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BOY
BOMB VICTIM STRUGGLES AGAINST DESPAIR,
by Samia Nakhoul, Daily Mirror (UK), Apr 8 2003
"Ali Ismaeel Abbas, 12, was fast asleep when war shattered his life.
A missile obliterated his home and most of his family, leaving him orphaned,
badly burned - and blowing off both his arms. With tears running down
his face he asked: 'Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors
can get me another pair of hands? If I don't get a pair of hands I will
commit suicide. I wanted to be an army officer when I grow up but not
any more. Now I want to be a doctor - but how can I? I don't have hands.'
Lying in a Baghdad hospital, an improvised metal cage over his chest to
stop his burned flesh touching the bedclothes, he said: 'It was midnight
when the missile fell on us. My father, my mother and my brother died.
My mother was five months pregnant. Our neighbours pulled me out and brought
me here unconscious. Our house was just a poor shack. Why did they want
to bomb us?'"
A
nation divided, with no bridges left to build In Austin, Texas, Robert
Fisk sees at first hand the vast gulf between the pro- and anti-war movements
in the United States,
Independent (UK), February 16, 2003
"The show was over, recorded for one of those nice liberal local
American TV cable channels – this time in Texas – where everyone agrees
that war is wrong, that George Bush is in the hands of right-wing Christian
fundamentalists and pro-Israeli neo- conservatives. Don Darling, the TV
host, had just turned to thank me for my long and flu-laden contribution.
Then it happened. Cameraman number two came striding towards us through
the studio lights. 'I want to thank you, sir, for reminding us that the
British had a lot to do with the chaos in the Middle East, he said. 'But
I have something else to say.' His voice rose 10 decibels, his bare arms
bouncing up and down at his sides, his shaven head struck forward pugnaciously.
'Yeah, I wanna tell you that the cause of this problem is the fucking
medieval Arabs and their wish to enslave us all – and I tell you that
it is because we want to save the Jews from the fucking savage Arabs who
want to throw them into the sea that we are about to fuck Saddam.' There
was a pause as Don Darling looked at the man, aghast. 'And that,' cameraman
number two concluded, 'is the fucking truth.' Darling called to the studio
manager. 'Where does this man come from?' he demanded to know. The lady
from the University of Texas – organiser of this gentle little pow-wow
– advanced on to the studio floor in horror: 'Who is this person?' I didn't
know whether to laugh or cry. All of a sudden, our nice anti-war chat
had been brought to a halt by a spot of redneck reality ... The people
with whom these liberal academics should be building bridges are the truck-drivers
and bell-hops and Amtrak crews, the poor blacks and the cops whose families
provide the cannon fodder for America's overseas military adventures.
But that, of course, would force intellectuals to emerge from the sheltered,
tenured world of seminars and sit-ins and deal directly with those whose
opinions they wish to change."
One
US rule for Israel, another for Saddam. For 30 years, America has acted
hypocritically in wielding its UN veto,
Observer (UK), February 16, 2003
"Britain and America may have to dilute their demands if they are
to persuade the Security Council to consider a new resolution. Britain's
Ambassador to the UN, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, talked of 'offering new language',
an altogether less belligerent approach than the run-up to the meeting
in November when resolution 1441 was adopted. It seems likely that the
US-UK strategy will rely on the threat in a paragraph at the end of 1441:
'The council has repeatedly warned Iraq that it will face serious consequences
as a result of its continued violation of its obligations.' All members
of the council have already voted in favour of this. Whatever the form
of words eventually accepted, the US and UK are still certain to meet
opposition from Europe and in turn the hawks in the US government will
condemn those urging a veto of early action in Iraq. So it is a good moment
to remember America's own record of vetoing resolutions critical of Israel.
To raise this at any time, but especially now, will inevitably be considered
to be anti-American and anti-Israeli, possibly even anti-Semitic. But
it is none of these things. There is long-term legal and political inconsistency
between the treatment of Israel and other countries in the region, and
the greatest weakness in America's case on Iraq is that it shows no signs
of acknowledging its history of favouritism. In the past 30 years, America
has vetoed 34 resolutions that criticise Israel and seek to restrain its
behaviour. These failed most recently in a demand for the restoration
of land seized from the Palestinians and a cessation of construction in
East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Even in the relatively minor case from
November 1990, when the UN wanted to send three Security Council members
to Rishon Lezion, where an Israeli gunman had shot seven Palestinian workers,
the US vetoed the wishes of the other 14 countries on the council. Over
three decades Arabs have come to understand that the cards are stacked
against them. What is important, but rarely understood, in the United
States is that each case against Israel seems just as compelling in Arab
eyes as the need for Saddam's disarmament is to George Bush. Now that
America wants the permanent members of the Security Council to vote for
a new resolution, or at least seek a definition of 'serious consequences'
in 1441 as meaning military action, Europeans should remind the US of
this appalling record of bias and seek to link the discussion about Iraq
to the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. In a way, the resolutions
stifled by Washington in the past 30 years were unnecessary because so
many of the issues raised are covered by a resolution which was supported
by the US in November 1967 - the famous resolution 242, which underlines
that Israel must return territory acquired in war. This is still active,
but 35 years on the Israelis remain in material breach of 242, a breach
made all the more flagrant by continued building and settling in the occupied
territories. Despite Israeli denials, the message is clear. Israel is
not prepared to exchange conquered territory for peace and would appear
to prefer to become embroiled in a dirty war with terrorist groups rather
than give up a square inch to the Palestinians. Israeli defiance of 242
and the subsequent resolutions passed with US help that reaffirm it have
been a chronic destabiliser in the Middle East. The Israelis will not
shift and the US has done almost nothing to make them. In fact, its financial
and military support has achieved the opposite of compliance. If France
or Russia had undermined Security Council resolutions against Iraq to
this degree, we can only imagine the indignation and rage of men such
as Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. So Americans want it both ways. That
is not unusual for the world's dominant power, but to claim that a disarmament
of Saddam should be undertaken primarily to secure peace in the region
is to neglect the permanent threat to peace caused by Israel's intransigence.
There are many good arguments for toppling Saddam, especially the treatment
of his 23 million subjects, but to Arabs they will not carry much weight
until the West squares up to Israel and insists on compliance of 242.
Those who make policy know this is right, but say it is also unrealistic.
Israel has nuclear weapons and it is a fact of life that America is forced
to intervene in the Middle East to prevent challenges to Israel's regional
dominance. It would, of course, be far more dangerous for Israel to act
overtly on its own behalf as the great military power that it now is.
If America is to be Israel's chaperone and agent, it cannot also be its
policeman."
[Rising grassroots outrage against the "pre-emptive" war
for Israel.]
The
great unheard finally speak out,
Observer (UK), February 16, 2003
"The age of apathy stops here, between a Thomas Cook branch and the
Bloomsbury Diner, where the bodies [hundreds of thousands of anti-war
protesters in London] are jammed together too tightly to move. In the
minutes before the march begins, anyone will tell you why protest has
supplanted politics. Some of these twenty-first century Chartists with
mobile phones are veterans of the Vietnam demonstrations. Some are too
young to remember the Cold War. What unites them is anger against Bush
and Blair, but mainly Blair. Everyone I talk to says that he will not
have their vote again. It is odd to think that these are the sloths who
could not be prised from their armchairs when elections rolled round and
who hit the remote at the first flicker of any BBC political coverage
that wasn't Have I Got News For You. These people, in New Labour's analysis,
were the inert of the Earth. And here they are, out in their hundreds
of thousands, quoting Hans Blix verbatim and defying a Prime Minister
who longed to galvanise them and must now regret becoming the Frankenstein
of the protesting classes. Political leaders hate crowds. Mass meetings
have been supplanted by leaks and soundbites. In the fractious build-up
to war, lonely societies are encouraged to become more solipsistic. A
fearful population, hiding behind its anthrax-proofed windows, is also
tractable. There is nothing threatening to government about citizens bickering
over the last roll of duct tape in Wal-Mart. British marchers have spurned
isolation for solidarity, and fear for fury. Their momentum came almost
from nowhere. Unlike the Jubilee-trippers, the Soham mobsters and even
the Countryside Alliance, they bore no social or political barcode. Theirs
was, and is, a movement without a leader. Its members belong to no obvious
political caste. Labour voters who march are deracinated from their leaders,
and the Tories have none worth worrying about. Their mission, to halt
the war, is by definition negative, and their goal unattainable, bar a
miracle. Those hoping to recalibrate the Prime Minister's moral compass
face disappointment, or even despair. Few predicted weeks ago that so
many people would turn out to stop the unstoppable, and I was certainly
not among them. The surprise has been the altruism of the protesters,
and the size of the vacuum they fill. Blair's natural supporters and opponents
have registered their opposition, and seen it spurned ... Today's protesters
are starved of inspiration and data. In place of a charismatic leader,
they have the belief that politicians are lying. They have no great freedom
fighter to support; only Saddam. You could not sell washing powder on
that basis, let alone a pacifist cause that may crush a Prime Minister.
Yet the movement has taken off and its subscribers, on yesterday's evidence,
are not a reissued set of hoary peaceniks. These are organised people
with clear aims. They want a peaceful solution for Iraq. If that is not
forthcoming, Blair will be punished accordingly."
HYSTERICAL?
WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN,,
The London Daily Mirror, February 17
2003
"When the Daily Mirror launched its campaign against the war
on Iraq we were dismissed as lefty peaceniks, just opposing military action
for the sake of it. As the campaign continued the abuse intensified -
we were accused of being 'hysterical,' of 'cynically chasing new readers,
of over-reacting'. The crescendo of negativity reached a nadir with our
BLOOD ON HIS HANDS front page, powerfully illustrating John Pilger's ferocious
attack on Tony Blair for the impending slaughter of Iraqi civilians. This
was crass, offensive and way too personal, our critics said. Yet it was
the exact same phrase Mr Blair used to denigrate the 1.5 million people
who protested in London on Saturday. What is now absolutely clear is that
the Daily Mirror is right about this war. And Tony Blair is wrong.
The Prime Minister is not a stupid man so he must realise in his astute
head that he is beaten logically, politically and democratically. The
only support he has in this country is from a few lapdogs in the Cabinet
- take a bow, John Prescott - the Tory leadership and newspapers owned
by George W Bush admirers living in America. Those one and a half million
people who marched on Saturday are not the only ones who feel war would
be wrong, needless and a total disaster. Each of them represents many
more. It was the biggest demonstration this country has ever seen. It
rivalled the magnificent anti-Vietnam marches in the United States in
the 70s. In the past, protesters have been sneered at as long-haired hippies.
That couldn't be said about Saturday's demonstrators. Young and old, working,
middle, and upper class... Countless thousands of ordinary people united
on one fundamental principle - war against Iraq at this time is wrong,
wrong, wrong ... Having lost the argument, it is Tony Blair who is plunging
down the road of hysteria. Playing the morality card is not just offensive
and ridiculous, but dangerous. Where would it end? Having taken out Saddam,
where would the US-British axis turn to next? Which other objectionable,
tyrannical regimes would become targets for our bombs and invasion forces?
Will they be sent in to remove Zimbabwe's President Mugabe for driving
his people into starvation? How about the terrible anti-human-rights record
of the Chinese Government - would we take on their immense population?
Or what about the attitude of the Saudis to women and human rights? Or
Israel's defiance of UN resolutions? It all smacks of one rule for Iraq
and another for everyone else. We should be told if we have just heard
the Blair Doctrine - coming second-hand from the dangerous men who run
today's White House - which will become our foreign and military policy
at the start of the 21st Century. The world has one omnipotent power,
whose military spending outstrips every other nation put together. That
country, unlike those in Europe, has hardly suffered from attack. Yet
this White House wants to bombard Iraq and then who-knows-where next.
And it wishes to take the United Kingdom along on its coat-tails, a conspirator
to mass slaughter."
[Bolton, like so many high level war-mongers for Israel in the Bush
administration, is Jewish]
U.S. OFFICIAL
SAYS SYRIA, IRAN WILL BE DEALT WITH AFTER IRAQ WAR,
Ha'aretz (Israel), February 18, 2003
"U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in meetings
with Israeli officials on Monday that he has no doubt America will attack
Iraq, and that it will be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran
and North Korea afterwards. Bolton, who is undersecretary for arms
control and international security, is in Israel for meetings about preventing
the spread of weapons of mass destruction. In a meeting with Bolton
on Monday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that Israel is concerned
about the security threat posed by Iran. It's important to deal with Iran
even while American attention is turned toward Iraq, Sharon said."
A Seattle
'Outlaw' Activist Brings Medicine to Iraqis,
[Jewish] Forward, July 26, 2002
"In November 1997, Bert Sacks felt he needed to spend several
days in Auschwitz. Like most Jewish visitors, the 60-year-old Boston native
wanted to understand, in whatever way possible, the fate that befell his
European brethren. But it is reasonable to guess that he was one of the
few Jewish visitors who, while walking past the lagers and crematoria,
began to think about the children of Iraq ... Of course, at a time when
a seemingly imminent war on Iraq tops the political and media agenda,
Sacks is pretty much on his own in his crusade against what he
calls 'one of the greatest humanitarian violations of our time.' He is
even an outlaw, according to the administration. Sacks has made eight
trips to Iraq since 1996 with fellow activists, each time bringing thousands
of dollars worth of medicines. In 1998, the Treasury Department accused
him of violating American sanctions against Iraq, under which it is illegal
to take any aid into the country without government approval ... He then
came across a June 1991 front-page article in the Washington Post in which
Pentagon officials were quoted as saying American forces had purposefully
destroyed the Iraqi civilian infrastructure, including the electric grid,
in order to further the effect of the sanctions. The article also cited
a study by a Harvard group concluding that 170,000 Iraqi children were
going to die as a result ... He believes American Jews should be especially
sensitive to the suffering of the Iraqi population. Instead, he
contended, the American Jewish lobby is one of the main reasons — along
with the presence of oilmen at the helm of the government and the Bush
family legacy with Saddam — that the campaign to oust the Iraqi dictator
has suddenly picked up so much steam after years of inertia. 'The pro-Israel
lobby does not see that it is dangerous for Israel,' he said. 'An American
strike will be seen in the Arab world as done on behalf of Israel.'"
[Typical Jewish political effort to toxify the anti-war, anti-Jewish
racism, and anti-Israel movement as itself "hate."]
German peace movement criticized, [in
the "Breaking News" section],
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, February 18, 2003
"The Berlin Association Against Anti-Semitism accused the German
peace movement of anti-Semitism. The group issued the criticism following
a demonstration Saturday of some 500,000 anti-war protesters in Berlin.
'From the start of the demonstration, it became clear that groups were
involved whose worldview includes nationalism, racism and anti-Semitism,'
said the letter, signed by about 100 scholars, Jewish religious and communal
leaders, and activist groups from Germany and abroad. 'Revisionist banners
and anti-Israel chants were heard. Israel was depicted as pulling the
strings in the Iraq conflict; its politicians were cursed as ‘child killers,’
and a few flags of the Islamic extremist Hamas and Hezbollah groups were
waved,” the letter added."
EX-PRESIDENT
JIMMY CARTER BACKS OUR FIGHT,
Daily Mirror (UK), Feb 18 2003
"Former US President Jimmy Carter is backing the Daily Mirror's
Not in My Name campaign. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the only US
president since 1945 never to order American soldiers into war, endorsed
our stance on war with Iraq, saying: 'You're doing a good job. I am glad
about that. War is evil.' Carter, who will be 79 this year, is a pariah
among hawkish Republicans and a hero for doveish Democrats, frequently
denouncing wars and conflict whenever they flare ... Carter said an opinion
poll which rated the US as the country posing greatest danger to world
peace was a 'very embarrassing thing' ... He said: 'Some very embarrassing
things have happened in this country. Time magazine in Europe did a public
opinion poll on its website and over 350,000 people responded to the question,
'Which country poses the greatest threat to world peace?' North Korea
received seven per cent of the votes, Iraq received eight per cent and
the United States received 84 per cent' ... [H]e has described the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict as the 'festering cancer and root cause of much anti-American
sentiment'."
[Pro-Israel, Jewish toxification of the anti-war movement:]
London
Peace Marchers Say: Long Live the Intifada,
By Julia Magnet, Front Page Magazine,
February 19, 2003
“I was marching as an observer only, trying to gauge the mood of the 1
million or so who filled the streets from Haymarket to Hyde Park Corner
[to protest an Iraq war]. Till now, I had always gotten a civil—if ill
informed or garbled—answer. Dressed in a beautiful camelhair coat, with
an opulent fur hat and Gucci shades, this lady interested me: her—at least
to my NYC-bred mind—anti-Semitic placard hardly fit the refined figure
she cut ... But the defaced flag of Israel carried by a bearded, middle-aged
Scot took my breath away: a tank, dripping blood, was superimposed over
the Star of David. I’d never seen that at a NYC student rally, and I never
hope to ... Curiouser still was the weird amalgam of chants and slogans,
the trivial next to the libelous: a BAGELS NOT BOMBS next to ZIONISM EQUALS
RACISM. DOWN WITH ISRAEL/ BLIX LOOK INTO ISRAEL/ LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA.
ISRAEL BROKE 69 UN RESOLUTIONS and JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE FIRST jostled
with MAKE TEA NOT WAR and TWAT: THE WAR AGAINST TERROR. A group of veiled
girls in black chadors chanted, 'Bush, Bush we know you; Daddy was a killer,
too,' next to trust-fund trendies in specially made T-shirts: MY BUSH
MAKES LOVE NOT WAR. Where else would full-bearded Muslims, in hajji caps
and white traditional dress, march next to the gay alliance, Iraqi flags
vying with rainbow flags? But one thing unified the march: a rabid hatred
of Israel."
A 'TOXIC' MEME?
Israel's 'amen corner' is cornered,
by Justin Raimondo, antiwar.com, February
19, 2003
"Who benefits from our rush to war?... The answer is clearly Israel
... The American conquest of Iraq will eliminate a threat to Israeli security,
and pave the way for the extension of the war against Israel's other enemies
in the region, notably Syria. This strategic perspective was clearly outlined
in a 1996 paper prepared for the Institute for Advanced Strategic and
Political Studies' 'Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000,'
entitled 'A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.' The ideas
put forward in this remarkable document emerged from a collaborative effort
that included Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks,
Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser,
and Meyrav Wurmser. The idea was to dissuade the Israelis from
going along with the Oslo accord, and outline a new Israeli strategic
vision that would not only rid them of their Palestinian problem, but
give them 'breathing space' ... The authors of this paper were addressing
themselves to then Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, but their
prescription for a new Israeli policy bears an eerie resemblance to America's
post-9/11 stance in the Middle East, and the world at large. And no wonder.
Richard Perle, from his perch at the Pentagon Defense Policy Board,
is the Lenin of the War Party. Douglas Feith is an Undersecretary
of Defense, and David Wurmser is a special assistant to Undersecretary
of State for arms control and international security affairs John Bolton.
Bolton's recent visit to Israel shows us how far advanced the ideas
presented in that 1996 paper have come. Ha'aretz reports: 'U.S.
Undersecretary of State John Bolton said in meetings with Israeli officials
on Monday that he has no doubt America will attack Iraq, and that it will
be necessary to deal with threats from Syria, Iran and North Korea afterwards.'
Phase one of Operation 'Clean Break' seems to be well underway, with its
authors ensconced in the top echelons of the U.S. national security bureaucracy
– and American troops circling Iraq in a ring of steel. Now the second
phase is being cranked up, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon demands
action against Syria and Iran. At a meeting with a delegation of U.S.
congressmen the other day, Sharon handed the Americans their marching
orders: 'Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday that Iran, Libya and
Syria should be stripped of weapons of mass destruction after Iraq.'"
Peres Questions
France's U.N. Status,
macon.com, (Georgia), from Associated Press,
February 20, 2003
"Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on Thursday criticized
France and Germany for their opposition to a U.S.-led attack on Iraq,
and questioned France's status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security
Council. Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also criticized recent
mass demonstrations around the world against a possible U.S. attack on
Iraq ... Peres also suggested another country replace France as a permanent
member of the Security Council."
[Propaganda from the Left: A Jew admits the Israeli root of the Bush
administration's planned war with Iraq and declares Jewish domination
of the "anti-war" movement, but completely dissimulates about
Jewish hegemony throughout American culture. The Jewish Left forbids critical
inquiry into the "J" word which, of course, is too close to
home for comfort.]
It's Not Just the Oil,
by Stanley Heller, February 20, 2003
"Does a boxer fight with one hand tied behind his back? Why is the
anti-war movement reluctant to talk about all the reasons for the drive
to invade Iraq? Yes, major reasons for the permanent war drive are corporate
greed for oil, dreams of political domination, and the lust to test weapons.
But there's another one. Extreme right-wing forces from a foreign country
and their powerful American backers are pushing the U.S. to invade Iraq
and many other countries. I'm, of course, talking about Israel. On November
12 Zev Chafets wrote an incredibly revealing article in the New
Haven Register. In an article headlined,'Disarming Iraq is only a
start in Middle East' he explained that the Arab and Iranian cultures
were 'irrational' and that nothing could be done to 'improve the collective
mental health of Arab societies'. He proposed 'giving the Arabs and Iran
a stark choice: they can have sovereignty or jihad (in its secular or
religious forms), but not both.' He says 'disarming' but of course he
means invading the 'Middle East's most hostile and deranged regimes.'
Now, who is Zev Chafets? He was originally from Michigan, but went
to Israel in 1967 and fought in their army and became director of the
government press office under Prime Minister Menachem Begin. He's
now a columnist for the New York Daily News. His ideas reflect
the desires of Likud, the Israeli ruling party, one variant of extreme
Israeli right wing opinion. The current party head, Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, is delirious for the war. In his mind, with Iraq leveled the
Palestinians will give up hope and he then can go on to his other objectives,
destroying the governments of Lebanon, Syria and Iran. How is this influencing
the U.S.? It's not blatant. When you go to the Anti-Defamation League
site you see nothing calling for war with Iraq. Sharon doesn't have to
engage in noisy public appeals. The forces that demand the Iron Fist as
the answer to all problems (the neocons) are at the highest levels of
the U.S. government. When I was in Hebrew School I remember the teachers
railing at the State Department for being filled with 'Arabists' who hated
Israel. Nobody rational would say that today. The top officials and advisors
to Bush are all rabid neocons. Some like Richard Perle, Douglas
Feith, and David Wurmser actually worked for Israeli think
tanks, writing grand papers for (Likud) Prime Minister Netanyahu
on how the U.S. and Israel should take apart and reconstruct the Middle
East. Do we have to talk about Congress? Just a few days ago the House
voted near unanimously to congratulate the Israeli government on its wonderful
fair election. Here's a government that is in material breach of the Security
Council 'demand' that it remove its forces from the Palestinian cities
and Congress offers it hugs and kisses. Is it any wonder? The Israel Apartheid
lobby just knocked off a four term Congresswoman (McKinney) as it has
done to Senators and Congressmen so many times in the past. Years ago
a wit called Congress 'Israeli Occupied Territory.' The joke is still
right on the mark. Are we giving aid to anti-Semites by denouncing Likud-neocon
influence? Not at all. In no way are we advancing the loony Nazi charge
that 'the Jews' run the country. Sure, many neocons are Jews. Jews
are also the leaders of the U.S. anti-war movement. The biggest
Jewish organizations are backing Sharon, but most Jews don't support them.
According to a 1995 survey by the American Jewish Committee only 22% of
American Jews consider themselves Zionists. Most American Jews don't give
a dime to the ADL or any other Israel-boosting organization. A small group
of U.S. Jews are fanatical supporters of Israeli Apartheid and they shower
it with money. But even though they seem to have the world by a string,
it isn't so. When Israeli interests clash with American ruling class interests
the tail does not wag the dog. [Ask Jonathan Pollard, who's sitting out
a life term in Danbury prison] The U.S. ruling class is overwhelmingly
Christian and the fundamentalism that inspires it is Pat Robertson's evangelism,
not Jewish Orthodoxy. Our argument is angry but precise. When the Left
denounces Sharon we mean Sharon. When we assail an obvious foreign influence
we're not alleging some all-powerful secret plot. When we condemn Israeli
apartheid we denounce a Jewish superiority state, not the idea that Jews
should live in Israel and enjoy every human right. With that said we owe
it to Americans to tell them the whole truth, that part of the war drive
is being fueled by a wacko militarist clique from Israel and its interlocking
bands of American Jewish and Christian supporters. We're told not to bring
up Israeli influence on the U.S. because it would split our supporters.
Well, who would it alienate? It would tick off a certain group of Jews,
those Jews who are schizophrenic politically, people who can be liberal
or radical on every cause except Israel."
Whacking Our
Allies,
by Joe Sobran, Sobrans, February 20, 2003
"So today our right-wing gladiators — George Will, Rush Limbaugh,
Sean Hannity, and the boys at National Review, to mention just a few —
have put on their armor and war paint and are contemptuously heaving brickbats
at our no-good, gutless, appeasing 'allies' (always spelling the word
with derisive quotation marks). Good patriots are now expected to boycott
Perrier and avoid dropping French and German phrases, so as to teach these
effete European creeps the lesson that World War II apparently failed
to get through their skulls. I can’t help noticing, however, that one
U.S. ally (no quote marks necessary here) is exempt from all this riotous
invective. That would be our only reliable ally in the Middle East — the
one that has murdered American sailors and stolen American military secrets.
To our heroic conservative journalists, Israel’s treachery to the United
States since 1954, unlike France’s surrender to Hitler in 1940, is ancient
history — down the Memory Hole. George Will spares Israel his exquisite
sarcasms. Limbaugh and Hannity, discussing Ariel Sharon, stop yelling
and speak in tones of hushed reverence. National Review doesn’t
do long exposés of Israeli duplicity. When it comes to Israel, these patriots’
defiant courage suddenly deserts them. No, Israel is to be loved, honored,
supported, and, above all, trusted. Our right-wing patriots aren’t alarmed,
or even mildly curious, about Israel’s unacknowledged 'weapons of mass
destruction' (including hundreds of nuclear weapons) or about how, exactly,
it came by them. In its unhappy relations with the Arabs, including the
Palestinian children who seem to attract so much Israeli ammunition, Israel
is always right. The motives of Israel’s critics are always suspect. (Hitler’s
name is occasionally mentioned, reminding us that any criticism of Jews
leads inexorably to genocide.) When I hear our ferocious hawks whaling
away (if hawks can be said to whale) at France or Belgium, I try to imagine
them speaking of Israel with similar scorn, fury, and ridicule. The idea
is laughable. If it turned out that the most outré of recent conspiracy
theories was true — that Israel had somehow arranged the 9/11 attacks
— I suspect that these hawks would be only momentarily embarrassed. In
due course they would explain that Israel surely had understandable reasons,
that the news media were making a big sensation out of the incident because
of their anti-Israel bias, and that, still and all, Israel remained our
staunch ally ... Behind all this courageous excoriation of our old Arab
and European allies is a thorough jumpiness about Jews. A simple, sweaty
fear. Our brave boys are scared to death. It’s as if they’d read the forged
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, believed every word of them,
and concluded that the prudent course was to stay on the good side of
the Elders of Zion."
Israel
Sees War in Iraq as Path to Mideast Peace,
New York Times,
February 24, 2003
"Israelis once believed that the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians
would usher in a new Middle East of comfortable Israeli-Arab co-existence.
With Oslo in tatters, they are now putting similar hopes in an American
war on Iraq. Other nations may cavil, but Israel is so certain of the
rightness of a war on Iraq that it is already thinking past that conflict
to urge a continued, assertive American role in the Middle East. Shaul
Mofaz, Israel's defense minister, told members of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last week that after
Iraq, the United States should generate 'political, economic, diplomatic
pressure' on Iran. 'We have great interest in shaping the Middle East
the day after' a war, he said. It may seem paradoxical that the country
most vulnerable to an Iraqi attack in the event of war is most eager for
that war to begin. But Israel's military intelligence has concluded that
the chances of a successful Iraqi missile strike here during this war,
while ever-present, are small. Israel believes that Mr. Hussein seeks
devastating weapons but has far less capacity for mayhem now than he did
during the first Persian Gulf war, when he fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.
The army also believes its own national defenses are much improved. Israel
regards Iran and Syria as greater threats, and it is hoping that once
Mr. Hussein is dispensed with, the dominoes will start to tumble. According
to this hope - or evolving strategy - moderates and reformers throughout
the region will be encouraged to put new pressure on their regimes, not
excepting that of Yasir Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah. 'The
shock waves emerging from post-Saddam Baghdad could have wide-ranging
effects in Tehran, Damascus and in Ramallah,' Efraim Halevy, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's national security adviser, said in a speech
in Munich this month. Until recently, Mr. Halevy was the chief
of Mossad, Israel's spy agency ... Mr. Sharon has been alarmed
by the recent efforts of the so-called Quartet - the United States, the
United Nations, the European Union, and Russia - to intervene in the conflict
here. Mr. Sharon would much prefer to deal only with the United
States, regarding the other players as less supportive of Israel's interests.
The top Israeli official said that the Quartet may prove a 'casualty'
of an Iraqi war. 'The idea of using the Quartet as the great instrument
of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - there are people in Washington
who are going to say, 'What do we need these people for?' he said."
Arafat
warns Israel will exploit any war,
Gulf News [from |Reuters | February 26, 2003
"Israel will use a war on Iraq as cover to evict Palestinians and
destroy holy sites, Yasser Arafat warned yesterday. Arafat, addressing
the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit by videolink, warned his people
would pay a 'heavy price' for any war. 'The Palestinian people, who are
suffering the greatest hardships as a result of the Israeli aggression
against and occupation of their land and properties, are going to pay
a heavy price if this war is waged,' the Palestinian leader told the summit
in Arabic. 'The Israeli government is the first in line to push for this
war in order to exploit the situation while the world is busy with Iraq,'
he said. Arafat, who is unable to attend the 116-nation NAM conference
here because Israel has reportedly refused to guarantee his right to return
to his territory, also called for Israelis suspected of 'war crimes' to
be put on trial. Arafat said certain Israelis were guilty of "the confiscation
of land, the transfer of nationals of the occupying power to that land
and the building of settlements, which constitute war crimes with the
intensity of crimes against humanity.'"
[Consequences of the immoral
war for expansionist Israel and the Jewish Lobby:]
WINNING
A WAR AND LOSING THE WORLD
by William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune,
February 27, 2003
"The Bush government's Phony War against Iraq now has lasted longer
than the Phony War of 1939-1940. With each month of delay, opposition
to the American plan to invade Iraq has intensified. The administration's
manners in campaigning for war have provoked a real anti-Americanism in
West European opinion, going much beyond mere dissent on this one issue.
During the 11 months since the administration made public its intention
to cause 'regime change' in Iraq, international markets and the international
economy have foundered in uncertainty about the war. This uncertainty,
which businessmen and investors hate, has smothered the international
recovery previously expected to follow the bust of the high-tech bubble.
The Bush people seem not to have noticed. The American Phony War is damaging
the international economy, the principal international security and political
institutions, and what is left of the American reputation for seriousness
... Washington's one success has been to split the European Union. The
incompetence of all this is what surprises. Never before has the Iraqi
despot had so many governments trying to prevent an attack on him. Never
before has opinion in the liberal democracies been so alienated from the
United States. The president and his men have put their own team in a
hole so deep that when Washington does go to war against Iraq, as it soon
will, it is unlikely to have any major allies left other than the governments
of Britain, Spain and Poland. Washington says that what thus far has happened
in the Security Council threatens to demonstrate the UN's 'irrelevance,'
since the UN is relevant only when it endorses U.S. decisions ... Washington
has quite possibly made an activist, rival Europe more, rather than less,
likely."
U.S.
Diplomat's Letter of Resignation,
New York Times, February 27, 2003
"The following is the text of John Brady Kiesling's letter of
resignation to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Mr. Kiesling is a career
diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca
to Yerevan." The letter is also reproduced here.
[More about the impending war on behalf of Israel:]
U.S.
Diplomat Resigns, Protesting 'Our Fervent Pursuit of War',
by Felicity Barringer, New York Times, February
27, 2003
"A career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from
Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan resigned this week in protest against
the country's policies on Iraq. The diplomat, John Brady Kiesling, the
political counselor at the United States Embassy in Athens, said in his
resignation letter, 'Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us
to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most
potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson.'
Mr. Kiesling, 45, who has been a diplomat for about 20 years, said in
a telephone interview tonight that he faxed the letter to Secretary of
State Colin L, Powell on Monday after informing Thomas Miller, the ambassador
in Athens, of his decision. He said he had acted alone, but 'I've been
comforted by the expressions of support I've gotten afterward' from colleagues.
'No one has any illusions that the policy will be changed,' he said. 'Too
much has been invested in the war' ... Asked if his views were widely
shared among his diplomatic colleagues, Mr. Kiesling said: 'No one of
my colleagues is comfortable with our policy. Everyone is moving ahead
with it as good and loyal. The State Department is loaded with people
who want to play the team game - we have a very strong premium on loyalty.'"
Bush
lays out his “vision” for the Middle East. US imperialism’s rendezvous
with disaster,
World Socialist Web Site, February 28, 2003
"According to the US president, the struggle of the Palestinians
will end once Baghdad can no longer serve as 'a wealthy patron that pays
for terrorist training and offers rewards to families of suicide bombers.'
The arrogance and stupidity of this statement are breathtaking. Does Bush
really believe that Palestinian youth go to Baghdad to learn how to blow
themselves up, or that they do it to get Iraqi 'rewards' for their families?
Nearly 2,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and Zionist
settlers since the intensification of the intifada in September 2000,
the great majority unarmed civilians. The population of more than 3.5
million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is subjected to a permanent
state of siege, locked in their homes on pain of death, prevented from
moving freely by hundreds of roadblocks and barricades, and denied adequate
food and medicine. The Bush administration is fully complicit in this
naked repression ... The most right-wing government in the country’s [Israel's]
history, Sharon’s coalition rests on two semi-fascist parties,
one based on the settlers in the occupied territories and the other promoting
a policy of 'transfer,' i.e., the expulsion of the Palestinians from the
West Bank and Gaza. This Israeli regime has welcomed and encouraged a
war against Iraq. It will use the US invasion as the pretext for launching
its own intensified assault on the Palestinians. It enjoys the intimate
collaboration of the Bush administration. Among the figures most directly
involved in planning the war against Iraq are US officials who formerly
functioned as advisors and lobbyists for the Israeli government and the
Likud Party. Richard Perle, for example, worked as an advisor to
Benyamin Netanyahu, Likud’s rightist candidate in the 1996 election. Perle
championed an end to peace talks with the Palestinians and the reconquest
of Gaza and the West Bank by the Israeli military. Working with him as
an advisor to the Zionist right was Douglas Feith, now undersecretary
of defense for policy ... Feith has now emerged as the Pentagon’s point-man
for the 'postwar reconstruction' of Iraq. Tapped for the top civilian
job in the planned “office of reconstruction” for the occupied country
is Michael Mobbs, another Pentagon bureaucrat who was formerly
Feith’s law partner. The lucrative practice run by Feith
when he was out of government had essentially one client, the Israeli
military-industrial complex. Last year, Mobbs was the author of
a two-page sworn statement defending President Bush’s right to declare
any US citizen an 'enemy combatant' and jail them indefinitely without
charges, a hearing, a lawyer or bail, much less a trial. The memo was
submitted in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a 21-year-old American-born
Saudi captured in Afghanistan and held incommunicado in the Guantanamo,
Cuba prison camp. With such personnel, the claim that the aim in Iraq
is to foster a democratic revival is preposterous. What is being prepared
is a brutal colonial regime that will seek to utilize as much as possible
the remnants of Saddam Hussein’s own repressive apparatus while subordinating
it to the interests of the US and Israel. Its principal function will
be to guarantee unrestricted US exploitation of Iraqi oil and the suppression
of popular revolt. What is most striking about Bush’s “vision,” however,
is that it by no means ends with Iraq. With an invasion of that country,
Washington is embarking on an open-ended campaign of military interventions
that will bring it face to face with revolutionary explosions in the Middle
East and throughout the world."
[Talk show screamer Michael "Savage" (who is Jewish, born
Michael Weiner) calls for those who oppose the invasion of Iraq (unspoken
subtext: on behalf of Israel) to be jailed.]
Michael Savage,
Michael Savage
"The Sedition Act - Time to Act. Time to Arrest the Leaders of the
Anti-War Movement, Once we Go To War? We Must Protect Our Troops! Sponsor
The Paul Revere Society!"
[Increasingly, the United States military IS the Israeli military.]
U.S.
military plugs Israel into real-time war monitoring. Unprecedented access
to command intelligence aims to keep IDF out of Iraq conflict,
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz (Israel),
March 4, 2003
"Israel and the United States have set up a joint command post next
to the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv at which Israeli army officers will be
able to view real-time pictures of the movements of American war planes
over Iraq in the event of a war. In addition, an American early warning
system that is hooked directly into U.S. intelligence satellites over
Iraq was transferred to Israel a few weeks ago, giving Israel direct access
to information on any Iraqi missile launches at its terrority, with no
delays and no filtering. Both of these are unprecedented measures, according
to a report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. The aim is to prove
to Israel that the U.S. is doing everything in its power to prevent Iraqi
missiles from landing here, and therefore to convince it not to retaliate
should any missiles nevertheless hit. According
to the Journal, Israel will be the only country other than the U.S. hooked
directly into the U.S. Central Command's communications system."
[Another consequence of Jewish Hollywood and the impending war for
Israel].
Hollywood
Actors Raise McCarthyism Specter on Iraq,
Yahoo!News (from Reuters), March 4, 2003
"Hollywood actors, facing a vitriolic backlash for their opposition
to a war against Iraq, have raised the specter of Cold War McCarthyism
in an appeal to avoid returning to one of the movie industry's darkest
hours. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) said a slew of hate-mail directed
at actors who have taken a public personal stand against war, along with
calls for boycotts of movies and albums on the nation's talk radio airwaves
and Internet message boards, 'suggests that the lessons of history have,
for some, fallen on deaf ears.We deplore the idea that those in the public
eye should suffer professionally for having the courage to give voice
to their views. Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated
in this nation,' SAG, the nation's largest actors' union, said in a statement.
The SAG statement was issued in response to a growing tide of abuse toward
American celebrities who have spoken out against a 'rush to war' on nationally
televised award shows, through interviews, anti-war TV ads or by taking
part in mass protests."
[The Jewish defense of Israeli racism: criticizing the Jewish Lobby
and the impending war on behalf of Israel is "hate."]
Anti-war
sentiment borders hate speech. Guest commentary: Masha Katz,
Joel Sokoloff, Robert Galinsky, Dan Gruber and nine
co-signers,
Oregon Daily Emerald, March 04, 2003
"Free speech -- on which this country was founded -- is the right
and privilege of all individuals. With this freedom comes responsibility,
which was jeopardized on Feb. 18. At the intersection of 13th Avenue and
University Street, a swastika, a symbol of atrocity and anti-Semitism,
was depicted with 'Bush=Hitler' written nearby. As Jewish students, we
feel that incident warrants commentary. First, using a swastika for political
discourse is offensive and unacceptable. The swastika, as utilized by
Nazi Germany, is the symbol that was used to unite a nation for the systematic
extermination of our ancestors. This was not only the symbol to pool hatred
solely against the Jews, but also many other minority groups which were
thought to be inferior. The Nazi swastika has forever become the mark
of anti-Semitism and hate. There is no denying that President George W.
Bush is a controversial political leader. However, the comparison of Hitler
to Bush marginalizes the horrors the Nazis committed. Any objective view
of recent history and current events will show that this analogy is flawed
in many ways. Those responsible should be more aware of the implications
of their actions and understand that what they did forms a basis for the
resurgence of hate on campus. There is already concern among many that
the revitalization of the anti-war movement has brought around hateful
thoughts in the masses that are hard to quell once in progress. One example
of this is the subtle but strong cartoon depiction of Ariel Sharon
in the Emerald ... Although this cartoon is not the specific matter in
question, it is obvious that the anti-Israel movement is broadening to
include anti-Jewish thought. This all goes back to the line between free
speech and hate speech. This is a difficult scale to try to balance because
free speech is held so dearly in this country. There is the case that
any censorship is a distinct violation of free speech and will just lead
to further suppression of free expression. This rationale is valid most
of the time, but there must be an awareness that not all speech is conducive
to critical thinking and sometimes has the reverse effect. Using hate
to rally others behind your thoughts just creates more mindless following
and doesn't recognize that there may be people who are deeply offended
by this absurd demonstration of insensitivity."
[Jail for protesting the war for Israel.]
Man
Arrested for Wearing Peace T-Shirt,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), March
5, 2003
"A man was charged with trespassing in a mall after he refused to
take off a T-shirt that said 'Peace on Earth' and 'Give peace a chance.'
Mall security approached Stephen Downs, 61, and his 31-year-old son, Roger,
on Monday night after they were spotted wearing the T-shirts at Crossgates
Mall in a suburb of Albany, the men said. The two said they were asked
to remove the shirts made at a store there, or leave the mall. They refused.
The guards returned with a police officer who repeated the ultimatum.
The son took his T-shirt off, but the father refused. ''I said, `All right
then, arrest me if you have to,'' Downs said. 'So that's what they did.
They put the handcuffs on and took me away.'"
[Who is the foundation behind the new Middle East "Plan."
Ted Koppel, who is Jewish, won't tell you. William Kristol,
the big pusher behind the "Plan" also is Jewish. So is even
counter-commentator below Ian Lustick, pro-Israel Jewish White
House hawks like Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard
Perle, and on and on. The "Plan" is Jewish, and it
a new form of imperialism in the Middle East -- the United States as an
extension of brutal, racist, "pre-emptive strike" Israel.]
The
Plan,
ABC Nightline (posted at unansweredquestions.net),
March 5, 2003
[transcript]
WILLIAM KRISTOL, PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY: If America
doesn't lead, no one else will.
TED KOPPEL, ABC NEWS (Off Camera) It has been called a secret blueprint
for US global domination.
WILLIAM KRISTOL America was being too timid and too weak and too
unassertive in the post-Cold War era.
TED KOPPEL (Voice Over) A small group of people with a plan to
remove Saddam Hussein, long before George W. Bush was elected president.
PROFESSOR IAN LUSTICK, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA This group set
an agenda and have made the President feel that he has to live up to their
definitions of manliness and fear their definitions of failure.
TED KOPPEL (Voice Over) And 9/11 provided the opportunity to set
it in motion.
WILLIAM KRISTOL One of the lessons of 9/11 is that you can't sit
back and wait to be hit.
Graphics: The Plan
TED KOPPEL (Voice Over) Tonight, "The Plan", how one group and
its blueprint have brought us to the brink of war ...
TED KOPPEL (Off Camera) You can watch our story tonight on at least
two levels. One, the conspiracy theory, as in this excerpt from a Scottish
newspaper, the Glasgow 'Sunday Herald'. 'A secret blueprint for US global
domination reveals that President Bush and his cabinet were planning a
premeditated attack on Iraq to secure regime change even before he took
power in January 2001.' And a similar, if slightly more hysterical version
from a Russian paper, the 'Moscow Times'. 'Not since Mein Kampf has a
geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow.'
TED KOPPEL (CONTINUED) (Off Camera) Take away the somewhat hyperbolic
references to conspiracy, however, and you're left with a story that has
the additional advantage of being true. Back in 1997, a group of Washington
heavyweights, almost all of them neo-conservatives, formed an organization
called the Project for the New American Century. They did what former
government officials and politicians frequently do when they're out of
power, they began formulating a strategy, in this case, a foreign policy
strategy, that might bring influence to bear on the Administration then
in power, headed by President Clinton. Or failing that, on a new Administration
that might someday come to power. They were pushing for the elimination
of Saddam Hussein. And proposing the establishment of a strong US military
presence in the Persian Gulf, linked to a willingness to use force to
protect vital American interests in the Gulf. All of that might be of
purely academic interest were it not for the fact that among the men behind
that campaign were such names as, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul
Wolfowitz. What was, back in 1997, merely a theory, is now, in 2003,
US policy. Hardly a conspiracy, the proposal was out there for anyone
to see. But certainly an interesting case study of how columnists, commentators,
and think-tank intellectuals can, with time and the election of a sympathetic
president, change the course of American foreign policy ...
JACKIE JUDD (Off Camera) What was the Project's influence in shaping that
thinking?
WILLIAM KRISTOL Well, we had been making these arguments for a
few years and we continued to make them.
JACKIE JUDD (Off Camera) How?
WILLIAM KRISTOL Magazine articles, faxed memoranda, longer reports.
JACKIE JUDD (Off Camera) To whom?
WILLIAM KRISTOL To the whole world. We made it very public that
we thought that one consequence the President should draw from 9/11 is
that it was unacceptable to sit back and let, either terrorist groups
or dictators developing weapons of mass destruction, strike, first at
us.
JACKIE JUDD (Voice Over) Out of all this, a conspiracy theory blossomed,
especially in Europe. From Scotland to Russia to England. Writers who
oppose a war have written about a cabal of neo-conservatives pulling the
strings of the President. A cabal with visions of an imperialist America
dominating the world. Even Ian Lustick thinks the Project has acted
in a conspiratorial way. PROFESSOR IAN LUSTICK This group, what
I call the tom-tom beaters, have set an agenda and have made the President
feel that he has to live up to their definitions of manliness, their definitions
of success and fear, their definitions of failure ...
JACKIE JUDD (Voice Over) Some critics compare the Project to the group
of men who helped lead America into Vietnam and came to be known as "the
best and the brightest." Kristol dismisses the comparison. Still, he says,
as America seems poised to go to war, there is a degree of accountability
he will feel when the first bomb drops.
WILLIAM KRISTOL Of course I'll feel some sense of responsibility.
The only point I would also make, though, is one also has to take responsibility,
would also have to take responsibility if one advocated doing nothing
and then if something terrible happens. And, and I worry. I worry, not
because I'm going to look bad, I worry because people could die and will
die in this war.
JACKIE JUDD (Off Camera) And after a war, the Project has a vision beyond
a regime change in Iraq. A vision in which the United States government
inserts itself in other failed regimes in the Middle East. So this truly
does become a new American century."
[Another columnist who walks on eggshells before the Jewish Lobby.
Dare to speak openly and honestly about Israel's centrality in the impending
war with Iraq and your career is in danger.]
Playing
Texas poker, Bush bets all on Iraq,
by Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times, March
6, 2003
"A senior Bush official privately admits what his administration
cannot declare publicly. The stagnant economy, a dagger aimed at the heart
of George W. Bush's second term, will not immediately respond to the president's
economic growth program. The economic engine will not be revived until
the war against Saddam Hussein is launched and won. Military victory is
anticipated inside the Bush administration as the tonic that will prompt
corporation officers and private investors to unleash the American economy's
dormant power. Although it is impolitic to say so, the fact that the United
States will be sitting on a new major oil supply will stimulate the domestic
economy. That puts a high premium on quickly gaining control of Iraq's
oil wells before they can be torched--a major uncertainty in an otherwise
strictly scripted scenario. 'This is Texas poker, with the president putting
everything on Iraq,' a Republican senator (who thoroughly approves of
this policy) told me ... Few Republicans discuss even in private whether
the president had to make this bet. The usually unasked question: Was
it really necessary to focus on Saddam's removal from power? With U.S.
troops ready to head into harm's way, patriotic politicians do not want
to speculate whether this war was avoidable. Any
suggestion that the present course largely echoes policies of the Israeli
government risks accusations of anti-Israeli and, indeed, anti-Semitic
bias. Ever since the Six Day War of 1967, my late partner Rowland Evans
and I have faced such accusations whenever we questioned the wisdom of
a joint U.S.-Israeli policy. Most recent was the column in the
Washington Post of Feb. 18 by Lawrence F. Kaplan, a New Republic
senior editor. He cited me and several other journalists in alleging that
'invoking the specter of dual loyalty' (to the United States and Israel)
by Jewish Americans was 'toxic,' polluting and even nullifying 'public
discourse.' Two days later on CNN's 'Crossfire,' I asked Kaplan to name
one instance when I had suggested dual loyalty by anybody. He could not,
because I had not. But more than misrepresenting me is involved. Origins
of the decision to wage the war against terrorism by removing Saddam has
nothing to do with the ethnic origins of its supporters, but constitute
something that should be explored without being attacked."
[Jewish neurotic totalitarianism: if you're anti-war and don't want
to kill in the service of Israel, the effect is to kill Jews.]
The peace
movement of the 1930s made the Holocaust inevitable --- by accident; The
peace movement of Today wants no more accidents: Just the death of Jews,
by Sam Schulman, Jewish World Review,
March 6, 2003
"The forces aligned with the anti-war, pro-Saddam movement - the
interests guiding the anti-war, pro-Sadaam movement - and most of all,
the strength the anti-war, pro-Saddam movement derives from Jewish supporters
- including, it would seem, most of Hollywood's Jews, the editors of The
Forward, the readers of The New York Times - are objectively
if not intentionally supporting the people who wish them harm, death,
and total elimination. Language itself has changed its meaning. Three
years ago, those who said they were anti-Israel but not anti-Semitic meant
that they opposed the particular measures the Government of Israel was
taking to defend its civilians from terrorists. Now, to say that one is
anti-Israel but not ant-Semitic means generally that - if one is a moderate
- one is opposed to the existence of Israel as a self-governing Jewish
State where it has existed for the better part of a century. But if one
is really progressive, it means that one is opposed to the notion that
Jews might be permitted to live as individuals in Palestine, where they
have lived and come and gone freely and continuously for over two millennia,
and that, instead, they should be uprooted and dispossessed by force ...
For those of our race - the historic victims of so many causes - it would
be disastrous to make the same mistake twice, and entrust our children's
fate to the hands of these sad and complicitous pacifists."
America
admits suspects died in interrogations,
by Andrew Gumbel, Independent (UK), March
7, 2003
"American military officials acknowledged yesterday that two prisoners
captured in Afghanistan in December had been killed while under interrogation
at Bagram air base north of Kabul - reviving concerns that the US is resorting
to torture in its treatment of Taliban fighters and suspected al-Qa'ida
operatives. A spokesman for the air base confirmed that the official cause
of death of the two men was 'homicide', contradicting earlier accounts
that one had died of a heart attack and the other from a pulmonary embolism.
The men's death certificates, made public earlier this week, showed that
one captive, known only as Dilawar, 22, from the Khost region, died from
'blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery
disease' while another captive, Mullah Habibullah, 30, suffered from blood
clot in the lung that was exacerbated by a 'blunt force injury'. US officials
previously admitted using 'stress and duress" on prisoners including sleep
deprivation, denial of medication for battle injuries, forcing them to
stand or kneel for hours on end with hoods on, subjecting them to loud
noises and sudden flashes of light and engaging in culturally humiliating
practices such as having them kicked by female officers. While the US
claims this still constitutes 'humane' treatment, human rights groups
including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have denounced
it as torture as defined by international treaty. The US has also come
under heavy criticism for its reported policy of handing suspects over
to countries such as Jordan, Egypt or Morocco, where torture techniques
are an established part of the security apparatus. Legally, Human Rights
Watch says, there is no distinction between using torture directly and
subcontracting it out."
[Jack Walters is one of the few American politicians who isn't hanging
out of Jewish pockets, and he's on the right moral track, but he doesn't
emphasize the central problem: the Jewish Lobby that seeks to exploit
the American military to remake the Middle East for the convenience of
brutal, racist Israel.]
Missouri
GOP Chairman Resignation Letter,
by Jack Walters, P.O. Box 512, Columbia, MO 65205, 573-474-4449
Email: rapid.press@verizon.net
Information Clearinghouse, March 8, 2003
"I grieve for our nation, and the untold suffering that will be wrought.
As history has shown, you can possess the greatest armaments in the world,
but if your cause and motives are not right, only catastrophe will result.
OUR COUNTRY ABOVE POLITICS. As the Bush administration moves toward certain
war in the Middle East—a war which I believe nothing good will come from,
a war which is unjust, unnecessary, and a war which will undoubtedly widen,
perhaps even into world war, thereby placing our nation in dire peril—I
have made a decision regarding my position as Boone County Republican
Chairman. Wars are easy to get into, but very difficult to get out of.
They can sap the moral and spiritual fiber of a nation, squander lives
and resources, deplete scarce funds, cause undue hardship on all involved,
destroy families, and engender hopelessness. I have questioned both the
motives for military action at this time, and the ever-changing, illogical
justifications presented to us in what has to be one of the greatest media
propaganda blitzes ever force-fed a populace. Any time ground troops are
deployed, serious questions must be asked and real answers demanded. The
jingoistic rhetoric we are receiving does not constitute legitimate answers.
The consequences of our planned attack on Iraq (and also probably Iran,
given the size of our forces and their location in proximity to Iran),
should cause us all to pause. The Pentagon has announced that we will
hit Baghdad with a force almost equal to the bombing of Hiroshima. Obviously
many thousands of civilians will perish, with untold thousands maimed.
And for what? To liberate them? To bring them freedom? Or democracy? Or
is it to really secure the world’s second largest oil reserve and establish
a base from which to subjugate other Middle Eastern nations? Is
it also the plan for Israel to use the cover of war to forcibly relocate
the Palestinian population (as has been publicly stated by some members
of Israel’s current government)? How on earth have we arrived at
this crucial juncture in our country’s history? How has a war on terrorism
been converted into an attack on Iraq? What threat does Iraq pose to us?
We must lay the blame squarely on our congress, who according to our Constitution,
only has the power to declare war. For congress to cede it’s war-making
power to the executive branch is unconstitutional on the very face of
it and effectively destroys our three branches of government. Circumventing
our Constitution is very bad, and the undeclared wars, which have resulted
in our recent history, have had disastrous results. Undeclared wars have
no declared objectives, and therefore can widen at will, and our foray
into the Middle East will likely set in motion a long-term wave of retaliation.
Indeed, I believe that the administration would like to entice Iraq into
firing the first blow so some justification could be paraded at the United
Nations. If the United States government can adopt this unreal doctrine
of preemptive attack on any nation, anywhere, at any time, so can other
nations! This is how world wars begin. If the President goes into Iraq
alone without a UN resolution, he will be in violation of the war powers
given him last October by congress which was contingent on UN approval.
A constitutional crisis will occur. What we are about to do in the Middle
East is abhorrent to me. It is made doubly so since this is a contrived
and fraudulently justified war with hidden objectives. The coming mass
slaughter of innocents, the harm our own troops are being placed in, and
the potential for wars on several fronts have brought home to me the sobering
realization that by remaining Boone County Republican Chairman, I would
be giving tacit approval to this imminent war, and tacit approval to the
belligerent and reckless language coming from the White House. The safety
and integrity of our country outweighs politics. I therefore resign as
Chairman of the Boone County Republican Central Committee effective at
noon, March 10, 2003."
[Still waiting for Carter's courageous article about the Jewish lockhold
on U.S. foreign policy ...]
Jimmy Carter
opposes unilateral attack on Iraq,
ABC News, March 9, 2003
"Former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter has
condemned preparations for a unilateral US attack on Iraq, saying it would
be an unjust war 'almost unprecedented in the history of civilised nations'.
In an article in The New York Times, Mr Carter said profound changes
in US foreign policy have reversed 'consistent bipartisan commitments
that for more than two centuries have earned our nation greatness' ...
President George W Bush is facing widespread international opposition
to his threats to invade Iraq and topple President Saddam Hussein, whom
Washington accuses of hiding chemical and biological weapons. Mr Bush
says he will not let the absence of UN approval stop him, describing US
security as paramount. Saddam has denied having weapons of mass destruction
and several members of the UN Security Council want continued UN arms
inspections rather than war. Mr Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize
last year, said Iraq did not directly threaten US security. 'But now ...
despite the overwhelming opposition of most people and governments in
the world, the United States seems determined to carry out military and
diplomatic action that is almost unprecedented in the history of civilised
nations,' he wrote. Mr Carter described Mr Bush's attempts to link Iraq
to the September 11 2001 attacks on America as unconvincing and said the
President has no international authority to establish a "Pax Americana
in the region, perhaps occupying the ethnically divided country for as
long as a decade'".
[Standing up to the (Jewish Lobby's) war against Iraq.]
Second
US diplomat quits over war,
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), March
11 2003
"A veteran US diplomat resigned today in protest over US policy toward
Iraq, becoming the second career foreign service officer to do so in the
past month. John Brown, who joined the State Department in 1981, said
he resigned because he could not support Washington's Iraq policy, which
he said was fomenting a massive rise in anti-US sentiment around the world.
In a resignation letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Brown said
he agreed with J Brady Kiesling, a diplomat at the US embassy in Athens
who quit in February over President George W Bush's apparent intent on
fighting Iraq. 'I am joining my colleague John Brady Kiesling in submitting
my resignation from the Foreign Service - effective immediately - because
I cannot in good conscience support President Bush's war plans against
Iraq,' he said. 'Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated
with the unjustified use of force,' Brown said in the letter, a copy of
which he sent to AFP. 'The president's disregard for views in other nations,
borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American
century,' he said."
[The dam against open discussion about Jewish dominance in America
is starting to rupture -- slow but sure.]
The
Iraq crisis as the War of the Jews,
by Bradley Burston, Haaretz (Israel),
March 12, 2003
"The Iraq crisis has triggered the largest pre-emptive anti-war movement
in history, with millions on the march against a war that has still yet
to begin. As the tide of opposition has grown, so has an undercurrent
of argument that Jewish influence in America and Israel is a crucial factor
pushing Washington into battle, in turn spurring furious debate over the
line between free expression and classic anti-Semitism. The latest focus
of the debate was a congressional district close to Washington, where
veteran Democratic Congressman James P. Moran Jr. sparked fiery condemnation
by telling an anti-war gathering at a Virginia church why he believed
mass opposition across the U.S. to an Iraq offensive had not done more
to reverse the march to war. 'If it were not for the strong support of
the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this,'
Moran said in remarks quoted Tuesday by the Washington Post. 'The
leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could
change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should.'
An onslaught of criticism followed, undiminished by Moran's subsequent
apology ... Moran's remarks came amid a flood of commentary from analysts
of both the American left and right suggesting that Bush administration
was taking advice - if not outright orders - from the Sharon government
and the Israeli defense establishment on handling Saddam Hussein. The
analysts' comments have intensified as top-ranking Israeli officials have
gone on record predicting that the war could have a cure-all effect for
many of the Jewish state's paralyzing economic and security ills. The
image of such a deus ex machina has been invoked so often as to have entered
Israeli public discourse as a synonym for the positive side effects of
a war in Iraq - a solution which, if far-fetched in many of its assumptions,
may be the only remedy on an otherwise desolate horizon. Of late, the
very Jewish organizations speaking out against what they perceive as the
new anti-Semitism have themselves come in for attack for allegedly doing
the bidding of offstage Jewish and Israeli puppet-masters ... Several
of Bush's current defense advisers were instrumental in the preparation
of a 1996 position paper for then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
a darling of a number of self-described neo-conservatives, many of them
high-profile Jewish Republicans. As one of its recommendations, the position
paper advised Israeli leaders to 'focus on removing Saddam Hussein from
power in Iraq.' The paper's authors included Douglas Feith, now
Bush's Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Richard Perle, currently
chairman of the Pentagon's advisory Defense Policy Board, and David
Wurmser, now a special assistant to Undersecretary of State John
R. Bolton. The voices alleging undue hardline Israeli and Jewish influence
on the administration also cite the appointments of the hawkish Paul
Wolfowitz as Deputy Defense Secretary and of Perle protege
Elliot Abrams, viewed as a persuasive critic of the moribund Israeli-Palestinian
peace process, as director of Mideast affairs for the National Security
Council. The Abrams appointment spurred an unnamed senior administration
official to tell the Washington Post last month that 'the Likudniks
are really in charge now' ... Although Jews on the left have long been
inured to being dismissed - often by fellow Jews - as anti-Semitic for
criticizing Israel, the vociferous nature of some anti-war organizers'
anti-Israel positions has convinced even fellow Jewish leftists that anti-Semitism
is indeed the proper designation."
[Unspoken subtext: American foreign policy has become a pawn of the
Jewish Lobby, as has the British Tony Blair government.]
40
Labour MPs call for Blair to resign,
March 12, 2003
"Labour Party discontent over Tony Blair's stance on Iraq burst into
the open for the first time yesterday when more than 40 MPs called for
the Prime Minister to resign. The Campaign Group of Labour MPs issued
a statement calling on the Prime Minister to 'consider his position' and
fellow left-wingers urged a party conference to discuss a leadership challenge.
Hilton Dawson, the MP for Lancaster and Wyre, also suggested in a Commons
debate that Mr Blair should step down if he failed to get a fresh UN mandate
for war ... . But the fact that MPs were openly prepared to contemplate
Mr Blair's dismissal underlined the extent of the schism facing the Prime
Minister in the absence of a second UN resolution. As well as resignation
by Clare Short and others, he faces a rebellion by up to 200 MPs. Mr Dawson,
who is not known as a left-winger, said in the House of Commons that the
Prime Minister should consider quitting or risk bringing the Labour Party
'to its knees' over war with Iraq ... John McDonnell, the MP for Hayes
and Harlington, issued a statement on behalf of the 40 MPs in the Campaign
Group that read: 'It is time for the Prime Minister to consider his position.
If he is not prepared to stand up to George Bush, he must make way for
those that will,' it said."
[British Prime Minister Tony Blair swept by the Jewish pro-war Lobby.]
J'accuse:
Why Tony Blair has to go,
Toronto Globe and Mail, March 12, 2003,
"The Linlithgow constituency association of the British Labour Party
has put forward a motion recommending that Prime Minister Tony Blair reconsider
his position as leader of our party if Britain supports a war against
Iraq without clearly expressed support from the United Nations. I agree
with this motion. I also believe that if Mr. Blair goes ahead with his
support of an American attack without unambiguous UN authorization and
without a vote in our House of Commons, he should be branded as a war
criminal and sent to The Hague. I have served in the House of Commons
as a member of the Labour Party for 41 years and I would never have dreamed
of saying this about any one of my previous leaders. But this is a man
who has disdain for the House of Commons and international law. This is
a grave thing to say about my party leader. But it is far less serious
than the results of a war that could set Western Christendom against Islam.
Mr. Blair is a lawyer for heaven's sake, but a growing number of dissenters
within our party have concluded that he seems to have no understanding
that his decision to sanction military action in Iraq without proper Security
Council authorization is illegal under international law ... I don't think
Mr. Blair really understands the horrors of 21st century war. In 1994,
I visited Baghdad (all expenses paid by me) and saw the carbonated limbs
of women and children impregnated against a wall by the heat of just one
cruise missile. In the coming war, we are told that 800 cruise missiles
will be launched just to soften up the enemy. Canadians should not be
astonished at the growing opposition to Mr. Blair in Britain and within
his own party. Many of us in the Labour Party believe he has misunderstood
the pressing danger. It comes not from Iraq, but from terrorism. If there
is a link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, it is this: Osama bin Laden
hates Saddam Hussein; on at least two occasions his organization tried
to assassinate him. The wicked perpetrators of Sept. 11 were not Iraqis.
They were Saudis and Yemenis. Their bases were in Hamburg, perhaps in
London, and certainly in the U.S. itself." [Tam Dalyell, Labour
MP for Linlithgow since 1962, is the longest continuously serving member
of the British House of Commons.]
[The key is this: as long as people remain intimidated before Jewish
power and fail to condemn the Jews' war for Israel, the Jewish Lobby maintains
its censorial power. Once condemnation of the Jewish Lobby becomes an
avalanche, all will be lost for them.]
As
possible strike on Baghdad nears, some say U.S. is fighting Israel’s war,
by Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, March 10, 2003
"A furor over comments by a U.S. lawmaker is highlighting the resurgent
trend of blaming Israel and the Jewish community for the impending war
against Iraq. Six rabbis from northern Virginia
have asked for the resignation of Rep. James Moran (D-Va.), after he told
constituents last week that the Jewish community is behind the Bush administration’s
push for war. Moran is apologizing to the Jewish community, and
was planning to meet with area rabbis later this week. While Moran’s comments
specifically linked the organized American Jewish community with a push
for war, an increasing number of people are blaming the looming Iraq war
on Jewish officials in the Bush administration. The sentiments echo those
made in 1991 by conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan, who said the
Persian Gulf War was being touted by 'the Israeli Defense Ministry and
its amen corner in the United States.' Given widespread skepticism of
the U.S. motives for a strike on Baghdad, some Jewish leaders say there
is potential for the 'amen corner' comments to gain as much — if not more
— traction as they did a decade ago. 'There is a greater potential for
mischief on this issue now than 11 or 12 years ago,” said Abraham Foxman,
national director of the Anti-Defamation League. In a town hall with constituents
March 3, Moran said, 'If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish
community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this,' according
to the Virginia-area Connection newspapers. Moran said Jewish leaders
were motivated by discussions they had with Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, the hawkish former prime minister. Rabbi Jack Moline,
rabbi at the conservative Agudas Achim Congregation of Northern Virginia,
is leading the charge for Moran’s resignation. Moline, who spoke with
the congressman for 45 minutes last Friday, says the lawmaker’s remarks
are comparable to the comments of Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who was forced
to vacate his leadership post last year after making racially insensitive
comments at a birthday party. The Jewish community has had problems with
Moran for years because of his outspoken comments against Israel. They
have also been frustrated by the lack of a primary challenger against
him in congressional races. 'We have attempted to bridge the gap with
Congressman Moran,' Moline said. 'And we have attempted to persuade
the Democratic Party that he wasn’t the best representative for us.'”
[WHAT ARROGANCE! WHO THE HELL GIVES A DAMN WHAT'S BEST FOR JEWS! THEIR
POWER TO DEMAND THAT EVERYTHING REVOLVES AROUND THEM IS THE PROBLEM!]
[Gil Cates is Jewish,
as is the war against Iraq.]
Oscars blacklist
stars in bid to prevent peace protest speeches,
The Scotsman (Scotland), March 11, 2003
"The backlash against prominent stars opposing any attack on Iraq
has impacted on this year’s Oscars, with organisers drawing up a blacklist
of people who will not be allowed a platform to air anti-war views. Meryl
Streep, Sean Penn, Vanessa Redgrave, George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman and
Spike Lee are among those who will not be speaking, amid fears they could
turn the ceremony into an anti-war rally. In a move denounced by some
as a return to McCarthyism, star presenters have been ordered to stick
to scripts, while winners, who the producers have no control over, could
find their acceptance speeches cut if they say anything much more than
a brief thank you. Officially, executives say that politics is a turn-off
for the show’s television audience. But in the wake of a public backlash
against actors such as Martin Sheen, from the West Wing, who have voiced
opposition to war, producers do not want to upset advertisers who have
paid more than £50 million for adverts ... Gil Cates, one of the
ceremony’s producers, wants the ceremony, which takes place on 23 March,
to celebrate the Oscars’ 75th anniversary rather than the anti-Bush/Blair
movement. And he admitted he thought it 'inappropriate' for stars to use
their slots to spotlight world problems. But Tom O’Neil, an Oscar historian,
said: 'Political tantrums are inevitable. You’re dealing with a class
of people who have unchecked egos and who are invited on talk shows to
be experts on everything from high art to pop culture.' Top of the loose-cannon
list this year is the Bowling for Columbine director, Michael Moore, a
favourite to win the documentary feature award. Last month, Moore thanked
the French for not supporting the proposed Iraqi invasion while accepting
an award in Paris. And on Saturday, he used the Writers Guild of America
awards in Los Angeles to voice his opinions of George Bush, the US president.
Worryingly, for the Oscar producers, Moore won loud applause after telling
the audience: 'What I see is a country that does not like what’s going
on. Let’s all commit ourselves to Bush removal in 2004.' If Moore does
not win an Oscar, insiders claim Hollywood will be reverting back to the
witch-hunting 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy and his cohorts destroyed
the careers of supposed Communist sympathies."
[Truth is the first casualty in times of war. Jews dominate the mass
media top hierarchy; this is relevant to any claims of journalistic "objectivity."]
The people don’t
know and can’t know,
Evatt Foundation, March 13, 2003
"John Pilger introduces the new edition of Phillip Knightley's
classic. The First Casualty: When I read the first edition of this
remarkable book twenty-five years ago, I was struck by the following quotations.
During the First World War, Prime Minister David Lloyd George told C P
Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian: 'If the people really
knew [the truth] the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they
don't know and can't know.' The truth was reported, insisted The Times
correspondent, Sir Phillip Gibbs (knighted for his services), 'apart from
the naked realism of horrors and losses, and criticism of the facts' ...
'When American bombs incinerated hundreds of women and children in a bomb
shelter in a residential part of Baghdad, and several British correspondents
reported that there were no strategic or military targets nearby, their
patriotism was called into question and their reporting was pilloried
in the tabloid press as 'truly disgusting' and 'a disgrace to their country'
... Almost every word of these testimonies could apply to the wars of
our time, especially the Gulf War of 1991 and the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia
in 1999. Chapters covering these have been added to this new edition,
making Knightley's work the most
comprehensive j'accuse of journalism as propaganda in the English language.
It is the author's lament that, for all the dazzling advances in media
technology, the media has little or no memory, as the same bogus 'truth'
is served up again and again. Reading the new material, I wondered when
journalism's modern breeding grounds, the media studies courses, would
begin to address the most important issue raised in this book: the virulence
of an unrecognised censorship, often concealed behind false principles
of objectivity, whose effect is to minimise and deny the culpability of
Western power in acts of great violence and terrorism, such and the Gulf
and Kosovo. Thus The Independent could praise the 'miraculously
few casualties' in the Gulf War (meaning the few British and American
casualties, most of them the result of American 'friendly fire'), while
the horror of up to a quarter of a million Iraqis slaughtered by the US-led
forces was consigned to oblivion."
[More prospects for the Jewish Lobby's war with Iraq.]
Average
Iraqi resents the U.S. more than Saddam,
Daily News (Los Angeles), March 14, 2003
"Iraqis moving in and out of their country as war looms warn that
invading U.S. troops likely would face a population determined to fight
to the death. President Bush has appealed to Iraqis, promising liberation.
But many now see America — which insisted on economic sanctions that hurt
millions of Iraqis and is poised to defy world opinion by waging war -
as more of a menace now than Saddam Hussein ... Many Shia Muslims from
southern Iraq, like Kurds in the north, favor regime change. Iraqis in
Baghdad and central Iraq are more loyal. Yet the overriding consensus
— conveyed during two dozen recent interviews in desert borderlands and
the capitals of Syria and Jordan — is that an oil-hungry invader acting
unilaterally must be opposed ... The prospect of popular resistance presents
a challenge to U.S. war chiefs .. This weekend, Bush seeks to amplify
his appeal by meeting with Iraqi survivors of Saddam Hussein’s 1988 chemical
weapons attack on a Kurdish town. But if a U.S. war begins to look like
an unwelcome occupation, analysts say, America could bog down disastrously.
No foreign army has occupied Arab turf since British forces entered Egypt
during the 1950s. Extended combat in densely-populated Baghdad promises
civilian casualties - sure fuel for anti-U.S. rage across the Arab-Muslim
world. The only way to avoid real trouble, said former U.S. ambassador
to Morocco Marc Ginsberg, a contributor to several think tank projects,
is for U.S. troops to leave Iraq quickly, install 'a regime bent on democratizing
Iraq,' and ensure dissemination of 'wonderful photos of smiling people
in Baghdad when we march into Baghdad.'"
[What country provided forged documents to justify a war with Iraq?
Let's see. Who would have an interest in such a thing? Venezuela?]
Senator
Seeks FBI Probe of Iraq Documents. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia
Requests FBI Investigation of Forged Iraq Documents,
ABC News, March 14, 2003
"The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the
FBI on Friday to investigate forged documents the Bush administration
used as evidence against Saddam Hussein and his military ambitions in
Iraq. Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said he
was uneasy about a possible campaign to deceive the public about the status
of Iraq's nuclear program. An investigation should 'at a minimum
help to allay any concerns' that the government was involved in the creation
of the documents to build support for administration policies, Rockefeller
wrote in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller. Secretary of State Colin
Powell has denied the U.S. government had any hand in creating the false
documents. 'It came from other sources,' Powell told a House committee
Thursday. 'We were aware of this piece of evidence, and it was provided
in good faith to the inspectors.' Rockefeller asked the FBI to determine
the source of the documents, the sophistication of the forgeries, the
motivation of those responsible, why intelligence agencies didn't recognize
them as forgeries and whether they are part of a larger disinformation
campaign. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The documents indicated that Iraq tried to by uranium from Niger, the
West African nation that is the third-largest producer of mined uranium,
Niger's largest export. The documents had been provided
to U.S. officials by a third country, which has not been identified.
A U.S. government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said
it was unclear who first created the documents ... At a House Appropriations
subcommittee hearing Thursday, Powell said the State Department had not
participated 'any way in any falsification.' Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin,
the committee's top Democrat, noted a Washington Post report that
said a foreign government might have been conducting
a deception campaign to win support for military action against Iraq.
When Obey asked Powell if he could say which country that was, Powell
replied, 'I can't with confidence.'"
[The word is starting to get out: An "anti-Semite" is really
whoever Jews hate and seek to censor. Jews dominate U.S. foreign policy
and so much else. It's easy to see if you're not forbidden to look. Publicly
noticing this is NOT kosher.]
Whose
War? A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series
of wars that are not in America's interest,
by Patrick J. Buchanan, The American Conservative,
March 24, 2003
"The War Party may have gotten its war. But it has also gotten something
it did not bargain for. Its membership lists and associations have been
exposed and its motives challenged. In a rare moment in U.S. journalism,
Tim Russert put this question directly to Richard Perle: 'Can
you assure American viewers ... that we're in this situation against Saddam
Hussein and his removal for American security interests? And what would
be the link in terms of Israel?' Suddenly, the Israeli connection
is on the table, and the War Party is not amused. Finding themselves in
an unanticipated firefight, our neoconservative friends are doing what
comes naturally, seeking student deferments from political combat by claiming
the status of a persecuted minority group. People who claim to be writing
the foreign policy of the world superpower, one would think, would be
a little more manly in the schoolyard of politics. Not so. Former Wall
Street Journal editor Max Boot kicked off the campaign. When
these 'Buchananites toss around 'neoconservative'-and cite names like
Wolfowitz and Cohen-it sometimes sounds as if what they
really mean is 'Jewish conservative.' Yet Boot readily concedes
that a passionate attachment to Israel is a 'key tenet of neoconservatism.'
He also claims that the National Security Strategy of President Bush 'sounds
as if it could have come straight out from the pages of Commentary
magazine, the neocon bible.' (For the uninitiated, Commentary,
the bible in which Boot seeks divine guidance, is the monthly of
the American Jewish Committee.) David Brooks of the Weekly
Standard wails that attacks based on the Israel tie have put him through
personal hell: 'Now I get a steady stream of anti-Semitic screeds in my
e-mail, my voicemail and in my mailbox. ... Anti-Semitism is alive and
thriving. It's just that its epicenter is no longer on the Buchananite
Right, but on the peace-movement left.' Washington Post columnist
Robert Kagan endures his own purgatory abroad: 'In London ... one
finds Britain's finest minds propounding, in sophisticated language and
melodious Oxbridge accents, the conspiracy theories of Pat Buchanan concerning
the 'neoconservative' (read: Jewish) hijacking of American foreign policy.'
Lawrence Kaplan of the New Republic charges that our little
magazine 'has been transformed into a forum for those who contend that
President Bush has become a client of ... Ariel Sharon and the
'neoconservative war party.'' Referencing Charles Lindbergh, he accuses
Paul Schroeder, Chris Matthews, Robert Novak, Georgie Anne Geyer, Jason
Vest of the Nation, and Gary Hart of implying that 'members of the Bush
team have been doing Israel's bidding and, by extension, exhibiting 'dual
loyalties.'' Kaplan thunders: 'The real problem with such claims
is not just that they are untrue. The problem is that they are toxic.
Invoking the specter of dual loyalty to mute criticism and debate amounts
to more than the everyday pollution of public discourse. It is the nullification
of public discourse, for how can one refute accusations grounded in ethnicity?
The charges are, ipso facto, impossible to disprove. And so they are meant
to be.' What is going on here? Slate's Mickey Kaus nails it in
the headline of his retort: 'Lawrence Kaplan Plays the Anti-Semitic
Card.' What Kaplan, Brooks, Boot, and Kagan are
doing is what the Rev. Jesse Jackson does when caught with some mammoth
contribution from a Fortune 500 company he has lately accused of discriminating.
He plays the race card. So, too, the neoconservatives are trying to fend
off critics by assassinating their character and impugning their motives.
Indeed, it is the charge of 'anti-Semitism' itself that is toxic. For
this venerable slander is designed to nullify public discourse by smearing
and intimidating foes and censoring and blacklisting them and any who
would publish them. Neocons say we attack them because they are Jewish.
We do not. We attack them because their warmongering threatens our country,
even as it finds a reliable echo in Ariel Sharon. And this time
the boys have cried "wolf" once too often. It is not working. As Kaus
notes, Kaplan's own New Republic carries Harvard professor
Stanley Hoffman. In writing of the four power centers in this capital
that are clamoring for war, Hoffman himself describes the fourth
thus: 'And, finally, there is a loose collection of friends of Israel,
who believe in the identity of interests between the Jewish state and
the United States. These analysts look on foreign policy through the lens
of one dominant concern: Is it good or bad for Israel? Since that nation's
founding in 1948, these thinkers have never been in very good odor at
the State Department, but now they are well ensconced in the Pentagon,
around such strategists as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle
and Douglas Feith.' 'If Stanley Hoffman can say this,' asks Kaus,
'why can't Chris Matthews?' Kaus also notes that Kaplan somehow
failed to mention the most devastating piece tying the neoconservatives
to Sharon and his Likud Party. In a Feb. 9 front-page article in
the Washington Post, Robert Kaiser quotes a senior U.S. official
as saying, 'The Likudniks are really in charge now.' Kaiser names Perle,
Wolfowitz, and Feith as members of a pro-Israel network
inside the administration and adds David Wurmser of the Defense
Department and Elliott Abrams of the National Security Council.
(Abrams is the son-in-law of Norman Podhoretz, editor emeritus
of Commentary, whose magazine has for decades branded critics of
Israel as anti-Semites.) Noting that Sharon repeatedly claims a
'special closeness' to the Bushites, Kaiser writes, 'For the first time
a U.S. administration and a Likud government are pursuing nearly identical
policies.' And a valid question is: how did this come to be, and while
it is surely in Sharon's interest, is it in America's interest?
This is a time for truth. For America is about to make a momentous decision:
whether to launch a series of wars in the Middle East that could ignite
the Clash of Civilizations against which Harvard professor Samuel Huntington
has warned, a war we believe would be a tragedy and a disaster for this
Republic. To avert this war, to answer the neocon smears, we ask that
our readers review their agenda as stated in their words. Sunlight is
the best disinfectant. As Al Smith used to say, 'Nothing un-American can
live in the sunlight.' We charge that a cabal of polemicists and public
officials seek to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not
in America's interests. We charge them with colluding with Israel to ignite
those wars and destroy the Oslo Accords. We charge them with deliberately
damaging U.S. relations with every state in the Arab world that defies
Israel or supports the Palestinian people's right to a homeland of their
own. We charge that they have alienated friends and allies all over the
Islamic and Western world through their arrogance, hubris, and bellicosity.
Not in our lifetimes has America been so isolated from old friends. Far
worse, President Bush is being lured into a trap baited for him by these
neocons that could cost him his office and cause America to forfeit years
of peace won for us by the sacrifices of two generations in the Cold War.
They charge us with anti-Semitism-i.e., a hatred of Jews for their faith,
heritage, or ancestry. False. The truth is, those hurling these charges
harbor a 'passionate attachment' to a nation not our own that causes them
to subordinate the interests of their own country and to act on an assumption
that, somehow, what's good for Israel is good for America." (The
entire article is available at bookstores.)
[Consequences of the Jewish Lobby's war for Israel.]
Top
US military planner fears a 'likely' repeat of Somalia bloodbath,
Independent (UK), March 15, 2003
"A former military aide to General Norman Schwarzkopf has warned
that a US-led war against Iraq could turn into a disaster that echoes
the bloody debacle of Somalia rather than the relatively painless 1991
Gulf war. Retired Colonel Mike Turner, who also served as military planner
with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, believes the Bush administration is
ignoring potential risks – some that could cost the US dearly ... Colonel
Turner said the US had made the mistake of fixing its sights early on
ridding the world of Saddam Hussein. This plan had met stiff opposition
from the uniformed staff within the Pentagon, but the administration had
chosen this focus regardlessly. Colonel Turner outlined a worst-case scenario:
'Within hours of our attack, Saddam launches Scuds on Israel. Israel's
government launches a full-scale attack on Iraq, creating a holy war.
Saddam, threatened with his own survival, uses chemical and biological
weapons and human shields. He torches his own oil fields, thousands of
his own people are killed. Photos of US soldiers amid landscapes of Iraqi
civilian bodies blanket the world press which aligns unanimously against
the US.' He then envisaged the US left to administer a post-Saddam Iraq
with minimal international co-operation and open to terror attacks from
al- Qa'ida. North Korea could take advantage and start exporting nuclear
weapons. 'These are not remote possibilities, but in my view reasonable,
possibly even likely outcomes,' he concluded."
Your
Religion's Stance on Iraq,
Belief .net
According to a survey by Belief.net, only four religious groups of
those surveyed support an invasion of Iraq. They are the Southern Baptist
Convention and three Jewish groups (whose qualifier is that "other
means" must be "exhausted" first before invasion): The
Orthodox Union, Union of American Hebrew Congregrations (Reform),
and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. All these pro-war
groups -- including the Baptists -- have especially strong ideological
ties to Israel. Religous groups OPPOSED to war include the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America, Episcopal Church, Greek Orthodox Church in
America, Mormons - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Presbyterian
Church (USA), Quakers - American Friends Service Committee, United Church
of Christ, United Methodist Church, United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the Unitarian Universalist
Association.
[The Jewish Lobby's war.]
War
in Iraq a crime, says Vatican,
The Australian, March 18, 2003
"Military intervention against Iraq would be a crime against peace
demanding vengeance before God, the head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace has said. 'War is a crime against peace which cries
for vengeance before God,' said Archbishop Renato Raffaele Martino, speaking
on Vatican Radio. He stressed the deeply unjust and immoral nature of
war, saying it was condemned by God because civilians were the worst sufferers.
Martino, formerly Vatican permanent representative to the United Nations,
strongly denounced the determination of the United States and its allies
to disarm Iraq by force. 'Do not reply with a stone to the child who asks
for bread,' he said. 'They are preparing to reply with thousands of bombs
to a people that has been asking for bread for the last 12 years.' Stressing
the Roman Catholic church would continue to insist on the need and the
urgency of peace, he said: 'As always, it will be the Good Samaritan who
will bind the wounds of a wounded and weakened people.' Pope John Paul
II, one of the most prominent opponents of war on Iraq, urged UN Security
Council members yesterday to continue negotiations on the disarmament
of Iraq and avert a looming military conflict."
Forwarded to JTR: Robin Cook's resignation speech as Speaker
of the House of Commons. The video cuts off as he is getting an unprecedented
standing ovation in the House. He is demanding a vote tomorrow night on
whether or not to commit British troops, and if Parliament has the power
to stop their deployment, it will. However as Cook says, Parliament may
have lost control over what is done. Even as our Congress has ... The
place to click to play the video is in the upper right hand corner of
this page. http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/cta/events03/ukpol/hoc/cook17mar.ram
[Not everyone succombs to the Blair administrations' subservience
to (the Jewish Lobby's domination of) US foreign policy.]
Third
resignation hits Blair,
This is London/Evening Standard (UK), March
18, 2003
"Tony Blair was today hit by his third government resignation as
Home Office minister John Denham unexpectedly quit in protest at the failure
to win a fresh UN mandate for action against Saddam Hussein. In a statement,
Denham, who became Minister of State for the Home Office in June 2001,
said: 'I have this morning resigned from the Government as I cannot support
the Government in tonight's vote' ... The 53-year-old peer used a radio
interview early today to announce his move - piling the pressure on Mr
Blair as he prepared for his sternest test since becoming Prime Minister
... With thousands of British troops poised for action, Mr Blair is now
forced to deal with a government crisis which saw an electrifying resignation
speech by Cook last night - he was one of the first of the waves of New
Labour peers created by Tony Blair in 1997. Today Mr Blair's senior aides
feared that Mr Cook's devastating address from the backbenches could lead
other ministers to follow him, Lord Hunt and now John Denham out of the
government - and swell the number of backbench rebels. Last month 122
Labour MPs voted against Mr Blair in the biggest Commons rebellion suffered
by any government in modern times. If the number of Labour rebels reached
173 in a 10pm vote the Prime Minister would have to depend on Tory support
to win a parliamentary mandate for going to war. If it hit 206 Mr Blair
would have lost the support of half his parliamentary party - putting
his leadership in peril."
Sen.
Robert Byrd: 'Today I Weep for My Country',
Yahoo!News (from Reuters), March 19, 6:26 PM
"The oldest voice in the U.S. Congress rose on Wednesday to denounce
as misguided President Bus's march to war with Iraq.'Today I weep for
my country,' said West Virginia Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd. 'No more is
the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. ... Around
the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions
are questioned.' 'We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance,' Byrd
said, adding: 'After war has ended the United States will have to rebuild
much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's
image around the globe.' Byrd, who has been a leading foe on Capitol Hill
of war with Iraq, spoke in a nearly empty Senate chamber about four hours
before Bush's 8 p.m. EST deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or
face a U.S.-led invasion. 'May God continue to bless the United States
of America in the troubled days ahead, and may we somehow recapture the
vision which for the present eludes us,/ Byrd said. As the white-haired
senator concluded his remarks, a number of people in the visitor's gallery
rose and applauded before they were admonished to be quiet. At 85, Byrd
is now the oldest member of Congress as well as the longest serving."
[It would seem that the ADL -- so very image-conscious in the name
of Jews -- knows what it's doing. As the the war with Iraq begins, we
get a clear symbolic hint at who's at the economic helms of the War Monster.]
The
Anti-Defamation League Opened The NASDAQ Stock Market,
NASDAQ, March 19, 2003
"Pictured: Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) joins NASDAQ host David Weild, Vice
Chairman, The NASDAQ Stock Market to preside over the Market Open. Abraham
H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League opened
The NASDAQ Stock Market Wednesday, March 19, 2003 at NASDAQ's MarketSite
in New York. The NASDAQ Stock Market proudly welcomes Abraham H. Foxman,
National Director of the Anti-Defamation League to the Market Open. Since
1987 Mr. Foxman has attained his role as a world-renowned leader
in the fight against anti-Semitism, bigotry and discrimination. In the
forefront of major issues of the day, Mr. Foxman speaks out against
hatred and violence wherever they occur. About ADL The Anti-Defamation
League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting
anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice
and bigotry."
[Well, Saddam's got a least one thing right.]
Israel
believes Saddam spoke live in morning TV broadcast,
by Herb Keinon, Free Republic (originally
from Jerusalem Post ), Mar. 20, 2003
"Israeli Foreign Ministry experts believe that Saddam Hussein was
speaking live on camera when he addressed the Iraqi nation this morning
on television and radio, shortly after the US launched a war against him
... Saddam also appeared to be under a lot of pressure and more disorganized
than usual, when he made the speech, in which he characteristically lashed
out at 'criminal Zionism' in addition to
the United States, it was noted. In the speech, Saddam accused the United
States of committing a 'shameful crime' by attacking Iraq and urged the
Iraqi people to "go draw your sword' against the enemy. 'We promise you
that Iraq, its leadership and its people will stand up to the evil invaders,
and we will take them to such limits that they will lose their patience
in achieving their plans, which are pushed by criminal
|