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Washington Scene (an ongoing series):
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THE CIA, WASHINGTON, AND THE MIDDLE EAST
ROGER TAMRAZ IS HARDLY ALONE
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MER - Washington - 9/21/97:
     Certain things don't get publicly published very much in today's Washington; but behind-the-scenes the talking about these matters can be quite substantial. After all there are some rules of the Washington road if you want to ever cover the White House or the Pentagon for the national media; not to mention if you want to be invited to the annual National Press Club dinner!     Among these usually unpublished matters are details of the CIA's involvement in such key areas as the Middle East, along with the names of those -- both individuals and institutions -- who work closely with the CIA and/or are agents of "the Agency". The recent notoriety of Lebanese oil-man Roger Tamraz has unusually lifted the CIA veil abit. The popular media hasn't said too much about it, but it seems that for more than 20 years Mr. Tamraz has been a "CIA asset" providing considerable inside information and gossip about many things going on in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia.
     The CIA tried dutifully to keep this part of Tamraz's dealings secret; but bits and pieces have leaked out. The larger reality is that Washington is in fact seeded with persons thought to be connected to the CIA in one way or another; and whose careers or business interests it seems have been rewarded accordingly.
     One need not be an actual card-carrying agent entitled to a pension; there are plenty of less direct ways to be "connected" to the Agency in today's Washington; as the case of Mr. Tamraz makes clear.
     There's the notorious Judith Kipper, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies after various jaunts and assignments taking her repeatedly to the Middle East since the 1970s. Among other things she is thought to hold the recent record for sleeping with Arab diplomats and officials hoping to squeeze what she could out of them. Kipper is Jewish and there is also much suspicion her connections extend to Mossad, which of course closely cooperates with the CIA, and which has a long history of using woman and sex to get what it wants. As for CSIS, it was once connected to Georgetown University, but more than a decade ago the stink became too prevalent and Georgetown said good bye insisting that its name be taken off the door.
     Then there's Jim Zogby of the "Arab-American Institute", long suspected, along with others in his family, of having ties of various kinds to the CIA over a long period of time. And indeed, Zogby has a long list of actions and interventions that not so surprisingly conform to what the Americans have wanted said and done over the years. Considerable money has flowed to Zogby and his Institute -- which incidentally is widely despised in many Arab American circles -- in the recent "Peace Process" years. Among so many other similar things, Zogby was quick to publicly applaud the Clinton Administration back in its first months for appointing such "even-handed" officials to deal with the Middle East, including former Israeli lobbyist Martin Indyk, now Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East!
    And one should add to the list former government officials Andrew Killgore and Dick Curtiss who in a sense masquerade these days as independent publishers of a monthly publication known as WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS while in actuality they are suspected of continuing to work closely with both the State Department and the CIA, as well as with a number of key Arab "client regimes", most especially the Saudis who have quietly provided them considerable funds over the years.
     All this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg of course. And it should not be very surprising that hard irrefutable "evidence" is quite hard if not impossible to come by -- such things are considered "national security" and very highly classified. In recent years the CIA has even taken to destroying records regarding the Middle East rather than risking their becoming public even many decades later.
     Even so, over many years the circumstantial evidence in some cases becomes practically overwhelming; and the fact that these matters are openly talked about privately by Washington insiders is as well-known as the affair the new Secretary of State is said to be having with her youngish press spokesman (something else you're not likely to find clearly mentioned in The Washington Post or on the News Hour). Incidentally, the CIA has become very active in recent years in Gaza and the West Bank, and key persons associated with Yasser Arafat's "Authority", including Nabil Shaath and Jabril Rajoub, are known to have close and growing connections with "The Agency".
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[Note concerning a past MER article about "Messages from Hamas?": The Israeli government spent more than a quarter million dollars trying to find him, and the P.M. even raised the "kidnapping" with Madeleine Albright seeking her intervention with Yasser Arafat. So the MER story last week was well grounded indeed. However, it now turns out that Mr. Schwartz, the elderly right-wing Israeli involved, made up the story and tricked everyone. Such are the intrigues and confusions of the Middle East these days!]
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