From Volume 2, Issue Number 32 of Electronic
Intelligence Weekly, Published
Special to EIW
President
George W. Bush's gutlessness toward Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
represents the greatest security threat to the
By
the time
This
would be "business as usual" in the Sharon-Bush relationship, for
when
Cheney
forecast a new 9/11 attack in his July 24 speech at the neo-con stronghold, the
American Enterprise Institute. He said: "Having lost thousands of
Americans on a single morning, we are not going to answer further danger by simply
issuing diplomatic protests or sharply worded condemnations.... We will act,
and act decisively, before gathering threats can inflict catastrophic harm on
the American people.... The terrorists intend to strike
Propaganda Campaign Against
As
reported in the EIW Middle East Digest last week, new information
suggests that the secret deployment of Sharon's master spy and assassination
expert Rafi Eytan to the United States could be involved in the Cheney crew's
"new 9/11" plot. The same two corrupt intelligence units that foisted
phony intelligence about Iraq on the U.S. Congress and the United Nations — the
Office Special Plans in the Pentagon, and the parallel special unit under Ariel
Sharon — are spreading false intelligence reports to set the basis for new U.S.
attacks on Syria and Iran.
And
there are clear indications that the still-secret meeting between Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon and Vice President Dick Cheney on July 30 centered on
laying the groundwork with a massive propaganda campaign, combined with covert
operations, for a
This
was hinted in a story in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz on July 30, citing
sources claiming to have been close to the talks between Sharon and President
Bush. Ha'aretz says that
There
can be little doubt that this same "information" was discussed in
even greater detail, when
On
cue, a report appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 4, entitled
"Iran Closes In On Ability To Build a Nuclear Bomb," by Douglas
Frantz. The article claims to draw on "secret reports, international
officials, independent experts, Iranian exiles and intelligence sources in
Europe and the Middle East."
Among
the Iranian sources Frantz quotes is the terrorist Moujahedeen el Khalq (MEK),
which, despite the fact that it is on the U.S. State Department's list of
terrorist organizations, has now become useful to the chickenhawks in their
campaign against Iran.
Frantz
cites what he claims is a French government report, claiming that Iran is close
to producing weapons grade plutonium. Citing "a foreign intelligence
officer and an American diplomat," Frantz says UN inspectors have found
samples of enriched uranium during their inspections in Iran. Iran, he claims,
is concealing weapons research laboratories, including one in a watch factory
near Tehran.
Accompanying
the article is a map with all the sites where Iran allegedly has nuclear weapon
facilities, and detailed explanations of each. Frantz claims that Pakistani nuclear
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has been helping Iran for years—although he quotes
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf denying it. Allegations of North Korean,
Russian, and Chinese roles are also detailed.
Frantz
writes: "Foreign intelligence officials told the Times that the
Central Intelligence Agency, which has long contended that Iran is building a
bomb, has briefed them on a contingency plan for U.S. air and missile attacks
against Iranian nuclear installations. 'It would be foolish not to present the
Commander in Chief with all the options, including that one,' said one of the
officials." Of course the CIA refused to officially comment on such an
assertion. Nonetheless Frantz wrote that a preemptive strike would have a
precedent in the 1981 Israel strike against Iraq's nuclear reactor.
As
soon as the Times story hit the streets, it became big news on Israeli
Army Radio, where it was the lead news item every hour. The same day, a senior
Israeli military officer was briefing a closed-door session of the Knesset's
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, claiming that Iran will have the
material needed to make a nuclear bomb by 2004 and will have an operative
nuclear weapons program by 2005. Prime Minister Sharon told the committee:
"It is clearer than ever that the Iranians are making every effort to
acquire weapons of mass destruction."
Getting
into the act, the right-wing Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 5)
claimed that the North Koreans are holding talks with Iran, about exporting
their Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile and jointly developing nuclear
warheads. The paper said that this missile is claimed to have a range of 6,000
kilometers.
This
anti-Iranian hysteria is building up just as the International Atomic Energy
Agency had a delegation in Tehran to negotiate a new inspections arrangement.
In
response to this propaganda assault, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami,
speaking before a meeting of senior Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared that Iran has no interest in producing nuclear
weapons. "I emphasize that Iran is totally against any form of weapons of
mass destruction and denounce as false and groundless the claims that Iran is
producing nuclear weapons." But he added, "Iran will not renounce the
development of nuclear technology, one of the pillars of the power of the
people."
Targetting Syria
Syria
is being given the same treatment as Iran, with Israel leading the propaganda
assault. Writing in Ha'aretz on Aug. 5, military commentator Reuven Pedatzur
warned that the Israeli military is playing up an alleged Syria missile threat
that in reality doesn't exist. Pedatzur cites a recent report in the journal Foreign
Report, published by Jane's Defence Weekly, which quotes Israeli
sources claiming that "100 Syria missiles are aimed at Israel,"
equipped with payloads of VX nerve gas. Why is this reported now? he asked.
After all, Israel has known this since 1988. Furthermore the Israeli military
knows it has a powerful deterrent and knows "the Syrians would not dare
launch ballistic missiles topped with chemical warheads at Israel because it
was clear to them that the price they'd pay would be so high, with painful
Israeli Defense Forces attacks on the Syrian rear, that it would not justify
the first strike at Israel."
The
author writes that this anti-Syria campaign is a repeat of the one against
Iraq, which is no longer a threat. It is now building up the phony Syrian
threat in order to justify massive investments in the "Home Front"
command, including the billions wasted on gas masks for every Israeli, and on
building an antiballistic-missile system for a threat that doesn't exist. He
writes that the U.S. has done the same thing, with its think-tanks pumping out
studies about "the new ballistic missile threats from Iraq, Iran and North
Korea. It didn't matter to anyone that the threat didn't really exist, because
those three countries don't have missiles with the range to reach the U.S.... The
probability that those countries would fire a missile capable of hitting
American territory was nil, even if it managed to develop missiles capable of
hitting the U.S. With an impressive fear campaign, the American defense
establishment managed to enlist enough politicians and public opinion to
neutralize the serious threat—of budget cuts."
Border Provocations
Sharon
is also heating up the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border, in an
effort to provoke the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon to attack
Israeli targets. This effort also constitutes an effort to lay the groundwork
for attacks on Iran and Syria, the main backers of Hezbollah. Despite the fact
that the border has been quiet for over a year, Israel continues to conduct
totally illegal overflights with its bombers creating sonic booms over Lebanese
territory, as far north as Beirut.
On
Aug. 3 there was the mysterious assassination of Hezbollah operative Ali
Hussein Saleh. Israel has been accused by Hezbollah and Lebanese government
ministers of being behind the assassination. It has been noted that the method
of using a powerful car bomb in the assassination is the trademark of Mossad
chief Gen. Meir Dagan. A long-time crony of Sharon, Dagan promised, when Sharon
named him to the position, that he would restore the Mossad's
"proactive" operations, including assassinations.
This
campaign against Syria is a major point of dispute between the chickenhawks and
the U.S. military-intelligence establishment. This was documented in a feature
article by Seymour Hersh, in the New Yorker on July 28. Hirsch documents
how Syria had become the CIA's most important source on al-Qaeda since the
Sept. 11 attacks. This was coordinated directly between Syrian President Bashar
Assad and CIA Director George Tenet.
Syrian
intelligence proved to be extremely valuable, since many al-Qaeda operatives
belong to the terrorist wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been engaged
in undermining the Damascus regime for 20 years. The U.S.-Syrian cooperation
yielded information that prevented at least one terrorist attack on American forces
based in the Persian Gulf. Because Syria hoped to use this contact in an effort
to establish a direct channel to the Bush Administration, to restart serious
peace negotiations with Israel, the cooperation flourished, despite the
persistent attacks on Syria by the chickenhawks and Israel.
Hersh
reports that the chickenhawks did everything possible to undermine this
cooperation, even though it was yielding highly useful intelligence. When
Syria, like most of the countries on this planet, refused to support the Iraq
war, the chickenhawks escalated their attacks and false allegations. This came
to a head on June 28, when special U.S. army units crossed deep into Syrian
territory to destroy a convoy of vehicles they claimed were transporting Saddam
Hussein and other high Ba'ath party officials. The attack left 80 people dead,
including many Syrian civilians. The convoy turned out to be a group of
smugglers trying to transport Iraqi oil into Syrian territory.
Although