amos Gilad, the Israeli defense establishment's point man with Mubarak's Egypt and now director of the Israeli defense ministry's policy and political-military relations department told the academic James Dorsey recently : "Everything is underground, nothing is public. But our security cooperation with Egypt and the Gulf states is unique.” ---David Hearst, Editor, Middle East Eye
The Huffington Post, 7/20/2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hearst/attack-on-gaza-by-saudi-r_b_5603735.html
Kidnappers free American missing in Syria since 2012: (Reuters) - Kidnappers in Syria have freed an American writer missing since 2012, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, following what Qatari-owned TV station Al Jazeera said were efforts by the Gulf Arab state to win his release. Kerry said in a statement announcing the release of Peter Theo Curtis that the United States was using "every diplomatic, intelligence and military tool" at its disposal to secure the release of other Americans held hostage in Syria. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/24/us-syria-crisis-usa-hostage-idUSKBN0GO0QQ20140824
Soldiers unloading an SU-25, a ground-attack fighter jet, in Baghdad on Sunday.Credit Reuters
Russian Jets and Experts Sent to Iraq to Aid Army
BAGHDAD — Iraqi government officials said Sunday that Russian experts had arrived in Iraq to help the army get 12 new Russian warplanes into the fight against Sunni extremists, while the extremists declared their leader the caliph, or absolute ruler, of all jihadi organizations worldwide.
The Russian move was at least an implicit rebuke to the United States, which the Iraqis believe has been too slow to supply American F-16s and attack helicopters — although the United States is now in the process of providing both.
“In the coming three or four days the aircraft will be in service to support our forces in the fight” against the insurgents of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, said Gen. Anwar Hama Ameen, the commander of the Iraqi Air Force, referring to five SU-25 aircraft that were flown into Iraq aboard Russian cargo planes Saturday night, and two more expected later Sunday...
The Iraqis have sought to buy American F-16s and Apache helicopter gunships. The sale of the Apaches had been delayed by concerns in Congress, which feared Mr. Maliki would use them to suppress his political opponents, but the United States has now agreed to provide them.
The first two F-16s are expected to be delivered in September or October, and the first six Apaches will arrive this fall as part of a lease. But it will take months to train the Apache pilots. The New York Times, 6/29/2014,