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WASHINGTON
SHADOWS - Stumbling, Bumbling
'Arabist' Ambassadors Play to the Cameras
NewsFlash: As Iraqi war escalates the U.S. installed and protected regime in Baghdad today closed Al-Jazeera.
TARGET PAKISTAN
"The dilemma for Musharraf is that many
of his army officers
are still
deeply sympathetic to al
Qaeda, Taliban militants and the
Kashmir
cause.... Many retired and
present ISI officers retain close
links to al
Qaeda militants hiding in
various state-sponsored places in
Pakistan
and Kashmir as well as
leaders from the defeated Taliban
regime. They
regard the fight against
Americans and Jews and Indians in
different
parts of the world as
legitimate jihad."
Mid-East
Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 7 August 2004: At the moment
the CIA is swarming all over Pakistan and the government
of General Musharraf is not only kept in power by the Americans but is
clearly frightened by what could happen if the American
connection and protection were lost.
But with General Musharraf so isolated and vulnerable the Americans are
risking an eventual backlash revolution in Pakistan as happened in Iran
after so many years of U.S. backing for the terribly repressive and
unpopular Shah.
As tensions and fighting in Iraq and Palestine continue, and with new
sanctions and attacks on Syria, Iran, and Lebanon quite publicly
threatened, the situation in the greater Middle East could become far
more tense and the 'crucial countries' of both Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia could indeed 'fall' from the American grip setting off even more
dangerous and unpredictable political and military explosions.
The Americans know of these possibilities of course; and no doubt they
are preparing. Op Eds and articles of the following kind pointing the
finger at both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia don't appear out of nowhere.
These days such Op Eds and articles are quite often the result of
purposefully leaked tidbits, disinformation, and propaganda. And here
too the Americans, and their Israelis friends, are pouring much money
and effort into manipulating if not directly controlling the popular
'media'. Their own publicly financed operations beaming new TV and
radio broadcasts to the region are just the visible tip of the growing
propaganda iceberg.
Just in the past few days this outfront harsh attack on Pakistan from
long-time columnist Arnaud de Borchgrave and from the pages of the Financial Times this
further link-up between the Saudis and the Pakistanis when it comes to
looming nuclear weapons quagmire now threatening the region as never
before.
|
By Arnaud de Borchgrave*
Published
August 2, 2004
The
September 11 commission found troubling new evidence Iran was closer to
al Qaeda than was Iraq. More importantly, and through no fault of its
own, the commission missed the biggest prize of all: Former Pakistani
intelligence officers knew beforehand all about the September 11
attacks.
They even advised Osama bin Laden and his cohorts how to
attack key targets in the United States with hijacked civilian
aircraft. And bin Laden has been undergoing periodic dialysis treatment
in a military hospital in Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's Northwest
Frontier Province adjacent to the Afghan border.
The information came to the commission's attention in a
confidential report from Pakistan as its own report was coming off the
presses. The information was supplied with the understanding the
unimpeachable source would remain anonymous.
Pakistan still denies President Pervez Musharraf knew anything
about the activities of A.Q. Khan, the country's top nuclear engineer
who had spent the last 10 years building and running a one-stop global
Wall-Mart for "rogue" nations. North Korea, Iran and Libya shopped for
nuclear weapons at Mr. Khan's underground black market. Pakistan has
also denied the allegations by a leading Pakistani in the confidential
addendum to the September 11 commission report.
After U.S. and British intelligence painstakingly pieced
together Mr. Khan's global nuclear proliferation endeavors, Deputy
Secretary of State Rich Armitage was assigned last fall to convey the
devastating news to Mr. Musharraf. Mr. Khan, a national icon for giving
Pakistan its nuclear arsenal, was not arrested. Instead, Mr. Musharraf
pardoned him in exchange for an abject apology on national television
in English. No one in Pakistan believed Mr. Musharraf's claim he was
totally in the dark about Mr. Khan's operation. Prior to seizing power
in 1999, Mr. Musharraf was -- and still is -- Army chief of staff. For
the past five years, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence chief has
reported directly to Mr. Musharraf.
Osama bin Laden's principal Pakistani adviser before September
11, 2001, was retired Gen. Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief who, since the
2001 attacks, is "strategic adviser" to the coalition of six
politico-religious parties that governs two of Pakistan's four
provinces. Known as MMA, the coalition also occupies 20 percent of the
seats in the federal assembly in Islamabad.
Hours after September 11, Gen. Gul publicly accused Israel's
Mossad of fomenting the plot. Later, he said the U.S. Air Force must
have been in on it since no warplanes were scrambled to shoot down the
hijacked airliners.
Gen. Gul spent two weeks in Afghanistan immediately before
September 11. He denied meeting bin Laden on that trip, but has always
said he was an "admirer" of the al Qaeda leader. However, he did meet
several times with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader.
Since September 11, hardly a week goes by without Gen. Gul
denouncing the United States in both the Urdu and English-language
media.
In a conversation with this reporter in October 2001, Gen. Gul
forecast a future Islamist nuclear power that would form a greater
Islamic state with a fundamentalist Saudi Arabia after the monarchy
falls.
Gen. Gul worked closely with the CIA during the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan when he was ISI chief. He was "mildly"
fundamentalist in those days, he explained after September 11, and
indifferent to the United States. But he became passionately
anti-American after the United States turned its back on Afghanistan
following the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, and began punishing Pakistan with
economic and military sanctions for its secret nuclear buildup.
A ranking CIA official, speaking anonymously, said the agency
considered Gen. Gul "the most dangerous man" in Pakistan. A senior
Pakistani political leader, also on condition of anonymity, said, "I
have reason to believe Hamid Gul was Osama bin Laden's master planner."
The report received by the September 11 commission from the
anonymous, well-connected Pakistani source, said: "The core issue of
instability and violence in South Asia is the character, activities and
persistence of the militarized Islamist fundamentalist state in
Pakistan. No cure for this canker can be arrived at through any
strategy of negotiations, support and financial aid to the military
regime, or by a 'regulated' transition to
'democracy' ".
The confidential report continued: "The imprints of every
major act of international Islamist terrorism invariably passes through
Pakistan, right from September 11 -- where virtually all the
participants had trained, resided or met in, coordinated with, or
received funding from or through Pakistan -- to major acts of terrorism
across South Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as major networks of
terror that have been discovered in Europe.
"Pakistan has harvested an enormous price for its apparent
'cooperation' with the U.S., and in this it has combined deception and
blackmail -- including nuclear blackmail -- to secure a continuous
stream of concessions. Its conduct is little different from that of
North Korea, which has in the past chosen the nuclear path to secure
incremental aid from Western donors. A pattern of sustained nuclear
blackmail has consistently been at the heart of Pakistan's case for
concessions, aid and a heightened threshold of international tolerance
for its sponsorship and support of Islamist terrorism.
"To understand how this works, it is useful to conceive of
Pakistan's ISI as a state acting as terrorist traffickers, complaining
that, if it does not receive the extraordinary dispensations and
indulgences that it seeks, it will, in effect, 'implode,' and in the
process do extraordinary harm.
"Part of the threat of this 'explosion' is also the specter of
the transfer of its nuclear arsenal and capabilities to more
intransigent and irrational elements of the Islamist far right in
Pakistan, who would not be amenable to the logic that its present
rulers -- whose interests in terrorism are strategic, and consequently,
subject to considerations of strategic advantage -- are willing to
listen to. ...
"It is crucial to note that if the Islamist terrorist groups
gain access to nuclear devices, ISI will almost certainly be the
source. ... At least six Pakistani scientists connected with the
country's nuclear program were in contact with al Qaeda and Osama bin
Laden with the thorough instructions of ISI.
"Pakistan has projected the electoral victory of the
fundamentalist and pro-Taliban, pro-al Qaeda Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
(MMA) in the November elections as 'proof' the military is the only
'barrier' against the country passing into the hands of the extremists.
The fact, however, is that the elections were widely rigged, and this
was a fact acknowledged by the European Union observers, as well as by
some of the MMA's constituents themselves. The MMA victory was, in
fact, substantially engineered by the Musharraf regime, as are the
various anti-U.S. 'mass demonstrations' around the country.
"Pakistan has made a big case out of the fact that some of the
top-line leadership of al Qaeda has been arrested in the country with
the 'cooperation' of the Pakistani security forces and intelligence.
However, the fact is that each such arrest only took place after the
FBI and U.S. investigators had effectively gathered evidence to force
Pakistani collaboration, but little of this evidence had come from
Pakistani intelligence agencies.
Indeed, ISI has consistently sought to
deny the presence of al Qaeda elements in Pakistan, and to mislead U.S.
investigators. ... This deception has been at the very highest level,
and Musharraf himself, for instance, initially insisted he was
'certain' bin Laden was dead. ...
"ISI has been actively facilitating the relocation of the al
Qaeda from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and the conspiracy of substantial
segments of serving Army and intelligence officers is visible. ..."
"The Pakistan army consistently denies giving the militants
anything more than moral, diplomatic and political support. The reality
is quite different. ISI issues money and directions to militant groups,
specially the Arab hijackers of September 11 from al Qaeda. ISI was
fully involved in devising and helping the entire affair. And that is
why people like Hamid Gul and others very quickly stated the propaganda
that CIA and Mossad did it. ... "
"The dilemma for Musharraf is that many of his army officers
are still deeply sympathetic to al Qaeda, Taliban militants and the
Kashmir cause.... Many retired and present ISI officers retain close
links to al Qaeda militants hiding in various state-sponsored places in
Pakistan and Kashmir as well as leaders from the defeated Taliban
regime. They regard the fight against Americans and Jews and Indians in
different parts of the world as legitimate jihad."
The report also says, "According to a senior tribal leader in
Peshawar, bin Laden, who suffers from renal deficiency, has been
periodically undergoing dialysis in a Peshawar military hospital with
the knowledge and approval of ISI if not of Gen. Pervez Musharraf
himself."
The same source, though not in the report, speculated Mr.
Musharraf may plan to turn over bin Laden to President Bush in time to
clinch Mr. Bush's re-election in November.
* Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large for The Washington
Times and for United Press International.
Saudi
cash joins forces
with nuclear Pakistan
By Roula Khalaf, Farhan
Bokhari and
Stephen Fidler
Financial
Times,
London - August 4 2004
A week before
Pakistan's maiden nuclear tests in May 1998, then prime minister Nawaz
Sharif received a late night telephone call from a Saudi prince. India,
Pakistan's arch-rival, had conducted nuclear tests that month and Mr
Sharif was weighing the consequences of following suit.
As Mr
Sharif told a hurriedly organised meeting of senior officials, the
Saudi prince had offered to provide up to 50,000 barrels of oil a day
to Pakistan for an indefinite period and on deferred payment terms.
This would allow Pakistan to overcome the impact of punitive western
sanctions expected to follow the tests.
According to a former
aide to Mr Sharif, the message from Saudi Arabia, delivered on behalf
of Crown Prince Abdullah, the de-facto ruler, had once again bailed out
Pakistan at one of the most difficult moments in its history.
“It is possible that Pakistan
may still have conducted its
nuclear
tests without the Saudi oil. But the tests would have been done with
the knowledge that the economic fallout was going to be far more
severe,” says the former aide to Mr Sharif.
The telephone call
illustrated the intimacy between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, a
relationship that receives little international attention but has so
far proved, for both sides, probably more profound and secure than any
other.
A year after the tests, Prince
Sultan, the Saudi defence
minister, visited the uranium enrichment and missile assembly plant at
Kahuta, then run by the now disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul-Qadeer
Khan. He thus became the first foreign official known to have visited a
Pakistani nuclear research facility.
Saudi financial support has
fuelled suspicions of nuclear co-operation between the two countries. A
senior US official says Saudi finance helped fund Pakistan's nuclear
programme, allowing it among other things to buy nuclear technology
from China.
Officials discount the
possibility of Pakistani help
to build an indigenous Saudi nuclear weapon: Saudi Arabia does not
appear to have the necessary technical infrastructure. But they say
there could be a sort of “lend-lease arrangement” that would allow
weapons from Pakistan to be made available to Saudi Arabia. “The
argument that they have options on Pakistan's arsenal are more likely,”
the US official says.
Both Saudi and Pakistani
officials
vehemently deny the existence of any such deal. “We've never given
money aimed at nuclear research and development and so we never asked
or received privileges to nuclear weapons programmes,” insists Prince
Turki al-Feisal, the former Saudi intelligence chief who worked closely
with Pakistan in the 1980s to channel Arab militants to fight the
Soviets in Afghanistan.
Nawaf Obeid, a Saudi security
consultant
close to the government, however, suggests the kingdom enjoys
Pakistan's security umbrella without any formal agreement. “We gave
money and they dealt with it as they saw fit,” he says of the
Pakistanis. “There's no documentation but there is an implicit
understanding that on everything, in particular on security and
military issues, Pakistan would be there for Saudi Arabia.”
Though some security analysts
doubt Pakistan would jeopardise
its own
security by jumping to Saudi Arabia's defence, the relationship has
been thrown into sharp focus again in recent months with the uncovering
of a clandestine nuclear network led by Mr Khan. This sent
investigators in search of the so-called “fourth customer” beyond the
three to which Mr Khan confessed: Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Diplomats close to the
Vienna-based International Atomic
Energy Agency
say Mr Khan had tried to find customers all over the Middle East but
they have yet to find evidence to implicate a fourth country.
So
far, there is no suggestion that Saudi Arabia purchased nuclear
equipment or expertise from the Khan network. But the network's ability
to outsource important elements of a nuclear weapons programme would
make it easier for any country even one without much technical
infrastructure to start weapons development.
To be sure
Saudi Arabia has plenty of reasons and the financial muscle to seek
nuclear weapons. Saudis live in a dangerous environment, surrounded by
rivals. They include Israel, whose undeclared nuclear arsenal Saudi
Arabia criticises as the main block to a nuclear-free Middle East, and
Iran, Saudi Arabia's strategic competitor suspected by western
governments of developing nuclear weapons.
In the 1980s, when
Saddam Hussein was considered a close friend of Saudi Arabia, Iraq's
military strength was seen as protection for the Sunni Muslim
monarchies of the Gulf against the ambitions of a revolutionary Shia
regime in Iran.
After Mr Hussein invaded Kuwait
in 1990,
however, Iraq became the main threat in the Gulf and the Saudis called
on the US for protection. Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia,
meanwhile, gradually improved over the past decade, though remain beset
by suspicion.
Nearly all US troops stationed
in the country
since then were withdrawn last year following the removal of Mr
Hussein's regime, leaving a few advisory and support units. Political
ties with the US also became strained in the backlash from the
September 11 attacks, carried out by mostly Saudi militants.
“Saudi Arabia is in strategic
limbo with the US security
commitment
being called into question or being redefined and with Iran's nuclear
programme,” said Wyn Bowen, a lecturer in war studies at Kings College,
London.
Against this troubled
background, the link with Pakistan
has become all the more important. “It's probably one of the closest
relationships in the world between any two countries without any
official treaty,” says Prince Turki, now ambassador to London. “Just
the fact there's a friendly voice heard from time to time is very
pleasant in today's world,“ he adds.
Reports of Saudi nuclear
ambitions have been around since the 1970s in spite of the consistent
rejections by the government. In 1975, according to one report, Saudi
Arabia opened a nuclear research centre in a desert military complex,
later closing it down.
In 1986-88, Saudi Arabia bought
30 or
more intermediate-range DF-3 Chinese missiles, a type used by Beijing
to carry nuclear weapons. Both Chinese and Saudi officials said they
were adapted to carry conventional warheads, even though their
inaccuracy would make them ill-suited for this purpose. In response to
US pressure following the purchase, Saudi Arabia signed the
non-proliferation treaty and legally foreswore nuclear weapons.
These obsolete missiles may soon
have to be replaced. Robert
Einhorn, a
senior arms control official in the Clinton administration, said Saudi
Arabia's missiles came up in US discussions aimed at curbing Chinese
sales of long-range missiles in the autumn of 2000. China wanted, he
said, to be able to fulfil some pre-existing servicing arrangements.
“It became clear they were talking about Saudi Arabia,” he said.
In 1994, a Saudi defector who
worked for the kingdom's United
Nations
mission claimed the Saudi government had paid up to $5bn to Saddam
Hussein to build a nuclear weapon and provided funds to Pakistan in
return for security guarantees. A visit to Pakistan last year by Crown
Prince Abdullah also fed rumours of a new nuclear deal but the
allegations were dismissed by the US State Department.
Saudi
officials say the country's leaders always considered the acquisition
of nuclear weapons a taboo that would bring the kingdom more
controversy than comfort. Last year, in the aftermath of the Iraq war,
senior princes considered a strategic paper that offered them three
options: to acquire a nuclear capability as a deterrent, maintain or
enter into an alliance with a nuclear power that would offer
protection, or work to rid the region of banned weapons. Prince Turki
insists the paper “died in its place”.
Mr Einhorn says that, in
fact, there is little hard evidence that Saudi Arabia is pursuing the
bomb: “It's like a suspected crime where you have a motive but not much
more than that.”
Over the years, however, Saudi
Arabia's ties
with Pakistan gained strength and the discreet but deep
inter-dependency has kept suspicions of nuclear co-operation alive.
Rooted in co-operation between
military generals and
intelligence
operatives, the relationship survived repeated political upheavals in
Pakistan. The two countries also have been drawn together by religious
ties: the Saudis, custodians of Islam's two holiest sites, have been
eager to protect a country, also governed by Sunni Muslims, that was
born on the basis of its religion. Moreover, the kingdom has also
poured money into religious schools - madrasas - spreading its
puritanical brand of Wahabi Islam throughout Pakistan.
“When
Pakistan was formed (after the 1947 partition from India) we were
losing Palestine. So it seemed in public minds that the establishment
of a Muslim state out of a colonial past was somehow a recompense for
the losses of the Muslim world in Palestine,“ says Prince Turki.
Saudi officials say Pakistan
probably received more Saudi
financial aid
- which started in the 1960s - than any other country outside the Arab
world. In return the Saudis received military and diplomatic
assistance. In the 1960s, Pakistani instructors were dispatched to
Saudi Arabia to train Saudis on the use of newly acquired British
aircraft. In the 1970s, an agreement was reached with Pakistan to
second 15,000 military personel to the kingdom. They pulled out in
1987, an era of depressed Saudi oil revenues.
“When we had a
large military contingent deployed in Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani
government happily noted that the payments for keeping our troops there
helped us to pay for a part of our defence,” says a former senior
Pakistani military officer who served in Saudi Arabia. “The principle
of our relationship is that the Saudis would not let Pakistan sink”.
In the 1980s and 1990s the two
countries found common cause in
arming
the Arab fighters who helped drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.
After the Soviet withdrawal and Afghanistan's descent into civil war,
both the Saudis and the Pakistanis favoured the Taliban militia which
emerged from the Wahabi religious schools in Pakistan.
Hasan
Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani analyst on defence and national
affairs, says Saudi Arabia paid for a batch of 40 F-16 fighter aircraft
bought by Pakistan in the 1980s from the US for approximately $1bn.
“Not only did the Saudis pay for the aircraft but they also lobbied for
Pakistan with the US government,” he says. “The Saudis have played a
critical role for Pakistan. Consequently, that has won them tremendous
influence in Islamabad”.
Ali Awadh Asseri, the Saudi
Ambassador
to Islamabad for almost four years, is widely seen as one of the most
influential diplomats in Pakistan, though major policy discussions are
carried out directly between key officials and leaders in Riyadh and
Islamabad.
“Asseri has the kind of access
to the Pakistani
president and the prime minister which few other ambassadors receive.
Maybe the US ambassador falls in the same category” adds Dr Rizvi.
Such is Saudi influence in
Pakistan that Saudi officials,
including the
ambassador, also play a mediating role in Pakistani politics. A year
after Pakistan's nuclear tests, Mr Sharif was removed from office in a
bloodless military coup and then sentenced to life imprisonment on a
controversial charge of ordering the hijacking of a Pakistani airliner.
But he found himself exiled to
Saudi Arabia in 2002 for a
10-year
period, under a deal struck between General Pervez Musharraf,
Pakistan's military ruler, and the Saudi regime. The deal assured a
life of comfort for the former Pakistani leader and saved him from the
prospect of a long jail term. “The Saudis may not have the ability to
change Pakistan's strategic profile in that they don't have a military
which can support Pakistan and they're not an arms supplier. But they
have the means to make things happen,” says Teresita Schaffer, head of
the south Asia program at Washington's Center for Strategic and
International Studies.
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August 2004
MER Exclusive - Listen to Douglas Feith about Israel and the Middle East (August 30, 2004)
MER EXCLUSIVE - Listen to Douglas Feith while Bill Clinton was still President and a year before 9/11 even happened. For some time in Washington Feith himself 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 comments by Feith - 202 362-5266 and press@MiddleEast.Org
Pointing the fingers at Douglas Feith (August 29, 2004)
Feith has been mentioned in most of the major media stories this weekend in Washington -- but not nearly with the emphasis he should have been. For Feith has played a central role in just about every scandal that has beset the Bush Administration -- from the faulty 'intelligence', to the mistaken 'assumptions', to the prison torture scandals, and now the latest Israeli/Jewish lobby spy scandal right in his own office.
Sharon's Wars, Israel's Future (August 28, 2004)
This major New York Times feature about Ariel Sharon could have, and should have, been far more harsh. But Ariel Sharon is at the top of his game now. And though the future he may have molded more than any other may be bleak and potentially catastrophic, now is his time and few in the Jewish world -- and in an oblique way that includes not only the New York Times but much of the contemporary American media -- dare to take him on directly.
Israeli Spy Scandal Erupting in Washington (August 28, 2004)
Many, most no doubt, of these kinds of things relating to Israel never get out into the public domain; they are buried and sucked up into official Washington where so many have so many reasons for always wanting to hush such things up. But there should be no doubt that the Israelis have infiltrated at many levels and greatly influenced in many ways U.S. policies in the Middle East, especially of late the decision to invade and occupy Iraq.
The following quick list of past Israeli spy scandals all of which were covered up or sucked in one way or another include:
* Israeli Attack on U.S.S. Liberty - 1967
* Steve Bryent Israeli Spying Scandal - 1982
* Jonathan Pollard Arrested outside Israeli Embassy - 1985
* AIPAC infiltration scandal, President forced to resign - 1991
* Mossad bugging of Clinton and Monica - 1997
* Martin Indyk's Security Clearances 'temporarily' suspended - 2000
America's 'Iraqi Police' and the now impending Iraqi Elections (August 27, 2004)
And it's clear that if it's a competiton between Negroponte and Allawi, against al-Sistani and al-Sadr, the Americans and their regime are in big trouble. Just how the U.S. occupation is going to attempt to either further delay the election or not-too-blantantly manipulate and control it now looms ahead -- just as soon as the American election is behind us all.
(August 26, 2004)
U.S. and Regime Bombing and Killing throughout Iraq (August 26, 2004)
Chaos, confusion, death, and destruction -- that's the description of American occupied Iraq as the country virtually rebels and explodes. Even as Ayatollah al-Sistani heads back to Najaf protected by British occupation troops American occupation troops are ferociously attacking Najaf, Fallujah, Sadr City as never before and American armed and paid Iraqi mercenary troops are massacreing their own.
Daily Articles Summary - 25 August 2004 (August 25, 2004)
Daily Articles Summary - 25 August 2004
MER Articles
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Sistani Returns and March on Najaf Looms (August 25, 2004)
Now on this very day in history there is another Ayatollah in and at the heart of the Middle East at a crucial moment in time. The very term 'Ayatollah' was hardly known in the West before the Iranian revolution just 25 years ago now. But in the immediate days ahead it now appears Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is to have his and maybe modern on-its-knees Iraq's 'rendevous with history'. And then what this is really all about now is the future rather than the past, especially with Iraqi 'elections' supposed to take place just 5 months from now. What will the American Empire with its arsenal of planes, tanks, and shock troops now do to deter, deflect, or stop him? What will the U.S.-installed and protected Allawi regime in Baghdad now do to attempt to co-opt or twist him?
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Returns to 'Save the Burning Holy City' (August 25, 2004)
The Mahdi Army defeated the British Empire in Sudan in 1885. Now a Mahdi Army battles the American Empire in Iraq in 2004. Today the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani returns to Najaf to "Save the Burning Holy City".
IRAQ, IRAN and ISRAEL Stories -- 24 August 2004 (August 24, 2004)
Crusades II - Iraqi Cities Bombed and Tanked (August 24, 2004)
Bush's views and ongoing rhetoric -- and then came top Pentagon General Boykin telling the world that 'my god is bigger than their god' -- may come to define this period in 'modern' history.
Imperial America (August 23, 2004)
Provocative thinking and writing from one of Great Britain's most prolific, most outspoken, most humanistic, and most insightful 'activist' journalists writing this cover article in the current issue of the New Statesman. It's too hard and probably wrong in fact to agree that 'Bush may be the lesser evil'. But it is very important to understand how and why John Pilger is speaking out in this way.
Palestinian Struggle Fully Justified (August 22, 2004)
Because of the huge propaganda war in which the U.S. and Israel also have overwhelming firepower at their disposal, what leading Professors like Charles Black and now Ted Honderich have to say is in fact of critical importance.
Weekend Reading: Iran, the U.S., and Israel (August 21, 2004)
These four articles from the past few days, especially the first commentary by UPI Senior Analyst Martin Sieff, help put things in perspective and set the stage for what is now to come. Unpleasant and frightening weekend reading, we know...but necessary.
What the Americans have Really Done in and to Iraq (August 20, 2004)
This is a brief but very important outline of what the Americans have really done in recent years in and to Iraq. All this has little to do with 'freedom' and 'democracy' -- those are the simplistic and deceptive front-words. What's really involved is an increasingly desperate and ruthless master plan to turn Iraq -- a country at the center of both the Arab and the Muslim worlds -- into an appendage of the American military, political, and economic machine trying to more totally control the Middle East region and continue to drain it of its wealth, resources, and heritage. It's the imperialism of old considerably reconstituted for the brave new world of worldwide television, the internet, and high-tech 'Star Wars' weaponry.
Iran Warns of Preemptive Strike Against U.S. and Israel (August 19, 2004)
"We will consider any strike against our nuclear installations as an attack on Iran as a whole, and we will retaliate with all our strength. Where Israel is concerned, we have no doubt that it
is an evil entity, and it will not be able to launch any military operation without an American green light. You cannot separate the two."
Iranian Defense Minister
The World on Fire (August 19, 2004)
Now in 2004 as a result of what the Bush/Cheney/Israeli regime insisted on doing the world is dangerously on fire -- passions, hatreds, and fears all now enraged and engaged in an escalating "clash of civilizations" full of crusading rhetoric essentially pitting the U.S., U.K., and Israel against Arab and Muslim countries and peoples everywhere.
U.S. Allawi Regime Should Go (August 18, 2004)
here's a bottom line here and at a time of such major historic developments it should be said clearly. The American-installed, financed, armed, and protected Allawi regime has already totally disgraced and discredited itself. It cannot succeed in authoritatively and democratically governing Iraq. It should be ended immediately before it does even more historic harm to Iraq, to the Middle East, to the Arab and Muslims worlds, and to the whole fabric of international justice and order.
Al-Sadr and Allawi - The Struggle for the Middle East (August 18, 2004)
Here then are two such voices speaking out, crying out, at this critical time. The first an American who was Director of The Islamic Center in Washington, the very venue in fact President Bush choose to visit soon after 9/11. The second is a Canadian who is President of the Canadian Islamic Congress. -MER
Sharon the 'Bulldozer', Sharon the 'Butcher' (August 17, 2004)
These BBC and Guardian articles today look at how the Israelis are even now continuing to expand settlements in the occupied territories, as well as at the current situation in and around Gaza -- realities 'on the ground' that Ariel Sharon is more responsible for than any other single individual on any side of the barricades. MiddleEast.org
"They are cheating us, laughing at us" - MER FlashBack 7 Years (August 17, 2004)
"In the end, so long as the U.S. continues to back Israeli occupation with ever greater amounts of money, guns, and political protection, little will change and the "peace process" will remain a grand deception breeding resistance, hatred, and yes, more terrorism."
U.S. Iraqi Troops Fire on Reporters (August 16, 2004)
History is being made in these bitter bleeding days, in these very hours, and the world will have to live with the aftermath for some time to come. This report just published by the Daily Telegraph in the U.K. is the best so far to outline how the Americans are attempting to blind the world and mute the protests by threatening the few courageous journalists still in and able to report from Najaf. As for pictures of what is happening, cameras are now illegal and being confiscated by the Americans and their agents.
Iraq Exploding! The historic confrontation at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf (August 16, 2004)
Unless the Americans can find some way to get Muqtada Sadr and his forces out of the historic Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf without a firefight and without a massacre they themselves could become the victims of their own killing machine if the extraordinary rage and hatred in Iraq, Iran, and the Arab and Muslim worlds overall should erupt still further against them.
Americans Order Journalists, Cameras From Najaf (August 15, 2004)
This is what police-states do; this is what dictators do; this is what the Israelis sometimes do; and now this is what the American 'democracy' does in the extraordinarily duplicitous name of 'freedom and democracy for Iraq.
Israel 'On The Eve of Destruction'? (August 15, 2004)
His father long headed the National Religious Party. He himself has been the head of the world Zionist movement as well as the Speaker of the Knesset. And yet -- even as the Israelis appear to be victorious with the Palestinians everywhere surrounded, subjugated, dispossessed and controlled -- Avraham Burg dares to speak out loudly about how perverted Zionism has become and that all the militarism, racism, and arrogance could in reality have put Israel 'on the eve of destruction'.
Please tell friends and family about MER (August 14, 2004)
Mid-East Realties (MER) commentary and analysis is exclusive, hard-hitting, and always directly to the point. The consistent incisiveness, expertise, and depth of coverage is not to be found anywhere else -- as these comments from readers around the world attest. Below is a summary with quick links to recent exclusive MER articles and FlashBacks. Please forward this summary complete to your friends and relatives encouraging them to also get MER just as you do. It's never been easier to subscribe to MER; and it's never been more timely and important to do so.
Occupied Iraq - Threats, resignations, killings, chaos all escalating (August 13, 2004)
Reports from Iraq this morning indicate that Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr may have been injured today while meeting with supporters, and what's to happen next has everyone on edge as rarely before. Other reports from Iraq are of a wave of protest resignations against the American occupation and puppet government, with increased threats against the U.S. and its regime now coming in public even from other Iraqi officials approved by the Americans.
Nader vs. Israel (August 12, 2004)
"The days when the chief Israeli puppeteer comes to the United States and meets with the puppet in the White House and then proceeds to Capitol Hill, where he meets with hundreds of other puppets, should be replaced."
Najaf 2004 (August 12, 2004)
"From Iran's perspective, there is little question what happens in Najaf is its business. Any damage there cannot leave a single Iranian ruler the option of remaining neutral, regardless of whether they are among moderates or hard-liners. The Shiite religious heritage is a shared one between Iraq and Iran."
Hidden History of the "Peace Process" (August 11, 2004)
"It's not inordinate Chinese money and influence in American politics the Congress should be investigating, it's how Israel manipulates American politics with the help of some key Americans (most of them Jewish), who are in fact, however distasteful it is to say it, 'dually loyal'."
Jewish Washington Neocons Responsible for War (August 11, 2004)
As the Iraq war escalates and creates still more disgust and hatred around the world, it is also threatening to expand. And a month or two from now if the Bush/Cheney/neocon regime is lagging in the polls no telling what kinds of political or military 'surprises' might come from Washington sooner rather than later.
Stumbling, Bumbling 'Arabist' Ambassadors Play to the Cameras (August 10, 2004)
After all these now wasted years, and after all this now-squandered money -- and even with all that has happened including 9/11, the Iraqi war, and the Palestinian Intifada -- the 'Arabist' Ambassadors in Washington are weaker and more incestuous, less influential and less credible, then when they started. Yet oh how they continue to pretend otherwise so tragically continuing to mislead so many well-meaning naive people who simply don't know better the real details of what has been and what is now the real situation in today's Washington.
Neocons All (August 9, 2004)
He sure didn't write this way when he worked for the old gray Zionist lady the New York Times. With language like 'neo-con vampires' he sounds a bit this time like MER in its regular tell-it-like-it-really-is mode... Maybe for his next installment Mr. Ibrahim will have more to say ...about his old colleagues at the New York Times starting with Tom Friedman, et. al.
Both Israel and Saudis working to elect Bush/Cheney (August 8, 2004)
Now of course neither is going to admit it in front of the cameras, and of course it's also politically confusing for many, but both the Israelis and the Saudis are working hard now to help the election of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and the right-wing neocons.
U.S. and puppet regime boot Aljazeera from Iraq (August 7, 2004)
Oh yes, the headline..."U.S. boots Aljazeera..." Let's not get confused by all the technical details and propaganda tricks. The regime in Baghdad was selected by the Americans and empowered by the Americans. It is financed by the Americans and the American military and CIA keep it in power. What it does is what the Americans want it to do. And the responsibility for what it does is American as well.
Target Pakistan (August 7, 2004)
As tensions and fighting in Iraq and Palestine continue, and with new sanctions and attacks on Syria, Iran, and Lebanon quite publicly threatened, the situation in the greater Middle East could become far more tense and the 'crucial countries' of both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia could indeed 'fall' from the American grip setting off even more dangerous and unpredictable political and military explosions.
Target IRAN con't (August 6, 2004)
"Exploiting the November US presidential elections and the European concerns, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could order a strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, similar to the ones Israelis executed in 1981 against Iraq's nuclear weapons program", the diplomats were quoted by the London-based newspaper Al Hayat on Wednesday, August 4.
'Revolution' in Iraq; No U.N. or Muslim Troops To Help Americans (August 5, 2004)
Indeed, the Americans and the Israrelis have now created their own joint vicious geopolitical stew in the Middle East; and they are very much in danger of gradually boiling away in it regardless of all the tough talk and military onslaughts.
Kerry, Israel, Jews, and the Middle East (August 4, 2004)
John Kerry's Middle East policies have already been heavily mortgaged, if not downright sold, to those who have the greatest interest and power in controlling what the U.S. does in the crucial Middle East region and in determining where American arms, monies, and covert actions flow in the future -- powerful American Jews closely associated with Israel.
10 YEARS and 1 MILLION+ DEAD and COUNTING - MER FlashBack (August 3, 2004)
"Here we are in the middle of the millennium year and we are responsible for genocide in Iraq. All of us that live in the silent democracies are responsible for sustained genocide in Iraq."
Former Assistant Secretary General
of the United Nations Denis Haliday
'SECURITY' POLITICS - Para-military troops dressed to kill become props in political war (August 3, 2004)
A large numbers of 'security forces' dressed to kill in paramilitary uniforms with big guns took to the streets in New York and Washington and are there to stay, say those in charge, 'as long as it takes'. Bush and his are in fact using all this fear, and all these images, as props in their own campaign to retain power.
America Vs America (August 1, 2004)
"The Bush Administration cannot be trusted...
George W. Bush and his administration have taken normal mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience... They traffic in big lies, indulge in any number of symptomatic
small lies, and ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on."
Ron Reagan
(August 1, 2004)
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