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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (1152)	1/17/2003 11:30:11 AM
From: Don Green	Respond to of 48884

Gary North's REALITY CHECK Issue 207 January 17, 2003 ISRAELI INTERNATIONAL ASSASSINATION SQUADS A story surfaced this week regarding Ariel Sharon's creation of assassination squads that will be sent into allied foreign countries in search of enemies of the State of Israel. That such clandestine units operate internationally comes as no surprise. Many governments are thought to employ them. Indeed, the public accepts this fact as a way of life. But, officially, Israel has not previously acknowledged the existence of such units. The story was reported by UPI. Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the war on terror that will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials told United Press International. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forbidden the practice until now, these sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Israeli statements were confirmed by more than a half dozen former and currently serving U.S. foreign policy and intelligence officials in interviews with United Press International. But an official at the Israeli Embassy in Washington told UPI: "That is rubbish. It is completely untrue. Israel and the United States have such a close and co-operative intelligence relationship, especially in the field of counter-terrorism, that the assertion is ludicrous." So, the question arises, is the story true? It is the kind of politically sensitive story that a wire service would not run if it had not been checked. If anything, the story may be designed to put Muslim terrorists on notice. It gets an official disclaimer, which is enough to let the report sink into oblivion, but then, when the assassinations multiply, the targeted groups conclude that the story was true. I keep thinking of George Wallace's slogan, "Send them a message." Will they send back a message? WHO GETS BLAMED? If the story is true, then the West is about to experience an escalation of terrorism. Assassinations of suspected terrorists will be blamed on anti-terror squads. But whose? It will become more difficult for President Bush to evade suspicion for such acts, whether he or a subordinate arranged the assassinations or not. His "dead or alive" statement after 9-11 could blow back. The problem with terrorist warfare and counter- terrorist warfare is the inability of the public to know who is responsible for any event unless someone admits it publicly, and even then no one is sure. We see this theme on "The West Wing." At the end of last season's show, the President of the United States authorized the assassination of a Muslim nation's chief of security, who supposedly had planned a foiled attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. In what has become a standard shtick for the main character, President Bartlett initially resisted launching the death squad, all in the name of morality, but then he capitulated to his advisors. Bartlett initially talks ethics, but he invariably sells out to expediency before the show is over. The viewers' challenge is to guess what reason he will use as his excuse. What is interesting in the light of the recent story about Israeli assassination squads is that on the show, Israel has been blamed for the suspected assassination, when in fact the U.S. did it. A Muslim terrorist then retaliated by using a missile to shoot down an Israeli airliner. The advisor who recommended the assassination briefly suffered guilt from the knowledge that an Israeli friend who was on the airliner was killed because of what he had recommended to the President. But, on "The West Wing," guilt never lasts for more than a part of any episode. Politics heals everything by the next installment.