In this issue:

Al-Ahram Daily Highlights Helga Zepp LaRouche's Campaign

Regime Change? U.S.-Backed Iraqi Coup Plotter Arrested for War Crimes

U.S. Should Help UN Achieve Inspections by Providing Intelligence

Chickenhawks Out To Sabotage UN Weapons Inspectors

Perle's War Talk 'Like a Monk Talking About Sex'

Sharon's Assassinations Sabotage Palestinian Talks

Palestinian State Emerges as Front-Burner Issue

From Volume 1, Issue Number 38 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published November 25, 2002
MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST

Al-Ahram Daily Highlights Helga Zepp LaRouche's Campaign

Egypt's semi-official Al-Ahram Daily published a significant article on Nov. 18 about the campaign by German Civil Rights Movement Solidarity ("BueSo") leader Helga Zepp LaRouche's to offer an alternative to the current collapsing financial system (see EUROPE DIGEST this week).

Regime Change? U.S.-Backed Iraqi Coup Plotter Arrested for War Crimes

Regime changers are having problems these days finding sponsors for their plotting. This is the conclusion to be drawn from the news that: a) a leading U.S.-backed Iraqi opposition figure, Gen. Nizar Khazraji, slated to replace Saddam Hussein in a new government, was placed under house arrest in Denmark on charges of war crimes, violating the Geneva convention, and human rights violations; and b) a conference of Iraqi opposition figures scheduled for Nov. 22 in Brussels, has been cancelled, due to "organizational problems." In addition to difficulties created by raging disputes among the opposition factions, the Belgian authorities, who share the German position opposing any war against Iraq, decided not to grant visas to the participants.

This conference, with 200 Iraqis, was to plan out future political arrangements. According to a spokesman for Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, the government decided to cancel the conference because it believed that, since the United Nations inspections teams are going into Iraq, in a process which could prevent a war, it would be intolerable to have a gathering in Brussels of people committed to toppling the Iraqi government.

Representatives of six Iraqi exile groups were to meet British Foreign Office officials Nov. 20, to get an okay for the conference to be held instead in London in mid-December. The British government might let the conference take place, but it would not get involved in funding or organizing any such meeting, a Foreign Office official stressed to Reuters. The thinking, according to a diplomatic source, was that it made no sense for Britain to sponsor an opposition conference while the international community was seeking a peaceful resolution with Saddam.

U.S. Should Help UN Achieve Inspections by Providing Intelligence

Scott Ritter, the weapons inspection expert who served seven years as a chief weapons inspector for UNSCOM and has become an active political opponent of any U.S. war against Iraq, told EIW that he "hopes that the U.S. will turn over to the UN inspectors" the information that the U.S. has on alleged Iraq weapons of mass destruction. Ritter, who is a strong backer of weapons inspections, said that if the U.S. has intelligence about Iraq, "it's legitimate" for the U.S., or any other country, to have it.

But at the same time, Ritter said, the UN has requested that all member countries help the inspections by turning over the intelligence they have, and the U.S. should therefore do that. "We'll find out whether or not the information is legitimate by whether [the Administration] turns it over to the weapons inspection team," he added.

On Nov. 21, the Washington Post reported that disputes by the pro-war faction in the U.S. with Iraq's "declaration" on its Weapons of Mass Destruction, due to be submitted to the UN on Dec. 8, "appeared likely to become the next tripwire for U.S. consideration of military action." While acknowledging that Hans Blix, head of the UN inspection team, has requested help from member countries, the Post said that "the U.S. has its own information on the Iraqi programs." EIR has been monitoring the activities of a special rogue intelligence unit set up in the Pentagon under Israeli Jabotinskyite agent and Assistant Secretary of Defense Doug Feith, a unit that is tasked with developing a "case book" on Iraqi links to terrorism and WMD. Feith hails from the network of neo-conservative thinktanks that house the notorious "chickenhawk" warmongers, who are telling rightwing reporters that President Bush should "refuse" to accept Iraq's declaration of weapons programs, and go for a "short, fast war," before inspectors start their mission.

Chickenhawks Out To Sabotage UN Weapons Inspectors

On Nov. 19, for the first time in nearly four years, the UN weapons inspection team (UNMOVIC), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived "on the ground" in Iraq, and conducted talks to begin the inspections. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed on Nov. 13 to admit weapons inspectors under UN Resolution 1441, which was unanimously adopted by the Security Council on Nov. 8. UNMOVIC chairman Hans Blix told reporters, "Now there is a new opportunity [that] we hope ... will be well utilized, so that we can get out of the sanctions, and in the long term have a zone free of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East." Blix said full inspections can begin on Nov. 26.

The same day, before leaving for a NATO summit in Prague, President Bush, while still threatening possible war, told Czech reporters, "I hope we don't have to go to war with Iraq," that Saddam will "disarm ... for the sake of peace."

The Iraq war that the Washington war party had planned to have take place before the Nov. 5 elections, was put off by diplomacy at the UN, but war party influentials such as the Defense Department's Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, and Richard Perle, are foaming to get back on track towards unilateral war, and have mapped out a number of ways to sabotage the work of the UN. For these neo-conservatives, the issue is not only Iraq, but the very doctrine of "preventive war," against any and all Islamic and Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in a "Clash of Civilizations."

Included in their bag of sabotage tricks:

* Accelerating U.S./British bombings of Iraqi air defenses and radar in the illegal "no fly zones" of North and South Iraq, even after the weapons inspectors were accepted. Lyndon LaRouche has compared this to the U-2 spy plane incident, set up by then-CIA director Allen Dulles to sabotage the Eisenhower/Khrushchev summit in 1960.

* Adoption of Israeli-style murder of suspected terrorists in foreign countries, especially those with Muslim populations. Wolfowitz announced this "preventive assassination" policy with the Nov. 3 killing of six men in Yemen, including an American citizen, and threatened that the U.S. will carry out these killings "anywhere" necessary. This policy would serve—and is intended—to further spread radicalization among Muslims.

* The continuing danger of a "Reichstag fire" type of incident to be blamed on Islam, or Saddam Hussein. This type of staged terrorism is a specialty of the Likud-nuts around Israel's Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Rafi Eytan.

Perle's War Talk 'Like a Monk Talking About Sex'

Represented by high-priced PR agent Eleana Benador, an Islam-hating operative from the Middle East Forum, Richard Perle has been getting a massive amount of press, including interviews in Europe and profiles in major U.S. magazines like U.S. News and World Report.

Perle's main job is to try to recover the momentum for an immediate war against Iraq—which was lost when George W. Bush was persuaded by massive pressure, and some reasonable advice from Colin Powell, to go through the United Nations. Perle considers this decision a major failure, and is hyping the story that an invasion of Iraq will be "a cakewalk," as one of his Defense Policy Board cronies called it.

But the top military leaders are not buying the hype from Perle (who has never been in a war, or even in the military). "Many times, those who have experienced war look at it as a last resort, and those who haven't, see it as a first resort," says retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, commenting on Richard Perle and his ilk. "Those who didn't show up for Vietnam and are now hawks—that's the worst." A Pentagon general agrees: "Guys like that talking about combat is like a monk talking about sex. It's interesting and titillating, but have they ever been there? No." The comments appear in USN&WR Nov. 25.

Sharon's Assassinations Sabotage Palestinian Talks

Leaders of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas completed talks in Cairo, Egypt from Nov. 9-13, as part of an ongoing multinational effort to establish unity among the various Palestinian factions, and end suicide terrorism. This is part of an Arab-European effort to get back to peace negotiations. But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon scorns the talks, and has done everything possible—through his policy of assassination and widespread military campaigns that target entire Palestinian cities—to sabotage any movement that could lead to reopening peace negotiations. Earlier PA agreements with Hamas ended after a series of brutal IDF "preventive assassinations." Like "clockwork," the IDF carried out a brutal assassination of an Islami Jihad leader on Nov. 9, the day the talks began.

The Fatah delegation was headed by Zakaria Aggh, the movement's leader in the Gaza Strip; Fatah officials Tayeb Abdel Rahim and Sakher Habash; and Palestinian Energy Minister Abdel Rahman Hamad. Also present was Arafat's economic adviser Mohammed Rashid. Hamas was represented by Moussa Abu Marzouk and Osama Hamden. These were the first talks since 1996, when the PLO engaged Hamas in an effort to convince them to join the Palestinian Authority.

Although an agreement ending suicide attacks in Israel was apparently not reached, Hamas and Fatah decided to form a joint committee within the Palestinian Authority, and continue talks on cooperation. A statement called for joint activity, to strengthen and buttress Palestinian national unity. Also included was a call to resume talks among all Palestinian factions "in order to reach a diplomatic ... common denominator for the Palestinian nation," since "diplomatic opposition to end the occupation is the legitimate right of the Palestinian nation and it serves Palestinian national interest."

Even this agreement is unprecedented in Fatah-Hamas relations. If strong cooperation can be established on the political level, then attacks by the armed groups such as the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Brigades and the Hamas armed wing, Islamic Jihad, could be curbed.

These talks are very much related to the peace initiative begun in March by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, for settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, and subsequent developments by the Arab League to neutralize the danger of a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, which would inflame the entire region. Egypt, which has the best relations with Arafat, and Saudi Arabia, which supports Hamas, are playing the leading role as mediators. But Syria was also involved, since Hamas' Political Bureau is based in its capital, Damascus. Egyptian sources noted the talks would not have been possible without Syria's help.

The European Union has also played a very important role, with an ongoing six-month effort led by EU's Middle East security specialist Alistair Crooke.

Palestinian State Emerges as Front-Burner Issue

On Nov. 21, two days after the Labor Party victory in Israel of retired General Amran Mitzna, reviving the peace policy of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, there has been a somewhat sudden re-emergence of discussions of a Palestinian state, and pressure on the ultra-rightist Israeli government to go back to peace talks.

Most interesting was the appearance of a widely circulating op ed in the Nov. 21 Washington Post by Brent Scowcroft, titular head of President Bush's President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (which is inactive). Scowcroft, who served as National Security Adviser to two Republican Presidents (George Bush the elder, and Gerald Ford,) tells George W. Bush that he should expend the same amount of energy on reaching a diplomatic victory on the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, as he expended to reach the "victory" of the UN Security Council diplomatic decision on Iraq.

Scowcroft says that those who want to stop peace talks because it might "endanger" the Israeli elections are wrong. The Israeli Labor candidate has put peace on the table, writes Scowcroft, and "clarity" from the U.S. would give a better perspective to the Israeli voters in their elections, and to Palestinian voters, if they have elections soon. Bush should stop demanding "preconditions" of "reform" and "stopping terrorism," but go ahead with the talks now, because otherwise "those on both sides who oppose peace" will have veto power, and nothing can be done.

The same day, at a press conference following a side meeting at the NATO summit in Prague, President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair both condemned the Nov. 21 suicide bombing in Jerusalem by Palestinian terrorists. And both also reiterated that the U.S. and British goal for Israel/Palestine is have two independent states living side by side in peace. Bush said he'll continue to work with "those who share that vision."

These statements reiterating the priority of a Palestinian state are very significant, considering that Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to defeat his rival, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in the Likud Party, by promising the Israeli people that he will never allow a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is very close to America's neo-conservatives, Congress, and to the Christian Zionists, who have threatened Bush that he should not support a Palestinian state; but it appears that Bibi will not be backed by the Americans.

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