Mideast News Digest
Sen. Ted Kennedy Says 'There's Still Time' To Stop War
Senior Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a March 4 interview on NBC-TV's "Today Show," that there was "still time" to stop war against Iraq. Senator Kennedy, who is the author of two resolutions with senior Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), that require President Bush to seek a formal "Declaration of War" approved by Congress before he can launch military action against Iraq, said that the time for full Senate debate is now.
Kennedy made clear that war is not inevitable. When interviewer Katie Couric asserted that "a lot of people are speculating that at the end of next week, a war will begin, after the UN votes on that second resolution," Kennedy said:
"Well, there's still time. Certainly a lot has happened. A lot has changed at the United Nations, hasn't it, over the period of the last 10 days? And I would hope that the Administration would get the word.... The fact is, we are stronger when we work together."
"We need the United Nations in North Korea .... We have to work with our allies in Asia on North Korea because of its danger, don't we? Yes. And we have to work with our allies in other pressure points around the world. That's a fact. And we shouldn't have a go-it-alone, rush-to-war policy, which this Administration has."
Later in the day, Kennedy was the featured speaker at the United Methodist Church Conference in Washington, and said: "President Bush squandered too much of the good will of the world community because of his single-minded rush to war with Iraq, even if he has a few, or even no allies to go to war with him...."
To much applause, Kennedy also criticized Bush's Feb. 26 speech about so-called democracy, at the American Enterprise Institute. Ridiculing Bush for claiming the war would lead to peace, stability, and prosperity, for the Iraqi people, and the Palestinians, Kennedy said, "We all heard of rosy scenarios, but that was ridiculous!"
He continued: "With inspectors on the ground and stiff international pressure still possible, this is an unnecessary war." The Methodist conference is part of the Protestant denomination to which President Bush belongs, and which is beginning to mobilize heavily against the war. The White House has refused to meet with the head of the United Methodist Church, who is asking for the President to meet a delegation of mainstream Christian leaders.
Turkey Vote Stuns U.S. and Delays War Start
Within minutes after news wires went out worldwide, on March 1, that the Turkish Parliament had passed a bill permitting the deployment of U.S. troops by 264-250 with 19 abstentions, the Speaker of the Parliament, Bulent Arrinc, announced that the bill had actually failed because the Constitution requires a bill to gain the majority of those present, counting abstentions.
On Feb. 28, before the Parliamentary vote on allowing U.S. troops into Turkey for the Iraq invasion, the Turkish National Security Council, composed of senior generals and political leaders, held a meeting, but failed to take any stand on the issue, leaving it to the Parliamentthe same action taken by the Cabinet earlier in the week.
The wire services and the Bush Administration ended up eating crow. At present there are ships with 62,000 U.S. troops, tanks, and other heavy equipment just sitting off Turkey's ports unable to unload.
Iraqi Opposition Meeting 'Ends in Confusion'
According to the Washington Post and Turkish press reports on March 1, the highly publicized meeting of Iraqi opposition groups with U.S. Presidential Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, was a failure that ended with the Turks and the Kurds denouncing each other. The "Khalizad dirty half-dozen" met for three days in Kurdish territory in northern Iraq, but after they were told that the U.S. would appoint an American military man to run the country, the proceedings fell apart, and, according to some reports, began discussing an Iraqi opposition army to fight against Turkish soldiers if they enter Iraqi territory with the U.S. invasion.
The gathering announced a six-member leadership body, but gave up on declaring a provisional government, lacking U.S. support. Meanwhile, Kurds held a demonstration on Feb. 28, burning Turkey's flag, while Turkey's President Erdogan denounced Kurdish leaders' threats to fight if Turkey entered Iraq. The U.S., of course, is promising everything to both sides, and contradictions be damned.
Arab League Members Vote for Their National Sovereignty
The Arab League summit in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt on March 1 ended with a statement read by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa that called for "complete rejection to any aggression on Iraq or threatening the security of any Arab country," and for giving inspectors the time required. It also called on Arab states to "refrain from participating in any military action." Bahrain was named to head a committee to convey the Arab message to the world. The Arab leaders refused to debate a call for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's exile, which had been brought up under Anglo-American pressure.
The League also denounced the call for regime change in Iraq and called for ending the 12-year-old sanctions that have killed 1.5 million Iraqis, particularly children under age 5. The League did call upon Iraq to work with UN weapons inspectors to completely disarm, and said that the same UN Resolutions apply to Israel, which is the world's third largest nuclear power.
Palestinian National Authority President Yassir Arafat was prevented by Israel from attending, but sent a speech which said: "...The government of Israel is the first instigator of this war on brotherly Iraq," referencing how Sharon uses the Iraq war to escalate operations against the Palestinian citizens.
He called Israel's military campaign in the occupied territories an "apartheid war, a colonial war, a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The Palestinian people will not give up the option of a just peace between us and the Israelis on the basis of the two-state solution."
Maureen Dowd Targets 'Clean Break' Blueprint for War
Writing in the New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd became the latest to denounce the "Clean Break" war planwritten in 1996 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This document was originally exposed widely by Lyndon LaRouche, in his Sept. 11, 2002 webcast. Dowd says George Bush's Feb. 26 speech at the neo-con American Enterprise Institute is from the same mold: "Conservatives began drawing up steroid-fuelled plans to reorder the world a decade ago, [which were] imperial blueprints.... "In 1992, Dick Cheney, the Defense Secretary for Bush 41, and his aides, Paul Wolfowitz and [Lewis] 'Scooter' Libby, drafted a document asserting that America should prepare to cast off formal alliances and throw its military weight around to prevent the rise of any 'potential future global competitor' and to preclude the spread of nuclear weapons."
She continues: "In 1996, Richard Perle, now a Pentagon adviser, and Douglas Feith, now a Rumsfeld aide, helped write a report about how Israel could transcend the problems with the Palestinians by changing the 'balance of power' in the Middle East, and by replacing Saddam.... [These] ... hawks saw their big chance after 9/11...."
'Clean Break' Planned To Wipe Out Palestinians, Oslo
The now-notorious document of the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) of July 8, 1996, entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," not only mapped out the necessity of war against Iraq, but insisted that the Oslo accords be wiped off the books.
Drafted by those who are now embedded in the Bush Administration as neo-conservative Anglo-Israeli agentsRichard Perle, Douglas Feith, and David Wurmserthe document was hand-delivered by Perle to Israel's then-Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
While much coverage has recently been given to the "Iraq war" side of the war plan, prepared for Netanyahu, several excerpts from the six-page "Clean Break" memo serve as a useful indication as to why the Bush Administration is refusing to release the "road map" for establishing a Palestinian state, and to put pressure on the Sharon government to abide by the Oslo accords.
"Clean Break" says: "Israel can ... change the nature of its relations with the Palestinians, including upholding the right of hot pursuit for self-defense into all Palestinian areas and nurturing alternatives to Arafat's exclusive grip on Palestinian society.... Israel has no obligations under the Oslo agreements if the PLO does not fulfill its obligations."
Israel Presents 'Plan B' for Invasion of Iraq
On March 4, a well-placed Israeli intelligence source told EIW that, given Turkey's rejection of the staging of U.S. troops on its soil, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has reportedly sent maps and invasion corridor proposals to the Pentagon. The source said that Israel is proposing to stage an incident to justify an Israel Defense Force incursion into Syria via the Golan Heights, which could be used to supply American troops from the 101st Airborne Division, who would be parachuted into northern Iraq. Already, the source indicated there is a buildup of Israeli tanks along the Syrian border, in order to provoke a Syrian mis-step to justify heavy Israeli military actions. This is a totally utopian scheme, since the 101st Airborne would be sitting ducks in mountainous northern Iraq until the Israelis punched through.
Occupied Palestine Territories in Abject Poverty
A total of 2 million people, or 60% of those living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are barely subsisting on $1.32 per day income, according to a World Bank report of March 5. The report states that: "The proximate cause of the Palestinian economic crisis is closureGOI's [Government of Israel's] imposition of restrictions on the movement of Palestinian goods and people across borders and within the West Bank and Gaza."
Describing life for "ordinary Palestinians," it says, "Using a poverty line of U.S.$2 per day, the World Bank estimated that 21% of the Palestinian population were poor on the eve of the Intifada (October 2000). [However, this] number increased to about 60% by December 2002.... The numbers of the poor have tripled, from 637,000 to just under 2 million. The poor are also getting poorer. In 1998, the average daily consumption of a poor person was equivalent to U.S.$1.47 per day. This has now slipped to U.S.$1.32. More than 75% of the population of the Gaza Strip are now poor (less than U.S.$/2day)."
A UN report mentioned in the New York Times of March 6 says that the Palestinian economy has collapsed from $1.5 billion in 1999 to $140 million in 2002!
According to EIW discussions with Palestinian officials, the World Bank report underestimates the crisis. For example, whereas the Bank report says that "unemployment stands at 53% of the workforce (if those no longer seeking work are included)," the figure is more like 70-71%. One of the reasons that people can survive at all, is that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not yet destroyed, and donor funds from mostly European nations have been distributed to the Palestinian people, despite the government of Israel's withholding tax revenues, etc. The PA has become the largest employer in the Occupied Territories, providing about one-third of all the jobs that exist.
Veterans, Experts Expose Pentagon Hypocrisy in the Rush to War with Iraq
Leading critics of George Bush's "Chickenhawk" war policy for Iraq have accused the Pentagon and the Administration of sending out troops with equipment that is defective, and which could lead to needless American fatalities. At a March 6 press conference in Washington, D.C., two Members of Congress, a chemical warfare expert, a retired Marine officer, three Army veteransincluding two who served in the 1991 Gulf Warand the president of an organization of families who have relatives deployed for a possible war in Iraqexposed that the Cheney-Rumsfeld gang really doesn't give a hoot about the health of the troops they are putting in harm's way.
In a meeting chaired by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, they all provided evidence that not only are the troops being deployed with ineffective protection, but the Defense Department is not abiding by a 1997 law that requires establishing a baseline health report on each troop, should something unforeseen arise after combat. The 1997 law stemmed from the Pentagon's handling of the Gulf War illnesseswhich, according to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash), have killed 10,000 veterans and have caused another 200,000 to make disability claims against the government. This is an extraordinary proportion of the 567,000 who were deployed.
Stephen Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center, reported that a total of 307,000 1991 Gulf War veterans have sought treatment for the "Gulf War Syndrome," which he attributed to five factors ranging from use of vaccines that had not been adequately tested, to the useby the United Statesof depleted uranium in antitank shells, which turns to dust on impact. Robinson also reported that a 2001 Army Audit Agency investigation concluded that 62% of the Army's gas masks and 90% of chemical detectors are faulty. Much of this defective equipment is probably in the Gulf region already.
Representative John Conyers (D-Mich) vowed that he would take up the issue with, specifically, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and the two Senators from Michigan, Carl Levin (D) and Debbie Stabenow (D), with the aim of getting the issue brought up in hearings.
Rumsfeld Denies that U.S. Created Osama bin Laden
On March 1, question from the Al-Jazeera satellite TV network charged the U.S. with responsibility for Osama bin Laden, because of the U.S. creation of the mujaheddin during the "surrogate war" against the Soviets in Afghanistan. In response to the question, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said there were many different factions involved in the "war of liberation" in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. That included Osama bin Laden.
But he flatly denied that Osama was a creation of the United States.
However, while the pay stubs exist for the creation of Osama bin Laden in this "surrogate war" as a social service worker and paymaster for Afghansi mujaheddin, the U.S. has never produced the severance order to terminate Osama bin Laden's services.
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