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End the charade of American 'Terrorism Experts'
The Daily Star, August 2005
There are several things seriously wrong with most of the "terrorism experts" whom I have seen and heard on American television and radio. Their main weakness is that they operate in the realm of the speculative rather than the factual. The bulk of their analyses are total guesswork, and usually wrong; yet even that is flawed because - and this is weakness number 2 - their guesswork is ideologically defined by the prevalent White House script of the day. Weakness number 3 is that, as far as I can tell, the vast majority of these experts have little direct knowledge of the Arab-Asian societies they are analyzing (one give-away for that problem is that they routinely mispronounce most of the names of people, places and organizations they are supposed to be experts on). Major problem number 4 is that the experts tend to focus their speculation on the symptoms of terror rather than its underlying causes. Most of them seem ignorant of - or at least do not talk about - the full range of issues that propel young men and women into the grizzly business of terror, and that drive political tensions and anger in many Arab-Asian societies. Problem number 5 is that they emphasize military analyses, for a problem that is predominantly political.
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The Logic of Suicide Attacks
The American Conservative, July 2005
The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign—over 95 percent of all the incidents—has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw. HTML

Editorial: Fig leaf for war/Paper indicates U.N. was misled
Opinion, Mpls Star Tribune
This is where the plot really thickens. Perhaps readers will recall that Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, recently was accused of orchestrating the 2002 ouster of Jose Bustani, head of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, a U.N. agency. Why did Bolton want Bustani replaced? Because Bustani was aggressively seeking to reinsert chemical weapons inspectors into Iraq. The conclusion of many observers is that the United States did not want inspectors in Iraq because it undercut the U.S. case for an invasion. HTML

US Support of Israel Key Motivator of 9/11 Attack
TERRY MCDERMOTT, Los Angeles Times
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man who conceived and directed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was motivated by his strong disagreement with American support for Israel, said the final report of the Sept. 11 commission.

Mohammed conceived the initial outline of the attack six years before its execution and brought the plan to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden because he thought he did not have the resources to carry it out on his own. HTML

Sharon is a War Criminal
HUGH MEIR, The Guardian
Ken Livingstone has reignited his dispute with Britain's Jewish leaders by launching a provocative attack on the "war criminal" Ariel Sharon. In a riposte to criticism from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the London mayor accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and said its prime minister should be imprisoned. He also accused Israel of demonising Muslims.

Phoney war
MAX HASTINGS, The Spectator
If the leaders of the Western world want to do our security a favour, they could adopt a New Year resolution to economise on the use of the word ‘terrorist’ in their rhetoric. This proposal is based not upon indulgence towards al-Qa’eda or the IRA, but upon the need to think clear-headedly about how best to protect our societies.

Through the ages, Britain has faced enemies of many creeds and nationalities. Today, a mind-boggling weight of verbiage is addressed to the perils posed not by Spaniards or Frenchmen, Germans or Russians, but instead by ‘terrorism’. The danger is real enough, but the definition encourages lazy thinking. ‘Terrorist’ is a woefully inadequate identification. Like ‘infantryman’ or ‘cavalryman’, it merely describes a method of engaging in combat. HTML

Forum: Israeli hubris vs. U.S.
YOUSSEF M. IBRAHIM, United Press International
The latest Washington spy tale, involving Larry Franklin, an intelligence analyst at the Defense Department, and some of Israel's most important lobbyists in America, is becoming deeper by the week. HTML

Scholars debate Israel as Zionist state
By SCOTT WHIPPLE, New Britain Herald
Mezvinsky replied that the root cause of the conflict between Israelis and Palestin-ians "has been the Zionist oppression of Palestinians. That fact cannot be ignored. Furthermore, there has indeed been terror from Palestinians which should be morally condemned. But we have state terror on the Israeli side that goes back before 1948, and it’s gotten worse in the last four years." HTML

Galbraith slaps Bush on Iraq war
By MIKE KALIL, Brattleboro Reformer October 2004   
Galbraith didn't talk optimistically about the future of the Iraq war and made it clear that it was not the smartest policy. He said it was classic Bush doctrine, though it wasn't quite preemptive.

The procedure, he said, has been the single-most incompetent foreign policy he's seen in his life. Other presidents attacked countries preemptively when there was imminent danger, he said.

It wasn't preemptive, he said, because there was no imminent threat. He said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was not about to attack the United States, though he clearly had bad intentions. HTML

Voices Stifled by the Battle Cry
By Adib Farha, Special to the Daily Star, October 2004
Bush went on to state: "This commitment to democratic reform is essential to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict."  Wrong again Mr. President.  You had it backward: Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict is essential to the institution of democratic reform.  During the past two weeks, events in Lebanon have been a sad but revealing case in point.  HTML

Agents of Influence
By Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation, October 2004
Did Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, run a covert program with operatives in high-level US government positions to influence the Bush Administration's decision to go to war in Iraq? The FBI wants to know.

That's the story behind the latest Washington spy scandal, involving Israel, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC) and a mid-level civilian Pentagon employee allegedly caught red-handed trying to deliver US secrets to the Israelis. HTML

The Impact of US Visa Policies: Implications for America's Economy
National Arab-US Chamber of Commerce, September 2004
The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) says that over three years, the loss of international travel to the U.S has cost the U.S. economy $15.3 billion in expenditures.  The Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) notes, "If new procedures turn away desirable Saudi visitors, U.S. education, business travel, and tourism industries could easily lose an estimated $4.7 billion in Saudi travel revenue over the next decade."

During 2000-02, according to data in the U.S. Commerce Department's "Survey of Current Business" (October 2003), total receipts from the Arab world dropped by nearly half...  PDF

The Emerging Case for a Single State Solution
By Todd May, Counterpunch, September 2004
The two-state solution is neither moral nor realistic. The only politically and ethically viable approach to the problem of Israel and Palestine is to support a single democratic secular state that provides equal rights for all of its citizens. Furthermore, the failure to recognize this has, I believe, helped underwrite some of the most egregious of Israel's policies. The most important reason for this has not, to my knowledge, yet been sufficiently addressed. I would like to do so here. HTML

The Hour: Pro-Israel? Hardly.
By Leonard Fein, Forward, September 2004
As the United States now stumbles its way toward a coherent policy regarding Iran, with the awesome dangers that an ill-chosen policy would involve, it becomes critically important that we know for a fact that government policy has been developed exclusively on the basis of America's perceived interests. That cannot, however, come to mean that American Jews, presumptively pro-Israel, are inherently ineligible to participate in such policy formulation, or even that they be subjected to more stringent controls. Yet if, in their right-wing pro-Israel zealotry, Feith or any of the others have in any way suggested to their aides that the sharing of classified information with Israel is acceptable, that is a plausible outcome of this mess. Pro-Israel? Hardly. HTML

Corral the Hunting Horse
By Matt Hutaff, The Simon, August 2004
So I'd like to issue a call to all those currently serving the American government in name, but the Israeli government (or any other, for that matter) by policy: stop. Running around trying to see who can please the Likud party the most doesn't do your constituents any favors. Israel's policies don't represent the world's Jewry, and neither do you. You represent a region of one state in the Union, listen to the problems and concerns those you do represent, and do well by them. Ultimately, that is the only benefit you are to anyone. Seeking the approval of another government or people makes you a traitor.  HTML

The Anatomy of "Terrorist Experts"
By JAMES PETRAS Counterpunch, August 2004
Above all the Terror Experts celebrate triumphal imperialism: the defeated colonial peoples, we are told , are "resentful" ­ "those who feel they can't keep up". Of course with a hood over their head and shackled legs and feet and a cattle prod burning their genitals ­ they can't keep up, they can't turn around and express gratitude to their torturers.

How is a Palestinian farmer going to "keep up" with a Jewish settler who seizes his land, water and , supported by local thugs and Israeli soldiers, blocks his access to the market? Anything short of "resentful" would be masochistic. HTML

Michael Moore, Richard Perle Join Forces
Tanya Hsu, AntiWar.com, July 2004
On June 25, 2004, Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 9/11 opened to 500 screens and insatiable crowds. The film's message to audiences is clear and simple: the U.S.-Saudi relationship must end. However, Americans should take time to go beyond the film, books and talk-show pundits to reexamine the complicated history between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and the real motives of those pushing for war.

Americans will soon be asked to make a decision about whether invasion is the proper course. An informed decision will serve America in a way that hidden plans, rationales and one-sided movies cannot.  HTML

CIT Seeks to Reassure Western Businessmen
Javid Hassan, Arab News, July, 2004
Meanwhile, Tanya Hsu, a senior analyst at the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, and Hassan Elkhalil, a US immigration lawyer, have said that new US visa procedures have created “a substantial fall-off” of Saudi visitors to the United States.

According to the authors, this year 124,000 US service and manufacturing jobs will be directly related to US-Saudi trade.

The institute forecasts that the worst-case loss in travel related services, education and tourism revenue could reach $4.7 billion between 2002-2011.  HTML

Casualty of War
Wil S. Hylton, GQ Magazine, May, 2004
A person who comes immediately to mind in that regard is Richard Perle, who, thank God, tendered his resignation and no longer will be even a semioffcial person in this administration. Richard Perle's cavalier remarks about doing this or doing that with regard to military force always, always troubled me. Because it just showed me that he didn't have the appreciation, for example, that Colin Powell has for what it means ... I call them utopians... I don't care whether utopians are Vladimir Lenin in a sealed train going to Moscow or Paul Wolfowitz. Utopians, I don't like. You're never going to bring utopia, and you're going to hurt a lot of people in the process of trying to do it." HTML

"Bush's foreign policy tends to be made by a rather extremist group, which have very extremist views, particularly regarding the Middle East."
All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 4/24/2004
NPR: "One of the things European allies and particularly now Arab states are very worried about is the US policy shift on the Middle East.  The US once called Jewish settlements in the West Bank obstacles to peace, President Bush now says they are realities on the ground. He made those comments when he endorsed Ariel Sharon's plan to pull settlements out of Gaza but keep settlements in the West Bank.  John Kerry has said he supports the US position on Israel and I wonder is this just an issue that no one wants to touch in an election year?"

Zbigniew Brzezinski: "I suspect that's largely the case.  I suspect there's no payoff in making distinctions, or in even raising alternatives.

I would guess that over time there would be a change if Kerry was elected simply because Bush's foreign policy tends to be made by a rather extremist group, which have very extremist views, particularly regarding the Middle East.

My guess is that if there was a change in the presidency, we would be more likely to return to some form of bi-partisanship in foreign policy and that in itself would mean a shift in the content of foreign policy."

Going Back Where They Came From
by Patrick J. Buchanan, April, 2004
With the situation in Iraq deteriorating, the neocon agenda is to widen the war into Syria, Iran and perhaps Saudi Arabia, and convert it into "World War IV," the war of their dreams, a war of civilizations, an Armageddon, with America and Israel on one side and Islam on the other.

Exiting Iraq with honor and avoiding the wider war for which the neocons are even now scheming is the first duty of patriots.  HTML

'Iraq Expert' Perle Shills for Chalabi at Senate Panel
by Juan Cole, April 2004
Perle also at one point said he didn't think the events of the first two weeks of April were a "mass uprising" and said he thought Fallujah was quiet now. (Nope).

It is indicative of the Alice in Wonderland world in which these Washington Think Tank operators live that Perle could make such an obviously false observation with a straight face. Even a child who has been watching CNN for the past three weeks would know that there was a mass uprising. (Even ten percent of the American-trained police switched sides and joined the opposition, and 40% of Iraqi security men refused to show up to fight the insurgents.) HTML

A Clean Break with the Roadmap and with Longstanding Middle East Policy:
A foreign policy serving Israel
William James Martin, CounterPunch, February, 2004
Indeed, Perle, Wurmser, and Feith are on record as being committed to policies
which are radically at variance with long standing American policy and are also
radically at variance with President Bush's Roadmap.  HTML

War on words deception
SMH Australia, July, 2003
Rendon heads the public relations Rendon Group, whose clients include the Pentagon and the CIA. He calls himself an "information warrior and a perception manager".

It was Rendon who provided the US flags for hundreds of Kuwaitis to wave when American troops rolled into Kuwait City at the end of the first Gulf War, signalling to the world that the Americans were liberating heroes.

And when President George Bush snr ordered the CIA in 1991 to run a covert operation to unseat Saddam Hussein, the CIA hired Rendon to organise anti-Saddam propaganda inside Iraq. HTML

US Exports to the Middle East
The Todd Feinburg Show, June, 2003
TFS: "Well this is certainly a troubling situation, but I think one that is unexpected when you are making the sort of aggressive moves we are to control events in the Middle East.  Would you agree with that, and if so, what can be done about it?"

IRMEP:  "Well, I think one of the things that we need to start thinking about in terms of our own government is that businesses can only do so much in the region.  What we really need to do, and I like this fact about your show, Todd, is look behind the scenes.  Really look at who is promoting the policies and whether we’ve got it right.  A lot of the “pre-emptive military” approaches to the region are bad for business, quite frankly.  And if we look at the stake that Americans have, there are many industries that have double digit (market share) commitments to this region that are certainly going to bear the brunt of these policies." HTML PDF Real Audio

The Exit That Isn't on Bush's 'Road Map'
The New York Times May 2003
Benyamin Elon, a minister in the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon, agrees. But, reviving a vision long cherished by Israel's religious and secular hawks, he argues that the new Palestinian state must be Jordan.

This is the "window of opportunity," he says, for Israel to annex at last the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. If the Bush administration has the courage to abandon "clichés" about land for peace, he argues, it can now achieve a "long-term, spiritual earthquake" in the Middle East.  HTML

Bush Vetoes Syria War Plan
The Guardian, April, 2003
Meanwhile, his undersecretary for policy, Doug Feith, and William Luti, the head of the Pentagon's office of special plans, were asked to put together a briefing paper on the case for war against Syria, outlining its role in supplying weapons to Saddam Hussein, its links with Middle East terrorist groups and its allegedly advanced chemical weapons programme. Mr Feith and Mr Luti were both instrumental in persuading the White House to go to war in Iraq.  HTML

U.S. Think Tanks and Post-War Iraq
Al-Jazeerah April 2003
Al-Jazeerah: "Do you think it is ironic that so much public sentiment is not being represented at a political level in the governments that want to ‘democratize’ Iraq?“

American Enterprise Institute:   "Come on, forgive me, that is an incredibly stupid question. Democracy is not rule of the people, first of all. Rule of the people is mob rule. Democracy is the rule of law, and because of the rule of law we have elections every four years, every six years in the senate and every two years in the Representatives.." HTML PDF

US Trade with Arabs Down 5%, Trade with Israel Up 25%
San Francisco Independent Media April 2003
"...A general downturn in total U.S. exports is not the cause. Over the time period, total exports grew a healthy 6%. And not all countries in the region were losers. One, in particular, enjoyed a peculiar spurt of growth. Israel imports of U.S. products grew 25%. However, it is problematic to count this growth. As one analyst put it, due to the massive U.S. foreign aid to Israel, when the U.S. plays the game of exports to Israel, it is really playing with itself." HTML

U.S. Department of Defense Advances to Derail Israeli Palestinian Roadmap
San Francisco Independent Media April 2003
"...Think of the legislative and executive branches and defense department as having suffered an attack of Israeli cowbirds. They have pushed the eggs of U.S. interests and policies out of those nests. Now their young have hatched, and they are flying toward State...." HTML

Senator: Criticize Israel and Cut School Funding
San Francisco Independent Media April 2003
"...The third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, conservative Rick Santorum (Pa.), plans to introduce so-called "ideological diversity" legislation that would cut federal funding for thousands of American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel,..." HTML

Perle Maneuvers U.S. into Syrian Phase of "A Clean Break"
San Francisco Independent Media April 2003
"...Richard Perle, member of the study group that authored the"A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" (ACB) strategic plan for Israel, has increased efforts to fully implement the Syrian phase with U.S. armed forces. Perle and other ACB operatives and allied administration officials have intensified the volume and repetition of scathing criticism against Syria to sell this portion of the plan to the American public..." HTML

Terrorist Abbas Captured in Baghdad, Bosch still at Large in Miami
Academics for Justice April 2003
"..Under protection of the first Bush administration and heralded as an anti-Castro freedom fighter by conservatives such as Otto Reich, Elliot Abrams, and John Negroponte, Bosch is not expected to be tried for terrorism in the U.S. After his last acquittal in Venezuela, Bosch returned to Miami without a visa in 1988. Although U.S. authorities then jailed him because he was wanted for violating parole in 1974 in connection with his conviction for a 1968 bazooka attack on a Havana-bound Polish freighter at the Port of Miami, he now has a clean slate. Amid lobbying from Cuban-American political leaders, the first Bush administration released Bosch in 1990 after he renounced violence and agreed to be monitored by federal agents.

Abu Abbas is unlikely to face such clemency on the part of the second Bush administration. Abbas is also not known to have the support of any currently identifiable organized political lobby in the United States...." HTML

Foreign Aid and AIPAC: Embezzlement as Public Policy
CounterPunch April 2003
"...Why does Washington loan money to countries, and then absolve those countries of any obligation to repay their debt? It seems silly to keep track of debt at all if the debts end up written off....HTML

Pro-Israel Hawks and the Second Gulf War
Amin April 2003
."...e pro-Israel lobby, whose principal Jewish component is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), became a significant force in shaping public opinion and US Middle East policy after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Its power was simultaneously enabled and enhanced by Israel's emergence as a regional surrogate for US military power in the Middle East in the terms outlined by the 1969 Nixon Doctrine. In the 1970s and 1980s, the lobby was able to unseat representatives and senators who could not be counted on to support Israel without qualification, such as Sen. Charles Percy (R-IL), Rep. Paul Findley (R-OH) and Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-CA)...HTML

Who's War?
The American Conservative March, 2003
"...We charge that a cabal of polemicists and public officials seek to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interests. We charge them with colluding with Israel to ignite those wars and destroy the Oslo Accords. We charge them with deliberately damaging U.S. relations with every state in the Arab world that defies Israel or supports the Palestinian people’s right to a homeland of their own. We charge that they have alienated friends and allies all over the Islamic and Western world through their arrogance, hubris, and bellicosity..." HTML

How Israel is Wrapped up in Iraq
Time Magazine February, 2003
"... Bush Administration hasn't done very much to bring about peace in the Middle East; in fact, it has allowed a bad situation to grow worse. And it was misleading because a stronger Israel is very much embedded in the rationale for war with Iraq. It is a part of the argument that dare not speak its name, a fantasy quietly cherished by the neo-conservative faction in the Bush Administration and by many leaders of the American Jewish community..." HTML

People of Conscience Can Change History
CounterPunch February, 2003
."...First, after Sept. 11, 2001, everyone sees that foreign policy directly affects us at home; there is no denying that U.S. actions in the Middle East have helped fertilize the soil in which terrorism grows. People realize it is a mistake to leave such issues to foreign-policy 'experts'."....HTML

Liberating America From Israel
January, 2003
.."...Nine-eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president during the past 35 years had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.."...HTML

The US Gameplan for Iraq
The American Conservative January 13, 2003
"...On October 1, 2002, Akiva Eldar, a leading commentator in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, who opposes the almost 36-year-old occupation of Palestinian territories, wrote an article detailing the activities in Israel in 1996--that's more than half a dozen years ago--of two Americans who now hold very senior positions in the Bush administration, Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. These two "joined a small group of researchers who were asked to help Benjamin Netanyahu in his first steps as prime minister" after his election in 1996. The document they prepared for Netanyahu, according to Eldar, "presents an ambitious plan for a U.S.-Israeli partnership --not one focused narrowly on territorial disputes...." HTML

Ariel Sharon's Shakedown
The American Conservative January 13, 2003
"...What should Bush do? Tell Sharon the loan guarantees will not even be taken up until he begins to dismantle all the settlements he has begun to build since George W. took office. And if Sharon attempts to roll him in Congress, he, Bush, will go to the country and roll Sharon..."HTML

The Mideast Road Map
New York Times December 24, 2002
"...No one expects an instant solution. But by waiting to unveil the road map until after a new Israeli government is formed, which could be several months, Washington seems to be hoping to wrap this problem into a broader recasting of the region after regime change in Iraq. That is a dangerous gamble..."  HTML

Drain the Swamp, and there will be no more Mosquitos
The Guardian September 9, 2002
Noam Chomsky
"....September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the US government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That's all to the good.

It is also the merest sanity, if we hope to reduce the likelihood of future atrocities. It may be comforting to pretend that our enemies "hate our freedoms," as President Bush stated, but it is hardly wise to ignore the real world, which conveys different lessons..."  HTML

American Views of the Mideast Conflict
New York Times May 2002
Andrew Kohut
.."...Much more than in the past, Americans now think what happens in the Mideast has important consequences for the United States. Nearly two-thirds say that achieving peace in the Mideast should be an important goal of our foreign policy. And most think the United States should try to be a neutral broker...".  HTML

The Op-Ed Echo Chamber: Little or no space for dissent from the military line
FAIR November/December 2001
Whether the mainstream daily op-ed page was ever a true forum for debate or for "non-traditional voices" is questionable. But during the weeks following September's terrorist attacks, two leading dailies mostly used these pages as an echo chamber for the government's official policy of military response, while mostly ignoring dissenters and policy critics. HTML

Israel Shows United States How Not To Fight Terrorism
The Columbia Daily Tribune October  2001
Charley Reese
.."....So, every time an Israeli shows up purporting to be an expert on terrorism, we ought to laugh the person right back home.
The Israelis are pretty good terrorists themselves, but as anti-terrorists, they are a bunch of goofs.."  HTML

On Foreign Entaglements
Farewell Address, 1796
George Washington
"....so likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions, by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluged citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation..."   HTML

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