ISSUE: #. 23. March 3, 2002
By Bill Weinberg
SPECIAL ISSUE: No Holds Barred! Something to Piss Off Everybody!
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. US in Major Assault in Paktia Province; GI Killed
2. US Forces Attacked in Kandahar?
3. CIA States the Obvious
4. Northern Alliance Implicated in Ethnic Cleansing...
5. ...But Poised to Dominate New Afghan Army
6. Pearl Case Polarizes Pakistan
7. War Spreading to Pakistan?
8. Haaretz: Pearl was Israeli Citizen
9. US Plans DNA Database of Terror Suspects
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Hideous Escalation in Cycle of Violence
2. IDF Generals Break Ranks with Sharon
3. Cheney Calls for "Hanging" Arafat?
4. US-Israel War Aims Converging?
5. Al-Qaeda in Lebanon Refugee Camps?
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Iraq Attack in Making?
2. Turkey Prepares for War in Iraq
3. Did US Plot to Poison Iraq's Water?
4. Halliburton Loves Saddam
5. ...But Feds Crack Down on Iraqi Refugees
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. US Troops to the Caucasus
2. US Troops to Yemen
3. Turkey Busts al-Qaeda Cell
4. Hideous Escalation in India
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. Conspiracy Theorists Make Hay From Bush "Slip"
2. Leaked FAA Memo: Israeli Commando on 9-11 Flight
3. The Flight 93 Mystery
4. Bush Launches "Shadow Government" in Secret Bunkers
5. Pentagon Drops Plan for "Ministry of Truth"--Or Does It?
6. Conspiracy Guru Michael Ruppert Caught in Misrepresentations; Owes WW3 editor Bill Weinberg $1,000
7. WW3 REPORT Clarifies Position on Conspiracy Theory
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. US IN MAJOR ASSUALT IN PAKTIA PROVINCE; GI KILLED
One US soldier was killed and several wounded in an assault on a force
of some 500 "suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters" in mountains
southeast of Gardez in Paktia province, the New York Times reported
March 3. US Special Operations forces and troops from the Army's 101st
Division are involved in the fighting, and B-52 air-strikes are
reported on an area near the village Shahi Kowt in the Zormat district.
US forces are said to be coordinating with local warlord Pasha Khan
Zadran. The Pentagon says the battle is likely to last days. The Times
failed to question whether the enemy troops are actually
Taliban/al-Qaeda, as the Pentagon asserts. But the same paper reported
Feb. 22 that the Pentagon had admitted killing 16 in Jan. 23 bombing
raids in Kandahar on forces which were neither Taliban nor al-Qaeda.
Since then, the Pentagon has similarly admitted to air-strikes on
non-Taliban/al-Qaeda forces in Paktia (see WW3 REPORT #22). BBC
reported March 2 that the US had hit caves outside Gardez with at least
two 2,000-pound (907-kg) "thermobaric" air-fuel explosive bombs.
[top]
2. US FORCES ATTACKED IN KANDAHAR?
The Chechen Islamic wire service Kavkaz Centre News
reported March 3 that troops of Gov. Gul Agha came under attack by
unknown forces at a base in Kandahar Province, with witnesses claiming
high casualties. The report also claimed missiles were fired on US
troops stationed at the Kandahar airport--apparently with no
casualties. Kandahar was a former Taliban stronghold.[top]
3. CIA STATES THE OBVIOUS
A new classified CIA report warns that Afghanistan could descend into
violent chaos if steps are not taken to centralize power in the hands
of the interim government and restrain local warlords, the New York
Times said Feb. 21. The State Department responded to the report by
calling for enlargement of the 4,000-strong international peacekeeping
force, and for expansion of its mandate beyond Kabul.
(AFP, Feb. 16)[top]
4. NORTHERN ALLIANCE IMPLICATED IN ETHNIC CLEASNING...
On Feb. 27, WorldNetDaily.com cited an unnamed UN official saying that
some 20,000 people, mostly ethnic Pashtuns, have been forced to flee
northern Afghanistan since the beginning of the year. Persecution and
attacks by ethnic Tajik and Uzbek militias of the Northern Alliance are
blamed. [top]
5. ...BUT POISED TO DOMINATE NEW AFGHAN ARMY
On Feb. 26, the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece by two policy
wonks, "Time to Ditch the Northern Alliance." Wrote the wonks: "The
construction of a new Afghan army, which President Bush has sent Maj.
Gen. Charles C. Campbell to Kabul to oversee, has exposed the political
infighting that threatens to splinter the nation... Rather than
composing an army that is truly national in its composition and there
to serve the entire Afghan people, the three key ministers of the new
government have been jostling to carve out political territory for
their faction. Interior Minister Muhammad Yunus Qanooni, Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah, and particularly Defense Minister Muhammad
Qassam Fahim--all of them from the Northern Alliance--have strongly
backed people loyal to them alone, not to acting President Karzai or
the nation as a whole." They claim that "six of Gen. Fahim's appointees
were professional Communist Party workers who continued to serve the
party after the Red Army invaded their land. All six of them, plus
three more who served as officers in the Afghan army, collaborated
actively with the Red Army during its decade-long occupation of
Afghanistan. These skeletons in their closets will come out eventually,
and Afghan nationalists will be unlikely to stand for it." Predictably,
the wonks support the "politically moderate technocratic elite" around
interim prime minister (not "President") Hamid Karzai, and insist that
isolating the Northern Alliance "does not mean excluding Tajiks or
Uzbeks from the government"--but the reality in ethnically-polarized
Afghanistan may not be so simple. The wonks are S. Frederick Starr,
chair of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins
University's Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and Marin
Strmecki, vice president of the Smith Richardson Foundation.
[top]
PEARL CASE POLARIZES PAKISTAN
The New York Times reported Feb. 25 that "Pakistani military and
intelligence officials" admit that the powerful Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) agency "played a key role in nurturing" the Army of
Muhammad, the group apparently behind the kidnap-slaying of Wall Street
Journal writer Daniel Pearl. The group lured Pearl, who was in Pakistan
to investigate militant Islamic groups, to a Jan. 23 meeting and
abducted him, slaying him a month later. The arrested suspect in the
case, Ahmed Omar Sheikh, was apparently a pawn in Pakistan's
clandestine terror war against India. He was charged with abducting
four tourists in India in 1994, and freed from prison in 1999 as a
demand of hijackers who flew an Indian Airlines jet with 160 passengers
to Taliban Afghanistan. The Pearl kidnapping may be part of a backlash
against ISI's betrayal of Islamic militants. The Times report also said
that Pakistani officials confirmed that several investigators in the
Pearl case had received threats from a mobile phone identified as
having belonged to the reporter.[top]
7. WAR SPREADING TO PAKISTAN?
Reports of attacks on US military targets in Pakistan are receiving
little media coverage in the US. Last week, a US Air Force hangar in
Karachi was the target of an attempted rocket attack (see WW3 REPORT
#22). This week, the Islamic wire service Kavkaz Centre News
reported that a US transport plane on its way to
Afghanistan came under attack near Shahbaz Airbase in Pakistan's
Baluchi region. The pilot, who quickly turned back to base, reported
automatic weapon fire had been directed at the plane. A state of
emergency was declared in the area, and some 50 local villagers rounded
up for interrogation by Pakistani security forces.[top]
8. HAARETZ: PEARL WAS ISRAELI CITIZEN
Israel's Haaretz newspaper revealed Feb. 24 that Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl, slain by Islamic militant kidnappers in
Pakistan, had Israeli citizenship. The paper acknowledged that the
reporter's father Yehuda Pearl protested the revelation from his home
in Los Angeles. The article cited his "fears that making public his
son's Israeli citizenship could adversely affect investigative efforts
by Pakistani police to apprehend the killers and track down the
murdered reporter's body." Reporting on the Haaretz revelation,
e-newsletter Mid-East Realities (www.MiddleEast.org) protested that
neither Pearl nor the Journal "ever revealed this highly compromising
fact to readers." WW3 REPORT asks the editors of Mid-East Realities why
a journalist's citizenship should "compromise" him?[top]
9. US PLANS DNA DATABASE OF TERROR SUSPECTS
The FBI has proposed taking blood samples of the Taliban/al-Qaeda
suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay, adding a foreign terrorist
division to the National DNA Index System. The proposal is under review
by the Justice Department. (NYT, March 3) Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
did manage to reverse a Pentagon ban on their wearing turbans through a
protest in which some 200 detainees refused to eat and banged water
bottles in their cages, chanting "God is great!" The protest was
sparked when guards interrupted a prisoner's prayers to remove his
makeshift turban. US commanders decided to end the policy to head off
continued protest. (NYT, March 3)[top]
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. HIDEOUS ESCALATION IN CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
Following weeks of escalating retaliatory violence between Israeli
troops and Palestinian militants, on Feb. 28, the Israel Defense Forces
(IDF) launched attacks on the West Bank's Jenin and Balata refugee
camps, allegedly controlled by the militant organizations Tanzim and
Hamas. This marks the first time ground troops have been sent in to
Palestinian refugee camps. The fighting has left 30 dead,
overwhelmingly Palestinians, by press time. On March 2, nine people,
including four children, were killed and over 50 injured when a suicide
bomber blew himself up in Jerusalem's Orthodox Beit Yisrael
neighborhood. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility,
which, like Tanzim, is linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah political
organization, but apparently does not answer to his Palestinian
Authority. On March 3, nine Israeli soldiers and settlers were killed
and six wounded by a sniper at a roadblock near the Jewish settlement
of Ofra on the West Bank. The al-Aqsa Brigade again claimed
responsibility. Later that day, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at
Palestinian Authority police HQ in Bethlehem. That night, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet met and unanimously approved an IDF
plan for "continuous military pressure" on the Palestinians, including
tightening the confinement of Arafat, whose HQ in Ramallah has been
ringed by Israeli tanks for weeks now. Hardline IDF reserve general
Effi Eitam, who openly supports annexing the West Bank (see WW3 REPORT
#19), approved of the plan, calling for "More force, and more force--as
much force as we have." Shortly after the plan was announced, IDF
troops attacked Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, destroying
several houses and killing at least three Palestinians. The 18-month
conflict has cost 1,000 Palestinian lives, and 300 Israeli. (Haaretz,
March 3, 4; BBC, March 4) [top]
2. IDF GENERALS BREAK RANKS WITH SHARON
After four months of discussion, the Council for Peace & Security, a
group of 1,000 top-level Israeli reserve generals, colonels, and Shin
Bet/Mossad officials, announced a public campaign for a unilateral
Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza and much of the West Bank. The
group is calling for dismantling 50 settlements, the immediate
establishment of a Palestinian state, and immediate peace talks with
Palestinians--cease-fire or no. The campaign will include public
appearances, bumper stickers, and a pamphlet titled "Saying Shalom to
the Palestinians." (Haaretz, Feb. 18)[top]
3. CHENEY CALLS FOR "HANGING" ARAFAT?
At a news conference following talks with George Bush in Washington,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ruled out ever having Yasser Arafat
as a "peace partner," saying the Palestinian leader had "disqualified
himself by heading a coalition of terror." Bush reiterated harsh
criticisms of Arafat, but refused to break off all ties with Arafat's
Palestinian Authority. However, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer, who was also in Washington, earlier told journalists of a
sympathetic hearing from Dick Cheney. Ben-Eliezer said: "The vice
president told me: 'As far as I am concerned, you can even hang him,'"
Arafat, who has yet to be invited to Washington by the Bush
administration, told the BBC he was doing all he could to stop attacks
on Israelis--but his hands were tied by the Israeli blockade on him and
his security forces. Cheney is set tour the Middle East in March. (BBC,
Feb. 8)[top]
4. US-ISRAEL WAR AIMS CONVERGING?
In a Feb. 24 news analysis on Cheney's upcoming trip to the Middle
East, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency quoted US ultra-hawk intellectual
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, urging the vice
president to take a hard line on the Palestinians and Saddam Hussein.
Pipes said, "Israel's enemies are now our enemies." Two weeks earlier,
in Congressional testimony, CIA Director George Tenet named the
Palestinian groups Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as potential targets of the US War on
Terrorism. (See WW3 REPORT #21)[top]
5. AL-QAEDA IN LEBANON REFUGEE CAMPS?
An anonymous Israel Defense Forces officer told the Jerusalem Post Feb.
20 that several dozen al-Qaeda members have found refuge in the Ein
el-Hilweh refugee camp north of Beirut. He speculated they have formed
links with Hezbollah, and are also seeking refuge in Syria.[top]
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. IRAQ ATTACK IN THE MAKING?
Numerous international press reports indicate that Iraq may be the next
target of massive US military strikes. George Bush and UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair are planning an April summit to finalize details of
military action to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, reported
the UK Observer Feb. 24, calling the meeting "a clear signal that
Downing Street fully backs Bush's plans to launch a war against Iraq if
Saddam does not agree to deadlines to destroy his arsenal of weapons of
mass destruction." On Feb. 17, the Israeli daily Haaretz cited a report
in the Lebanese paper Al-Mustaqbal that CIA Director George Tenet told
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during their meeting the previous day
that the US has already decided to attack Iraq, and asked that Egypt
not publicly express opposition. The New York Post reported Feb. 13
that while White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "no military action
is imminent," administration officials "confirmed there's a general
consensus among the president and his top advisers that the Butcher of
Baghdad must go" and that "planning for a move against Saddam is now in
high gear at the CIA and the Pentagon." The Post claimed Iraqi
opposition leaders "have been holding numerous meetings with Pentagon,
White House, CIA and State Department officials during the last month."
On Feb. 13, the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted a "senior Bush
administration official" saying, "This is not an argument about whether
to get rid of Saddam Hussein. That debate is over. This is how you do
it." The newspaper said the White House is determined to act even if US
allies do not help. USA Today reported Feb. 28 that "US officials" say
Bush has approved a CIA plan to bring about a "regime change" in Iraq.
The paper claims the White House is convening a meeting of several
hundred Iraqi military defectors in Europe next month, and that US
diplomats and CIA officers have traveled to northern Iraq in recent
weeks to meet with rebel Kurdish leaders. Said Mohammad Sabir, US
representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan: "Our assessment is
that this administration is much more serious than before."
Numerous international press reports indicate that Iraq may be the next
target of massive US military strikes. George Bush and UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair are planning an April summit to finalize details of
military action to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, reported
the UK Observer Feb. 24, calling the meeting "a clear signal that
Downing Street fully backs Bush's plans to launch a war against Iraq if
Saddam does not agree to deadlines to destroy his arsenal of weapons of
mass destruction." On Feb. 17, the Israeli daily Haaretz cited a report
in the Lebanese paper Al-Mustaqbal that CIA Director George Tenet told
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during their meeting the previous day
that the US has already decided to attack Iraq, and asked that Egypt
not publicly express opposition. The New York Post reported Feb. 13
that while White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "no military action
is imminent," administration officials "confirmed there's a general
consensus among the president and his top advisers that the Butcher of
Baghdad must go" and that "planning for a move against Saddam is now in
high gear at the CIA and the Pentagon." The Post claimed Iraqi
opposition leaders "have been holding numerous meetings with Pentagon,
White House, CIA and State Department officials during the last month."
On Feb. 13, the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted a "senior Bush
administration official" saying, "This is not an argument about whether
to get rid of Saddam Hussein. That debate is over. This is how you do
it." The newspaper said the White House is determined to act even if US
allies do not help. USA Today reported Feb. 28 that "US officials" say
Bush has approved a CIA plan to bring about a "regime change" in Iraq.
The paper claims the White House is convening a meeting of several
hundred Iraqi military defectors in Europe next month, and that US
diplomats and CIA officers have traveled to northern Iraq in recent
weeks to meet with rebel Kurdish leaders. Said Mohammad Sabir, US
representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan: "Our assessment is
that this administration is much more serious than before." [top]
2. TURKEY PREPARES FOR WAR IN IRAQ
US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, US Chief of Staff Richard
Myers and VP Dick Cheney will all visit Turkey this month, and lining
up Ankara's support for US intervention against Saddam Hussein is at
the top of the agenda. Cheney will also visit Arab and Israeli leaders.
But some suspect that the Turkish leadership may have its own designs
on Iraqi territory--particularly the northern region controlled by the
Kurdish ethnic minority. In the Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat, Kurdish
commentator Abdelghani Ali Yahya warns of "Turkish threats to annex
[Iraq's northern province of] Mosul." Turkey and Iraq have both fought
brutal counter-insurgency wars against Kurdish rebels in recent years.
(Mideast Mirror, Feb. 13[top]
3. DID US PLOT TO POISON IRAQ'S WATER?
Writing on The Progressive magazine's web page, Thomas J. Nagy quotes
extensively from recently-declassified Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA) documents, "proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva
Convention, the US government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq
to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War." One
document, " Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," dated Jan. 22, 1991,
spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water
to its citizens: "Iraq depends on importing specialized equipment and
some chemicals to purify its water supply, most of which is heavily
mineralized and frequently brackish to saline. With no domestic sources
of both water treatment replacement parts and some essential chemicals,
Iraq will continue attempts to circumvent United Nations Sanctions to
import these vital commodities. Failing to secure supplies will result
in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This
could lead to increased incidences, if not epidemics, of disease."
Iraq's rivers "contain biological materials, pollutants, and are laden
with bacteria. Unless the water is purified, cholera, hepatitis, and
typhoid epidemics could occur." Noting that importation of chlorine
"has been embargoed" by sanctions, the document states, "Recent reports
indicate the chlorine supply is critically low." The document predicts:
"Iraq will suffer increasing shortages of purified water because of the
lack of required chemicals and desalination membranes. Incidences of
disease, including possible epidemics, will become probable unless the
population were careful to boil water."
Another DIA document of the same day, " Effects of Bombing on Disease
Occurrence in Baghdad," states: "Increased incidence of diseases will
be attributable to degradation of normal preventive medicine, waste
disposal, water purification/distribution, electricity, and decreased
ability to control disease outbreaks. Any urban area in Iraq that has
received infrastructure damage will have similar problems." The
document itemizes likely outbreaks. It mentions "acute diarrhea"
brought on by E. coli, shigella, salmonella or giardia--which will
affect "particularly children." The document warns that Iraq's
government may "blame the United States for public health problems
created by the military conflict."
Nagy states that the Geneva Convention is absolutely clear on the
illegality of targeting civilian water supplies. A 1979 protocol on
" protection of victims of international armed conflicts," Article 54,
states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless
objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such
as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and
supplies, and irrigation works...whether in order to starve out
civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."
[top]
4. HALLIBURTON LOVES SADDAM
While Dick Cheney was its CEO, Halliburton sold more technology to
Saddam Hussein than any other US corporation. Starting in 1998, two
Halliburton subsidiaries sold Iraq $23.8 million in oil industry
equipment. The evidence is on-line at the anti-Bush website Gwbush.com,
including an excerpt from ABC's Aug. 2000 "This Week" with Sam
Donaldson, which apparently catches Cheney in a "lie":
Donaldson: I'm told, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Halliburton,
through subsidiaries, was actually trying to do business in Iraq?
Cheney: No. No. I had a firm policy that I wouldn't do anything in
Iraq--even arrangements that were supposedly legal.
Writes Gwbush.com: "I guess ABC doesn't have much of a budget for
research, because Sam Donaldson failed to cite any sources or documents
to challenge Cheney." Also posted is a story from the Nov. 3, 2000
Financial Times, on how "Millions of dollars of US oil business with
Iraq are being channeled discreetly through European and other
companies, in a practice that has highlighted the double standards now
dominating relations between Baghdad and Washington after a decade of
crippling sanctions." Though legal under a 1998 UN resolution allowing
Iraq to buy spare parts for its oil industry, leading US oil service
companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger and Baker Hughes use
subsidiaries and joint venture companies, "so as to avoid straining
relations with Washington..." US companies have submitted Iraq
contracts worth at least $100 million to the UN for approval. "It is a
wonderful example of how ludicrous sanctions have become," said Raad
Alkadiri, analyst at the Petroleum Finance Company, a DC consulting
firm.
From 1995 until August 2000, Halliburton's chief executive officer was
Dick Cheney, US secretary of defense during Operation Desert Storm and
now vice president. From Sept. 1998 until it sold its stake in Feb.
1999, Halliburton owned 51% of Dresser-Rand. It also owned 49% of
Ingersoll-Dresser Pump, until its sale in Dec. 1999. During the time of
the joint ventures, Dresser-Rand and Ingersoll-Dresser Pump submitted
more than $23.8 million worth of Iraq contracts, which were
overwhelmingly approved. Their combined total amounted to more than any
other US company. Former CIA director John Deutch is a board member of
Schlumberger, the second largest US company with subsidiaries in Iraq
deals.[top]
5. ...BUT FEDS CRACK DOWN ON IRAQI REFUGEES
One day after the Iraqi-American owner of a Seattle area money-transfer
company settled a racial-discrimination suit with the Bank of America,
US Customs agents raided his office Jan. 31, alleging that he wired
funds to Iraq in violation of the federal embargo. A dozen agents
searched and seized items from Alshafei Family Connect Inc. (AFCI) of
Mountlake Terrace, WA, arriving about 10 AM in unmarked sedans and
vans. A guard was posted outside the lobby entrance until about 4:30
PM, when agents left with several computers and boxes of records. AFCI
was created in 1998 by Hussain Alshafei, an Iraqi-born US citizen, to
serve Iraqi refugees in the US who wanted to send money to family
members in Iraq. Executive Order 12724, signed by then-President Bush
on Aug. 13, 1990, prohibits any unauthorized "commitment or transfer,
direct or indirect, of funds, or other financial or economic resources
by any United States person to the Government of Iraq or any other
person in Iraq." A day before the raid, Alshafei dropped his lawsuit
claiming Bank of America discriminated against him when it asked him to
close his account in Dec. A compromise allowed him to keep the account
through March 25. The raid was the second on a local money-transfer
business. In Nov., federal authorities closed Seattle's Somali-owned
Barakat Wire Transfer as part of a nationwide crackdown on such
"hawalas." Authorities claimed the businesses were fronts for am
al-Qaeda fundraising operation. (Seattle Times, Feb. 1) [top]
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. US TROOPS TO THE CAUCASUS
Dozens of Afghan and Arab fighters who have fled Afghanistan--many
believed tied to al-Qaeda--are regrouping in Pankisi Gorge in the
ex-Soviet republic of Georgia, the New York Times reported Feb. 28. In
response, the US is readying some 200 military advisors to back up the
troops of President Eduard Shevardnadze. Both the US and Russia are
urging Shevardnadze to move against the Gorge, which is home to
thousands of Chechen refugees. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov
warns that the Gorge has become "a mini-Afghanistan on Russia's
doorstep." But Moscow's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warns that the US
troop presence "could further aggravate the situation in the region,
which is difficult as it is."[top]
2. US TROOPS TO YEMEN
President Bush has ordered 200 military advisors, mostly Special Forces
troops, to Yemen, to train that country's army to fight terrorists, the
New York Times reported March 2. Yemen's army is already fighting
tribes in the remote interior, who are suspected of sheltering al-Qaeda
fugitives (see WW3 REPORT #13).[top]
3. TURKEY BUSTS AL-QAEDA CELL
Turkey announced its security forces had detained three suspected
al-Qaeda members who were planning a suicide bombing in Israel.
Feyzullah Arslan, spokesman for Turkey's national police, told an
Ankara news conference the suspects entered from Iran last year and
were ordered to stage a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. He alleged they
had been trained by the Taliban, and fought alongside them. He also
said the US provided intelligence help to track down the suspects,
identified as Ahmed Mahmud, Mustafa Hasan, and Firas Suleiman. Police
said the men belonged to a cell called the "Union of Imams" and were
Jordanian, Palestinian and Iraqi nationals. Police claimed one told
interrogators they planned to travel to Israel to launch a suicide
attack in a crowded area. The trio were reportedly detained near the
Iranian border with false ID cards and bomb-making instructions in
Arabic. (Jerusalem Post Feb. 20)[top]
4. HIDEOUS ESCALATION IN INDIA
Over 400 are dead in four days of Hindu-Muslim violence centered around
Ahmadabad in western India's Gujarat state. The violence began Feb. 27
when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindus planning to build a
temple on the site of Babri mosque in Ayodhya, which was demolished by
Hindu militants ten years ago. The mosque was built on a Hindu holy
site in the 16th century. 58 Hindus were killed in the train attack. In
retaliation, Muslim homes in Ahmadabad were reportedly torched, and the
families burned alive. By March 3, the violence was spreading from
Ahmadabad to rural areas. (NYT, Feb. 28, March 2, 3)
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. CONSPIRACY THEORISTS MAKE HAY FROM BUSH "SLIP"
This week, the Internet was abuzz with documentation of George Bush's
factually problematic account of where he was when he got word of the
9-11 attacks. A Dec. 4 CNN transcript has him telling a
young student in Q&A session: "I was in Florida... [A]ctually I was in
a classroom talking about a reading program... And I was sitting
outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the
tower--the TV was obviously on, and I used to fly myself, and I said,
'There's one terrible pilot.' And I said, 'It must have been a horrible
accident.' But I was whisked off there--I didn't have much time to
think about it, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my
chief who was sitting over here walked in and said, 'A second plane has
hit the tower. America's under attack.'" The problem is that there was
no live coverage of the first plane hitting the tower. Video of the
first plane hitting did not surface until later.
The UK Guardian reported Dec. 5 on Bush's visit to Florida for the
first time since the disaster, in which he made the "terrible pilot"
comment. Commented the Guardian: "The story that he was watching TV
contradicts reports from correspondents at the time that he got the
news in a phone call from his national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice. It also adds further puzzles: why he was being made to wait; why
he did not at least delay his entry into the classroom; and why is it
obvious that an elementary school would have a TV set in the corridor?"
However, the conspiracy theorists conveniently overlook the plausible
explanation that the none-too-bright Bush simply flubbed it.[top]
2. LEAKED FAA MEMO: ISRAELI COMMANDO ON 9-11 FLIGHT
WorldNetDaily.com reported March 1 that three of the five hijackers
aboard American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11 were seated next to an
elite Israeli commando. Friends and associates of the commando now say
he was killed by the hijackers before the plane crashed into the north
tower of the World Trade Center. They base their claim on a secret
government memo naming Israeli-American Daniel C. Lewin as a gunshot
victim on the flight. WorldNetDaily published the Federal Aviation
Administration memo in an exclusive. The FAA confirmed the document is
authentic, but said the report of Lewin's shooting, written just hours
after the hijackings, was premature and inaccurate. The memo's summary
of the shooting incident--real or not--is the most detailed of the four
hijacking summaries. It says Lewin, sitting in seat 9B, was "shot by
passenger Satam al-Suqami," sitting behind him in seat 10B. "One bullet
was reported to have been fired," the memo states. The 31-year-old
Lewin was a captain in the Israel Defense Forces and had extensive
anti-terrorism training. "Anyone who knows Danny knows that it was not
his nature to go down without a fight," said Yehuda Schwartzberg, a
childhood friend from Jerusalem. "Maybe this [memo] shows that he died
a hero."[top]
3. THE FLIGHT 93 MYSTERY
Internet conspiracy theorists also allege that the flight that went
down in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11 was actually shot out of the sky by a
military plane which was tailing the Boeing 757. New Jersey's Bergen
Record reported Sept. 14 on numerous local witnesses who claim to have
seen a second plane. Staff writer Jeff Pillets reported from the
Allegheny Mountains hamlet of Shanksville with five separate interviews
with residents who live and work within four miles of the crash site.
All said they saw a second plane flying erratically within minutes of
the crash of United Flight 93, which took off from Newark two hours
earlier. Susan Mcelwain of Stonycreek township said a small white jet
with rear engines and no discernible markings swooped low over her
minivan and disappeared over a hilltop, nearly clipping the tops of
trees lining the ridge. Less than a minute later, Mcelwain said, the
ground shook and a plume of smoke appeared over the ridge. A mile north
on Buckstown Road, Dennis Decker and Rick Chaney were at work making
wooden pallets when they heard an explosion and ran outside to see a
huge plume spreading over the ridge. "As soon as we looked up, we saw a
mid-sized jet flying low and fast," Decker said, describing the plane
as an unmarked white Lear-jet type, with engines mounted near the tail.
"If you were here to see it, you'd have no doubt. It was a jet plane,
and it had to be flying real close when that 757 went down. If I was
the FBI, I'd find out who was driving that plane." But WW3 REPORT asks why sightings of a presumably civilian "unmarked Lear-jet type" points to Flight 93 being shot down by the military.
An official at the Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center in Oberlin, OH,
which tracked Flight 93, said "no comment" when asked if there was any
record of a second plane over the crash site. "The armed forces did not
shoot down any aircraft," said Air Force Gen. Richard Myers. But
witnesses cling to their story. "It's the damndest darn thing," said
farmer Dale Browning. "Everybody's seen this thing in the sky, but no
one can tell us what it is."
Internet conspiracy mavens also allege that there was a secondary
debris field near where Flight 93 went down, pointing to early accounts
in the local press (eg.,
post-gazette.com ).[top]
4. BUSH LAUNCHES "SHADOW GOVERNMENT" IN SECRET BUNKERS
President Bush has dispatched a "shadow government" of about 100 senior
civilian officials to live and work at secret underground locations
outside Washington, activating for the first time the Cold War-era
classified "Continuity of Operations Plan" to ensure survival of
federal rule after catastrophic attack on the nation's capital. First
enacted "on the fly" in the first hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, the
shadow government has evolved into an indefinite precaution. The
high-ranking officials are being rotated between two fortified
locations on the East Coast. Officials who are activated for what they
call "bunker duty" live and work underground 24 hours a day, away from
their families. Only the executive branch is represented in the
full-time shadow administration. The other branches of constitutional
government, Congress and the judiciary, have separate continuity plans
but do not maintain a round-the-clock presence in fortified facilities.
The Washington Post, which reported the "Continuity of Government"
(COG) operation March 1, "agreed to a White House request not to name
any of those deployed or identify the two principal locations of the
shadow government."
The COG operation resurrects a program first hatched in the Eisenhower
administration and revived by Reagan with National Security Decision
Directive
188 of Sept. 16, 1985, "Government Coordination for National Security
Emergency Preparedness," which assigned responsibility for "continuity
planning" to an interagency panel from Defense, Treasury, Justice and
the Office of Management & Budget. In Executive Order 12656, signed
Nov. 18, 1988, Reagan ordered every Cabinet department to define in
detail the "defense and civilian needs" that would be "essential to our
national survival" in case of nuclear attack. Included were legal
instruments for "succession to office and emergency delegation of
authority." Last Oct. 8, the day after bombing began in Afghanistan,
Bush signed Executive Order 13228, creating the Office of Homeland
Security. Among the responsibilities given its new director,
ex-Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, was to "review plans and
preparations for ensuring the continuity of the Federal Government in
the event of a terrorist attack that threatens the safety and security
of the United States Government or its leadership."
While the Washington Post submitted to de facto government censorship
by suppressing the locations of the secret bunkers, WW3 REPORT research
indicates that the primary COG bunker is under Mt. Weather, VA, and
maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The
second location is probably the emergency military command center at
Raven Rock, PA, maintained by the Pentagon's North American Aerospace
Defense (NORAD).
The "shadow government" idea was first made (unofficially) public by the fictional Gen. Buck Turgidson of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, who warned: "Mr. President, we must not allow a mine shaft gap!"[top]
5. PENTAGON DROPS PLAN FOR "MINISTRY OF TRUTH"--OR DOES IT?
Its cover blown in the nation's press, the Defense Department
officially dropped plans for an "Office of Strategic Influence," which
would admittedly plant false information in the world media to sway
opinion in favor of the War on Terrorism--invoking memories of the
sinister "Ministry of Truth" in George Orwell's novel "1984."(See WW3
REPORT #22) Reuters reported Feb. 26: "The Pentagon on Tuesday shut
down its short-lived 'strategic information' office after media reports
suggested it might be used to spread disinformation abroad." But this
raises the logical dilemma of whether an agency which admits to lying
can be believed when it says it doesn't exist. Is the agency's supposed
non-existence the first piece of disinformation? Read the headline on
Satirewire.com: "CLOSED DISINFORMATION AGENCY CAN'T CONVINCE STAFF IT'S
CLOSED; 'Right, Sure, We're "Closed," Gotcha,' Say Winking Employees"[top]
6. CONSPIRACY GURU MICHAEL RUPPERT CAUGHT IN MISREPRENTATIONS;OWES WW3 REPORT EDITOR BILL WEINBERG $1,000
The Vancouver Sun reported Feb. 25 that conspiracy guru Michael
Ruppert, who vigorously advocates the theory that the government was
involved in the 9-11 attacks, "opens his documentary presentation with
an offer of $1,000 US to anyone who can prove any of his sources were
misrepresented or inauthentic." The Nov. 2 edition of Ruppert's
newsletter From the Wilderness opened: "On Oct. 31, the French daily Le
Figaro dropped a bombshell. While in a Dubai hospital receiving
treatment for a chronic kidney infection last July, Osama bin Laden met
with a top CIA official--presumably the Chief of Station... Even though
Le Figaro reported that it had confirmed with hospital staff that bin
Laden had been there as reported, stories printed on Nov. 1 contained
quotes from hospital staff that these reports were untrue." As reported
in WW3 REPORT #6, Le Figaro's allegation was cited to the "claims" of
unnamed "sources", and nowhere did the paper say it had independently
"confirmed" that Osama visited the hospital. According to an on-line
translation, Le Figaro's headline used
the word "allegedly", and the word "confirmed" did not appear in the
article at all. The most specific description of a source was a
"partner of the administration" at the hospital. WW3 REPORT remains
completely agnostic on whether Osama actually visited the hospital, but
reporting the claim as fact rather than allegation constitutes a
serious misrepresentation.
In another example, the Sept. 18 From The Wilderness repeated the
common but inaccurate claim that last Spring the US gave "a gift of $43
million to the Taliban as a purported reward for its eradication of
Afghanistan's opium crop." The source for this claim was a Robert
Scheer column in the May 22 Los Angeles Times. However, as reported in
WW3 REPORT #1, the $43 million was broken down in a May 18 AP account,
and it was mostly drought-relief, to be distributed through NGOs
working in Afghanistan--not the Taliban. Only some $10 million was for
"crop-substitution programs," part of the Taliban-led anti-opium
campaign, and this too was to be overseen by NGOs rather than the
Taliban.
Michael Ruppert can send a $1,000 check payable to Bill Weinberg to: 44
Fifth Ave. #172, Brooklyn, NY 11217[top]
7. WW 3 REPORT CLARIFIES POSITION ON CONSPIRACY THEORY
It is the position of WW3 REPORT that after the 1898 explosion of the
battleship Maine, the 1933 Reichstag Fire, the 1939 bogus Polish
"invasion" of Germany, and the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, it is
irresponsible not to consider the possibility that elements of the CIA
and/or Bush administration had a hand in the events of Sept. 11.
However, it is equally irresponsible to accept this as a foregone
conclusion, and twist every fact to fit it. WW3 REPORT remains
committed to the idea that there is no higher principle to serve than
the truth, and that serving this principle requires unflinching
courage, unrestrained inquiry and unsleeping rigor.[top]
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