NITA: No Honour Among Thieves

Destroying Iraq to save it, stealing its oil to rebuild it

The Anglo-American coalition has maintained that they only invaded Iraq for the sake of the Iraqi people. The coalition’s spokesmen still maintain this, and even manage to keep a straight face while doing so. This is no mean achievement.

Nevertheless, facts contradictory to the po-faced Powell’s chilling sales pitch for mass murder abound. One wonders why he or anyone else in the coalition bother keeping up the charade. After all, at least one Israeli government minister has let the cat out of the bag. Joseph Paritzky, national infrastructures minister, has called for an assessment of the viability of a Mosul to Haifa pipeline. We have been saying for some time that one of the first things on the agenda once Saddam Hussein was out of the way would be a pipeline to the Mediterranean. Haifa is gong to be a boomtown, especially if the old Tapline from southern Iraq is restored as well.

http://www.counterpunch.com/eldar04012003.html

Liar liar, pants on fire

Donald Rumsfeld has an interesting and clear nervous tick: when he lies, he sticks his tongue out and moves it back and forth. It would be interesting to know if he plays poker. His tongue was in action overtime in a television interview just before the US attacked Iraq in an interview for British television with reporter Charles Dimbleby.

It is going to be raising blisters on his lips in weeks to come, as the truth about his involvement with Saddam Hussein’s regime leaks. As it turns out, his trip to Iraq in the 80s, which some, including Dimbleby, have wondered about, turns out to have been in part at least to talk the Iraqis into a pipeline from Iraq to a terminus at Aqaba in Jordan. Saddam, no fool, said no, apparently because of concerns that the Israelis would be too close for comfort.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0314/ridgewar3.php

The Sharon mob and the Bush Crime Family

Israel is interesting for all sorts of reasons, most of them not discussed in other than a wink, wink, nudge, nudge sort of way. The FBI, taking a break from its breathless pursuit of domestic terrorists, finally caught some real ones with the break-up of an Israeli drug and money-laundering ring in the US. In a way one can sympathise with the Israelis; they after all are just following in the well-worn footsteps of others with connections to US intelligence. This includes allegations about Israel’s sitting prime minister Ariel Sharon, who took a sabbatical from domestic politics in Central America during the war in Nicaragua to make some money, according to ex-Mossad officer Ari Ben Menashe in his book Profits of War. His book is very useful for other insights as well, shedding light on the relationship between the Sharon wing of the Likud and the Bush regime going back at least to the late 70s. It is impossible to resist wondering what the reaction would be to allegations that Saddam Hussein interfered in American elections, trafficked in drugs to the US, and trained death squads and secret police torture units in Latin America. Now there would be a casus belli, except oops, he didn’t do it, the Israelis did. Are we bombing the wrong guys? Oh, well, the debate is not really over whether or not the Israelis are bastards, as long as they are our bastards. That being said, the American track record in supporting its bastards is not a good one. There is no honour, as they say, among thieves, as both Manuel Noriega and Saddam can attest to Mr. Sharon. When you work for the mob, the one thing that you are not allowed to do is to go into business for yourself.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/brooklyn/nyc-nydrug013201034apr01.story

American officers swear to uphold and defend the Constitution. No kidding!

It is fascinating that in spite of having one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, as well as one of the largest communities of Arab immigrants, that the United States seems to have miscalculated so badly in its assessments of the political and social aspects of its invasion of Iraq. As the following Guardian piece makes clear, top US war planners did not have a clue before the war began and more than two weeks on still do not have a clue. If they would listen to Arabs it would not be such a puzzle. One of the reasons for this is almost certainly the Pentagon’s love affair with the Israeli Defence Forces, which are considered to be the “authorities” on Middle Eastern warfare. This is too bad for the Americans and a huge mistake to boot. Israeli brutality has grown over the years as the impotence of their massive advantage in firepower has been demonstrated time and time again. A result has been a systematic dehumanisation of the people against whom they fight.

Israel would have lost the 1973 war had it not been for America’s massive resupply effort. It did lose in southern Lebanon. Israel was initially welcomed by the Shia in the south; her tactics and refusal to pull out spawned one of the most successful guerrilla movements in recent decades, Hezbollah. Israeli failure and frustration has spawned massacre and brutality, which has only made its opponents even more determined. It is tragic that America’s marines have so little imagination that they are sending men to Israel to learn about urban warfare from the same people who destroyed the Jenin refugee camp. They would do a lot better to go back to school for some civics lessons. The American officer quoted in this article says that he does not understand totalitarian regimes. That is odd. He works for one that has just abrogated the US constitution, and turned domestic law enforcement over to its spy service and military. Clearly he does not understand the meaning of his service oath either.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,927780,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0%2C2763%2C927774%2C00.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/134665671_israeliurban31.html
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000908.shtml#000908

Suicide bombing is cheaper and more accurate than cruise missiles and JDAMS

It is far braver too. If it is permissible to apply the idea of productivity to warfare, the Palestinians and the Tamils are among the most deadly combatants in the world. It is undoubtedly for this reason that so-called “suicide bombing” is treated as though it were a communicable disease. If the world’s poor were to organise and figure it out, no one would be safe. Imagine: making war without Lockheed?! It should be illegal!

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/srilanka/feature.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/20/1032054962709.html
http://www.robertfulford.com/SuicideTerrorism.html
http://www.robertfulford.com/SuicideTerrorism2.html

It is going to be a long war

James Woolsey, one of Clinton’s CIA chiefs and as fanatic as they come, said it all to a group at UCLA. This is just the beginning of World War Four. If you missed World War Three, don’t feel bad, it was what everybody else called the Cold War. However, Woolsey and his fellow travellers don’t think that sounds important enough.

Having said that, one should listen to him. He has just, after all, been appointed to the team that is going to run Iraq. Scary.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/03/sprj.irq.woolsey.world.war/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,929378,00.html

ENDS

© Copyright Sanders Research Associates Ltd. 2002. While considering the contents to be reliable, SRA take no responsibility for the information set forth herein.

Enquiries & Correspondence: Tel: 044 01442 842401
Editorial Office: Fax: 044 01442 842924
P.O. Box 221, Hemel Hempstead info@www.sandersresearch.com
Herts HP1 3TJ, U.K
http://www.sandersresearch.com

© Scoop Media