ISSUE:
#. 83. April 28, 2003
SHI'ITES BOOGIE IN KARBALA; WASHINGTON WORRIED
OILY POLITICS OF OCCUPATION
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: SECRET WARS FOR THE TEMPLE MOUNT
U.S. TO LAUNCH NUCLEAR WAR OVER KOREAN TRANSLATION ERROR?
SPECIAL WW3 REPORT COMMENTARY:
BEWARE BUSH'S BOOMERANG
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: YELLOW
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Special Correspondent
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Karbala Pilgrimage Shows Shi'ite Power
2. Dissension in Occupation Government
3. Unrest on the Ground
4. Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss--Literally!
5. Who Controls Iraq's Oil Ministry?
6. Ex-Shell Exec Carroll to Oversee Oil
7. Occupied Iraq Sends Rep to Vienna OPEC Meet
8. Chalabi Oil Scion: Iraq May Quit OPEC
9. Israel Seeking to Re-Open Iraq Pipeline?
10. Oil Struggle Behind WMD Spin-Doctoring
11. Civilian Casualties: Still Mounting
12. War Good for Lockheed
13. Marsh Arabs to Reverse Saddam's Hydro-Genocide?
14. U.S. Disarming Kurdish Peshmergas?
15. Baath Bigwigs Busted--But Where's Saddam?
16. Whither Abu Abbas?
17. BBC Director Bashes U.S. War Coverage
18. Medill J-School Club Panel: "Embedding" vs. Objectivity?
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. Conscientious Objector Stephen Funk Needs Support
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Palestinian Power Shifts From Arafat to Abbas
2. IDF Invades Gaza Refugee Camp; Another Suicide Attack
3. Israel Turns to "Terror Tourism"
4. Raiders of The Lost Ark: Secret Wars for the Temple Mount
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. Human Rights Watch: "Climate of Fear" Rules Afghanistan
2. U.S. Troops Killed; Afghan Violence Again Escalates
3. U.S. Holds Kids at Gitmo
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. North Korea: We've Got Nukes! (Or is it a Translation Goof?)
2. U.S. to Bomb North Korean Nuke Plant?
3. Nuclear "Bunker-Buster" on Track
4. U.S. to Resume Nuclear Weapons Production?
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. Russia Seeks Investment for Murmansk Pipeline
2. Russia's Soyuz Spacecraft Becomes Political Pawn
3. Enron's India Project in Deep Trouble
THE WAR AT HOME
1. Ashcroft: Indefinite Detainment of Illegal Immigrants
2. Farouk Abdel-Muhti: One Year in Detainment
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. KARBALA PILGRIMAGE SHOWS SHI'ITE POWER
The fall of Saddam Hussein just two weeks before one of Shia Islam's most
sacred rites provided Iraq's Shi'ites the opportunity to demonstrate both
jubilation and defiance. Hundreds of thousands traveled on foot to the
sacred city of Karbala for ceremonies which had been long suppressed by
Saddam's regime.
The ceremonies marked the end of the Ashura holy period, beginning on
Muharram 10 in the Islamic calendar, which fell in mid-March, still under
Saddam's rule. The closing festival, Arabaein, falls on Safar 20--forty
days later, April 26. Ashura proper, Muharram 10, marks the day on which
Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, was killed at the hands of
the Umayyad Caliphate in the 680 CE Battle of Karbala. Arabaein, Safar 20,
marks the day that Hussein's family, taken captive by the Caliphate, were
released and returned to where his body lay, and he ascended to Heaven. The
spot is where Karbala's gold-domed mosque now stands. Hussein was the
second in the line of Shia's Twelve Imams, or successors to Mohammed, and
the Battle of Karbala was critical in the split between Sunni and Shia
Islam. Ashura is also associated with the safe landing of Noah's arc.
(http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/ashura/2.htm)
The annual Ashura pilgrimage was periodically banned by Iraq's ruling Sunni
minority since the 1930s. Clashes erupted when the Baath Party regime
arrested thousannds of pilgrims en route to Karbala in 1977, leaving
hundreds dead. Repression of Shia rites escalated again when Saddam Hussein
seized control of the Baathist regime and invaded Iran, where a radical
Shia-led regime had just taken power. Under Saddam, more defiant pilgrims
were gunned down on the road to Karbala. The city was the center of the
1991 Shi'ite uprising, which was brutally put down by Saddam.
( http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/karbala.htm)
Karbala came under bombardment during the US air campaign last month,
raising concerns that the mosque would be damaged. Karbala's populace
mobilized to seal off the area around the mosque, to protect it from both
soldiers and looters. (See WW3 REPORT #80) In March, just before the regime's
fall, 100 pilgrims were arrested on the outskirts of Karbala, as they tried
to commemorate Hussein's death, residents told the New York Times (April
22).
Early in the week, the pilgrims began converging on Karbala from throughout
Iraq's center and south, beating themselves with chains to atone for their
sins, often to the point of drawing blood. The pilgrimage was called and
organized by a Karbala center of Shi'ite learning, the Hawza
al-Ilmiya--which has been dispatching volunteers throughout Iraq's Shi'ite
communities to guard banks, get power plants back on line and set up
checkpoints. (AP, April 24)
Sheikh Mohammed Thamer, an aid to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's
top Shi'ite cleric, made clear that his people do not view their liberation
as complete: "Our celebration will be perfect only when the American
occupier is gone and the Iraqi people are able to rule themselves by the
principles of Islam." (NYT, April 22)
Many pilgrims carried portraits of two Shi'ite clerics martyred by Saddam:
Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr Sadr, killed in 1980, and Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq
Sadr, killed in 1999. Bakr Sadr was founder of the Daawa Party, outlawed by
Saddam, and a colleague of Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Iranian
revolution, who was exiled in Karbala in the 1970s. One popular chant was
"Yes, yes for Islam--No America, no Saddam." (NYT, April 23)
Retired Gen. Jay Garner, head of the US occupation's civil apparatus, said:
"I think the bulk of the Shia, the majority of the Shia, are very glad they
are where they are right now. Two weeks ago they wouldn't have been able to
demonstrate." But Washington is clearly concerned about Iranian influence
in the Shi'ite resurgence. Said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer: "We
have concerns about this matter, about Iranian agents in Iraq. We've made
our points clear to the Iranians." (AP, April 24)
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the Iran-based Supreme Council
for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), remains in Tehran. But his brother
Abdel Aziz al-Hakim--who commands the group's armed wing, the Badr
Brigades--has reportedly now returned to Iraq. Abdel Aziz al-Hakim told
al-Jazeera TV the Badr Brigades have been ordered not to attack US
forces--for now. (AP, April 24)
From Tehran, Ayatollah al-Hakim called on the pilgrims "to oppose a US-led
interim administration and defend Iraq's independence." The Badr Brigades
maintain a visible presence in the towns of Baquba and Kut near the Iranian
border, and are believed to have 10,000 men under arms. Hamid al-Bayati,
SCIRI representative in London, demanded a timely departure of US troops:
"If they are talking about democracy, they should leave the Iraqi people to
organize themselves." (NYT, April 23) A fatwa issued by Kadhem al-Husseini
al-Haeri, an Iraqi-born cleric based in the Iranian holy city of Qum, calls
on Iraq's Shi'ite mullahs "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill
the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities." (NYT, April 26)
Shi'ite militias continue to control Saddam City (now re-named Sadr City),
Baghdad's Shi'ite ghetto which holds some 2 million people--nearly half the
capital's population and about 8 percent of all Iraqis. (Newsday, April
21) (Shi'ites collectively make up 60% of Iraq's 24 million people)
Graffiti announcing the return of the long-banned Shia Islamist Daawa Party
has appeared on walls across Baghdad. (Financial Times, April 21)
See also WW3 REPORT #82 top]
2. DISSENSION IN OCCUPATION GOVERNMENT
On April 20, US Marines pulled out of Baghdad, replaced by Army troops, in
a sign that military commanders see the city as largely under control.
(NYT, April 21) The following day, occupation leader Jay Garner arrived in
the city, pledging to rapidly restore electricity and other services. (NYT,
April 22) His Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance has
moved from Kuwait City to Baghdad. (NYT, April 23) Central Command's
regional headquarters remains in Qatar, but it may relocate to Iraq once
Garner's occupation government is in place. (BBC, April 27)
There is growing dissension between the US occupation and its Iraqi
surrogates. On April 23, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of ground
forces in Iraq, issued a proclamation to Iraq's political leaders, saying:
"The coalition alone retains absolute authority within Iraq." He warned
that anyone challenging occupation authorities would be subject to arrest.
The warning seemed aimed at Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, who returned from
exile to become de facto mayor of Baghdad after Saddam's fall. He had
reportedly angered occupation authorities by seeking to appoint a police
chief, ignoring the police official installed by the Army's 3rd Infantry
Division. (NYT, April 24) On April 27, Zubaidi was detained by US forces
for usurping power. (BBC, April 27)
Zubaidi is a follower of Iraqi National Congress (INC) leader Ahmad
Chalabi, who has set up shop in a Baghdad club and is seeking to install
himself in power--reportedly with Pentagon support. Chalabi has some 700
fighters under his command, who were flown to southern Iraq's Tallil air
base by the US military as Saddam's regime was toppling. Chalabi's
paramilitary force, the Free Iraqi Freedom Fighters, were armed by the US
military, and a Special Forces unit was assigned to supervise them.
Pentagon attorneys argued they could be armed without Congressional
approval because they were not agents of a foreign government but a
fighting force attached to the US military. (NYT, April 24)
The same day that Zubaidi was removed from power in Baghdad, Iraqi
opposition leaders--including Kurds, Shi'ites, monarchists and
communists--met in Madrid, where they agreed in principle to a federal
"democracy" in Iraq and a trial for Saddam Hussein. Said BBC on the Madrid
meeting: "Mohammed Mohammed Ali, a Shia Muslim from the leadership council
of the self-proclaimed Iraqi National Congress, says it will not be a
Western-style liberal democracy. And there are major points of contention,
like the role of the United States. Iraqi Kurds are more comfortable with a
longer-term US presence, guaranteeing stability in the country. Communists
want the US out as soon as possible. All agree that there needs to be a
provisional Iraqi government urgently."
There are certainly signs of a long-term US presence in Iraq. Creative
Associates International, a private company based in Washington DC, has won
a contract from US AID to remake Iraq's school system and purge it of
pro-Saddam propaganda. AID says the new program will use "politically
neutral course content." (New Zealand Herald, April 23)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
For more on Chalabi, see WW3 REPORT #81
[top]
3. UNREST ON THE GROUND
Even where US troops were recently greeted as liberators, things are now
turning ugly. Reuters correspondent Kieran Murray, travelling with US
troops since the start of the war, "has seen more and more of the
encounters ending with some children, usually the older ones in their early
teens, hurling stones at the soldiers." Said Captain James McGahey, a
commander of the 101st Airborne Division: "It's frustrating. They're like
little gnats that you can't get away." McGahey said almost every patrol he
sends out in the northern city of Mosul gets stoned. (Reuters, April 26)
US troops sparked a human rights row April 25 when four alleged Iraqi
thieves were chased naked through a Baghdad park. The humiliated prisoners
had the words "Ali Baba, Haram''--Thief, Unclean--scrawled in Arabic on
their chests. The spectacle was captured by a photographer for Norway's
Dagbladet newspaper, which quoted a US officer as saying the deterrent was
effective. Commander Eric Canaday, of 10th Engineer Corps, was quoted
saying: "I think our job is to keep people out of the park to prevent theft
of weapons. We have started doing several things and I don't think this is
too much.'' Lt Canaday added: "We have talked with the Iraqi inhabitants.
Some of them gave us the idea so we took the clothes and burned them before
we pushed them out with thief written on their chest. It was quite
successful.''
Amnesty International in London criticized the degrading treatment and
pledged to raise the matter with the UN. Said Amnesty's director Kate
Allen: "If these pictures are accurate, this is an appalling way to treat
prisoners. Such degrading treatment is a clear violation of the
responsibilities of the occupying powers." (UK Mirror, April 26)
In a case of art imitating life, four US soldiers are themselves under
investigation in the theft of up to $900,000 from some $600 million in cash
found in Saddam's palaces--a scenario echoing the 1999 George Clooney film
"Three Kings," in which a team of US soldiers in the aftermath of Desert
Storm attempt to make off with looted Kuwaiti gold. (NYT, April 25)
Scattered armed resistance still persists, especially in Baghdad. Four US
troops were reported seriously wounded in a Baghdad ambush by unknown
gunmen April 27. (BBC, April 27)
[top]
4. MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS--LITERALLY!
Within two weeks of the collapse of Saddam's regime, thousands of members
of his long-ruling Ba'ath Party were already resuming their roles. Wrote
the UK Guardian April 21: "Two thousand policemen--all cardholding party
members--have put on the olive green, or the gray-and-white uniforms of
traffic wardens, and returned to the streets of Baghdad at America's
invitation. Dozens of minders from the information ministry, who spied on
foreign journalists for the security agencies, have returned to the
Palestine Hotel where most reporters stay, offering their services as
translators to unwitting new arrivals. Seasoned bureaucrats at the oil
ministry--including the brother of General Amer Saadi, the chemical weapons
expert now in American custody--have been offered their jobs back by the US
military."
Added Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University
who broke with the Baath Party in 1961, and is trying to organize a new
political grouping: "The coming bureaucracy will be overwhelmed by
Ba'athists. They had loyalty to Saddam Hussein, and now they have loyalty
to foreign invaders."
See also WW3 REPORT #14
[top]
5. WHO CONTROLS IRAQ'S OIL MINISTRY?
Employees are reappearing for work at Iraq's Oil Ministry, which largely
escaped the destruction suffered by most other public buildings in Baghdad,
and is one of the few to be guarded by US soldiers. Wrote the Financial
Times April 21: "Ringed by US tanks and guarded by US soldiers with a very
exclusive admission list, Iraq's oil ministry, in charge of the world's
second largest petroleum reserves, yesterday appeared secluded from the
disorder that reigns in the rest of Baghdad. One question nevertheless
provoked a great deal of confusion: who is in charge? The former minister
is barred from entering, as are his deputies. A man in a green suit,
standing outside the barbed wire, introduced himself as Fellah al-Khawaja
and said he represented the Co-ordinating Committee for the Oil Ministry,
which few of the employees had heard of. It draws its authority from a
self-declared local government led by Mohamed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, a recently
returned exile who says he is now the effective mayor of Baghdad. According
to Faris Nouri, a ministry section chief, the committee has issued a list
of who should be allowed into the ministry by US troops guarding the
building. Yesterday it was announced that Mr Zubaidi's deputy, former
general Jawdat al-Obeidi, would lead Iraq's delegation to the next meeting
of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But when asked who
was giving the orders at the ministry, most employees pointed to a portly
man standing in the lobby, who looked to be in his 50s but declined to give
his name."
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
6. EX-SHELL EXEC CARROLL TO OVERSEE OIL
The US has formally appointed Philip J Carroll, ex-head of Shell Oil, to
run Iraq's oil industry. "The US Government is setting up Iraq's oil
industry to run much like an American corporation, with a chief executive
and management team vetted by US officials who would answer to a
multinational board of advisers," the Wall Street Journal Europe reported.
Carroll--former chief executive of Shell Oil, US unit of the Dutch-British
giant Royal Dutch/Shell--is to head the new advisory board. He is also to
name an Iraqi vice-chairman, expected to be Fadil Othman, an oil executive
from the pre-Saddam era. Newly appointed executives will answer to the
advisory board which in turn is to answer to Jay Garner. Carroll will also
represent Iraq at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
(London Times, April 25)
See also WW3 REPORT #80:
The US Army Corps of Engineers is working with Iraqi technicians to get the
oilfields functioning again--first to supply Iraq's still-inoperative power
plants. But an effort to restart pumping at southern Iraq's Rumaila field
resulted in a pipeline rupture and massive oil spill. (NYT, April 26)
[top]
7. OCCUPIED IRAQ SENDS REP TO VIENNA OPEC MEET
Former Iraqi general Jawdat al-Obeidi, who claims to be deputy governor of
post-war Baghdad, announced April 20 that he would head an Iraqi delegation
to OPEC's emergency meeting in Vienna--along with senior oil officials from
the Saddam Hussein regime. Obeidi, who spent years in exile from Saddam's
regime, told Reuters he was nominated to go to Vienna by Baghdad's
self-declared governor Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi. Obeidi said he would be
accompanied by four Iraqi oil experts--Thamir Abbas Ghadhban, director
general of planning in the oil ministry, Mazin Juma'h, Rafid Abdul Halim
Jasim and Shamakhi Faraj. Juma'h had briefly served as Saddam's senior
deputy minister of oil. Jasim was executive director of Iraq's State Oil
Marketing Organization (SOMO), and Faraj was the country's national
representative to OPEC's Economic Commission Board under Saddam. A question
remained as to which route they would take to Vienna--Jordanian and Syrian
authorities have banned Iraqis from entering their territory. Before the
war, Iraq was exporting an average two million barrels of oil per day.
(Reuters, April 20)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
8. CHALABI OIL SCION: IRAQ MAY QUIT OPEC
Fadhil Chalabi--a former Iraqi oil minister now a key adviser to the US
government--says Iraq may have to leave OPEC so it can pump out extra oil
to pay for the country's reconstruction. The extra oil needed would be more
than twice Iraq's pre-sanctions OPEC quota and almost triple the present
output of some 7 million barrels a day, said Chalabi--who reportedly
rejected a US invitation to become interim head of Iraq's oil sector.
Chalabi, who served on the US State Department's "Future of Iraq Oil and
Energy Working Group," says the Iraqi industry must be privatized to
attract foreign investment.
Output of 7 million barrels a day is thought to be achievable in around six
years. But such high production could threaten a slump in global prices and
strain Iraq's relations with OPEC. Chalabi said his preference would be for
Iraq to remain in OPEC. But he added: "Iraq must maximize revenue from its
oil. I would choose maximizing the revenue through oil, with or without
OPEC. If it is within OPEC it would be better, but it may not be possible."
Chalabi--cousin of Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon's choice to lead Iraq--said
he would serve the Iraqi oil industry if a democratically elected
government was in place. He said that selling off Iraq's oil assets was
inevitable. "Iraq is going to need a lot of money in the next five years,
up to $300 billion. Privatization or partial privatization is the way to
secure this investment." (UK Observer, April 27)
At the Vienna meet, OPEC members agreed to cut output by 2 million barrels
a day, or seven percent, in a bid to raise global prices. OPEC leaders
insisted that with no legitimate government in Baghdad, Iraq is not
considered an OPEC member at this time. "We will accommodate Iraq at the
right time," said OPEC president Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah. (AP, April
25)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
9. ISRAEL SEEKING TO RE-OPEN IRAQ PIPELINE?
Washington and Tel Aviv are reportedly discussing plans to re-build an old
oil pipeline that ran from the Iraqi city of Mosul to the Israeli port of
Haifa. The pipeline was closed with Israeli independence in 1948.
Re-opening it was first discussed by the Israel's National Infrastructure
Minister Joseph Paritzky, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. The
paper quotes Paritzky as saying that the pipeline would cut Israel's energy
bill by over 25%. Israel is now largely dependent on expensive imports from
Russia. US intelligence sources reportedly confirmed to the UK Observer
that the project has been discussed.
James Akins, a veteran US diplomat to the region and a leading Arabist,
told the Observer: "There would be a fee for transit rights through Jordan,
just as there would be fees for Israel from those using what would be the
Haifa terminal. After all, this is a new world order now. This is what
things look like particularly if we wipe out Syria. It just goes to show
that it is all about oil, for the United States and its ally."
Akins was ambassador to Saudi Arabia before he was fired after conflicts
with then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who he depicts as mastermind
of the plan. In 1975, Kissinger signed a Memorandum of Understanding
whereby the US would guarantee Israel's oil reserves in the event of
crisis. The memorandum has been quietly renewed every five years, with
special legislation mandating that the US must stock a strategic oil
reserve for Israel even if it entails domestic shortages. In 2002, the
program cost US taxpayers $3 billion. This bill would be slashed by a new
pipeline, which would have the added advantage of giving the US reliable
access to Gulf oil from a source other than Saudi Arabia.
Kissinger was also architect of a US plan from the 1980s to run an oil
pipeline from Iraq to Aqaba, Jordan, opposite the Israeli port of Eilat.
The pipeline was promoted by now-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and was
to be built by the Bechtel corporation, which the Bush administration has
now awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for the reconstruction of Iraq.
(UK Observer, April 20)
The plan is also supported by Prince Raad bin Zeid, a pretender to the
Iraqi throne in Amman, Jordan. See WW3 REPORT #82
For more on the 1980's Saddam-Rumsfeld lovefest, see WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
10. OIL STRUGGLE BEHIND WMD SPIN-DOCTORING
The US search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has big
implications not only for the official justification for the war, but also
for control over Iraq's oil. With no internationally-recognized government,
it is unclear who has the right to sell Iraq's oil, and economic sanctions
remain in place. The US is demanding that sanctions be lifted, but France
is demanding that UN inspectors be sent back in first. (BBC, April 25)
On April 20, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman
told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that UN inspectors could not be
sent back to Iraq and suggested NATO instead might take a key role in
Iraq's disarmament. Asked whether he believed arms inspectors were needed
in Iraq, Grossman said: "We don't exclude it. On a visit to NATO, Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz suggested involving it [NATO] in Iraq's
disarmament." He also said that UN sanctions on Iraq must be lifted. "The
situation in Iraq has completely changed.... The inspectors' mandate is
still in force but they cannot be sent back en bloc to Iraq," Grossman was
quoted as saying. (Reuters, April 20)
A front-page story in the April 21 New York Times, "Illicit Arms Kept Till
Eve of War, An Iraqi Scientist is Said to Assert," smacked to many of
desperation on the part of Washington to find WMD evidence in Iraq--and
raised questions about the Times' subservience to the Pentagon. The story
began: "A scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons
program for more than a decade has told an American military team that Iraq
destroyed chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days
before the war began, members of the team said." But "embedded" reporter
Judith Miller--who described her news as "the most important discovery to
date in the hunt for illegal weapons"--provided no independent confirmation
for any of the claims.
In her story, Miller disclosed that she had agreed to several conditions
imposed by the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha (MET Alpha), the unit in
charge of finding WMD evidence. "Under the terms of her accreditation to
report on the activities of MET Alpha, this reporter was not permitted to
interview the scientist or visit his home," Miller wrote. "Nor was she
permitted to write about the discovery of the scientist for three days, and
the copy was then submitted for a check by military officials."
Miller admitted that her report was necessarily vague due to Pentagon
restraints: "Those officials asked that details of what chemicals were
uncovered be deleted. They said they feared that such information could
jeopardize the scientist's safety by identifying the part of the weapons
program where he worked."
New York Observer reporter Sridhar Pappu said that the Times' decision to
accept military censorship has caused an internal uproar at the paper. "One
source inside the Times called it a 'wacky-assed piece,' adding that there
were 'real questions about it and why it was on page 1.'"
( Jack Shafer for Slate.com, April 23)
See also WW3 REPORTS #s 81 & 80
[top]
11. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES: STILL MOUNTING
Baghdad hospital workers say at least 12 were killed by explosions at an
ammunition dump in a civilian area on the southern edge of the city April
26. A US officer said "hostile forces" fired flares into the depot,
igniting the blasts in the Zafaranyah neighborhood, which demolished at
least four houses More victims are said to be buried under rubble.
Unconfirmed reports speak of 40 killed. Locals accuse US troops of storing
weapons in a residential area. But a statement from the US Central Command
said "the location of the ammunition cache near a civilian population is
another example of the former regime's disregard for the safety of Iraqi
citizens." BBC reports that the cause of the explosions and precise number
of casualties are hard to establish because US forces have closed off the
area.
US troops were stoned by a crowd when they first reached the site and began
taking evacuating victims and then local residents. Hundreds shook their
fists at US troops as they were evacuated. In one truck, people chanted,
"America's no better than Saddam." (BBC, April 26)
One US soldier was reported wounded in a firefight with the attackers at
the dump, which contained small arms, munitions, howitzer rounds and Frog 7
missiles, according to Lt. Col. Jack Kammerer, the local zone commander.
Eyewitnesses said some 100 US soldiers operating the camp fled the
explosions--some in their underpants and others barefoot according. (CSM,
April 26)
The web site Iraq Body Count continues to monitor world press reports to
arrive at a daily update of the total Iraqi civilian dead. Each incident is
listed separately, noting the location, number dead, weaponry used and
media source. At press time, the minimum estimate stands at 2,050 and the
maximum at 2,514.
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
12. WAR GOOD FOR LOCKHEED
Lockheed Martin, producers of the F-16 and F-22 fighter jets used
extensively in the Iraq campaign, has announced a jump in first-quarter
profits and raised its forecast for the coming year. The company saw
profits rise to $250 million in the first three months of 2003 from $224
million a year earlier. Sales at the company's aeronautics division more
than doubled. The company said it expected profits for 2003 as a whole to
be about 5% higher than analysts had been forecasting, while group sales
would be 8-12% up on 2002. The smaller Raytheon, dogged by problems in its
aircraft business, announced a jump in sales at the unit which manufactures
the Tomahawk cruise missile, also used in Iraq. Raytheon said sales at its
missile systems division increased by 18% in the first three months of the
year to $860 million. Total sales increased to $4.2 billion from $3.9
billion. (UK Guardian, April 23)
Historical Irony Dept.: In 1988, when Saddam gassed the Kurdish city of
Halabja, instantly killing 5,000 civilians, the US-Iraq Business
Forum--including Lockheed, Exxon, Mobil, Westinghouse and Xerox--advocated
against economic sanctions. A bill to impose sanctions never made it out of
Congress. (See "The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq," by Kenneth R.
Timmerman, Houghton Mifflin 1991)
( http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2002/101602a.htm
[top]
13. MARSH ARABS TO REVERSE SADDAM'S HYDRO-GENOCIDE?
Among the groups seeking redress in the new order are southern Iraq's
Ma'adan people--the Marsh Arabs--whose 5,000-year-old way of life was
nearly exterminated by Saddam's regime. Qassim Alwan, sheikh of al-Maarada
tribe, was tortured by the Baathists for opposing his people's forcible
relocation to a remote desert location to make way for the Majnoon oil
fields in the 1980s. "They promised us electricity and water and schools
but to this day we have nothing. These children cannot read or write," he
said, indicating group of barefoot boys at the settlement. The Majnoon
marshlands were also drained to build defensive earthworks in the Iran-Iraq
war. "It took about two years. The water just stopped flowing in. Then the
soldiers came and we were told to leave." After the 1991 Shi'ite uprising,
drainage efforts and forced relocations in the region escalated. Of the
nearly 9,000 sq. km of marshlands, Saddam's regime drained all but ten
percent, leaving desolation. The population of the marshes, put at 200,000
in 1991, is now only 40,000--only some half of them Ma'adan. The speaker of
the Iraqi parliament was quoted as saying of the Ma'adan: "America wiped
the Red Indians off the face of the earth and nobody raised an eyebrow."
Now the Ma'adan want to restore their homeland. Emma Nicholson, a British
member of the European parliament working on behalf of the Ma'adan, said:
"We believe that up to half the marshes can be restored." Ahmed Haidari, a
Basra dentist who translated Wilfred Thesiger's book "The Marsh Arabs" into
Arabic, was less optimistic: "I think it is impossible. The water flow in
the Tigris and Euphrates is no more than 25 percent of what it was
before.," Some 36 dams today control the two rivers--in Syria and Turkey as
well as Iraq. But unconfirmed reports from British military officers and
Shi'ite militants in Basra say some Ma'adan are taking the law into their
own hands and have started destroying some of the levees that hold back the
waters. (James Drummond for the Financial Times, April 21)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
14. U.S. DISARMING KURDISH PESHMERGAS?
US troops backed by helicopter gunships have apparently begun disarming the
peshmerga (militia) of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Mosul. US
forces reportedly took over three peshmerga roadblocks in the city April
27. The peshmerga troops at first refused at first to yield, but finally
backed down. Reuters reported that in one incident, dozens of peshmerga
troops were seen running towards a roadblock to reinforce their comrades,
but turned away when a Kiowa attack helicopter swooped down over them and
hundreds of US troops approached. In negotiations with KDP officers, both
sides apparently agreed to a deal under which some 20 weapons were seized
from peshmerga vehicles trying to flee the area.
Fazil Miran, a high-ranking KDP official and a minister in the Kurdistan
Regional Government, tried to set up a civil administration in Mosul with
the help of other factions and tribes in the city, but the US refused to
recognize it. Wrote the Kurdish news agency KurdishMedia.com: "Kurds are
skeptical of US intentions, in particular after the retired US general Jay
Garner responsible for administering post-war Iraq, denounced Federalism as
a viable option, something that has been the aspiration of the Kurdistan
Regional Government for the last 13 years." (KurdishMedia.com, April 27)
But KurdishMedia.com reported that on a visit to Iraqi Kurdistan just days
earlier, Garner was "warmly welcomed" in talks with KDP leader Massoud
Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani.
Garner told the Kurdish leaders that their experience in the region will be
a model for the whole of Iraq. Talabani told Garner that he should feel
Kurdistan was his "home," adding: "When you retire, come back to
Kurdistan...and we'll prepare a beautiful house for you." A group of
Sulemani University students welcomed Garner with flowers. Garner told the
crowd, "You are a great people; you will have a great future... What you
have done here in the last 12 years is a wonderful start in self-government
and what you have done can serve as a model for the rest of Iraq."
(KurdishMedia.com, April 22)
Satellite Kurdistan TV said April 26 that PUK leader Talabani had called
for rebuilding the Iraqi national army in a meeting with US Gen. Bruce
Moore, now supervising the Kurdish zone, and three top Iraqi army officers.
Talabani reportedly called for unity among Iraq's Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.
(KurdishMedia.com, April 26)
These mixed signals point to divisions among Kurds as to whether a federal
Iraq with local autonomy for the Kurdish region is possible, or if
aspirations for an independent Kurdistan should be revived--raising grave
questions about the fate of other ethnic groups in Iraq's north.
KurdishMedia.com, reported that Turkmen militias in Kirkuk killed fifteen
Kurds celebrating the downfall of the Saddam Husein regime April 11.
Turkmen also reportedly looted Kurdish homes and shops after peshmerga
forces withdrew from the city at US behest.
On April 26, gunfire again erupted in Kirkuk at a Turkmen political office
where aid was being distributed, leaving one Arab and one Turkmen wounded.
That same day, the US military announced that Turkish Special Forces troops
were intercepted smuggling weapons into northern Iraq hidden in an aid
caravan. The weapons were believed destined for Turkmen militias. (NYT,
Apri, 27) (See also WW3 REPORT #73)
Meanwhile, Kurdish exiles around the world are calling on the KDP and PUK
to seek independence from Iraq. Several Kurds from Iraq, Iran, Turkey and
Syria gathered April 20 in Seoul's Dongnimmun Park to rally for creation of
an independent Kurdish state. Numbering 30 million, Kurds represent the
world's largest ethnic group without their own sovereign state, exile
leaders said. More than 1,000 Kurds live in South Korea. Most came in the
1990s, fleeing persecution and hardship in their homelands, and most are in
the country illegally. (Chosun Ilbo, Seoul, April 20)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
15. BAATH BIGWIGS BUSTED--BUT WHERE'S SADDAM?
The top leaders from Saddam's regime--each represented by a card in the
deck handed out to Special Forces troops--are starting to fall into US
hands. Tariq Aziz, deputy prime minister and the Eight of Spades, was
taken into custody April 26 (AP, April 26). Queen of Spades Mohammed Hamza
al-Zubaydi, known as the "Shi'ite Thug" for his role in suppressing the
1991 Shi'ite uprising, was nabbed April 21 (AP, April 21). Gen. Hassam
Mohammed Amin, Saddam's liaison to the UN weapons inspectors, was taken by
US troops April 27 (BBC, April 27).
But the Ace of Spades--Saddam himself--remains at large. The disappearance
of the deposed tyrant continues to raise speculation about a "safqa" or
secret deal, in which Saddam and a chosen few were granted exile in
exchange for turning over Baghdad to the US. Writes WW3 REPORT reader Bert
Golding: "I do have this touch of suspicion and paranoia. I can't avoid
the thought that the CIA set up the escape of top Iraqis to a remote
site--who knows where?--to speed the Iraqi collapse and smooth the way for
our triumphant troops!"
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
16. WHITHER ABU ABBAS?
Infamous Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas is in US custody following a raid
at his Baghdad home. He reportedly sought refuge in Syria, Iran, Lebanon,
Libya and Yemen, but was turned down by each. Abu Abbas has acknowledged
masterminding in the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, in
which elderly Jewish-American tourist Leon Klinghoffer was shot in the head
and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Abu Abbas leads a faction of the
Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), one of numerous ultra-radical offshoots
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He has today apologized
for the Achille Lauro affair, calling it "a mistake," and even supported
the Oslo Accords, urging both sides to leave the past behind. He has
traveled to and from the Occupied Territories with the consent of the
Israeli government since the Accords. His fate is now unclear. The Achille
Lauro was an Italian ship, and an Italian court has convicted him in
absentia of murder. But Klinghoffer was a US citizen, and his family wants
him tried in the US. The Palestinian Authority notes that under the Oslo
Accords no member of the PLO--the umbrella group of which the PLF is a
part--can be tried or sentenced for acts of violence committed before
September 1993. The official US response is that Oslo is only binding on
Israel and the Palestinian Authority leadership. Opines Marc Sirois for
Palestine Chronicle: "That may be true from a technical point of view, but
the United States is rightly regarded as a guarantor of the agreement and
needs nothing less than yet another indication that it is only interested
in enforcing those clauses that favor Israel... No one should coddle
terrorists, but the issue is larger than that: No one should continue to
fuel a feud that has claimed far too many lives already. Or, if it has to
be this way, then surely fairness demands that Abu Abbas be joined in his
cell by the likes of Sharon and his ilk." (Palestine Chronicle, April 18)
In a 1993 interview with WW3 REPORT editor Bill Weinberg, former Israeli
spy Ari Ben-Menashe (author of "Profits of War: Inside the Secret
US-Israeli Arms Network," Sheridan Square Press 1992) said that the Achille
Lauro attack was actually an Israeli "black propaganda" operation financed
by the Mossad-Military Intelligence Joint Committee, a secret Israeli team
established in the 1980s to smuggle arms to Iran. Ben-Menashe, then with
Military Intelligence, worked in the Joint Committee with Mossad director
of operations Rafi Eitan, who he names as architect of the scheme.
Ben-Menashe maintains that the attempted bombing of a 1986 El Al jet in
London--which led to the UK breaking off relations with Syria--was also
secretly masterminded by the Eitan. Said Ben-Menashe: "These were Rafi
Eitan operations. He was on the Committee and we worked together for a long
time. It is difficult to say how far up in the Israeli government it was
authorized--perhaps by [1980s prime ministers Yitzhak] Shamir or [Menachim]
Begin. I believe the details were not known by the politicians. It was all
carried out through connections. In the Achille Lauro affair, we used a
Sicilian family in Catania with connections to both sides. I knew them from
my arms-smuggling work, and they also had various business links with
Palestinian extremists, mostly selling guns. It's a very murky world."
(High Times, March 1993)
For more on Abu Abbas, see WW3 REPORT #66
For more on Ari Ben-Menashe and his claims, see WW3 REPORT #63
[top]
17. BBC DIRECTOR BASHES U.S. WAR COVERAGE
Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, attacked US TV and radio networks
for their war coverage in an April 23 interview. In his first public
comments since the war, Dyke said the US had "no news operation strong
enough or brave enough to stand up against" the White House and Pentagon.
"Personally, I was shocked while in the United States by how unquestioning
the broadcast news media was during this war." Dyke said that since the
9-11 attacks, many US networks have "wrapped themselves in the American
flag and swapped impartiality for patriotism." Dyke attacked Fox News and
CNN for "gung-ho" coverage.
In contrast, the BBC was an "800-pound gorilla" that was capable of
standing up to pressure from the British government. "I think compared to
the United States we see impartiality as giving a range of views, including
those critical of our own government's position. I think in the United
States, particularly since 11 September, that would be seen as
unpatriotic." Dyke said that on a recent visit to the US, he was "amazed by
how many people just came up to me and said they were following the war on
the BBC because they no longer trusted the American electronic news media."
Dyke also warned against US companies being allowed greater ownership of
British media. "We must ensure that we don't become Americanized," he said.
Dyke reserved some of his strongest criticisms for Clear Channel, largest
operator of radio stations in the US. Clear Channel is likely to benefit
from government plans to open up ownership of commercial radio in the UK.
Said Dyke: "We were genuinely shocked when we discovered that the largest
radio group in the US was using its airwaves to organize pro-war rallies.
We are even more shocked to discover that the same group wants to become a
big player in radio in the UK." (UK Independent, April 24)
[top]
18. MEDILL J-SCHOOL CLUB PANEL: "EMBEDDING" VS. OBJECTIVITY?
A panel discussion on media coverage of the Iraq war--focusing on how the
new practice of "embedding" journalists with combat units has affected
reporting--was held April 21 at the New York Historical Society, organized
by the local alumni club of Northwestern University's Medill School of
Journalism. Comparing reporters' experiences in Vietnam to those in the
current war, Richard Pyle, AP's Saigon bureau chief from 1970 to 1973, said
back then "embedding was something you might do when you got home and
hooked up with a friend." Joining Pyle on the 10-person panel were
representatives from a range of news organizations, from the Wall Street
Journal to Reuters to al-Jazeera, as well as the Pentagon's media outreach
office.
T. Sean Herbert, head of the CBS News analyst's desk, said embeds "couldn't
help but lose their objectivity" when they lived with troops and relied on
them for survival. "Embeds [and troops] became a band of brothers," he
said, and the close bonds between reporters and soldiers led to "giddy and
excited" reporting. "I don't believe that the people really got balanced
coverage," he said.
Edith Lederer, another veteran AP reporter and currently its chief UN
correspondent, said that ability to move through the war zone in Vietnam
allowed "the kind of freedom that hasn't existed in any conflict since."
Nonetheless, Lederer said that the practice of embedding reporters, which
dominated coverage of the current war, was better than the "military
censorship" that reporters faced during the 1991 Gulf War. [Although there
has been military censorship this time around as well.]
Lora Western, foreign news editor of the Wall Street Journal, said that
reporting from "embeds" should have been better balanced with coverage from
"unilateral" journalists in Iraq. But many "unilaterals"--including Journal
reporters--were stuck in Kuwait and northern Iraq and couldn't get close to
the action.
The last word belonged to Bill Weinberg, a self-described "left-wing
blogger" and editor of the on-line weekly WW3 REPORT, who dismissed the
entire notion of objectivity in reporting. "There's no such thing as
objectivity in anything in the human realm," he said. Instead, Weinberg
preferred that media be honest. "All media is descending to the level of
propaganda," he said. "If they're going to be doing this they should at
least be clear about their biases." (Rafe Bartholomew for Editor &
Publisher Online, April 22)
[top]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR STEPHEN FUNK NEEDS SUPPORT
US Marine Corps Reservist Stephen Funk, 20, who turned himself in to
military authorities at the San Jose Reserve Unit April 1, insists his
unauthorized absence was an act of conscience. "I refuse to kill," says
Funk. "It is scary to confront the military, because the military teaches
you to submit to orders even when you object. I may not be a hero, but I
know that it takes courage to disobey. I know that it demands courage to
say 'no' in the face of coercion." Funk, who enlisted in the Marine Corps
in February, became increasingly uneasy while training in the use of
weapons--especially how to kill with a bayonet.
Funk's attorney Stephen Collier says Funk failed to report when his San
Jose-based Marine reserve unit was called to active duty in mid-February.
When Funk went back to the barracks April 1, accompanied by peace
activists and his mother, he had his conscientious objection papers in his
hands. Until authorities decide his punishment, Funk will be allowed to go
home at the end of each day, provided he returns each morning to the
Marine Corps reserve center in San Jose. He faces imprisonment of up to two
years for unauthorized absence.
According to the US-based GI Rights Hotline,
there are many GIs with concerns about the war. Calls have doubled since
2002, with 3,582 calls reported in January, and 3,118 in February 2003.
Readers can support Stephen by sending letters and money for his legal defense.
The Stephen Funk Legal Defense Fund
PO Box 111
1230 Market St
San Francisco, CA 94102
E-mail: stephenfunk@objector.org
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. PALESTINIAN POWER SHIFTS FROM ARAFAT TO ABBAS
In a last minute deal forged with the help of Egypt's intelligence services
chief Omar Suleiman, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat agreed,
to hand over some of his power to a newly-created position of prime
minister and a cabinet. The new prime minister is to be Mahmoud Abbas,
number two man in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), better known
by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen. The passing of power to a prime minister
had been a key demand of Israel and the US prior to the initiation of peace
talks under the "road map" drawn up by the "quartet" consisting of the US,
UN, EU and Russia. For Arafat, the occasion marks the further erosion of
his power, which began with the Palestinian legislature's refusal to
approve his choice of cabinet members nearly a year ago, and the refusal by
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George Bush to deal
with him directly.
Abu Mazen has been outspoken in his opposition to the militarization of the
Intifada. His appointment of Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan as the
head of preventative security in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip makes
Hamas militants fear Mazen's intention is to disarm them. Mazen's cabinet
also includes Nabil Amr, also known to oppose the use of force in the
Intifada. The Israeli and US governments are trying to appear disinterested
in the process, so as not to harm Mazen's credibility with his own people.
(Combined sources)
Not all Palestinians are encouraged by Abu Mazen's new position. Ali
Abunimah, writing for the Electronic Intifada, called Mazen and Dahlan as
"The men who are selling Palestine." Abunimah repeats allegations of
corruption against both men. Abu Mazen built himself a $1.5 million villa
in the squalor of Gaza, and Dahlan has been accused of using his security
forces to control the petroleum business in Gaza--as well as for repression
and torture. Abunimah concludes that Mazen and Dahlan will be more likely
to give in to Israeli and US demands at the expense of the Palestinian
people. (EI, April 23) (David Bloom)
[top]
2. IDF INVADES GAZA REFUGEE CAMP; ANOTHER SUICIDE ATTACK
On April 20, five Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed when the
Israeli Defense Forces launched their biggest incursion into the Gaza
Strip's Rafah refugee camp since the beginning of the Intifada, now in its
30th month. (FT, April 21) On April 24, one Ukrainian security guard was
killed when a Palestinian militant blew himself up in the train station at
Kfar Sava, Israel. The al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade and the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) jointly claimed responsibility.
(Haaretz, April 24)
[top]
3. ISRAEL TURNS TO "TERROR TOURISM"
With Israel's tourist industry experiencing a massive downturn as a result
of the current Intifada, some enterprising Israelis are trying to make the
best of a poor situation. The Shiloh Tour package will charge $5,500 to 22
young Americans and Canadians, some Jewish, to experience a week on the
front lines in Israel's "War on Terror," including five days living in an
illegal Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank. "They'll get full
value for their money," said Yehezkel Klein, head of tourism for the Gush
Etzion settlement bloc. "From the moment they cross the 'Green Line'
[separating Israel proper from the West Bank] and find themselves in
hostile territory they will feel in real danger of their lives. They'll
sweat from fear. We'll bring them as close as possible to the friction
points with the Palestinians. We, of course, will provide them with maximum
protection so that no one will be hurt."
The tourists will stay at an army bunker, eat military food, and receive
weapons training by veterans of elite Israeli commando units. There will be
night patrols along the fence of an Israeli settlement. "A night patrol
with the knowledge that there is a chance of imminent battle is an
experience they will never forget," the promoters promise. On the last day
of the tour, participants will experience a "terrorist attack" by
instructors firing blanks. (Washington Times, March 8)
Another tour, "The Ultimate Lawyer's Mission to Israel," is offered by
Shurat Hadin, or Israel Law Center. Participants are promised to learn all
about the "fascinating legal challenges involved in effectively conducting
the war on terror." The tour is advertised in last week's Ha'aretz.
Among highlights in a nine-day tour the promoters call "a judicial,
military, humanitarian, historical, religious, and political reality
check," the tourists will be briefed by senior past and present commanders
of the Shin Bet Security service and Mossad. There will be an "exhibition
by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) undercover soldiers who carry out targeted
assassinations of Palestinian terrorists and deep penetration raids in Arab
territory." Participants will observe the "trial of Hamas terrorists in an
IDF military court." Discussion will be held with Palestinian
collaborators, described as "Israel's Arab agents who infiltrate the
terrorist groups and provide real-time intelligence." The lawyer-tourists
are also promised tours of "front line military positions, the border
check-points and intelligence bases." Five-star accommodation is included,
as are "water activities on Lake Kinneret," which presumably means water
skiing. (David Bloom)
[top]
4. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: SECRET WARS FOR THE TEMPLE MOUNT
New research in Israel sheds light on the hidden struggle for control of
the contested East Jerusalem hill known to Jews as the Temple Mount--now
site of the Dome of the Rock or al-Aksa Mosque, Islam's third holiest--and
believed to be the ancient site of King Solomon's temple. A new book by
Hila Volberstein on the late Yehuda Meir Getz, Israel's Rabbi of the
Western Wall, reveals that he secretly acted on his plans to dig under the
foundations of the Dome of the Rock in order to find the site where the
artifacts of Solomon's temple were concealed--including the Ark of the
Covenant. Getz and workers from the Religious Affairs Ministry cleared the
excavation secretly during work officially aimed at uncovering the full
length of the Western Wall.
A violent confrontation broke out in the tunnel in 1981, when it was
discovered by members of the Waqf--the Muslim trust which has administered
al-Aksa Mosque since Israeli forces took the Temple Mount in 1967. Yeshiva
students led by Getz rushed to block the tunnel entrance to Waqf personnel.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin subsequently ordered that the opening be
resealed, and the affair was officially covered up. But Muslims saw the
incident as a challenge to their control of the site.
Volberstein's book claims that Getz had a high-level partner in his plan to
tunnel from the Western Wall eastward under the Temple Mount--Rafi Eitan,
Mossad anti-terrorism chief to three prime ministers (Menachem Begin,
Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres), who later gained fame as the man who
recruited US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard as a spy for Israel.
"As the excavation of the tunnels progressed," says Eitan in the book, "I
met with Rabbi Getz almost daily. Together with him, I studied the
structure of the Holy Temple and its dimensions. We drew conclusions as to
the location of the Holy Temple and the Holy of Holies [interior of the
Tabernacle of Moses, and resting place of the Ark of the Covenant]... But
we waited for the right time to make the opening. We told no one about it
because we preferred to keep the secret to ourselves, so that if--heaven
forfend--it were discovered, the responsibility would not fall on the
government or its leaders. That is why Begin, who knew about the
excavations along the Western Wall, did not know about our plans to make
the opening to the east."
Getz is described as among the first to settle in the Jewish Quarter after
East Jerusalem was seized in the 1967 Six-Day War. Of his 11 children, most
live in the occupied West Bank ("Judea and Samaria"). One son was killed in
Samaria in the 1980s when his car was hit by a truck driven by an Arab.
Another son was killed in the battle for the Old City in the Six-Day War.
Volberstein reveals extensive excerpts from Getz's diaries, just a small
fraction of which had been made public before. Getz apparently believed
that recovering the Temple artifacts would be a watershed for Jewish
redemption--and a catalyst for the coming of the Messiah. He persisted in
the project even after Lubavitcher Hasidic leader Rabbi Menachem Schneerson
urged him to stop, warning that anyone who found the artifacts was placing
his life in danger. 13th-century Spanish rabbi Nachmanides wrote that the
Ark would be discovered "during the construction of the Temple or in future
wars before the coming of the Messiah king."
( Nadav Shragai for Haaretz, April 27)
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: "CLIMATE OF FEAR" RULES AFGHANISTAN
Warlords still terrorize Afghanistan's civil population 18 months after US
forces toppled the Taliban regime, Human Rights Watch protested April 22.
"The international community has allowed warlords and local military
commanders to take control of much of the country," HRW rep Loubna Freih
told the UN Human Rights Commission, now ending its annual six-week session
in Geneva. Kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, armed robbery, extortion and
beatings at the hands of warlord armies remain widespread in much of
Afghanistan. In other parts Freih said warlords maintain law and order "by
creating a climate of fear, not unlike under the Taliban..." Political
opponents, journalists and ordinary Afghans "are attacked and intimidated
into silence," she said. Soldiers and police--despite being officially
retrained by the US and brought under Kabul's command--"regularly abduct
and rape women, girls and boys," Freih said.
Even the opening of schools and colleges for women--a widely hailed fruit
of the Taliban's overthrow--is under threat. "Religious fundamentalism is
on the rise, with new restrictions on freedom of expression and movement of
women and girls. Gains in education are now at risk as many parents, afraid
of attacks by troops and other gunmen, keep their daughters out of school,"
Freih said.
Human rights groups are calling for creation of a UN inquiry commission of
into past rights abuses in Afghanistan. Freih said creation of such a
commission is "crucial in establishing the rule of law." Without it,
efforts to break a "cycle of impunity and the stranglehold of gunmen are
unlikely to succeed," she said. But sources close to the Human Rights
Commission say the US is opposed to any new resolution on Afghanistan this
year. (Reuters, April 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
2. U.S. TROOPS KILLED; AFGHAN VIOLENCE AGAIN ESCALATES
Two US troops were killed in a clash with some 20 gunmen near the Shkin
base in Afghanistan's Paktika province April 25--just days ahead of US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's scheduled arrival in Kabul, where he is
to assure President Hamid Karzai that Washington remains committed to his
country despite engagements in Iraq and elsewhere. (Reuters, April 27) On
April 23, two Afghan government troops were killed in a battle with
suspected Taliban guerillas in Zabul province. On April 21, two other
Afghan troops were killed in a clash in neighboring Oruzgan province. Local
authorities said three Taliban fighters were also killed. (NYT, April 25)
Renewed violence in Afghanistan has indefinitely halted the transition to
"Phase Four" of the US-led military campaign, in which the emphasis would
switch from combat to reconstruction. Karzai accuses Pakistan of harboring
fugitive Taliban leaders, and has demanded that they be turned over. (NYT,
April 26)
Authorities seized four anti-aircraft missiles April 25 in a house in
Nangarhar province, where suspected Islamic militants also killed three
Afghan soldiers with a land mine days earlier. The missiles were discovered
in a house in Dera Said Mian, 15 miles southeast of Jalalabad, said Afghan
Gen. Said Agha Saqib. He said the raid was conducted on a tip-off, but no
arrests were made. He said the missiles were US-made, but there were also
reports they may have been Russian-made SAM-7 heat-seeking anti-aircraft
missiles. Authorities in Nangarhar also arrested 24 in the search for
suspected militants who blew up a vehicle carrying Afghan troops from
Jalalabad to Tora Bora, the mountain region heavily bombed by US forces in
December 2001. Gen. Haji Musa, head of the 9th Afghan Army Brigade, said
Taliban/al-Qaida remnant forces were behind the attack, but did not say
whether those detained had any links with either group. (AP, April 25)
See also WW3 REPORT #81
[top]
3. U.S. HOLDS KIDS AT GITMO
The US military admitted it is holding juveniles at its high-security
prison for war captives from Afghanistan at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, known
as Camp X-Ray. The commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo, Major
Gen. Geoffrey Miller, said more than one individual under the age of 16 is
at the detention center. Miller revealed little about their numbers, ages,
nationality or welfare, saying only that the US is holding "juvenile enemy
combatants" at the center, and that they are being interrogated. About 660
prisoners are in the camp. ( Australian Broadcasting Company, April 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #66
[top]
NUCLEAR PARANOIA
1. NORTH KOREA: WE'VE GOT NUKES! (OR IS IT A TRANSLATION GOOF?)
On April 24, wire services across the world reported that during high-level
US-North Korea talks in Beijing, North Korean delegate Li Gun told US
assistant secretary of state James Kelly that his government already has
nuclear weapons and is prepared to test or use them. Bush told NBC News
that night that North Korea was "back to the old blackmail game," and
pledged the US would not be intimidated. "This will give us an opportunity
to say to the North Koreans and the world we're not going to be
threatened." Although he did not say what actions would be taken, the New
York Times speculated the following day that the US would go to the "Plan
B" favored by administration hardliners--actually toppling the North Korean
regime, preferably through stringent economic sanctions.
But the quote was never directly attributed to Li Gun--only to unnamed
"senior officials" said to be present at the meeting. Previous sensational
announcements attributed to the North Korean regime have been thrown into
question by translation problems. The Financial Times reported April 21
that a North Korean delegate in Beijing "appeared to say" his government
had started reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons-grade
plutonium. But the report added the following caveat: "Linguistics experts
in Seoul said the original Korean statement implied that North Korea was on
the brink of reprocessing but had not yet started."
Similar ambiguities still surround North Korea's alleged admission to Kelly
last October that it had developed nuclear weapons. Although this claim was
splashed in headlines across the world, it was later vigorously denied by
the North Korean regime. See WW3 REPORT #68
2. U.S. TO BOMB NORTH KOREAN NUKE PLANT?
The Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb a North Korea nuclear plant if it
reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods, according to an April 22 report in The
Australian newspaper. Citing "well-informed Canberra sources close to US
thinking," The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan said the US has
drawn up a blueprint to bomb Yongbyon if the plant moved forward with
reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to make nuclear weapons. (Reuters,
April 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
3. NUCLEAR "BUNKER-BUSTER" ON TRACK
The Pentagon has acknowledged that the Bush administration intends to
produce--not just research--a thermonuclear "bunker-buster" bomb to destroy
hardened or deeply buried targets. The weapon, known as the "Robust Nuclear
Earth Penetrator," would be thousands of times more powerful than the
conventional "bunker busters" dropped on Baghdad in efforts to kill Saddam
Hussein. Federal officials have announced a preliminary design contest
between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Energy Department's National Nuclear
Security Administration says preliminary work will be completed in 2005 or
2006. The design contest is expected to cost about $15 million per year.
The winning lab will then shift to an engineering phase, a move that would
require further congressional approval and funding.
Fred Celec, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear
matters, said that if a hydrogen bomb can be determined more effective than
conventional bunker-busters, "it will ultimately get fielded." But many
observers say renewed interest in battlefield nuclear weapons comes
primarily from civilian Pentagon officials such as Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and his Paul Wolfowitz, not uniformed generals and admirals. "I've
talked to the military extensively, and I don't know anybody in the
military who thinks they need a nuclear weapon to accomplish this," said US
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), whose district includes Livermore Labs. "If you
can find somebody in a uniform in the Defense Department who can talk about
a new need" for nuclear bunker busters "without laughing, I'll buy him a
cup of coffee," added Robert Peurifoy, retired vice president of Sandia
National Laboratory. Celec disagreed, saying nuclear bunker-busters "are
being pushed by the Pentagon, and that is both military and civilian."
The US arsenal already contains a nuclear bunker buster--known as the
B61-11--but Celec said "It will not survive rock." Celec wouldn't discuss
potential targets for the new weapon, but seven countries--China, Russia,
Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria--were reportedly mentioned in the
classified Nuclear Posture Review, a 2001 Pentagon document outlining Bush
administration policy. (Knight Ridder, April 24)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 72 & 41
[top]
4. U.S. TO RESUME NUCLEAR WEAPONS PRODUCTION?
The US has restarted production of plutonium parts for nuclear bombs at its
Los Alamos National Laboratory for the first time in 14 years, the LA Times
revealed April 23. The story, "After 'Decline,' US Again Capable of Making
Nuclear Arms," called the move "an important symbolic and operational
milestone in rebuilding the nation's nuclear weapons complex." Scientists
at the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
have started producing the plutonium "pits" that are at the core of nuclear
weaponry. (Conventional explosives encase a hollow plutonium sphere, or
pit, and trigger a chain reaction when detonated.) The Times quoted unnamed
Energy Department officials as denying that they are actually producing new
warheads--only ensuring the reliability of exiting ones.
But some independent nuclear scientists disputed this claim. Moscow Times
reached Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear scientist who runs the Institute for
Energy & Environmental Research in Tacoma, WA. Makhijani said: "There is
absolutely no need in my opinion to do this. On the contrary, it is very
dangerous." Makhijani added that the move may also violate the
Nonproliferation Treaty that the US, Russia and other nuclear nations
signed in 2000, in which they pledged to undertake an "irreversible
reduction" of their nuclear arsenals. Under Article 2 of the treaty,
signatories are forbidden from manufacturing or otherwise acquiring nuclear
weapons. "I don't know whether it will re-ignite the arms race, but it is
certainly in line with the U.S. strategy of continuing to use nuclear
weapons as a central part of its military strategy," Makhijani said.
(Moscow Times, April 24)
[top]
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. RUSSIA SEEKS INVESTMENT FOR MURMANSK PIPELINE
Desperate to establish new pipeline routes as an alternative to the US-led
trans-Caucasus route which would deliver Caspian Basin oil to international
markets via Turkey, the Russian government has agreed for the first time to
break the state monopoly on pipeline development and bring in foreign
investment. At issue is a new pipeline linking Russian oil fields to the
Arctic port of Murmansk, which officials hope will boost exports to the US.
Said Energy Minister Igor Yusufov: "The government has for the first time
made public its position that the state is not trying to fully own new
pipelines, but it reserves the right to monitor and regulate that transport
infrastructure." At present, all oil export infrastructure is controlled by
the state pipeline monopoly Transneft. Russian private and semi-private
firms Lukoil, Yukos, Sibneft and TNK want to ship 2 million barrels a day
through Murmansk by 2007. Private investment is also being considered for
two competing pipeline projects in Russia's far east. One, backed by Yukos,
would go through China; the other, backed by Transneft, would terminate at
Nakhodka on Russia's Pacific Coast, for export to Japan. (Financial Times,
April 21)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 74, 33
& 13 & 47
[top]
2. RUSSIA'S SOYUZ SPACECRAFT BECOMES POLITICAL PAWN
When Donald Pettit touches down at in Kazakhstan this week after more than
five months on the International Space Station, he'll be one of the first
US astronauts to return to Earth in Russia's spacecraft, the Soyuz. (KATU-2
News, Portland, OR, April 24) The US has been dependent on the Soyuz craft
to carry astronauts to the station since the Space Shuttle fleet was
grounded after February's disaster. But Russia may ban US astronauts from
Soyuz flights in protest of Washington's refusal to help pay for upkeep and
expansion of the fleet. (BBC, April 25)
The Soyuz fleet has been subject to its own snafus--and possible sabotage
by Chechen terrorists. See WW3 REPORT #57
Although it was forgotten in coverage of February's Space Shuttle Columbia
disaster, there were early concerns that the flight was being targeted by
terrorists because it included an Israeli astronaut. See WW3 REPORT #34
See also WW3 REPORT #72
[top]
3. ENRON'S INDIA PROJECT IN DEEP TROUBLE
Indian financiers of Enron's long-stalled Dabhol natural gas plant, 200
miles from Bombay, are in arbitration with foreign banks who fear the plant
will never be completed. The banks want to call in their chips, and are
demanding sale of the plant. The Anglo-French investment bank NM Rothschild
has been called in to broker the sale. Enron won fast-track approval in the
early 1990s for construction of the controversial project. Phase one, a $1
billion plant fueled by expensive naphtha, came on line in 1999. Phase two,
a $1.9 billion plant fueled by the cheaper liquefied natural gas, was
nearly complete when the payments crisis halted construction in 2001.
(Financial Times, April 21)
See also WW3 REPORT #19
[top]
THE WAR AT HOME
1. ASHCROFT: INDEFINITE DETAINMENT OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
In a 19-page opinion issued April 17 and made public April 23, Attorney
General John Ashcroft said undocumented immigrants can be held indefinitely
without bond if their cases raise national security concerns. Ashcroft
wrote that the attorney general has "broad discretion" in deciding "whether
to release an alien on bond," reaffirming his authority despite the recent
transfer of immigration enforcement to the jurisdiction of the Homeland
Security Department.
The opinion came in the case of asylum-seeker David Joseph, who arrived on
a boat with some 200 other Haitians Oct. 29 at Miami's Biscayne Bay,
climbing onto a busy causeway in a scene aired live on TV. On Nov. 6, an
immigration judge ordered Joseph freed on $2,500 bond. On March 13 the
Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) upheld that ruling, asserting that broad
national interests are not appropriate considerations for a bond
determination, "[a]bsent contrary direction from the Attorney General."
Undersecretary for border and transportation security Asa Hutchinson--in
charge of immigration matters under Homeland Security--then referred the
BIA's decision to Ashcroft for review.
Ashcroft claimed that releasing the Haitians could trigger a wave of
immigration by sea, threatening national security by overtaxing the Coast
Guard, Border Patrol and other agencies now focused on preventing terror
attacks. Ashcroft also said the government has detected an increase in
Pakistanis and Palestinians "using Haiti as a staging point for attempted
migration to the United States." That claim baffled the State Department's
Consular Service. "We all are scratching our heads," said spokesperson
Stuart Patt. "We are asking each other, 'Where did they get that?'"
Ashcroft also argued that the Haitians who arrived Oct. 29 must be detained
because "the government's capacity to promptly undertake an exhaustive
factual investigation concerning the individual status of hundreds of
undocumented aliens is...strained to the limit." But the Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights (LCHR) is skeptical of the government's claims that it
"cannot handle screening 200 Haitian men, women and children" when it "is
at this very moment conducting security checks on many other non-citizens."
In a statement criticizing the opinion, LCHR notes that Ashcroft does not
address the cost and the diversion of funds involved in detaining the
Haitians "at substantial government expense for months or years."
Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC),
said Ashcroft's "precedent-setting decision...could adversely affect
persons of all nationalities granted bonds, not just Haitians." (AP, April
24; Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, April 24; LCHR statement, April 25; Miami
Herald, April 25)
The opinion is online.
The US Attorney's Office in Miami has started criminally charging Haitian
asylum seekers entering the country with false documents--a move advocates
say violates the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees. Miami US
public defender Kathleen Williams said her office saw dozens of asylum
seekers facing criminal charges in the past two months--all Haitians, as
far as she was aware. (Sun-Sentinel, April 16)
(From Immigration News Briefs, April 25)
[top]
2. FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI: ONE YEAR IN DETAINMENT
New York City Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti has now been held
without charge by US immigration authorities for a full year--since April
26, 2002. He is currently imprisoned in the county jail in York, PA, a
five-hour drive from his family and legal team. He wrote the following
statement for a rally at the New York Federal Building marking the
anniversary of his detention:
"I am writing this risallah [message] to all of you valiant and unselfish
people from the bottom of my heart. I am inside this iron box 24 hours a
day, with only 45 minutes to clean the cell and make phone calls. When I go
to the clinic, it is with my hands and feet shackled, with two Task Force
guards escorting me. Guards search my cell most days of the week, saying
they are looking for weapons. I answered to one of them: 'My weapon is my
mind.'
"From the time the US military forces violated the sovereignty of Iraq and
massacred the Iraqi people, I have been subjected to psychological warfare,
not by individuals but systematically. On the 10th of April for the first
time I was taken to the INS office [in the prison]. One officer there told
me: 'You are not in our list of INS detainees in York County Prison.' Which
means that I was desaparecido [disappeared]...
"Today we discover the lies of the government, how it uses 'Homeland
Security' with the purpose of intimidating the community in general and
passing off this imperialist conspiracy in front of our eyes... The unity
of all of us--leftists, human rights groups and other sectors of society
that oppose injustice, racism and war--is important... Our valiant and
unselfish attitude brings us together; language, culture, color, religion
are not going to divide us, because all these sectors together are like
stars lighting the dark sky, lighting together to save the country, to save
the world... We don't need weapons of mass destruction; our duty is to
build a campaign against a terror directed at humanity and the earth...
"I have been in solitary confinement in this box, #15, for 59 days as of
today, April 25; and I have been in prison for one year. For sure [this is]
a message from George W. Bush and John Ashcroft to the growing movement for
peace and justice...
"I raise my voice to all of you. [Standing] shoulder to shoulder, [we will]
not let them intimidate us. Justice for all! Throw Bush from the White
House! The struggle continues! Until the victory! Al nasr lina! Victory is
ours! La victoria es nuestra!"
Farouk Abdel-Muhti, York County Prison, April 25, 2003
For more on Farouk's case, see WW3 REPORT #74
[top]
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