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The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 11 January 2002
Vol. 6, Number 4 (#639)
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Analysis Of the Current Hysteria
01) CNN, "Explosive New Book Published in France Alleges that U.S. Was
in Negotiations to Do a Deal with Taliban," 8 Jan 01
02) Rory Carroll (The [London] Guardian), "Bloody evidence of US
blunder," 7 Jan 02
03) Frederick Clarkson (Salon), "Our own terror cells: If the Bush
administration treated homegrown terrorists like their overseas
comrades, its dragnet could ensnare the far political right -- and
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ANALYSIS ON THE CURRENT HYSTERIA
01) Explosive New Book Published in France Alleges that U.S. Was in
Negotiations to Do a Deal with Taliban
CNN
8 Jan 01
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to check in with ambassador-in-
residence, Richard Butler, this morning. An explosive new book published in
France alleges that the United States was in negotiations to do a deal with
the Taliban for an oil pipeline in Afghanistan.
Joining us right now is Richard Butler to shed some light on this new book.
He is the former chief U.N. weapons inspector. He is now on the Council on
Foreign Relations and our own ambassador-in- residence -- good morning.
RICHARD BUTLER, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: Boy, if any of these charges are true...
BUTLER: If...
ZAHN: ... this...
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: ... is really big news.
BUTLER: I agree.
ZAHN: Start off with what your understanding is of what is in this book --
the most explosive charge.
BUTLER: The most explosive charge, Paula, is that the Bush administration -
- the present one, just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI
investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a
deal with the Taliban on oil -- an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.
ZAHN: And this book points out that the FBI's deputy director, John
O'Neill, actually resigned because he felt the U.S. administration was
obstructing...
BUTLER: A proper...
ZAHN: ... the prosecution of terrorism.
BUTLER: Yes, yes, a proper intelligence investigation of terrorism. Now,
you said if, and I affirmed that in responding to you. We have to be
careful here. These are allegations. They're worth airing and talking
about, because of their gravity. We don't know if they are correct. But I
believe they should be investigated, because Central Asian oil, as we were
discussing yesterday, is potentially so important. And all prior attempts
to have a pipeline had to be done through Russia. It had to be negotiated
with Russia.
Now, if there is to be a pipeline through Afghanistan, obviating the need
to deal with Russia, it would also cost less than half of what a pipeline
through Russia would cost. So financially and politically, there's a big
prize to be had. A pipeline through Afghanistan down to the Pakistan coast
would bring out that Central Asian oil easier and more cheaply.
ZAHN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) as you spoke about this yesterday, we almost
immediately got a call from "The New York Times."
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: They want you to write an op-ed piece on this over the weekend.
BUTLER: Right, and which I will do.
ZAHN: But let's come back to this whole issue of what John O'Neill, this
FBI agent...
BUTLER: Right.
ZAHN: ... apparently told the authors of this book. He is alleging that --
what -- the U.S. government was trying to protect U.S. oil interests? And
at the same time, shut off the investigation of terrorism to allow for that
to
happen?
BUTLER: That's the allegation that instead of prosecuting properly an
investigation of terrorism, which has its home in Afghanistan as we now
know, or one of its main homes, that was shut down or slowed down in order
to pursue oil interests with the Taliban. The people who we have now bombed
out of existence, and this not many months ago. The book says that the
negotiators said to the Taliban, you have a choice. You have a carpet of
gold, meaning an oil deal, or a carpet of bombs. That's what the book
alleges.
ZAHN: Well, I know you're going to be doing your own independent
homework on this...
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: ... to see if you can confirm any of this. Let's move on to the whole
issue of Iraq. The deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, at one time
was considered one of those voices within the administration...
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: ... that was pushing for moving beyond Afghanistan. He seemed to back
off a little from that yesterday.
BUTLER: Yes.
ZAHN: What do you read through the tea leaves here?
BUTLER: A very interesting report that the administration will focus on the
Philippines, Yemen, Somalia as places where there are al Qaeda cells. But
the word Iraq wasn't used by the man who was the chief hawk -- used as a,
you know, as a future target. So what I interpret from that is this: That
very likely our allies have been saying to us, this is too hard. This is
really serious. Be careful. Saddam is essentially contained at the moment.
Don't start, you know, a bigger problem either in the Arab world or in the
coalition by going after him. And Wolfowitz, it seems, has probably
accepted that.
ZAHN: A quick thought on the Israelis intercepting this latest armed
shipment? What that means? You've got to do it in about 15 seconds.
BUTLER: It's extraordinarily serious, because it seems to have been tied to
Yasser Arafat himself. It needs to be further investigated, but you know,
Paula, the potentiality that this could once again prove an impediment to
resume peace negotiations is really quite serious.
ZAHN: Thank you as usual for covering so much territory. Richard Butler,
see you same time, same place tomorrow morning.
BUTLER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
ZAHN: We appreciate your insights.
- - - - -
02) Bloody evidence of US blunder
Rory Carroll (The [London] Guardian)
7 Jan 02
QALAYE-NIAZI, Afghan. -- The attack on Qalaye Niazi was as sudden and
devastating as the Pentagon intended. American special forces on the ground
confirmed the target and three bombers, a B-52 and two B-1Bs, did the rest,
zapping Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in their sleep as well as an
ammunition dump.
The war on terrorism came no cleaner and Commander Matthew Klee, a
spokesman at the US central command in Tampa, Florida, had reassuring news:
"Follow-on reporting indicates that there was no collateral damage."
Some of the things his follow-on reporters missed: bloodied children's
shoes and skirts, bloodied school books, the scalp of a woman with braided
grey hair, butter toffees in red wrappers, wedding decorations.
The charred meat sticking to rubble in black lumps could have been Osama
bin Laden's henchmen but survivors said it was the remains of farmers,
their wives and children, and wedding guests.
They said more than 100 civilians died at this village in eastern
Afghanistan.
Survivors lacked the bewilderment common to those who have been bombed,
because they had an explanation: a tribal rival had manipulated the
Americans into attacking Qalaye Niazi to further his political ambitions in
Paktia province.
The Pentagon said it had indications that senior Taliban and al-Qaida
officials were at the site and that two surface-to-air missiles were fired
at the aircraft during the December 29 raid. The bombs set off secondary
explosions consistent with stockpiled ammunition.
The Pentagon has produced no evidence that missiles were fired at the
planes but there was a stockpile. From the ruins of two houses yesterday
spilled boxes of Russian, Chinese and Iranian rockets.
Diehard Taliban and al-Qaida fighters are said to still rove Paktia and its
neighbouring provinces of Paktika and Khost, where a US soldier was killed
at the weekend. Qalaye Niazi's role seemed clear to Commander Klee: "You
have a known al-Qaida-Taliban leadership compound."
But survivors say they stored the ammunition six weeks ago on the orders of
retreating Taliban troops. When the regime fell they notified authorities
but no one came to collect the ammunition. "We left it. What else were we
supposed to do with it?" said Taj Mohammad, the village elder.
It was stored in two unfinished houses in a five-house complex six miles
north of the collection of mud-brick compounds which passes for Qalaye
Niazi's centre. The complex housed 10 families who grew wheat, apples and
grapes, said Mr Mohammad.
About two dozen guests had crammed into the three occupied houses for a
wedding, raising the number of occupants to more than 100, said the elder.
The bombers came early in the morning.
Precision-guided bombs vapourised all five buildings and a second wave an
hour later hit people digging in the rubble and, judging from hair and
flesh on the edge of three 40ft holes some distance from the complex, those
trying to flee.
Two days later villagers with shovels and tractors extracted the remains. A
hand, an ankle, a bit of skull, sometimes an entire torso, and buried some
in 11 graves, each said to contain several people, and relatives from Khost
took some for burial in the mountains.
Yesterday there were just human scraps and the carcasses of sheep, dogs and
a cow, circled overhead by two crows.
One villager said 32 died. The United Nations said 52, including 10 women
and 25 children. Mr Mohammad said at least 80. Other villagers said 92.
Staff at the hospital in Gardez said 107.
Innumeracy, rapid burial, damage to bodies, propaganda, remoteness, they
all conspire to shred certainty in this and other bombings. It is no one's
job to count the dead.
The UN said its envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, will discuss Qalaye
Niazi with US diplomats. The Pentagon has shifted slightly from its initial
certitude and promised to investigate a raid which Donald Anderson,
chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee,
denounced as a massive failure of intelligence.
That civilians were present there can be little doubt. Taliban and al-Qaida
too? Survivors swear not. Yet there is little venom for the US. "They were
given bad information by bad Afghans," said Hinzer Gul, echoing neighbours.
Haji Saifullah, head of Paktia's shura, or tribal council, said: "Our local
enemies are delivering this information to the Americans that Taliban or
al-Qaida people are here and Americans just bomb without any search."
The finger was collectively pointed at Aghi Badshah Khan Zadran, 58, an
anti-Taliban commander who controls Khost province and is lobbying the
interim government to add Paktia and Paktika provinces to his fief.
Some tribal elders said he threatened to call in US planes against them if
they did not back him and that Qalaye Niazi was a warning. Mr Zadran, also
known as Pacha Khan Zadran, was also accused of wiping out rivals by
triggering the US blitz of a convoy of elders on December 20, which killed
up to 65 people.
Mr Zadran's officials were spotted with US special forces who relied on him
because of his impeccable anti-Taliban credentials, said aides of his
rival, Mr Saifullah.
By his own account Mr Zadran is the most powerful commander in south-east
Afghanistan. He hails the bombing as accurate and necessary to purge
terrorists but says he has no idea where the Americans get their
intelligence. He hotly rejects the accusations of manipulating air strikes.
The allegations have rattled the prime minister, Hamid Karzai, who last
week summoned Mr Zardan to Kabul to discuss Qalaye Niazi. But supporters
were confident Mr Zadran would return home this week with his fief expanded
to include Paktia and Paktika.
"These allegations against him are nonsense. He is a democrat and pro-west.
The government will confirm his appointment by Tuesday or Wednesday," said
Amanullah Zadran, the minister for frontier and tribal affairs, and Mr
Zadran's younger brother.
Tribal politics tend to confuse even Afghans and one US official in Kabul
admitted it was impenetrable to outsiders, no matter how well briefed. "So
sure, mistakes happen."
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- - - - -
03) Our own terror cells: If the Bush administration treated homegrown
terrorists like their overseas comrades, its dragnet could ensnare
the far political right -- and John Ashcroft
Frederick Clarkson (Salon)
7 Jan 02
Self-described anti-abortion "terrorist" Clayton Waagner, arrested last
month by the FBI, might remain a footnote in the White House's war on
terror. But should the Department of Justice decide to treat Waagner -- the
man who has admitted to sending hundreds of anthrax threats to clinics and
abortion rights organizations in October and November -- as more than just
a lone nut case, and rather as part of a domestic terrorist network, that
could all change quickly.
And if the Justice Department decides to pursue this network with the same
zeal with which it has pursued foreign terrorist networks in this country,
it could expose a network that spreads broadly from the far-right fringe to
right-wing politics. Even, indirectly, to the attorney general himself.
Waagner signed his anthrax hoax letters "Army of God" -- after the violent
anti-abortion group he affiliates with. An Army of God adjunct called
Prisoners of Christ, meanwhile, gets part of its cash flow from an Oklahoma
City company called AmeriVision, which fashions itself as a Christian right
version of the liberal Working Assets long-distance phone service.
AmeriVision -- using the brand name "LifeLine" -- "provides 10 percent of
our long distance revenues to thousands of organizations that support
family values -- all part of our Christian commitment of helping others,"
according to its Web site. LifeLine's client list reads like a who's who of
the Christian right: American Family Association, Concerned Women for
America, Christian Broadcasting Network, the Christian Coalition, Gun
Owners of America and the National Right to Life Committee. For several
years LifeLine also partnered with the militant anti-abortion group
Operation Rescue.
AmeriVision says it has donated over $50 million to its "partners" in the
10 years of its existence. One of those partners is Prisoners of Christ --
whose address is a private postal box four blocks from the White House.
This reporter called LifeLine in December as a prospective customer and was
told that LifeLine had cut checks averaging between $40 and $50 a month to
Prisoners of Christ since May of 1996, and that the money flows to a
Washington D.C. public relations group called Christian Communication
Network headed by Gary McCullough -- the longtime principal of Prisoners of
Christ. (McCullough's group maintains a web link to the Prisoners of Christ
site.) When Salon called McCullough for comment about the LifeLine
connection, he said, "We are a small potato in that pie and I prefer not to
comment," then hung up. When Salon contacted LifeLine again for an official
response, we were told that under the privacy rules set forth by the
Federal Communications Commission, they "cannot give out customer or donor
information."
Meanwhile, during the time of his announcement for president, then-Sen.
John Ashcroft was the Christian right's favorite contender. To help finance
his campaign, Ashcroft made a pilgrimage to Oklahoma City, where he
addressed a group of AmeriVision executives at the Oklahoma City Marriott
Hotel on Nov. 11, 1997, according to an account in the St. Louis Post
Dispatch. Campaign finance reports reveal that top AmeriVision executives
kicked at least $26,500 into Ashcroft's Spirit of America PAC within days
of the candidate's personal pitch for funds. Contributors included company
founders Tracy Freeny and Carl Thompson, who each contributed $5,000 to
Ashcroft's Spirit of America PAC. Major stockholder and soon to be board
member Jay Sekulow and his wife, Pamela, also contributed $5,000 each; five
executives of AmeriVision's VisionQuest and Hebron marketing divisions
contributed a total of $5,000; and investor and later director John Damoose
added $500.
In 2000, AmeriVision board member Jay Sekulow and Pamela Sekulow
contributed the legal maximum of $2,000 each to Ashcroft's unsuccessful
reelection campaign to the U.S. Senate.
Should President Bush's imposition of "terrorist sanctions" be applied to
companies with ties to domestic terrorists -- as with the 62 individuals
and businesses whose assets were frozen because of their alleged ties to
foreign terrorists -- it is conceivable that not only Army of God but,
through its connections, AmeriVision could be a target as well. And
Ashcroft would find himself in the awkward position of trying to
investigate one of his own campaign contributors.
Embarrassment caused by financial contributors is not a new problem for
politicians, of course. "If you strip away the hot button issues of
abortion and terrorism," says Larry Noble, executive director of the Center
for Responsive Politics, "what you have is a classic case of a business
having made campaign contributions. And now the administration has to make
a decision that may financially impact that business. People will logically
ask, what connection is there between the campaign contribution and the
decision?"
But contributions from groups with ties to any form of terrorism, of
course, are a whole different story. And foes of Army of God -- and
Ashcroft, who has largely given a cold shoulder to abortion rights groups
since taking office -- are more than eager to promote Waagner and the group
as serious domestic threats.
"This is the first time that these anthrax threat letters have been
classified as domestic terrorism," says Vicki Saporta, executive director
of the National Abortion Federation, whose members had received over 80
anthrax threats by mail prior to Waagner's crime spree. "I think there has
been a very big change in the way these crimes are being viewed."
"But," she says, "until we start looking at these individuals as part of a
network that thinks it appropriate to murder people to accomplish their
political objectives, we are doomed to looking at individual crimes after
they are already committed."
Working Assets, meanwhile, has mounted its own letter-writing campaign to
get the Justice Department to designate the Army of God as a terrorist
group. "By even cautious standards," writes Working Assets president
Michael Kieschnick, "the Army of God is clearly a terrorist organization
and should be treated as such by the Department of Justice. Where possible,
this should carry the following legal consequences, similar to those
imposed on foreign terrorist organizations." Working Assets, which also
incorporates social and political views as part of its marketing efforts,
has given grants to Planned Parenthood Federation of America among other
reproductive rights, environmental and social justice organizations.
Kieschnick points out that if his campaign succeeds, it would mean that it
would be specifically against the law to fund or materially support the
Army of God (and, by connection, Prisoners of Christ), just as it would any
other terrorist group. Banks and other financial institutions would be
obliged to block funds designated for the Army of God and report their
actions to the Department of the Treasury.
But many of these groups receive their money directly, and not just through
the conservative Christian phone service. Visitors to the Prisoners of
Christ Web site are urged to sign up with LifeLine. "Help the prisoners
with every call," supporters are urged, "10 cents a minute, 30 minutes
free, plus 10% back to this ministry." All you do is "Call 1-800-607-5155
and tell them you want 30 free minutes and 10% of your long distance bill
to go to" Prisoners of Christ. An announcement next to the ad for LifeLine
also urges that checks "for general prisoner needs" should be sent to the
White Rose Fund, care of one of the leading institutions in the Army of God
network: Reformation Lutheran Church in Bowie, Md.
This church, headed by convicted clinic bomber Rev. Michael Bray, is best
known for playing host to a Prisoners of Christ fund-raiser -- the annual
White Rose Banquet -- a name misappropriated from a short-lived World War
II-era anti-Nazi resistance group. Convicted anti-abortion felons and their
most vocal supporters publicly gather every year on the anniversary of Roe
vs. Wade to celebrate their victories and raise funds for their imprisoned
martyrs. This year's event has been announced on the Army of God Web site.
Typically about 100 veterans of militant and violent anti-abortion activism
gather to network, to raise funds, and to taunt the abortion rights groups
and law enforcement agencies that monitor the event closely. Bray, for
example, described the attendees at the 1997 banquet as an "august cadre of
conspirators."
Last year's banquet featured a blatant appeal from convicted arsonist
Dennis Malvesi. He thanked those who helped him -- without naming names --
and called on others to assist those "on the lam, from the lock gluer to
the bomber [to] arsonists and snipers."
Apparently Malvesi wasn't asking anyone to do anything he wouldn't do
himself. According to a federal indictment, he had been secretly assisting
accused assassin James Kopp, who was on the lam in Europe at the time. But
the feds were already onto Malvesi.
While Malvesi was in Bowie, Md., bucking up the White Rose banqueteers, the
FBI was searching Malvesi's apartment in Brooklyn. They eventually captured
Kopp by tracking Malvesi's efforts to wire him money in France. Malvesi and
his associate Laura Marra are now in jail without bond, charged with aiding
and abetting Kopp's flight from justice.
The funds raised at the White Rose Banquet are ostensibly for the Prisoners
of Christ, which also provides financial support to the most notorious
anti-abortion criminals and criminal suspects currently behind bars: Paul
Hill, on Florida's death row for the murder of a doctor and his escort;
Michael Griffin, serving a life sentence for murdering a doctor; Shelly
Shannon, convicted of the attempted murder of a doctor and series of arsons
across the western United States; and James Kopp, indicted for the murder
of a doctor and awaiting extradition from France. Kopp has also been
charged in Canada for a series of sniper attacks on physicians. Malvesi and
Laura Marra are being held without bond in New York on charges of aiding
Kopp in his international flight from justice.
The highlight of each year's banquet is an auction featuring relics of
terrorist acts and handicrafts by convicted felons. The announcement for
the 2002 banquet, for example, reminds prospective attendees:
Items donated by prisoners in the past have included: handicrafts, pencil
sketches, including calligraphy of the Ten Commandments, by Paul Hill;
artwork from Shelley Shannon; the black leather jacket worn by James
Mitchell as he burned a baby killing center in Northern Virginia; denim
jacket Joshua Graff wore while performing his acts of kindness towards the
unborn; and the watch used by Dennis Malvesi to time his incendiary device
to blow up Planned Parenthood in NYC.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the banquet is that it is visible
proof that there exists more than just a loose association of individuals
or small groups utilizing the name of Army of God. "Nothing secret about
that meeting anymore," observes Tracy Sefl, a sociologist at the University
of Illinois who has studied the nexus of these groups. It's so obvious, she
says, that the White Rose Banquet might as well be called the "annual
above-ground meeting of the Army of God."
But it is long past time that the Army of God should be viewed as more than
a confederacy of lone nuts, according to Sefl. She sees the Army of God and
its constituent parts as displaying considerable "rationality and
organization" -- particularly in the staging of the White Rose Banquet.
"If an organization exists to create order, to plan, to articulate a
message," she says, "these are all things that we see in the Army of God."
Other characteristics of organization evident in the Army of God are such
things as "commonality of language, shared tools, identifiable leadership,
and fund-raising," she observes. "The hook? Prisoners of Christ."
The Army of God has evolved, she believes. "As the political climate has
changed around clinics, so has the Army of God. It's a classic case of
organizational behavior," she says. "It adapts to its environment."
