ISSUE:
#. 80. April 7, 2003
BAGHDAD BESIEGED
HIDEOUS TOLL IN CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
KARBALA: SHI'ITE HOLY CITY UNDER BOMBARDMENT
PALESTINE: FORCED EXPULSIONS
IN TUL KARM
AFGHANISTAN: MISSILES FALL
ON KANDAHAR MOUNTAINS
ALSO: FUN WITH ANAGRAMS!
CURRENT HOMELAND SECURITY COLOR ADVISORY CODE: ORANGE
By Bill Weinberg
with David Bloom, Special Correspondent
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. Baghdad Beseiged; Saddam Calls for "Jihad"
2. Hideous Toll of "Collateral Damage"
3. Suicide Martyrs Speak
4. Meaningless Death
5. Smart Bombs Not So Smart
6. Umm Qasr Port Still Closed; Aid Still Stalled
7. Stephen Funk: American Hero!!!
8. Dissension in Pentagon
9. Troops Asked to Pray for Bush
10. Whither the Shi'ites?
11. Karbala and Najaf: Shi'ite Holy Cities Under Bombardment
12. Missiles Rock Cradle of Civilization
13. Iran to Intervene?
14. Chaos in Kurdistan
15. Race for Kirkuk Oil
16. U.S. Charts "Dominating Control" in Post-War Iraq
17. Post-War Planners: Fuck the French
18. Halliburton Subsidiary Seeks Iraq Contract
19. WMD: Still No "Smoking Gun"
20. Belgium Guts War Crimes Act
21. Saddam Cracks Down on Al-Jazeera
22. Peacenik Arrested with Journalists
23. More Global Protests
24. Europe Gets Stupid Again
25. American "Left" Has Its Idiots Too
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. Tul Karm Mini-Expulsion: A Rehearsal For Transfer?
2. IDF Wounds Two International Activists, One Seriously
3. IDF: Corrie Death An Accident; Driver Back At Work
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. U.S. Airstrikes in Kandahar Mountains
2. Mullah Omar Issues New Call for Jihad
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. More Terror in Mindanao
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. Is War Shadow Play Against OPEC?
2. Anglo-American Split on Iraq's Future?
3. Russian Envoy in Beijing for Talks On Iraq
4. Russia's Supreme Mufti Calls for Jihad
5. Terror Attacks in Istanbul, Lebanon, Chechnya
6. Bribery Lubricates Kazakh Oil Biz
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. "Prince Of Darkness" Perle Still in the Saddle?
2. Condi and AIPAC Meet Behind Closed Doors
3. "Rolling Victory" Or Permanent War?
4. Woolsey: World War IV Against Iraq, Iran, Syria
THE WAR AT HOME
1. Oregon to Dumb Down "Terrorist" Definition?
2. Amnesty: War Bad for Global Human Rights--in U.S.A. Too
3. Call to War Tax Resistance
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
1. Sophomoric Exercise in Historical Irony
2. Fun With Anagrams
THE IRAQ FRONT
1. BAGHDAD BESEIGED; SADDAM CALLS FOR "JIHAD"
By Sunday April 6, US forces had Baghdad semi-encircled in an arc
stretching from where the Tigris River enters the city in the north to
where it leaves in the south, with a pocket of contested ground to the
west. The US also claimed to have taken Karbala, the Shi'ite holy city to
the south. Further south, British forces claimed to have taken Basra,
Iraq's second city, following street-to-street battles--and still faced
resistance from local Fedayeen milita forces. Regular troops were said to
have abandoned the southern cities. The BBC reported thousands of Iraqi
APCs and tanks destroyed in the ring around Baghdad--along with at least 20
civilian vehicles. Late Sunday night, BBC reported that US tanks had made
an incursion into the center of Baghdad, attempting to seize a presidential
palace and sparking a fierce gunbattle. A defiant government statement
said: "Those rascals are committing suicide on the gates of Baghdad." (BBC,
April 6)
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Iraqi fighters were killed as the 3rd Infantry
Division moved through southwestern Baghdad, US Central Command spokesman
Jim Wilkinson boasted. (AP, April 6) Iraqi forces did bring down a US Black
Hawk helicopter with small arms fire March 2, killing seven on board. US
and Iraqi leadership accused each other of dirty tricks--the US accusing
the Fedayeen Saddam resistance movement of dressing in civilian clothes,
and Baghdad charging that the US is dropping booby-traps to kill civilians
and menacing mosques with dangerously low overflights. (Newsday, April 3)
Iraqi missiles also brought down a US Navy Hornet April 2. (NYT, April 3)
There have been instances of US troops greeted by cheering Iraqis as they
pushed up to Baghdad. The New York Times put such an account in the lead
story of its special war section April 4. Meanwhile, a companion piece on
the same page noted "Arab Media Portray War as Killing Field."
Amid numberless senseless casualties, some stood out in the press. Five
people were injured April 6 when a convoy of vehicles with 25 Russian
diplomats and journalists trying to flee Iraq was attacked as it headed for
the Syrian border, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. (CNN, April 6)
Saddam Hussein, exploiting the carnage, compared US troops to the Mongols
who invaded Baghdad in 1258, and promised a decisive battle once US forces
reach the city. "We will make them commit suicide on the walls of Baghdad,"
he vowed. (AP, April 1) In an April 1 speech attributed to Saddam but
delivered by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf the dictator
said that "jihad is a duty and whoever dies will be rewarded by heaven...
Take your chance, my beloved. It is your chance for immortality. Hit them.
Fight them. They are cursed. They are evil. You will be victorious and they
will be defeated." It ended: "Long live our nation! Long live Palestine! Long live Iraq!...
Let's go and do jihad!" (BBC
Monitoring, April 2) Gen. Hazem al-Rawi boasted that 4,000 have volunteered
for suicide attacks. (NYT, March 31) Saddam--or a double--took a public
stroll through Baghdad April 5, and was greeted by cheering supporters.
(Newsday, April 6)
As of April 3, US troops killed in combat numbered 39, with five allied
troops and four journalists. US troops killed by accidents and "friendly
fire" number 14, with 22 allied troops. There are 15 US troops missing,
with two allies and four journalists. There are seven US POWs, two allied
POWs--and about 8,000 Iraqi POWs. (NY Post, April 3) The Pentagon is not
keeping track of Iraqi war dead, either military or civilian. (NYT, April 2)
[top]
2. HIDEOUS TOLL OF "COLLATERAL DAMAGE"
A maternity hospital operated by the Red Crescent in
Baghdad was severely damaged April 2 in an air strike on a nearby building.
The clinic, which had largely been evacuated, was hit by flying glass and
debris, blowing out windows and tearing open the roof. Three were killed
and 25 people injured on the street below, according to reports sent to the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva.
New details also emerged on a raid apparently targeting Hindiya, a suburb
of Hilla, which Red Cross officials said killed 33 and wounded more than
400 others. International Red Cross spokesperson in Baghdad, Roland
Huguenin-Benjamin, described what his team witnessed as "truly horrific",
adding: "There are dozens of bodies torn apart, limbs ripped off, 450
wounded." (UK Guardian, April 3) AP reported on the "carnage" left by an
April 3 missile attack on Baghdad's Bab al-Moazam telephone exchange. "What
does Bush want from us?" screamed an Iraqi woman in a black chador,
standing next to the ruins. "Saddam is our choice, and even if he will have
us survive on just bread, we still want him. "Would Bush do this to his
people or his family?" (AP April 3)
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon suggested April 4 that mothers of
Iraqi children killed by cluster bombs would "one day" thank the UK for
their use. Hoon's claim came as the Defense Ministry confirmed for the
first time that British forces had dropped 50 airborne cluster munitions in
the south of Iraq, leaving behind up to 800 unexploded bomblets. (UK
Independent, April 5)
The web site Iraq Body Count continues to monitor world press reports to
arrive at a daily update of the total Iraqi civilian dead. Each incident is
listed separately, noting the location, number dead, weaponry used and
media source. At press time, the minimum estimate stands at 877 and the
maximum at 1,050.
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
3. SUICIDE MARTYRS SPEAK
Iraqi TV broadcast statements by two Iraqi women who blew themselves up in
an attack that killed three US soldiers in western Iraq April 3. A woman
who identified herself as "martyrdom-seeker Nour Qaddour al-Shammari" swore
on the Koran "to defend Iraq...and take revenge from the enemies of the
[Islamic] nation, Americans, imperialists, Zionists" and Arabs who
collaborate with them. "We say to our leader and holy war comrade, the hero
commander Saddam Hussein, that you have sisters that you and history will
boast about," said the woman, who wore the red-checked keffiyeh, an Arab
headscarf. In a separate video, another woman, identified as Wadad Jamil
Jassem, said: "I have devoted myself for jihad for the sake of God and
against the American, British and Israeli infidels and to defend the
soil of our precious and dear country." (AP, April 5)
A statement from Iraqi state TV honoring the woman began with a verse from
the Koran: "Go ye forth, whether equipped lightly or heavily, and strive
and struggle, with your goods, and your persons, in the cause of God. That
is best for you, if ye but knew." (9.41) It ended: "Blessed be the two
women martyrs. May they enjoy themselves in heaven. Long live Iraq guarded
by God's care and the fists of its righteous sons, led to loftiness by the
audacious knight leader President Saddam Hussein, may God watch over him.
God is great, God is great, God is great." (BBC Monitoring, April 4)
[top]
4. MEANINGLESS DEATH
Ten Iraqi civilians, including five children, were killed when jumpy US
troops opened fire on a car at a checkpoint near Karbala March 31.
(Newsday, April 1) British soldiers injured when a US "tankbuster" aircraft
mistakenly attacked their convoy, killing one of their comrades, lashed out
angrily at the "cowboy" pilot in an interview with the UK Guardian. (March
31)
[top]
5. SMART BOMBS NOT SO SMART
Most of the 8,000 "precision-guided" bombs and missiles loosed on Iraq so
far have reportedly hit their targets. But the Pentagon admits "precision"
weapons have a failure rate of over ten percent. "No weapons system is
foolproof," said Lt. Cmdr. Charles Owens of US Central Command in Qatar.
"We'll always have one or two that go off target." Concurs Rob Hewson,
editor of Jane's Air-Launched Weapons: "Statistically, several hundred of
those have missed to some degree." (AP, April 1)
[top]
6. UMM QASR PORT STILL CLOSED; AID STILL STALLED
The US Navy said April 1 that a "low level" threat of mines was keeping Umm
Qasr, Iraq's only deepwater port, closed to commercial shipping, despite
having been secured by US-led forces. Merchant ships are awaiting approval
from the Pentagon before proceeding to the port, and aid agencies could
face frustration for several days to come. So far just one military ship,
Britain's Sir Galahad, has berthed at Umm Qasr, unloading food, medicine,
blankets and water. It was delayed for days by mine-clearing operations
before landing March 28. Australia has two shipments of wheat aid in the
Gulf, but they cannot make for Umm Qasr until the shipping channel is
cleared of explosives. That 100,000 tons of wheat, donated by the
Australian government, would be the first bulk food aid to enter Iraq's
only deep water port since the assault on Iraq began March 20. (Reuters,
April 1)
The aid which is making it through is apparently being used as a weapon of
war. Villagers are promised food and water if they identify members of the
Fedayeen paramilitary resistance movement, the LA Times reported March 31.
[top]
7. STEPHEN FUNK: AMERICAN HERO!!!
The first US conscientious objector from the Iraq war gave himself up at
Camp Pendleton Marine base in California April 1. Said Stephen Eagle Funk,
20: "I believe that it is impossible to achieve peace through violence."
Funk, a Marine reserve who was due to be sent for combat duty, went on
"unauthorized absence" from his unit. He faces a possible court martial and
time in military prison. (Reuters, April 2)
Three British soldiers in Iraq have been ordered home after protesting
civilian casualties. The three soldiers, based in Colchester, Essex, face
court martial and are seeking legal advice. (UK Guardian, March 31)
[top]
8. DISSENSION IN PENTAGON
Officers in the field are said to be grumbling that Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld failed to prepare realistically for the Iraq assault. Ret.
Gen Barry McCaffrey, a Desert Storm hero, spoke for many: "Their
assumptions were wrong. There is a view that the nature of warfare has
fundamentally changed, that numbers don't count, that armor and artillery
don't count. They went into battle with a plan that put a huge air and sea
force into action with an unbalanced ground combat force." (NYT, April 1)
[top]
9. TROOPS ASKED TO PRAY FOR BUSH
Thousands of US Marines have been given a pamphlet entitled "A Christian's
Duty," a small prayer book with a tear-out section to be mailed to the
White House, pledging the soldier who sends it in has been praying for
Bush. "I have committed to pray for you, your family, your staff and our
troops during this time of uncertainty and tumult. May God's peace be your
guide," reads the pledge. The pamphlet, produced by a group called In Touch
Ministries, offers a daily prayer to be made for the US president. One
read: "Pray that the President and his advisers will seek God and his
wisdom daily and not rely on their own understanding." Another: "Pray that
the President and his advisers will be strong and courageous to do what is
right regardless of critics." (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March
31)
[top]
10. WHITHER THE SHI'ITES?
Contrary to US and British expectations, Iraq's Shiites have not rebelled
against Saddam Hussein as they did at the end of 1991's Operation Desert
Storm. In 1991, the rebels were left to face Saddam's forces alone and were
put down brutally by the Iraqi army. This time, Shiites are holding back.
Reports in the US press of a Shi'ite uprising in Iraq's south have proved
to be of little substance. "Basra Shiites Stage Revolt, Attack Government
Troops", announced the Wall Street Journal March 26 (Europe edition). The
article starts, however, on a much less sure note: "Military officials said
the Shiite population of Basra...appeared to be rising". The officials
remained anonymous. It also read: "Reporters on the scene said that Iraqi
troops were firing on the protesting citizens..." The reporters also
remained anonymous.
On April 2, Iraqi TV broadcast images of Sheikh Mohammed Khaqani, a Shi'ite
cleric from the holy city of Najaf, visibly nervous, reading out a fatwa,
or religious edict, calling on the Iraqi people to defend their country.
But Julie Flint of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting writes that
Iraqi Shi'ites reject the decree, "insisting that it has been issued under
coercion from the regime." The fatwa was reportedly signed by Iraq's five
most senior Shi'ite clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, head
of the entire Shi'ite religious establishment. However, Abdul Magid
al-Khoei, son of Ayatollah al-Sistani's predecessor, Grand Ayatollah abu
al-Qasm al-Khoei, told Flint he had spoken to representatives of the two
most prominent ayatollahs named in the fatwa and had been told that neither
had signed it. "It is the first time in our history that we see a fatwa
signed by five people," he said, speaking from a satellite telephone in
region. "This does not happen in our religion. I know Khaqani. He is a good
man and he was clearly frightened. He was taken by force and by force was
made to read this 'fatwa'. It has no significance because it comes from a
prisoner."
Meanwhile, Reuters published a report April 3 claiming that Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani urged Iraqis not to resist invading US forces at the holy
shrine of Najaf. Citing sources at the Al Khoei foundation in London,
Reuters said the fatwa applies throughout Iraq. But a statement issued by
Sistani's office and quoted by Al-Jazeera TV later that day said that
reports of any a fatwa urging Iraqis not to resist were false. (BBC
Monitoring)
In Tehran, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's Iran-backed
Shi'ite opposition, issued a "message to the Iraqi people" urging followers
not to collaborate with the US forces. "Foreign troops must leave Iraq at
the earliest possible time. The Iraqi people will resist by all available
means, including armed struggle, if these foreign forces turn into
occupiers." (Newsday, March 31)
[top]
11. KARBALA AND NAJAF: SHI'ITE HOLY CITIES UNDER BOMBARDMENT
With US forces seizing Karbala and Najaf, there's growing fear that the
gold-domed shrines of the two Shi'ite holy cities could suffer war damage.
On April 1, US forces began launching missiles toward Karbala, about 55
miles southeast of Baghdad, with circling warplanes bombing targets in the
area. Karbala is home to the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad's martyred
grandson, Imam Hussein. US troops also fought to isolate Najaf--the resting
place of Muhammad's son-in-law, Imam Ali, 100 miles south of Baghdad. Ali's
shrine in the center of Najaf, with its golden dome and silver-covered
tomb, is a landmark of Islamic culture. Both Najaf and Karbala are centers
of pilgrimage for Iraq's Shi'ite majority, and tens of thousands of Iranian
pilgrims visit the two cities each year. "Intensifying military actions,
killing civilians and attacking holy sites in Iraq will increase hostility
and therefore extremism in the region," Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal
Kharrazi warned as US forces approached the cities. "The world does not see
that America and Britain are going to bring peace and democracy for Iraqis
by hitting them with heavy bombs." (AP, April 1)
When over 150 Iraqi resistance fighters took refuge in Najaf's Mosque of
Ali, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets April 3 to keep US
troops from entering the shrine. "The city OK, the Mosque of Ali no!," the
locals reportedly chanted. US helicopters flew above the shrine, dropping
leaflets urging surrender by the barricaded members of the Fedayeen Saddam.
Local clerics were said to be seeking a deal where the Saddam loyalists
would leave the mosque in return for safe passage out of the city. (AP,
April 3) But the London daily Al-Hayat later reported that the resistance
fighters abandoned the mosque under pressure from the same demonstrators
who had protected it from US troops. The protesters stayed at their
positions all night, controlling the streets around the mosque. (Al-Hayat,
April 5)
The Medina Division of the Republican Guards are stationed outside Najaf,
and have come under heavy bombardment by US B-52s. The city is also
surrounded by tanks of the US Seventh Cavalry. (UK Guardian, April 2)
Shrines in both Najaf and Karbala were damaged in 1991's fighting, but
Saddam has since had them restored. "Iraq may have misused the sacred
places, but they are defending themselves in their own country against
foreign aggressors," said Shiite cleric Mousa Qorbani. "Any harm to the
holy shrine will provoke unspecified severe consequences for the
aggressors." (AP, April 3)
[top]
12. MISSILES ROCK CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION
With over 1,000 known archeological sites--including the remains of
humanity's earliest cities, Ur, Nineveh and Babylon--Iraq contains what
John Curtis of the British Museum calls "the cultural heritage of the
world." Curtis warns that priceless relics from the dawn of civilization as
well as Shia Islam's holiest shrines are now at risk due to US aerial
bombardment. The UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) has provided an inventory of cultural and archeological sites to
the Pentagon, but Curtis warns that missiles go astray, and that many of
the sites are near areas coming under bombardment. (BBC, April 1)
Curtis told the UK Guardian that he visited Ur last spring and believes US
forces strafed the ancient city's ziggurat with heavy machine-gun fire
during Operation Desert Storm. An Iraqi airbase is located near Ur, and the
area is almost certainly coming under bombardment again now. (UK Guardian,
April 2)
[top]
13. IRAN TO INTERVENE?
Iran's senior leadership has sent paramilitary units across their border
with Iraq to harass US soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime falls, US
intelligence reports say. UPI reports that on March 24, an unnamed US
intelligence agency issued a "spot report" to senior administration
officials detailing conversations in a meeting of the Islamic Republic's
top leadership. The council, which is working on Iran's post-conflict
strategy, includes Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and top cleric
Ayatollah Ali Khamanei. "This confirmed all of our suspicions that the
Iranians are not our friends and not for peace in the region," one
anonymous US official said. "They are in fact for a piece of the region."
On March 14 Hujjat al-Islam Hassan Rowhani, Iran's national security
adviser, warned in a public statement that there will be no "happy ending
to the way the Americans have chosen" in Iraq. Added influential former
president Hashemi Rafsanjani: "The US presence in the Middle East is worse
than Saddam's weapons of mass destruction."
On March 28, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld opened his news briefing
with a warning to the Badr Brigades, armed wing of an Iraqi Shi'ite
opposition group that he
said is "equipped and directed" by Iran's Revolutionary Guards. "The
entrance into Iraq by military forces, intelligence personnel, or proxies
not under the direct operational control of [Central Command Chairman] Gen.
Franks will be taken as a potential threat to coalition forces," Rumsfeld
said. He added that the US would hold Iran responsible for the actions of
the Badr Brigades. (UPI, April 3)
Publicly, President Mohammad Khatami condemned the war in Iraq and urged an
"international coalition for peace which would safeguard Iraq's territorial
integrity, respect the country's national unity, and ensure that the
government's future was determined on the basis of one vote for every
Iraqi." (Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1, Tehran, April 3,
via BBC Monitoring) Iran is officially preventing its citizens from
crossing the border into Iraq to fight for Saddam Hussein, saying that
would violate its neutral status (AP, April 4).
See also WW3 REPORT #76
[top]
14. CHAOS IN KURDISTAN
US and British warplanes are bombing government-controlled territory in
northern Iraq near Mosul, while Iraqi forces continue to withdraw south,
ceding ground to advancing Kurdish peshmerga militias. (Kurdistan Satellite
TV, Salah-al-Din, April 3, via BBC Monitoring) On April 6, a US warplane
accidentally bombed a Kurdish convoy in the area, killing several
people--possibly including US Special Forces troops who were operating with
the Kurdish forces. A BBC reporter on the scene counted at least 10 bodies
and several more wounded. Kurdish military commander Wajy Barzani, brother
of the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), was reportedly
wounded in the attack . (BBC, April 6)
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf claimed April 1 that
Iraqi forces had thwarted a landing by British paratroopers near Mosul.
Al-Jazeera TV reported the Iraqis had killed 10 British troops. "The
British forces which were dropped there have been eliminated mostly on the
[battle]field, except for those who fled," Sahaf told a news conference.
(Reuters, April 1)
Iraqi forces also managed to retake one town, Khazir, after abandoning it
to a combined force of US troops and KDP peshmerga. (MENA news agency,
Egypt, April 5, via BBC Monitoring)
Turkish officials continue to refute claims that Turkish troops are
operating in Iraqi Kurdistan. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin
Dirioz went on Istanbul's NTV television April 3 to deny reports that
Turkish troops had opened fire on a Kurdish village in northern Iraq. He
also said that a shipment of Patriot missiles recently unloaded at
Iskenderun port have arrived in Turkey within the support framework
provided by NATO. (BBC Monitoring, April 4) Turkey also agreed to allow
provisions for US troops through its territory--but not weapons. The US
Congress is considering a $1 billion aid package to Turkey. (Newsday, April
3)
Meanwhile, despite the rout of their stronghold by combined Kurdish and US
forces, members of an Islamic militant group supposedly linked to al-Qaeda
continue to put up resistance in the Kurd-controlled zone. About 23 members
of Ansar al-Islam were killed in clashes with Kurdish peshmergas and US
forces in Uraman, Sulaymaniyah province, on April 3, the Iranian news
agency IRNA reported. Several foreign nationals, including Saudis, Afghans,
Moroccans and Algerians, were reportedly
among those killed in the operation. (BBC Monitoring, April 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
The pocket taken from Ansar al-Islam by a combined force of US Special
Forces and PUK peshmerga sustained a great deal of damage in the battle and
aerial bombardment. The headline on Newsday's April 2 coverage of the
victory portrayed it as a liberation, quoting a local resident: "Our People
Are Free." However, a quote hidden in the text quotes local resident Rizgar
Abdullah Nader: "Our village has been destroyed. First, we had to suffer
under the rule of Ansar, and now when we finally get rid of them, we can't
live here anymore."
[top]
15. RACE FOR KIRKUK OIL
Despite US air attacks around northern Iraq's oil fields, crude from the
area still flows via pipeline into Turkey. Industry sources and UN
officials say the oil is sitting in storage because potential buyers can't
contact the Iraqi company that owns it. US and British forces say they have
secured key oil facilities in southern Iraq, including 600 of the 1,000
southern wells. But Iraq still controls over 600 wells in the north. UN
officials say the Iraqis are pumping crude to Ceyhan, Turkey, from fields
near Kirkuk. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline is Iraq's only remaining oil export
outlet. The other, the Persian Gulf port of Mina el-Bakr, is under
US-British control.
Iraqis are managing to pump some 116,000 barrels a day through the Kirkuk
pipeline and into storage tanks in Ceyhan, according to officials with the
UN oil-for-food program. The Kirkuk field is the biggest in northern Iraq,
with an estimated 7 billion barrels of recoverable crude. That puts it in
the same league as Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, during its heyday in the 1970s,
according to Leo Drollas, chief economist of the Center for Global Energy
Studies in London. Before military action began, its production ranged from
500,000 to 900,000 barrels a day. (AP, April 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #71
[top]
16. U.S. CHARTS "DOMINATING CONTROL" IN POST-WAR IRAQ
Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress last week that the US had not
taken on "this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to
have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future."
(RFE, April 3)
Philip J. Carroll, a former chief executive of the Shell Oil Company, is
the leading contender to oversee Iraqi oil production after the fall of
Saddam, the New York Times reports, citing industry experts. After leaving
Shell, Carroll served as chairman of the Fluor Corporation, a California
construction company, and now lives in Houston. Fluor confirmed recently
that it was invited by the White House to bid on reconstruction work in
Iraq. (NYT, April 2)
Michael Mobbs, a hawkish Pentagon lawyer, has apparently been chosen to
supervise civil administration in post-Saddam Iraq. Mobbs is to take charge
of 11 of the 23 Iraqi
ministries under the Pentagon-controlled government-in-waiting being
assembled in a cluster of seaside villas in Kuwait. During the Reagan
administration, Mobbs worked at the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency,
where he was closely aligned with then-assistant defense secretary Richard
Perle. Mobbs later joined a Washington law firm in which Douglas Feith--now
undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon--was a partner. He was also
author of what has become known as the "Mobbs declaration", a document
presented to the US courts on behalf of the Pentagon claiming that the
president has wide powers to indefinitely detain US citizens alleged to be
enemy combatants. (UK Guardian, April 4)
Other top-level appointees to the post-Saddam administration include former
CIA director James Woolsey, who has long pursued a theory that Saddam
Hussein, rather than al-Qaeda, was behind the 9-11 attacks. (See related
story, this issue.) Another is Zalmay Khalilzad, now US envoy to the Iraqi
opposition and formerly an advisor to the Unocal oil company in its bid for
a pipeline contract in Taliban Afghanistan. (See WW3 REPORT #15)
(UK Guardian, April 4)
Retired US Gen. Jay Garner, charged with overseeing the military
administration of occupied Iraq, has already landed at the port of Umm
Qasr. Under British pressure, he has reportedly rejected a US plan to set
up local Iraqi vendors to sell water to residents in the impoverished city.
Instead, he has endorsed the British plan to make water available for free.
(NY Daily News, April 2)
[top]
17. POST-WAR PLANNERS: FUCK THE FRENCH
Despite a defeat in committee, Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA) is pushing
ahead with a plan intended to prevent French and German companies from
getting US contracts to rebuild Iraq. The proposal failed in a 35-27 vote
in the House Appropriations Committee April 2, but Nethercutt said he
believes support is growing and that he will prevail in the full House,
where he plans to introduce an amendment to the emergency war-spending bill
that would bar any rebuilding funds from going to businesses based in a
country that "publicly expressed" opposition to the war. "The coalition of
the unwilling should not participate in reconstruction with US tax
dollars," Nethercutt said, adding that his new proposal would list France,
Germany, Russia, Syria and China. (AP, April 3)
[top]
18. HALLIBURTON SUBSIDIARY SEEKS IRAQ CONTRACT
Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton declined to bid for
a primary contract under a State Department procedure open to only a select
few firms, but is still pursuing reconstruction work in Iraq. Halliburton
Co. said its KBR subsidiary "remains a potential subcontractor for this
important work." Secondary contractors do not have to submit bids. The KBR
subsidiary (Kellogg, Brown & Root) already has business in Iraq under a
previous Defense Department contract to extinguish oil well fires. The
company hired subcontractors Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc.
and Wild Well Control Inc., both also of Houston, to handle the
fire-fighting work. Contract controversy began when US AID sent a detailed
"request for proposals" to a handful of companies for construction work
that that could total $600 million. AID officials said they were prohibited
by law from identifying the invited firms, but The Wall Street Journal said
they included KBR, the
Halliburton subsidiary; Bechtel Group Inc.; Parsons Corp.; Louis Berger
Group and Fluor Corp. (two companies that have joined together for this
effort), and Washington Group International. (AP, April 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #s 79 & 43
[top]
19. WMD: STILL NO "SMOKING GUN"
The US and UK suffered a propaganda blow March 30 when their top
justification for war was undermined by reports that special forces have
failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Senior officials in
Washington said that intelligence leads about weapons of mass destruction
at 10 sites had proved to be unfounded. The Washington Post reported that
tests had proved negative at all "urgent" sites in the western desert. "All
the searches have turned up negative," a staff officer told the newspaper.
"The munitions that have been found have all been conventional." (UK
Guardian, March 31)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
20. BELGIUM GUTS WAR CRIMES ACT
Belgian lawmakers passed amendments to the nation's "universal
jurisdiction" law for war crimes, making it more difficult for cases to be
filed against leaders of democratic
nations. The amendments are aimed at avoiding complaints such as those
filed against former US President George Bush and Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, which have drawn protests from Washington and Tel Aviv. After
the 63-48 vote in Belgium's House of Representatives, which split the
ruling coalition, the amendments now go to the Senate for a final vote.
Approval is expected. Under the amendments, the 10-year-old law would apply
only for war crimes committed in countries lacking democratic credentials
and unable to carry out fair trials. (AP, April 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
21. SADDAM CRACKS DOWN ON AL-JAZEERA
The Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera April 3 interrupted a newscast
to announce that Iraq's Information Ministry had informed the network that
correspondent Diar al-Omari, an Iraqi, could no longer report for the
network and that visiting correspondent Tayseer Allouni must leave. (AP,
April 3) Al-Jazeera has come under harsh criticism in the US for its
perceived bias in favor of Iraq.
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
22. PEACENIK ARRESTED WITH JOURNALISTS
A group of four journalists, including correspondent Matthew McAllester and
photographer Moises Saman of New York's Newsday, were released to Jordanian
territory April 2 after a week in an Iraqi prison. They admitted they had
entered Iraq using tourist visas with a group of "human shields." US peace
activist Philip Latasha was also released to Jordan with the journalists.
(Jordan Times, April 3)
[top]
23. MORE GLOBAL PROTESTS
100,000 marched on the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, March 30, chanting
"America, Number One Terrorist!" (AP, March 30) Over 15,000 Indonesians
have signed up to travel to Iraq and fight the US, the militant Islam
Defenders' Front claimed. The radical group's leader, Habib Muhammed Riziq
Shihab, told The Australian March 25 that volunteers have signed up from
throughout the country.
March 30 also saw large protests in several cities in Pakistan. In Multan,
protesters burned an American flag and an effigy of President Bush.
Demonstrators also offered Muslim funeral prayers for Iraqi victims. About
70,000 marched in Peshawar in a protest organized by hardline Islamic
leaders. The march was the fourth such protest in Pakistan organized by the
Mutahida Majlis-i-Amal, or United Action Forum. "We will destroy America.
We will fight jihad against America. I will be the first to die," said
Shabbir Ahmed Khan, a member of Pakistani parliament from the
Jamaat-i-Islami party. (AP, March 30)
March 30 also saw protests in Seoul, South Korea, where up to 50,000
marched In a rare instance of political protest permitted by Chinese
authorities, about two dozen students at Beijing University staged a quiet
demonstration. Police dispersed anti-war protesters who sought to gather in
other parts of the city, detaining at least 10. (AP, March 30)
The 16th day of the on-going anti-war protests in Dhaka, Bangladesh, turned
violent April 4, with police using tear gas shells and batons to clear the
streets and demonstrators responding with home-made fire-bombs. (BBC
Monitoring, April 5)
Following an appeal by the country's Muslim scholars, 3,000 took to the
streets of Djibouti to protest the war April 4. They condemned what the
Djibouti news agency ADI called "massacres perpetrated by Anglo-American
forces against innocent civilian victims." (BBC Monitoring, April 5)
Anti-war protests following Friday prayers have become routine in Cairo,
despite harsh police repression. Human rights groups say hundreds have been
arrested at unofficial protests in Egypt since the war began. (VOA, April
6) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned Washington that a long war will
be disastrous: "If there is one bin Laden now, there will be 100 bin Ladens
afterward." (NY Daily News, April 1)
On March 27, hundreds confronted riot police at an anti-war demonstration
in Algiers, defying a ban on all street protests . (AFP, March 30) The
leader of Algeria's secular Republican National Alliance, Redha Malek,
described the war in Iraq as a "colonial invasion in its blatant form".
(Algerian TV, April 3, via BBC Monitoring)
At the UK's Akrotiri Air Base in Cyprus, about 5,000 Greek Cypriots held
the largest protest on the island since the war started March 30, holding
banners reading "Bush murderer of children," and "Close the bases of
death." Akrotiri -- the largest British air base outside the UK--has been
used extensively as a refueling and resupply base for allied aircraft and
warships. (AP, March 30)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
24. EUROPE GETS STUPID AGAIN
At a March 22 anti-war rally in Paris, four Jews were violently attacked by
protesters, leaving fellow protester Noam Levy with 10 stitches in his
head. Levy, a longtime member of the leftist Jewish group Hashomer Hatzair,
which supports the Palestinian cause, arrived at the protest just as a
fellow Hashomer member--this one wearing a yarmulke--was assaulted. Levy
ran to his aid and got caught in the attack. "They were shouting 'Death to
the Jews' and 'You and your kippah [yarmulke] have no place here,'" Levy
recalled, saying the assailants were mostly North African men carrying
metal pipes. Authorities widely condemned the attacks. A new report by the
National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), the French
official human rights watchdog group, found that of 313 acts of racist
violence last year, 193 were against Jews. "If the increase in the number
of attacks aimed at the immigrant community is significant, the quantity of
attacks aimed at the Jewish community has truly exploded," the report
states. About 5 million Muslims and 600,000 Jews--the largest of both
populations in Western Europe--live in France. (CSM, April 4)
The 313 racist attacks recorded in France in 2002 compares with
just 71 in 2001. The only death recorded in the report was that of a North
African immigrant. While Muslims and right-wing French ultra-nationalists
alike have targeted Jews, right-wing thugs often target Muslim immigrants
as well . (AP, March 27)
The graves of British soldiers in France from World War II were also
vandalized, prompting President Jaques Chirac to formally apologize to
Queen Elizabeth. The stones were scrawled with red swastikas and graffiti
reading "Saddam will win, and he will make you bleed." Another read: "Dig
up your garbage, it is contaminating our soil." (NYT, April 4)
Meanwhile in Austria, far-right politician Jorg Haider and a branch of his
anti-immigrant Freedom Party have launched a campaign to raise money for
children in Iraq. Haider said he would gladly take in Iraq's Foreign
Minister Naji Sabri if the high-ranking member of Saddam Hussein's regime
chooses to go into exile. "There's always room in my home for a friend,"
Haider told reporters. (AP, April 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #31
[top]
25. AMERICAN "LEFT" HAS ITS IDIOTS TOO
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark--now a leader of the anti-war
movement--defended Saddam Hussein March 28, dismissing reports of his
brutality as part of a US disinformation campaign. Asked about the death of
an Iraqi dissident who was reportedly put in a glass cage and eaten alive
by dogs while Saddam and other top leaders watched, Clark told WLIE-NY
radio's Mike Siegel: "That's the most absurd story I've heard in a long
time... Propaganda can be pretty vicious. If you believe that, you're a
hopeless case."
Clark did acknowledge the veracity of reports that Saddam's son-in-law was
murdered after he defected in the 1990s, but he declined to pin the blame
on Saddam, saying the assassination was carried out by "people working for
the [Iraqi] government, apparently." Asked if Saddam controlled the
government, Clark responded, "The government is a lot of people."
Asked about other accounts of Saddam's brutality from defectors, Clark
responded: "I've worked with problems of defection and informers for years
and years and they're not generally reliable. You have to be careful about
who you're talking to. I also recognize propaganda. And I hear more garbage
and propaganda coming out about how evil the Iraqi people are." He then
chastised Siegel: "I think you're just fantasizing with propaganda. It
shows your own hatred and narrow-mindedness." (NewsMax.com, March 30)
WW3 REPORT was unable to independently verify the glass cage incident, but
it is sort of beside the point. Many allegations against Saddam are
doubtless disinformation, but implying that all of them are is also
disinformation.
See also WW3 REPORTS #s 53 & 49
[top]
THE PALESTINE FRONT
1. TUL KARM MINI-EXPULSION: A REHEARSAL FOR TRANSFER?
At 3 AM on April 2, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) troops and border police
invaded the West Bank's Tul Karm refugee camp from all sides. Gunfire, stun
grenades and helicopters woke the camp's residents. On loudspeakers, the
Israelis gathered all male residents of the camp, age 15-40. The males
arrived at the gathering point, a school in the middle of the camp, where
their ID's and mobile phones were taken, returned only after their phone
logs were recorded. Those aged 15-20 were separated and brought inside the
school, where they were forced to rip pictures of shaheeds (martyrs) off
the walls, and step on them.
A Druze Israeli officer reportedly told a few hundred men on site: "You are
leaving the camp. Don't come back until it is all over." Abd a-Latif
a-Sudani, 30, recalls: "We asked him--'Where are we to go? To Baghdad?' And
he said: `You'd be better off there.'" Trucks ferried the men to Nur Shams
refugee camp, over a mile away. No exact numbers of how many men were
expelled, but estimates range up to 2,000.
One Tul Karm camp resident, Abu Said, said the following: "All at once all
the memories and stories my father and grandfather told me as a child about
the Naqba [disaster, 1948 expulsions]. We were all afraid that now we were
being deported, and it was even scarier thinking of the three-year-old girl
and the wife you are leaving behind. But what choice did we have but to get
on the truck?" (Ha'aretz, Apr. 4)
Once at Nur Shams, the men were given what shelter was available, but some
slept in orchards, in olive groves, on the ground. Hakem Talib, 38, said he
spent the nights in the hills. "I found myself outside the camp not knowing
anyone, so I went with a friend to sleep in the hills of Iktana village,
while others went to Danaba village. The army had imposed a curfew on these
villages, banning the residents from hosting us... so we had to sleep in
the hills, and we also went around the village houses to ask for food."
(AFP, Apr. 4)
Israeli left opposition groups were appalled. Yossi Beilin, leader of the
pro-peace Shahar movement, said the action "conjures up chilling memories"
and that "only a twisted mind could have come up with such a plan." The
activist group Gush Shalom called the incident a "violation of
international law," and warned the action is the IDF's first attempt at a
population transfer. Keller said he thinks the army removed such a large
group of men as a test case, to see what kind of reaction there would be.
(Jerusalem Post, Apr. 2) The leadership of the left-opposition Meretz party
said in an announcement, "Anyone who today expels 1,000 residents from Tul
Karm, might tomorrow do the same in Tel Aviv." (Ha'aretz, Apr. 2)
Israeli forces also surrounded Thabet Thabet hospital, and beat up a
Palestinian in front of activists of the Interational Solidarity Movement
(ISM). The Israelis ordered all men to leave the hospital, but ISM members
refused to leave the premises, and said the attempt to evacuate the
hospital constituted a war crime. The Israelis backed down after a few
hours, though they threatened to return. (ISM, Apr. 2)
On April 4, Israeli West Bank district commander, Brig-Gen Yitzhaq Gershon
was asked if the expulsion constituted a new modus operandi for the army.
"No, not at all," he told Army radio. "We use this method selectively. We
were forced to do it this time because we did not possess accurate
intelligence information on the whereabouts of the [local] Islamic Jihad
leader [Anwar Ilyan] and since we wished to avoid harming innocent
civilians, we had absolutely no choice but to encourage the men to leave
for three days." (BBC Monitoring: Voice of Israel, Apr. 4)
After 48 hours, the army allowed the men to return to Tul Karm camp. Many
of them were tired and dirtied from having slept outside. Some found thier
homes ransacked with walls separating the closely-built houses smashed
through, a method the Israeli army uses so as to avoid going through the
streets and alleys of the camp. 21 Palestinian men were arrested by the
Israelis during invasion, including a leading
Fatah activist and an Islamic Jihad militant. (ISM, AFP, April 4) (David Bloom)
[top]
2. IDF WOUNDS TWO INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS, ONE SERIOUSLY
On April 5, the Israeli army shot and wounded two activists of the
International
Solidarity Movement (ISM), one seriously. 24-year-old Brian Avery of the US
was wounded in the face by large-caliber fire from an Israeli armored
personnel carrier. Avery and his companions had gone outside during curfew
in Jenin to investigate sounds of gunfire. Two APC's rounded the corner,
and opened fire on the activists, even though they were wearing florescent
vests and had thier hands up. The ISM reported no militant activity in the
vicinity when the incident took place. Avery is in Haifa hospital
undergoing facial reconstructive surgery. The army is investigating. (ISM,
APF, April 5, 6) Earlier in the day, a Danish activist, Lassel Smith, was
wounded in the leg by IDF fire. (Ha'aretz, Apr. 5) (David Bloom)
[top]
3. IDF: CORRIE DEATH AN ACCIDENT; DRIVER BACK AT WORK
The Israeli army has yet to reveal the results of its investigation into
the death of US activist Rachel Corrie. However, according to Israel's
Channel 2 TV, the army has already concluded that Corrie's death was an
accident, and that "activists were endangering their own lives," as
reported by AFP on April 6. On April 5, the Israeli army announced that the
bulldozer driver who killed Corrie is back on the job. (AP, Apr. 5) (David
Bloom)
See Also: US Activist Murdered by Israeli Army Bulldozer
[top]
THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT
1. U.S. AIRSTRIKES IN KANDAHAR MOUNTAINS
Two dozen US Special Forces troops and hundreds of Afghan allies attacked a
village on the Pakistan border April 2 to drive out Taliban/al-Qaeda
fighters. At least eight Afghan soldiers and as many Taliban fighters were
wounded. Six Taliban were captured and arrested, but another 60 were
entrenched in the rugged Tor Ghar mountains, which were pounded by US air
strikes from two A-10 fighter jets and two Apache helicopters.
Taliban/al-Qaeda are said to be regrouping after a US military campaign
drove them from power 18 months ago. Rebel commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is
said to be leading veteran Taliban fighters.
In the past two weeks in southern Afghanistan, a Red Cross worker was
waylaid and murdered, and two US soldiers were killed in an ambush on their
convoy. The Red Cross worker, Ricardo Munguia of El Salvador, was shot 20
times and the vehicles in his convoy were torched. The International
Committee of the Red Cross ordered its workers not to travel until further
notice. (AP, April 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
2. MULLAH OMAR ISSUES NEW CALL FOR JIHAD
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has issued a new call for a
holy war against US troops and Afghans who collaborate with them. His
latest decree, released in posters widely displayed in eastern Afghanistan,
carries the signatures of 600 Islamic clerics. "Whenever the non-Muslims
attack a Muslim land it is the duty of everyone to rise up against the
aggressor," reads the black-and-white poster reportedly written by Omar.
"We were blamed for Osama bin Laden because they said he was a terrorist
and he was taking shelter with us. But what is the fault of Iraq? Iraq has
no Osama bin Laden in his country." (AP, March 31)
[top]
THE PHILIPPINE FRONT
1. MORE TERROR IN MINDANAO
Bombs exploded outside three mosques in the Philippine city of Davao April
3, a day after an explosion at a wharf and ferry terminal left 16 dead and
50 injured. The mosque attacks preceded the arrival of President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo in the predominantly Christian city, which is the
commercial capital of the southern island of Mindanao. No group has claimed
responsibility, but Arroyo said the blasts were the work of "terrorists."
Eid Kabalu of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country's largest
Muslim separatist group, warned that the bombings "could have been aimed at
really igniting a Muslim-Christian war." (UK Daily Telegraph, April 4)
See also WW3 REPORT #74
[top]
THE NEW GREAT GAME
1. IS WAR SHADOW PLAY AGAINST OPEC?
Writes Der Spiegel journalist Lutz C Kleveman in the April edition of
England's The Ecologist magazine:
"'No blood for oil' was a common slogan at the recent anti-war demos
around the globe. Yet few people have an idea of just how momentous a
strategic struggle is being waged behind the rhetoric of weapons
inspections and human rights. What is at stake is nothing less than who
controls the earth's remaining energy reserves. This new 'Great Game' (a
modern variant of the imperial rivalry between Great Britain and Tsarist
Russia in 19th-century Central Asia) is about to enter a crucial stage.
However vehement the denials by the Bush administration, Washington's true
intention is to turn Iraq into an alternative to Saudi Arabia: a strategic
oil supplier for its economy and a key US ally in the Middle East.
"The new Great Game is being played out not only in the Middle East but
also in other energy-rich regions such as West Africa and the Caspian Sea.
There, too, the
scramble for petrol reserves and pipeline routes is producing bloody
conflicts. Iraq, however, has become the linchpin in a US strategy to
secure cheap oil while breaking the clout of the Arab-dominated oil cartel
OPEC. It sits on an astronomical 112 billion barrels of crude. At 12
percent of the world's reserves, this is the second largest proven source
in the world. Only Saudi Arabia (with 262 billion barrels and roughly one
quarter of the earth's total resources) has more oil...
"Last September George Bush's former economic adviser Larry Lindsey put the
war aim bluntly when he said: 'When there is a regime change in Iraq, you
could add three
to five million barrels of production to world supply [per day]. The
successful prosecution of the war would be good for the economy.'
"Americans currently burn 21 million barrels of oil a day, roughly half of
which is imported... Since the 1973 oil crisis, OPEC has used oil as a pawn
to gain leverage over the West. In an effort to decrease its dependency on
the sheikhs, the US has
sought for years to 'diversify its oil supplies.' The problem is that many
non-OPEC oil fields, such as those in the North Sea, are approaching
depletion. At the same time...booming economic growth in countries such as
China and India is likely to cause a surge in global oil consumption from
today's 73 million barrels per day to 90 million in 2020... Already, the US
imports about 2.6 million barrels of oil from Saudi Arabia every day...
"It is not unlikely that a US-backed government in Baghdad would pull Iraq
out of OPEC lest foreign investors would be burdened by production limits.
In that case, Iraq would serve as an OPEC-buster. As one of a block of
non-OPEC producers--including Russia and the Caspian countries--it would
churn out enough oil to undermine the cartel's high-price agreements. The
clout of OPEC and Saudi Arabia would be broken,
and oil would once again flow freely to the West."
See also WW3 REPORT #s 63 & 13
[top]
2. ANGLO-AMERICAN SPLIT ON IRAQ'S FUTURE?
Writing in the April 4 edition of Al-Hayat, the London-based Arabic daily,
Patrick Seale notes an irony in what he calls "Bush's Dangerous Colonial
Adventure." While US strategies are modeled on earlier British imperial
designs in the Middle East, Britain itself is at odds with Washington over
Iraq's post-Saddam future:
"What is to happen in Iraq after the war? This is now the subject of
intense debate between the allies. As both the Pentagon and Colin Powell
have made clear, the United States wants 'dominant control' over a
post-Saddam Iraq. It appears to be planning direct rule, somewhat on the
model of British colonial rule in Egypt after the 1882 occupation. The
civil administration of Iraq, as well as humanitarian assistance and
reconstruction, will be the responsibility of retired Lt-General Jay
Garner, a man notorious for his arms-dealing and his close personal ties
with Israel's Likudniks, acting as a sort of pro-consul on the model of
Lord Cromer in Egypt. Meanwhile, military affairs and the security of Iraq
will be the responsibility of General Franks' deputy in CentCom, Lt-General
John Abizaid (apparently on the strength of his knowledge of Arabic!) on
the model of Britain's Field Marshal Lord Kitchener. Thus, two American
generals, Garner and Abizaid, both strikingly ill-fit for the job, will
have the destiny of Iraq in their hands... No role seems to be in
consideration for US-backed Iraqi opposition figures, like Ahmad Chalabi or
Kanan Makiya who, if they make an appearance at all, will almost certainly
be considered traitors and quislings by the Iraqi population. General
Franks himself is expected to go home once the war is won.
"The British view about 'the day after' is quite different. Prime Minister
Tony Blair is pressing for a UN-sponsored conference of all Iraq's
political groups to decide the shape of a post-Saddam administration. He
wants the UN, not the US, to play the leading role... Blair does not want
British troops, already stretched to the limit, to be given policing duties
in occupied Iraq, where they would inevitably be seen as lackeys of an
American colonial-type administration. British opinion would rebel against
any such thankless and subordinate role...
"[T]he United States has embarked on a colonial misadventure. It has always
opposed the emergence of an Arab power able to challenge its interests. But
now we are witnessing a qualitative change in American policy. The United
States already has a military presence in almost every Arab country, and
exerts enormous influence--political, economic and cultural--everywhere.
Bush has gone further still. He is applying naked military force against a
major Arab country in pursuit of unchallenged hegemony. The coming months
are likely to prove the folly of his gamble."
[top]
3. RUSSIAN ENVOY IN BEIJING FOR TALKS ON IRAQ
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov arrived in China April 3 for
talks on the US-led war on Iraq. Russia and China, both veto-wielding
permanent members of the UN Security Council, both oppose the war. But
China, wary of straining relations with the US, has taken a less vocal
stand than Russia, France and Germany, forbidding most public protests.
Fedotov's visit coincides with one by South Korean national security
adviser Ra Jong-yil for talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis. Ra had
also visited Moscow early in the week. But a Russian official said the
talks "specifically" involved Iraq. (Reuters, April 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #68
[top]
4. RUSSIA'S SUPREME MUFTI CALLS FOR JIHAD
Russian Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin announced a jihad against the US
April 3, warning that Russian Muslims have "levers of influence on the
United States" and that they would raise money "to buy armaments for
fighting America and food for the people of Iraq." The Russian Prosecutor
General's Office said it is investigating whether the Supreme Mufti broke
the law in his announcement. The last time jihad was declared by Russia's
Muslims was in 1941 against the Germans. (London Times, April 4)
But rival Russian mufti Ravil Gaynutdin said that Tadzhuddin's declaration
is a manifestation of political extremism, claiming that Tadzhuddin had
contacts with the bin Ladin family in early 1990s. He also claimed that
Tadzhuddin's Central Spiritual Board of Muslims of Holy Russia was an empty
body that represented few Muslims. (Ren TV, Moscow, April 3, via BBC
Monitoring)
[top]
5. TERROR ATTACKS IN ISTANBUL, LEBANON, CHECHNYA
Bombs exploded within hours of each other April 3 at the British consulate
and outside a UPS office in Istanbul, causing damage but no injuries. In
the first blast, an assailant hurled a bomb at the consulate, shattering
windows and damaging a gate and walls of the building in the downtown
Beyoglu district, police said. The blast at the United Parcel Service
office blew out the windows of two nearby shops. It was unclear if the two
attacks were linked. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the consulate
attack, which came hours after Turkey's 2-0 defeat by England in a Euro
2004 soccer qualifier in England. (AP, April 3)
On April 5, an explosion ripped through a McDonald's restaurant in the El
Dourah district of Beirut, injuring three people. Security forces later
found a small quantity of dynamite which had been planted in the toilets of
the restaurant. (Tele-Liban TV, Beirut, April 5, via BBC Monitoring)
An explosion ripped on a bus taking construction workers home from a
Russian military base in Chechnya killed eight and injuring another eight
April 3. The blast in Chechnya's devastated capital Grozny was the most
serious attack since Chechens voted last month in favor of a new
constitution emphasizing permanent union with Russia. Separatists denounced
the referendum and vow to continue their campaign against the Russian
military presence in the region. (Reuters, April 3)
Eleven al-Qaeda suspects were also reported arrested at various locations
across Yemen April 1. (AP, April 1)
[top]
6. BRIBERY LUBRICATES KAZAKH OIL BIZ
US businessman James H. Giffen was released on $10 million bond after being
arrested at Kennedy Airport on charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act. US prosecutors say Giffen transfered $20.5 million in 1997
to a Swiss bank account controlled by "a senior Kazakh official" and "his
heirs." Swiss authorities named the official as President Nursultan
Nazarbayev. Giffen and his Mercator Corporation worked for the Kazakh
government from 1992, generating $67 million in commissions and fees.
Giffen is accused of using funds from Mobil Oil (now part of ExxonMobil) as
kickbacks in exchange for a 25% share in Kazakhstan's Tengiz oil filed.
(NYT, April 3)
[top]
WATCHING THE SHADOWS
1. "PRINCE OF DARKNESS" PERLE STILL IN THE SADDLE?
Richard Perle remains a member of Defense Policy Board and continues to
generate controversy despite stepping down as the board's chair. Canadians
were alarmed when he warned April 3 that Ottawa's refusal to back the
US-led war in Iraq "does have implications for US-Canadian relations."
(CTV, April 4) Many of his public comments in the immediate prelude of his
resignation were especially hubristic. In a commentary printed by the UK
Guardian March 21, "Thank God for the Death of the UN," Perle wrote: "Its
abject failure gave us only anarchy. The world needs order... Saddam
Hussein's reign of terror is about to end. He will go quickly, but not
alone: in a parting irony, he will take the UN down with him. Well, not the
whole UN. The 'good works' part will survive, the low-risk peacekeeping
bureaucracies will remain, the chatterbox on the Hudson will continue to
bleat. What will die is the fantasy of the UN as the foundation of a new
world order. As we sift the debris, it will be important to preserve, the
better to understand, the intellectual wreckage of the liberal conceit of
safety through international law administered by international
institutions."
On March 27, the same day he resigned, Perle told BBC: "This will be the
short war I and others predicted... I don't believe it will be months. I
believed all along that it will be a quick war, and I continue to believe
that."
Many analysts say the current strategy for US domination of Iraq originates
in a plan drafted in 1997, when the Project for a New American Century
(PNAC) sent a letter to then-President Clinton in 1998 urging him to take
action to oust Saddam Hussein. The group also suggests the
"democratization" of Syria and Iran. Among the 40 neo-conservatives in the
think tank were 10 present members of the Bush administration--including
Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Richard
Perle. ( KOMO TV news, Seattle April 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
[top]
2. CONDI AND AIPAC MEET BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
When National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice gave a speech March 31 to
roughly 4,000 members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), her remarks were closed to the media and the public, as the White
House told journalists several days beforehand. The White House termed the
decision routine, but it not exactly likely to calm fears that the war on
Iraq is part of a "Jewish conspiracy." (Chicago Tribune, March 28)
See WW3 REPORT # 77
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3. "ROLLING VICTORY" OR PERMANENT WAR?
Wrote the Washington Post April 4: "The Bush administration has devised a
strategy to declare victory in Iraq even if Saddam Hussein or key
lieutenants remain at large and fighting continues in parts of the country,
officials said yesterday. The concept of a 'rolling' victory contemplates a
time--not yet determined--when US forces control significant territory and
have eliminated a critical mass of Iraqi resistance. US military
commanders would establish a base of operations, perhaps outside Baghdad,
and assert that a new era has begun. Even then, tens of thousands of US
soldiers would remain to help maintain order and provide humanitarian
assistance."
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4. WOOLSEY: WORLD WAR IV AGAINST IRAQ, IRAN, SYRIA
Former CIA Director James Woolsey told a group of UCLA students April 3
that the US is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for
years. "This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than
either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus
decades of the Cold War." He said the new war is actually against several
enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria,
and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda. "As we move toward a new Middle
East," Woolsey said, "over the years and, I think, over the decades to
come...we will make a lot of people very nervous." Singling out Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he said, "We want
you nervous. We want you to realize now, for the fourth time in a hundred
years, this country and its allies are on the march and that we are on the
side of those whom you--the Mubaraks, the Saudi Royal family-- most fear:
We're on the side of your own people."
Woolsey was speaking at a UCLA "teach-in" organized by "Americans for
Victory Over Terrorism" and the Bruin Republicans. The group was founded by
former Education Secretary William Bennett, who also took part in the
event, along with Paul Bremer, a U.S. ambassador during the Reagan
administration and the former chairman of the National Commission on
Terrorism. (CNN, April 3)
See also WW3 REPORT #44
[top]
WAR AT HOME
1. OREGON TO DUMB DOWN "TERRORIST" DEFINITION?
An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking protesters for at
least 25 years in a thinly veiled effort to discourage anti-war protests,
critics say. The bill, introduced by the state senate judiciary committee
chairman, Republican John Minnis, identifies a terrorist as a person who
"plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its
participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or
free assembly. (Reuters, April 2)
See also WW3 REPORT #79
2. AMNESTY: WAR BAD FOR GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS--IN U.S.A. TOO
Since the military action began in Iraq on March 20, a backlash against
human rights has been witnessed around the world, Amnesty International
reports in a March 31 press release. The report cites attacks on the rights
to freedom of expression and assembly, excessive use of force by police
against anti-war demonstrators, and restriction of asylum rights in several
countries. Writes Amnesty: "With the spotlight focused on the theatre of
war, such abuses of human rights have been largely ignored."
The USA has been no exception. "Operation Liberty Shield", announced by the
US Department of Homeland Security on March 17, mandates the detention of
new asylum-seekers from Iraq and at least 33 other countries. The policy
allows the immigration authorities to detain "for the duration of their
processing period" such asylum applicants "from nations where al-Qaeda,
al-Qaeda sympathizers, and other terrorist groups are known to have
operated," according to a Department of Homeland Security statement. In
effect, this presumes guilt by association and does so on the basis of
nationality. The policy does not cover people whose cases are pending or
those who arrive in the USA and apply for asylum after entry, but it offers
no discretion and no assessment of the circumstances of individual
detainees. Amnesty International calls this "a clear breach of
international legal standards, which prohibits detention that is arbitrary
and unlawful."
See also WW3 REPORT #78
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3. CALL TO WAR TAX RESISTANCE
A group opposing the war in Iraq has launched a petition drive to enlist
support for those who choose to withhold federal income taxes in protest
against the war. Called "An Appeal to Conscience," the petition states
that the signatories, "believing that war tax refusal under the present
circumstances is fully justified on moral and ethical grounds, publicly
declare our encouragement of, and willingness to lend support to, those
persons of conscience who choose to take this step."
A partial list of signatories to the Appeal to Conscience includes: Joan
Baez; Fr. Daniel Berrigan; Noam Chomsky; Rev. William Sloane Coffin; Mary
Morgan; Dave Dellinger; Daniel Ellsberg; Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton; David
McReynlds, Grace Paley and Robert Nichols; Utah Phillips; Bill ("Rev.
Billy") Talen; and Howard Zinn.
The Appeal was inspired by a similar declaration circulated during the
Vietnam War in support of young men refusing to serve in the military.
Entitled "Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority," it noted that "an ever
growing number of young American men are finding that the American war in
Vietnam so outrages their deepest moral and religious sense that they
cannot contribute to it in any way." Four of the Call's signatories,
including then Yale University chaplain Rev. William Sloane Coffin and
famed baby doctor Benjamin Spock, were indicted for "conspiracy" to violate
the draft laws by President Johnson's Justice Department. Following a
much-publicized trial, two of the four were subsequently acquitted by a
federal appeals court, and the cases of the other two were dropped. Rev.
Coffin and Mary Morgan, the widow of Dr. Spock, are signatories to the
current Appeal to Conscience.
Nineteenth century American writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau was
jailed for refusing to pay a federal tax that was to be used to finance the
Mexican-American War of 1846-48. In his famous essay, "On the Duty of
Civil Disobedience," Thoreau wrote: "If a thousand [people] were not to pay
their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure,
as it would be to pay them and enable the state to commit violence and shed
innocent blood."
More than a century later, following the huge rally for nuclear disarmament
in New York City's Central Park on June 12, 1982, Gen. Alexander Haig, then
Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, is alleged to have
remarked, "Let them march all they want, as long as they continue to pay
their taxes."
The Appeal is a project of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating
Committee (NWTRCC), a clearinghouse and resource center for conscientious
objectors to war taxes.
NWTRCC press release, April 4
For more information, see the War Resisters League
[top]
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
1. SOPHOMORIC EXERCISE IN HISTORICAL IRONY
"Our position is that whatever grievances a nation may have, however
objectionable it finds the status quo, aggressive warfare is an illegal
means for settling those grievances or for altering those conditions."
Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, US prosecutor at the Nuremberg
trials, in his opening statement to the tribunal, Nov. 21, 1945
[top]
2. FUN WITH ANAGRAMS
Religious fanatics and paranoiacs will have fun with the electronic anagram
generator at Wordsmith.org. It seems GEORGE W BUSH can be rearranged to
read HEBREW GOG US--an ominous message. GOG obviously refers to the Gog and
Magog mentioned in Ezekiel, the two great nations that will unleash the
final battle. US of course refers to the U.S. HEBREW refers to the secret
Jewish control of The Beast. Get it? Other anagrams for our fearless leader
are WHERE BUGS GO and HE GREW BOGUS.
But WW3 REPORT questions the objectivity of the anagram generator--it fails
to note that GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH (the former president and
incumbent's dad) translates as the irresistible HUGE BERSERK REBEL WARTHOG.
Fans of such arcana will also recall that RONALD WILSON REAGAN is an
anagram for INSANE ANGLO WARLORD.
RONALD WILSON REAGAN also works out numerologically as 666, mark of The
Beast referenced in Revelations whose appearance would spark the End Times.
RONALD REAGAN is also almost an anagram for RED DRAGON, another sign of the
End Times from Revelations.
[top]
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