Monday, December 29, 2008
Covert assassinations by CIA2/MOSSAD, VIA a long term "liaison" with the bloodthirsty and cruel assassin ASEF SHAWKAT
Covert assassinations by CIA2/MOSSAD, VIA a long term "liaison" with the bloodthirsty and cruel assassin ASEF SHAWKAT; are meant to create fear and submission. This is an OLD CIA2 dirty tricks campaign... with many historical precedents.... " Documented shelf cases do exist...** "
Endless and Perpetual Wars await the World's Energy Basins for decades to come.
In order to serve PNAC's global domineering and hegemonic designs in the name of securing energy supplies to the USA, by militarizing energy security and the global sea-lanes, pipelines and port facilities....we have witnessed endless turmoil since 1948. The list is long, suffice it to list the following: The Korean war and Vietnam wars, Laos, Cambodia, The Coup D'état in IRAN 1953, the SUEZ war 1956, The Baghdad alliance.... the Eisenhower doctrine.... etc. the 1967 imperial Israeli war, the never ending overt and covert wars on Lebanon's borders, East and South.... the 17 years wars over Lebanon.... and the 15 years of economics war on Lebanon's people with the advent of the Hariristan clans and the devastation of the CIA agent and puppet, Fouad Sanioura, after the calamities of the Amine Gemayel economic and security wars and devastations. The Khomeini revolution, the Iran/IRAQ wars, the millions of dead and wounded, the inconclusive ending of that war. More covert wars on the region, when Saddam Hussein was "pushed" into Kuwait....( April Glaspie etc. ), the first Gulf/oil war, the blockade of Iraq over 14 years, millions dead and maimed and scarred for life....the advent of PNAC, the endless wars in south Lebanon, massacres etc., the April understanding with the tragic consequences for many.... the Oslo accords and the fake Madrid conference, which both added to NAUGHT. The PNAC created White House Murder Inc, the assassination of Yitzhak RABIN..... the RISE of Netanyahu....and PEREZ, both stooges of the security establishments of USA/ISRAEL.... the re-invention of Ariel Sharon, the advent of more assassinations in order to create psychological shock and awe... in order to consummate additional murders in the name of the global hegemonic designs of the PNAC Killers.....the second Gulf war, after the inside job of 9/11. The South ASIAN and central ASIAN PNAC designs, the BALKANS, etc. etc. all these are but one string of concomitant events made in the dark alleys of the Pentagon/Langley/CIA2/MOSSAD/Herzliah/MI6....It was meant to create fear and submission by the regions' authorities. George Bush Sr., was the CIA Director at the time and there were close ties that linked the Bush family to oil businesses and key politicians in the world. James Baker who was appointed Secretary of State owned the Commerce Bank of Texas in Venezuela. Various CIA2 agents arrested by many authorities for bombings, assassinations, murders, etc. threaten to reveal details which would create another “Watergate” – secrecy, hidden documents all end up cover ups for realities of situations that take place beyond the score of public review, though the power behind the power in USA's secretive elites.... end up beneficiaries of the terror.... The list is long and painful, from Ambassador Adolph DUBS's murder In Afghanistan, to Salim Al-Laouze, to Rene Mouawad, from YItzhak Rabin to Elie Hobeika, from Rafic Hariri to Benazir Buttho..... the Killers are intertwined......
http://univercia.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-ambassador-adolph-dubsrip.html
Case in point: Syria's joint venture agreement with the White House Murder Inc, for decades:
The Alawite Regime always knew what they want, and always knew their limits and their shareholders agreement with the PNAC killers and its odious white house murder Inc, : The ASSAD Mafia always knew that the Golan are off the table, but that Lebanon will always be on the table for an endless tug of war with Israel.... within a very strict code of unethical behavior, meant to preserve, protect and perpetuate the ASSAD hegemonic continuum over Syria's power structure.
Syria has drafted a document defining boundaries on the Golan Heights, placing Syria on the northern shore of the Kinneret. Damascus is waiting for an Israeli reply through Turkish mediators.
There is something absurd about the current talks between Israel and Syria and about Turkey's alleged role as a peace broker. Turkey is basically telling Israel to relinquish territories to Syria to achieve peace, while Turkey itself achieved peace with Syria as a result of its obstinate refusal to give in to its territorial demands over the Hatay (or Alexandretta) Province.
Historically, the Hatay Province is more Syrian than Turkish. European maps from the 18th century show this region as being part of Syria. With the end of World War I and the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, Hatay became part of the French Mandate over Syria. Turkey, however, claimed that it should have been granted sovereignty over the province because of the high percentage of ethnic Turks living there. In 1921, France and Turkey signed a compromise granting a special autonomy status to the province, but this compromise was basically canceled in 1925 when France fully reestablished its sovereignty over Hatay.
In 1936, Turkey submitted a complaint to the League of Nations, demanding full sovereignty over what it claimed to be an ethnically Turkish province. The League of Nations partially accepted Turkey's claim and granted a special status to the province in 1937 (it was now "distinct but not separated" from the French Mandate). In 1938, the regional assembly of Hatay proclaimed the independence of the "Republic of Hatay," taking as an excuse the riots that had broken out between Turks and Arabs.
The name Hatay was proposed by Kemal Atatürk and the government was under Turkish control. The Turks organized a referendum approving the annexation of the province by Turkey. France, which feared German invasion, was not willing to open an additional front with Turkey over the issue of the Hatay Province. The League of Nations was too "busy" with the looming war, and had ceased to be relevant anyway.
SYRIA NEVER recognized the annexation of Hatay (which it calls Liwa Aliskenderun) by Turkey. It claims that the Turkish annexation was illegal and that France had no right or authority to tacitly agree to it. Official Syrian maps still show the province as being part of Syria. For many years, the conflict over the province created military and diplomatic tensions between the two countries. Syria's position was that there could never be peace with Turkey until Turkey returned the province. Turkey accused Syria of supporting the Kurdish separatist groups in eastern Turkey, but never offered to withdraw from Hatay to convince Syria to end its support for them.
And yet, Syria and Turkey announced in 2005 the normalization of their diplomatic relations. Syria did not abandon its claims over Hatay, but it did abandon its demand for a return of the province to its sovereignty as a condition for ending hostilities.
TURKEY ACHIEVED this volte-face through steadfastness. The Turkish position was clear: There is nothing to talk about. Turkey is interested in peace with Syria, but can also do without it. If Syria wants peace, it has to forget about Hatay and stop supporting Kurdish terrorism. End of story.
Turkey's strategy worked, which makes its "recommendation" to Israel to adopt the opposite strategy to achieve the same results quite puzzling indeed. No less puzzling is the fact that Israel is putting up with this farce.
Some say that one cannot compare Turkey's rights over Hatay with Israel's rights over the Golan. True enough - Israel has a much stronger case than Turkey. Israel conquered the Golan in a war of self-defense, while Turkey annexed Hatay taking advantage of France's crumbling power. Israel has a stronger case than Syria as well. Archeological discoveries in the Golan point out to an antique Jewish, not Syrian, presence there. The Golan has been under Israeli sovereignty for 40 years and under Syrian sovereignty for 20. In international relations, time is one of the factors that determine sovereignty. Didn't the British Foreign Office recently declare that not recognizing China's sovereignty over Tibet had become "anachronistic"?
But even if Israel has a stronger case over the Golan than Syria, would it not make sense for Israel to relinquish it to achieve peace on its northern border? After all, Israel achieved peace with Egypt after withdrawing from Sinai, didn't it?
Well, no, it didn't. What Israel achieved with Egypt is not peace but a permanent cease-fire. And the price we paid (relinquishing Sinai) was worth paying and for pulling Egypt out of the Soviet orbit, since we couldn't afford an endless war of attrition with the Soviet-backed Egypt at the height of the Cold War.
What was worth paying in the case of Egypt is not worth paying in the case of Syria. The permanent cease-fire is the only kind of peace that can be achieved in the Middle East. We have that with Syria. Syria is no major regional power supported by a superpower hostile to Israel. The de facto peace we currently have is based on Israel's deterrence. Talking about a possible Israeli withdrawal from the Golan while Syria buys Russian weapons and tries to build nuclear plants with Iranian support is the best way to decrease Israel's power of deterrence. Why should we pay a high price (the Golan) for something we already have (de facto peace)?
If Israel wants to keep its northern border quiet and even normalize its relations with Syria, it should learn from Turkey's example and ignore Turkey's "friendly advice." Instead of withdrawing from the Golan Heights, Israel should withdraw from the Golan talks....
In any peace agreement with Israel, Syria is not only interested in regaining the Golan. Damascus also wants America; they want the same type of economic assistance the Americans gave the Egyptians and Jordanians after they signed their peace agreements with Israel, they want much closer ties to the US, and they want the US to wink at what they believe is their right to influence Lebanon.
The US, in turn, has two major quarrels with the Syrians. The first has to do with Syrian actions to undermine the development of a pro-Western democracy in Lebanon, and the second is the terrorists' use of Syria as a staging ground for attacks inside Iraq.
The US sees Damascus as a regional problem, not only an Israeli one. And, unlike Israel, the US position has been that there has to be some kind of Syrian behavioral modification before the door to Damascus can be opened.
The type of change in behavior the US wants to see is an end to the use of Syria as a staging ground for terrorists; an end to Syria's efforts to undermine efforts to set up a pro-Western government in Lebanon; an end to support, both material and moral, for Hezbollah and Hamas; and an end to Damascus's tight tango with Iran.
From an American perspective, Syria's international isolation has had an impact, and if Damascus looked inward it would see the following: a string of assassinations in Damascus over the last year that, while Syria blamed them on Israel, were likely either home-grown or connected to Saudi Arabia; the destruction of an alleged nuclear facility by Israel; a US commando cross-border raid in October; and the fact that Syria's best friends in the world are sitting in Teheran.
The American position has been that the screws should continue to be turned on Syria, so that it will realize that this situation is not in its interest and begin to modify its actions.
This has been the present administration's position, and - judging from the people President-elect Barack Obama has selected for key national security positions - it is likely to continue under the new one.
Although the Obama administration may want to talk to Damascus, just as it wants to talk to Iran, that doesn't mean it will give the Syrians anything concrete until they change their behavior.
What this means for Olmert is that all the talk of achieving peace with Syria now is divorced from reality, because in exchange for any deal with Israel, the Syrians are going to want a massive buy-in from the US.
And that type of American buy-in is not on the horizon - at least not for the foreseeable future....
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**---- The US Army School of Americas (SOA now known as the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) has been under attack
for using terror for foreign policy objectives. The mission of the
school is to train Latin American soldiers in combat, Counter-
insurgency And counter-narcotics. It therefore should come as no
surprise when nearly all of Latin America’s human rights abusers have
actually graduated from the school including Panama’s Manuel Noriega a
CIA operative until he was removed by the US in 1989. Graduates of the
SOA were also part of the 1973 military coup in Chile, the 1976
assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in
Washington, and the wars in Argentina and Bolivia in the 1970s. The
SOA is also responsible for training Anastasio Somoza’s National Guard
in Nicaragua in the 1970s, the civil war abuses in El Salvador and
kidnappings in Colombia as well as murders of peace commissioner.
President Eisenhower during his presidency used plenty of covert
operations through CIA to overthrow suspected communist Governments.
Three attempts were made during his Presidency to overthrow
Governments in Iran – CIA replaces Muhammad Mossadegh with Shah
Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (when Mossadegh seized British oil properties in
1953). In Guatemala, the CIA overthrew Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in 1954 &
Indonesia in 1958 with the overthrowing of Sukarno. His Eisenhower
Doctrine promised Middle East nation’s military aid if they were being
threatened by communism.
Presently, there is much focus against Iran and a build up made to
project Iran as fostering terrorism and nuclear weapons. In 2007,
Congress agreed to President Bush’s request to fund a major covert
operation against Iran. A covert operation would mean working with
opposition groups which ultimately will create another terror force.
Is it these creations that eventually refuse to be bound to their
masters and prefer instead to take their own path of instilling terror
and anarchy?
The issue of using covert state terrorism to advance neo-liberal
global project has varied views – we can take as an example the CIA
bombing of a Cuban airliner on October 6, 1976 which killed 73
innocent civilians. It was meant to create fear and submission by the
Cuban authorities. George Bush Snr., was the CIA Director at the time
and there were close ties that linked the Bush family to oil
businesses and key politicians in Venezuela. James Baker who was
appointed Secretary of State owned the Commerce Bank of Texas in
Venezuela. Posada the CIA agent arrested by Cuban authorities for the
bombing threatened to reveal details which would create another
“Watergate” – secrecy, hidden documents all end up cover ups for
realities of situations that take place beyond the score of public
review though the public end up beneficiaries of the terror. The
western Balkans the fate of the “new Kosovo” has emerged following
detection of 3 Germans whether any moves were afoot to replace the UN
office with an EU office. However, the Kosovo media say that the 3 men
are German intelligence agents (BND). This is further to a Christian
Science Monitor report which gave details of a deal with Serbia to
deploy a EU mission in Kosovo.
The public needs to be aware of the interrelationships between the
wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. In the case of Iraq, the
Iraqi people may wonder whether the dictator Saddam was ever as bad as
their current situation where an average 50 deaths are reported
daily.
Evidence in a report compiled by German TV ZDF reveals how the CIA and
the German Intelligence (BND) supported the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) which has links to the Al Qaeda. The report reveals that German
intelligence knew 3 weeks prior to the March 17 attacks on Serbs
throughout Kosovo & Samedin Xhezairi of the KLA was the link between
Albanian extremists and the Al Qaeda. Samedin Xhezair had also fought
in Chechnya, was trained in Afghanistan and was evacuated by US
paratroopers from the US private military company MPRI from Macedonia
barely a few weeks before the September 11 attack on the US. If the US
military has been working with the Al Qaeda we can but wonder what the
"war on terror" is all about.
What remains true is that the Atlantic Alliance supported the KLA and
made them attack ethnic Albanians in order to allow the NATO and US
troops to enter citing "humanitarian" grounds and accuse the Serbian
Government of ethnic cleansing. This was the US and NATO’s "just war"
which resulted in the bombing of Yugoslavia and supported by western
media which provided a disinformation campaign. No one claimed that
the invasion of Kosovo was a violation of international law. As terror
groups most of whom happen to be Islamic fundamentalists become armed
with sophisticated weaponry we not only wonder whether the peace
keeping forces are actively or passively creating a new form of terror
that is assured to turn against their creators as we have seen.
The earliest form of overt operation was committed by the US on
hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese in 1945 by dropping not one
but 2 atomic bombs. There is also the 1965-72 napalming of large areas
of Vietnam and then the 2003 bombing of Baghdad once again by US
troops.
When a nation’s public silently agree to covert operations because
their State Dept labels nations as “rogue nations” the damage is
colossal. Was not the “Special Forces” trained during the World War 2
men who were trained in unconventional warfare? The US media has been
party to most of the heinous crimes that the US Government’s covert
operations have ventured upon. Without balancing their argument they
prefer to project everyone as enemies of the US. In many ways the 9/11
became a wake up which left many asking whether the US’s decision of
turning teams hostile to other nations was not another form of
terrorism? The CIA’s budget is Top Secret and even not disclosed to
Congressmen. So while there is the US military there is also another
set of private and shadow force with the power above US law. As we
read deeper into US "interests" we need to realize how far the US is
likely to go to protect "US interests?" The US entered Somalia in 1991
on the pretext that 1000 people were starving – it turned out not to
be quite the contrary.
What should countries like the US wish to make countries unstable – is
this the way they look after the people’s human rights? There are many
ways invasions are justified – to save people from ruthless dictators
and weapons of mass destruction as was the Iraq example, starvation
was the reason in Somalia, genocide in Kosovo, 9/11 in
Afghanistan….now the covert operations in these nations by US Special
Forces means that men are being trained and supplied with arms so long
as they remain faithful to US interests. Saddam Hussein was a friend
of the US in the 1980s & so was Ousama bin Laden....
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Unity of purpose
Lebanon
Key Points
* The precarious balance prevailing in Lebanon has been upset through recent developments. It should be restored for the sake of Lebanon’s future.
* Lebanon’s Shi`a have genuine political and economic grievances that need to be dealt with. Doing this will increase the legitimacy of the state and thereby decrease the need for Hizballah as an alternative to it.
* A non-inclusive government will not be able to make decisions on vital matters. A national unity government needs to be established to deal with paramount issues like the Hariri tribunal, the Paris III donor conference, and Hizballah’s military presence.
* Lebanon is too fragile a state to be used as a tool in a greater geo-political power struggle. Extrenal pressure on Lebanon should be eased to allow it to work out its own problems.
* Another conference on power sharing, in the vein of the Ta’if Conference of 1989, is to be recommended...
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December , 2008 -- False flags attacks common but rarely reported in the corporate media...UNIIIC reports revisited.
Revelations about a shadowy right-wing group called Ergenekon participating with Turkish military and intelligence elements in "false flag" terrorist attacks in order to bring down the Turkish government are nothing new and are, in fact, a normal tactic used by intelligence services. However, the term "false flag" has been irresponsibly relegated to the arena of "conspiracy theories" by a corporate media answering to their own hidden agendas.
In 1996, then-South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki told the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the apartheid government carried out "false flag" terrorist attacks that were then attributed to the African National Congress (ANC), which had a policy of not targeting civilians in its battle with the apartheid regime. The horrible execution method of "necklacing," putting a burning tire over the necks of victims that would burn them to death, was carried out by apartheid agents provocateurs to damage the reputation of the ANC, Mbeki told the commission.
Some of the gruesome videotaped beheadings carried out on Westerners in Iraq may also have been carried out by agents provocateurs on the payroll of U.S. and other intelligence services to generate sympathy for the U.S.-led occupation of the country and pin blame on the Iraqi insurgents.
Many observers point out that Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish national who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, may have been unwittingly being used by Western intelligence in order to foment a Polish insurrection against the Soviet Union. Agca thought at various times he was working for the Soviets, Bulgaria, or Iran but may have actually been handled by the CIA. Turkish Interior Minister Hussan Gunes, who investigated Agca, said he thought Agca was involved in an attempt to provoke an uprising in Poland and cut it off from the Warsaw Pact.
The most infamous and documented U.S. false flag operation was Operation Northwoods, a plan hatched by the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Kennedy administration in 1962 that included terrorist attacks against ships and passenger planes, claiming Cuba was behind them and providing a pretext for a U.S. invasion of Cuba. In 1967, Israel attacked the National Security Agency intelligence ship, the U.S.S. Liberty, hoping the Americans would believe Egypt carried out the attack, prompting a U.S. military strike on Egypt, with which Israel was fighting the Six Day War. The Israeli operation was reportedly code-named Operation Cyanide.
More recently, Ikram Yabukov, a former Uzbek National Security Service (SNB) major, said the government of President Islam Karimov carried out a number of false flag terrorist attacks and then blamed them on Islamist extremists to win support at home and abroad. Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray validated Yabukov's claims. Uzbekistan was an early U.S. coalition partner in the so-called "Global War on Terrorism" following the 9/11 attacks.
Yakobov also claimed that many Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) leaders, designated terrorists by the U.S. State Department, were nurtured by the Uzbek government, which supported their bombings in Tashkent and the 2005 Andijon uprising, which killed more than 1500 people. In another false flag, Yakubov said the SNB engineered a 2004 passenger plane crash in Tashkent that killed senior UN official in Uzbekistan Richard Conroy. Conroy apparently had information linking Karimov to trafficking of drugs and women forced abroad into prostitution.
Last month, three German BND intelligence agents were arrested by Kosovo authorities after they were accused of throwing a bomb at the European Union office in Pristina, the Kosovo capital. The previously unheard of Army of the Republic of Kosovo claimed responsibility for the attack. The BND believes that their agents were fingered by corrupt Kosovo politicians who were the actual perpetrators of the attack on the EU building. The Germans are aware that the Kosovo government, which is riddled with criminals of every stripe, takes its orders from the United States, just like the criminal mafia gangs of the ASSAD family, ruling Damascus in an iron fist take their orders from the CIA2 and Mossad killers and do the dirty work for them in executing the assassinations of valiant Lebanese heroes as was the case in the January 24th 2002 assassination of Mr. Elie Hobeika, with Asef Shawkat and Syrian military intelligence killers acting on behalf of the White House murder Inc. and most of the murders which ensued in Lebanon since....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxPYa5mVlYU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTd7n5VPID0&feature=channel
http://www.wearechange.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_51XsphHi4&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xzqao04mXc&feature=channel
http://www.wearechange.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PClLsVhEcw0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs26Dx6ECJw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOk6ENxyAh0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDk6jxcSDlQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u0_n8wilp8&feature=related
What is certain is that "false flags" run throughout history. There is new evidence that Ergenekon key players are supported by certain elements in Utah. Ironically, One of the most dastardly uses of the false flag attack was by Mormon settlers in Utah who preyed upon California-bound wagon trains. One such attack, the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, saw 120 California-bound men, women, and children massacred by Mormon militiamen who left Indian artifacts at the crime scene to make authorities believe the wagon train had been set upon by Indians....
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Introduction
Lebanon is in trouble. It has enjoyed 15 years of relative stability since the end of the 1975-1990 war. But recent developments – the assassination of former prime minster Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005, the ensuing Syrian withdrawal, the 34-day Israel-Hizballah war of summer 2006 – have allowed fissures to come to the surface again, fissures that had been glossed over but never mended. A prevailing mood of optimism in the wake of the 14 March 2005 demonstrations has rapidly evaporated and has been replaced by despair over the future – so much so that able Lebanese are once again leaving the country to build up lives elsewhere. These fissures have to be owned up to if they are not to tear Lebanon’s fabric apart once again.
Lebanon’s failing system
Lebanon, since its independence in 1943, has been governed through a consociational system. Its largest communities1 are guaranteed a share of government and legislative power, originally loosely based on demographic proportionality. Since there hasn’t been a census since 1932, however, this proportionality is now utterly disproportionate. The Lebanese civil war was partly the result of pressures on this rigid system (and partly of more external pressures, as we shall see below) and the 1989 Ta’if Accord which ended it modified the rules of political engagement. By doing so, however, it once again set the new rules in stone, thereby preventing any change to the system.
It is true that Ta’if is officially committed to the abolishment of political sectarianism. This, however, is an impossibility without the simultaneous abolishment of popular sectarianism. If the current political quotas are abolished, but people do pledge their electoral allegiance along sectarian lines, this will turn the elections themselves into a kind of demographic census. Instead of doing away with sectarianism, then, such an election will only alter its proportions. This is a likely outcome in Lebanon for several reasons. First of all, despite the fact that Lebanon is much more democratic than most countries in the region, it has a severe lack of traditional, ideological political parties. Rather, its parties are more often mono-communal power blocks dominated by a single family clan. Second, the fear and apprehension many people have of other communities (not surprising after 15 years of war, and, if anything, only rekindled by recent developments) will often make them vote for members of in-group, rather than out-group communities. The recent trend of re-confessionalisation, apparent throughout other countries in the Middle East, only exacerbates this phenomenon. For these reasons, even if political de-confessionalisation were attempted, it would not lead to an end of the sectarian system. Those communities who stand to lose most are accutely aware of this and will try not to implement this provison of the Ta’if Accord. 07/03
The effect of this is that the Lebanese political elite, still disproportionally made up of old powerful Christian, Sunni and Druze families, has been committed to preserving an imbalance of power. This is one of the underlying reasons for the current crisis. Because a static system cannot accommodate current demographic, political and military changes, these changes threaten to damage the whole edifice, with grave consequences.
Unfinished business: Lebanon’s Shi`a
It is the position of Lebanon’s Shi`a that currently puts most stress on the system. The Shi`a did not benefit much from the changes that Ta’if brought about. While the Sunnis increased their share of power through a larger role for the traditionally Sunni Prime Minister, and the Maronites, although losing some, held on to most of theirs, the Shi`a did not make much headway.2 Relatively, their situation was even worse, as they now formed the single largest demographic group in the country, but had very little to show for it. The south of Lebanon, where the largest numbers of Shi`a live, remains economically backward, with the state failing to provide necessary services and infrastructure that are even more desperately needed after the July 2006 war.
It is the war that has done most to change the balance in the country. Hizballah, perceiving the outcome as a victory,3 has been emboldened in its political stance towards the rest of the country. Both their self-esteem and their cause as sole champions of Lebanon’s Shi`a have been given a boost, resulting in the adoption of a much more vocal and demanding role in domestic politics. Other developments that have contributed to a new assertiveness among Lebanon’s Shi`a are the rise in power of their Iraqi co-religionists, and Iran’s newfound defiance of Israel and the US. At the same time, fears of Hizballah have increased among other Lebanese, who often blame its actions for the war and the resulting devastation in Lebanon itself. In this situation, the stakes of the game have been raised.
The resignation of the five Shi`a government ministers and a Greek-Orthodox minister allied to President Lahoud in November 20064 over the issue of the international tribunal charged with determining culpability over Hariri’s assassination5 should be seen in this light. Although the treaty proposing the establishment of the tribunal was subsequently passed by the rump cabinet, the President, an ally of Syria, is refusing to ratify it. Moreover, it is unclear if a cabinet that excludes one of the main communities is allowed to take decisions on such vital matters. Although this is ambiguous legally, it is clear that it contradicts the tradition of communal consensus established by the 1926 Constitution, the 1943 National Pact, and the Ta’if Accord. These combined provide for a parliament and government consisting of all the main communities deciding on important issues. The current government, lacking a quarter of its ministers and excluding representatives of the single most numerous community in the country, is most definitely not a representative government.
Here, it is perhaps instructive to go back to 1983. A government under Amin Gemayel had, in that year, signed a peace treaty with Israel under heavy military and political pressure from the Jewish state, which still occupied half the country. This treaty was resolutely opposed by the Shi`a and their organisation Amal (headed by now speaker-of-parliament Nabih Berri) who had suffered most under previous Israeli attacks but who were not part of the government. They, allied with the Druzes of Walid Jumblatt, decided to challenge the government’s authority by opening up a new round of fighting in Southern Beirut and the Chouf. Amin Gemayel managed to prevail with the help of the Americans for a while, who thus
2 07/03
officially allied themselves with an utterly non-representative government. But when the Lebanese army came apart under the stress, and the Americans left, mostly as a result of the devastating bombing of their marine headquarters, Gemayel had no choice but to abrogate the treaty and to form a more representative government, including Berri and Jumblatt as ministers.
Fortunately, the situation is very different now, and I am certainly not implying that Hizballah is about to march on Beirut or bomb the American embassy. But the previous paragraph does show the danger and ultimate futility of a less-than-representative government adopting treaties, as well as the stupidity of Western powers supporting such a government in order to advance their own interests. In this respect, the visit of British Foreign Minister Margaret Becket to Beirut in December 2006 to pledge her support for Siniora’s rump cabinet was particularly ill-informed.
The good news is that the Tribunal Treaty of 2006 is less controversial than the Israel Peace Treaty of 1983. Hizballah, nor Syria for that matter, have never categorically denounced the establishment of a tribunal. It is rather the perceived political use of such a tribunal that scares Damascus. Compromise agreements on the establishment of a tribunal have already been proposed by the Arab League. Moreover, the US might possiby be coming around to the view that it is better to work with Syria than against it in certain areas.6 There remain opportunities, therefore, for the establishment of a de-politicised tribunal that will deal with the assassination of Hariri. On the establishment of the tribunal itself, however, there should not be a compromise. It is too important to Lebanon, for reasons involving both justice and deterrence, to be sacrificed in the interests of political appeasement, either Lebanese or international. But Lebanon should not be used as a stick to hit Syria either. There is too great a chance that the stick will break before Syria even feels the impact.
Unity Wa3ed
The demand for a national unity government, then, is not an unreasonable one. Nor is it a new one; it was actually articulated before the war. What has changed is that Hizballah now feels stronger than before, and it therefore voices its demands more boldly. But the demand for one-third-plus-one of the seats in the cabinet, variously called a participating or a blocking third depending on the speaker’s viewpoint, is not out of proportion for a community that probably forms close to 40 percent of Lebanon’s population. Moreover, Hizballah is not claiming the seats for itself, but for all opposition parties.7 If nothing else, this stance echoes Hizballah’s profoundly ambivalent attitude towards participating in national politics.
If a unity government is formed, it will have to deal with several pressing issues. First and foremost among these is the issue of the tribunal. Then there is the upcoming Paris III donor conference. Paris I and II were conferences aimed at securing financial support, in the form of pledges of gifts, loans and investment, to support the Lebanese economy. Paris III is planned for 25 January 2007. As with the issue of the tribunal, however, there is a major risk that any reforms pledged by a non-inclusive rump government in order to secure loans will be opposed by Hizballah and the current opposition. The issue is not that no reforms are needed. Rather, it is that reforms have to be decided upon by an inclusive government. With the the need for reconstruction and development in the south especially, this is of vital importance. If not, there will be contention over the reforms, with the result
3 07/03
that they will not, or only halfheartedly, be implemented. This will doom Paris III to failure.
Then there is the issue of Hizballah’s military position in the south. There has been much emphasis on the need to disarm all militias, meaning Palestinian militias in the camps but mainly Hizballah, according to UN Resolution 1559. Since the summer, however, it is once again abundantly clear this cannot be accomplished through military means. The Israeli Defence Force could not do it; the UN definitely will not do it,8 and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), should they ever be ordered to try, will probably fall apart under the strain.9 It is clear, then, that the only way forward is political. In this respect, the fact that the LAF’s deployment in the south for the first time proper since 196910 took place smoothly and without any disturbances is encouraging. What needs to be done now is streamlining communication and coordination between the Lebanese military and Hizballah. Eventually the goal should be integration of Hizballah into the military, something that has reasonably succesfully been attempted with two other large wartime militias, the Forces Libanaises and the National Movement.11 Even Nasrallah has hinted at the eventual end of the need for a separate resistance movement. However, if anything, this summer’s war has diminished the chances of such an integration happening any time soon. Hizballah will now argue more forcefully that its aim is not only liberating every inch of Lebanese soil from occupation12, but resisting Israeli aggression, too. Lebanese critics of the party beg to differ; they question Hizballah’s de facto authority to decide on matters of war and peace for the rest of Lebanon, such as effectively happened this summer with the abduction of two Israeli soldiers that started the war. These arguments are eerily similar to arguments about the Palestinian resistance in the south in the 1970s, a situation that eventually helped cause the 1975-1990 war. The big difference is that unlike the Palestininans, Hizballah is essentially an internal Lebanese phenomenon, despite its international ramifications, and an internal solution can therefore be found for it. A rapprochement in the South between the LAF and Hizballah is a first step along this long road.
Ta’if II, not Paris III
In the longer run, a rigidly interpreted Ta’if Accord wil not be able to accommodate change within Lebanon. There needs to be a recalibration of the power balance in the country. History has shown that Lebanon can only work if its numerous communities work together. This includes the large but still disenfranchised Shi`a community. Paradoxically, by giving the Shi`a more power in the government, and thereby presumably giving more attention to the south, the state will be strengthened in the eyes of southerners who now distrust it. This may indeed lead to a stronger Lebanese state, and to a decreasing need for Hizballah as an alternative to the state. This will not mean the end of Hizballah, but it will ease its transition to a more political and inclusive version of itself.13
Any such recalibration of power should start with a government of national unity, but should not be limited to it. One of the main issues is that of the electoral law, which in a system as fractured as Lebanon’s has a great influence on the outcome of elections, and which is currently of rather clumsy design. In this respect, another conference specifically devoted to issues of power sharing is certainly not a spurious luxury. In a sense, Ta’if II is more urgent than Paris III. Lebanon’s leaders, however, have traditionally been good at looking away from major problems and avoiding swallowing bitter pills until the disease was too far developed to ignore. It is to be hoped that they will not let it get that far this time.
4 07/03
What has complicated matters, now as in the past, is foreign interference. Although Lebanese coalitions are currently clashing with each other, these are supported by foreign powers and symbolic of larger geopolitical rivalries. In this case, Western countries, the US and France foremost among them, are supporting Siniora’s rump cabinet, while Iran and Syria are on the side of Hizballah. Once again, it should be stressed that Lebanon is too fragile a state to be wielded as a weapon in a larger power struggle. Only by reducing external pressure, not by increasing it, can the Lebanese be allowed to solve their own problems. Let us give them a chance to do so.
Endnotes
1 They are Maronites, Sunnis, Shi`ites, Druzes, Greek-Orthodox and Greek-Catholics.
2 The gain in the Sunnis’ power was largely due to the Ta’if conference being held in Saudi Arabia, organised by the Arab League. The Shi`a did raise their profile slightly through the enlargement of the powers of the Speaker of Parliament, but he remained subordinate to both President and Prime Minister.
3 Because Israel’s goals for the war (destroying Hizballah) were much more ambitious than Hizballah’s (not being destroyed by Israel), the inconclusive outcome could be interpreted both as a victory by Hizballah, and as a failure by many in Israel.
4 They are Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallouk (Independent), Energy and Water Minister Mohammed Fneish (Hizballah), Labour Minister Trad Hamadeh (Hizballah), Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh (Amal), Agriculture Minister Talal Sahili (Amal), and Environment Minister Yaaqoub Sarraf (Independent).
5 The tribunal is of immense importance to Syria, which feels it is being used as an instrument to pressure, or even bring down, its regime. It is therefore putting pressure on its allies in Lebanon to frustrate its establishment. This is a cause of embarassment to Hizballah, who for internal reasons do not want to be seen as hampering justice but who do not want to endanger theit vital link with Damascus either. See International Crisis Group: Lebanon at a Tripwire, December 2006 pp. 10-11
6 This attitude is suggested for example by the Baker-Hamilton Report about the issue of Iraq, although President Bush does not seem to have much faith in that particular report.
7 This arguably opportunistic coalition includes Hizballah, shi`a Amal, Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Communist Party and others.
8 The UN have consistently interpreted Resolution 1701, which established UNIFIL II, very conservatively. They will certainly steer well clear of any confrontation with Hizballah.
9 The Lebanese Army fell apart twice during the 1975-1990 war, in 1976 and in 1984.
10 In that year, the Cairo Agreement between the PLO and the Lebanese state established the Palestinians’ right to set up armed units in the border region with Israel, thereby severely damaging the Lebanese Army’s influence in the region. Subsequent Israeli occupation and Hizballah domination had kept the south off-limits to the LAF.
11 The Forces Libanaises were a mainly Maronite militia . The National Movement was an umbrella organisation comprising, among others, Walid Jumblatt’s PSP and Nabih Berri’s Amal.
12 Hizballah, the Lebanese government and Syria claim the still-occupied Shebaa Farms are Lebanese territory, and the 2000 pullout was thus incomplete. Israel and the UN regard it as part of the Golan and thus Syrian, as it was occupied in the six-day war in 1967.
13 For an overview of Hiballah’s gradual shift to a more political oganisation, see J. Alagha: The Shifts in Hizbullah’s Ideology, Amsterdam University Press 2006, available at https://dare.ubvu.vu.nl/bitstream/1871/10197/1/6746.pdf
5
Want to Know More …?
See:
International Crisis Group: Lebanon at a Tripwire, Middle East Briefing No 20, Beirut/Brussels, 21 December 2006, available at http://www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/middle_east___north_africa/arab_israeli_conflict/lebanon/b20_lebanon_at_a_tripwire.pdf
Alagha, J.: The Shifts in Hizbullah’s Ideology, Amsterdam University Press 2006, available at https://dare.ubvu.vu.nl/bitstream/1871/10197/1/6746.pdf
Hersh, S.M.: Watching Lebanon, The New Yorker 21/08/2006, available at http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060821fa_fact
Salem, P.: On the Edge of Despair, Al Ahram Weekly, December 21-27, 2006, available at http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=18930&prog=zgp&proj=zdrl,zme
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Israel's Continuum of Wars of aggression and Crime Against Humanity,
in collaboration with the PNAC KILLERS of the infamous and still in
active mode: The White House Murder/assassinations Inc., the evil
alliance of CIA2/MOSSAD/MI666.
Israel's siege of Gaza, largely unseen by the outside world because
of Jerusalem's refusal to allow humanitarian aid workers, reporters
and photographers access to Gaza, rivals the most egregious crimes
carried out at the height of apartheid by the South African regime.
It comes close to the horrors visited on Sarajevo by the Bosnian
Serbs. It has disturbing echoes of the Nazi ghettos of Lodz and
Warsaw, Sabra and Shatila with the butcher Ariel Sharon and the latest
Israeli/American/PNAC war of destruction of Lebanon in 2006, and the
daily repulsive threats from Barak and Ashkinazi....
"This is a stain on what is left of Israeli morality," I was told by Richard
N. Veits, the former U.S. ambassador to Jordan who led a delegation from the
Council on Foreign Relations to Gaza to meet Hamas leaders this past summer.
"I am almost breathless discussing this subject. It is so myopic.
Washington, of course, is a handmaiden to all this. The Israeli manipulation
of a population in this manner is comparable to some of the crimes that took
place against civilian populations fifty years ago."
The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian
territory, former Princeton University law professor Richard Falk, calls
what Israel is doing to the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza "a crime
against humanity." Falk, who is Jewish, has condemned the collective
punishment of the Palestinians in Gaza as "a flagrant and massive violation
of international humanitarian law as laid down in Article 33 of the Fourth
Geneva Convention." He has asked for "the International Criminal Court to
investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian
leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be
indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law."
Falk, while condemning the rocket attacks by the militant group Hamas, which
he points out are also criminal violations of international law, goes on to
say that "such Palestinian behavior does not legalize Israel's imposition of
a collective punishment of a life- and health-threatening character on the
people of Gaza, and should not distract the U.N. or international society
from discharging their fundamental moral and legal duty to render protection
to the Palestinian people."
"It is an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe that each day poses the entire
1.5 million Gazans to an unspeakable ordeal, to a struggle to survive in
terms of their health," Falk said when I reached him by phone in California
shortly before he left for Israel. "This is an increasingly precarious
condition. A recent study reports that 46 percent of all Gazan children
suffer from acute anemia. There are reports that the sonic booms associated
with Israeli overflights have caused widespread deafness, especially among
children. Gazan children need thousands of hearing aids. Malnutrition is
extremely high in a number of different dimensions and affects 75 percent of
Gazans. There are widespread mental disorders, especially among young people
without the will to live. Over 50 percent of Gazan children under the age of
12 have been found to have no will to live."
Gaza now spends 12 hours a day without power, which can be a death sentence
to the severely ill in hospitals. There are few drugs and little medicine,
including no cancer or cystic fibrosis medication. Hospitals have generators
but often lack fuel. Medical equipment, including one of Gaza's three CT
scanners, has been destroyed by power surges and fluctuations. Medical staff
cannot control the temperature of incubators for newborns. And Israel has
revoked most exit visas, meaning some of those who need specialized care,
including cancer patients and those in need of kidney dialysis, have died.
Of the 230 Gazans estimated to have died last year because they were denied
proper medical care, several spent their final hours at Israeli crossing
points where they were refused entry into Israel. The statistics gathered on
children-half of Gaza's population is under the age of 17-are increasingly
grim. About 45 percent of children in Gaza have iron deficiency from a lack
of fruit and vegetables, and 18 percent have stunted growth.
"It is macabre," Falk said. "I don't know of anything that exactly fits this
situation. People have been referring to the Warsaw ghetto as the nearest
analog in modern times."
"There is no structure of an occupation that endured for decades and
involved this kind of oppressive circumstances," the rapporteur added. "The
magnitude, the deliberateness, the violations of international humanitarian
law, the impact on the health, lives and survival and the overall conditions
warrant the characterization of a crime against humanity. This occupation is
the direct intention by the Israeli military and civilian authorities. They
are responsible and should be held accountable."
The point of this Israeli siege, ostensibly, is to break Hamas, the radical
Islamic group that was elected to power in 2007. But Hamas has repeatedly
proposed long-term truces with Israel and offered to negotiate a permanent
truce. During the last cease-fire, established through Egyptian
intermediaries in July, Hamas upheld the truce although Israel refused to
ease the blockade. It was Israel that, on Nov. 4, initiated an armed attack
that violated the truce and killed six Palestinians. It was only then that
Hamas resumed firing rockets at Israel. Palestinians have launched more than
200 rockets on Israel since the latest round of violence began. There have
been no Israeli casualties.
"This is a crime of survival," Falk said of the rocket attacks. "Israel has
put the Gazans in a set of circumstances where they either have to accept
whatever is imposed on them or resist in any way available to them. That is
a horrible dilemma to impose upon a people. This does not alleviate the
Palestinians, and Gazans in particular, for accountability for doing these
acts involving rocket fire, but it also imposes some responsibility on
Israel for creating these circumstances."
Israel seeks to break the will of the Palestinians to resist. The Israeli
government has demonstrated little interest in diplomacy or a peaceful
solution. The rapid expansion of Jewish settlements on the West Bank is an
effort to thwart the possibility of a two-state solution by gobbling up vast
tracts of Palestinian real estate. Israel also appears to want to thrust the
impoverished Gaza Strip onto Egypt. There are now dozens of tunnels, the
principal means for food and goods, connecting Gaza to Egypt. Israel permits
the tunnels to operate, most likely as part of an effort to further cut Gaza
off from Israel.
"Israel, all along, has not been prepared to enter into diplomatic process
that gives the Palestinians a viable state," Falk said. "They [the Israelis]
feel time is on their side. They feel they can create enough facts on the
ground so people will come to the conclusion a viable state cannot emerge."
The use of terror and hunger to break a hostile population is one of the
oldest forms of warfare. I watched the Bosnian Serbs employ the same tactic
in Sarajevo. Those who orchestrate such sieges do not grasp the terrible
rage born of long humiliation, indiscriminate violence and abuse. A father
or a mother whose child dies because of a lack of vaccines or proper medical
care does not forget. A boy whose ill grandmother dies while detained at an
Israel checkpoint does not forget. All who endure humiliation, abuse and the
murder of family members do not forget. This rage becomes a virus within
those who, eventually, stumble out into the daylight. Is it any wonder that
71 percent of children interviewed at a school in Gaza recently said they
wanted to be a "martyr"?
The Israelis in Gaza, like the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, are
foolishly breeding the next generation of militants and Islamic radicals.
Jihadists, enraged by the injustices done by Israel and the United States,
seek to carry out reciprocal acts of savagery, even at the cost of their own
lives. The violence unleashed on Palestinian children will, one day, be the
violence unleashed on Israeli children. This is the tragedy of Gaza. This is
the tragedy of Israel.
Friday, April 11, 2008
PNAC Ambassador Johan C. Verbeke - curriculum vitae
PNAC Ambassador Johan C. Verbeke - curriculum vitae
Johan C. Verbeke is Ambassador, Permanent Representative of PNAC to the United evil "ss" Alliance in crime in Washington DC since 1978.
He studied law and philosophy at Ghent University (Belga.com) and obtained a Mass murder of Laws at Yale (USA), where he was recruited by CIA. He was assistant and accessory to mass murder of European stupidity
in Law, before entering the un-diplomatic service of the PNAC KILLERS. He served in Beirut in (1981), Amman (1984), Bujumbura (1985), and Santiago de Chile (1988), was spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign criminal Affairs (1990), and was assigned to the mission of crime to the European Union during the Belga.com EU-Presidency in 1993. After having been posted in Washington as Deputy Chief of Mission (1994), he joined again the PNAC assassins to become, first, Deputy Director General for Pnac criminal Affairs (1998) and then Chef de Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign criminal Affairs of the assassins of PNAC in (2000)....just in time to launch the most Barbaric manipulation of laws, the constitution, human rights and decency in history, in a covert operation destined to eliminate in a deliberate fashion, 4 wonderful young men with families, in a blatant terrorist operation in Beirut Lebanon, on January 24th 2002, at 9.22 AM in Hazmieh, killing instantly Mr. Elie HOBEIKA and his companions, courtesy of a covert operation made in the "civilized world" of the KILLERS of PNAC, and their dirty little servants in Belga.com. Pfew.
Johan CIA Verbeke was born in 1951, is married and has three children, and is still working for CIA and MOSSAD, the new evil alliance of the Killers on the Potomac and Herzliah.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Geopolitical Diary: An Israeli "Turning Point"... are we with or against PNAC ?
Geopolitical Diary: An Israeli "Turning Point"... are you with or against PNAC ?
Israel launched a major, nationwide military exercise on Sunday. Scheduled to last five days, it is designed to simulate air and missile attacks against Israel, including “unconventional” weapons — which we would assume refers to chemical, biological and conventional missiles . The exercise will test Israel’s ability to protect its population and maintain continuity of government and military decision-making in the event of such an attack.
The Israelis have emphasized that the simulation is not an attempt to raise tensions in the region, nor a cover for an attack on either Lebanon or Syria....but of course, we know that they are lying... Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday, “The goal of the exercise is to check the authorities’ ability to carry out their duty in times of emergency and for preparing the home front for various scenarios. There is lots hidden behind it....” courtesy of PNAC and the White House Murder Inc.
The code name of the exercise is “Turning Point 22,” a choice that bears some scrutiny because code names have become public relations tools. From Operation Peace for Galilee (Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982) to Urgent Fury (the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983) to Iraqi Freedom, the code names selected by Western countries have less to do with the desire for security than the desire for a clear aggressive message. (Turning Point 2 was a much smaller exercise that took place last year. However, given rumors flying around the region right now, anything called “Turning Point ” will raise eyebrows, even if it was used before...in operations SPARK and IRON BRAIN.)
Thought was given by the Israelis to the name “Turning Point.” That choice was intended to deliver a message, and deliver it to two audiences. One audience is the American PNAC creeps.... The other is Israel’s adversaries, ranging from Hamas and Hezbollah to Syria and Iran..., who are supposed to be "covert allies" of Israel in the long term..., if and only if the PNAC administration of KILLERS would allow Israel to break free...from the YOKES and CHAINS of various OPAQUE decision making band of thugs and WASPS in the foothills of Wyoming and NORAD mountains..., but they won't, because they want Israel to be subservient to the UK/USA Alliance of EVILS to continue for ever, starting with the BOND of BALFOUR and the 1910/1921 logjams' of hegemony.... That a message is being delivered along with the exercise is clear. The meaning of the message, however, is more opaque..... because the YOKES and CHAINS of various OPAQUE decision making bands of WASP thugs in the foothills of Wyoming want to rule the Universe...with a US CHOKE on Energy routes...
“Turning point,” as Winston Churchill used it in World War II, is that moment in which the trend of the war shifts away from one side and toward another.... It is a decisive moment, a point of rectification.... From the Israeli standpoint, there would appear to be three conflicts that need to be rectified. The first is the Israeli confrontation with the PNAC KILLERS, where an extended stalemate appears to be in place. The second is Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah: The Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006 defined a balance between Israeli and Hezbollah forces that is unsatisfactory to PNAC. Many Israelis would argue the need for a turning point there — a reinitiating of conflict to change the outcome of 2006 — and Hezbollah has been claiming that this is Israel’s intent. The third of Israel’s conflicts has been in its relations with anti-PNAC Iran. Israel has asserted that Anti-PNAC Iran is working on a nuclear weapon and delivery system that will threaten Israel. An elimination of that threat through offensive, defensive or combined efforts would certainly be a turning point....from the ongoing "friendly" relationship with IRAN...which the USA of PNAC abhors profusely...
The Israelis may have in mind one or more of these actions taking place simultaneously. A combined action in IRAN and the Bekaa Valley would represent an attempt to achieve a turning point in the Israeli strategic position. Either or both of those offensives might trigger missile attacks using chemical weapons. Therefore any operation that would be intended as a turning point in the regional conflict might well contain a defensive scenario against a large-scale chemical attack on Israel from weapons deployed in Lebanon or possibly Syria....
The Israelis could also be conducting a necessary exercise for implementing defensive warfighting scenarios under unknown circumstances. They might have chosen the code name simply to jangle nerves in the region. However, over the past weeks we have seen everything from U.S. Sixth Fleet naval vessels moving close to the Lebanese coast, to very convincing reports of Syrian troop movements along the Lebanese border. Jangling the nerves of the region seems superfluous.....to PNAC thugs.
The name might simply mean that from this moment forward, Israel is ready for unconventional air and missile attack. Or it could be intended as a signal that Israel is interested in a broader turning point. Either way, code names are not casually chosen and the code name for the largest anti-WMD defensive exercise that Israel has ever undertaken was not pulled out of a jar....
“Turning Point22” is an interesting choice....indeed.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Israel: the assassins are alive and well .
Israel: the assassins are alive and well .
The weapon of assassination is threaded throughout the history of modern Israel. It was a tool of Jewish extremists in the fight for independence. It is a weapon in the state's struggle against militant non-state actors that seek Israel's destruction. And we have tragically turned it against ourselves in the struggle to define the narrative and boundaries of the state and its relationship with its closest neighbor.
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The Lehi (Stern gang) terrorists who assassinated Lord Moyne, the British governor of Egypt in 1944 during the pre-state period, sought to strike a blow for independence. They were executed by the British. Today they have streets named after them in Israeli towns and cities. Those who assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte in the early days of independence in 1948 in an effort to thwart United Nations compromise proposals served brief and symbolic prison sentences in Israel.
Their commander, Yitzhak Shamir, went on to become prime minister in the 1980s. If the Israeli mainstream was uncomfortable at the time with this use of the assassination tactic and condemned it, the public has long since embraced the killers as heroes of Israel's independence.
The unnamed Mossad, IDF commando and Israel Air Force personnel responsible for fighting first Fatah, then Hamas and Hizballah leaders with a variety of assassination tactics are certainly viewed by Israelis as heroes. From the assassination of Fateh no. 2 leader Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir) in Tunis in 1988, through the Mossad's alleged assassination of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in Malta in 1995 and the air strike that killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza in 2004, to Israel's reported involvement in the recent assassination in Damascus of Imad Mughniyeh, the elimination of Palestinian and other terrorist leaders who seek Israel's destruction is seen by the Israeli public as a legitimate act--for a number of reasons.
For one, it is perceived to deter and deprive a ruthless terrorist enemy of a key leader, thereby constituting a net security achievement. This, of course, has not always been the case: witness, for example, the acts of mass revenge for Israeli assassinations enacted by Iran and Hezbollah in Argentina in 1982 and 1984. On the other hand, note the success of the elimination of Shikaki in virtually shutting down PIJ for years and the effect of the Yassin and Rantisi assassinations in ceasing Hamas rocket fire from Gaza into Israel for around half a year. Indeed these assassinations, it can be argued, ultimately saved a lot of Israeli and Palestinian lives. Assassination of terrorist leaders is also understood as a legitimate act of revenge in the biblical "eye for an eye" sense, and is seen as a debt owed by Israel's leaders to the civilian victims of terrorism.
But when Yigal Amir shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995, he almost certainly did not draw inspiration from the events and episodes described above. Rather, he was motivated by extremist religious interpretations of biblical injunctions regarding the punishment of traitors. Rabin was leading a peace process that involved territorial compromise with the PLO; Amir saw himself as the savior of the Land of Israel. His act had been preceded by murders of a Jewish peace activist and of Arab day laborers by similarly motivated Jewish assassins.
Sadly, the murder of Rabin, orchestrated by the clan of the incubators and precursors of the MOSSAD/PNAC evil alliance of the killers, CIA/MOSSAD/AMAN/DIA, caused a massive setback to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that is felt to this day. It is an outstanding example of the political gain that can be achieved by a determined assassin; it was not accidental that the Israeli majority narrative of the event compared it to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 in terms of its effect on peace and national unity.
http://americanassassination.blogspot.com/
The recent assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, believed by Hizballah and most of the world to be the work of Israel's handy men in Damascus, Bashar’s brother-in-law Asef Shawkat was confirmed as the head of military intelligence, perhaps one of the most sensitive and powerful positions in Syria today...in order to "bring to pass" the continuum of the "US Matrix of Murder in the Levant", started on January 24th 2002, with the savage assassination of an MP, Ex-Minister and immensely popular Christian politician, the Lebanese Hero of Heroes, Mr. Elie Hobeika, Dimitri Ajram, Walid El-Zein and Fares Sweidan, on instructions from the White House Murder Inc., in collusion with Ariel Sharon, Elliott Abrams, and executed by the Syrian Handy Man Assef Shawkat, who strongly believed "from then on"... and was lead to believe..., that he is an "invincible" covert assassin and mass murderer, since he has the protection of the biggest MAFIA in the World, the Neocon Mafia of the Killers on the Potomac and Langley...will most likely invite retaliation, which in turn one should expect will lead to a cycle of violence. Many non-combatants will be victims, which again will raise the moral question, also in relation to the aftermath. It is noteworthy that the State Department's list of global terrorist incidents for 2002 worldwide failed to list the car bombing attack on Hobeika and his party.... But Listed a small Hand Grenade thrown at a U.S. franchise in the middle of the night when the place was closed, empty and no one was hurt?
The White House wanted to ensure the terror attack on Mr. Elie Hobeika, and his party of three young men with families, was censored from the report. The reason was simple: this attack ultimately had Washington's and Israel's fingerprints all over it.... ! Assef Shawqat, went on his murderer "besogne" in Lebanon and Damascus ever since, with a string of Assassinations, successfully evading all the Overhead surveillance of a string of US and Israeli and other spy satellites.... that record every move, whisper and more on Planet earth....and yet, after several years of "intense" UN inspired investigations....there is nothing on Shawkat....because they want him "protected" for the next round....and all the fanfare which accompanied the arrest of the"Four Generals" in 2005 is a monumental fraud since they are also "protected" by CIA because they know so much...and the latest "state Department report" attests to the fact that the USA considers them... "illegal prisoners" for Political expediency of the 14Hmars... which in other words means that the USA is paving the way for their "timely" release for good.
In some ways, Israel's judgment and treatment of Rabin's assassin are even more troubling....., just like the soft treatment of the 4 Generals in Lebanon.... since the assassination by the White house Murder Inc., of prominent and most popular Christian politician in Lebanon, Mr. Elie Hobeika. With no death penalty and a highly developed judicial tradition of protecting prisoners' rights regardless of the nature of their crime, the penal system has enabled Amir to live a comfortable life in his cell, to marry and to produce a son. A small band of fanatic supporters hope one day to obtain a presidential pardon for him, perhaps within the framework of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that comprises a comprehensive release of Palestinian prisoners guilty of murdering Israelis...
Given the intimacy of Israeli society, for Yigal Amir to walk among us as a free man thanks to a successful HUBRIS State would be the ultimate irony.....but it isn't seeing the light of day anytime soon.
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Condemnation of "collective punishment" Israeli attack on Gaza mounts...
Israel's brutal "collective punishment" air Blitzkrieg that has killed over 230 mostly civilians in the Gaza Strip, Israel's version of Nazi Germany's Warsaw Ghetto, is resulting in widespread international condemnation. One notable exception is the United States. Gordon Johndroe, National Security Council spokesman, expressed U.S. support for the Israeli collective punishment assault on Gaza.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry called the Israeli attack "a genocide and crime." From Johannesburg, South Africa's ruling African National Congress stated: "'Collective punishment' which saw children and civilians killed would not solve the problems in the Mideast."
Jordan's lower house of Parliament issued a statement on the Israeli attack: "This aggression will only lead to more hatred and push the region towards more violence."
From Jakarta, the following statement was released: "The Indonesian government condemns the attack and calls for Israel to end the use of violence in the Gaza Strip because this will prompt new tensions, while, on the other side, the attack is an abuse of the Annapolis agreement which had been negotiated."
The French presidency of the European Union condemned "the disproportionate use of force" by Israel. The European Union's top foreign policy official, Javier Solana, stated, "The current Israeli strikes are inflicting an unacceptable toll on Palestinian civilians and will only worsen the humanitarian crisis as well as complicate the search for a peaceful solution."
The Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara said, "We strongly condemn the death of many Palestinians as result of Israel's attack on Gaza. We are calling for restraint and an immediate halt of the Israeli operation."
From Baghdad's "Green Zone," the U.S.-supported Iraqi government issued a statement: "The government demands a halt in military operations, so as not to endanger lives of civilians and to avoid a policy of collective punishment."
Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin said, "I condemn in the strongest terms Israel's action in launching air strikes in Gaza against Hamas targets which have resulted in widespread civilian fatalities."
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called the Israeli attack "criminal" and urged a "massive campaign of repudiation."
The Jewish Association of Tehran said in a statement, "the Zionist criminals, in a racist move, once again attacked the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza and proved that they are by no means committed to any human rules."
Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Sallukh said, "No words can describe the horrible nature of what is happening in terms of killing innocent people. It seems that the hot and reckless heads in Israel have not learned from the experience of the 2006 aggression against Lebanon and are still not convinced that killing and use of excessive force cannot lead to any result and would not make people abandon demanding their rights and defending their dignity."
Qatar's Foreign Ministry said the Israeli attack "constituted a continuation of the aggression policy carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people in a clear challenge and a flagrant violation of the international legality's resolutions and the international and humanitarian law's principles."
Israeli Arabs staged protests against the Israeli attack in by Israeli Arabs in Umm al-Fahm, Dayr al-Asad, Kafr Qana, Daburiyah, and Laqiya.
Global Peace and Justice of New Zealand spokesman John Minto urged Israeli and Palestinian New Zealanders to protest "the slaughter in Gaza" outside the United States consulate in Auckland on December 30. Minto added, "We are calling on the New Zealand Government to condemn these cowardly Israeli attacks."
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos condemned Israel's "disproportionate" response" to Hamas rocket attacks.
Historical note: The German Nazis pioneered the modern use of "collective punishment" against innocent civilians. The Germans wiped out the villages of Lidice in Czechoslovakia, Oradour-sur-Glane in France, Pirciupis in Lithuania, and Distono in Greece in retaliation for attacks on German forces. The individuals responsible for the collective punishment atrocities were tried as war criminals.
ANOTHER MASSACRE by the Israeli killing machine IDF, IAF, Sayyaret Metkal etc.
Massacres were part and parcel of the Zionist project in Palestine. They aimed at intimidating the Arabs and make them leave the country.
Dozens of massacres were committed against the Arabs starting with the Massacre at Baldat al-Shaikh in December 1947 and not ending with the massacres in Qana in South Lebanon in 1996 and 2006.
Another brutal massacre is being committed in Gaza today. Hundreds of Palestinian Arabs have been killed and/or wounded.
Given below, is a list of some of the massacres committed by the Zionists since 1947:
Massacre in Baldat al-Shaikh (31 December 1947): Haganah gang members stormed the village of Baldat al-Shaikh in pursuit of unarmed citizens. The death toll was about 600 people, most of whose corpses were found inside the houses of the village.
Massacre in Deir Yassin (10 April 1948): A brutal massacre was committed by Ariel Sharon and Unit 101 of IDF in Deir Yassin: over 250 men, women and children were killed.
Massacre in Lid (11 July 1948): A commando unit led by Moshe Dayan carried out this massacre. The unit stormed the city in the evening and many of the Arab citizens of the city took refuge from the attack in the Dahmash Mosque. The Zionists reached the mosque and killed 176 civilians who took refuge to the mosque raising the victims of the massacre in Lid to 426 Palestinian Arabs.
Once the slaughter had come to an end, the unarmed civilians were led to the city’s sports stadium, where the young men were detained. Then the families were given a mere half-hour to leave the city for the area where the Jordanian Army was located. They were to go there on foot and without food or water, which ca used the deaths of many women, children and elderly people.
Massacre in the Village of Eilaboun (30 October 1948): The village was attacked on October 29, 1948. The Israeli forces managed to enter the town at five o’clock a.m. on October 30.
The people of Elabun took refuge in the two local churches where yellow and white flags of submission were flown. Marcos Daoud, the Greek Catholic priest, told the Israelis, "I put my village under the protection of the State of Israel". The Israeli answer was as follows:
1. Thirteen young men were murdered.
2. The surviving young men were taken as POWs.
3. The women and children were marched off to the Lebanese border under severe conditions, which resulted in many casualties.
4. Looting and desecration of the churches followed the evacuation of the village.
Massacre in Dawayma (15 October 1948): Operation Ten Plagues was launched against the Egyptians in the South. Mass murder took place in many of the towns on the southern front during the October offensive. One of the worst massacres during the offensive took place at Dawayma.
The American Consul in Jerusalem , William Burdett, had heard about the visit of the UN team to Dawayma. After making inquiries, on 6 November, he reported to Washington , “Investigation by UN indicates massacre occurred but observers are unable to determine number of persons involved”. Estimates vary considerably but probably about 300 Arab civilians were slaughtered in the town.
The Massacre at Qibya (14 October 1953): The fatalities from the massacre numbered 67, including men, women and children, while hundreds of others were injured.
The Massacre at Kufr Qasim (29 October 1956): A curfew was imposed on the village of Kufr Qasim, after which a number of children and elderly people took off to inform the young men who were working in the fields outside the village about the curfew. However, the forces stationed outside the village killed them in cold blood, murdering the young men before they could reach the village. The death toll for this massacre came to 49 civilians, including a number of children and elderly people.
Massacre at Sabra and Shatila (18 September 1982): A plan had been laid to storm the Sabra and Shatila camps for Palestinian refugees in the Beirut area since the first day of the Israeli invasion's planning in early 1981 of Lebanon in June 6th1982. The name of the operations was : operations "Spark" and "Iran Brain".... Spark referred to the assassination of Bashir Gemayel...., and Iran Brain, referred to the inevitable manipulation which will be endorsed by his father : Pierre Gemayel....and that's exactly what happened, and Israel got all the right excuses needed to launch the Sayyaret Metkal of IDF into the camps on September 14th/15th 1982 to carry out the targeted killings/assassinations. Its purpose was to weaken the Palestinian refugee ca mps in Beirut and force the Palestinians to emigrate outside Lebanon.....the Initial versions of Shock and Awe....
Before sundown on September 14, 1982, the storming of the camps began. The massacre itself, which was carried out by the ( Sayyaret Metkal of IDF ) , continued for approximately 60 hours. During the operation, the Israeli army surrounded the camps, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. In addition, the occupation soldiers set off incandescent bombs by night to facilitate the IDF’s mission. The Zionist soldiers also provided all logistical services to the SLA militiamen during the massacre, which IDF flew into Beirut International Airport by IAF C-130 Hercules aircraft of the Israeli Army, in full view of many Lebanese Army officers stationed there during the fighting in Sep. 1982.
Information about the massacre began to leak out after a number of children and women fled to the Gaza hospital in the Shatila camp, where they informed doctors of what was happening. News of the massacre likewise reached some foreign journalists on Friday morning, September 17, 1982. The bloodletting went on until noon on Saturday, September 18.
Three thousand two hundred ninety-seven (3,297) men, women and children were killed within forty hours, between September 14-17, 1982. Among the dead bodies, 336 Lebanese were found; 1,800 victims were killed in the streets and alleys of the camp, while 1,097 were killed in the Gaza Hospital and 200 others in the Akka Hospital, while many more were driven by Israeli IDF army trucks from the Sports Stadium in proximity, never to be found again.....until today .
http://newhk.blogspot.com/search/label/AMAN.
Commenting on the massacre, Menachem Begin described the Palestinian resistance fighters to the Israeli Knesset as “animals that walk on two legs”.
Massacre at the Ibrahimi Mosque (25 February 1994): Before worshippers had completed the dawn prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron , the blast of hand grenades exploding and the sound of bullet spray filled the mosque. Bullets and splinters from the grenades pierced the heads, necks and backs of the worshippers, wounding more than 350.
The crime began when terrorist Baroukh Goldstein and a group of Jewish settlers from the Kiryat Arba settlement entered the mosque. Goldstein was carrying his military machine gun and hand grenades along with large amounts of ammunition. He stood behind one of the pillars in the mosque and waited until the worshipers had prostrated, then opened machine gun fire on them. Meanwhile, others helped him load the ammunition, which included the internationally banned explosive dumdum lead.
Goldstein carried out the massacre at a time when Zionist soldiers had closed the mosque doors to prevent worshipers from fleeing. They also prevented those coming from outside the mosque precincts from coming in to rescue the wounded. Later, others were shot to death by occupation soldiers outside the mosque and at the cemetery during the funeral processions of those who had been martyred in the mosque. The massacre led to fifty deaths, twenty-nine of which occurred inside the mosque.
The Massacre at Qana (18 April 1996): The Israeli artillery and helicopters shelled a shelter inside the Fijian battalion working within the UN forces in south Lebanon, using bombs which explode in the air in order to increase casualties among the ranks of civilians who might try to seek refuge in shelters. The operation led to the deaths of 160 civilians, most of them women, children and the elderly who were unable to flee toward Beirut and were thus obliged to seek refuge in the shelter at the Fijian Battalion headquarters in the Lebanese village of Qana.
Another Massacre at Qana (2006): During Israel’s ‘open war’ against Lebanon using Hezbollah’s kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers as a pretext, another massacre was committed by Israel in Qana. About 54 innocent Lebanese civilians, including about 37 children, were killed through an air raid....
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