Email this article | Print this article | Link to this Article
If you don't get MER, you just don't
get it!
21 Sept
2004 - MiddleEast.Org -  MER is
Free |
<> News, Views, &
Analysis Governments,
Lobbies, & the
Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know
The most honest, most comprehensive, and most
mobilizing news and
analysis on the Middle East always comes from
MER. It is indispensable!"
Robert Silverman - Salamanca, Spain
Comment on this and
other MER articles in
the MER
FORUM
|
|
MER Washington Scene:
Watch with MERTV Journalist
Seymour Hersh speaking Sunday in Washington about what to expect from a
Bush/Cheney/Neocon II Administration -- it's today the Feature Video at
MIDDLEEAST.ORG.
Much Worse Yet To Come
Warns Journalist Sy Hersh
Iraq Torture Scandal - On Target but incomplete
Iran - Crafty Planted Disinformation?
Israel - Self-Censorship, Appologist, Cover-Up?
MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER - Washington - 21 Sept: Last weekend at All Soul's Church in the heart of
Washington the well-known journalist Seymour Hersh gave a chilling
warning about what's yet to come if the Bush/Cheney/Neocons retain
power in an election now looming just weeks away.
Hersh is the author of the new book, Chain of Command : The
Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, an expansion of his New Yorker Magazine articles published
earlier this year that single-handedly exposed the U.S. torture
scandals in Iraq.
In addition to watching Hersh's Sunday talk this interview with Hersh also was published last weekend in Salon.com.
Note the surprising lead about Iran about which there is very little in
the interview, and quite literally nothing of substance. Indeed one
does have to wonder if Hersh hasn't been set up by some of his
long-time big-time Israeli spook friends when it comes to pushing the
confounding thesis that it was "Iran not Israel" that pushed the U.S.
into invading/occupying Iraq. And maybe even something more than set
up, for Hersh simply refuses to really get into the Israeli angle of
things in so many cases. He doesn't focus on how the Israelis have
been using horrendous torture, bombing, infiltration, and assassination
techniques for years now, with ever-growing CIA and Pentagon
involvment. He doesn't focus on the powerful Israeli-Jewish lobby in
Washington -- in fact he seems to avoid it like the plague. He dosn't
focus on the interconnections in the Middle East between the
mis-nomered 'peace process', Iraq, and events throughout the region
from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon to Turkey to Pakistan. And he doesn't
highlight the clear connections between the Washington Neocons whom he
does criticize -- though rarely ever mentioning that most of them are
Jewish and hard-line Zionists -- and the intimate practically
conspiratorial connections they have had for years with the Israelis.
In fact, the more one thinks about this, the more one reaches the
possible conclusion that while Hersh is on target (though incomplete)
when it comes to the torture scandal, when it comes to the
geostrategic, especially when it comes to matters relating to Israel,
Hersh may well be being used for disinformation and continually engages
in a kind of self-censorship and cover-up.
Bottom Line: Take Hersh very seriously when he is writing about
massacres and torture -- his long-time specialties since Vietnam and
his New York Times days.
But when it comes to matters relating to Israel and geopolitics and now
Iran -- which he admits in this interview to be "too cosmic" for him
-- be extra skeptical. Hersh, liberal Jewish Democrat himself, has a
long history in Washington of not being willing to seriously report
about the crucially-important realities involving the Israeli-Jewish
lobby. And after the trouble he had years ago with his limited book The Sampson Complex Hersh
seems to have made extra efforts to stay on the good side of his
'liberal' Jewish and Israeli friends who not only make up a
considerable segment of the book-buying public and New Yorker subscribers but whose influence in the American media is so tremendously powerful...and thus dangerous. MER
Seymour Hersh's Alternative History of Bush's War
By Mary Jacoby
Salon.com - 18 September 2004: The
crack investigative reporter tells Salon about a disastrous battle the
U.S. brass hushed up, the frightening True Believers in the White
House, and how Iran, not Israel, may have manipulated us into war.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Seymour Hersh has written more than
two dozen stories for the New Yorker magazine on the secret
machinations of the Bush administration in what the White House calls
the "war on terrorism." His revelations, including an investigation of
a group of neoconservatives at the Pentagon who set up their own
special intelligence unit to press the case for invading Iraq, have
consistently broken news.
Arguably his most important scoop came
last spring, when the legendary investigative reporter received the now
infamous photos of prisoner abuse by American soldiers at the Abu
Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq, as well as the explosive report on
the abuse by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. The story Hersh
published in the New Yorker, followed by a report by CBS's "60
Minutes," created an international scandal for the Bush administration
and led to congressional hearings.
In a new book, "Chain of
Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib," Hersh expands upon his work
in the New Yorker to contribute new insights and revelations. He
discloses how a CIA analyst's report on abuses against captured Taliban
prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, made its way to the White House in
2002, putting National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on notice two
years before the Abu Ghraib scandal that human rights violations were
taking place in U.S.-run prisons abroad.
In March 2002, Hersh
writes, a military action against al-Qaida, known as Operation
Anaconda, was botched in Afghanistan's mountainous border with
Pakistan. Billed at the time as a success story by the Pentagon, it was
in fact a debacle, plagued by squabbling between the services, bad
military planning and avoidable deaths of American soldiers, as well as
the escape of key al-Qaida leaders, likely including Osama bin Laden.
Hersh's story is well known. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1969
exposé of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, in which American soldiers
killed more than 500 civilians. He is the author of eight books,
including 1983's "The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White
House." And, since 1998, he's been a staff writer for the New Yorker.
I visited with Hersh this week in his tiny, unadorned two-room office
in downtown Washington, where he works amid a whirring fax machine, a
constantly ringing phone and delivery men knocking on the door with
packages. A map of the world, slightly off-kilter, is taped to the wall
behind his desk, which is piled high with papers.
He speaks
quickly, answering questions before the sentences can be completed, and
hopscotches through conversational topics, as if everything's a race
against time. "I have some Brazilians coming in. You know, just to talk
about ... wait! Turn it off for a second," he says, gesturing at my
recorder. He shares with me a lead he's working on. He flashes me a
look at an intriguing document before stealing it away. "OK, let's talk
about the book. I've gone over the top here. I'm not pimping anymore.
I'm now a full-fledged whore, with red paint," he says, pretending to
smear rouge on his cheeks. He loosens his tie. "Let's get on with it!"
What is new in the book, and what is based on your published work?
I'd say about 35 percent of the opening material on Abu Ghraib is new,
maybe about 15,000 words, altogether about, I don't know what
percentage. Maybe about a third, maybe a little less, is either new or
revised or significantly changed. But the bulk of the book is the
articles I did, put in a different form and combined in a different way
by a very competent editor of mine. This book was edited by the New
Yorker and fact-checked by the New Yorker. Everything that is new in
the book was fact-checked by the New Yorker.
Who was the editor?
Her name is Amy Davidson. She's a senior editor, and she's great. A man
named John Bennet, who is a wonderful editor, was my editor for the
first couple of years, and then Amy came on because John's good that
way. John is very avuncular, and he wants other people to start editing
significant stuff, because among other things, he's always stuck with
the big pieces. It was fact-checked by the same people, and the
publisher paid for it. And Remnick, to his everlasting credit, David
Remnick the editor, agreed that even though there's a very good story
at the beginning - the whole Condi Rice meeting issue - he said publish
it in your book and go make some money. It was sort of nice of them. It
reflects well on the New Yorker. His point was, your being out there
reflects well on the New Yorker. We all fight for making a living.
To talk about the new revelations ...
Let me tell you the one I like the most; aside from the obvious stuff
about Abu Ghraib, there was a story I didn't write two years ago about
Operation Anaconda. I didn't write it because, oh, a lot of complicated
reasons. One, it was very hostile to our soldiers, and the military,
and General [Tommy] Franks, and [Major Gen. Frank] Hagenbeck, a very
nasty story. And then secondly, there was bad blood between the Marine
Corps, and General Franks, and CentComm and the Air Force, and it just
didn't, uh ... it's one of those stories. The real reason in a funny
way is that even though my sources were angry in talking about it, it's
one of the stories they really would have regretted, because you're
talking about internecine warfare among the services. It's about boys
... anyway.
They would have regretted it?
They would have
regretted talking to me about that. In there is an account of the
Marines insisting that General Franks sign an MOU, a memorandum of
understanding, of how the Marines would be used. We're talking about in
combat, this kind of war going on between the services. And, you know,
I probably guess it was the right decision, because I had to do
obviously an alternate history of the war. And obviously there were
certain people talking to me. People on the inside know what's going
on. And so, I probably agree it was OK to do it. But I felt bad when I
saw [former Gen. Wesley] Clark later. I had talked to Clark about the
story at the time. Then two years later I ran into him when he was
running for president, or right before, and he said, "Whatever happened
to that story?" I said, "Well, I just decided not to write it." And he
said, "Well, you should have. It's your job."
He's an amazingly
straight guy. A difficult guy. "You should have." He basically told me,
"Punk kid. You didn't know what you were doing." I also respect him
because ...
Let's talk about some of these revelations.
Oh, so that was the one I liked the most.
But why didn't you write it at the time? You thought it would be too hostile?
No! There was, you know, it was a tough story about troops running from
the battlefield, you know; it was just a tough story. [Hersh is
referring to the lost battle of Anaconda.] I was writing a lot of other
tough stories, and, uh ... it just didn't work. Let's put it that way.
Isn't that what a lot of the mainstream press get accused of -
certainly not you - but holding back important information out of
sensitivity for the feelings of the nation?
Ain't none of us
perfect. It just seemed at the time, some of the people who were
talking to me at the time, it would cause a big stink, and some of the
Marines who were talking to me would not talk anymore. I also know, in
order to do the story right, I would have had to go find some of the
guys who were in the mission ... There was a lot of reporting to do,
and I don't know, I just didn't do it.
But now you've gone back and revisited it in the book?
Oh yeah. Give me the book. I'll show you right where it is. So I'm not
backing off. It was a story that should have been written. Of course I
should have written it.
Let's talk about this anecdote about Vice
President Cheney saying there would be no resignations [over the Abu
Ghraib scandal]. Your publisher emphasized this in the press release,
and I wanted to know ...
Now, wait a minute. Are you asking about a press release? Excuse me. That's like asking me about a headline.
Just tell me why you feel it's important.
What? Tell me why I feel it's important that Cheney called up?
What does it reveal?
It's more complicated than you think. For one thing, it reveals that
they're all as one. The notion that they're going to fire [Donald]
Rumsfeld, as people actually entertained, is comical. After 9/11 he
gets in this swaggering mode and says we're going to smoke those
terrorists out of their snake holes. And then it's clear there's
prisoner abuse and torture going on. But does Cheney call up and say,
"Oh, my God! What's going on over there, Don? What kind of craziness
are you doing to those prisoners? This is devastating to our campaign.
What's going on?" I don't hear that. What I hear is, "Let's all pull
together and get past it." Very interesting.
You're an expert on Henry Kissinger. Is there someone who ...
I'm an expert on the side of Henry Kissinger that lied like most people breathed.
Is there someone who is the Henry Kissinger in this administration?
Oh, believe me, I pray for one [clasps his hands and looks beseechingly
upward]. Wouldn't it be great if the reality was that they were lying
about WMD, and they really didn't believe that democracy would come
when they invaded Iraq, and you could go to war with 5,000 troops, a
few special forces, a few bombs and a lot of American flags, and Iraq
would fold, Saddam would be driven out, a new Baath Party would emerge
that's moderate? Democracy would flow like water out of a fountain.
These guys believe it. They believe WMD. There's no fallback with these
guys. These guys are utopians. They're like Trotskyites. They believe
in permanent revolution. They really believe. They believe that they
could go in with few forces. They believed that once they went in it
would happen quick. Iran would get the message. What they call occupied
Lebanon would get the lesson. Even the Saudis would change.
They thought it would happen quickly?
Very quickly. I don't have any empirical basis for it, but if I had to
bet, the plan was to go right into Syria. That's why the fourth
division was hanging for so long in the desert out there right on the
border with Syria. In the early days of the war, before this government
figured out how much trouble they were in - which took them a long time
- they would drive practice runs, somebody told me. Again, I'm just
saying what was told to me; this is not something I reported, but I was
told pretty reliably, they were doing practice runs that amounted to
the distance from the border to Damascus. It's my belief always - again
this is not empirical, it's sort of my heuristic view - that the real
reason [Paul] Wolfowitz and others were mad at [Gen. Eric] Shinseki
when he testified before the war about [the need for] 200 or 300 troops
- it wasn't about the numbers - was, "Didn't he get it? What had he
been listening to in the tank? Didn't we explain to him in the tank
what we told the chiefs? This is the way it's going to be. Didn't he
understand what it's all about?" He didn't get it. He hadn't understood
what they meant. This was all going to fall down. It was all going to
be peaches and cream. And Shinseki just didn't get it! It wasn't about
the numbers. He wasn't a member of the clan. He didn't join the utopia
crowd.
You've answered one of my questions. Let's elaborate on it.
Clearly there's very little that's, well, in touch with reality in
these policies.
Ha, ha, ha. It's so easy for you to say that!
But it's not so clear actually. Many Americans ...
I think I used actually ... I'll get you this word [grabs book from my
lap and begins flipping through it] ... there was a "fantastical"
quality to the White House's deliberations. Fantastical. That was the
phrase I used.
Yes, I read that. And that was my next question. With Kissinger, there were lies, and he knew exactly what he was doing ...
Yes, one of his aides was assigned - literally assigned on one of the
secret flights they made to China - to keep track of the lies, who knew
what. I think they used to describe it as keeping track of what
statements were made, but essentially it was who was being told what,
because so many different people were being told different things. But
these guys, do you realize how much better off we would be if they
really were cynical, and they really were lying about it, because, yes,
behind the invasion would be something real, like support for Israel or
oil. But it's not! It's not about oil. It's about utopia. I guess you
could call it idealism. But it's idealism that's dead wrong. It's like
one of the far-right Christian credos. It's a faith-based policy. Only
it wasn't a religious faith. It was the faith that democracy would
flourish.
So you don't think that this is some Machiavellian, cynical, manipulative ...
I used to pray it was! We'd be in better shape. Is there anything worse
than idealism that doesn't conform to reality? You have an unrealistic
policy.
It seems that they are very selective not only about what
kind of information they present to the public but even in what they
decide to believe in themselves.
I think these guys in their
naiveté and single-mindedness have been so completely manipulated by -
not the Israelis - but the Iranians. The Iranians always wanted us in.
I think there's a lot of evidence that Iran had much to do with [Ahmed]
Chalabi's disinformation [about nonexistent Iraqi WMD]. I think there
were people in the CIA who suspected this all along, but of course they
couldn't get their view in. I think the Senate Intelligence Committee's
report's a joke, the idea this CIA was misleading the president. They
get some analysts in and say, "Were you pressured?" And they all say,
"No, excuse me?" Is that how you do an investigation? The truth of the
matter is, there was tremendous pressure put on the analysts [to
produce reports that bolstered the case for war]. It's not as if
anybody issued a diktat. But everybody understood what to do.
Talk about the ...
Wait. You're missing something now. The Iranian stuff. I think Iran
probably had more to do with Chalabi's information than people know.
We know that Chalabi had Iranian agents on his payroll.
Yeah, but, well, he admits to that. He had a villa in Tehran. But
basically I think Iran was very interested in getting us involved. We
get knocked down a peg; they become the big boys on the block.
Are you working on this now?
Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I'm reporting on it. But I'm not working on it. I'm just - it's too cosmic.
Was Chalabi the conduit?
I think Chalabi thought he could handle the Iranians. They were helping
him all along with disinformation and documents he could give to the
White House. Don't forget, once the neocons decided to go to Iraq in
the face of all evidence, they were like a super-reverse suction
machine, and anything in the world that furthered the argument that
Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was hot. I call it stove-piping,
because it's a technical work of art. But it was much more than that.
It was anything - vavoom! - into the president's [office]. It was so
amateurish, it was comical. How hard was it to get some crapola into
the White House about WMD without the CIA looking at it?
Do you
have any idea of the origin of the forged Niger documents that Bush
cited in his January 2003 State of the Union address as proof that Iraq
was seeking uranium to make nuclear weapons?
I don't really know. I
know that they think it was an inside job. And my idea is that there
were people in the government who knew that you could give these guys
[the neoconservatives] anything, and within three days, if it said the
right thing, there would be a principals meeting [of the senior foreign
policy officials] at the White House on it. And one idea would be to
get them in a position where they really walked on their dongs, in a
way. Give them some bad stuff. They'd have a big meeting about it and
[the neocons] would finally be exposed as ludicrous. Nobody anticipated
that [the forged documents] would end up in the State of the Union
address. I mean, it's beyond belief. I don't believe in these
conspiracy theories, about [Michael] Ledeen [a neocon operative] and
these things. He's too smart for that. Because it was designed to be
caught.
Do you think the responsibility for Abu Ghraib goes directly up to Rumsfeld?
I think they [Rumsfeld and senior administration officials] had a
chance in the fall of 2002 to set the limits, and they chose not to. I
don't think the CIA analyst who did the report was very explicit in his
written document about the abuses. That isn't the way to get ahead. But
he certainly told his peers there was a real mess there, so they know
it. All she [Rice] had to do was put the word out there. The chain of
command is very responsive. If you put out the word that you're not
going to tolerate this crap, it's not going to happen. But that's not
the word they put out.
Nobody would have countenanced in his right
mind Abu Ghraib. But then again, if you think a bunch of kids from West
Virginia understood the way to the soul of an Arab man is to take off
his clothes and photograph him ... they didn't know that. Somebody told
it to them. And that's the thing about the military. In loco parentis.
They have an obligation to take our children and protect them, not only
from land mines but from doing stupid things that could land them in
jail.
The book is filled with reporting that shows how newspapers
either got it wrong, or simply accepted the official version of events.
What do you think of the performance of the main newspapers people look
to as sources of information?
Well, so here I am, I'm busy trying
to peddle a book and you're asking me to commit self-immolation!
(Laughs). Well, all I'll say is, it speaks for itself.
"Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib"
By Seymour M. Hersh
HarperCollins - 416 pages
|
|
September 2004
Iran and Syria now Targeted
(September 30, 2004)
Now the Americans and Israelis have Iran and Syria in their sights.
MER Warned About Jewish Neocons and Israeli Lobby Years Ago
(September 30, 2004)
Think back now to the days before the Bush/Cheney regime took power in Washington, before the term 'neocon' and the policy of 'pre-emption' were in wide use, and to before 9/11 was even imagined by all but a very few. MER was already long ago raising the warning flags, explaining what was really happening in Washington as well as in the Middle East, previewing what has since come to be; all while so many others were proclaiming the 'peace process is irreversible' and Yasser Arafat was the most frequent foreign guest at the American White House!
MER Articles - Sept 1998
(September 30, 2004)
Intifada II Enters Year Five
(September 28, 2004)
The figures for the Intifada are brutal. Adjusted for the size of the U.S. population, that is if the Israeli occupation were taking place in the U.S., over 300,000 Americans would have been killed in just the past 4 years alone, well over a million seriously injured, many millions imprisoned and tortured, plus considerable land confiscated, homes destroyed, and occupying Jewish 'settlers' taking over.
MER Articles - September 1997
(September 28, 2004)
These MER Articles were published in September 1997. The perspective they offer on events since is crucial.
Maps tell the Real Story 'on the ground' where it counts
(September 26, 2004)
The Israelis now control all Palestinian areas through hundreds of military Checkpoints, No-go zones, By-pass 'Jews only' Roads, Settlements, Outposts, and in recent years Fences, Walls, and Electronic Monitoring systems throughout the West Bank similar to what was done in the past to Gaza. In addition all Palestinians must even receive Israeli military permission to travel from one city and village. The situation is today far worse than Apartheid was in South Africa. As a result, no real, contiguous, and even minimally sovereign Palestinian State is possible any longer in the area that was Palestine in 1947.
Anglican group calls for Israel sanctions
(September 24, 2004)
A few months ago the American Presbyterians officially took the first major Church steps to sanction Israel, recalling how South Africa was treated in the days of Apartheid not that long ago. Now an influential Anglican group is pushing for a combination of boycott and divestment from Israel when their senior Church leaders next meet.
USA at MOMENT of NATIONAL CRISIS
(September 24, 2004)
"Over the last three years, practicing a philosophy of deliberate deception, fear-mongering and abuse of authority, the Bush administration has done more to undermine the republic of Lincoln and Jefferson than the cells of al-Qaida. It has willfully ignored our fundamental laws and squandered the nation's wealth in bloody, open-ended pursuits.... We have arrived
at a moment of national crisis."
Sy Hersh - Readers' Comments
(September 23, 2004)
Important articles and exclusive insights like this would not be easily available, or oftentimes available at all, but for MER. These Readers' Comments this week concern the recent MER article about Washington journalist Seymour Hersh and his recent interviews and talks about his new book Chain of Command:
ARAB AMERICANS - REALITIES NOT DECEPTIONS
(September 22, 2004)
The real message to the tough-minded politicos in Washington is this: There's nothing to worry about from Arab Americans...working overtime they can only mobilize quite few in numbers...they are not even protesting against the upcoming agreement itself likely to be soon signed across the street...they know nothing about the power of civil disobedience...they have no powerful or even significant allies...their leadership is naive and oftentimes foolish...and the Arab organizations we work with can be counted on to keep them under control come what may.
IRAN - The U.S. and Israel Prepare to Attack
(September 22, 2004)
The new massive arms sale of 'bunker busting' bombs to Israel has two major purposes at this point in addition to furthering the Bush/Cheney election campaign -- to prepare for real war with Iran sooner rather than later, while at the same time attempting to further intimidate one more time those in Tehran to 'comply, resistance is futile'.
About MER - Please Read and Contribute Today
(September 21, 2004)
Reorganizing and overcoming all the obstacles has come at a considerable price in time, effort, and funds. We have to appeal now for your substantial financial support; for a truly independent and hard-hitting organization must have truly independent funding or it cannot continue and have impact. Please contribute today to make MER possible and of growing impact. Thank you!
Sy Hersh - Israeli Disinformation and Cover-Up?
(September 21, 2004)
In fact, the more one thinks about this, the more one reaches the possible conclusion that while Hersh is on target (though incomplete) when it comes to the torture scandal, when it comes to the geostrategic, especially when it comes to matters relating to Israel, Hersh may well be being used for disinformation and continually engages in a kind of self-censorship and cover-up.
Journalists and Professors With Chilling Warnings
(September 20, 2004)
"Every generation has its test of principle in which people of good faith can no longer remain silent in the face of authoritarian ambition. If we cannot join together to fight the abomination of American camps, we have already lost what we are defending."
The 'Fucking' Crazy and Stupid Washington Neocons
(September 19, 2004)
Of course they only talk this way when they've really had it and when they think the befuddled largely ignorant general public won't hear. But the reality is these two top American Generals who have been saluting to power their whole lives, and who themselves are very much a part of the terrible corrupted system, are known to feel the senior neocons empowered by Bush and Cheney are out of control and sometimes a little fucking out of their minds!
Feith of Israel
(September 18, 2004)
MER 'Washington Scene'EXCLUSIVE:
Click to Listen to Douglas Feith at an Israeli lobby White House rally while Bill Clinton was still President, Feith was not yet back in government, and more than a year before 9/11 was to happen. For some time in Washington Feith has been a prominent member of the extended Israeli-Jewish lobby speaking at times as harshly and unrelentingly as any Israeli propagandist. Persons in the media should contact MER for more extensive information and additional audio and video clips of Feith - 202 362-5266 and press@MiddleEast.Org
Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism
(September 17, 2004)
But, when writing about the situation in Washington and the linkages between persons and groups that brought about the Iraqi invasion/occupation, Sperry makes significant contributions in his book Crude Policies that need to be understood.
Washington's Pathetic Arabist Hustlers - National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations
(September 16, 2004)
But the most tragic reality of all is that in the process of what they have done for themselves this pathetically incestuous Washington cabal of 'Arabists' has squandered crucial decades, all together more than a hundred million dollars, and even now with the Middle East on fire and Washington gripped by policy warfare very very few even want to bother to come and get their free lunch with them.
Iraqi Debacle, Iraqi Disaster
(September 16, 2004)
Most senior US military officers now believe
the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster
on an unprecedented scale
EYEWITNESS TO SLAUGHTER IN BAGHDAD
(September 15, 2004)
On Sunday as the details of this murderous U.S. attack on a Baghdad crowd were first being reported, MER asked an officer on Commanding U.S. General Abizaid's staff how could the U.S. be using attack helicopters to fire on crowds in Baghdad and still think Iraqis wouldn't hate the Americans. He suggested it must have been to protect troops still in the damaged vehicle. A few hours later when told that was not the case, that the troops had already been rescued, he suggested maybe there was a need to destroy the vehicle for 'intelligence' reasons. When told the vehicle was already destroyed and on fire he could only shrug... How telling... This unusually gripping first-hand report from the exploding streets of Baghdad:
Bin Laden More Popular Than Bush in Egypt
(September 14, 2004)
With Iraq exploding, the Americans attacking street crowds in Baghdad with bombs and missiles, and the U.S. military already stretched to the breaking point both in terms of manpower and credibility, Washington's propaganda machine is in overdrive both at home and abroad. Even so, even in long-time American ally Egypt, Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda are considerably more popular than George W. Bush and the U.S.
Iraq Exploding in Rebellion and Death
(September 12, 2004)
At least 37 people were killed in Baghdad alone. Many of them died when a U.S. helicopter fired on a disabled U.S. Bradley fighting vehicle as Iraqis swarmed around it, cheering, throwing stones and waving the black and yellow sunburst banner of Iraq's most-feared terror organization.
'Fucking Crazies' Powell Explodes - Withdraw from Iraq Financial Times Editorializes
(September 12, 2004)
The U.S. policy in the Middle East is already a disaster of historical proportions. In a new book being published in a few days no less an authority than U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell himself is quoted describing the top neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.
9/11 - 'War of the Worlds'
(September 11, 2004)
Immediately when 9/11 occurred the publisher of MER was asked to quickly write about it's meaning and ramifications for the about-to-be-published October issue of a European Edition of Playboy Magazine.
9/11 began a long time ago and for very real reasons
(September 11, 2004)
Those who were reading MER six years ago were giving a prescient foretaste of what has since come, and why. This MER article was originally published on 25 August 1998. Read it now keeping in mind that what has been happening since was being caused and was foreseeable then; just as what is being done now is creating the still bleaker future now ahead if today's course in Washington is not significantly altered...and soon.
Chechnya - Crucible for Hatred and Terrorism
(September 10, 2004)
It is a genocidal war Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for more than any other. But then neither the U.S. nor the European powers nor the U.N. for that matter have had the vision, the determination, and the courage to step in. And thus the fingers of responsibility and blame should be pointing in many simultaneous directions at this time.
Israeli Spying in USA Fox Series Spiked and Covered-Up
(September 10, 2004)
AIPAC and Israel's many official and unofficial lobbyists are now mounting a major campaign to bring the FBI investigation to an end with only minor charges involving 'mishandling' of classified documents. The pressures on everyone in Washington are no doubt intense; especially in this election year. And so what happened in November 2002 should be especially instructive; and in view of the most recent charges and investigations should be resurrected:
Chechnya - Crucible for Hatred and Terrorism
(September 8, 2004)
This look back on the terribly brutal Russian war in Chechnya to prevent Chechnyan independence must be understood to be the crucible in which the horrifying events of recent days were brewed. It is a genocidal war Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for more than any other; but then neither the U.S. nor the European powers nor the U.N. for that matter have had the vision, the determination, and the courage to step in. And thus the fingers of responsibility and blame should be pointing in many simultaneous directions.
Aljazeera Caves Again
(September 8, 2004)
Coerced self-censorship and forcing the media to constantly be wary of offending the powers that be is a long-time hallmark not only in the Middle East, Russia, and China, but also in the West and the United States. The techniques and methods are different, especially when it comes to the American scene, but in many cases the results are similar.
Chechnya, Palestine, Iraq, Kashmir - Occupations All
(September 7, 2004)
Brutal occupations all -- Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Kashmir. All examples of when overwhelming military force is used by a major power to put down popular resistance to historical subjugation and injustice.
IsraelGate +
(September 6, 2004)
Major efforts are now underway in Washington to head off, cover up, derail, what we earlier today for the first time called ISRAELGATE.
IsraelGate is potentially the most significant scandal to rock relations between the U.S. and Israel ever -- since the Lavon Affair and 1956 war when President Eisenhower faced down the Israelis, then 1967 with the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, and then the Pollard spy affair nearly twenty years ago now.
But now the stakes are much much higher than ever for the following three reasons:
ISRAELGATE!
(September 5, 2004)
Now that the new Israeli spy scandal has broken into public view, the top-level connections between the Jewish neocons at the Pentagon and the National Security Council -- among them Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, and Elliott Abrams -- the following and associated stories first published earlier this year deserve much more than a second look. They should in fact be the basis for a full-fledged journalistic investigation into what could yet be called ISRAELGATE.
Israel, Neocons, Lobby, and Spying
(September 4, 2004)
For there are those in Washington and in the media who know very well that it was the Israelis and the Jewish neocons, working in tandem, who worked relentlessly to push the U.S. into the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And there are those who are well aware that the Israelis and the Jewish neocons are now working in tandem to push and cajole the U.S. to take on Iran, Syria, and all who stand in the way of their plans for the U.S. and Israel in partnership to control the Middle East strategically, politically, and economically.
Revered Muslim Cleric Calls On Muslims To Fight The U.S.Occupier
(September 3, 2004)
"Al-Qaradawi was one of 93 prominent Muslim figures
who in August called on Muslims around the world to
support resistance against US forces in Iraq and its
apppointed interim Iraqi government."
Bush Speaks, Eocons (Christian Evangelicals + Jewish Neocons) Rule
(September 2, 2004)
As George W. Bush prepares to outline his 'vision' and 'agenda' to the American nation tonight from besieged New York City he today published the following appeal to American Jews in The Forward newspaper. Ironically, in the same issue of The Forward, the latest Israeli and Jewish Lobby spy scandal gets much play including the additional article below:
|
