-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 26, 2007 7:50:03 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Al Qaeda, Bush's "Secret Team" Before --and Even AFTER!!--
9/11
Bush Funneling Money to al Qaeda-Related Groups
by Seymour Hersh
Global Research, February 26, 2007
ThinkProgress.com
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=HER20070226&articleId=4945
New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the "single most explosive"
element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush
administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle
East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon)
by funding violent Sunni groups.
Hersh says the U.S. has been "pumping money, a great deal of
money, without congressional authority, without any congressional
oversight" for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants
to "stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence." Hersh says
these funds have ended up in the hands of "three Sunni jihadist
groups" who are "connected to al Qaeda" but "want to take on
Hezbollah."
Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: "We are simply in a
situation where this president is really taking his notion of
executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert
operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, and
'indirectly' supporting groups involved with the same people who
[were responsible for] 9/11."
Hersh added, "All of this should be investigated by Congress,
by the way, and I trust it will be. In my talking to membership --
members there, they are very upset that they know nothing about
this. And they have great many suspicions."
Transcript:
Blitzer: Near the end of your article, you have this explosive
point in there about John Negroponte, who is now going to be the
deputy secretary of state, as opposed to the head of U.S.
intelligence.
You write this: "I was subsequently told by the two government
consultants and the former senior intelligence officials that the
echoes of Iran-Contra were a factor in Negroponte's decision to
resign from the National Intelligence directorship and accept the
position of deputy secretary of state."
Explain what you were hearing, because that is obviously a
very explosive charge.
Hersh: Yes. It is probably the single most explosive, if you
will, or depressing - or distressing sort of thing I discovered in
the last few months, which is simply this. This administration has
made a policy change, a decision that they are going to put all of
the pressure they can on the Shiites, that is the Shiite regime in
Iran, the Shiite - and they are also doing everything they can to
stop Hezbollah - which is Shiite, the Hezbollah organization from
getting any control or any more of a political foothold in Lebanon.
So they essentially, I quote the - I saw Nasrallah, the head of
Hezbollah, and he described it this way, as "fitna (ph)," the Arab
word for "civil war." As far as he is concerned, we are interested
in recreating what is happening in Iraq in Lebanon, that is Sunni
versus Shia. <The Hegelians' "divide and conquer" strategy for
keeping the Muslim culture fragmented and preoccupied with internal
conflicts> And in looking into that story, and I saw him in
December, I found this. That we have been pumping money, a great
deal of money, without congressional authority, without any
congressional oversight, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia is putting
up some of this money, for covert operations in many areas of the
Middle East where we think that the - we want to stop the Shiite
spread or the Shiite influence.
They call it the "Shiite Crescent." And a lot of this money,
and I can't tell you with absolute certainty how - exactly when and
how, but this money has gotten into the hands - among other places,
in Lebanon, into the hands of three - at least three jihadist
groups. There are three Sunni jihadist groups whose main claim to
fame inside Lebanon right now is that they are very tough. These
are people connected to al Qaeda who want to take on Hezbollah. So
this government, at the minimum, we may not directly be funneling
money to them, but we certainly know that these groups exist.
My government, which arrests al Qaeda every place it can find
them and send - some of them are in Guantanamo and other places, is
sitting back while the Lebanese government we support, the
government of Prime Minister Siniora, is providing arms and
sustenance to three jihadist groups whose sole function, seems to
me and to the people that talk to me in our government, to be there
in case there is a real shoot-'em-up with Hezbollah and we really
get into some sort of serious major conflict between the Sunni
government and Hezbollah, which is largely Shia, who are basically
- or as you know, there is a coalition headed by Hezbollah that is
challenging the government right now, demonstrations, sit-ins.
There has been some violence. So America, my country, without
telling Congress, using funds not appropriated, I don't know where,
by my sources believe much of the money obviously came from Iraq
where there is all kinds of piles of loose money, pools of cash
that could be used for covert operations.
All of this should be investigated by Congress, by the way, and
I trust it will be. In my talking to membership - members there,
they are very upset that they know nothing about this. And they
have great many suspicions.
We are simply in a situation where this president is really
taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit
here, running covert operations, using money that was not
authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are
involved with the same people that did 9/11, and we should be
arresting these people rather than looking the other way...
Blitzer: And your bottom line, Sy...
Hersh: ... and could lead to a real mess...
Blitzer: Your bottom line is that Negroponte was aware of this,
obviously, and he wanted to distance himself from it? That is why
he decided to give up that position and take the number two job at
the State Department?
Hersh: He - that is one of the reasons, I was told. Negroponte
also was not in tune with Cheney. There was a lot of complaints
about him because HE (Negroponte) was seen as too ethical for some
of the operations the Pentagon wants to run.
---------------------
February 26, 2007
America's Alliance With bin Laden
We're playing the Sunni card in the Middle East – and that means
playing footsie with al-Qaeda
by Justin Raimondo
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10580
The latest Seymour Hersh piece has a lot of new information, some
of it shocking, some of it not at all surprising to readers of
Antiwar.com and observers of this space. An example of the latter:
"The [Bush/Cheney] administration is now examining a wave of new
intelligence on Iran's weapons programs. American officials have
told me that this intelligence, which came from Israeli agents
operating in Iran, includes a claim that Iran has developed an ...
intercontinental missile capable of delivering ... warheads ...
inside Europe. The validity of this human intelligence is still
being debated."
We can thank Scooter Libby and the vice president of the United
States for having blinded American intelligence to Iranian WMD
programs – Valerie Plame was reportedly the CIA's resident expert
on Iranian WMD, and her outfit, Brewster-Jennings "consulting," was
the U.S. government's regional eyes and ears on nuclear
proliferation issues. I guess that's why we have to depend on the
Israelis.
The Mossad has been quite busy, not only in Kurdistan but also in
Iran. Although the Iranians indignantly deny it, the Israeli
presence in Iran may have been responsible for the recent
"accidental" death of a top Iranian nuclear scientist. In any case,
the Israelis, according to an earlier report by Hersh, have
thoroughly penetrated Kurdistan, where they train the peshmerga.
Using the Kurdish rebels in Iran, known as Pejak, they have
launched sorties into Iranian territory.
What is less clear – although I've touched on the subject recently
– is the extent to which clandestine activities are being carried
out by the U.S. in Iran, and, according to Hersh, Lebanon.
The policymakers are taking a new turn, says Hersh, supposedly
necessitated by the consequences of the Iraq war. The U.S.
invasion turned Iraq over to a [U.S.-friendly] Shi'ite coalition
of pro-Iranian parties, and now we're playing the Sunni card.
Hersh cites "a former senior intelligence official" as saying
"We are in a program to enhance the Sunni capability to resist
Shi'ite influence, and we're spreading the money around as much as
we can…. In this process, we're financing a lot of bad guys with
some serious potential unintended consequences. We don't have the
ability to determine and get pay vouchers signed by the people we
like and avoid the people we don't like. It's a very high-risk
venture."
Doesn't anyone ever learn from history? U.S. aid to the Afghan
"freedom fighters" in the 1980s consolidated the core of what was
to become al-Qaeda – a Frankenstein's monster that turned on its
creator. Now the U.S. is repeating that blunder, only this time on
a much wider scale – with consequences we can only begin to imagine
in our darkest, most sweat-soaked nightmares.
Once again we are in league with the Saudis, who were instrumental
in setting up the Afghan networks that morphed into al-Qaeda. Bin
Laden is their errant son, come back to haunt them – and us. The
Kingdom is the worst tyranny in the entire region, steeped in a
fanatic version of Islam that is, by regional standards, barbaric.
Ruled by a sclerotic aristocracy more decadent and deserving of
overthrow than even the haughty Bourbons or the crazed Romanovs, it
is precisely our association with these royal kleptocrats that has
generated anti-Americanism and killed the possibility of a genuine
liberal movement.
The Saudis are backing the Siniora government against Shi'ite
Hezbollah and its Christian allies, and the U.S. is funneling
covert aid that is allowed to "end up in the hands of emerging
Sunni radical groups in northern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and
around Palestinian refugee camps in the south," writes Hersh.
"These groups, though small, are seen as a buffer to Hezbollah; at
the same time, their ideological ties are with al-Qaeda."
So let's get this straight: U.S. taxpayer dollars are subsidizing
al-Qaeda's emerging Lebanese affiliate. Remember that as you fill
out your income tax forms this year.
The "war on terrorism" sparked by al-Qaeda's 9/11 attack has ended
with the U.S. in alliance with [Sunni] bin Laden's boys against a
supposedly emerging Shi'ite threat. Now how bitter is that ironic
twist?
Forget al-Qaeda: nobody is even trying to capture bin Laden, and no
wonder. He's our ally now. That's what Michael Scheuer has always
said, but now I see it's official. Bin Laden was yesterday's
villain: today's hate figure is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.
Although the Iranians insist their nuclear program is only for
peaceful purposes, i.e., power generation, a full-court propaganda
campaign has been ongoing to convince us the mullahs aim to nuke
New York. It's the same old scenario we saw played out in the run-
up to war with Iraq: as a conflict with Tehran looms closer, the
War Party hopes images of mushroom clouds and mad mullahs will be
enough to scare the American public into going along with it. Iran
is the enemy of the moment – after all, Ahmadinejad has said Israel
should be wiped off the map (or perhaps not).
In any case, the Lobby is hard at work, whipping up war hysteria
and inventing yet more "evidence" of Iranian perfidy in Iraq. And
shadowy groups, including Sunni extremists with connections to al-
Qaeda, are being used in U.S.-sponsored covert operations –
including terrorist attacks.
In Lebanon, the tinderbox of a volatile region, the Siniora
government and the Americans are getting in bed with Fatah al-
Islam, a radical Palestinian faction. This murky grouplet, which
seceded from a pro-Syrian parent group, is supposedly the holder of
the al-Qaeda franchise for Lebanon, but Hersh's reportage sheds new
light on where the money is coming from.
Former MI6 official Alastair Crooke tells Hersh,
"I was told that within twenty-four hours [of the split] they were
being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as
representatives of the Lebanese government's interests – presumably
to take on Hezbollah."
We are also apparently in league with Asbat al-Ansar, a Salafist
terrorist outfit that has been described by some experts as
"ineffectual" – and doesn't it just figure that Uncle Sam would
line up with these losers? I guess there weren't too many bids for
this particular government contract. So far, all they've managed
to do is bomb a few churches, take out some casinos, and hit other
minor targets deemed "un-Islamic." Flush with U.S. cash, no doubt
in the future they'll be carrying out some spectacular terrorist acts.
Having handed the Middle East to Tehran on a silver platter, we are
mobilizing all available forces in a single-minded effort to snatch
it from them.
More surrealist than Orwellian, this self-defeating rat-on-a-
treadmill policy guarantees one thing: perpetual war. It is just
the sort of overly "clever" Machiavellian move that is bound to
backfire, and badly.
One shudders to imagine the sort of "blowback" playing the Sunni
card will entail. The last time we sided with Sunni radicals <like
Saddam Hussein>, we got bin Laden – and 9/11.
This time, it's entirely possible we'll reap an even harsher
whirlwind.
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