|
Today's
Stories
November 18, 2005
Trish Schuh
Faking the Case
Against Syria
November 17, 2005
John Walsh
A Fractured Anti-War
Movement
Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed
from the US Occupation
Brian J. Foley
We Are All In
GITMO Now
CounterPunch News
Service
Guardian
Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes'
Slurs
Dave Lindorff
In
Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians
Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in
an Up-and-Coming Sport
Cockburn / St.
Clair
From Reporter to
Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward
November 16, 2005
John F. Sugg
Al-Arian Speaks: In
His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian Talks About What the
Jury Didn't Hear
Noam Chomsky
Putting Out
the Englightenment
Dave Lindorff
Shake and Bake:
Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah
Evelyn Pringle
Laurie
Mylroie's War
Sam Husseini
Trying to
Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye
Pierre Tristam
Toturers'
Theater
Greg Bates
Waffling Alito
Charms DiFi
Farrah Hassen
Moustapha
AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast
Bill
Christison
Evidence Mounts
That Bush Wants New Wars
Website of the Day
Violent
Oscillations
November 15, 2005
Todd Chretien
My Evening in the
No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco
Leah Caldwell
Death of the
Jailhouse Press
Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath:
Miss Parks and Robert Williams
Harry Browne
Bush-Linked
Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares Case
Jason Leopold
Secret CIA
Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat
Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies
vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species
Diana Barahona
Showdown on
the Silver Coast
Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two
Months Later
Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow:
1914-2005
November 14, 2005
Diana
Johnstone
The Origins of
the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky
Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over
All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus
Conn Hallinan
Provoking Syria:
Cambodia All Over Again?
Joshua Frank
Off She Goes:
Hillary in Israel
Christopher
Reed
The Persistence of
Racism in Koizumi's Japan
November 11 / 13,
2005
Alexander
Cockburn
First the Lying,
Then the Pardons
Gwyneth Leech
Cross
Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ in the Wake of Abu
Ghraib
Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the
Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System
Michael Neumann
The Rebel King
of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation
Saul Landau
Leakgate: the
Screenplay
Sam Husseini
Bush and
Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them
Brian Cloughley
Sleaze,
Deceit and Torture
Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's
Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?
Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch:
the Curses of Pat Robertson
Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy
Watch
Joe Allen
Murder in El
Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?
Roland Sheppard
Lessons from
the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Justin E.H. Smith
Another Monkey
Trial?
Ben Tripp
The Cost of
War
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists:
What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise,
Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel
Website of the
Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your
Help!
November 10, 2005
Peterside, Ogon, Watts and
Zalik
Delta Blues Again:
Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone
Pat Williams
Will Alito
Cost the Republicans the Senate?
Steve Higgs
Bush Crony
Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging
Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris
Telling the Truth?
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity
Takes Over
Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the
Crosshairs
Lawrence R. Velvel
Why Did Libby
Lie?
Website of the Day
Imperial
Margarine
November 9, 2005
Gary Leupp
The Niger Deception
/ Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology
Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated
on Terror Laws
Chris Floyd
The Philosopher's
Stone
Elaine Cassel
The Shocking Trial
of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu Ali
Joshua Frank
Sen. Max
Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day
Alison Weir
Memo to Jon
Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You Give Israel a
Pass?
Diana
Johnstone
Rage in the
Banlieue
November 8,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Still No
Jobs
Roger Burbach
Bush v. Chavez:
the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat
Ron Jacobs
An Interview
with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising
Ralph Nader
"The Worst
Marketed Disease on the Planet"
Jim McGrath
Voter Beware:
a Cautionary Tale for Election Day
David Bloom
McCain, Israel
and Torture: Setting the Record Straight
Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron
Harris, and Ambush Journalism
November 7, 2005
Dick Reavis
The Origins of Mr.
Danger
Jason Leopold
Cheney and the
Cover Up: the Vice President Lied
Dave Lindorff
What Country
was Bush Talking About?
Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two
Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell
David Swanson
The
Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview
Stan Goff
Matt Reichel
Paris
Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time
Naima Bouteldja
Paris is
Burning
Jeff Halper
Israel as an
Extension of American Empire
Website of the Day
Dispatches from
Paris
November 5 / 6,
2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Storm Over
Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Lying, Law Schools
and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica:
a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay
Roosa / Nevins
The Mass Killlings
in Indonesia, 40 Years Later
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Missing the
Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation
John Ross
The Zapatistas'
Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections
Mike Whitney
Globalizing
Sadism: the United States of Torture
Mark Engler
Will Big
Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds
Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at
Children, Too
Ron Jacobs
When Gen.
Westmoreland Visited
Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and
the Posse Comitatus Act
Missy Comley
Beattie
Trent Lott's
Untroubled Sleep
Mitchel Cohen
People of the
Dome, Revisited
Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney
and Big Oil's Big Summer
Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life
or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic Party
Charles Sullivan
When Courage
Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks
Zachary Richard
Return to
Louisiana
Ben Tripp
Beginning of the
End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists:
What We're Listening to This Week
November 4, 2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blood on the
Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR
Dave Lindorff
A Majority
Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried
Phillip Cryan
Crackdown in
Colombia
Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and
Tax Breaks for the Very Rich
William S. Lind
Exit Strategy:
You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War
Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and
Nukes
George Beres
Laurels for
Negroponte?
Peter Montague
Why We Can't
Prevent Cancer
November 3, 2005
James Petras
The Libby Affair
and the Internal War
Saul Landau
Torn Families and
Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence
at Gretna Bridge
Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang!
You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine
Joshua Frank
Sham Behind
Closed Doors
Remi Kanazi
Dancing with
Perseverance
Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or
Racketeering?
Website of the Day
CIA Leak
Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?
November 2, 2005
Cockburn / St.
Clair
Holy Alito!: Not
as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad
Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa
Parks from American Hypocrisy
John Walsh
The Philosophy
of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
Brian J. Foley
Why Most
Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)
Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back
Syria
M. Junaid Alam
What Moral
Values?
Todd Chretien
Judgment Day
for the Governator
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats'
Slap Happy Day
Website of the Day
Hands Off
Dave!
November 1, 2005
Ron Jacobs
An Interview with
Kent State's Dave Airhart
Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair
Leads to Rome
John Ross
Days of the Dead on
the Border
Bill Quigley
Why Are They
Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?
Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary
of Death to One of Life
Dave Lindorff
Thinking
About Impeachment
Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria:
Another Trojan Horse from the UN?
Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs.
Parks
Michael Dickinson
To Di For:
Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond
Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State:
Wise Up and Back Off
October 31, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Libby's
Lies
Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the
Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed
Mike Whitney
Carry On,
Patrick Fitzgerald
Norman Solomon
After the
Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself
Farooq Sulehria
Trading
Weapons While Kashmir Burns
Nicole Colson
Scapegoating
Immigrants
Madis Senner
Dhafir
Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights
Paul Craig
Roberts
Scooter and the
Neocons
October 29 / 30,
2005
Cockburn / St.
Clair
The Libby
Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
Peter
Linebaugh
The Wedges of
Hephaestus
Tim Wise
Framing the Poor:
Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media
John Chuckman
Bushspeak:
Dark and Garbled Words
Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers:
Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland
Brian Cloughley
The Fifth
Afghan War
M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the
Consequences of Uniqueness
Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at
Kent State
Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs
Begin!: Student Activism Thrives
Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for
Bethlehem Steel?
Joshua Frank
Karl's Great
Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?
Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on
Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?
Fred Gardner
Death of an
Organizer
Michael Dickinson
Insult Your
Country
Ron Jacobs
Autumn in
America
Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a
Halloween Greeting
Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait,
1994. Bronte Beach
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist:
What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner,
Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair
Website of the
Weekend
Red State Update
October 28, 2005
Jared
Bernstein
Inflation Up;
Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record
Virginia
Tilley
Embracing the
Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine
Phil Gasper
The Race to Execute
Tookie Williams
Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi
Graft Time!
Manual Garcia, Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?
Monica Benderman
In the Name
of Justice
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald Focuses
on the Forgeries
Dave Lindorff
Suddenly,
Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials
Otober 27, 2005
Saul Landau
The Scandal Isn't
the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart
Hodkinson
Bono and
Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop the Troops!: No
Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License to Bill:
Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The Last Moment of
Hope
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Waiting
for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's
Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the
Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House
in Meltdown
October 26, 2005
Kathy Kelly
For Whom They
Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics of the
Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of
Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in
Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a
Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v.
the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of
Rosa Parks
Website of the Day
Decent
Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi and Syrian
Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the
Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of
Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the
Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush:
Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to
Strangers
John Sugg
Judith Miller and
Me
October 24, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke Judy
Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of
Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation
Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres
Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not
Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US Foreign
Policy and Palestine
October 22 / 23,
2005
Alexander
Cockburn
When Divas
Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter from the
Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an
Assessment
Ralph Nader
An Open Letter to
Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice
Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the
Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's
National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on
Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of
Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City
Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing
and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran:
Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Disasters are
Us
Michelle Bollinger
When
Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI:
Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent
Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the
Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What
I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and
Engel
Website of the Day
Indictment
Watch
October 21, 2005
Dave Lindorff
The Democrats'
Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for
Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction
of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at
Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing
Katrina
Michael
Donnelly
Richard Pombo:
DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment Comes
to NYC
Ray McGovern
16 Fatal Words:
Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher /
Brendan
Smith
Attack Syria?
Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses
to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi
Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions
Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry
Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting
Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and
Holofernes
Joe Allen
The Scandalous
History of the Red Cross
|
November 18,
2005
Mehlis's Murky
Past; US and Isreali Proxies Pushing the Next Neo-Con War
Faking the Case Against
Syria
By TRISH SCHUH
Another slam dunk forgery is being used to convict Syria. The
United Nations' Detlev Mehlis inquiry into the murder of Lebanon's former
Prime Minister Rafiq Hairri depends on a central witness, Zuhir Ibn
Mohamed Said Saddik, who has faced accusations of being a swindler and
embezzler. Der Spiegel exposed Saddik's brags of "becoming a
millionaire" from his testimony to the Mehlis Commission. Saddik was
referred to the Mehlis Commission by Syrian regime critic Rifaat Assad,
the uncle of current Syrian President Bashar Assad. Rifaat has been
lobbying the Bush administration to become the president of Syria in the
event his nephew Bashar is ousted.
The record of the UN's
investigator Mehlis does not inspire faith in his credibility. As Senior
Public Prosecutor in the German Attorney General's office, Mehlis
investigated the 1986 LaBelle Discotheque bombing in Berlin. Relying on
alleged National Security Agency intercepts of coded messages between
Tripoli and Libyan suspects in Germany (later revealed by former Mossad
agent Victor Ostrovsky as false telex signals generated by Mossad itself),
Mehlis provided the 'irrefutable proof' of Libya's guilt that then
justified Ronald Reagan's bombing of Libya.
In the case of the
accusations against Syria, Mehlis's case revolves around a series of
questionable phone conversations and intersecting calling card numbers
allegedly dialled by the perpetrators. It contains no definitive forensics
on the car bomb explosives used. Outside investigators have said it could
have been RDX plastique, not TNT as Mehlis suggested in his report. The
German Mercedes manufacturers were also perplexed at how Hariri's vehicle,
reinforced by the heaviest steel-titanium alloy, was "melted by the force
of the explosion," after-effects usually associated with high density DU
munitions. The car bomb vehicle (stolen in Japan and never fully traced)
was possibly driven by a suicide bomber, whose identity is still unknown.
Mehlis's report then states: "Another only slightly less likely
possibility is that of a remotely controlled device."
Mehlis
conclusions on the case , due on December 15 could justify an attack on
Syria, using the Hariri assassination as justification. But from Beirut to
Damascus, the "Arab Spring" was a neocon forgery designed to destabilize
the Levant and redraw the map of the middle east.
Near the Mohammad
Al Amin Mosque of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut, I
interviewed a founder of the Martyrs' Square tent city and asked about
US-Israeli sponsorship of the 'Independence Intifadah'. Surrounded by red
and white Lebanese flags, soldier Michael Sweiden of the Lebanese Forces
emphasized he was Christian Lebanese.
"We love Israel", he told me. "Israel helps
us. Israel is like our mother."
Years before its role in the so-called
"Cedar Revolution" (a moniker coined by US Undersecretary of State Paula
Dobriansky, a signatory to the Project for a New American Century), Israel
awarded citizenship and grants of up to $10,000 to South Lebanon Army
soldiers who collaborated with the Israeli Defense Forces during Lebanon's
civil war. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed, "Senior
officials at Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office were in touch with
Lebanese leaders even before the current crisis." Backed by American and
Israeli neocons, a Christian Lebanese Likud is proxying Israel's second
invasion.
One example is the Lebanese Foundation for Peace, a
self-styled "Government of Lebanon in Exile in Jerusalem" founded by
former Lebanese Forces' military intelligence officer Nagi Najjar. Najjar,
a CIA consultant, testified not so long ago in support of Ariel Sharon's
"complete innocence" in the Sabra and Shatila affair against charges by
Human Rights Watch and regional governments. Najjar has also paired with
Mossad agent Yossef Bodansky while lobbying the U.S. congress to intervene
in Hezbollah-dominated south Lebanon. His NGO, The Lebanese Foundation for
Peace, endorsed the AIPAC-sponsored sanctions against Syria, known as the
Syria Accountability / Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003. On
his LFP website featuring an Israeli flag, Najjar's "government in exile"
issued an official declaration; "We, the people of Free Lebanon, thank
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom for the
campaign launched by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Afffairs aimed at
ousting Syria from occupying Lebanon."
Another NGO of the Lebanese
Likud is the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon. Its President,
Ziad Abdel Nour is the son of wealthy Lebanese Minister of Parliament
Khalil Abdel Nour. USCFL partners with designated "democratizers" such as
the American Enterprise Institute (created by Lebanese-American William
Baroody, Sr.), Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Republican
Jewish Coalition, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Middle East
Forum, the Hudson Institute and kindred pro-Israel lobbies.
The
USCFL hails former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel for signing a peace
deal with Israel in 1983. (According to the UAE's late president Sheik
Zayed bin sultan Al Nahyan, Saddam Hussein agreed to leave Iraq before the
war in 2003 to halt the invasion. But Amin Gemayel, the mediator between
Saddam and the US administration, wrongly informed the US that Hussein had
rejected all offers of exile). Abdel Nour's other links include the World
Lebanese Organization, which advocates Israel's re-occupation of south
Lebanon. In 2000, he and neocon Daniel Pipes composed the policy paper
"Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: the US Role" and together co-author
the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin. The bulletin is a project of
the neocon Middle East Forum and is a frequent resource for American
intelligence agencies. On November 2, 2005 Abdel Nour updated me on the
Syrian crisis by phone.
Schuh: What is the future of
Syria, of President Bashar Al Assad's situation?
Nour: Both the Syrian and Lebanese regimes will be changed- whether
they like it or not- whether it's going to be a military coup or something
else... and we are working on it. We know already exactly who's going to
be the replacements. We're working on it with the Bush administration.
This is a Nazi regime of 30 years, killing ministers, presidents and stuff
like that. They must be removed. These guys who came to power, who rule by
power, can only be removed by power. This is Machiavelli's power game.
That's how it is. This is how geopolitics -- the war games, power games --
work. I know inside out how it works, because I come from a family of
politicians for the last 60 years. Look, I have access to the top
classified information from the CIA from all over the world. They call me,
I advise them. I know exactly what's going on. And this will
happen.
Q:
So would they remove the entire Assad family?
A:
Why not? Who is Bashar Al Assad?
Q:
I didn't see forensic proof in the Mehlis report that would legally
convict Assad of Hariri's death in a court of law.
A:
I don't give a damn. I don't give a damn, frankly. This Bashar Al
Assad-Emil Lahoud regime is going to go whether it's true or not. When we
went to Iraq whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, the
key is -- we won. And Saddam is out! Whatever we want, will happen. Iran?
We will not let Iran become a nuclear power. We'll find a way, we'll find
an excuse- to get rid of Iran. And I don't care what the excuse is. There
is no room for rogue states in the world. Whether we lie about it, or
invent something, or we don't... I don't care. The end justifies the
means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is
right.
Q:
You sound just like Saddam. Those were his rules too.
A:
So Saddam wanted to prove to the whole world he was strong? Well, we're
stronger- he's out! He's finished. And Iran's going to be finished and
every single Arab regime that's like this will be finished. Because there
is no room for us capitalists and multinationalists in the world to
operate with regimes like this. Its all about money. And power. And
wealth... and democracy has to be spread around the world. Those who want
to espouse globalization are going to make a lot of money, be happy, their
families will be happy. And those who aren't going to play this game are
going to be crushed, whether they like it or not! This is how we rule. And
this is how it's going to be as long as you have people who think like
me.
Q:
When will this regime change take place?
A:
Within 6 months, in both Lebanon and Syria.
Q:
Some names of replacements?
A:
It is classified. There are going to be replacements and we know who they
are, but I cannot mention the names.
Q:
Will this be done peacefully?
A:
It doesn't matter. The end justifies the means. I don't care about how
it's done. The important thing is that it is done. I don't rule out force.
I'm not against force. If it's an option, it will be an option.
Q:
But if it's just trading Syrian control for American or Israeli
control?
A:
I have -- we have -- absolutely no problem with heavy US involvement in
Lebanon. On an economic level, military level, political level, security
level... whatever it is. Israel is the 51st state of the United States.
Let Lebanon be the 52nd state. And if the Arabs don't like it, tough luck.
US-Israeli intervention in Lebanon has a
long history. In 1950's Beirut, The U.S. oil companies and the CIA paid
bribes to Maronite Catholic President Camille Chamoun to buy allegiance
against Lebanese Muslims, and the pan-Arab threat of Nasser. In his book
Ropes of Sand, CIA case officer William Crane Eveland revealed,
"Throughout the elections, I traveled regularly to the presidential palace
with a briefcase full of Lebanese pounds, then returned late at night to
the embassy with an empty twin case" to be refilled again with more CIA
funds. Journalist Said Aburish recalled, "The convergence of interest
between the Camille Chamoun government and CIA agents produced a bizarre
atmosphere which altered Beirut's character. It became a CIA city..."
frequented by such covert operatives as Kermit Roosevelt (who organized
the Iranian coup against Mohammed Mossadeq). Soon the Israelis joined in,
supplying weapons to Chamoun's son Dany, an arms trader. Dany's weapons
sales to Maronite gangs created a precedent for the country's civil war
militias. ( See Aburish's A Brutal Friendship: The West and the Arab
Elite, 1997)
A more recent US-Israeli role commenced in
mid-November, 2004. A demonstration was called by former Christian General
Michel Aoun. (Aoun testified to the US Congress in 2003, and Congress
favors him as a post-Assad Lebanese president). US diplomats coached a
vanguard of unwitting Lebanese youth in CIA "Triple U" techniques
(uncontrollable urban unrest). Opposition sources revealed that a downtown
rally of 3000 mostly Christian student activists protesting "Syrians Out!"
had been organized by the US Embassy in Beirut. The Associated Press
reported on November 19, 2004, "One demonstrator appealed to the US
president, holding a placard that read: 'Bush help us save Lebanon.'
Another dressed up as Osama bin Laden but with the words "Syrian Terror"
on his chest. He held a toy gun to the head of a protester who was wrapped
in the Lebanese flag..."
Lebanese riot police allowed this
unprecedented pre-Cedar rehearsal without arrests because of a deal worked
out beforehand with US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman. Feltman, closely linked
to Ariel Sharon and Karl Rove, is an associate of the Pentagon's Office of
Special Plans that created the false evidence and "mushroom cloud"
intelligence used to justify attacks on Iraq. This 2004 rehearsal
demonstration was answered by a counter protest of 300,000 on November 30
against UN Resolution 1559.
When the stage show opened for real
after Rafiq Hariri's death, America's Wag the Flag performance was
camera-ready. Janes.com exposed that the flashy demonstrations and
rallies were being engineered by one of Lebanon's top advertising agencies
and the London-based Saatchi & Saatchi. Michael Nakfour of the
corporate events management company, Independence 05 - Civil Society,
helped manage the Freedom Square tent city by distributing food, flags,
supplies and theatrical effects, prompting American Enterprise Institute
scholar Hedieh Mirahmadi to marvel; "Who would imagine one could find
posters, in downtown Beirut, with the picture of President Bush in between
American and Lebanese flags?" (NY Sun, 3/18/05)
Reporter
Mary Wakefield, of The Spectator was also surprised. "Only 1,000 or
so people? ..it felt less like a national protest than a pop concert.
Bouncers in black bomber jackets wore laminated Independence '05 cards
round their necks, screens to the left and right of the platform reflected
the crowd... To the left of the main speaker, a man in a black flying suit
with blonde highlights, mirrored Oakley sunglasses and an earpiece seemed
to be conducting the crowd. Sometimes he'd wave his arms to increase the
shouting, sometimes, with a gesture he'd silence them... 'Out Syria! Out
Syria! Out Syria!' Production assistants with clipboards busied themselves
around trucks full of monitors and amplifiers.... The truth is that the
Cedar Revolution has been presented and planned in just the same way as
Ukraine's Orange revolution and, before it, the Rose revolution in
Georgia. But just because it is in American interests doesn't mean it's an
American production." ("A Revolution Made for TV" 3/12/05)
Why not?
The New York Post: "US intelligence sources told The Post
that the CIA and European intelligence services are quietly giving money
and logistical support to organizers of the anti-Syrian protests to ramp
up pressure on Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to completely quit
Lebanon. Sources said the secret program is similar to previous support of
pro-democracy movements in Georgia and Ukraine, which also led to peaceful
demonstrations." (3/8/05).
On the streets of Beirut, one
'grassroots' project, "Pulse of Freedom," inadvertently exposed its U.S.
origins by utilizing uniquely American street theater tactics. Then in a
slip, reminiscent of Baghdad's Firdos Square when US troops covered
Saddam's statue with the Stars and Stripes, or when the Republic of
Georgia's military band played the US national anthem instead of its own
during the Rose Revolution, "Pulse of Freedom" portrayed Lebanon's
national Monument of Sovereignty as the Statue of Liberty.
Spirit
of America, the NGO that created "Pulse of Freedom" provided protesters
with a billboard-sized electronic 'Freedom Clock' for 'Freedom Square' to
"countdown to freedom." Spirit of America's tax deductible donations
helped maintain the tent city's food, shelter and other basic necessities
"so that the demonstrators can keep pressure on for political change and
world attention on the struggle for Lebanese independence". Spirit of
America also spawned a plethora of revolution bloggers, foremost among
them Tech Central Station columnist Michael Totten whose boss was Spirit
of America's founder Jim Hake.
A registered charity, Spirit of
America exemplifies the regime change industry. Advised by US Ambassador
Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman of the Board of Freedom House, and co-founder
of the National Endowment for Democracy, Palmer served as speech-writer to
three US Presidents and six Secretaries of State. He also helped the US
government destabilize Slobodan Milosevic and Muammar Qaddafi.
Capitalizing on his color revolution skills, Palmer wrote "Breaking the
Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators Without Firing a
Shot."
Another Spirit of America governor is Lt General Mike
DeLong, Deputy Commander, US Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base,
Florida. DeLong manages a budget of $8.2 billion and "conceived and
implemented the Global War on Terrorism, Operation Enduring Freedom and
Operation Iraqi Freedom." As top Deputy to former General Tommy Franks,
DeLong's listed expertise at places such as the Army War College, the
Department of Defense and the Amphibious Warfare School included
Artillery, military intelligence, coup détats, supporting democracy.
DeLong in his autobiography Inside Centcom alleged "Syria had been
shipping military supplies, including night vision goggles to Iraq." The
New York Times and Washington Post later revealed that these
data had been fabricated "smoking gun" evidence. Charles Duelfer of the UN
Iraq Survey Group also confirmed that WMD charges had been "exaggerated"
by now-US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, when he was Under-Secretary
for Arms Control in 2002.
Lebanese history professor Habib Malik,
affiliated with the Middle East Forum, defended the anti-Syria protesters
to journalist-in-residence Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies as being "utterly spontaneous and coercion-free."
(NY Sun, 3/11/05)
But an American Hezbollah expert in
Beirut, Dr. Judith Harik, informed this writer that the pro-Syria crowds
were misrepresented in the media. "As you are hearing, the Bush
administration is labeling the opposition "the people" and everyone else
as Hezbollah terrorists. Tomorrow's [March 8, 2005] demonstration will
include Sunnis, Druze of the Arslan faction, Christians of all the leftist
nationalist parties and the entire south and Bekaa, along with Orthodox
Christian areas of Mt. Lebanon. Again the Bush administration is
misleading the public by 'mistakenly' lauding a loud minority that
supports its middle east policy."
Each side eventually held a mass
demonstration numbered in the hundreds of thousands, prompting a truce.
But the US-Israeli machine declared war. Using language formerly reserved
for Yasser Arafat, Bush parroted Ariel Sharon. "Syria is an obstacle to
peace" and an "obstacle to change". Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) advised,
"Syria -- put two nukes on 'em"; Jerusalem Post: "Israel hails Bush's
Islamist attacks"; Jewish Forward; "US promises Israel to tackle
Hezbollah."
A deck of 'Most Wanted' playing cards appeared, a
technique used by the Israeli newspaper Maariv to target
Palestinians, and later used against the Iraqi Baath Party. Likud MK Yuval
Steinetz, head of the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee
crystallized the priorities: "It's a clear Israeli interest to end the
Assad dynasty and replace Bashar Assad." Evoking the "absurd Arabs with
their Arab conspiracy theories" slur, Geostrategy-Direct headlined: "Is
Bashar Assad paranoid or is the US really plotting to undermine
him?"
When Israel's commandeering of US middle east policy became
too overt, defter tongues moved to quell the uproar. "Bush Administration
Advises Israel to be Quiet on Lebanese Politics," said the New York
Times. It wasn't the first reprimand to Israel by some of its own. In
November, 2003 Israel's former head of military intelligence,
Major-General Shlomo Gazit publicly warned Sharon against threatening
Syria and the Israeli "jab, jab policy orchestrated to incite and
humiliate Damascus. It is only going to be a matter of time until the
Syrians are unable to hold back and then the big blaze will begin." But
that was Sharon's intent and he spoke of Iraq as a justification to attack
Hezbollah; "it will give us a great pretext. But we'll hit them in any
case." (Daily Times, 3/4/03)
The Jerusalem Post wrote;
"Rumsfeld considers striking Hizbullah to provoke Syria," and the Pentagon
assessed that "the time is coming to oust Assad and the ruling generals by
targeting Syria via Lebanon..." Former National Security Council/CIA
analyst Flynt Leverett confirmed Rumsfeld's belief that by instigating the
right crisis in Lebanon, regime change could be executed in Syria. One
Rumsfeld project, P20G, or the Proactive Pre-emptive Operations Group,
existed specifically to provoke terrorist attacks that would then justify
"counter-attacks". Neocons such as Douglas Feith and David Wurmser
envisioned this graduated destablization as the "constructive instability"
of "total war".
Rumsfeld's team had already begun discussions with
Israeli intelligence about assassinating Lebanese officials --
particularly "Hezbollah and their supporters" in 2002, and intelligence
operatives were dispatched to Lebanon. (This writer was introduced to at
least one Israeli 'student' studying Arabic at AUB in Beirut. He travelled
with an American passport, coming to Lebanon "to study 'the enemy' to find
out how they think.") The Sunday Times (6/5/05) revealed that
Mossad had been using Trojan Horse email surveillance on President Assad's
wife Asma, labelling her family correspondence a "legitimate soft
target".
By January 2005, the Pentagon were preparing for military
operations in Lebanon to destroy "insurgency strongholds along the
Lebanese-Syrian border". Simultaneously, Israeli approval for a military
operation in Lebanon was given after Hezbollah killed an IDF officer.
Political-security cabinet members comprised of PM Sharon, Deputy PM Ehud
Olmert, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, and FM Silvan Shalom had authorized the
action. (Haaretz, 5/3/05). But then Rafiq Hariri was killed, and the door
to Syria swung open.
Syria may become America's 53rd state, if
Farid Ghadry's NGO, the Reform Party of Syria rushes through that opened
door. Ghadry is a Syrian Christian who worked for EG & G, a Department
of Defense contractor. EG & G assisted in the development and testing
of nuclear weapons and in many of the US military's top secret atomic
projects. Ghadry's Reform Party coordinates with the Syrian National
Council, and transmits Radio Free Syria from Cyprus and Germany to
destabilize Syria. The CIA and Mossad have long used Kurds to target
nations in the region. Journalist Jack Anderson wrote in 1972 about
Israeli envoys delivering $50,000 a month to Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa
Barzani to destabilize Iraq.
In March 2004, this writer was
approached in Damascus by Kurds from Qamishli and Hasaka (one whose
brother was arrested in the riots) wanting to "thank Bush for helping us
get rid of Assad". News accounts later verified that the chaos up north
had been orchestrated by the US and Israel, using Turkish and Iraqi Kurds.
'Protesters' at the height of the melee even waved posters of President
Bush and American flags. The ringleaders were sponsored by the Department
of Defense and the US State Department. "Let the Damascus spring flower,
and let its flowers bloom," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. So
sprouted another color catastrophe -- Syria's "Jasmine
Revolution".
Reform Party of Syria's Farid Ghadry has been a
featured speaker at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
and is himself a member of AIPAC. When repeated calls to his organization
went unanswered, I visited the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the RFP.
Reform Party of Syria is the office of "super-Zionist" lobbyist Jack
Abramoff. Middle Gate Ventures, Abramoff's 'political advisory company'
partners with RFP. Abramoff is a top Beltway lobbyist now under intensive
FBI investigation concerning, among other things, his proposed $9 million
fee to get Gabon's president an Oval Office session with Bush.
As a
College Republican in the 1980s, Abramoff founded the International
Freedom Foundation, a project linked to the South African Defence Forces.
The International Freedom Foundation was the PR branch of sister NGO
Strategic Communications, a covert organization charged by former spy
Craig Williamson in the Weekly Mail and Guardian for 2/24/95 with
being involved with frame-ups, extreme violence and dirty tricks
campaigns.
According to the Weekly Standard (12/20/04), one
Abramoff venture was his organization of a 1985 global "summit" of
underworld thugs. With Citizens for America sponsorship, Contra leaders,
guerilla rebels and right wing 'freedom fighters' from around the world
convened in the African hinterlands to strategize. During this period,
Abramoff's membership/financial transactions with the secretive Council
for National Policy, which included Oliver North and Richard Secord,
became a template for how to mask money that still remains partially
hidden. (Nizkor Project)
Recently Abramoff's interventionism
has focused on the Middle East. Tomflocco.com reveals that Abramoff's
long-time employer, Greenberg Traurig, partially financed a Homeland
Security Government Contract Team trip to Israel for the US House/Senate
Armed Services Committee and defense contractor CACI (accused of Abu
Ghraib torture). The delegation reviewed IDF "resistance to interrogation
techniques" used in Palestine, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The Lebanon
Daily Star reported that the group visited Beit Horon "the central
training camp for the anti-terrorist forces of the Israeli police and
border police" and were able to "witness exercises related to anti-terror
warfare." Legislators' names were not disclosed.
Abramoff also
works with the World Zionist Organization and the Christian Coalition to
bankroll illegal Israeli settlement activities. According to Israeli
prosecutor Talia Sasson they are part of a larger international problem.
Some $60 billion worldwide has been illicitly funnelled to Israeli
settlements via different foreign donors, quasi-NGOs and secret military
accounts.
In one such case, according to Senate testimony and news
reports in Newsweek and The New Republic, an Abramoff charity, Capital
Athletic Fund, underwrote sniper scopes, camouflage suits, thermal
imagers, night vision goggles, hydration tactical tubes, shooting mats and
other paramilitary equipment through Greenberg Traurig to right wing
settler Shmuel Ben-Zvi. Abramoff wanted to help ultraorthodox settlement
Beitar Illit "neutralize terrorists" and wrote to Ben-Zvi; "Thanks
brother. If only there were another dozen of you the dirty rats would be
finished." Apparently angling for cover and a tax deduction, Beitar Illit
seminar director Ben-Zvi suggested invoicing the weaponry to the Israeli
Defence Forces on 'Sniper Workshop' stationery with a sniper logo and
letterhead to qualify it as an educational entity. Payments were partially
run through "Kollel Ohel Tiferet," an entity not publicly listed or
traceable. Beitar Illit Mayor Yitzhak Pindrus claims never to have heard
of it. (Newsweek, 5/2/05)
Abramoff dollars may also have
found their way to the Israeli Defense Forces' Lebanon Border Unit, the
civilian SF troops that patrol the Israel-Lebanon border. Yaagal,
supposedly disbanded after Israel's 2000 pullout from south Lebanon, still
conducts clandestine reconnaissance, plans ambushes and carries out
cross-border incursions into Hezbollah-held areas of south Lebanon. As so
often with lobbyist Abramoff's entities, the tools and trails remain
murky.
Indicted AIPAC lobbyist Steven Rosen told the New
Yorker; "A lobby is like a night flower: it thrives in the dark and
dies in the sun." But Abramoff's own words to Ralph Reed in 1983 are even
more apropos; "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistance" with
opponents. "Our job is to remove them permanently." Flowery language for
forged freedoms, an "Arab Spring" Machiavelli-style.
Trish Schuh writes about Middle East politics. She can be reached at: hsvariety@yahoo.com
|
Coming in the Fall
from
CounterPunch Books!
The
Case Against Israel
By Michael Neumann
Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
WHAT'S
INSIDE
Grand Theft Pentagon:
Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror
by
Jeffrey St. Clair
CounterPunch Speakers Bureau
Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers,
tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as
are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.
 |
