ISSUE:
#. 63. Dec. 9, 2002
THIS WEEK:
NEW IMPERIALIST CARVE-UP OF MIDDLE EAST PLANNED!
AL-QAEDA TO OPEN PALESTINE FRONT--MOSSAD SHADOW PLAY?
ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE LINK TO COLOMBIAN PARAS!!
POINDEXTER, KISSINGER, ELLIOT ABRAMS; WHO'S NEXT
-- OLIVER NORTH?
CANADA: THE FORGOTTEN FRONT!!!
ALSO:
*ISRAEL-LEBANON WATER WAR UPDATE
*CORPORATE AMERICA FUNDS HINDU EXTREMIST TERROR
*SADDAM PROTECTING SECRET NUCLEAR BACKERS IN THE WEST?
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: YELLOW
A SPECIAL HOLIDAY MESSAGE TO OUR READERS
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom and Subuhi Jiwani
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. West Bank Repression Continues
2. First Permanent Checkpoint for West Bank
3. Gaza Violence: Practice for Full Scale Invasion?
4. Israel Seizing More of Gaza Strip
5. Israel Destroys Warehouse With Food for Gaza's Needy
6. Netanyahu: Iraq War "An Opportunity For Us"
7. Hamas, Fatah on "Brink of Civil War"
8. Al-Qaeda Claims Kenya Attacks
9. Al-Qaeda Promises Attacks on Israel
10. Al-Qaeda Plot to Attack Israelis and Jews in Prague?
11. Al-Qaeda Plot to Attack Israeli Soccer Team?
12. Al-Qaeda in Palestine: Israeli Shadow Play?
13. Israeli Commentator Skeptical of al-Qaeda Threat
14. US Denies Israel Nabbed al-Qaeda Money Man
15. Refuseniks Get Forced Labor
16. German Neo-Nazis Exploit Palestine Solidarity Movement
17. Barghouti Calls for Regime Change
18. IDF Troops Issued Palestinian-Made Underwear?
THE LEBANON FRONT
1. Israel-Lebanon Water War on Hold--for Now
2. Blast Destroys Mosque in Armenian Village
3. Iraqi Dissident Found Dead Near Tyre
4. Israel and Hezbollah in Tit-For-Tat Attacks ?
5. Al-Qaeda in Lebanon?
6. Iran Tries to Defuse Levantine Powder Keg
7. Hezbollah Calls for World-Wide Attacks
8. Jane's Sez: Iraq Attack Could Mean War for Lebanon
9. Hezbollah Expects Israeli Attack
10. Hezbollah Sleepers in Israel to be Activated?
11. Author: Hezbollah Could Hit U.S.
12. Hezbollah TV: Terror Goes Better with Coke!
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. US Bombs Oil Facilities
2. Controversy Around Iraq's Weapons Dossier
3. Shi'ite Opposition: Saddam Has Secret Weapons
4. Saddam Protecting Secret Nuclear Backers in the West?
5. White House Advisor: Iraq Attack On, Inspections or Not
6. Iraq Faces Depleted Uranium Nightmare
7. Iraqi Defector Arrested on War Crimes Charges
8. Al-Qaeda Rocks Kurdistan
9. Human Shields Volunteer for Iraq
10. Sanctions-Busters Pledge to Resist US Fines
11. Canadians Protest War Drive
12. "Live From Baghdad": Historical Revisionism
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. RAWA Protests Warlord Rule
2. Aid Agencies Protest US Military Meddling
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. New Imperialist Carve-Up of Middle East Planned
2. Ecologists Protest Kazakh Oil Development
3. Ecologists Protest Trans-Caucasus Pipeline
4. Siberian Gas Industry: Decrepit and Deadly
5. Tibetan Lamas Face Execution
THE SUBCONTINENT
1. India and Iraq: Camaraderie in Oil
2. New York Activists Remember Babri Mosque Destruction
3. Activists Tell Corporations: "Stop Funding Hate" in India
4. Maoist Rebels Rock Southern India
5. Diego Garcia Islanders Battle to Return
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. Israeli Link to Colombian Paras
2. Colombian Guerilla Guns: Made in USA
3. FARC Slams Terror War
4. New Struggle for Venezuela's Oil
5. Populist Colonel Wins in Ecuador
6. Bolivian Death Squads Back in Action
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. Contragate Criminals Back On Top
THE CANADIAN FRONT
1. Ottawa-DC Sniping Slows Military Integration
2. Canada: Terrorist Haven?
3. Canada Coddling Hezbollah?
4. Canada to Tighten Refugee Policy
5. Canadians Protest Border Militarization
6. Border Incident Leaves Locals Bitter
7. Jewish Group in Montreal Campus Controversy
8. Alberta Indians Resist NATO
THE WAR AT HOME
1. 3rd Circuit Upholds Secret Hearings--Again
2. Class Action Suit Filed for Somalis
GLIMMERS OF HOPE
1. Offshore Wind Turbines Power Europe
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. WEST BANK REPRESSION CONTINUES
On Dec. 3, Israel's chief of staff, Moshe Ya'alon said the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF) "must continue to operate offensively in the battle against
the Palestinians as an effective contribution to the war on terrorism."
(BBC Monitoring, Voice of Israel, Dec. 3) And so, two Palestinians were
shot in the feet and another was badly beaten by Israeli forces at the
Awarta checkpoint near Nablus on Dec. 3. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of
Palestine, Dec. 3) The Jerusalem Post reported Dec. 4 that "IDF forces
identified a suspicious terrorist in Nablus." Troops shot and wounded him.
(Jerusalem Post, Dec. 4) On Dec. 5, Israeli troops occupying Nablus shot
and critically wounded a 15-year-old Palestinian youth after he pointed a
toy gun, Palestinians said. The IDF said it fired at armed Palestinians.
(AP, Dec. 5) Israeli forces searching for members of Islamic Jihad in caves
in the village of Tufah came under fire on Dec. 5. The army returned fire,
killing the two militants. (AP, Dec. 5) The Voice of Palestine claimed that
Israeli special forces, dressed as Arabs, chased and then ran down a
Palestinian man with their car in Jenin on Dec. 5. His condition was described as
"clinically dead." (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine Dec. 5)
An Israeli special forces unit in civilian clothes wounded five
Palestinians shopping for the Eid holiday in the old city of Nablus on Dec.
4. The shoppers were surprised when the unit opened indiscriminate fire,
even though there were no confrontations taking place at the time. The same
day in Tul Karm, Voice of Palestine reported "20 citizens received metal
bullets and suffered toxic gas inhalation when the occupation forces
stormed the city center. In the meantime, over a thousand citizens took to
the city streets to protest the curfew and siege slapped on the city." (BBC
Monitoring Source: Voice of Palestine, Dec. 5)
On Dec. 5, an Israeli soldier shot and killed a 95-year-old Palestinian
woman in a taxi as it drove away from IDF troops in the Jelezun area, near
Ramallah. The taxi did not pose an immediate threat, but was traveling on a
road that had been declared a "security route" by the army, off limits to
Palestinian travel. The IDF claimed a soldier fired at the tires, saying he
was violating orders and used "bad judgment." (Ha'aretz, Dec. 5)
An Islamic Jihad militant, Abed al-Hady Zeyud, 21, was shot and killed in a
failed arrest attempt in Silat al-Harithiya, a village six miles northwest
of Jenin on Dec. 6. Five other Palestinians, mostly young stone-throwers,
were injured. (AFP, Dec. 6)
An Israeli tank opened machine gun fire at Islam Jamaal, 17, in Tul Karm
Dec. 6, seriously wounding him in the neck. Witnesses said Jamaal was
walking through the eastern part of the city, and could not ascertain why
he was fired upon. The IDF said he threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli
forces. (AFP, Dec. 6)
A Palestinian new-born died at an Israeli checkpoint south of Jenin in the
West Bank Dec. 7. Israeli forces held up the baby's mother, Munirah Izzat
Kabahah, for several hours at the Jannat roadblock at Jenin's southern
entrance. Last week the IDF issued "childbirth kits" to IDF doctors to help
deal with babies being born while their mothers are held at checkpoints.
(BBC Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Dec. 7) (David Bloom)
[top]
2. FIRST PERMANENT CHECKPOINT FOR WEST BANK
The IDF has set up a "permanent metal roadblock" in the city center of
Nablus, the first of its kind in the West Bank. The checkpoint, set up on
one of the city's main streets, opposite the Palestinian Authority
administration building, will be used to check Palestinian traffic between
Nablus and the surrounding refugee camps when the city is not actually
under curfew. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Dec. 8) (David Bloom)
[top]
3. GAZA VIOLENCE: PRACTICE FOR FULL SCALE INVASION?
Jane's Foreign Report, a publication of the respected British defense and
intelligence industry analyst Jane's Information Group, says Israel is
planning to use the cover of the expected US attack on Iraq to neutralize
Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip. Jane's quotes Israeli
military sources as saying Israel will take advantage of the moment to go
into the Gaza Strip and "clear it on a house-to-house fighting basis" of
the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Palestinian security services (JFR, Nov.
21)
In the meantime, Israel is keeping lower intensity warfare constant in
Gaza, with continued assassinations, demolitions, and incursions--and
Palestinians continue to fight back. One of four mortar shells fired by
Palestinians at Israeli targets near the Erez industrial zone in the Gaza
Strip killed one Palestinian worker and wounded 12 others on Dec. 3.
(Jerusalem Post, Dec. 3) A Palestinian youth was injured when a tank opened
fire on Palestinians in the crossing area in Rafah on Dec. 4. (BBC
Monitoring: Voice of Palestine, Dec. 4) A Palestinian infiltrating the
Israeli kibbutz Nahal Oz near the fence with the Gaza Strip was shot and
wounded on Dec. 4 (AP, Dec. 4). Rockets fired from Israeli helicopters
killed Mustafa Sabah, purported member of the al-Aksa Martyr's Brigades,
and wounded four others in a Dec. 4 assassination. The victims were inside
a Palestinian Authority Preventive Security hut in Gaza City. The army said
Sabah was responsible for three attacks on Israeli Merkava tanks, killing
seven soldiers. (Ha'aretz, Dec. 4) That same day, two mortar shells were
fired by Palestinian militants at Jewish settlements in the northern Gaza
Strip, near the Erez checkpoint (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 4)
Israeli occupation forces stormed the al-Burayj refugee camp east of Gaza
City on Dec. 6, killing ten. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported an
Israeli convoy including 30 tanks and several bulldozers, backed by Apache
helicopter gunships, entered the camp before dawn, showering heavy fire and
tank shells. The IDF blew up a house after planting explosives in it. Five
family members were also wounded when a tank shell struck their house.
Mosque loudspeakers called on camp inhabitants to defend their homes.
Fierce gunbattles raged, and the IDF directed high-caliber machine gunfire
at houses. (BBC Monitoring: Palestinian news agency Wafa, Dec. 6) According
to Hamas, six of the dead were Hamas militants. (BBC Monitoring: Izz-al-Din
al-Qassam Brigades web site, Dec. 7) Two of the dead were Palestinians
employed by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). (BBC, Dec. 5) Ha'aretz
reported the IDF commander "spotted an ambush a few hundred meters away,"
as his troops were pulling out. He ordered a helicopter to a fire a missile
at the Palestinians. A number of Palestinians were killed by the missile
fire and 12 people--including two children--were injured. (Ha'aretz, Dec. 8)
Israeli forces backed by tanks and helicopters entered the al-Shaykh Ajlin
neighborhood of Gaza City on Dec. 5, and blew up the house of a Hamas
militant. (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Dec. 5) Wafa reported Dec. 5:
"The Israeli occupation forces at dawn today demolished a house south of
Gaza City." It added that "the occupation forces, supported by tanks,
advanced into the southern part of Gaza and asked citizens over
loudspeakers to get out of their homes."(BBC Monitoring: Wafa, Dec. 5)
Israeli forces backed by helicopter gunships and "military reconnaissance
planes" entered the al-Satr al-Gharbi area on the outskirts of Khan Yunis
city Dec. 6 and "stormed and searched a large number of citizens' houses
and assaulted a number of their owners." (BBC Monitoring: Palestinian news
agency Wafa, Dec. 6)
Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her three children
in Tel Sultan refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip near the Jewish
settlement of Rafiah Yam on Dec. 8. Another woman was also wounded in the
attack. The IDF said it was a group armed Palestinians infiltrating the
settlement and opened fire. But a Palestinian witness said Israeli troops
simply opened fire on the refugee camp. "The woman and her family were
walking in the middle of the street, and I saw her fall, and blood covering
her body, and not far from her, the two children also fell." (AP, Dec. 8)
(David Bloom)
[top]
4. ISRAEL SEIZING MORE OF GAZA STRIP
Speaking to the Jerusalem-based al-Quds newspaper, Brig-Gen. Usamah al-Ali,
official in charge of Palestinian military liaison in the Gaza Strip,
warned of an Israeli plan to demarcate new borders for the Gaza Strip,
creating Israel-controlled enclaves around Jewish settlements--in effect
annexing another part of the Strip: "Israel has recently seized Palestinian
lands north of Gaza, constituting a 5.2 km-wide strip along the coastal
line, with the aim of taking over a part of the joint Palestinian-Israeli
gas field and preventing the PNA [Palestinian National Authority] from
using the Palestinian part of the field," the general told the paper.
Al-Quds reports that "over the past two months, the Israeli forces have
penetrated deeply into the northern part of the Gaza Strip and are
currently building a wide road and barbed-wire fence next to it over the
lands of citizens and the debris of their properties from the Salah al-Din
road up to the sea to the west...thus increasing the coastal border by 2.5
to 3 km at the expense of the strip's coastline..." Gen. al-Ali said
Israeli forces have given the owners of houses and lands in the northern
Strip warning that their lands will be seized and annexed to the
settlements of Nisanit, Dugit, and Eley Sinay for the purpose of building a
fence 2 kilometers deep into the lands under Palestinian control. Al-Ali
was disturbed that no one, especially the US, has taken notice of Israel's
activity, or lodged a protest with the Israeli government. (BBC Monitoring:
Al-Quds, Dec. 1) (David Bloom)
[top]
5. ISRAEL DESTROYS WAREHOUSE WITH FOOD FOR GAZA'S NEEDY
On Dec. 1, six Israeli tanks surrounded a warehouse in Beit Lahiya in the
Gaza Strip, filled with food aid belonging to the World Food Program (WFP),
and destroyed it. The $271,000 worth of food destroyed along with the
building was earmarked for 40,000 needy Palestinians. In a statement, the
WFP said the warehouse was clearly marked. The WFP also urged "the Israeli
government to observe humanitarian principles and compensate the agency for
its loss." The IDF said it would look into the group's complaint. (AP, Dec.
9) (David Bloom)
[top]
6. NETANYAHU: IRAQ WAR "AN OPPORTUNITY FOR US"
Speaking Dec. 3 at the Herzliya Conference on "Israel's National Strength
and Security," Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that the
impending US assault on Iraq could provide "an opportunity for us,"
explaining that Israel could use the opportunity to replace the Palestinian
Authority's leadership. (Ha'aretz, Nov. 9) This is not the first time
Netanyahu has seen opportunity for Israel when the world is distracted by a
crisis. In 1989, when tanks were crushing pro-democracy protests at
Tiananmen Sqaure, Netanyahu told students at Bar-Ilan University: "Israel
should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when
world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among
the Arabs of the territories." (Hotam, Nov. 24, 1989) Jordanian fears of a
mass expulsion, or "transfer," of Palestinians from the West Bank into
Jordan during an invasion of Iraq have been partially allayed by the US,
which assured the Jordanians that no such plan was in place. However,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to make a formal public
declaration against transfer. (Ha'aretz, Nov. 28) (See WW3 REPORT# 62)
[top]
7. HAMAS, FATAH ON "BRINK OF CIVIL WAR"
A Palestinian police officer and his son, supporters of Fatah, were killed
in Dec. 4 clash between Hamas and Fatah activists over who would get to
write graffitti on a particular wall. The fight started off with fists,
escalated to gunfire, and finally, hand grenades--which killed the two
Fatah militants. (AP, Dec. 5; Jerusalem Post, Dec. 5) After the incident,
some 2,000 Fatah supporters, some armed, gathered in the streets. Some
attacked the house of Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab, damaging windows
and frightening his children. On Dec. 6, Fatah gunmen raided the homes of
three other top Hamas officials, including that of spokesman Dr. Abdel Aziz
Rantisi. Dozens of Hamas supporters, some armed with rifles or pistols,
repelled the attacks. Apparently, there were no injuries. Shanab now has
his house surrounded by 20 armed Hamas militants. Palestinian Authority
officials warn that the two sides are "on the brink of a civil war," and is
calling for calm. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 8) Also appealing for calm:
al-Qaeda, now courting Hamas as an ally. "We call to the mujaheddin in the
al-Nusseirat camp in the Gaza Strip to immediately stop the fighting
between Hamas and the people of the Palestinian Authority," says al-Qaeda's
Web site. (Washington Post, Dec. 6) (David Bloom)
[top]
8. AL-QAEDA CLAIMS KENYA ATTACKS
In a departure from the shadowy organization's usual modus operandi,
al-Qaeda spokesman Suliman Abu Geith claimed in a tape message broadcast
on al-Jazeera satellite TV that the group was responsible for the Nov. 29
attacks in Mombassa, Kenya. "I hereby confirm what has been issued by
al-Qaeda political office regarding our responsibility for the Mombasa
attacks in Kenya," said the statement. Noting that al-Qaeda usually does
not issue such claims, Geith said it would do so "according to the relevant
circumstances." The US regards the claim to be credible. (Ha'aretz, Dec. 8)
(David Bloom)
[top]
9. AL-QAEDA PROMISES ATTACKS ON ISRAEL
A Dec. 8 statement attributed to al-Qaeda spokesman Suliman Abu Geith on an
al-Qaeda website promises further attacks on Israeli interests. "The
Jewish-Crusader coalition will not be safe anywhere from the fighters'
attacks," the statement said, using a term common among Islamic militants
for US-Israeli alliance. "We will hit the most vital centers and we will
strike against its strategic operations with all possible means." Geith
promised al-Qaeda "will chase the enemy with terrifying weapons. We have to
widen our fighting fronts and conduct more concentrated and faster
operations...so [the enemy] feels unsafe and unstable on land, air and
sea." (Ha'aretz, Dec. 8)
The web site, www.mojahedoon.net, announced the formation of a new al-Qaeda
branch, the Islamic al-Qaeda Organization in Palestine, and said it will
attempt to undermine any talks between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority.
The talks, now suspended, have been aimed at arranging an Israeli
withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for an end to
Palestinian suicide attacks in Israel. "Islamic al-Qaeda in Palestine joins
its voice with the voices of the mujaheddin in Palestine in its resistance
to the partial and submissive solutions, and will accept nothing but the
full liberation of the Palestinian land," said the al-Qaeda site. The new
Palestinian arm of al-Qaeda "will defeat the Zionist Jewish invaders [and]
return them to the place...whence they came," the site said.
Bruce Hoffman, an analyst with the Rand corporation, says al-Qaeda's new
focus on Israel stems from "terrorists looking for work." "Al-Qaeda...wants
to appear relevant, to be a player in Middle Eastern politics," Hoffman
said. (Washington Post, Dec. 6) (David Bloom)
[top]
10. AL-QAEDA PLOT TO ATTACK ISRAELIS AND JEWS IN PRAGUE?
An Israeli intelligence source said Dec. 8 that Israel has information that
al-Qaeda is planning to attack Jews and Israelis in Prague, a popular
destination for Israeli tourists. "A specific warning was received recently
about plans to attack Jews and Israelis in Prague," the security source
said, without giving details. (Ha'aretz, Oct. 8) (David Bloom)
[top]
11. AL-QAEDA PLOT TO ATTACK ISRAELI SOCCER TEAM?
Israel National soccer coach Avraham Grant on Dec. 4 confirmed a Yedioth
Ahronoth newspaper account that a planned October al-Qaeda attack on
Israel's national soccer team in Malta was foiled by last minute arrests.
"I think a day before the game, they arrested a person connected to
al-Qaeda," Grant said. "[At the time] we didn't understand that there was a
specific warning. We did not realize they planned an attack." Yedioth
Ahronoth reported that days before the game, Italian police dismantled an
alleged al-Qaeda cell and arrested four Tunisians planning attacks on
unspecified European targets. A fifth Tunisian cell member was arrested in
Malta. A "security source in Rome" told Yedioth Ahronoth the Italian
secret service was tipped off to the attack when it overheard a phone
conversation in which one suspect said, "Everything is ready for the game.
The ground is ready. We will win." (Ha'aretz, Dec. 4) (David Bloom)
As a result of the threat, Israel's qualifying matches for the Euro 2004
soccer tournament will be hosted in Britain. (AP, Dec. 4) The IFA, the
governing body for Israeli soccer, issued a Dec. 5 statement contradicting
Yedioth's story: "The publication of unconfirmed reports could cause great
harm to Israeli soccer at the international level, damage which will be
very difficult to put right in the future. We were surprised to discover
the publication of the apparent plot to attack the national team. But at
the same time, we are unaware of any proof that the story, which relies on
foreign and Internet sources, is true. There has not been any confirmation
form any [Israeli] security source." (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 5) (David Bloom)
[top]
12. AL-QAEDA IN PALESTINE: ISRAELI SHADOW PLAY?
Two days after Israel charged al-Qaeda militants were operation in Gaza and
Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority announced it had uncovered an Israeli
plot to justify the claim. "The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of
collaborators who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as
al-Qaeda operatives in the Palestinian territories," said a PA official, on
condition of anonymity. He said the alleged collaborators were going to
"discredit the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide
reasons to carry out a new aggression in the Gaza Strip." (Sydney Morning
Herald, Dec. 8)
Gaza head of preventive security Rashid Abu Shbak told reporters at a press
conference that Israeli agents, posing as agents of Osama bin Laden's
terrorist group, recruited Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. "Over the past
nine months, we've been investigating eight cases in which Israeli
intelligence posing as Al-Qaeda operatives recruited Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip," said Abu Shbak, referring to a series of e-mails and phone
conversations. Shbak said three of the eight have been detained.
"Ridiculous," replied Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Gilad Millo to the
Palestinian claim, calling it "some kind of propaganda campaign." He added
that "the Palestinian territories have become a breeding ground for
terrorism... There is no need for Israel to make up something like this
because Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are all the same as al-Qaida."
He also said: "If... Sharon has made these allegations, he must be basing
it on some evidence." (AFP, Dec. 7) (David Bloom)
[top]
13. ISRAELI COMMENTATOR SKEPTICAL OF AL-QAEDA THREAT
Ha'aretz political commentator Yoel Marcus voiced skepticism Dec. 6 about
the flurry of al-Qaeda news: "Day in and day out, we hear what Saddam is
going to do to us with chemical and biological warheads, and that 'we are
prepared.' And now, because of one attack apparently originating with
al-Qaeda, we are going to get a wave of warnings about al-Qaeda, even
though we haven't the foggiest notion of who they are, where they are and
what they are planning. The authorities are totally discombobulated and
instead of offering a defensive shield, they are telling us to shield
ourselves for our own protection." (Ha'aretz, Dec. 6) (David Bloom)
[top]
14. U.S. DENIES ISRAEL NABBED AL-QAEDA MONEY MAN
Israel says it arrested and deported Dr. Khaled Nazem Diab, a US citizen it
claims is connected to al-Qaeda. On Dec. 5, an Israeli police spokesman
said Diab had been "arrested upon his arrival in Israel on suspicion of
transferring funds to terrorist organizations in general, and those
connected to al-Qaeda in particular."
The 34-year-old suspect is "known to have contacts with organizations and
activists connected to Hamas," the hardline Palestinian Islamist group,
spokesman Gil Kleiman said. However, a US State Department source disputed
the account to AFP. "Nothing that we have indicates that he is tied to
terrorist organizations nor have we received any indication from the
Israeli government that he was discovered to have such ties," the official
told AFP on condition of anonymity. Likewise, a US embassy source in Israel
told the Jerusalem Post, "We know of no terrorist connection. From what we
know, he was doing humanitarian medical work in the West Bank." Kleiman
said Diab worked for charities in Qatar and is a former employee of the
al-Najda charity which was shut down in the United States after the 9-11
attacks. The Israeli Government Press Office did not say whether Diyab's
alleged ties to al-Qaeda had been substantiated.(AFP, Dec. 4; Jerusalem
Post, Dec. 5) (David Bloom)
[top]
15. REFUSENIKS GET FORCED LABOR
Yonatan Ben Artzi and Uri Ya'acobi, two young men who both already served
five consecutive prison terms for refusing to be drafted into the Israeli
army, were sentenced for the sixth time Dec. 8, and received respectively
35 and 28 days in Military Prison-4. Ben Artzi will at the end of this
period come close to half a year in prison. No community service has been
allowed for these conscientious objectors; instead they face military
prison with its short nights and its long days of forced labor. The two are
both members of the draft resistance movement Shministim. They join the
following "refuseniks," reservists serving prison terms for refusing to
serve:
** First Sgt.(res) Kobi Gabai-Yorista, sentenced to 10 days for refusing to
serve in the Occupied Territories, December 3.
** Major Chen Alon(res.), sentenced to 21 days for refusing to serve in
the Occupied Territories, November 25.
** Staff Sgt. M.G. (res.),sentenced to 21 days for refusing to serve in the
Occupied Territories, November 25.
** Staff Sgt. Dror Lutzatti (res.), sentenced to 18 days for refusing to
serve in the Occupied Territories, December 3.
** First Sgt. Eshel Herzog (res.) sentenced to 28 days for refusing to take
part in the Occupation, December 3
The two re-jailed this week have both been behind bars for more than 100
days already (Ben-Artzi 126, and Ya'acobi 106). The fact that there is no
sign of them being allowed to see the army's "Incompatibility
Commission"--the only way out of the vicious circle--indicates that a
long-standing rule of thumb has been changed. For years, such repeated imprisonments of
COs would never exceed 100 days.
( Refuser Solidarity Network, text taken from Gush Shalom, New Profile and
Yesh Gvul action alerts)
The Yesh Gvul conscientious objector movement said Dec. 8 that since the
beginning of the Intifada in September 2000, 180 soldiers have served time
for refusal to serve. 146 of them were reserve soldiers, 16 were
conscripted and 18 of them were pre-draft youths. The composers of the
"refuseniks letter" in January 2000, who have formed an organization called
the "Courage to Refuse," say they hope to position themselves "as a
significant left-wing factor, one that will stand opposite the settlers."
(Ha'aretz, Dec. 8)
Amnesty International has adopted the cases of Ben Artzi and Ya'acovi.
Please visit the following URLs to read more about their situations and to
take action:
http://web.amnesty.org/web/web.nsf/pages/IOT_Conscientious_Objectors
http://www.refusersolidarity.net
(David Bloom)
[top]
16. GERMAN NEO-NAZIS EXPLOIT PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is in a bind. An Israeli request for
armored personnel carriers is being opposed by his coalition partners the
Green party, who are concerned Israel may use the APC's in the occupied
territories for offensive purposes. Schroeder, who was re-elected on an
anti-war platform, may damage his dovish credentials if he approves the
sale. Germany, with its Holocaust guilt, has been a close ally of Israel,
and has just agreed to supply it with US-built patriot missiles. Israeli
president Moshe Katsav, currently on a state visit to Germany, said he
would be "very disappointed" should Germany not approve the APC sale.
Fortunately for Israel, among those opposing the sale are German neo-Nazis,
who marched in Berlin Dec. 9 to protest to Katsav's visit. Berlin police
approved the route along the central Unter Den Linden avenue with the theme
"Hands off Palestine--No German Weapons for Israel." Pro-Israel
counter-demonstrations are planned. Germany says the march is not unlawful.
Schroeder's government is currently trying to ban the National Democratic
Party (NPD), the organizers of the march, a party it says is neo-Nazi.
(Ha'aretz, Dec. 9) (David Bloom)
[top]
17. BARGHOUTI CALLS FOR REGIME CHANGE
Jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti called Dec. 2 for change in the
Palestinian Authority's leadership. Although he didn't mention Yasser
Arafat by name, he wrote in answers to questions from AP, "It is the time
for many of the Palestinian leaders and officials to leave their positions
after failing in their roles and responsibilities in this
decisive battle. This should be done in a democratic and legal way as soon
as possible." Barghouti's loyalists are trying to prevent a long list of
Arafat loyalists from being elected to the Palestine Legislative Council
(PLC). Barghouti rejected calls from high-profile Palesinian officials
recently to stop the armed uprising, calling it a mistake.(see WW3 REPORT
#62) Barghouti supports the
militarization of the Intifada. "Resistance is a holy right for the
Palestinian people to face the Israeli occupation," Barghouti wrote.
"Nobody should forget that the Palestinian people negotiated for 10 years
and accepted difficult and humiliating agreements and in the end didn't get
anything except authority over the people, and no authority over land or
sovereignty." (Ha'aretz, Dec. 3) When Israel found out he had given the
interview, it placed Barghouti in solitary confinement for five days. (AP,
Dec. 4)
[top]
18. IDF TROOPS ISSUED PALESTINIAN-MADE UNDERWEAR?
Aviv Kolber, 37, was doing his reserve duty in Ramallah last March when he
discovered his army-issued underwear was manufactured in the Palestinian
West Bank town of Beit Jala. "On the one hand, they send us to fight our
so-called enemies, and on the other, they buy clothes from them. It's just
crazy," he said. (AP, Dec. 5) (David Bloom)
[top]
THE LEBANON FRONT
1. ISRAEL-LEBANON WATER WAR ON HOLD--FOR NOW
After a much-hyped opening of Lebanon's new pumping station on the Wazzani
River in October, the Jerusalem Report says the pumps have not yet begun to
flow. Israeli officials believe the holdup derives not from a Lebanese fear
of an Israeli military response to the siphoning off of water from the
river--which feed's Israel's Lake Kinneret--but is due to technical
difficulties. "To their embarrassment, they just can't get the pumps to
work," said an Israeli source. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made
clear Israel would not tolerate unilateral Lebanese pumping from the
Wazzani, and US-led efforts to broker a diplomatic solution to the dispute
have not produced results. Israeli sources indicate no action would be
taken immediately, in order not to interfere with the US-led effort to get
rid of Saddam Hussein. The Jerusalem Report's source says after that
situation is under control, "Israel will turn its attention to the pumping
station in South Lebanon." (Jerusalem Report, Dec. 16) (see
WW3 REPORT #58)
Lebanon says it needs the water for municipal systems in the southern
border zone formerly occupied by Israel's military. Israel's demand that
Lebanon instead exploit the Litani River, which does not flow into Israeli
territory, are met with protestations that the river is too polluted. In
June, the Litani River Authority director-general filed a lawsuit against
265 factories, hospitals and municipalities for polluting the Litani waters
and Lake Qaraoun. Litani River Authority chief Nasser Nasrallah said the
pollution in the river was very serious and threatened underground water
sources, adding that all industries, hospitals, farms and gas stations "let
their waste mix with sewage water, which goes into the river." Nasrallah
said he filed a previous lawsuit against those responsible for the
pollution of the Litani in July 2000, but that investigations in the case
had not yet started. (Lebanon Daily Star, June 25)
The Litani Water Authority also raised the possibility that Israel is
already benefiting from Lebanese underground water sources. As part of its
National Water Plan in the 1950s, Israel drained the Huleh marshes in
northern Galilee--which could have increased the flow of underground water
from Lebanon into Israel. "If you take water from one place, it has to be
filled...from somewhere else," said Kamal Awaida, a water resources
engineer with the Litani Water Authority. (Daily Star, Sept. 14)
The controversy is especially ironic coming just as Israeli Infrastructure
Minister Effie Eitam ordered a ban on new Palestinian wells in the West
Bank. A member of the Palestinian Hydrology Group, Abdel Rahman Tamimi,
said the decree prevented many in the occupied territories from irrigating
fields and would deprive some villages of their only access to water. "If
they apply this thing, that means most of the Palestinian farmers in the
north of the West Bank and the Jordan valley will not be able to pump water
for their fields. Some of those wells are also used for drinking," he said.
"If it is allowed to go on, most of the land in the north will be under
threat of desertification and then people will have to leave. That's what
the Israelis want, of course." (UK Guardian, Oct. 23)
(Bill Weinberg and David Bloom)
See also WW3 REPORT #58
[top]
2. BLAST DESTROYS MOSQUE IN ARMENIAN VILLAGE
Two bombs, consisting of nine pounds of dynamite, reduced to rubble the
abandoned 800-year old al-Nabi al-Aziz mosque and shrine in the Bekaa
village of Majdal Anjar on Dec. 4. Majdal Anjar is home to 3,000 Armenians,
who claimed that the buildings were built illegally on Armenian land--a
claim rejected by Sunni Muslims. The blast was condemned by Armenian and
Muslim politicians, as well as Muslim clerics, who all said the
perpetrator's aim was to "instigate strife," and dismissed the possibility
of Armenian involvement in the attack. "This criminal act is part of a
scheme to plunge Lebanon anew into the long-forgotten nightmare of
sectarian strife," said Sunni Muslim Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Kabbani.
"But let all be certain that we shall not be caught in the trap." Sheikh
Bilal Said Shaaban, secretary-general of the Sunni fundamentalist Tawheed
movement, described the incident as "a gutless act committed by Israeli
agents." Armenian MP George Kassardji called the bombing an "attack on
national unity, coexistence and the ties of brotherhood among Lebanese."
Armenians have been present in Lebanon for centuries, but only arrived in
large numbers a century ago to escape Turkish persecution. They are mostly
Christian, Armenia having been the first nation to adopt Christianity as a
state religion in the third century CE. Majdal Anjar was established as an
Armenian village in 1939, when the Turkish troops seized the cluster of
ancestral Armenian villages known as Musa Dagh, now the Turkish province of
Hatay on the Syrian-Turkish border. The area was part of the French
Mandate, and the French moved the Armenians to the Anjar region. Majdal
Anjar managed to elude the sectarian strife of the Lebanese civil war.
Majdal Anjar, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley, is mostly
controlled by Syrian soldiers, and is the headquarters of Syrian military
intelligence in Lebanon. (Daily Star, Dec. 5; Naharnet, Dec. 8; Daily Star,
Dec. 9; http://www.mousaler.com/; http://www.anjarnet.com/) (David Bloom)
[top]
3. IRAQI DISSIDENT FOUND DEAD NEAR TYRE
Iraqi intelligence is being blamed for the Dec. 4 hanging death in southern
Lebanon of Waleed Ibrahim Abbas al-Mubah al-Mayahi, a Shi'ite Iraqi
dissident. Mayahi was found with a rope around his neck in the apartment he
shared in the village of Abbassiyeh, near Tyre, with other Iraqi
dissidents. The apartment also doubled as an office for supporters of Grand
Ayatollah Mohammed Sader al-Sadr, a leading Iraqi Shiite cleric murdered
with his two sons in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf in 1999. Mayahi was also
a member of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), and it is rumored he was
about to travel to the US to train with Iraqi opposition forces. One of his
roommates told AP that Iraqi intelligence agents have been active
throughout the area, and that he and other Iraqi dissidents had received
death threats. (Naharnet, Dec. 9; Daily Star, Dec. 5) (David Bloom)
[top]
4. ISRAEL AND HEZBOLLAH IN TIT-FOR-TAT ATTACKS ?
A Lebanese secret service agent, Ramzi Nahra, and his nephew Elie Issa were
killed by a roadside bomb in the southern Lebanese village of Ibl As-Saqi
on Dec. 6. Nahra and his nephew were traveling in a black Mercedes when the
bomb, designed to look like a rock, went off. Nahra was a convicted drug
dealer who had served time in Israeli prisons, and had ties to Hezbollah,
which sent representatives to his funeral. The attack was similar to the
methods used by Israel during its occupation of southern Lebanon that ended
in May 2000, and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the hit. Speaking at Issa's
funeral in the Bekaa Valley, a member of Hezbollah's bloc in parliament
vowed to avenge Issa's death. "We shall cut off the terrorist, criminal
hand that reached to this martyr, and to the martyr Ramzi, and cut off all
Zionist terrorism," declared MP Ammar al-Moussawi said. "The arm of the
resistance is long and the hour of revenge is coming." Nahra was declared
Hezbollah's first Christian Martyr . (Reuters, Dec. 9; Naharnet, Dec. 9)
Nicholas Blandford in a Dec. 9 Daily Star article described why Israel
would have assassinated Nahra: "The Israelis have characteristically
remained silent on Nohra's demise. But they had good reason to want him
dead. After all, Nohra captured and turned over to the Lebanese authorities
the Israeli-trained assassin of Fouad Mughnieh, whose brother Imad was a
Hizbullah security chief and is considered by the United States as second
only to Osama bin Laden in the 'terrorism' business. Nohra also had been
implicated in the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers from the Shebaa
Farms in October 2000, a charge he always denied - albeit with a twinkle in
his eye. Following the Israeli troop withdrawal in May 2000, Nohra's
Israeli drug smuggling connections allegedly were exploited by Hizbullah to
establish an impressive intelligence gathering network. His other brother,
Kamil, was named in an Israeli court last month as the link between
Hizbullah and a lieutenant colonel in the Israeli Army who was arrested and
charged with heading a spy ring." (Daily Star, Dec. 9)(See also : Israeli
Bedouin Soldier Charged With Spying For Hezbollah,)
The response came Dec. 8, when a roadside mine close the Israeli side of
the border went off, injuring two Druze IDF soldiers. A previously unheard
of group, "Ramzi Nahara Martyr Organization," took responsibility.
Hezbollah denied any role. The IDF believes Hezbollah, or a Palestinian
group operating in the area, planted the bomb. It was the first such
cross-border bombing by remote-control since Israel's occupation of
southern Lebanon ended. "Lebanon and Syria are equally responsible for such
Hezbollah attacks, which cannot be staged without their advance approval
nod," Major-General Benny Ganz told Israel Radio. "Lebanon has to choose
between living in peace and living with extremist, fundamentalist,
terrorist groups who live with different game rules." Labor chief Amram
Mitzna has declared support for any military retaliation against the
Hezbollah. "Should Hezbollah persist in such terrorist acts of violence,
the Israeli army must hit without mercy at anything moving in south
Lebanon," Mitzna said. "This is something that cannot go without severe
punishment." (Ha'aretz, Dec. 8; Naharnet, Dec. 9) (David Bloom)
See also WW3 REPORT #58
[top]
5. AL-QAEDA IN LEBANON?
The security establishment in Israel believes that al-Qaeda militants in
Lebanon are directing Palestinian cells based in Gaza. Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon told a news conference Dec. 5: ''The information says
that a small number entered the Gaza Strip. We know they are in Lebanon in
close cooperation with Hezbollah. We know they are in the region. There's
no doubt that Israel is a target for an attack." The al-Qaeda operatives in
Lebanon. are said to be refugees from the US assault on Afghanistan, now
working with Hezbollah. Ha'aretz says Israeli military intelligence
believes al-Qaeda operatives are still active in Afghanistan, and are
actively trying to establish cells in the Occupied Territories. (MSNBC,
Dec. 5; Ha'aretz, Dec. 9) Hezbollah dismissed Sharon's accusation. "We have
confirmed many times and on more than one occasion that the al Qaeda
organization is not present in Lebanon," Hezbollah spokesman Sheikh Hassan
Izz al-Dine told Reuters. "There is no relationship between Hezbollah and
al-Qaeda." Lebanese president Emile Lahoud likewise dismissed the claim,
saying Hezbollah has no ties to al-Qaeda and that al-Qaeda is not present
in Lebanon. (MSNBC, Dec. 5)
However, an Oct. 11 AP story says Lebanon has charged 22 men said to be
al-Qaeda operatives--from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey and the
Palestinian territories--with planning to carry out attacks and forging
travel documents. Three of the men are in custody. (AP, Oct. 11) When the
men were arrested Sept. 28, Lebanese officials claimed the three were
al-Qaeda agents. (AP, Oct. 22) Lebanon's Daily Star also ran the same
information on Oct. 2, saying the men, two Lebanese and a Saudi, planned to
set up an al-Qaeda camp in Lebanon.(Daily Star, Oct. 2) (See WW3 REPORT
#58) (David Bloom)
[top]
6. IRAN TRIES TO DIFFUSE LEVANTINE POWDER KEG
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi arrived in Beirut Dec. 9 for talks
with Lebanon's top leaders on how to counter Israeli charges of al-Qaeda
operatives in Lebanon as a pretext to attack Hezbollah and Syrian positions
in Lebanon. "From ideological and philosophic standpoints, Hezbollah cannot
possibly have ties with al-Qaeda and will never have such ties," Kharazi
told reporters after a Dec. 8 meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Lebanese paper an-Nahar says "Kharazi's hurriedly arranged trip was
evidence that Iran has taken Sharon's charges as a serious indication of a
war in the make." (Naharnet, Dec. 9) (David Bloom)
[top]
7. HEZBOLLAH CALLS FOR WORLD-WIDE ATTACKS
The leader of Hezbollah, Shiek Hassan Nasrallah, recently made two
provocative speeches carried on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV. "Martyrdom
operations--suicide bombings--should be exported outside Palestine," he
said. "I encourage Palestinians to take suicide bombings worldwide. Don't
be shy about it," he added. The second remark was: "By Allah, if they
touch al-Aksa [mosque] we will act everywhere around the world." The sheik
has made no direct comment on the Nov. 29 attacks in Mombasa, Kenya,
claimed by a previously unknown group, the Army of Palestine. But some saw
a link nonetheless. "The rapid statement, and the peculiarity of Lebanese
fundamentalist terminology used in that statement, leads me to believe that
this was the hand of Hezbollah," said Walid Phares, a professor of Middle
Eastern studies and religious conflict at Florida Atlantic University.
Phares claims Hezbollah has been holding bi-monthly meetings with the
Palestinian groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Lebanon, and issuing joint
press statements. Islamic Jihad and Hamas both deny any intention to carry
out attacks outside of Palestine and Israel. Islamic Jihad spokesman Nafez
Azaam said his group's "ideology and strategy is based on fighting the
occupation and liberating the Palestinian lands. We have no interest in
transferring the battle to any field outside Palestine." Hamas spokesman
Ismail Abu Shanab also told AP his group had "no interest in engaging in
battle with anyone else outside the land of Palestine." (Washington Times,
Dec. 4) (David Bloom)
[top]
8. JANE'S SEZ: IRAQ ATTACK COULD MEAN WAR FOR LEBANON
Hezbollah is being pressed by Iran and Syria to lie low during a US-led
attack on Iraq, Jane's Foreign Report said in a Nov. 21 article. But a
Hezbollah source says the organization believes Israel will get the green
light for an onslaught against Hezbollah as a reward for staying out of the
Iraq conflict. The source also said Hezbollah believes US hawks would not
hesitate in hitting Hezbollah if they decide the group is "interfering with
the strategic goal of eliminating Saddam Hussein."
The Hezbollah source told Foreign Report: "The Israelis believe that we
will not have more than two hours to hit them before their air force turns
Lebanon into a parking lot and annihilates us. We are aware of their
targets list, which also includes Lebanese civilians. They know we can hurt
them badly but they still don't know where our arsenals are. They will go
for blanket bombing instead. They figure that if they hit the civilian
targets, Lebanese people will turn against Hezbollah. They may have a
point, and that is why we are going to make it extremely expensive for
them."
Jane's says Hezbollah has been studying the US campaign in Afghanistan, and
that it knows Israel has plans to use saturation bombing to neutralize its
thousands of Katyusha-type rockets aimed at northern Israel. For months,
Hezbollah has been improving the natural caves of south Lebanon not only to
shield their missiles, but to launch them from. It is terrain ideally
suited to guerilla warfare, difficult to attack with helicopters. Said the
Hezbollah source: "We will find a way to live through that. Naturally, a
unilateral US action against Lebanon will give us the right to defend
ourselves by attacking Israel..."
Jane's prediction: "The current calm and quiet in south Lebanon will
continue. Hizbullah, out of domestic considerations and under
Syrian-Iranian guidance, will not react to developments out of Lebanon
although the rhetoric might indicate otherwise. The militant Shi'ites are
digging in to survive a US and/or Israeli onslaught to hit back at Israel
in a way that the Jewish state has never experienced, they say cryptically.
Or as one Hizbullah military thinker in Beirut said: 'We are not dreamers.
We know that Israel and US could bomb us into oblivion. But guess who is
coming down with us?'" (Jane's Foreign Report, Nov. 21)
A source told Jane's "that Israel will take advantage of the war in Iraq to
punish Hezbollah for all its crimes 'once and for all.'" Military sources
tell Jane's that Israel will call the entire Israeli population in the
north into shelters, and then launch devastating attacks against Hezbollah.
It is possible that if Hezbollah responds with rocket fire into Israel, the
Israelis will destroy power stations throughout Lebanon, especially Beirut,
to force the central government to finally rein in the militant group.
(Jane's Foreign Report, Nov. 27) (David Bloom)
[top]
9. HEZBOLLAH EXPECTS ISRAELI ATTACK
Hezbollah leader Sheik Nasrallah told a Hezbollah gathering in November he
is expecting an Israeli attack. "I want to sound the alarm bell and say
that we smell from these daily Israeli accusations [about Hezbollah
possessing long-range missiles] preparations for an aggression on Lebanon
and subsequently, on Syria to coincide with a possible and expected
American aggression on Iraq," Nasrallah told the faithful during Iftar, a
feast to break the Ramadan fast. Nasrallah warned Israel would face
"dangerous strategic consequences" if it attacked Lebanon. "The Israeli
enemy must understand that its war on Lebanon is more difficult and
complicated than it can imagine," he said, drawing cheers from supporters.
(AP, Nov. 26) (David Bloom)
[top]
10. HEZBOLLAH SLEEPERS IN ISRAEL TO BE ACTIVATED?
In a Dec. 5 article, Jane's Foreign Report cites indications Hezbollah is
stepping up operations in support for the Palestinian Intifada--for its own
purposes. In Israel, Jane's says there is growing concern Hezbollah will
take advantage of US actions against Iraq to step up its activities,
although European diplomats say the regimes in Damascus and Tehran will not
allow major Hezbollah military operations along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Jane's cites the arrest of an Israeli Bedouin spy-ring that cooperated with
Lebanon. Jane's says a sleeper cell led by Hezbollah agent Fawzi Ayoub,
currently in Israeli prison for planning glider attacks in Israel, may be
activated. (see WW3 REPORT# 58)
Ayoub's cell of seven agents, recruited for their ability to pass as
Westerners, underwent a ten week training course in firearms, explosives,
clandestine communications and stalking techniques at a Hezbollah camp at
Janta in the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, a Hezbollah
stronghold. Jane's says the six who are unaccounted for "may well be
'sleepers' in Israel, or somewhere else, establishing new identities and
waiting to be activated. The anticipated upheaval in the coming months
might be the catalyst for their reactivation." (Jane's Foreign Report, Dec.
5) (David Bloom)
[top]
11. AUTHOR: HEZBOLLAH COULD HIT U.S.
In a Nov. 21 interview on CNN with anchorwoman Paula Zahn, author Jeffrey
Goldberg, who recently wrote a two-part series on Hezbollah for the New
Yorker, said Hezbollah has sleeper cells in the US that can become
operational if ordered. He said the cells would be activated in response to
an attack on Iran, should the US decide to change their regime after Iraq:
GOLDBERG: These guys were involved in cigarette smuggling. They would
smuggle cigarettes out of North Carolina to Michigan, take the profits and
use some of those profits to buy military equipment for Hezbollah and have
it shipped back to Lebanon. The interesting question, and this is, American
intelligence officials believe that this cell had operational capability,
as well. In other words, it wasn't simply a fundraising cell, but that it
could have, if receiving an order, say, from Lebanon or from Iran, which is
the sponsor of Hezbollah, it could have gone operational and conducted a
terrorist attack.
ZAHN: Of what kind? Car bombings? Truck bombings? What do we believe they
are capable of pulling off?
GOLDBERG: Hezbollah is very good at, Hezbollah invented, essentially, the
suicide bomb. So they're obviously capable of that. They're capable of
acquiring explosives and detonating them. I don't think that they're
capable of committing a terror attack the size of the World Trade Center,
but of course, you know, I could be wrong about that. (CNN, Nov. 21)
[top]
12. HEZBOLLAH TV: TERROR GOES BETTER WITH COKE!
Until recently, several US corporations were advertising their products on
Hezbollah's TV station, al-Manar--known for broadcasting programs
encouraging Palestinian suicide attacks on Israel Pepsi, Coke, Proctor &
Gamble, and Western Union all advertised on al-Manar, and Swiss-based
Nestle is still advertising there. Coca-Cola spokesman Steve Leroy said his
company had run a "handful" of ads on the station in recent months but
wasn't now, "for business reasons." He would not promise the company
wouldn't advertise with al-Manar again. Al-Manar is not on the US Treasury
Department terrorism list, though Hezbollah itself is. Leroy said al-Manar
was licensed by the Lebanese government and that Coke's business decisions
are "based on the consumer groups we're trying to reach in Lebanon." (NY
Daily News, Nov. 21)
[top]
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. U.S. BOMBS OIL FACILITIES
US and British planes attacked an oil installation in the southern Iraqi
city of Basra Dec. 1, killing at least four people, local residents
reported. Locals said the raid hit installations of the Southern Oil
Company--which supervises Iraq's oil exports under an oil-for-food deal
with the UN. (BBC, Dec. 1)
[top]
2. CONTROVERSY AROUND IRAQ'S WEAPONS DOSSIER
Iraq's Gen. Amir al-Saadi, submitting details of the weapons declaration to
the UN Dec. 7--one day before the deadline--in a 12,000-page document,
challenged the US to provide evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass
destruction. If they do, "they should come up [with the evidence]
forthwith. The sooner they do it, the better for all concerned," he said at
a Baghdad news conference. (BBC, Dec. 8)
Meanwhile chief weapons inspector Hans Blix sparked a firestorm at the UN
by denying the US and Britain full access to Iraq's declaration. White
House officials complained that they had been "blind-sided" by Blix's
decision to provide only what one UN official called a "sanitized version"
of the declaration to the 15 members of the Security Council. Blix, the
head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
(Unmovic), said inspectors would vet the declaration before it is passed
on, because of the risk that details of Iraq's nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons programs could be used as a "cookbook" by other states
or terrorists trying to build weapons. The US, while agreeing the complete
document should be withheld from Security Council member Syria, insisted
that the five permanent members--the US, UK, France, Russia and
China--should have access to it. (UK Telegraph, Dec. 8) In a surprise
decision late Dec. 8, the Security Council agreed to give all five
permanent full access to the dossier. The other 10 council members,
including Syria, will only see the declaration once it is translated,
analyzed and censored of sensitive material including possible instructions
on bomb-making. (AP, Dec. 9)
[top]
3. SHI'ITE OPPOSITION: SADDAM HAS SECRET WEAPONS
"We have strong evidence proving that Saddam does have weapons of mass
destruction and is hiding them from the UN arms inspectors," Mohammed Baqir
al-Hakim, leader of the Teheran-based Supreme Council of the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, told AP. He said his group's information was new and
came "from inside Iraq." He did not elaborate further, but said he was
prepared to turn documentation over to the UN. (AP, Dec. 9)
[top]
4. SADDAM PROTECTING SECRET NUCLEAR BACKERS IN THE WEST?
Wrote analyst Ze'ev Schiff in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz Dec. 8:
"Iraq's declaration of its activities in pursuit of nuclear arms sphere did
not provide any details about the states and private companies that
supplied its procurement program. For reasons that remain unclear, the
United Nations Security Council failed to demand that Baghdad divulge such
details. American researchers and experts in nuclear affairs who have been
monitoring Iraq's nuclear efforts have concluded that 15 companies from
various countries, including Germany, Switzerland and also the U.S., were
involved in the transfer of know-how and equipment to Baghdad's nuclear
program before the Persian Gulf War. Though this list has never been
released, it can be assumed that it is known to the main national
intelligence services around the world. It cannot be assumed that companies
on this list were privy to Iraq's secret nuclear projects, but some of them
certainly would have been in a position early on to draw conclusions about
Iraq's suspicious behavior. The International Atomic Energy Agency, headed
by Hans Blix - who now leads UN Security Council team of inspectors -
cleared Iraq of any wrongdoing after an agency inspection found evidence of
nuclear arms production during a visit to the country. After his
appointment to his current Security Council team post, Blix noted that
evidence compiled at the time of the Gulf War established that Iraq was
about a year away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Saddam
Hussein's progress in this area, Blix has added, would not have been
detected by inspectors from the Atomic Energy Agency."
[top]
5. WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: IRAQ ATTACK ON, INSPECTIONS OR NOT
Top White House advisor Richard Perle told British MPs last month that even
a "clean
bill of health" from UN weapons inspectors would not halt the US war drive
on Iraq. Said Perle: "I cannot see how [weapons inspector] Hans Blix can
state more than he can know. All he can know is the results of his own
investigations. And that does not prove Saddam does not have weapons of
mass destruction... Suppose we are able to find someone who has been
involved in the development of weapons and he says there are stores of
nerve agents. But you cannot find them because they are so well hidden. Do
you actually have to take possession of the nerve agents to convince? We
are not dealing with a situation where you can expect co-operation." (UK
Daily Mirror, Nov. 22)
Richard Perle is a member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq
, a Reagan-era nuclear hardliner
and a noted chicken-hawk
[top]
6. IRAQ FACES DEPLETED URANIUM NIGHTMARE
International experts are increasingly concerned about the impact of shells
and missiles containing depleted uranium (DU) in Iraq. DU shell holes in
the vehicles along the Highway of Death--where retreating Iraqi troops were
bombed by the US during Operation Desert Storm--are 1,000 times more
radioactive than background radiation, according to Geiger counter readings
done for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Dr. Khajak Vartaanian, a nuclear
medicine expert from the Iraq Department of Radiation Protection in Basra,
and Col. Amal Kassim of the Iraqi navy. The desert around the vehicles was
100 times more radioactive than background radiation. Basra, a city of 1
million people, some 125 miles away, registered slightly above background
radiation level. Up to 70% of a DU shell can burn up on impact, creating a
firestorm of DU oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an
extremely fine ceramic uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled
and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals,
becoming part of the food chain. Once mixed in the soil, the munitions can
create a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according
to the UN Environmental Program. At the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra,
British-trained oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali has documented a surge in local
birth defects since Desert Storm--from 11 per 100,000 births in 1989 to
116 per 100,000 births in 2001. Local cancer deaths have also soared in
southern Iraq, from 34 in 1988, to 450 in 1998, to 603 in 2001. "The cause
of all of these cancers and deformities remains theoretical because we
can't confirm the presence of uranium in tissue or urine with the equipment
we have," said Al-Ali. "And because of the sanctions, we can't get the
equipment we need." In 1999, following the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia,
a UN subcommission called for an initiative banning DU use worldwide. The
initiative remains in committee, blocked primarily by the United States,
according to Karen Parker, a lawyer with the International Educational
Development/Humanitarian Law Project, which has consultative status at the
UN. Parker contends that DU "violates the existing law and customs of war."
In Ocober 2001, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) introduced a bill calling for
"the suspension of the use, sale, development, production, testing, and
export of depleted uranium munitions pending the outcome of certain studies
of the health effects of such munitions. . . ." (Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 12)
[top]
7. IRAQI DEFECTOR ARRESTED ON WAR CRIMES CHARGES
An exiled Iraqi general named as a possible replacement for Saddam Hussein
was arrested on war crimes charges by Danish police, crushing hopes that he
could lead a coup d'etat against the dictator. Gen. Nizar Khazraji, the
former Iraqi Chief-of-Staff and the most senior officer to defect from
Baghdad, faces charges of overseeing the chemical weapons attack on the
Kurdish city of Halabja in 1988, instantly killing 5,000 civilians.
Khazraji, seeking asylum in Denmark since defecting from Iraq, is accused
of violations of the Geneva conventions. (London Times, Nov. 20)
[top]
8. AL-QAEDA ROCKS KURDISTAN
Dozens were killed in battles for two hilltop positions seized by the
Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq. Village militiamen
of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) recaptured the hilltops taken by
Ansar guerrillas a day earlier, PUK commander Sheik Jaffer Mustafa said. In
one village Dec. 4, funeral processions for PUK fighters mingled with the
festivities of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim feast that marks the end of Ramadan.
Ansar al-Islam is believed to be part of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network. (AP, Dec. 6)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 53 and 52
[top]
9. HUMAN SHIELDS VOLUNTEER FOR IRAQ
Irene Vandas, a 32-year-old registered nurse, and Jennifer Ziemann, a
30-year-old home-care worker, both of Vancouver, are flying to Iraq to join
friends Linda Morgan and Irene MacInnes, two Canadians who travelled to
Iraq in mid-November. Sponsored by the anti-war organization Voices in the
Wilderness, the four Canadians will be living with Iraqi civilians to serve
as human shields in an effort to prevent a new military attack on Iraq.
"I'm not too scared," Vandas told CBC News Online the day before she left.
"I think it will be a powerful experience." Vandas and Ziemann have agreed
to stay in Baghdad through the end of the year, working with two Canadian
doctors, Amir Khadir and David Swann. Another group of Canadians will go to
Iraq later this month, joining some 30-40 young protesters from the US and
the UK. (CBC News Online, Dec. 5)
[top]
10. SANCTIONS-BUSTERS PLEDGE TO RESIST U.S. FINES
Two peace activists from the Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness group
are refusing to pay $30,000 in federal fines for traveling to Iraq to
provide medicine in violation of US sanctions. "We don't believe it's a
crime" to give medicine to needy people, said Voices in the Wilderness
founder Kathy Kelly in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "Giving money to
the US government is pretty repugnant to us right now." Kelly and her group
were fined $20,000, and Dan Handelman, a longtime Portland peace activist
associated with the group, was fined $10,000 in connection with their
travels to Iraq. On Nov. 4, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, part
of the Treasury Department, issued orders to Handelman, Kelly and the
Voices group to pay the fines within 30 days. The fine against Handelman
stems from a November 1997 trip he made to Iraq to distribute 500 pounds of
medicine. Customs officials seized photographs and videotapes he made
there, and he was later fined for travel-related expenses prohibited by the
US sanctions . (The Oregonian, Dec. 5)
[top]
11. CANADIANS PROTEST WAR DRIVE
Over 33,000 people across Canada braved wind, rain and snow to protest
Canadian involvement in a war on Iraq. At least 30 cities and towns across
the country participated in the weekend of peace activities, called by the
Canadian Network to End Sanctions on Iraq and the Canadian Peace Alliance.
(Alberta Independent Media Center, Nov. 20)
One bunch of smart-aleck Canadian peaceniks calling themselves Rooting Out
Evil announced their intention to send an international team of volunteer
weapons inspectors to the US. Said spokesperson Christy Ferguson: "Our
action has been inspired by none other than George W. Bush. The Bush
administration has repeatedly declared that the most dangerous rogue
nations are those that: 1) have massive stockpiles of chemical,
biological, and nuclear weapons; 2) ignore due process at the United
Nations; 3) refuse to sign and honor international treaties; and 4) have
come to power through illegitimate means. On the basis of President Bush's
guidelines, it is clear that the current US administration poses a great
threat to global security." Added colleague David Langille: "We're
following Bush's lead and demanding that the U.S. grant our inspectors
immediate and unfettered access to any site in the country--including all
presidential compounds--so that we can identify the weapons of mass
destruction in this rogue state." The Rooting Out Evil coalition includes
Greenpeace Canada, the Centre for Social Justice, and the Toronto Committee
Against War and Sanctions on Iraq.
[top]
12. "LIVE FROM BAGHDAD": HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) reports that the fraudulent story
of Iraqi soldiers throwing Kuwaiti babies out of incubators during the 1990
occupation of Kuwait is depicted as if it were true in "Live from Baghdad,"
the HBO film now premiering on the cable network that purports to tell the
story behind CNN's coverage of Desert Storm. HBO and CNN are both owned by
the AOL Time Warner media conglomerate. In the months before the 1991 Gulf
War, media uncritically repeated the claim that Iraqi soldiers were
removing Kuwaiti babies from incubators. The story was launched by the
testimony of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl before the Congressional Human
Rights Caucus in October 1990. As repeated in the media by the first
President Bush and others, it was embellished to involve over 300 Kuwaiti
babies. What was not reported at the time was the fact that the public
relations company Hill & Knowlton was partly behind the effort, and the
girl who testified was actually the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to
Washington. Subsequent investigations, including one by Amnesty
International, found no evidence for the claims (ABC World News Tonight,
March 15, 1991).
In the film, the story is turned upside down, portrayed as a deft public
relations move by the Iraqi government, who grant CNN access to Kuwait in a
calculated attempt to discredit the rumors that their soldiers were pulling
babies from incubators. CNN reporters are ushered to a hospital in Kuwait,
where a doctor, under obvious pressure from Iraqi soldiers, tells the
reporters that no babies had been pulled from the incubators. The CNN team
does not believe the obviously nervous doctor, and the Iraqi officials pick
up on this, cutting the interview short. The scene ends with the doctor
being led away by Iraqi officials. Later, the CNN crew listens to a BBC
report suggesting that CNN had debunked the story of Iraqi soldiers killing
Kuwaiti babies--and the CNN reporters are upset that they've been used by
the Iraqi officials. A review of the movie in the Indianapolis Star (Dec.
1) accepted this version of reality, noting that CNN "played into the
Iraqis' hands on a couple of occasions, including an ill-fated trip to
Kuwait where the Iraqis used the CNN crew to counter reports that their
soldiers had been removing Kuwaiti babies from hospital incubators and
leaving them on the floor to die."
"Live from Baghdad" is a dramatization, not a documentary, but it is being
presented by HBO as a "behind-the-scenes true story" of the Gulf War.
Protests FAIR: "HBO's version of history never makes clear that the
incubator story was fraudulent, and in fact had been managed by an American
PR firm, not Iraq." Even Robert Wiener, the former CNN producer who
co-wrote "Live from Baghdad," told CNN's Wolf Blitzer (Nov. 21), "that
story turned out to be false because those accusations were made by the
daughter of the Kuwaiti minister of information and were never proven."
(FAIR press release, Dec. 4)
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. RAWA PROTESTS WARLORD RULE
In a Nov. 23 statement, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA), the dissident group exiled in Pakistan, accused
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai of appeasing the warlords who control
most of the country, and responding to human rights abuses with minor
bureaucratic reshuffling--replacing police and customs officials instead of
the local strongmen they answer to. The statement, "Don't be Afraid Mr.
Karzai! Target the Sharks Not the Fish!," appealed to the president to
isolate the warlords and support a civil upsurge against their rule. It
also accused the US and other Western powers of propping up terroristic
warlords:
"Of course the foreign supporters of Mr. Karzai...had their hand in letting
loose these criminals against our people. Wasn't it the US Secretary of
Defense, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld who, after his meeting with warlord Ismail
Khan, named him an 'appealing person, thoughtful, measured and
self-confident' while the Human Rights Watch very simply named him an
'enemy of human rights in the west of Afghanistan' and stated that it was
Iran and the US which placed him (Ismail Khan) in such a position."
"Mr. Karzai, you are completely wrong if you think by setting up a national
army the situation will change. Everyone knows that right now warlords have
placed their gunmen in the army and all high positions are in their hands.
As long as these criminals are in power, foreign governments will also not
heed our people's requests to provide funds for the reconstruction of
Afghanistan. Many NGOs can't provide effective help to people outside Kabul
due to grave security threats and obstacles by warlords, who don't have any
feelings towards the tragic situation of our people. The sun of democracy
and freedom only will shine on the horizons of our ravaged and blood-soaked
country if the shadow of fundamentalist hangmen is removed once and for
all. Don't be afraid Mr. Karzai! ...The important thing is that you, rather
than chasing fish while dressed to endear the sharks, must concentrate and
insist on the struggle against these fundamentalists as resolutely as
possible so that you can play a practical and real role in the rebuilding
of our destroyed land and the securing of our national unity."
[top]
2. AID AGENCIES PROTEST U.S. MILITARY MEDDLING
The Agency Coordination Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) says plans by the US
military to shift its focus in Afghanistan from security to reconstruction
could undermine existing aid efforts and create security risks. ACBAR,
representing numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in
Afghanistan, said: "Local populations on the ground often cannot or will
not distinguish between soldiers and civilian aid workers engaged in
humanitarian and reconstruction activities. NGOs support the overall goal
of the military to bring a just peace to Afghanistan. We are concerned,
however, that using military structures to provide assistance and
reconstruction support will both prematurely deflect attention from
Afghanistan's deteriorating security situation and will also engage the
military in a range of activities for which others are best suited." US
troops, operating in Afghanistan for over a year as part of a coalition
force hunting down Taliban/al-Qaeda remnant forces, are now launching a
pilot civil project in the restive southeastern city of Gardez. (AFP, Dec.
5)
[top]
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. NEW IMPERIALIST CARVE-UP OF MIDDLE EAST PLANNED
In an analysis for the LA Times, Sandy Tolan, an IF Stone Fellow at UC
Berkeley, joins those who see an imperialist plot to redraw the boundaries
of the Middle East behind the Iraq war drive:
"The plan is, in its way, as ambitious as the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement
between the empires of Britain and France, which carved up the region at
the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The neo-imperial vision, which can be
ascertained from the writings of key administration figures and their
covisionaries in influential conservative think tanks, includes not only
regime change in Iraq but control of Iraqi oil, a possible end to the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and newly compliant
governments in Syria and Iran -- either by force or internal rebellion....
"After removing Saddam, US forces are planning for an open-ended occupation
of Iraq, according to senior administration officials who spoke to The New
York Times. The invasion, said Iraqi dissident Kanan Makiya, would be 'a
historic opportunity that is as large as anything that has happened in the
Middle East since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.' Makiya spoke at an
October 'Post-Saddam Iraq' conference attended by [White House advisor
Richard] Perle and sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute."
Tolan sees seizing Iraq's vast oil reserves--the second largest in the
world and worth nearly $3 trillion at current prices-- as "a huge strategic
prize" against OPEC.
"Some analysts believe that additional production in Iraq could drive world
prices down to as low as $10 a barrel and precipitate Iraq's departure from
OPEC, possibly undermining the cartel. This, together with Russia's new
willingness to become a major US oil supplier, could establish a
long-sought counterweight to Saudi Arabia, still the biggest influence by
far on global oil prices. It would be consistent with the plan released by
Vice President Dick Cheney's team in June, which underscored 'energy
security' as central to US foreign policy. 'The gulf will be a primary
focus of US international energy policy,' the report states."
Tolan quotes one analyst who disagrees with his thesis--Patrick Clawson of
the elite Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who told a conference:
"It is fashionable among anti-American circles to assume that US foreign
policy is driven by commercial considerations," while oil "has barely been
on the administration's horizon in considering Iraq policy. US foreign
policy is not driven by concern for promoting the interests of specific US
firms." But the same Clawson told a Capitol Hill forum on a post-Saddam
Iraq in 1999: "US oil companies would have an opportunity to make
significant profits. We should not be embarrassed about the commercial
advantages that would come from a reintegration of Iraq into the world
economy. Iraq, post-Saddam, is highly likely to be interested in inviting
international oil companies to invest in Iraq. This would be very useful
for US oil companies, which are well positioned to compete there, and very
useful for the world's energy-security situation."
Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, the would-be "Iraqi Karzai,"
has made it clear he would give preference to a US-led oil consortium once
installed in power--and suggests that previous deals with Russian and
French firms could be voided. Top Iraqi exiles are to meet later this month
with oil executives at an English country retreat to discuss the future of
Iraq's petro-resources. The conference, sponsored by the Center for Global
Energy Studies and chaired by former Saudi oil minister Sheik Zaki Yamani,
will feature Maj. Gen. Wafiq Samarrai, the former head of Iraqi military
intelligence, and former Iraqi Oil Minister Fadhil Chalabi, now executive
director of the center.
But Tolan sees evidence that seizing Iraq will just be the beginning:
"'The War Won't End in Baghdad,' wrote the American Enterprise Institute's
Michael Ledeen in The Wall Street Journal. In 1985, as a consultant to the
National Security Council and Oliver North, Ledeen helped broker the
illegal arms-for-hostages deal with Iran by setting up meetings between
weapons dealers and Israel. In the current war, he argues, 'we must also
topple terror states in Tehran and Damascus... If we come to Baghdad,
Damascus and Tehran as liberators, we can expect overwhelming popular
support.' Perle concurs on Iraq--'The Arab world will consider honor and
dignity has been restored'--as well as Iran: 'It is the beginning of the
end for the Iranian regime.' Now, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
joined the call against Tehran, arguing in a November interview with The
Times of London that the United States should shift its focus to Iran 'the
day after' the Iraq war ends."
And despite the talk of US occupation forces being welcomed as liberators,
the war planners seem ready to accept a regional explosion in the Middle
East. "One can only
hope that we turn the region into a caldron, and faster, please," Ledeen
wrote for National Review Online last August. "That's our mission in the
war against terror."
These perspectives were echoed in a Dec. 5 commentary by Ed Blanche in
Lebanon's Daily Star:
"As George W. Bush gears up for war against Iraq, to liberate it from
Saddam Hussein's grotesque regime, the Middle East faces a crisis of
immense proportions, one in which the 50-year conflict with Israel pales
into virtual insignificance. Few in the Arab world or Iran have any love
for Saddam and most grieve for Iraq's long-suffering people. But across the
Middle East, the 'Bush Doctrine,' unveiled in September, is viewed as a
blueprint for catastrophe that the region's leaders fear is aimed at
bringing about wide-scale 'regime change' not only in Iraq, but in Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Libya and Palestine as well. This, say
critics of Bush and the powerful coterie of hard-line, pro-Israel
neo-conservatives who are defining US policy these days, will intensify the
anti-American hostility that is swelling across the region and play right
into the hands of Osama bin Laden and Islamic militants whose tentacles,
more than a year after Sept. 11, are reaching out the Middle East, Asia,
Africa and Europe."
But the Star did see one glimmer of hope: "Ironically, even some US
military commanders, notably General Anthony Zinni, former head of the US
Central Command, which covers the Middle East, are questioning the wisdom
of this new strategy. Analyst Geoffrey Kemp of the Nixon Center told the
Washington-based Middle East Institute's annual conference in October
during a debate on the NSS that the institution least enamored with
attacking Iraq is the military because they know what their limits are.'"
Iraqi exile Kanan Makiya, whose best-selling book about Saddam Hussein,
"Republic of Fear," was published under a pseudonym in 1989, is now
coordinating the State Department's Future of Iraq initiative. On Oct. 7 he
told National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" he favored a federal
solution for post-Saddam Iraq, saying "it is viewed by many Iraqis as the
only way to hold the country together in a way that contrasts completely
with the highly centralized, extremely autocratic system of Saddam Hussein.
So it's a major, major revolution because it's a completely new concept in
Arab politics. We have no federal experiences at all, and it breaks new
ground. It truly breaks the mold of Arab politics."
See also WW3 REPORT #s 58 and 62
[top]
2. ECOLOGISTS PROTEST KAZAKH OIL DEVELOPMENT
The biggest oil find in over 20 years--nearly the size of the world's
largest, the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia--is currently under development
in the Caspian Sea. The first oil from the Kashagan field, in Kazakhstan's
sector of the Caspian, is expected to be brought ashore by 2005, providing
a strategic alternative to the Middle East. The scramble for the gas and
oil riches of the Caspian Sea has dubbed the region the "wild east," and
local environmentalists fear the development will take a grave toll. The
Kashagan field is at the mouth of the Ural River, the last natural breeding
ground of the famed but endangered beluga sturgeon, which produce the
world's most expensive caviar--and a spill could potentially wipe out the
industry. Worse still, Professor Muftach Diarov, director of Kazakhstan's
Atyrau Institute of Oil and Gas, believes that exploiting the field in a
known seismic zone could trigger a massive earthquake, noting that the oil
is under high pressure and extremely hot. "This is a volatile area in
geological terms. We had an earthquake here in 2000... Releasing oil at
1,000 atmosphere pressure is like releasing a genie in a bottle. Who knows
what will happen? If there is another earthquake, the new pressures created
in the oilfield could trigger a man-made earthquake. Oil would spill out
into the sea and cause an environmental catastrophe." Diarov is also
concerned that the five nations that border the Caspian--Russia,
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran--have no joint agreements
about the safety of the sea or conservation. "It is only oil dollars that
talk round here," he said. (UK Guardian, Dec. 4)
[top]
3. ECOLOGISTS PROTEST TRANS-CAUCASUS PIPELINE
The Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline project has been given a green light by local
governments and international developers, but local environmentalists "are
still seeing red," writes Gennady Abarovich for the Institute for War &
Peace Reporting Dec. 5. Objections by environmentalists were swept aside in
early December as the international consortium behind the project secured
the right to start work early in 2003. A commission of experts in Georgia
ended a marathon 35-hour debate about the route of the $3 billion pipeline
linking Azerbaijan's Caspian port of Baku with Turkey's Mediterranean port
of Ceyhan. Georgia's environment minister Nino Chkhobadze announced Dec. 2
that her government had given project leader BP official approval. But
environmentalists are outraged by the proposed route through the Borzhomi
Valley, famous for the forests and springs that produce Georgia's
best-known brand of mineral water.
The minister said that while the authorities had agreed to all of BP's
major demands, they presented the company with 16 pages of their own
demands for additional environmental protection and, saying if any of these
were not fulfilled Georgia would have the right to withdraw from the
agreement. "The demands should be much tougher," Chkhobadze admitted. "But
we gave in to pressure from the investors, who were threatening to pull out
of the project altogether."
Environmentalists vow to carry on fighting the proposed pipeline route. "We
are capable of creating very big problems for the investors in negotiations
with international financial institutions," warned Manana Kochladze, head
of the group Green Alternative. BP spokesperson Rusudan Medzmariashvili
told IWPR the company "did not make any concessions," but insisted it put
an extremely high level of environmental protection in place. The company's
assessment document, published Oct. 16, contained the first detailed route
for the pipeline. On reviewing it, environmentalists demanded the route be
diverted away from the Borzhomi Valley. "According to data given by BP
itself, if there is an accident in the pipeline, oil will run down the
hillsides and reach the center of Borzhomi in four hours," said mineral
water producer Mamuka Khazaradze. "Even a small spill would be enough to do
irreparable damage both to the gorge itself and to the mineral water
sources."
But BP assures environmentalists that the pipeline's route is some 15
kilometers from the Borzhomi springs, will be built of thick protective
steel, and equipped with sensors warning of any imminent problems.
[top]
4. SIBERIAN GAS INDUSTRY: DECREPIT AND DEADLY
A series of natural gas explosions Dec. 5 destroyed 11 homes in eastern
Siberia, killing at least three in the village of Markh outside of Yakutsk.
Officials are investigating whether recent repair work had left the gas
pressure set too high, causing the pipes to burst. Meanwhile, in the
Siberian city of Omsk, problems with gas pipes threatened to cut off heat
and hot water to over 100 homes, three medical centers, eight
kindergartens and six schools. The problems were blamed on cold
temperatures. Most Russian apartments use natural gas for cooking, and
explosions occur frequently, killing and injuring scores every year . (AP,
Dec, 5)
[top]
5. TIBETAN LAMAS FACE EXECUTION
Two lamas in Eastern Tibet, Trulku Tenzin Delek (aka: Angag Tashi) and
Lobsang Dhondup, face execution after being convicted of involvement in an
April bomb blast in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. They are also accused of
"illegal possession of arms" and "engaging in splittist activities."
Trulku, who was held incommunicado for eight months before his trial,
accused the court of using false evidence against him, and shouted, "Long
Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama!" before being gagged and dragged off by
security officials. Unrest is spreading in eastern Tibet and western
Sichuan since the Chinese government embarked on a campaign of destroying
Tibetan monasteries in the region and accelerating its colonization by
ethnic Han. The campaign co-incides with a stepped up crackdown on
"terrorism." A law adopted in December 2001 imposes up to life imprisonment
for "organizing or leading a terrorist organization"--but does not define
"terrorist organization." Lobsang Dhondup faces immediate execution, and
the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy is calling on supporters
to call US Secretary of State Colin Powell at 202-647-5291 and ask him to
pressure the Chinese government for clemency. (TCHRD press release, Dec. 5)
For more on the case see:
http://www.freetibet.org/campaigns/death051202.html
For more on Chinese colonization of Eastern Tibet, see:
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2001/11/15_1.html
[top]
THE SUBCONTINENT
1. INDIA AND IRAQ: CAMARADRIE IN OIL
On Nov. 28 Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha announced in the
upper house of Parliament that India opposes a US-led military incursion in
Iraq, stating that Saddam Hussein "has been a friend of India." He insisted
that any action taken against his regime if Iraq is found in violation of
the UN resolution should be peaceful. The Middle East--including
Iraq--provides 70% of India's crude oil needs. The 3.5 million Indians who
live in the Middle East, send between $7 billion and $8 billion back home.
Sinha said: "Any military conflict in that area is going to be disastrous
from our point of view. We would not like to be faced with a consequence
of spiralling international oil prices, we buy most of our oil from that
part of the world." (The Hindu, Nov. 28; Rediff.com, Nov 28) (Subuhi Jiwani)
[top]
2. NEW YORK ACTIVISTS REMEMBER BABRI MOSQUE DESTRUCTION
A crowd of 25 protestors affiliated with the International South Asia Forum
(INSAF) convened Dec, 8 on the streets of Jackson Heights--a Queens
neighborhood with a large South Asian immigrant population--to commemorate
the tenth anniversary of Dec. 6, 1992, when the Babri Mosque was demolished
by mobs of rightist Hindu militants in Ayodhdya, in the nothern Indian
state of Uttar Pradesh. The Babri mosque, built in memory of Moghul
emperor Babur, was portrayed as a symbol of the Muslim invaders of the India
by the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, dedicated to re-building a temple to Lord
Ram at this disputed site, reputed to be the god's birthplace. The
demolition sparked an escalation of communal riots throughout India that
cost the lives of close to 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
INSAF, which was denied a permit by Police Precinct 115, has been
leafleting at street corners in Jackson Heights since September to raise
awareness in the South Asian community about violence directed against
ethnic and religious minorities as well as lower caste groups in India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. INSAF's Junaid Rana said that
the organization's aim is "transcending national boundaries" to advocate
"peace in South Asia." On-lookers affiliated with India's Hindu right have
displayed "passive-aggressive behaviors, such as elaborately tearing up our
flyers," said INSAF's member Raza Mir.
Meanwhile, in India the government took dramatic security arrangements in
and around the twin cities of Ayodhya and Faizabad, where the Babri Mosque
had once stood, and the entire country was on high security alert. Mohd
Yunus Siddiqui of the Babri Masjid (Mosque) Action Committee--one of the
many committees under the umbrella of the All-India Muslim Personal Law
Board--sent a memorandum to the government stating that Muslims would
continue to observe Dec. 6, 1992 as "black day" until the mosque was
reconstructed. The Ram Janmabhoomi Trust reiterated the stance--shared by
the hardline party Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)--that the temple would be
constructed in place of the mosque.
(Subuhi Jiwani on the scene in Jackson Heights)
[top]
3. ACTIVISTS TELL CORPORATIONS: "STOP FUNDING HATE" IN INDIA
The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate
, a US-based group of scholars, artists
and activists, has released a 91-page report entitled "A Foreign Exchange
of Hate," detailing the channeling of funds donated by US corporations for
"philanthropic" work in India into Sangh Parivar, the network of
organizations affiliated with the Hindu rightist Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sabha (RSS), accused of fueling "sectarian hate in India." The
Maryland-based India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) is accused of
redirecting the funds--ostensibly donated for "secular" charities--to Sangh
Parivar. (The Times of India, Nov. 22)
Stop Funding Hate spokesperson Biju Mathew said: "Many large US
corporations such as CISCO, Sun, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard 'match'
employee contributions to US-based charity non-profit organizations.
Unsuspecting corporations end up giving large amounts of money as matching
funds to IDRF as employees of these firms direct funds to IDRF." The report
states that in 1999 Cisco gave "about $70,000 to IDRF," which, when added
to employee contributions, amounts to $133,000 for the 1999-2000 financial
cycle. Mathew states that stateside Indians registered as volunteers or
"swayamsevaks" for the Sangh advocate "IDRF as the best and only way to
provide funding for development and relief work in India, thus causing not
only other unsuspecting employees but also the corporation to fund the
Sangh in India." (Rediff.com, Nov. 20)
Both Sun Microsystems and Cisco have put their donations to IDRF on hold.
The IDRF's immediate response was one of denial, saying that the report was
a product of "leftist groups" and that it is "pure concoction, untruthful
and self-contradictory." In response to IDRF's rejoinder, Stop Funding Hate
said: "If IDRF is indeed what it purports to be, it needs to challenge the
report with facts and with a clear articulation of its relationship with
the Sangh."
The IDRF has also initiated a " Stop Hatred and Let India Develop
" petition,
which has collected 3600 signatures "to protest the ongoing intellectual
violence in the name of Mahatma Gandhi and the subsequent hate campaign
started by Biju Mathew, a 'Forum of Indian Leftists' member and his
Communist/Marxist supporters against the IDRF." Stop Funding Hate member
Satish Kolluri told WW3 REPORT that "most signatures on the petition are
those of Hindus. You cannot find one Muslim signature. The signatures are
also those of upper caste, Brahmanical Hindus. This is very reflective of
the upper caste, Brahmanical nature of Hindutava or Hindu fundamentalism,
itself." In contrast, Stop Funding Hate's petition contains signatures from
a variety of religious communities.
Stop Funding Hate states on its website that while it does not agree with
the politics of the Sangh or the IDRF, those individuals "who want to send
their money to the Sangh Parivar through the IDRF should be able to do so,
based on informed consent. Our campaign is directed against the deception
that the IDRF employs to cloak its political affinity."
Biju Mathew also points out that the IDRF made no attempts to collect funds
for the victims of the VHP-engineered sectarian violence in Gujarat earlier
this year. The IDRF has helped to raise funds for Bangladeshi Hindu victims
of communal violence, Kashmiri Hindu victims of terrorism and post-9-ll
relief efforts in the US. "In all three cases," Mathew said, "the people
responsible for perpetrating the disaster were Muslims and the victims
largely non-Muslim."
(Subuhi Jiwani)
[top]
4. MAOIST REBELS ROCK SOUTHERN INDIA
Suspected Maoist rebels of the Naxalite People's War Group (PWG) attacked
the Tummala Cheruvu railway station in southern India's Guntur district,
blowing up a building and disrupting rail traffic on the Hyderabad-Guntur
line. The attack came just a day after 14 were killed in a landmine attack
on a passenger bus, also blamed on the rebels. The attack also came days
after police killed five rebels, including two women, in the area. More
than 6,000 people have been killed in fighting since the Naxalite People's
War Group began its uprising over 20 years ago. (BBC, Nov. 20)
[top]
5. DIEGO GARCIA ISLANDERS BATTLE TO RETURN
Exiled residents from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia are launching
legal action in a London court, seeking to return to their homeland and
receive compensation from Britain for being deported. Nearly 2,000 people
from the Chagos Islands were moved to Mauritius and the Seychelles 30 years
ago to make way for a military base on Diego Garcia, which the US leases
from Britain. Most now live in slum conditions in Mauritius and the
Seychelles. Two years ago, a London court ruled that the deportation was
illegal, striking down the 1971 Immigration Ordinance, which authorized it.
The islanders are now seeking the right to return to all of the
islands--including Diego Garcia. But the government does not want the
islanders back on Diego Garcia--which could be used as a base for a US
attack on Iraq. The US is already planning to move B-2 bombers to the
island base in preparation for the Iraq campaign. (BBC, Oct. 31)
[top]
THE ANDEAN FRONT
1. ISRAELI LINK TO COLOMBIAN PARAS
Panamanian authorities have arrested an Israeli businessman in connection
with a cache of weapons ostensibly bought by Panamanian police but shipped
to Colombia instead. Shimon Yelinek was arrested on arrival at Tocumen
International Airport. His attorney Sidney Sitton said the arrest was
warrantless and illegal, and has filed a writ of habeas corpus. National
Police Chief Carlos Bares told the press Yelinek was being interrogated by
Panama's anti-drug prosecutor, Patricio Candanedo, who is leading the
investigation into the weapons deal. The scandal broke on April 21, when
Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper reported that 3,000 AK-47 rifles and 5
million rounds of ammunition purchased in Nicaragua had been delivered to
ultra-right paramilitaries of United Colombian Self-Defense (AUC) in
November 2001, transported on a Panamanian-registered ship. In May, Israeli
businessmen Oris Zoller and Uzi Kisslevich, representing a Guatemalan
company, told the press that Panama's National Police had hired them to
broker the weapons deal. Panamanian police denied involvement, and showed
the press copies of the documents used by the businessmen, which they
claimed were forged. On July 7, the foreign ministries of Colombia,
Nicaragua and Panama asked the Organization of American States (OAS) for
aid in investigating the affair, and veteran US diplomat Morris Busby was
put in charge of the probe. (Haaretz, Nov. 24)
As reported in WW3 REPORT #42, a
private Israeli spook firm, Spearhead Ltd., was instrumental in training
the Colombian paramilitaries when they were being established in the 1980s
as an armed wing of the cocaine cartels. 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 Spearhead was part of a semi-private Israeli
spy network in Latin America which was working with Lt. Col. Oliver North's
network, the Manuel Noriega dictatorship in Panama and the Colombian
cartels to fund the right-wing contra guerillas in Nicaragua. Ben-Menashe
named current Israeli Primer Minister Ariel Sharon (defense minister from
1981-3) as the "boss" of the network. Asked if Colombian cocaine profits
were used to fund contra arms shipments, Ben-Menashe replied: "Right. Which
Ariel Sharon's network in Latin America was involved in. His influence in
Tel Aviv kept the government from cracking down on Spearhead, a private
Israeli firm made up of ex-Military Intelligence people which provided
paramilitary training to the Medellin Cartel." (High Times, March 1993)
[top]
2. COLOMBIAN GUERILLA GUNS: MADE IN USA
Write Jake Bergman and Julia Reynolds in the Nov. 14 edition of The Nation:
"A few years ago, the government of Colombia asked the United States to
trace nearly fifty MAK-90 rifles it had seized from the National Liberation
Army, or ELN. It turned out these rifles had been obtained by Colombian gun
traffickers after being purchased at retail stores in the Miami area. The
ELN is on the State Department's foreign terror watch list. Yet, like many
other underground armies around the world, it buys its weapons in one of
the world's freest arms markets...
"The story of a ragtag South Florida outfit called Lobster Air
International illustrates just how easy US gun purchases can be. In the
summer of 1998 Stephen Jorgensen began buying the first of what were
eventually more than 800 MAK-90 semiautomatic rifles at a store called Gun
Land in Kissimmee, Florida. He did not have a resale permit--known as a
Federal Firearms License, or FFL--and he was not required to present one.
But Jorgensen wasn't stockpiling the guns for his personal use; he was
taking them to Opa-Locka airport near Miami and loading them aboard a light
airplane headed for airstrips in Venezuela and Colombia, via Haiti.... In
1998 several meetings took place in Dallas, Miami and Caracas to
orchestrate a deal, which included setting up Lobster Air to import
lobsters to the United States from Haiti. According to Jorgensen, [a]
Venezuelan colonel and the interests he represented put up the money to buy
an Aero Commander aircraft. Jorgensen contracted boat operators to circle
Haiti and collect lobsters from remote villages, but that part of the plan
never went forward. Lobster Air was apparently not in the business of
selling lobsters. On January 3, 1999, US Customs agents, acting on what
they thought was a drug tip, stopped the Aero Commander, bound for South
America, on a runway at Opa-Locka. But there were no drugs; instead, the
plane was loaded with seventy-eight disassembled MAK-90s inside blue gym
bags, along with 9,000 rounds of ammunition. Customs and ATF sources now
say that Lobster Air's weapons were headed to Colombia's FARC rebels,
another group on the State Department's terror list... Jorgensen was
detained and interrogated. Facing indictment on weapons and conspiracy
charges, he quickly agreed to cooperate with what was now a US Customs-ATF
investigation..."
Wearing a wire when he went back to his connections for further deals,
Jorgensen and a Cuban-American middle man, Rafael Ceruelos, were both
indicted--"not for buying the guns, but for violating the Arms Export
Control Act. Ceruelos served fifteen months and Jorgensen received only
probation, thanks to his cooperation and what he describes as a 'sterling
military record.' It may be surprising to learn that buying hundreds of
MAK-90s and thousands of rounds of ammunition that could supply
US-designated terrorist organizations doesn't raise any eyebrows. But there
is simply no requirement for gun stores to report suspicious activity. If a
customer buys more than one handgun in five days, the store must report the
sales to ATF, but the MAK-90 comes with no such restriction. Nor does
ammunition. Some gun-store owners say they voluntarily tip off ATF to
suspicious buyers, usually after the sale is made and the money collected."
Former ATF agent Daniel McBride recalled a bloody 1985 attack by the M-19,
a now-disbanded Colombian guerilla group: "The M-19 raided and assaulted
the Palace of Justice in Colombia, killing 115 people, eleven Supreme Court
justices, and wiped out the Supreme Court of the country of Colombia. And
these were guns that were subsequently traced back to the United States."
[top]
3. FARC SLAMS TERROR WAR
The International Commission of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed
Forces-People's Army (FARC-EP) called the "alleged war on terrorism" a
cover for state terrorism. In a message dated December 2002, "Document for
the 11th Sao Paulo Forum", the FARC-EP said the UN and the OAS had become
political agents of the US. The statement to the international leftist
forum, held this year in Guatemala, read: "Anti-terrorist policy is
immediate objective of anti-imperialist struggle. In this world of
capitalist, unipolar globalization, with an empire which is very dangerous
because of its crisis and despair and which has taken on the role of global
policeman and is employing its war machinery as an insatiable big stick
against all those who oppose its plans, whether they be states,
organizations or persons, the urgent need arises to build the societies
that we deserve and for which we are struggling."
(New Colombia News Agency [Anncol] via BBC Monitoring, Dec. 5)
[top]
4. NEW STRUGGLE FOR VENEZUELA'S OIL
With Venezuela's oil industry paralyzed by a general strike, severely
affecting exports to the US, President Hugo Chavez ordered National
Guardsmen to patrol the streets, gasoline stations and the offices of the
state company Petroleos de Venezuela. Company management is supporting the
strike, and a protest by white-collar workers outside its offices was
broken up by Guardsmen who hurled tear gas Dec. 3. "They want to shut down
the oil industry to generate chaos," Chavez announced on the radio days
later. "I call on all Venezuelans to defend our oil industry." Both sides
have agreed to mediation by the Organization of American States, as the
entire national economy is in danger of grinding to a halt. (NYT, Dec. 4, 9)
See also WW3 REPORT #30
[top]
5. POPULIST COLONEL WINS IN ECUADOR
Ecuador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced Nov. 24 that retired Col.
Lucio Gutierrez had won that day's presidential run-off with 54% of the
valid votes, squeezing our rival Alvaro Noboa, a mi
