ISSUE:
#. 87. May 26, 2003
INDONESIA UNLEASHES ACEH BLOODBATH
RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
ISRAEL REPRESSES NON-VIOLENCE MOVEMENT
NEW YORK CITY: THE NEW EL SALVADOR?
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: YELLOW
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Special Correspondent
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Iraq Sanctions Lifted; U.N. Approves Occupation
2. Local Self-Government on Hold
3. U.S. to Disband Iraqi Army; Officers Threaten Revolt
4. Civilian Death Toll: Over 10,000?
5. Gen. Franks: Saddam's Forces Bribed to Surrender
6. Reports Mount of Nuclear Contamination
7. Shi'ite Militia Refuses to Disarm
8. "Reverse Ethnic Cleasning" in Kirkuk?
9. Assyrian Christians Fear Persecution
10. Iraqi Doctors: Saddam, Not Sanctions, Killed Babies
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Sharon to Palestinians: Arrest and Kill Hamas
2. Israel Cracks Down on Non-Violent Activism
3. Religious Zionists Speak Out Against Occupation
4. Palestinian Gets Papal Appointment
ELSEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
1. NYT: Saudis Ignored U.S. Terror Warnings
2. Morocco's Dwindling Jews Uneasy in Terror Wake
3. Unrest Follows Algeria Earthquake
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. Anti-U.S. Protests Follow Kabul Clash
2. Nuclear Contamination in Afghanistan
SOUTHEAST ASIA
1. Indonesian Forces Attack Aceh; Atrocities Reported
2. Military to Intern Aceh Civilians
3. Protesters Arrested in Jakarta
4. Military Defends Use of British Jets
5. U.S. Military Aid on Hold--for Now
THE MEXICO FRONT
1. Zapotec Eco-Defenders Face Repression in Oaxaca
NEW YORK CITY
1. Ex-Police Commish to Iraq?
2. "Orange Alert" Jacks Up Paranoia
3. El Salvador Counter-Insurgency Vet to NYPD
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. Saving Private Lynch: Take Two
2. Sy Hersh: Pentagon Spook Agency Sets U.S. Policy
3. James Woolsey: War Profiteer
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. IRAQ SANCTIONS LIFTED; U.N. APPROVES OCCUPATION
On May 22, the UN Security Council voted to lift the
13-year-old economic sanctions on Iraq, allowing
resumption of oil exports. "The resolution establishes
transparency in all processes and United Nations
participation in monitoring the sale of Iraqi oil
resources and expenditure of oil proceeds," said US
Ambassador to the UN John Negroponte. The move
legitimizes the occupation of Iraq by the US and its
allies, but leaves several issues
unresolved--including whether UN weapons inspectors
are to be allowed back in to Iraq. The UK wants them;
the US does not. (UPI, May 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #85
[top]
2. LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT ON HOLD
British forces in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr
"postponed indefinitely" elections May 23 that would
have been the first attempt at a democratic vote in
post-Saddam Iraq, citing chaos at the polling booths,
poor publicity and voting slips that failed to arrive.
Locals in the city market told the UK Telegraph they
were not even aware that the elctions had been
scheduled. Mohammed Sardoun, a market stallholder,
said: "I am not concerned about elections. They are
something to think about after we have food and
running water. These things are more important than
democracy."
( UK Telegraph, May 24)
Planned municipal elections by a selected group of
delegates in the northern city of Kirkuk were
similarly put on hold when it was revealed that five
Arab delegates were former high-ranking members of
Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. Delegations had been
chosen from the city's Arab and Kurdish communities in
an effort to ease ethnic tensions which have led to
recent violence in the city. (NYT, May 25)
See also WW3 REPORT #86
[top]
3. U.S. TO DISBAND IRAQI ARMY; OFFICERS THREATEN REVOLT
After US occupation authorities announced plans to
disband Iraq's army, some 50 soldiers marched on one
of Saddam's presidential palaces in Basra, now held by
occupation forces, threatening to take up arms. "If
they don't pay us, we'll start problems," said Lt.
Col. Ahmed Muhammed. "We have guns at home." (NYT, May
25)
[top]
4. CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL: OVER 10,000?
Evidence is mounting to suggest that between 5,000 and
10,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the US-led
Operation Iraqi Freedom. "Thousands are dead,
thousands are missing, thousands are captured," said
Haidar Taie, head of the tracing department for the
Iraqi Red Crescent in Baghdad. "It is a big disaster."
Arriving at a reliable figure is especially difficult
due to the continuing chaos at Iraq's hospitals. "We
had some figures from hospital sources but we realized
very
quickly that they were very partial," said Nada
Doumani, an official with the International Committee
of the Red Cross in Baghdad. "It is very difficult to
keep track of everyone who was killed, and we were
afraid the numbers could be misinterpreted, so we
refrained from giving them out." Added Faik Amin Bakr,
director of the Baghdad morgue: "During the war, some
people brought bodies to the hospitals to get death
certificates; others just buried them where they were
found in the street, or in schools. I don't think
anyone in Iraq could give you the figure of civilian
deaths at the moment."
The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
has mobilized 150 surveyors to conduct interviews with
war victims. While warning that an accurate total
could take months, CIVIC coordinator Marla Ruzicka
said volunteers have already recorded over 1,000
civilian deaths in the southern town of Nasariyah, and
almost as many in the capital.
"In Baghdad, we have discovered 1,000 graves, and that
is not the final figure," said Ali Ismail, a Red
Crescent official. "Every day we discover more" where
local residents say civilians were buried.
Human Rights Watch researcher Marc Galasco said his
team has found evidence of "massive use of cluster
bombs in densely populated areas." Dispersing
thousands of bomblets that shoot shards of shrapnel
over an area the size of a football field, such
weapons become
indiscriminate and thus illegal under the laws of war
if used in civilian areas, Human Rights Watch
maintains.
"At one level it is unhelpful to talk about large or
small numbers" of civilian casualties, said Human
Rights Watch researcher Reuben Brigety. "It is more
important to ask if the deaths were preventable."
Said Mahmoud Ali Hamadi, whose wife and three elder
children were killed when a US missile struck their
house April 5 in Rashidiya, a small agricultural
village on the banks of the Tigris: "There was no
military base here. We are not military personnel.
This is just a peasant village." Some 100 civilians
were killed in the air raid on the village.
The Christian Science Monitor cites unnamed officials
involved in the casualty surveys placing the total
civilian deaths at 10,000 or over. (CSM, May 23)
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 5,425 and the maximum at 7,041.
See also WW3 REPORT #86
A reliable total for the death toll from 1991's
Operation Desert Storm has still not been determined.
See WW3 REPORT #67
[top]
5. GEN. FRANKS: SADDAM'S FORCES BRIBED TO SURRENDER
Senior Iraqi officers who commanded troops crucial to
the defence of key Iraqi cities were bribed not to
fight by US Special Forces before the bombing started,
US commander Gen. Tommy Franks has confirmed. "I had
letters from Iraqi generals saying: 'I now work for
you'," Gen. Franks said. The revelation by Franks,
who has announced his intention to retire as chief of
US Central Command, could explain why Iraqi forces did
not make a greater stand in their defence of Baghdad.
The strategy replicates methods used with success in
the Afghanistan campaign, where US Special Forces
carried large sums of US currency to buy off warlords.
(UK Independent, May 24)
The French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche also
claimed May 25 that a senior member of Saddam
Hussein's government handed Baghdad over to US forces
in exchange for a pay-off and a safe exit from Iraq.
Citing a senior Iraqi source, the paper reported that
Soufiane al-Tikriti, head of the Special Republican
Guard in Baghdad, ordered his troops not to defend the
capital, and particularly to hold fire against
coalition helicopters circling over the city. In
exchange, Le Journal claimed, Tikriti was paid several
hundred thousand dollars and was escorted out of Iraq
in a US aircraft April 8, along with 20 family
members.
"Soufiane al Tikriti was the man of the Americans in
Baghdad," the paper wrote. "He signed onto an
agreement guaranteeing that the 10,000 elite soldiers
of the Special Republican Guard would not fight." Le
Journal said Tikriti came into contact with US
intelligence officers via a close associate in London,
Ezzedine al-Majid. The account claimed the Pentagon
falsely told reporters that Tikriti had been killed as
he fled Baghdad in a white Toyota Sedan. Tikriti's
disappearance "interested nobody," Le Journal said,
because he was not among the 52 most-wanted members of
Saddam's regime. (UPI, May 25)
See also WW3 REPORT #83
[top]
6. REPORTS MOUNT OF NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION
US military inspection teams have concluded that
materials looted from Iraq's main nuclear facility at
Tuwaitha pose little or no danger to local residents,
and cannot be converted into an effective "dirty
bomb." After cleaning up two small areas of spillage
outside the facility, the Washington-based Nuclear
Disablement Team determined that the radiation level
was no more than double the dosage every human absorbs
daily, officials said. (Washington Times, May 22)
But numerous Iraqis close to the site reamin ill, and
local doctors say symptoms point to acute radiation
syndrome. Elifat Rusum Saber, 14, has been nauseated,
tired and bleeding from the nose since her brother
brought home metal and chemicals from the nearby
Tuwaitha site two days after the fall of Baghdad. "I
used to take care of my family and my youngest
sister," Elifat told a Los Angeles Times reporter
through an interpreter. "Nowadays I feel weak. I can't
pick up a
pot." A few blocks away, Hassan Aouda Saffah is
recovering from a rash that left white blotches on his
right arm. The rash appeared the same day he took a
dusty generator from the nuclear site to restore
electricity to his darkened village. Dr. Jaafar Nasser
Suhayb, who runs a nearby clinic, said that over a
five-day period he had treated some 20 patients from
the neighborhood near Tuwaitha for similar symptoms--
shortness of breath, nausea, severe nosebleeds and
itchy rashes. "All of the patients live near the
nuclear site," Suhayb said. "Other cases maybe cannot
reach the hospitals because of problems of security,
postwar. In some cases maybe they are dead."
The Bush administration has finally agreed to make
arrangements to allow the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) to return to Iraq to inspect the
site. The IAEA has been demanding access since early
April. "We're concerned about the health and safety of
these people, and then we're also concerned about
environmental contamination and we're also concerned
that this material could be used for illicit use--a
'dirty bomb,' or even a nuclear bomb," said IAEA
spokesman Mark Gwozdecky by telephone from Vienna.
The IAEA hopes to compare the stocks of radioactive
materials stored at Tuwaitha to an inventory it took
in January 2002. The most recent tally by the IAEA,
which has monitored the site since before 1991's
Operation Desert Storm, found 1.8 tons of low-grade
enriched uranium and several tons of depleted uranium.
The IAEA cites reports that 20% of the radioactive
materials are now gone. "Radiation is cumulative,"
Gwozdecky said. "It's been 40 days since the looting
began. That's why we need to act." (LAT, May 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #86
[top]
7. SHI'ITE MILITIA REFUSES TO DISARM
Iraq's largest Shiite party has refused to disarm its
25,000-strong militia--in defiance of a US directive
demanding that all armed groups except the Kurdish
peshmerga militias surrender their weapons. Relations
between the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq (SCIRI) and US occupation authorities are
reportedly at the breaking point following the group's
refusal to disarm its Badr Brigades militia forces.
Delegates described angry exchanges between Gen. David
McKiernan, commander of allied land forces in Iraq,
and SCIRI leaders at disarmament talks with the seven
Iraqi opposition groups that have been invited to help
form an interim administration. Said SCIRI spokesman
Hamid Al-Bayati: "Over the past week US troops have
stormed up to a dozen SCIRI offices across Iraq
confiscating money, arms and vehicles. They have
arrested members of Badr forces."
Bayati said SCIRI is losing patience with the US
presence. "The longer Americans remain here, the more
they are at risk from terrorist attack," he said.
He said that over the past few months SCIRI had been
in meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin
Powell and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard
Myers. "We have committed ourselves to democracy," he
said. "Of course I dream of an Islamic state but we
now realise that is not an option." (UK Telegraph, May
26)
In a show of power May 19, 10,000 Shi'ites held a mass
rally in Baghdad against the US occupation--the
largest since the fall of Saddam. While many carried
pictures of popular Shi'ite ayatollahs, a favored
slogan was "No Shi'ites, No Sunnis--Just Islamic
Unity." (Newsday, May 20)
Shi'ites also rallied in the sacred southern city of
Karbala, where SCIRI leader Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr
al-Hakim told 3,000 followers May 24 that Iraq must be
allowed self-government. He said he wanted a
representative democracy that would not be dominated
by religious parties such as his own. (AP, May 24) But
SCIRI's local leader in Diyala district, Abu Muslim
al-Jaffari, told a Jerusalem Post reporter that Iran
is a model for a "democratic state." (International
Jerusalem Post, May 16)
See also WW3 REPORT #85
[top]
8. "REVERSE ETHNIC CLEANSING" IN KIRKUK?
Kurdish leaders in Kirkuk are growing impatient with
US demands they they halt their efforts to return
properties which had been expropriated from Kurds and
given to Arabs under Saddam Hussein's policy of
"Arabization." Kurdish evictions of Arabs have led to
violence in the city since the fall of Saddam. "Both
the PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] and KDP
[Kurdistan Democratic Party] are united to reverse the
policy of Arabization. This needs to be done
peacefully and in an organized way, but the people are
losing patience," said KDP spokesman Hoshyar Zebari.
Arabs brought to Kirkuk under Saddam's relocation
program should be "compensated and moved out," he
said.
Added Qubad Talabani, son of PUK leader Jalal
Talabani: "Kirkuk is the symbol of our tragedy, our
oppression at the hands of previous Iraqi governments.
It is an issue that raises the level of nationalism in
every Kurd." He admitted: "There aren't many
successful models [of] reverse ethnic cleansing. If we
do not tackle this in an orderly manner, then people
will take it upon themselves to reclaim what is
rightfully theirs." (Financial Times, May 25)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 86
& 85
[top]
9. ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS FEAR PERSECUTION
Yonadam Kanna, leader of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement (ADM), representing Iraq's small Assyrian
Christian community, warns of the re-emergence of
"fossil ideology" in Iraq. The ADM, which was forced
underground by Saddam's regime, has ironically set up
offices in the abandoned former headquarters of the
Fedayeen Saddam pro-regime militia. "There is still
some of the virus that was Saddam in this region,
still extremism--and frankly, we need some help to
save us friom that fate." The Assyrian Christians, who
number 1.25 million, consider themselves descendants
of the Assyrian empire which ruled Mesopotamia 3,000
years ago. (International Jerusalem Post, May 16)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
10. IRAQI DOCTORS: SADDAM, NOT SANCTIONS, KILLED BABIES
Throughout the 13 years of UN sanctions, Iraqi doctors
told the world that the sanctions were the sole cause
of the rocketing mortality rate among Iarq's children.
"It is one of the results of the embargo," Dr. Ghassam
Rashid al-Baya toild Newsday May 9, 2001, at Baghdad's
Ibn al-Baladi Hospital, just after a dehydrated baby
died on his treatment table. "This is a crime on
Iraq."
But now the doctors at two Baghdad
hospitals--including Ibn al-Baladi--tell a different
story. Along with the parents of dead children, they
told Newsday's Matthew McAllester that Saddam turned
the infants' deaths into propaganda--forcing hospitals
to save the corpses to have them publicly paraded
before TV cameras at up to 30 at a time.
The infant mortality rate in Iraq roughly doubled in
the 1990s, but the reason has been hotly
contested--and the new revelations by Baghdad's
doctors alters the debate. Even under harsh sanctions,
"We had the ability to get all the drugs we needed,"
said Ibn al-Baladi's chief resident, Dr. Hussein
Shihab. "Instead of that, Saddam Hussein spent all the
money on his military force and put all the fault on
the USA. Yes, of course the sanctions hurt--but not
too much, because we are a rich country and we have
the ability to get everything we can by money. But
instead, he spent it on his palaces." Added Dr. Azhar
Abdul Khadem, a resident at Baghdad's al-Alwiya
maternity hospital: "Saddam Hussein, he's the
murderer, not the UN."
Doctors say they were forced to refrigerate dead
babies in hospital morgues until authorities were
ready to gather the little corpses for monthly parades
in coffins atop taxis for Iraqi national TV and
foreign journalists. Parents were rewarded with food
and money for shouting at the cameras that the
sanctions had killed their babies. The propaganda
campaign was organized by the ministries of health and
information and the secret police, or Mukhabarat.
Sometimes police were brought in to restrain greiving
parents who wanted to observe Islamic practice by
burying their children as soon as possible. Said Kamal
Khadoum, an administrator at Ibn al-Baladi since 1983:
"Some of the families tried to take their children by
force, so sometimes we needed to call the police to
persuade them to keep them here for the parade. They
went crazy."
"I am one of the doctors who was forced to tell
something wrong--that these children died from the
fault of the UN," said Shihab. "But I am afraid if I
tell the true thing... They will kill me. Me and my
family and my uncle and my aunt--everyone." (Newsday,
May 23)
See also WW3 REPORT #58
[top]
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. SHARON TO PALESTINIANS: ARREST AND KILL HAMAS
The Israeli cabinet voted May 25 to accept the
US-supported "road map to peace" that would lead to a
Palestinian state within three years. (CNN, May 25)
But the move comes just after new revelations that
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is pressuring the
Palestinian Authority for a harsh crackdown on
militants. According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, a
senior envoy sent by Sharon told Mohammed Dahlan,
minister for state security in the new Palestinian
government, that to prove he is serious he must order
his police to arrest 50 Hamas actvists. What would be
ideal, the envoy recommended, would be if at least 25
Hamas militants be killed in the firefight that was
sure to erupt as Hamas resisted the arrests. Dahlan
"didn't know whether to laugh or cry and decided to
ignore the matter," Ha'aretz reports. (Ha'aretz, May
20)(David Bloom)
[top]
2. ISRAEL CRACKS DOWN ON NON-VIOLENT ACTIVISM
The Israeli army seems to be making good on its threat
to obstruct the work of peace activists in the
occupied territories, and deport them. Greg Rawlins,
Canadian citizen and volunteer with the Christian
Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron was arrested by
Israeli forces May 19 at the town's Beit Hadassa
checkpoint on charges of entering a
Palestinian-controlled area without authorization.
CPT, which has been operating in Hebron since 1995,
has recently had their movement restricted by Israeli
forces, and are now not permitted to enter Area H1,
the officially Palestinian-controlled zone of Hebron,
where most of their work is performed. Rawlins was
taken to Ma'asiyahu prison in Ramle and faces
deportation. (Indymedia Israel, May 21)
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) continues
to be the object of harassment by the Israeli army,
effectively preventing the group from carrying out
its work in the West Bank. Three ISM volunteers were
arrested March 24 in Tul Karm, and two are still
being held. (Ha'aretz, May 25)
A peace camp set up seven weeks ago and cooperatively
maintainted by a group of Palestinians, Israelis and
internationals at Mas'ha village in the West Bank to
protest encroachment of the so-called "apartheid wall"
on the village is being threatened with removal. An
Israeli officer from the local district coordinating
office called on May 24, threatening to remove the
camp in order to build the wall on the section of land
on where it is located. The group plans to resist the
order to vacate the camp. (International Women's Peace
Service, May 24)
Rabbi Erik Asherman of Rabbis for Human Rights,
working for the Israeli Committee Against Home
Demolitions (ICHAD), said in a May 23 communique that
members of his group are being called in for
interrogation by Shabak, the Israeli internal security
service. "This along with the systematic use of
'Closed Military Area' orders, etc., indicates that
the Israeli government is not content to shut down the
activities of foreign activists ... but to shut down
the activities of Israeli organizations as well. The
intent is not only to stop activities which can be
seen as 'illegal,' but to also prevent humanitarian
activities, the work of [Arab-Jewish peace group]
Taayush to accompany children to school, etc.
Ultimately, it may be that the goal is to prevent any
'seeing eye.' witnessing what is happening in the
Occupied Territories."
(Indymedia Israel, May 23) (David Bloom)
See also WW3 REPORT# 85
[top]
3. RELIGIOUS ZIONISTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST OCCUPATION
A six-page manifesto of religious Zionist dissidents
was published in Israel's largest paper, Yediot
Aharanot, and in Ha'aretz on May 9. Religious Zionists
are the ideological bulwark of the settler movment,
and the 170 signatories to the manifesto have been the
subjects of further interviews in Israel. The
Manifesto reads, in part:
"The fact that Israel maintains its rule over more
than three million people against their will, denying
their basic rights, raises difficult moral issues.
Already for more than three decades it denies Israel
the possibility of seriously dealing with basic
existential problems such as the relations between
religion and state, the education of the young, the
gap between rich and poor and other issues defining
the life of Jews in their own country. All these
issues have disappeared from the view of the leaders
and rabbis of Religious Zionism, who raise the
single flag of settlement in Judea and Samaria and are
captives of the pseudo-religious view...that [views]
settlement as the be-all and end-all. Few scholars
dare to look reality in the face, and their voice is
hardly heard.
"In the absence of a worthy Religious Zionist
leadership at this time, we have no choice but to
take the initiative: We call upon the Religious
Zionist public to recognize the necessity of giving
up our rule in the Territories and turn its energy to
dealing with the pressing and neglected issues on its
own and on the general Israeli agenda..."
The following personal account, included with the
manifesto, is from signatory Shlomo Wagman,
28-year-old economic consultant:
"Most of my life was spent at Alon Shvut, a settlement
in the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem. Thousands of
times I have passed army checkpoints. Thousands of
times I saw, without really noticing, the young Arabs
crouching at the roadside, waiting for the checking to
end so that they could pass through. They were a kind
of transparent part of the landscape. I saw them but
did not feel any deep empathy... And then, one day, I
saw at a checkpoint an old man with a young girl
child. They were not being specially mistreated. They
were just told to wait and obeyed with weary
resignation... And suddenly something clicked into
place in my mind. I
suddenly understood that this was not an issue of
security. That all this enormous military activity was
needed so that I could live in a beautiful villa, with
a terrific view from the windows... That hundreds of
thousands of human beings--old people, women,
children, people who are no kind of security risk--had
to pay the price for our life there. That they had to
endure checkpoints, searches, closure and curfew so
that I
could have a quiet life as an observant Jew in my
beautiful settlement. I decided to stage my own
unilateral withdrawal. I left Alon Shvut very soon
afterwards, though I knew I would miss a place which I
love. I now live in an ugly urban center inside the
Green Line. I can't explain my own past blindness and
the present blindness of my family and friends who
still live there. We just don't see the same reality."
Ilon Langbeim, teacer and physics student in
Jerusalem:
"When I saw the violence of these settler youths, I
felt that I must cry out: I am not one of them. It
hurt me when people see me wearing a skullcap and
automatically assume I belong to the extreme right. I
did not refuse to serve in the territories. I went to
the checkpoint and tried to show empathy to the people
which I had to check, not to keep them too long in the
sun. Then I heard an officer talk about me: 'This
useless softie with his scruples, I did not expect
such behavior from somebody like him.' I teach in in
two Religious Zionist schools in Jerusalem. I got
hints already that my signing this manifesto may cost
me my job, but I am willing to pay the price."
(David Bloom)
[top]
4. PALESTINIAN GETS PAPAL APPOINTMENT
Pope John Paul II has appointed Father Elias Michael
Chacour as a consultant to the Holy See committee
promoting dialogue between Christians and Jews--the
first Palestinian to be appointed to the five-year
post. Chacour is founder of the Mar Elias Educational
Institutions in the town of Ibillin in the Galilee,
and a three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize
(1986, 1089 and 1994). He is also the author of two
best-selling memoirs, "Blood Brothers" (1984) and "We
Belong to the Land" (1990). The first book is an
account of his family's displacement from the Galilee
town of Biram, where he was born in 1939, in the wake
of the 1948 war. He says the title comes from his
belief that Jews and Arabs "are blood brothers, each
claiming to be the children of one father whose name
was Abraham." The book has been translated into 28
languages.
Profiled in the Internationalo Jerusalem Post in 2001,
Chacour was asked how he viewed the identity of
Israel's Christian Arabs: "From the religious point of
view, we are not an import. Everything started with a
young rabbi here in Galilee. This is very important.
The pope of Rome comes here to kneel down as a pilgrim
in the Holy Land. We are descendants of the first
disciples of Jesus Christ. And they were Jews. I want
our Jewish friends to understand that we are aware of
our roots."
Chacour is an ordained priest in the Melkite Catholic
Church, a Byzantine rite that recognizes Rome. The Mar
Elias Campus in Ibillin--covering all grades from
elementary school through a technical college--has a
combined enrollment of 4,000 students, with a program
for gifted Arab children and a center for religious
pluralism. Chacour is currently working on
establishing an Arab Christian university in the
Galilee. (International Jerusalem Post, May 16)
[top]
ELSEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
1. NYT: SAUDIS IGNORED U.S. TERROR WARNINGS
As a team of FBI investigators arrived in Saudi Arabia
to help local authorities probe last week's deadly
coordinated terror attacks, the New York Times
reported May 16 that Saudi officials had ignored five
requests from the US to deploy armed and uniformed
government guards around all potential Western
targets. Citing unnamed White House officials, the
paper said one request came from Deputy National
Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, who was diverted
to Saudi Arabia during a trip to Moscow and Israel and
instructed to meet direclty with de-facto ruler Crown
Prince Abdullah.
See also WW3 REPORT #86
[top]
2. MOROCCO'S DWINDLING JEWS UNEASY IN TERROR WAKE
In the wake of the coordinated May 16 terror attacks
in Casablanca, Moroccan authorities have arrested over
30 in raids acorss the country. The 14 bombers who
died in the virtually simultaneous attacks, and one
would-be bomber who was arrested, were all said to be
Moroccan. But authorities said the attacks on five
targets--a hotel, a Jewish club and cemetery, a
Spanish club and the Belgian consulate--bore the
hallmarks of al-Qaeda. Officials also said all the
bombers were from the Casablanca suburb of Sidi
Moumen, said to be a stronghold of a small
fundamentalist movement, Salafiya Jihadiya, which has
been the target of a recent government crackdown, with
top leaders arrested. (Financial Times, May 19)
There were no Jews among the 28 victims of the attack
[accounts of the death toll vary widely in media
reports], but Casablanca's dwindling Jewish community
notes that at least three of the five targets were
Jewish-linked: the Jewish social club and restaurant,
the Jewish cemetary and a Jewish-owned Italian
restaurant. Just two nights before the attacks, over
200 local Jews had been at the Cercle de l'Alliance
social club for its weekly Chinese kosher dinner.
Jews first arrived in Morocco after the destruction of
the temple in Jerusalem by the Roman empire in 70 CE,
and in 1948 there were over 250,000 Moroccan Jews out
of a total population of 7 million. Today there are at
most 5,000 Jews--and perhaps as few as 3,500--out of a
total population of 30 million. But there is a strong
campaign to revitalize the community. Casablanca is
home to five main synagogues and several smaller ones,
and a new synagogue and Jewish museum were inaugurated
last year. Morocco's monarchy makes much of its
support of the kingdom's Jews as a symbol of its
tolerance and Western values. Serge Berdugo, president
of the Jewish Community of Morocco, whose family
emigrated when Spain expelled the Jews in 1492, is a
former minister of tourism and fervent supporter of
the king. (NYT, May 20)
See also WW3 REPORT#86
[top]
3. UNREST FOLLOWS ALGERIA EARTHQUAKE
When Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika visited
the town of Boumerdes days after it was devastated by
a May 21 6.8-magnitude earthquake, he was met by angry
crowds that hurled debris and insults, charging his
military-backed government with inadequate aid
efforts. The quake has left nearly 2,000 dead, and
many more without food or water. Protesters taunted
Bouteflika with shouts of "pouvoir, assassin!"
Pouvoir, French for "power," is a popular name for the
circle of corrupt generals that runs Algeria's
government. (AP, May 24)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 68
& 17
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. ANTI-U.S. PROTESTS FOLLOW KABUL CLASH
Angry Afghans hurled stones at the US embassy in Kabul
May 24 to protest the shooting deaths of three Afghan
soldiers by US Marines outside the heavily-guarded
compound days earlier. Carrying banners reading "Death
to America, Death to [President Hamid] Karzai," the
protesters marched through downtown Kabul for several
hours. On a street near the embassy, they threw rocks
at passing vehicles of the 5,000-strong international
peacekeeping force that patrols the city, shattering
windows in at least two. One peacekeeper was
reportedly treated at a hospital for minor wounds.
"Why are Americans killing us inside our home, inside
Afghanistan?" said Gul Ahmad, a 20-year-old protester.
"What about human rights? We want the killers to be
handed over to the courts." The text of the AP report
on the incident said the protesters numbered "around
80", but a photo caption accompanying the same story
on the ABC News web site put the figure at 200.
Qatar-based al-Jazeera cable TV network reported that
the incident began when "drunken" US soldiers opened
fire at Afghan troops standing oustide the embassy May
21, with accounts differing on whether the Afghans
fired or not. A French military vehicle with the
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was
also reportedly caught in the crossfire, with the
French troops having to stop the vehicle and take
cover.
The BBC's Kylie Morris in Kabul said that after the
shooting, tensions on the streets were high as local
police officers and soldiers moved to disperse the
crowd that gathered outside the embassy. Afghan
President Hamid Karzai is reportedly planning a formal
investigation of the incident.
( Palestine Chronicle, from IslamOnline, May 22)
[top]
2. NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION IN AFGANISTAN
A small sample of Afghan civilians have shown
"astonishing" levels of uranium in their urine,
according to Dr. Asaf Durakovic of the Uranium Medical
Research Center (UMRC) based in Washington DC. Dr.
Durakovic, a former US army colonel, said in 2000 he
had found similar "significant" levels in two-thirds
of the 17 Desert Storm veterans he had tested, who
showed symptoms of the so-called "Gulf War Syndrome."
In May 2002 he sent a team to Afghanistan to interview
and examine civilians there. The UMRC says:
"Independent monitoring of the weapon types and
delivery systems indicate that radioactive, toxic
uranium alloys and hard-target uranium warheads were
being used by the coalition forces."
The study says Nangarhar province was a strategic
target zone during the US military campaign for the
deployment of a new generation of deep-penetrating
"cave-busting" and seismic shock warheads. The UMRC
says its team identified several hundred people
suffering from illnesses and conditions similar to
those of Desert Storm veterans, probably because they
had inhaled uranium dust. To test its hypothesis that
some form of uranium weapon had been used, the UMRC
sent urine specimens from 17 Afghans for analysis at
an independent UK laboratory. The group says: "Without
exception, every person donating urine specimens
tested positive for uranium internal contamination...
The results were astounding: the donors presented
concentrations of toxic and radioactive uranium
isotopes between 100 and 400 times greater than in the
Gulf veterans tested in 1999... If UMRC's Nangarhar
findings are corroborated in other communities across
Afghanistan, the country faces a severe public health
disaster... Every subsequent generation is at risk."
The team used as a control group three Afghans who
showed no signs of contamination, who averaged 9.4
nanograms of uranium per liter of urine. The average
for the 17 "randomly-selected" patients was 315.5
nanograms. Some were from Jalalabad, and others from
Kabul, Tora Bora, and Mazar-e-Sharif. A 12-year-old
boy living near Kabul had 2,031 nanograms. The maximum
permissible level for members of the public in the US
is 12 nanograms per liter.
A second UMRC visit to Afghanistan in September 2002
found "a potentially much broader area and larger
population of contamination." It collected 25 more
urine samples, which bore out the findings from the
first group.
Dr. Durakovic told BBC News Online: "In Afghanistan
there were no oil fires, no pesticides, nobody had
been vaccinated--all explanations suggesed for the
Gulf veterans' condition. But people had exactly the
same symptoms. I'm certainly not saying Afghanistan
was a vast experiment with new uranium weapons. But
use
your common sense."
Both the US and UK denied that their military forces
had used depleted uranium weapons in Afghanistan.
(BBC, May 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #68
[top]
SOUTHEAST ASIA
1. INDONESIAN FORCES ATTACK ACEH; ATROCITIES REPORTED
Indonesian forces are accused of massacring civilians
in the new military campaign against separatist
guerillas in Aceh province. The 18 killings--including
the reported shooting of two 12-year-old boys at
point-blank range--took place May 19 during dawn raids
in four villages in Bireuen district, villagers said.
Residents of Cot Raboe, a village six miles from the
town of Bireuen, said they were woken at 5.30 AM by
the sound of gunfire outside their homes. Musafari, a
community leader, told the UK Guardian: "There were
well over 100 soldiers charging through the village,
and a helicopter hovering overhead. We were all too
afraid to come out of our houses to see what was
really going on."
Other villagers reported that soldiers barged into
their homes, pulled out residents and beat them. "They
kept asking where the rebels were," said one resident.
"I said there weren't any, but they didn't listen."
The shooting lasted over 30 minutes. Villagers said
that when they emerged from their homes they saw that
one young man had been killed, and three teenagers and
two 12-year-olds lay dead in the rice paddies and fish
ponds. "My son, Annas Nazir Abdurrahman, had been shot
four times, in the head, chest, thigh and calf," said
Mohammed Nazir of one of the youngest victims.
Similar scenes were reported that day in the nearby
villages of Cot Bate, where eight people were killed,
and Pata Mamplam and Pulo Naleng, where two people
were killed in each village. Residents said they
believed the helicopter was coordinating the attacks.
Indonesia's military commander in Aceh, Major Gen.
Endang Suwarya, said there were no civilian casualties
in the province that day, but that nine separatist
guerillas had been killed in military operations in
Bireuen district. He also warned that journalists who
quoted guerilla leaders would be banned from the
province.
Indonesia launched its military campaign against the
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on May 19. Military
commanders insist civilians will not be targeted, but
that GAM members will be "crushed" if they did not
surrender. Residents in the raided villages denied
that any of the victims were GAM members.
Aceh's rebel prime minister Mahmood Malik, GAM's civil
leader, urged the UN to intervene immediately, calling
for an international fact-finding mission to be sent
to the province to investigate the "crimes against
humanity that have been committed." (UK Guardian, May
22)
Indonesian warships are also reportedly shelling rebel
positions. Human rights workers say almost 10,000
people have fled their homes since the fighting
started. Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri
has imposed martial law, giving the military sweeping
powers to make arrests, impose curfews and restrict
travel. (BBC, May 23)
The Indonesian armed forces claim GAM guerillas have
burned down 248 schools in Aceh in response to the new
military campaign. Armed forces chief Gen. Endriartono
Sutarto said: "People in Bireuen are also
uncooperative with us, but I hope they will learn now
that GAM has caused suffering to them."
The UN announced May 21 that it is dispatching 300
emergency school kits along with 50 school tents to
Aceh for displaced students, and called on both
warring parties to protect educational facilities from
destruction .(Jakarta Post, May 21)
The new military offensive in Aceh began after talks
with rebel negotiators broke down, ending a
five-month-old peace deal that had raised hopes of a
permanent resolution to the 26-year conflict. The
failed peace deal, signed in December, offered Aceh an
autonomous government by 2004, which would have been
allowed to keep 70% of the revenue generated from the
province's rich oil reserves. (BBC, May 23)
[top]
2. MILITARY TO INTERN ACEH CIVILIANS
The Indonesian government says that up to 200,000
civilians are to be taken from their homes and put
into tent camps guarded by military troops to give the
armed forces a free hand in the Aceh conflict. Said
Bachtiar Chamsyah Indonesia's Minister of Social
Affairs: "We are waiting for an order from the
military administration. Should they want to comb a
certain area, we will move people from their homes."
The government says it has arranged for about 4,000
tents to be sent to more than 80 sites across the
province .(London Times, May 22)
[top]
3. PROTESTERS ARRESTED IN JAKARTA
A protest against the Aceh repression in Jakarta,
Indonesia's capital, ended in the arrest of four
foreign and two Indonesian participants May 21. Some
50 demonstrators marched to the presidential palace
after a rally in front of the US embassy. Dozens of
riot police dispersed the demonstrators, who included
members of the opposition Democratic People's Party
(PRD), the the Indonesian Transportation Workers Union
and the Democratic Students Network. The four
foreigners, in town for an international peace
conference, were Australians Nick Everett and Kylie
Moon of the Walk Against War Coalition, South African
Lydia Cairncross of the Antiwar Coalition, and Yong
Chan of South Korea. Also arrested were Zeli Ariane,
chairwoman of Jakarta chapter of PRD and an
unidentified labor union activist. (Jakarta Post, May
22)
[top]
4. MILITARY DEFENDS USE OF BRITISH JETS
Indonesia's military chief warned the UK not to try to
dictate how he should use his country's British-made
Hawk fighter jets in operations against separatists in
Aceh. Gen. Endriartono Sutarto told the Guardian
during a visit to Aceh that he was not concerned about
promises made before the purchase. "In order to cover
the whole region and complete the job, I am going
to use what I have," he said. "After all, I have paid
already." While denying the Hawks had been used in
air-to-ground attacks, he gave no promises about their
future use. "If we don't use them [for air-to-ground
operations], we don't use them," he said. "But who
knows?"
Britain sold the fighters to Jakarta on the
understanding that they would not be used in offensive
operations within Indonesia. In the first three days
of the new offensive in Aceh, the Indonesian military
repeatedly used four of the aircraft against the
GAM, although allegedly not in air-to-ground attacks.
(UK Guardian, May 22)
[top]
5. U.S. MILITARY AID ON HOLD--FOR NOW
As the Aceh offensive began, the Indonesia Human
Rights Network (IHRN) and East Timor Action Network
(ETAN) issued a statement praising the US Senate
Foreign Relations Committee for reinstating a ban on
military training for Indonesia. On May 21, the
committee unanimously agreed to an amendment
restricting International Military Education and
Training (IMET) for Indonesia until President Bush
certifies that Indonesia is "taking effective
measures" to fully investigate and criminally
prosecute those responsible for the August 2002 attack
on US citizens--including the murder of two--in West
Papua.
"The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has sent the
Indonesian government and military a strong bipartisan
message that the TNI cannot get away with murder.
Indonesian authorities must understand that this is no
longer business as usual," said Kurt Biddle of IHRN.
Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) proposed the amendment
to the Foreign Assistance Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2004 with support from committee chair Richard
Lugar (R-IN) and ranking member Joseph Biden (D-DE).
"The amendment reflects a growing disgust with the
failure of Indonesia to meet a wide range of
conditions placed on military assistance by Congress
in recent years," said Karen Orenstein, ETAN's
Washington coordinator. "Never before has the
Indonesian military displayed such boldness in
attacking U.S. citizens as it did in 2002. It is not
difficult to imagine how the TNI [Indonesian military]
treats Indonesian citizens."
The rights groups note that the Indonesian military is
using US-supplied war material in the Aceh offensive,
including OV-10 Bronco aircraft (used to rocket
villages) and C-130 Hercules transport planes (to drop
paratroopers). The military has ordered troops to
"exterminate" the rebels within six months. "The
failure to hold the TNI accountable for its abuses
continues," said Orenstein. "An Indonesian court today
acquitted General Tono Suratman of crimes against
humanity committed in East Timor in 1999." Suratman,
the former military commander for East Timor, was the
twelfth Indonesian and highest-ranking military
officer acquitted by the widely-criticized Indonesian
court.
Both Indonesian police and independent human rights
investigations point to military responsibility for
the murder of two US citizens and one Indonesian in
West Papua last August 31, 2002. Another eight US
citizens, including a six-year-old child, and three
Indonesians were wounded in the ambush in the mining
operations area of the Louisiana-based
Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold, Inc.
Congress first voted to restrict Indonesia's
participation in the IMET program, which brings
foreign military officers to the US for training, in
response to the November 12, 1991 Santa Cruz massacre
of over 270 civilians in East Timor. All military ties
were severed in September 1999 as the Indonesian
military and its militia proxies carried out
widespread atrocities in East Timor following its
pro-independence vote. (IHRN press release, May 22)
See also WW3 REPORT #49
[top]
THE MEXICO FRONT
1. ZAPOTEC ECO-DEFENDERS FACE REPRESSION IN OAXACA
On May 15, 300 local residents peacefully blocking the
Pan American highway in the state of Oaxaca to demand
the release of a political prisoner were violently
attacked by police, who fired fired tear gas and beat
women and children in an attempt to break up the
protest. The blockaders, from the indigenous Zapotec
town of Union Hidalgo, who had closed down traffic on
the highway from 10 AM until the attack at 4 PM, were
protesting the political repression by the Juchitan
municipal police force.
On the previous day, May 14, Juchitan police had
illegally detained indigneous leader Carlos Manzo,
member of the Union Hidalgo Citizen Council (CCU).
According to eye witness testimony, Carlos Manzo was
leaving a bank in Juchitan, a city near his hometown
of Union Hidalgo, when eight police officers stopped
him, saying they had a warrant for his arrest on
charges of robbery and deprivation of liberty.
Since the police attack on May 15, two other
indigenous activists have been arrested--Luis Alberto
Marin and Francisco de la Rosa, also of the CCU.
Manzo, Marin and de la Rosa are three of 37 local
indigenous leaders and environmental activists who had
warrants for their arrests issued by the Oaxaca state
attorney general.
The CCU was formed in February 2003, after a conflict
between Union Hidalgo community members and the
municipal government over the suspected misuse
of funds by Municipal President (mayor) Armando
Sanchez Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI), Mexico's national political machine which until
recently held a monopoly on power. On February 13,
2003, the mayor ordered police to fire into a crowd
that was demonstrating in front of the municipal
palace, killing one protestor and injuring nine. The
CCU immediately demanded the mayor leave his post. The
ongoing political struggle led the Oaxaca state
government--known for both corruption and repression--
to issue arrest warrants on trumped-up charges for CCU
supporters.
Many of the CCU leaders have been active in a two-year
battle to stop an environmentally harmful shrimp farm
from being built in Union Hidalgo. The community is an
indigenous Zapotec fishing village, and the proposed
industrial shrimp farm--heavily promoted by mayor
Armando Sanchez Ruiz--would be illegally built on
communal lands. Activists charge it would destroy the
local economy. They also see it as a step towards the
industrial development program known as the Puebla
Panama Plan (PPP), being pushed by the Interamerican
Development Bank for southern Mexico and Central
America. (ASEJ/ACERCA action alert, May 20)
See also WW3 REPORT #60
For more on the Puebla-Panama Plan, go to:
In English:
www.asej.org
www.americaspolicy.org
In Spanish:
www.mesoamericaresiste.org
www.ciepac.org
[top]
NEW YORK CITY
1. EX-POLICE COMMISH TO IRAQ?
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik
announced May 15 that he is leaving for Iraq to become
interior minister in the occupation government. He
recently returned from Mexico City, where he was
working with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on
Giuliani Partners' $4.3 million contract to overhaul
the city's police force. (See WW3 REPORT #64) Kerik, who works
as an anti-terrorism consultant in Giuliani Partners,
said he would be in Iraq "at least six months--until
the job is done." Pentagon officials would not confirm
his appointment. (Newsday, May 16)
[top]
2. "ORANGE ALERT" JACKS UP PARANOIA
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced
beefed-up patrols and surveillance at landmarks,
subway stations, bridges and tunnels May 21 in
response to an FBI warning that a terror attack on US
soil is "likely." That same day, service was delayed
for hours on the Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and New
Jersey Transit commuter lines following the evacuation
of a DC-Boston Amtrak train and the arrest of a
"suspicious" man with a knapsack. The knapsack
contained nothing threatening, Amtrak sources said.
Kelly's announcement came a day after the federal
Homeland Security Department jacked the national
color-coded terrorist alert up from yellow
("elevated") to orange ("high")--although New York
City has remained at orange even as the rest of the
country was back to yellow for several weeks. But
Vincent Cannistrano, former CIA anti-terrorism chief,
criticized the orange alert as politically-motivated:
"There's no substantial intelligence indicating an
imminent threat. They did this on the basis of the
level of [terrorist] activity abroad and on Kerry's
attack on the president." Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), a
presidential hopeful, criticized President Bush for
neglecting the domestic terrorist threat by being
"overly focused on Iraq." (Newsday, May 21)
See also WW3 REPORT #82
[top]
3. EL SALVADOR COUNTER-INSURGENCY VET TO NYPD
As New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly announced
new anti-terrorism measures, he also told a City Hall
briefing that a career military man has been chosen to
head the NYPD's Counter-Terrorism Bureau. Michael
Sheehan, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who until
recently served as assistant UN secretary general for
peacekeeping operations, will replace Frank Libutti, a
former Marine lieutenant general who has been
nominated by President Bush to a post at the Homeland
Security Department. Sheehan, a New Jersey native and
West Point graduate who will begin his $146,000-a-year
job in June, was a formerly a Special Forces commander
in Panama and a counter-insurgency advisor in El
Salvador.(Newsday, May 21)
Sheehan also served two stints on the White House
National Security Council staff, and was the State
Department's counter-terrorism coordinator from 1998
to 2000. Sheehan worked with Kelly in Haiti in 1994,
when Kelly headed a State Department-coordinated team
of international police observers to oversee the
country's transition to democracy and Sheehan was on
the staff of then-US ambassador to the UN Madeleine
Albright. (NYT, May 20)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 73
& 50
[top]
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. SAVING PRIVATE LYNCH: TAKE TWO
After a thorough investigation, the BBC has presented
a shocking dissection of the "heroic" rescue of Pvt.
Jessica Lynch, who was famously taken prisoner by
Saddam's forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The
BBC calls her story "one of the most stunning pieces
of news management ever conceived." Adds the Los
Angeles Times' Robert Scheer, commenting on the BBC
report: "Lynch, who says she has no memory of the
events in question, has suffered enough in the line of
duty without being reduced to a propaganda pawn.
Sadly, almost nothing fed to reporters about either
Lynch's original capture by Iraqi forces or her
'rescue' by US forces turns out to be true."
The April 3 Washington Post story on her capture,
headlined "She Was Fighting to the Death,"
reported--based on unnamed military sources--that
Lynch "continued firing at the Iraqis even after she
sustained multiple gunshot wounds," adding that she
was also stabbed when Iraqi forces closed in. The BBC
contends that Lynch was neither shot nor stabbed, but
rather suffered accident injuries when her vehicle
overturned. A medical checkup by US doctors confirmed
the account of the Iraqi doctors, who said they
had carefully tended her injuries--a broken arm and
thigh and a dislocated ankle. US media reports, in
contrast, claimed that Iraqi doctors had ignored
Lynch.
News media nationwide also claimed Lynch was slapped
by an Iraqi security guard. The US military later
insisted that an Iraqi lawyer witnessed this incident
and informed US forces of Lynch's whereabouts. His
credibility as a source, however, is difficult to
verify. He and his family were whisked to the US,
where he was immediately granted political asylum, and
has refused all interview requests. His future was
assured with a job with a lobbying firm run by former
Republican Rep.Bob Livingstone that represents the
defense industry and a $500,000 book contract with
HarperCollins--a company owned by Rupert Murdoch,
whose
Fox network did much to hype Lynch's story.
"But where the manipulation of this saga really gets
ugly is in the premeditated manufacture of the rescue
itself," writes Scheer. Eight days after her capture,
the US media trumpeted the military's story that Lynch
was saved by Special Forces that stormed the hospital
and--in the face of heavy hostile fire--managed to
scoop her up and helicopter her out. BBC, which
interviewed the hospital's staff, says that Iraqi
forces had abandoned the area before the rescue
effort--and that the hospital's staff had informed US
forces of this and made arrangements two days before
the raid to turn Lynch over. Writes BBC: "But as the
ambulance, with Pvt. Lynch inside, approached the
checkpoint, American troops opened fire, forcing it to
flee back to the hospital. The Americans had almost
killed their prize catch."
"We were surprised," Dr. Anmar Uday told the BBC about
the supposed rescue. "There was no military, there
were no soldiers in the hospital. It was like a
Hollywood film. [The US troops] cried 'Go, go, go,'
with guns and blanks without bullets, blanks and the
sound of explosions. They made a show for the American
attack on the hospital, [like] action movies
[starring] Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan."
The footage from the raid, shot not by journalists but
by soldiers with night-vision cameras, was fed in real
time to the Central Command operations center in
Qatar.
Writes Scheer: "The video was artfully edited by the
Pentagon and released as proof that a battle to free
Lynch had occurred when it had not. This fabrication
has already been celebrated by an A&E special and
will soon be an NBC movie. The Lynch rescue story--a
made-for-TV bit of official propaganda--will probably
survive as the war's most heroic moment, despite
proving as fictitious as the stated rationales for the
invasion itself." (LAT, May 20)
For more possible Pentagon media-manipulation ops, see
WW3 REPORT #81
[top]
2. SY HERSH: PENTAGON SPOOK AGENCY SETS U.S. POLICY
US insistence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass
destruction was based on intelligence from a
little-known Pentagon committee, the Office of Special
Plans (OSP), which increasingly dominates US foreign
policy, according to a May 12 report in The New Yorker
magazine by journalist Seymour Hersh. By late last
year, the OSP had become President Bush's main
intelligence source, particularly over Iraq's weapons
of mass destruction and the country's links to
al-Qaeda, according to Hersh's investigation. But the
OSP, the brainchild of Deputy Defence Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz, relied on questionable intelligence from
the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the exile group
headed by Ahmad Chalabi.
Said one anonymous former CIA Middle East specialist
quoted in the story: "You had to treat them with
suspicion. The INC has a track record of
manipulating intelligence because it has an agenda.
It's a political unit, not an intelligence agency...
One of the reasons I left was my sense that they [the
Pentagon] were using the intelligence from the CIA and
the other agencies only when it fit their agenda. They
didn't like the intelligence they were getting and so
they brought people in to write the stuff... They were
so crazed and far out and so difficult to reason with,
to the point of being bizarre. Dogmatic, as if they
were on a mission from God."
W. Patrick Lang, the former chief of Middle East
intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),
the DIA, said the SPO's influence has spread beyond
Iraq. "The Pentagon has banded together to dominate
the government's foreign policy, and they've pulled it
off ... The DIA has been intimidated and beaten to a
pulp. And there's no guts at all in the CIA."
But an official who works with the OSP supervisor and
Under Secretary of Defence William Luti, said such
arguments were just bureaucratic sour grapes. He said
OSP director Abram "Shulsky and Luti won the policy
debate... There's no mystery why they won--because
they were more effective in making their arguments."
(AFP, May 4)
On the March 9 CNN Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,
Pentagon advisor Richard Perle, commenting on a New
Yorker expose of his business interests which stood to
profit from a war in Iraq (see WW3 REPORT #79), said: "Sy
Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to
a terrorist, frankly."
[top]
3. JAMES WOOLSEY: WAR PROFITEER
James Woolsey, former CIA chief and a top adviser to
President Bush, is a director of a US firm seeking to
make millions of dollars from the War on Terror,
according to the UK Observer. Woolsey, a key member of
the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, is a director of
the DC-based private equity firm Paladin Capital,
established three months after the 9-11 attacks. The
firm boasts that the aftermath of the attacks
"offer[s] substantial promise for homeland security
investment." The first priority of Paladin is "to
invest in companies with immediate solutions
designed to prevent harmful attacks, defend
against attacks, cope with the aftermath of attack
or disaster and recover from terrorist attacks and
other threats to homeland security."
Paladin, which is expected to raise $300 million from
investors this year, calculates that in the next few
years the US will spend $60 billion on
counter-terrorism, and that corporations will spend
twice that amount to ensure their security and
continuity in case of attack.
Woolsey recently told CNN that Saddam Hussein
attempted to produce a genetically modified strain of
anthrax: "I would be more worried over the mid to
long term about biological weapons, because the
chemical gear, we're--I think we're pretty well
equipped to deal with. But there have been stories
that Saddam has been working on genetically modifying
some of these biological agents, making anthrax
resistant to vaccines or antibiotics."
One of Paladin's first investments was $10.5 million
in AgION Technologies, a firm devising anti-germ
technology that it hopes will "be the leader in
the fight against bacterial attacks initiated by
terrorists on unsuspecting civilian and military
personnel." (UK Observer, May 11)
[top]
SUPPORT WORLD WAR 3 REPORT!!!
EXIT POLL:
1. Will NBC, Fox and A&E reconsider their portrayals
of the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch in light of new
evidence that the affair was actually a
carefully-managed Pentagon propaganda operation?
2. Will International Action Center, Voices in the
Wilderness, Democracy Now! and all the other lefty
groups and commentators who have been crying
"sanctions are genocide" for the past 13 years
reconsider their portrayals of the issue in light of
new evidence that the Baghdad regime bore greater
responsibility for the doubling of Iraq's infant
mortality, and that the processions of dead babies and
greiving parents were actually a carefully-managed
Saddam Hussein propaganda operation?
3. Does anybody on either the right or left actually
give a shit about the truth, or has the very notion
become nothing more than a quaint anachronism in this
post-modern age?
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