saag.org
NEW BUSH ERA BEGINS
By K. Gajendra Singh
...
As for still persistent allegations in USA of linkages between Iraq and al-Qaeda, Scheuer said bin Laden would not deal with the Iraqis, “not because he didn’t like them, not because he hated Saddam—both of those are true—but because the Iraqis were a third-rate service. They are ham-handed, clumsy.” Al-Qaeda did not associate with someone who posed a risk to the security of their organization, operatives, or plan of attack. He added, “Al-Qaeda is a first-rate insurgent organization with a first-rate intelligence and counterintelligence service. Bin Laden has shown throughout his career that he deals with equals.
“I worked on the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan and watched the organizational structure and the ability of the Afghan insurgent groups to absorb tremendous punishment and survive, and then I worked for the next period of my career on terrorism, where the groups were much smaller. Their leadership is more concentrated, and if you hurt them to a significant degree, they cease to be as much of a threat. They are lethal nuisances, not national-security risks. Al-Qaeda is not a terrorist group but an insurgency with an extraordinary ability to replicate at the leadership level. When Mr. Johnson was executed in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi authorities killed four al-Qaeda fighters, one of them named Mukrin. Within four hours, al-Qaeda’s media enterprise had issued a statement acknowledging the death of Mukrin, appointing his successor, and providing a brief résumé.”
...
Afghanistan
In the US war against Talibans, a creation of US ally Pakistan, its armed forces and Intelligence Services (ISI) with financial support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and with US encouragement, to provide security across Afghanistan for planned US oil company energy pipelines from central to south Asia, it was the northern Alliance from the same Mujahaddins, which won the war on ground in Afghanistan .It entered Kabul against US wishes. Before the war in October 2001, it was estimated that there were 50,000 Taliban fighters under arms and 8 to10, 000 with al-Qaeda. If due credit is given to intense US bombing and say 20 percent of that number were killed, then 45,000 went home with their guns to fight another day. Many Mujahaddin leaders, now turned war lords, control most of Afghanistan and have produced 2/3 of the world opium this year. The writ of Afghan President Hamid Karzai does not run beyond its capital city Kabul, protected by foreign Nato troops. His own personal security is underwritten by US mercenaries. How can anyone then say that US was winning the war against terror, even in Afghanistan?
US-UK leadership does not tire of repeating how democracy and liberty have erupted in Kabul and women can vote and go out. They and their obedient media might ponder the freedom women enjoyed before US maneuvered Afghanistan in its project to revenge on the Soviet Union, whose protégé the Vietnamese had humiliated the USA. Afghanistan now lies devastated and destroyed. Women before had more freedom in Afghanistan, and then are likely to have in near future. Ally Pakistan, which was prodded and bribed with money, arms and CIA trainers, is nuclear program overlooked, to create the monster of Mujahaddins and the Talebans, is now being asked to eliminate them, other wise--.
Z Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to President Jimmy Carter told the French media: "Yes. according to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahaddin began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the President in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention."
Intelligence failure and “white washes”
Although some times CIA members turn rogue as in central and south America and elsewhere, but it attracts the best US brains from its middle classes. When the authors colleagues met an equally bright US diplomat in early 1960s, it was remarked as a joke that he must be from CIA. To join Indian diplomatic service then, meant crossing hurdles higher than for Indian engineering schools whose alumni now dominate US info-tech industry .On Iraq and WMDs it was not bad CIA advice alone as made out, but the decisions were tailored by US neocons who cooked facts in Cheney’s office to fit in with the preplanned Iraq misadventure. The plans to attack Iraq for its oil and use it to control the Middle East and its resources was in place even before Bush’s election in 2000, drawn up by the so called ‘ Vulcan ‘group led by Ms Rice. British Prime minister Tony Blair fell in line like a poodle, a term which a British journalist publicly used for him at a recent Bush- Blair press conference in Washington.
....
Core of the Problem
According to Scheuer, bin Laden has identified six specific U.S. policies that anger Muslims: USA’s unqualified support for Israel; US ability to keep oil prices within a tolerable range for consumers; US presence on the Arabian Peninsula; US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan; support for people who oppress Muslims, i.e., Russia in Chechnya, India in Kashmir, China in Western China; and finally US support for Muslim tyrannical regimes and dictatorships from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. That makes bin Laden a formidable enemy because he has recognized what are deemed by many Muslims, even those who don’t support his violent activities, the threats to Islam.
Before rushing into further unilateral action, Scheuer counsels that USA must think, debate the reasons underlying the war /insurgency and recognize that US can win this war over a period of time or to fight this war forever. With current policies it can not win this so called war on terrorism. This is not a choice between war and peace. It is a choice between war and endless war.
After Iraq war, the Muslim Umma does not believe Bush at all. At least in Muslims’ minds, the invasion was to fulfill Israeli goal of a greater Israel extending from the Nile to the Euphrates. “While we’re beating the hell out of the Iraqis, Sharon and the Israelis are beating the hell out of the Palestinians every day. So we have an overwhelming media flow into the Muslim world of infidels killing Muslims.”
Iraq with Najaf, Kerbala and other sites is the second holiest place in Islam. US now occupies the two holiest places in Islam, the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq and Israelis more or less control Jerusalem. With the occupation of three sanctities by infidels, the Islamic clerical community, from the liberal to the most Wahhabist, have issued fatwas that are more vitriolic and more demanding than the fatwas that were issued against the Soviets when they came into Afghanistan. It basically validated all of the theological arguments bin Laden has made since 1996, making it incumbent on all Muslims to fight the Americans and its allies, because Islamic territory was invaded.
Even USA’s Nato ally, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, with close defence ties with Israel has repeatedly described Israeli actions in Gaza as “state terrorism “. Its parliament denied US use of Turkish territory to invade Iraq in March, 2003. After Guantamano, Abu Gharaib, Najaf and Falluja, Muslims have little doubt left of an ongoing crusade .It may be a one-sided view, but it’s their perception. And unless USA dealt with what they think, USA will never understand what it is up against.
Bin Laden’s genius, adds Scheuer, lies in creating the only organization of its kind in the Islamic world with Muslims from multiple ethnic groups, who work together with a lot of friction, but they work together effectively, unlike say the Palestinians. Without bin Laden, al-Qaeda might “lose some of its cohesiveness because of his very genuine credentials as a leader, but al-Qaeda is now a very mature organization. It is into its second generation of leadership, and the second generation seems to be more professional and businesslike. They’re quieter.”
In a recent interview with New York Times, Scheuer said that “al-Qaida, far from being a conventional terrorist group, was still the largely hidden face of a spreading, global Islamist insurgency”. Bush's claim to have killed or captured two-thirds of its leadership was a "fantasy". "The difference between fighting a terrorist group and fighting an insurgency is one of size. Yet we still don't know how big it is .We still, today, don't know al-Qaeda's order of battle."
When the Khwarism ruler killed Chengiz Khan’s envoys, and brought the wrath of the Mongols on himself and the Muslims, unlike other hordes where the group cohesion was based on fragile tribal loyalties, which unglued over minor differences, the latter had adopted the advanced Chinese techniques and systems, including conferring commands to meritorious individuals loyal to Chengiz Khan only. Al –Qaeda has learnt well the lessons from its ISI and CIA instructors in creating cells, use of Internet and other sophisticated techniques. They were even given international exposure by USA in the Balkans in mid 1990s. Many thousands of Al Qaeda cadres were flown in to fight Serbian forces in Kosovo, where many have stayed on. Such methods are normal, because the ruling establishment formed every 4 years in Washington, comes from legal and corporate power points to promote their self-interests and establish networking for encashment later. They have short term plans and short term objectives and the US system is now getting short changed.
...
A guide on Turkey states, “ bound in chains Beyazid was forced to serve as Taimur’s foot stool; the Ottoman was also obliged to see his favourite wife, Despina (a Serbian Princess) serve the Tatar naked at the dinner and then raped before his eyes.” Beyazid soon committed suicide. Abu Gharaib or telecasting an unshaven, disheveled and perhaps a drugged Saddam Hussein, being examined like an animal in a zoo, which brought protests even from the Vatican, was a 21st century variation of the same victor and vanquished syndrome.
...
saag.org |
