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29 November 2004 - MiddleEast.Org - MER is Free

The weakest and worst
Sec of State in memory

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

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The weakest and worse
Sec of State in memory

"So we are to have a new Secretary of State who dreadfully
misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11 and then
misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq.
As if that's not disturbing enough, look who is succeeding her
as the President's National Security Adviser... I'm not
making this up; it's all on the record. So instead of putting
America's foreign policy in the hands of people who might have
restored the country's credibility in the world, the President has
turned it over to two of the people who helped to shred it."
Bill Moyers,
White House Press Secretary in the 1960s,
retiring from PBS in December

MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER - Washington - 29 November: The big mass American media has collectively become more and more compliant in recent years, more and more taken over by big corporations, more and more dominated by businessmen and politically-connected cronies than real newsmen and independent journalists. One of the few stand-out exceptions is Bill Moyers, long ago the White House Press Secretary in the LBJ years following the recently departed Pierre Salinger, more lately the reigning 'liberal' icon on PBS retiring next month.

Moyers leaves Washington, and indeed the news business, at a critical time for his country and for our world; he has no real replacement.

And he appears to know it. Ten days ago, on his PBS News program 'NOW', Moyers quite literally lashed out at the new Secretary of State designate, Condoleezza Rice. In Washington terms what Moyers decided to do has to be considered a desperate gasp as trying to wake up and provoke the Congress to defy all expectations and refuse to ratify her appointment as Secretary of State.

But the compliant Congress, itself more and more dominated by Christian Fundamentalists and Jewish 'Neocons' associated with 'The Lobby', and with a stronger than ever right-wing Republican majority and a more frightened than ever Democratic minority, is likely to do no such thing. Bush's elevation of Ms. Rice to the pinnacle of power over U.S. foreign policy is expected in Washington circles to go through after a few pro-forma, for the cameras, 'tough questions' which everyone already knows how Condi is going to answer and after which everyone knows few in today's Senate will dare to seriously stand up and be counted.

Even so, those not totally cowered by the powers that be, and certainly those wanting to better understand just what is really happening in Washington these days, should carefully read this transcript from the NOW program focusing specifically on Ms. Rice's actual record and all but declaring her both incompetent and incredible (tongue in cheek). It's a devastating record Condi Rice actually has as National Security Adviser in the Bush first term. But as Moyers concludes, "
Her credibility and competence aside, Condoleezza Rice has never wavered in her loyalty to George W. Bush, and this week he rewarded that loyalty by naming her Secretary of State, the highest post in his cabinet."





19 November 2004 - 9pm EST - PBS:
BRANCACCIO:
Tonight on NOW...

BUSH: I urge the Senate to promptly confirm Condoleezza Rice as America's 66th Secretary of State.

BRANCACCIO: We investigate two people at the center of power.

What will Condoleezza Rice bring to American diplomacy? And Tom DeLay is probed about a scandal in Texas politics.

EARLE: This is about an organized movement to basically steal an election by using illegal corporate secret donations to political campaigns.

...

ANNOUNCER: From our studios in New York, Bill Moyers and David Brancaccio.

BRANCACCIO: Welcome to NOW.

Colin Powell made big news twice this week. He announced that he is stepping down as Secretary of State. Then, he pointed world attention at Iran — the one with an "n" next to Iraq — saying it may be developing a missile system to deliver a nuclear bomb. Quote: "I have seen some information that would suggest that they have been actively working on delivery systems. You don't have a weapon until you put it in something that can deliver a weapon."

Frightening, to be sure. But is it true? The world may have a hard time believing him. It's been just 21 months since that same Colin Powell told the world almost the same thing about Iraq. Remember when our Secretary of State went before the United Nations Security Council to make the case for using force against Iraq?

POWELL: The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world. Let me now turn to those deadly weapons programs and describe why they are real and present dangers to the region and the world."

But those claims eventually proved wrong. Colin Powell had put his personal prestige and the power of his office into a pitch that led America and the world into a war based on bad information.

MOYERS: It's called credibility: the quality of being believed and trusted. Once you cry wolf and it turns out you were only pretending, will anyone take you seriously next time if you say there is a wolf in the woods? That's why surveys and polls show America's credibility in the world has plummeted, including in those Muslim nations whose support is critical to the fight against terrorism.

And it's why the President's nomination this week of Condoleezza Rice as Colin Powell's successor has some experts in Washington and foreign capitals shaking their heads in disbelief. Producer Peter Meryash and I took a look at Dr. Rice's record on two very critical points of credibility.

MOYERS: Recall that in the days and weeks after 9/11, a shocked and grieving people began to ask what government officials had known and when they had known it. In May 2002, at a White House press conference, the President's National Security Adviser tried to quiet the criticism.

RICE: I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.

MOYERS: But Condoleezza Rice was wrong.

Had she looked, she could have found in the files of the intelligence community that the attack she deemed unimaginable had, in fact, been imagined repeatedly.

Twelve times in the seven years before 9/11, the CIA reported that hijackers might use airplanes as weapons.

Furthermore, just 3 days after Rice was sworn in, she received a memo written by this man, Richard Clarke. Clarke, who managed counter-terrorism policy on President Clinton's National Security Council, was kept on the job by President Bush.

LEHMAN: Were you told before the summer that there were functioning al Qaeda cells in the United States?

RICE: In the memorandum that Dick Clarke sent me on January 25th, he mentions sleeper cells. There is no mention or recommendation of anything that needs to be done about them.

MOYERS: But that's not the whole story. In the January 25th memo, Clarke had declared an "urgent need" that the "principals," the heads of the CIA, FBI, State and Defense Departments, meet to be briefed on the al Qaeda threat.

That meeting didn't happen until more than 7 months later, one week before 9/11.

But Clarke had also attached to his memo a plan of action to "roll back" Bin Laden.

RICE: We were not presented with a plan.

KERREY: Well, that's not true. It is not…

RICE: We were not presented, we were not presented… we were presented with the…

KERREY: I've heard you say that, Dr. Clarke. If that 25 January 2001 memo was declassified, I don't believe…

RICE: The fact is that what we were presented on January the 25th was a set of ideas…

KERREY: Okay.

RICE: …and a paper, most of which was about what the Clinton administration had done.

MOYERS: To this day, the White House has refused to declassify Clarke's memo. Rice had effectively demoted him, downgraded his office, and informed him he was no longer needed at the meetings of the principals.

Even as the White House took no action, America's electronic eyes and ears picked up new threats all over the world. By April, the "chatter," as the spies call it, was ominous.

On June 25th, 2001, Richard Clarke warned Rice that "six separate intelligence reports showed al Qaeda personnel warning of a pending attack."

Three days later, on June 28th, the CIA informed Clarke that Osama bin Ladin "… will launch a significant terrorist attack…in the coming weeks…" inflicting "…mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests."

Clarke told Rice al Qaeda planning "…had reached a crescendo."

CIA director George Tenet later testified, "the system was blinking red."

Then, on August 6th, 2001, President Bush, while vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, received a stark warning in his daily intelligence brief, known as a PDB.

BEN-VENISTE: There was nothing reassuring, was there, in that PDB?

RICE: Certainly not.

MOYERS: Two CIA analysts involved in drafting the PDB told the 9/11 Commission they wanted to make clear that the threat of a bin Ladin attack in the United States was current and serious.

BEN-VENISTE: The President was in Crawford, Texas, at the time he received the PDB. You were not with him, correct?

RICE: That's correct. I was not at Crawford, but the President and I were in contact, and I might have even been, though I can't remember, with him by video link during that time. The President was told this is historical information. I'm told he was told this is historical information. And there was nothing actionable in this.

MOYERS: But what Rice dismissed as "historical information" was in fact far more than that. It was part of an unfolding pattern of terrorist activity leading to 9/11.

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6th PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB.

RICE: I believe the title was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." Now, the PDB…

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

RICE: No, Mr. Ben-Veniste, you…

BEN-VENISTE: I will get into the…

RICE: I would like to finish my point here.

BEN-VENISTE: I didn't know there was a point.

RICE: Given that you asked me whether or not it warned of attacks…

BEN-VENISTE: I asked you what the title was.

RICE: What the August 6th PDB said, and perhaps I should read it to you…

BEN-VENISTE: We would be happy to have it declassified in full at this time, including its title.

MOYERS: Two days after Rice's testimony and after the Commission's most heated showdown with the Bush administration over access to classified information, the PDB that had been delivered to the President in Texas was released.

It had indeed informed the President that, quote: "bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington."

It had told the President that FBI information, quote, "indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."

And it had informed the President of reports that quote: "a group of bin Ladin supporters are in the U.S. planning attacks."

But the President stayed at his Texas ranch for 23 more days. His National Security Adviser did not convene a cabinet-level meeting to discuss the urgent warnings.

ROEMER: Not once do the principals ever sit down. You, in your job description as the National Security Adviser, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the President of the United States and meet solely on terrorism to discuss, in the spring and the summer, when these threats are coming in, when you've known since the transition that al Qaeda cells are in the United States, when, as the PDB said on August 6th, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack the United States."

RICE: The PDB does not say the United States is going to be attacked. It says bin Laden would like to attack the United States. I don't think you, frankly, had to have that report to know that bin Laden would like to attack the United States. The threat reporting… the threat reporting…

ROEMER: So why aren't you doing something about that earlier than August 6th, then?

MOYERS: It all added up to a pattern of ineptness. But despite her missteps leading up to 9/11, Rice was kept in charge of the national security team and would play a key role as the administration prepared its case for war against Iraq.

Time and again, top officials told the American public that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

CHENEY [8/26/02]: Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.

MOYERS: Rice had a particularly dire warning.

RICE [9/8/02]: The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

MOYERS: A crucial part of the administration's case was the accusation that Iraq had acquired aluminum tubes needed to build nuclear weapons.

BUSH [10/7/02]: Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

MOYERS: This was the closest the administration ever came to a smoking gun, probably the most significant evidence presented in the lead-up to war.

It was leaked to the NEW YORK TIMES which quoted government officials saying "it was the intelligence agencies' unanimous view" that the tubes "are used to make…centrifuges" that will enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The paper quoted one senior but un-named official as saying, "the best technical experts and nuclear scientists…supported [that] assessment."

Vice President Dick Cheney hailed the tubes as "irrefutable evidence" that Saddam has "…once again set up and reconstituted his program…" to build a nuclear weapon.

And Condoleezza Rice? She said the tubes "…are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs."

The President drove the message home in his State of the Union address.

BUSH [1/28/03]: Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.

MOYERS: But in fact, the government's foremost nuclear experts at the Department of Energy disputed the White House position.

After their technical analysis, the best experts on the subject concluded the tubes were "poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges" needed to make nuclear weapons and as a result they found "unpersuasive the arguments that they are intended for that purpose."

And just last month, it was revealed that long before the war started, Condoleezza Rice had known about the dispute.

The NEW YORK TIMES broke the story and Rice was asked about it on ABC News.

RICE [on THIS WEEK]: At the time, I knew that there was a dispute. I actually didn't really know the nature of the dispute. We learned that, I learned that later.

THIELMANN: It is incredible to me that the President's National Security Adviser would not at least satisfy herself in understanding the broad dimensions of a very vigorous dispute inside the U.S. government on the most important evidence behind an allegation about the most important category of weapons of mass destruction.

MOYERS: Greg Thielmann spent 25 years in the foreign service before retiring in mid-2002. As a member of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, he led a team of analysts examining the secret intelligence on Iraq leading up to the war.

I asked him about Rice's assertion that she didn't know the nature of the internal intelligence debate over the aluminum tubes:

THIELMANN: If you don't understand the details of this at least in broad outline, what issues do you understand with regard to justifying a war against Iraq? This was the mother of all intelligence disagreements for this subject. And so she was either irresponsible in not acquainting herself with those broad outlines of the dispute. Or else she's not telling the truth.

MOYERS: After her nomination this week, the WASHINGTON POST cited experts who believe Rice is "one of the weakest National Security Advisers in recent history…" in doing what she was supposed to do "…managing interagency conflicts."

She is also one of the most partisan.

In the recent campaign, in a rare use of a National Security Adviser for partisan purposes, President Bush sent Rice to critical battleground states from Michigan and Washington to Ohio and Florida.

RICE [10/25/04]: When people ask whether Iraq is a part of the war on terror, well, of course. Not only did Saddam support terrorists, not only was he a weapons of mass destruction threat and all those things. But he was a tremendous barrier to change in the Middle East.

MOYERS: And, after one of Rice's campaign-style appearances just before the election, the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE reported she "did not deviate from the misleading contentions" put forth by the Bush-Cheney ticket and that she sought, once again, "to make the non-existent link between 9/11 and the Iraq war."

Her credibility and competence aside, Condoleezza Rice has never wavered in her loyalty to George W. Bush, and this week he rewarded that loyalty by naming her Secretary of State, the highest post in his cabinet.

MOYERS: So we are to have a new Secretary of State who dreadfully misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11 and then misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq. As if that's not disturbing enough, look who is succeeding her as the President's National Security Adviser.

His name is Stephen J. Hadley, Rice's alter ego and deputy at the White House. The very same Stephen Hadley who failed to remove from the President's State of the Union message that phony statement about Iraq's search for uranium in Africa, despite having been warned by the CIA that it wouldn't hold up.

The very same Stephen Hadley who in June of this year wrote this article in USA today insisting that Saddam Hussein had links to al Qaeda, despite the finding by the official 9/11 Commission that there was no operational relationship.

And the very same Stephen Hadley who led the White House planning for the post-war period in Iraq, an occupation that can only be described as a debacle.

I'm not making this up; it's all on the record. So instead of putting America's foreign policy in the hands of people who might have restored the country's credibility in the world, the President has turned it over to two of the people who helped to shred it. Both are known first and foremost for loyalty to the official view of reality, no matter the evidence to the contrary.





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November 2004


Magazine






Condi Rice - Weakest and Worst Sec State in Washington Memory
(November 29, 2004)
"So we are to have a new Secretary of State who dreadfully misjudged the terrorist threat leading up to 9/11 and then misled America and the world about the case for invading Iraq. As if that's not disturbing enough, look who is succeeding her as the President's National Security Adviser... I'm not making this up; it's all on the record. So instead of putting America's foreign policy in the hands of people who might have restored the country's credibility in the world, the President has turned it over to two of the people who helped to shred it." -Bill Moyers

US in Iraq 'worse than Hitler'? Turkish Parliament Leader Has His Say
(November 28, 2004)
"The occupation has turned into barbarism. The U.S. administration is committing genocide...in Iraq. "This occupation has entirely imperialist aims." - Mehmet Elkatmis, Head of Tukish Parliament's human rights commission

Islamabad 25 Years Ago Was Forecast of What Has Since Come
(November 27, 2004)
Twenty-five years ago, as hate-filled crowds invaded the American Embassy in Islamabad and the 100+ Americans hiding in 'The Vault' feared they would be killed, there was already in the air of international affairs an omen of what was to come. What happened then has since politically metasticized into what is happening today, an escalating 'Clash of Civilizations' with the United States doubly tinged with fundamentalist Crusading zealotry and Israeli Zionist ideology. And the hatreds, despair, and sense of grievance in many places in the world, including today's Pakistan, are still growing....

Washington's War-Mongering Military-Industrial-Government Complex
(November 27, 2004)
They could have sub-titled this excellent 48 minute Dutch documentary "Cesspool Washington" for it exposes a significant aspect of how the American capital has incestuously and unethically entertwined big business, big money, and government. Exposed in this documentary is a major part of the U.S. war-making and war-profiteering scene of which few Americans are aware. These realities goe a long way to explain how and why U.S. war policies are what they are.

The CIA's TORTURE AIR
(November 26, 2004)
Witnesses have claimed that the suspects are frequently bound, gagged and sedated before being put on board the planes,

CIA Purge Converting Agency To Neoconism
(November 25, 2004)
They already have firm control of the Pentagon, which also actually means some 80% of the "Intelligence" Budget. And they've made great progress in recent years taking over the State Department as well as the National Security Council. Now crusading "Neocons" -- many Jewish and nearly all connected over the years with the Israeli-Jewish lobby in Washington -- are determined to finally bring the last resistant power center, the CIA, into line. Washington these days is like the land of the body-snatchers, everyone looking over their shoulders, the fear factor rising higher and higher.

Falluja in Memorium on Thanksgiving
(November 25, 2004)
As for the new killing fields of Iraq -- most recently in Falluja, the 'City of Mosques' -- the alternative-media reports that follow from Green Leaf Weekly in Australia and The Village Voice in New York make for devastating reading. "Sorry Faluya"..."Sorry Faluya"...

January Elections - Truth or Consequences
(November 25, 2004)
Under the conditions that actually exist -- unprecedented military occupation, extraordinary impoverishment and bribery, still-expanding CIA infiltration, massive propaganda manipulation -- the very concept of 'free and fair' elections takes quite a credibility stretch.

New from MER
(November 22, 2004)
New from MER - MER realizes that today situation in the Middle East and in Washington requires new and creative means to provide critical information and independent expert analysis. But this can only be achieved if those who appreciate today's historical moment will dig in and provide the independent financial support necessary. Please make your check to MER and contribute today. MER P.O. Box 4918 Washington, DC 20008

Fearing Bush Assassination
(November 22, 2004)
Over the weekend during Bush's short visit to Chile there was an extraordinary double display of this concern. First Bush himself got man-handled in a crowd of security people literally having to pull his senior protective body man after him through a small blocking crowd of Chilean security. Later the elaborate State Dinner the Chilean President was putting on was abruptly canceled when the American's demanded that every one of the two hundred carefully selected guests go through metal detectors and possible body frisks. The Chileans said not very dignified, no need; the Americans said too bad, no dinner.

Please read and contribute this weekend, thank you.
(November 21, 2004)
If MER is to move forward and have the kind of impact we can and should now have, independent financial support is now absolutely crucial. After all the steps we have taken in recent years to reorganize and improve MER, serious financial support is now the key missing ingredient we must have. Yes we are now positioned to reach far more persons worldwide and to have far greater impact including on radio and TV programs. But this can happen only with your substantial financial support. So please contribute this weekend making your check to MER and sending to: MER P.O. Box 4918 Washington, DC 20008

Israel Buys Another Piece of Washington
(November 20, 2004)
Read the details about Haim Saban, Ariel Sharon's "close personal friend", keeping all this crucial perspective and context in mind which the nation's 'newspaper of record' largely ommitted.

Please read and contribute this weekend
(November 20, 2004)
If MER is to move forward and have the kind of impact we can and should now have, independent financial support is crucial. After all the steps we have taken in recent years to reorganize and improve MER, financial support is now the key missing ingredient if we are to be able to take the steps we now could. We are now positioned to reach far more persons worldwide and to have far greater impact including on radio and TV programs. But this can happen only with your serious financial support. So please contribute this weekend making your check to MER and sending to: MER - P.O. Box 4918 - Washington, DC 20008

Yasser Arafat's Life and Legacy
(November 19, 2004)
There are only a small handful of Western journalists who have the background, the credibility, and the conviction, to write with historical depth and considerable insight about the death of Yasser Arafat. David Hirst, still writing for The Guardian after all these years, the man who authored THE GUN AND THE OLIVE BRANCH, is right up there at the top of that list. This article was published in The Guardian last week just as Arafat's death was announced.

Nuke Attack on U.S. 'all but inevitable' warns top CIA official
(November 19, 2004)
As the new historic purge of non-neocons roles over Washington, firing, resignations, and fear have the CIA, the State Department, and lesser known sometimes secret U.S. Government agencies in a tizzy. One of those now forced out at the CIA is the man who has headed up the great manhunt for Osama Bin-Laden. He spoke up last year in a book written by 'Anonymous' titled "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror." Just days after leaving the Agency he spoke up on the popular CBS News Program Sixty Minutes.

U.S. and ISRAELI Deceptions...over and over again
(November 18, 2004)
Even as Yasser Arafat was being buried last Friday the American President and the British Prime Minister purposefully tried to immediately dim his memory and twist the headlines by holding an unusual joint press conference at the White House. What Bush and Blair spewed forth grabbing TV time that evening from Arafat's Cairo funeral and Ramallah burial twisted and distorted history further beyond recognition. This extraordinary and urgently needed corrective was published by Robert Fisk earlier this week in The Independent.

More on the Arafat 'Stealth Assassination' and Cover Up
(November 17, 2004)
With the 'Stealth Assassination' of Yasser Arafat, following a campaign to kill or imprison most of the popular Palestinian leaders that was greatly stepped up when Ariel Sharon became Israeli Prime Minister, the Arab-Israeli conflict does indeed enter a new phase. But the political cancer has already considerably metastacized region-wide and the 'two-state' cure is not really any longer possible.

The Great Sharon Deception
(November 16, 2004)
"Deception and lies have been a corner stone in Israeli policy, brought to a new level of perfection since Oslo. While the world believed that Rabin promised to eventually end the occupation and dismantle the settlements, the number of Israeli settlers actually doubled during his rule. At the same time that Barak declared he intends to dismantle the Golan Heights settlements, in 1999, he actually poured money into their expansion. As Sharon promised to dismantle at least the illegal settlement posts in the West Bank, their number kept increasing. Still, none of this is ever remembered. Each new lie is received with welcome cheers by the Israeli peace camp, and by European governments. Since Oslo, every Israeli government knows that all it takes, to ease diplomatic pressure, is to come up with a new 'peace plan'."

To Readers of MER
(November 16, 2004)
If MER is to move forward and have the kind of impact we now can and should have financial support making it possible to do so is now the key missing ingredient. We have done so much in recent years. And now we are positioned to reach far more persons worldwide and have far greater impact including on radio and TV programs. Please contribute today making your check to MER and sending to: MER - P.O. Box 4918 - Washington, DC 20008

Powell Out, CIA Purging, Iraq Exploding, Palestinians Erupting
(November 15, 2004)
Just hours after once again fronting for U.S. Middle East policies as today's article in The Guardian points out; just hours, after proclaming about the 'new Palestinian leaders' "We know these gentlemen well, and I hope to be able to see them..."; just hours after the extent of the historic purge of the CIA has flashed into the headlines...; Colin Powell has cashed in his chips in a combination of being pushed and walking away while he still can without even further damage to his once considerable reputation.

ARAFAT - The Assassination and The Cover Up
(November 13, 2004)
Five critical days before it was officially announced that Yasser Arafat was actually dead -- even as leading media organizations were repeatedly parroting officials to the contrary -- MER not only reported the real news that Arafat was all but legally dead but the important news that he had been 'Stealth Assassinated' by blood poisoning by the Israelis. Below are links to MER articles published from 4 to 12 November about the assassination of Yasser Arafat and the cover up that followed.

Israel's Public Threats Against Arafat Telegraphed the Assassination
(November 13, 2004)
These are some of the public threats in the past few years. One can only imagine what has been said when the cameras and microphones were not present.

Sharon's Lethal Words and Cartoons Foretold what was to come
(November 13, 2004)
"Speaking of the Palestinians, they were dealt a lethal blow... It will bring their dreams to an end." -- Ariel Sharon upon returning from his ninth and last meeting at the White House with George W. Bush - 16 April 2004

Public Israeli Threats from top officials to Kill Yasser Arafat
(November 12, 2004)
Public Israeli Threats from top officials to Kill Yasser Arafat escalated in recent months. In any murder investigation, or death under suspicious circumstances, an autopsy is done and those who have threatened the person are investigated. But in the case of Yasser Arafat even though his personal doctor of over 20 years 'demanded' an 'official death investigation' and 'autopsy' those in charge worked feverishly to bury Arafat quickly and prevent any serious independent investigation.

NYTimes Articles on Arafat - 1 to 12 Nov 2004
(November 12, 2004)
New York Times Articles on Yasser Arafat 1 to 12 November 2004

ARAFAT Assassination Coverup as quick and limited funeral and burial take place
(November 12, 2004)
They are racing now to get the funeral over with very quickly and with no real opportunity for the public outpouring of grief and anger that would result if everything were not so closed and controlled by the military. And they are racing as well to get him quickly buried in a rock tomb. His 'wife' has received a huge payoff, $22 million yearly, for her silence. The top 'new leadership' of the Palestinians that has approved these arrangements are all known to be persons closely connected with the Israelis and supported by the U.S. -- Nabil Sha'ath, Abu Mazen, and Abu Ala -- and all known themselves to be politically and financially corrupt.

ARAFAT ASSASSINATION - Article links, Media Interviews
(November 12, 2004)
The personal physician of Yasser Arafat called for an inquiry into the cause of the veteran Palestinian leader's death on Thursday. "I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy ... so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death" of their leader, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi said on Al-Jazeera television only hours before Arafat was due to be buried... Kurdi, who was Arafat's personal physician for more than 20 years, said he had been surprised by the actions of some members of the veteran leader's office... Yasser Arafat's 'wife' Suha will receive $22 million a year out of the Palestinian Authority budget. Abu Mazen is said to have personally approved this extraordinary arrangement, and it appears to have silenced Suha Tawil from the 'conspiracy' charges she publicly made Monday.

MER on KTSA San Antonio
(November 11, 2004)
Listen to MER on KTSA San Antonio about Arafat's Death; and check links to the past week's MER articles about Arafat.

MER and Media Articles about Arafat on day of his death
(November 11, 2004)
"I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy ... so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death" of their leader, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi said on Al-Jazeera television only hours before Arafat was due to be buried... Kurdi, who was Arafat's personal physician for more than 20 years, said he had been surprised by the actions of some members of the veteran leader's office.

Sharon Kills Arafat? Assassination Coverup Succeeds?
(November 11, 2004)
The message is rather clear: "You Arab and Palestinian 'leaders' have much more to fear from us (Israel and the U.S.) if you don't play ball than you do from your own people. On top of all the other leaders we have killed off or imprisoned one way or another, we can even pull off a 'Stealth Assassination' of Nobel Peace Prize winner, former most frequent foreign guest to the White House, and international famed Yasser Arafat because he refused to do as we told him he must. So beware: COMPLY, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."

ARAFAT - Assassination Covered Up As Death Announced
(November 11, 2004)
**MER was first, was right, was most insightful** Days before it was finally officially announced early this morning in the Middle East MER reported that Yasser Arafat was all but legally dead. Even as leading media organizations were parroting contrary and purposefully deceptive information MER not only reported the real news but the important realities. In this case that Yasser Arafat had been 'Stealth Assassinated' by the Israelis with help from as yet undisclosed Palestinians and an American OK.

ARAFAT - How and Where to Properly Bury Him
(November 10, 2004)
And when Arafat's body is flown from Cairo to Ramallah representatives of the Arab League, of all the Arab countries, and of all the countries who have long recognized the PLO and long called for a free and independent Palestinian State, should accompany the body whether the Israelis give their 'permission' or not. They should in this way not only show their respects for Arafat the symbolic man but for the imprisoned and all-too-forgotten people he leaves behind, half in refugee camps, half increasingly behind walls and fences in ghettos and concentration camps.

ARAFAT Update
(November 10, 2004)
Yasser Arafat has been all but legally dead for many days now. He has been kept 'between life and death' in a very 'complex situation' (to use the crafty words that have come from key officials) for financial and political reasons rather than for medical reasons. By a preponderance of the circumstances and the evidence Yasser Arafat has effectively been stealth assassinated by the Israelis as MER first reported and explained last Saturday.

China Rocks the Geopolitical Middle East
(November 10, 2004)
As the Americans expend their power, their money, their blood, and their credibility both Europe and China are on the march. Europe is more often discussed, but the Chinese have been taking important steps into Africa in recent years, and now they are doing so into the Middle East in a bigger way than ever via Iran.

Arafat's Death Announced
(November 9, 2004)
MER reported and explained Arafat's death -- indeed his assassination by blood poisoning -- many days ago, in fact last week. This story from Reuters has just moved on the international wires this morning at 9am EST:

Poor Poor People of Palestine
(November 9, 2004)
This is hardly the first time MER has commented harshly and candidly about Nabil Shaa'th, or Abu Mazen, or Abu Ala. We have in fact done so for years now as upcoming FlashBack articles will serve to remind. As for Suha Tawil, Arafat's "wife", she has proven time and again what a self-serving extortionist and political witch she has truly been -- taking after her mother Ramonda who managed to steal and embezzle more limited millions from the PLO in her own days before introducing her dumpy daughter to Yasser and moving from Palestine to her luxury-life in exile.

MiddleEast.Org on ARAFAT LIFE and DEATH
(November 8, 2004)
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS AND CONCERNED PERSONS. AVAILABLE TODAY AT MIDDLEEAST.ORG THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW and EDITORIAL ABOUT THE DEATH OF YASSER ARAFAT.

Arafat is Dead - Frantic struggles underway
(November 7, 2004)
Yasser Arafat is Dead; likely assassinated by blood poisoning by the Israelis. Frantic struggles and manuevers are underway for power, money, and the symbolism of how and where Arafat will be buried. Arafat's long-time cronies neither of whom has any real popular support but who are trying to take total control of the PLO and the PA with Israeli and U.S. assistance -- Abu Mazen and Abu Ala -- are on the way to Paris.

ARAFAT - How and Where to Bury Him
(November 7, 2004)
Far better symbolism than burial under the dictate of Israeli military occupation and today's apartheid conditions is 'temporary' burial of Yasser Arafat in the city where the headquarters of the Arab League is located, indeed in a special crypt on the grounds of the Arab League in downtown Cairo.

Arafat's Murder and Legacy
(November 7, 2004)
It's the worst possible end for Yasser Arafat, and more importantly for his life-long quest for justice, dignity, and a free independent Palestinian State. In the end it appears Yasser Arafat has been killed by fatal poisoning in a kind of stealth assassination by his arch nemesis Ariel Sharon, with help from those inside his own circles. Arafat passes from history not as the father of a Palestinian State but with his people more fractured and dispossessed and in greater bondage, imprisonment, and impoverishment than ever in their history.

ARAFAT - Stealth Assassination!
(November 6, 2004)
Arafat was assassinated by blood poisoning by the Israelis working with some insiders is the conclusion of Professor Hisham Ahmed... Professor Ahmed lives in Ramallah near the headquarters where Arafat was under house imprisonment for nearly three years. He teaches Political Science at Bir Zeit University and has his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has taught at a number of American Universities and been a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Ahmed was born in Deheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem and he is an astute observer of Palestinian affairs and indeed of international affairs.

MER Experts on Arafat's Death (or assassination), Burial Plans, and Legacy
(November 5, 2004)
Please pass this information on to persons in the media. Bruzonsky, Hamzeh, and others associated with MER including Palestinians living in occupied Palestine will be available throughout the weekend for radio and TV interviews. The link to this email is: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2004/11/1174.htm MER can now be reached at all times, 24-hours daily, at MER@MiddleEast.Org and (202) 362-5266. Persons in the media can reach MER at all times on a special media number -- 202 Number1 (202 686-2371) and Press@MiddleEast.Org

Arafat's Burial, Monies, Powers, and Legacy
(November 5, 2004)
"Both Gaza Ghetto and Occupied Ramallah are awful choices for Arafat's burial, especially in view of the worse than Apartheid realities that have taken hold during the years Arafat played, and lost so badly, the 'peace process' game with the Israelis and the Americans."

About MiddleEast.org
(November 4, 2004)
Please read carefully and please help make MiddleEast.Org possible.

Arafat Dominates In Death as in Life
(November 4, 2004)
Arafat is now likely to be buried not in a free Palestine, not in Jerusalem, not really as the kind of historic figure he so desperately sought to be. Rather he will be likely buried in Occupied Palestine, in the city of Ramallah, behind the new Apartheid Wall, with arch nemesis Ariel Sharon deciding on the place and giving his 'permission'. How sad...how tragic... And the future now on the horizon appears still more gloomy and more bloody than the past now about to be symbolically buried with the body of the single man who has dominated Palestinian history ever since the founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1960s.

America, Arafat, and the 'New World Order'
(November 4, 2004)
NBC's Chris Matthews: "I believe we live in a country that is really culturally divided now... maybe the way Pakistan and India are."

Democratic Disaster
(November 3, 2004)
Even as Americans voted and the world watched considerably now in shock, one of the world's most famous scientists, Stephen Hawking, was declaring the U.S. invasion of Iraq a 'war crime' at a protest in London. Now the aftermath of that history-making invasion, of the new Crusade led by the United States and based on major historic deceptions and manipulations, will return to center stage.

Moral Cowards ALL
(November 2, 2004)
Scott Ritter's "The War on Iraq has made Moral Cowards of us all" article should have appeared in the U.S., rather than in The Guardian in the U.K. The article about more mega-billions for the Iraq war did appear in the U.S., on the front-page of The Washington Post last Monday.

Osama Votes Bush Says Fisk
(November 2, 2004)
Robert Fisk is the chief Middle East correspondent for the London Independent and one of the most knowledgeable, insightful, and courageous western journalists about the Middle East. He was exclusively interviewed in 1996 by MERTV for a series of four half-hour programs which we will soon Internet broadcast. He was interviewed yesterday on the 'Democracy Now' program about the recent speech by Osama Bin Laden to the 'people of America', about Yasser Arafat, and about the war in Iraq.

Osama Bin Laden's 'October Surprise'
(November 1, 2004)
Osama Bin Laden: "I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes. And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred. So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken, for you to consider."

Iran Next - Part 2
(November 1, 2004)
Tomrrow the American election itself will become history. The likelihood is the Bush/Cheney/neocon regime will remain in power; hard as that still is for so many to imagine and understand. But should the Democrats win the White House Middle East policies will be largely in the hands of the neoliberals and the super money-men like Israeli-Sharon-connected Haim Saban who have far more in common with the neocons than has yet been realized by many who will vote for them. Whatever happens tomorrow the build-up to attacking and if at all possible 'regime changing' Iran is well underway and the showdown increasingly imminent.




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