MER Article

15 March 2004

News, Views, & Analysis Governments, Lobbies, & the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know

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IRAQ 'DISASTER'
'GET BIN-LADEN!'

"The war in Iraq was a disaster,
the occupation of Iraq is a disaster."
New Spanish Prime Minister-elect

"Osama bin Laden narrowly escaped capture
by French troops working with American forces
in Afghanistan, perhaps several times."
Head of French armed forces

Mid-East Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/15/2004:
     There's an early panic now taking hold in Bush/Cheney/neocon Washington.   Not long ago they thought they were going to be running against Howard Dean. Now it's a more credible and seasoned John Kerry; even though they still think they can wave the flag and nail any challenger to the 'liberal' cross. But meanwhile gas prices keep going up; the dollar keeps going down; jobs keep going flat; the "peace process" has become a tragic joke; and the "ABB" (anybody but Bush) mantra has caught on in many circles. And now in addition suddenly there's the example of what has happened in Spain, on top of all that keeps spilling out in the U.K.
      There's a recognition now in Washington that even the unprecedented Bush/Cheney money war-chest may not be enough to keep them in power.   And even more afraid than Bush of repeating his father's one-term history, the cabal of Israeli-connected neocons are already scampering overtime to destroy from history the evidence of all the tricks and deceptions they have perpetrated while at the same time gathering up all the secret information and classified reports they can manage for both advantage and protection should they be forced to depart the Pentagon, CIA, NSC, et. al.
    And so the word has gone forth once again and more loudly than ever from the White House to the warriors and covert operatives - "Get Bin Laden soon at whatever cost".   Indeed a major 'Spring offensive' is already underway, Musharraf of Pakistan is doing what he has been told he must regardless of consequences, and in all likelihood Osama Bin Laden's days are in fact now numbered. Furthermore 'October surprises' more brutal and more shocking than in the Reagan era of old can be expected if the polls have not already swung their way by then.
     But just as was the case with Saddam in Iraq, more telling than the upcoming death/capture of Bin-Laden is the extreme expense and time and credibility-loss the American Empire has had to expend on attempting to accomplish it's imperial goals. The Spanish Prime Minster-elect's remarks today are but the tip of the possible political slippery slope ahead. Though they finally got Saddam hiding in a hole the overall Iraqi situation still continues to worsen, the U.S. is now desperately trying to get the U.N. to do what it has failed to do, and proconsul Bremer is busy preparing his own departure.    More amazing than finally getting Bin Laden at this point is how long and difficult and costly the hunt has been.    And though Bin Laden's end may be approaching, the clash primarily ignited by decades of misguided and treacherous U.S. and Israeli policies now has no end in sight.

Spanish PM-elect vows to pull troops
out of Iraq, lashes Bush

[Monday March 15 - AFP] Spain's prime minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero vowed to withdraw troops from Iraq and criticised US President George W. Bush after Spanish voters ousted governing conservatives who took the country into the controversial war.

"The war in Iraq was a disaster, the occupation of Iraq is a disaster," Zapatero, 43, told Cadena Ser radio on Monday.

He spoke just before the European Union held three minutes' silence in tribute to the 200 people killed in last Thursday's bombings of crowded Madrid commuter trains.

An ongoing investigation into the attacks has found growing evidence they were carried out by Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda as punishment for Spain's help in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Voters turned out in force for Sunday's elections. Many of them expressed anger at retiring Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar when he cast his ballot, jostling and booing him while some shouted "Aznar: your war, our dead."

Zapatero, whose Socialist Party ended eight years of rule by Aznar's Popular Party (PP) after winning 43 percent of the ballots to the PP's 38 percent, said near-total public opposition to the Iraq war had been key.

He said that barring new developments in Iraq before June 30 -- the date the United States has promised to hand power over to an Iraqi provisional government -- Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq "will return home" as he had promised before the elections.

The other occupying states will be contacted for consultations on withdrawing the soldiers, he said.

Zapatero also said Bush and his main ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, need to engage in "self-criticism".

"You can't bomb a people just in case" they pose a perceived threat, Zapatero said in statements just five days before the first anniversary of the March 20 start of the war.

"You can't organise a war on the basis of lies," he said, alluding to Bush's and Blair's insistence the war was justified by their belief -- so far unfounded -- that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent threat.

"Wars such as that which has occurred in Iraq only allow hatred, violence and terror to proliferate," he said.

The head of the EU executive arm, European Commission chief Romano Prodi, agreed in an interview published by Italy's La Stampa newspaper Monday.

"It is clear that using force is not the answer to resolving the conflict with terrorists," Prodi said. "Terrorism is infinitely more powerful than a year ago," and all of Europe now feels threatened, he told the paper.

The loss of the United States' and Britain's main ally has left Bush especially looking exposed as he faces the November presidential election.

While Zapatero fielded congratulations from French President Jacques Chirac, South African President Thabo Mbeki and other world leaders, Bush had yet to make a call.

Other US allies in Iraq, among them Poland and Denmark, were notably cool towards his win.

Polish foreign ministry spokesman Boguslaw Majewski said: "Our general position is that everybody there (in Iraq) should stay until the situation is stabilised."

Spain's contingent is the sixth-largest in Iraq. It has suffered 11 deaths, including seven intelligence agents ambushed in November.

The investigation into the Madrid blasts suggested Al-Qaeda may have made good on a threat issued October 18 by Osama bin Laden that Spain, Australia, Britain, Italy and other US allies would be targeted for attacks.

Spanish authorities were working to authenticate a video found in a Madrid rubbish bin late Saturday in which a man claiming to be Al-Qaeda's spokesman in Europe said the Islamic radical network was responsible.

"We claim responsibility for what happened in Madrid exactly two and a half years after the attacks in New York and Washington," said the man, speaking Arabic with a Moroccan accent.

"This is an answer to your cooperation with the Bush criminals and their allies," he said, threatening more attacks.

Five suspects -- three Moroccans and two Indians -- were being held in connection to the bombings. One of the Moroccans figured on a list of suspected members of an Al-Qaeda cell in Spain.

Stock markets in Europe fell back on the spectre of Al-Qaeda involvement, and the dollar slipped.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw played down any negative consequences of Sunday's elections, insisting that his and Blair's centre-left government "look forward to doing business with them."

And he dismissed the suggestion that Spain, or any other nation, could become immune from terrorist attacks by opposing the Iraq war.

"Nobody, nobody, nobody should believe that somehow we can opt out of the war against Islamic terrorism," he said. "The idea that, somehow, there is some exemption certificate for this war against terrorism is utter nonsense."

France has proposed an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers to coordinate Europe's response to terrorism, while Germany has suggested a meeting of EU interior ministers, security and police chiefs was necessary to draft a "common assessment" amid increasing indications the attacks were the work of Islamic extremists.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040315/1/3irv0.html

Agencies unite to find bin Laden

By Rowan Scarborough

THE WASHINGTON TIMES - March 15, 2004:
    Task Force 121, the secret manhunting unit formed for the war on terrorism, is a blend of warriors, aviators, CIA officers and deep-cover intelligence collectors who nabbed Saddam Hussein and now hope to grab Osama bin Laden.
    "This is tightening the sensor-to-shooter loop," said a senior defense official. "You have your own intelligence right with the guys who do the shooting and grabbing. All the information under one roof."
    The Pentagon refuses to discuss the group's makeup. Its members in Afghanistan and Iraq avoid reporters. New information was obtained through interviews with knowledgeable defense officials.
    Elements of 121 have moved from Iraq to Afghanistan for a U.S. spring offensive, named "Mountain Storm," against Taliban and al Qaeda fighters now reorganizing in Pakistan. If the flushing action pinpoints bin Laden, who is believed to be moving in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, Task Force 121 would likely infiltrate the country and try to kill or capture the terrorist who orchestrated the September 11 attacks.
    Task Force 121's composition includes four major elements:
    �Grey Fox, a deep-cover organization based at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia. Members specialize in spying and intercepting communications. They carry hardware that can tap into electronic-eavesdropping satellites and that can splice fiber-optic cables.
    Grey Fox maintains a fleet of aircraft at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. On occasion, members enter countries on "non-official cover" using assumed identities.
    Created principally to combat international drug smugglers, Grey Fox has turned out to be the perfect unit for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's demand for "actionable intelligence" to kill or capture al Qaeda operatives and other terrorists.
    The Army once maintained Grey Fox, but after September 11 the Pentagon shifted direct control to Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg, N.C. Ultimately, Grey Fox reports to U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla.
    Although officials still refer to the intelligence unit as Grey Fox, a defense source said its code name was changed during the war on terrorism. The source asked that the new designation not be reported. Grey Fox has operated under a number of different code words. In the early 1990s, for example, it was called "Capacity Gear."
    �JSOC: This is the headquarters for an elite 800-member group of Army Delta Force and Navy SEALs who specialize in counterterrorism. Left mostly on the shelf pre-September 11, JSOC is today the most active it has ever been.
    JSOC was the bulk of Task Force 11 in Afghanistan that hunted bin Laden, Mullah Mohammed Omar and other high-value targets. It then reinvented itself as Task Force 121 in Iraq. Sources say it's likely the task force will take on a new designating number now that it is back in Afghanistan.
    JSOC and Grey Fox make up the "black" world of special operations. The "white" units -- which operate more publicly -- include Green Berets and civil-affairs officers.
    �CIA Special Activities Division: These are CIA paramilitaries who can aid Task Force 121 by setting up networks of sources in Iraq and Afghanistan, and provide intelligence directly to the warriors.
    �The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment: This fleet of Black Hawk, Chinook and AH-6 "Little Bird" helicopters ferries the Delta Force and SEALs where they need to go, quickly, at night, at low altitudes. Saddam was loaded onto a "Little Bird" Dec. 13 and taken to Tikrit after Task Force 121 and a 4th Infantry Division unit found him hiding in a hole on a farm.
    Task Force 121 would not be the first joint operation between the CIA and armed forces. In the Afghanistan war, the Pentagon transferred scores of special operations troops to the CIA's Special Activities Division to infiltrate the country and set up links to anti-Taliban forces.
    Asked generally about the CIA-military relationship, Mr. Rumsfeld told Reuters news service, "We've taken them for cooperative arrangements. They've taken some of our people sometimes. They may be doing something where it requires some competence that we have distinctively, so we've worked very cooperatively with them."
    Task Force 121 is augmented, as needed, by conventional forces, as it was on Dec. 13, the day Saddam was captured.
    Elements of Task Force 121 are moving to the Afghanistan theater because of a planned spring offensive, and because the military and CIA are picking up better intelligence on bin Laden.
    Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in recent months has put thousands of troops into the ungoverned border area with Afghanistan to weed out al Qaeda. More boots on the ground means more contacts with locals, who are providing information.
    Meanwhile, the CIA and the U.S.-led coalition task force based at Bagram, north of Kabul, has learned lessons from the hunt for Saddam.
    That search showed the value of "link-analysis" -- listing the names of every person who has contacts with the target, or contacts with friends or family of the target, and then finding them for questioning. The result is that the United States believes it knows areas where bin Laden has visited and to which he may return, said a defense source.
    U.S. military officers in Afghanistan have expressed growing confidence they will catch bin Laden by year's end. But Mr. Rumsfeld yesterday sought to lower expectations.
    "I don't know if he'll be caught this year. If he's alive, I'm sure he'll be caught eventually. And when, I don't know," the defense secretary said yesterday on CNN's "Late Edition."
    "What's going on is a normal activity that takes place. And from time to time, there are sweeps made," Mr. Rumsfeld told CNN. "And I think to hype it or suggest that there's something major going on is probably a misunderstanding. These things tend to ebb and flow."
    Mr. Rumsfeld said of bin Laden: "You know, he may be alive and he may not be. We don't know if he's alive or dead. He may be in Afghanistan. He may be in Pakistan. He may be someplace else."

French Say Bin Laden Narrowly Escaped Capture

PARIS (AP - 15 March) - Osama bin Laden narrowly escaped capture by French troops working with American forces in Afghanistan, perhaps several times, the head of France's armed forces said Monday.

French soldiers are determined to capture the fugitive head of the al-Qaida network by the end of the year, Gen. Henri Bentegeat said Monday.

"Our men were not very far," Bentegeat told France's Europe-1 radio station. "On several occasions, I even think that he slipped out of a net that was well closed."

Bentegeat did not say when or where the escapes took place and a Defense Ministry spokeswoman declined to give details.

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the rugged mountains on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bentegeat said that about 200 French troops are working with American forces in Afghanistan in the hunt for holdouts of the ousted Taliban regime and al-Qaida.

"In Afghanistan, the terrain is extremely favorable to escapes, there are underground networks everywhere," Bentegeat said.

On March 7, the U.S. military announced the start of a new sweep for insurgents and terror leaders, including bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Bentegeat said bin Laden "symbolizes Sept. 11" and that the intricacy of bombings last Thursday in Madrid - when 10 bombs tore through four rush-hour trains just minutes apart - suggested the involvement of al-Qaida. The attack killed 200 people.

Bentegeat called al-Qaida a "hydra with several heads."

"If we catch one head there will be others," he said. But, "for justice, for the innumerable victims of these monstrous attacks, it is indispensable."

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