MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST
Former Mossad Chief: No 'Legal Proof' Needed Against Terrorists
Schlomo Shavit, former chief of the Israeli Mossad, called for a "lowering of the bar" for lega- proof criteria in terror cases. Speaking at a June 16-18 conference, "Secured Skies: Confronting International Terrorism," that was held in Washington and jointly sponsored by the International Transport Association and the Israeli Department of Transportation, Shavit called for much closer international cooperation and an "international division of labor" on intelligence matters dealing with terrorism. He spoke on a panel on terrorism that was chaired by old Zionist lobby hand Stephen Bryen.
Taking every opportunity in the post-Sept. 11 "war on terrorism" to use the "Israeli model" as the "successful" model for combatting terrorism, the Likudniks are pushing to secure their anti-Palestinian policies as a model to be followed. Couching his statements in terms of a "call for international agreement," Shavit made a blatant pitch for Israeli intelligence and tactics to take over the "war on terrorism" (a plank pushed by the rightwing lobby group JINSA, of which panel moderator Bryen is a leader).
"We must realize," Shavit said, that "there is no good terrorism, no local terrorism, and that the ends don't justify the means." He complained about the gaps between adequate intelligence and meeting the requirements of the courts for rigorous legal proof. He proposed that this "dilemma" could be resolved by "lower[ing] the ceiling for legal proof."
The Western countries embrace democracy, but our enemies do not, he said. "When you study Islam, it's clear they don't accept these ideals." Lowering requirements of proof for conviction is the "only way to enhance liberalism and democracy," Shavit said. In addition, there "must be a prohibitive price for the terrorists." Perhaps taking retribution on their relatives?
"In this intelligence war, you have to break the barriers of the single terrorist." A little bit of torture, perhaps? Shavit summed up by saying there must be a realization that no one can fight terror alone, and that "the requirements for all states in fighting terrorism are the same."
Thus, "With the division of labor among the intelligence services, things would be much easier," he said. "Israeli experiences in fighting terror should be moulded with the post-Sept. 11 U.S. situation in order to fight terrorism."
Retired U.S. Diplomats Denounce Plot Against Saddam Hussein
Interviewed on National Public Radio on June 17, Ed Peck, who served as Chief of Mission to Iraq for the U.S. from 1977 to 1980, said that the removal of Saddam Hussein, authorized by a Presidential order exposed in the Washington Post by Bob Woodward on June 16, would unleash a flood of opposition throughout the Middle East. Peck denounced the idea that the CIA could be used for this purpose, and warned that such an action by the U.S. would "create an implosion" inside Iraq, where it would be the people who would suffer the most, as they have during 11 years of sanctions. "Who gave the USA the right to determine who governs Iraq?" asked Peck, pointing out that targetting Saddam Hussein, with military and economic warfare for a decade, has actually made him stronger.
NPR also interviewed Judith Yaphe from the National Defense University, who strongly supports the "regime change" policy, but even Yaphe and interviewer Robert Siegal had to admit that Peck was right in saying that the U.S. has absolutely no concern, and no strategy, for what happens in Iraq "the day after."
Peck, who is active in the Council for the National Interest along with former State Department and Congressional officials who oppose the Sharon policy in Israel, and the neo-conservative "perpetual war" policy, also said that Saddam Hussein does not possess weapons of mass destruction. Peck has collaborated with former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in seminars that show that assertions about Iraq's WMD program are unfounded.
Then, on June 21, in the London Financial Times, in a perhaps unexpected development, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, now with the neo-conservative fortress the American Enterprise Institute, criticized the entire idea of "preemptive military strikes." Kirkpatrick told the FT that the Reagan Administration, in which she served, was against "the use of preemptive force," and that was the basis for condemning Israel, in 1981, when Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor. She warned that a preemptive strike against the Saddam Hussein regime posed serious dangers for other, non-Islamist regimes in the region:
"This involves a real shift of course for American military strategy and tactics, and I do have some questions about whether it is a prudent shift of tactics. The question is whether the consequences would be to win recruits for the most radical Islamists, and create more problems for Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, or Jordan's King Abdullah. Iraq has been a secular government, and I think we don't want to participate in driving those secular governments into something more violent and Islamist."
This puts Kirkpatrick directly at odds with the AEI agenda, which has fêted Benjamin Netanyahu on numerous occasions since Sept. 11 as the "poster boy" for "preemptive warfare."
Al Jazeera Features LaRouche Analysis of Sept. 11
EIR Senior Editor Jeff Steinberg was interviewed on the popular Al Jazeera TV interview show, hosted by Malek Triki, on Sunday, June 16, for more than 20 minutes. Earlier this year, Steinberg, Ed Spannaus, and Lyndon LaRouche were all interviewed in separate shows by Triki on Al Jazeera.
The subject of the June 16 interview was ostensibly the U.S. intelligence failures leading up to Sept. 11, but Steinberg, from the start of the interview, focussed on the policy failures which were the root cause of the intelligence shortcomings.
Steinberg began by citing Lyndon LaRouche's Sept. 11 radio interview, in which LaRouche spelled out that the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center was an internal attempted coup d'etat, an act of strategic irregular warfare way beyond the capabilites of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. LaRouche said that the attack could not have been carried out without high-level military complicity from inside the United States. Nevertheless, as a matter of policy, Steinberg explained, the Bush Administration knowingly lied about the bin Laden and al-Qaeda sole responsibility for 9/11, making the mission of the intelligence and law enforcement services almost impossible.
In the second half of the interview, Triki asked about the significance of the recent arrest of two Israeli citizens in Washington State, in a truck with traces of plastique explosives and TNT, noting that there has been no effective U.S. action against the more than 200 Israelis detained in the U.S. for apparent espionage activity. Steinberg elaborated the Israeli intelligence penetration, citing cases where Israeli "art students" were living within blocks of accused 9/11 hijackers, including Mohammad Atta. "We don't even know the extent of what the Israelis knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks," Steinberg told the Al Jazeera audience, adding that it cannot be ruled outparticularly following the recent arrests at Whidby Island Naval Air Station in Washington Statethat Israeli intelligence had an operational role in carrying out terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
Sharon Ends Oslo, Plans Two-Front War
The following is excerpted from an article that appeared in the New Federalist newspaper of June 24, 2002:
Ariel Sharon has made a "preemptive strike" against the possibility of peace in the Middle East, in moving to seize Palestinian territory "for keeps," just daysor perhaps hoursbefore President George W. Bush was to make a policy statement about a Palestinian state. Bush's ridiculous comment calling Sharon a "man of peace," now comes back to haunt him in the biggest strategic crisis to hit the U.S. in years.
As of June 19, not only does the Sharon government have permanent occupation of the Palestinian territories up its sleeve, but, with the backing of neo-conservative madmen in the U.S. Congress and within the Bush Administration, Israel is also threatening to open a second front in a war against Syria and Lebanon. While Sharon drowns the Israeli-Palestine states in blood, his U.S. allies associated with Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz are pushing for a U.S. war against Iraq. And, to avert any interference in their insane plans, Sharon and his generals are using nuclear blackmail against the United States and the rest of the world, in an update of the 1960s RAND Corporation's nuclear "chicken game" scenario.
The Death of Oslo
On the morning of June 19, the world was greeted with a stark declaration of war fom Israel:
"Following Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's discussions with the leaders of the political parties in the coalition and top security establishment officials, it was decided to take several military actions against the Palestinian Authority [PA] and the murderous organizations. This includesinter aliaa change in the way in which Israel responds to murderous acts of terror: Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing PA territory. These areas will be held by Israel as long as terror continues. Additional acts of terror will lead to the taking of additional areas. As a result of yesterday's [June 18] murderous act of terror in Jerusalem, Israel will shortly take PA territory as outlined above."
By 5:00 a.m. Washington time, as Bush was apparently still deciding on the "most opportune moment" to deliver his peace plan address, the Israel Defense Force and Sharon took the initiative away from Washington, and were driving deep into the West Bank. [By June 21, Sharon's security cabinet expanded the intended re-occupation area to all of the areas taken in Operation Defensive Shield.] Defensive Shield, with the enormous destruction, and mass killings and arrests, did everything except stop the terrorism against Israeli civilians.
According to well-placed sources close to the Israeli peace camp, Sharon's military re-occupation of the Palestinian territories was not a reaction to terrorism, it was pre-planned to stop any move by the U.S. to concretely support a Palestinian state. The spate of suicide bombings against Israelis over two weeks, especially the June 18 bombing that triggered the latest Israeli invasion, have even been called "a gift to Sharon," who has used each bombing by the Palestinian enemies of Arafat to intensify Israel's assault on the structures that were created in the 1993 Oslo Accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Now, the Bush Administration is faced with a paradox of its own making. The Administration and U.S. intelligence services are well aware that the intention of Sharon and his associates, who follow the teachings of Jewish fascist Vladimir Jabotinsky, is to kill Arafatsomething that Sharon has wanted to do since 1982. The Administration knows that Israeli attacks have gutted the ability of the Palestinian Authority to conduct the law-and-order duties that could possibly stop terrorism. They also know that Jabotinskyite Netanyahu led Sharon's Likud Party in a vote that there will be no Palestinian state, in a direct challenge to the United States.
According to leading pro-Israeli peace voices such as Ha'aretz reporter Amir Oren, and Geoffrey Arsonson, a leader of the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), Sharon has already created the "post-Oslo era," invading areas which were put under Palestinian administration in the "land for peace" agreements. As Oren wrote on April 5, "The IDF is doing as it pleases," in all the areas of the West Bank. Philip Wilcox, a leader of Americans for Peace Now, and a former counter-terrorism chief in the State Department, says "Sharon is reasserting Israel's control over the entire West Bank, sweeping aside the Oslo arrangements." The MPEF adds that Sharon showed a map to Colin Powell back in April, showing that Sharon defines a military area between the "Green Line" (1967 border of Israel), and the West Bank, as a "security" area that has to be cleared of Palestinians. But Powell, whose November 2001 policy speech spoke of a Palestinian state, treated Sharon with kid gloves, hence risking a global war.
Iraq and Nuclear Showdown
Speaking from Brazil where he was participating in high-level meetings last week, U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche warned that the financier oligarchy, centered in Wall Street, will embark on a hideous military adventure around the period of August to September, and not later than October. Despite talk of "cooling down" situations, whether in India/Pakistan or the Middle East, this utopian military drive is necessitated by a desperate need to control events as the global financial system disintegrates. The moves by the Israeli branch of this utopian war party are exactly along the lines that LaRouche warned.
[On June 15, the Washington Post ran two adjacent articles, broadcasting that Sharon was planning to open a second frontwar against Lebanon and Syria; and that Israel has completed development of a nuclear triadair-, land-, and submarine-launched nukessee INDEPTH.]
The coup de grace of this doomsday scenario then appeared in the Washington Post on June 16, written by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame, who reports that an executive order by President Bush has authorized CIA covert action to topple Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The Woodward leak came precisely as Sharon's allies in the Administration around Defense Policy Board chief Richard Perle were pressing for an immediate Iraq war.
For Perle, Sharon, Netanyahu, and their fans, the ideal preemptive strike was the unprovoked 1981 Israeli destruction of the Osirik nuclear reactor in Iraq. Could there be a covert deal to let Israel do it again?
Mubarak Visits Jordan, Syria as Sharon War Plans Loom
On June 19, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made an urgent one-day trip to Jordan and Syria, as Israelis were threatening to reoccupy the West Bank, and attack Syria. Mubarak met with King Abdullah in Amman and issued a joint statement rejecting the U.S. idea (which has not been announced yet) of a "provisional" Palestinian state. However, as Arabic dailies report, the real discussion was about the Israeli threats of renewing occupation of the West Bank and probably sending Arafat and other PLO leaders into exile.
Before leaving Amman to Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who accompanied Mubarak, told the press in reply to questions about the Israeli threats against Syria: "We will not accept, under whatever circumstances, any Israeli military strike against Syria. Even the Israeli people would not accept that." He added "These threats reveal the agressive and foolish nature and Sharon's policies."
En route to Damascus, Mubarak told escorting reporters that "those who say that removing Arafat would bring a solution are disillusioned, because removing Arafat would open the door for chaos. No other Palestinian leader but Arafat would ever be able to negotiate a solution and convince his people to accept it."
Mubarak also said that he explained to President Bush recently that the talk about removing or toppling Arafat is a violation of democratic principles. He also said that he reminded Bush that the committee which observed the elections when Arafat was elected as President for the PNA, was headed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
CNN Founder Turner Attacked for Defending Palestinian Civilians
The Zionist lobby defenders of Jabotinskyite fascism in Israel are in full mobilization against any public figure who breathes a word of concern about the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Such was the treatment meted out to CNN mogul Ted Turner, who criticized Israel's military operations, and also to Cherie Blair, the wife of the British Prime Minister, who spoke of the despair gripping Palestinian youth, as she visited a humanitarian center in London.
In an interview published in the June 18 London Guardian, Turner said that Israel is carrying out terrorism against the Palestinians. While he said that the Palestinians are also conducting terrorism, he pointed out that the Palestinians were defenseless, while Israel had the biggest military force in the region. The Turner comments, not surprisingly, triggered a firestorm of attacks, led by Camera, the same organization that led the attack on Fox-TV's Carl Cameron after he dared to report on the detention of hundreds of Israelis for spying on U.S. government facilities. Camera ("Committee for Accurate Middle East Reporting in America") is a front group for the Washington-based Israeli/neo-con military penetration group, JINSA.
Mrs. Blair was deluged with accusations that she had defended suicide terrorism.
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