her er noe fra MER, bl.a. en artikkel av Robert Fisk fra Independent idag.
Hilsen Knut Rognes
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From: Mid-East RealitieS <MER@MiddleEast.Org>
To: <MER@MiddleEast.Org>
Subject: The ''New War'' - America & Israel Against the ''Terrorists''
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 10:53:05 -0400
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RESULTS OF AMERICA'S "NEW WAR"
LIKELY TO BE "INCALCULABLE"
MER - WASHINGTON - 21 August:
The Arab "client regimes" daddle as usual, unable to even convene
an Arab League meeting, not to mention assert major influence in the
world, even in their region. As the Arabs babble on Israeli
settlements continue to expand, Jerusalem continues to be Judaized,
the Palestinians continue to be turned into a caricature of Indians on
Reservations, and the "New War" will bring even greater U.S./Israeli
pressures to draw them in, creating even greater tensions and dismay
within their own societies...and in the end more "terrorists".
The Arab American "client organizations" -- dysfunctional as they
are -- continue ridiculously complimenting themselves for managing to
sewing many patches in "The Quilt" during this "50th anniversary year"
of the first Palestinian catastrophe. Worse yet they keep subjecting
their grassroots, what little there is of it, to Clovis Maksoud's
even more ridiculous rhetorical bombasts that bear little relationship
to reality. True, Clovis relishes the role of Arab mouthpiece; but at
best his cheap words ring terribly hollow and his actions are few and
insignificant. Long ago Maksoud should have been recognized for what
he really is -- a pompous, self-serving, charlatan -- and his terrible
misleadership of Arab American affairs as truly tragic.
Meanwhile, the big leagues American Jewish organizations remain
split between Labor and Likud -- a fissure which masquerades these
days as support, or lack thereof, for Oslo and the "Peace Process".
But in the end they all know they are way on top while playing the
"Good Cop/Bad Cop" game with the Arabs. And besides they now have
both the Holocaust Museum -- a gift from the U.S. Congress -- and some
$1+ billion from the befuddled Swiss to play with.
As for the Israelis, well the Israelis could hardly be more pleased
with themselves. Not only has their infiltration of American politics
and much of the media brought the U.S. more and more into their war
against Arab, Islamic, and Palestinian nationalism; but this latest
escalation happens just in advance of the 5th anniversary of Oslo and
right in the midst of its inevitable collapse. Note: Bibi is sending
others to attend, he's abit preoccupied further undermining what was a
terrible agreement for the Palestinians in the first place.
Meanwhile, the American media is doing its usual kabuki "reporting"
and "analysis" -- the range of allowed kosher opinion from extreme
right-wing bigots to so-called liberals "reluctantly" supporting "what
has to be done."
At least this article by Robert Fisk throws a little sense and
understanding into this devilish brew.
Robert Fisk was the first major Western Journalist to meet and
interview Osama bin Laden last year. Fisk is convinced there is much
more to come and that the cost of American policies will be
"incalculable". ÆNote: Fisk was exclusively and extensively
interviewed on MID-EAST REALITIES T.V. last year about the entire
Middle East situation and the "Peace Process" -- for details and to
obtain a video email to INFOMERTV@MiddleEast.Org and see
http://www.MiddleEast.Org/Fisk.htmÅ.
BILL LADEN WILL TAKE HIS REVENGE
writes Robert Fisk in The Independent
FOUR days ago, as President Bill Clinton was testifying to Kenneth
Starr about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, foreign diplomats
in Pakistan were told that "all foreigners" in Afghanistan were in
danger.
European embassy staff suspected that the United States, with the help
of the Pakistani authorities, was about to assault Osama bin Laden,
the Saudi dissident opposed to Washington's continued presence in
Saudi Arabia. One foreign embassy official in Islamabad told me the
sources were American.
Now we know why. But the results are likely to be incalculable.
President Clinton says that Mr Bin Laden declared war on the United
States. Now Mr Clinton has declared war on him - which is exactly what
Mr Bin Laden, guilty or otherwise of the American embassy bombings,
will have wanted.
Mr Clinton wants to destroy Mr Bin Laden. Now Bin Laden will want to
destroy Mr Clinton. He can count on the support of millions of Muslims
who will never be persuaded that the strikes against Afghanistan and
Sudan were anything but a cynical ploy to distract attention from Mr
Clinton's sexual adventures. They are also aware that the camp in
Khowst, in Paktia province, which the Americans bombed, was originally
set up by the CIA to train Afghan - and Arab - guerrillas in their war
against the Soviet army. For, in the 1980s, Mr Bin Laden and his men
were regarded as "freedom fighters" rather than "terrorists" and were
encouraged to use British-made Blowpipe anti-aircraft missiles against
the Russians.
Mr Bin Laden demands the withdrawal of US troops from his native
country of Saudi Arabia - some of whose officials give him
considerable support. None of this, of course, was finding its way
into the American news reports from Washington last night.
Of one thing we can be sure, that in the coming days the story will
change. We will hear of civilian casualties. We will ask why Mr Bin
Laden survived. We may even hear of secret deals - rumoured in the
Middle East these past five days - between Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and
the United States that would prepare the ground for the lifting of UN
sanctions against Libya in return for its support in the war against
Palestinian "terror": the story that Abu Nidal, the cruellest of
Palestinian militants, has been secretly sent from Tripoli to Cairo in
a semi-comatose state, persists.
Egypt, it is said in the Arab world, has demanded action against its
domestic enemies - which may be why the United States helped extradite
five Egyptians from Albania to Egypt and bombed Sudan.
And what was the Khowst base that Mr Clinton bombed in Afghanistan?
When I saw Mr Bin Laden last year - ascetic, cautious, intelligent and
very ruthless - we met at a moun-tain camp near Khowst. He possessed -
a few metres from his tent - a massive air-raid shelter, cut into the
rock of a mountainside, protection against anything bar nuclear attack
and built during the height of his war against the Soviet army. Was
this the "base" that Mr Clinton thinks he bombed?
Sudan was bombed, too. But was it not Sudan which, at America's
request, ordered Mr Bin Laden out of Khartoum in 1996? Was it not
Sudan which handed over Carlos the Jackal to French intelligence
agents in August 1994? Was Sudan - a ramshackle dictatorship if ever
there was one - really making precursor chemical weapons?
Meanwhile, the very word "terrorist" will incite the fury of Arabs.
Yes, bombing embassies is an act of terrorism. But so is murdering
Muslim worshippers in a Hebron mosque or assassinating an Israeli
prime minister - carried out by Israelis but never called "terrorism".
Double standards will be on the lips of every Arab this morning.
And if the word "terrorism" is now little more than racist terminology
against Arabs, it also serves to silence the question "Why?"
Last night not a single hint came from Washington as to why Mr Bin
Laden - now taking the place of Abu Nidal, Colonel Gaddafi, Ayatollah
Khomeini and Colonel Nasser in our book of hate - should loathe
America. No suggestion that he wants US troops to leave Islam's
holiest land.
No clue that he was obsessed - as he still is - with the Israeli
massacre of 106 Lebanese civilians at the UN base at Qana in 1996, a
slaughter (the Israelis said it was a mistake) for which he also
blames the United States.
So President Clinton is declaring war on "terrorism", is he? If only
he would, the Arabs will say today. And if only he would start by
seizing the two leading "terrorists" in Europe's own backyard: General
Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadjic, responsible for the massacre of
tens of thousands of Muslims.
But they are not the sort of "terrorist" Mr Clinton is looking for.
Instead, he has decided to assault his enemies with their own weapons
of violence. And Americans, as well as Arabs, are likely to pay the
price.
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