Editor’s
Note:
Today, we have two articles that are related in some
way. It should be clear to everybody that the Occupation
of Iraq is bearing a striking similarity to the
Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Occupation is a dirty business and while the mainstream
media does not want to draw the parallels between
Israeli occupation and US occupation, the images and
tactical similarity is not lost on the Arab and Muslim
world.
Occupation has its own logic.
The Logic of Occupation – by Jaffer Ali
The deluge of coverage of the prisoner abuse scandal is
rather puzzling. Everyone seems to be acting like Claude
Rains in Casablanca. You might recall he was
disingenuously “shocked” that gambling was taking place
at Rick’s casino. Soon after declaring this shock and
shutting down the casino, a croupier slipped him his
winnings.
The shock over torturing Iraqi prisoners is all a show.
How many people reading this BELIEVE that torturing
Iraqis is new? How many people believe that this was
just an isolated incident of six wayward soldiers who
had not been trained properly?
There are twenty open cases of systematic torture under
investigation that we know of right now. But this is
only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Americans are
coming face-to-face with what occupation means.
Succinctly put; occupation destroys the moral fiber of
both the occupied and occupier.
French television got a hold of stolen footage from an
American helicopter “blowing away” a few of the
occupied. Using its 30 mm guns, a scrambling Iraqi
holding “a tube- like implement” was severely wounded.
He was crawling, apparently no threat to anyone anymore
(30 mm caliber are extremely destructive to human flesh)
and the helicopter circled over him.
We next hear the words, “Hit him”…and the wounded Iraqi
moved no more. Occupation is a dirty business. Rules of
engagement are thrown out the window, especially when
the occupied have a different color skin, have a
different religion, and everything about them is, well,
different.
Slap a label of “terrorist” on THEM and all is
permitted.
Ask Ariel Sharon, Bush’s spiritual master and supreme
role model.
Occupation has its own logic. Strike…counter-strike. The
rubbish of winning the “hearts and minds” never changes.
Initially occupiers like to think of themselves as
morally superior. Why not? Having superior weaponry
confers arrogance. Whoever has the bigger gun is more
powerful. I think Freud said this first.
From whom did our soldiers get urban warfare training?
Of course this was to be in the closet, but search
Google and you find the secret is out; Israel has been
training US personnel in the fine art of occupation.
Here are some links, but you can do your own search.
[See second article]
http://www.rense.com/general51/addad.htm
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/dec2003/iraq-d10.shtml
http://www.charleston.net/stories/012203/ter_22missiles.shtml
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0929/p07s02-wome.html
Techniques learned at the super-secret Guantanamo Camp
X-ray have just moved from this hemisphere to Iraq.
Nothing new here.
Yes, occupation has its own inexorable logic. If any
reading this wishes to dispute my version of the facts,
let me suggest that the “facts” matter less than the
perceptions of Arabs and Muslims all over the world.
Let me explain. Presently the impressions are clearly
concretized in the psyche of the Arab and Muslim world.
While “we” (I am an Arab-American) as a group may not be
monolithic, the overwhelming majority of 1.3 billion
people have made up our minds; the US occupation and
Israeli occupation are two sides of the same coin.
Israeli occupation of Palestinians and US occupation of
Iraq have now become inextricably linked in the psyche
of Arabs and Muslims. The main point of contention in
the collective Arab and Muslim psyche is a disagreement
concerning which of Bush and Sharon is the puppet and
which the puppet- master.
Karl Rove is one of the savviest political operatives in
US politics. He prides himself on “defining the
political opponent” before they can define themselves.
Unfortunately for the occupier, the face of US
occupation has now been defined.
It is a brutal face. It involves “shock and awe”. It
involves installing convicted felons in the provisional
government (Ahmed Chalabi). It is further defined by
rhetoric of freedom and then closures of newspapers that
do not fit the editorial sensibilities of the occupier.
The face of occupation is not a friendly face, but one
that is increasingly at odds with rhetoric. Speak of
freedom then ignore it for Palestinians in Israel. Speak
of the rule of law, and then sanction the extra-judicial
assassinations Israel commits.
The Arab and Muslim psyche make linkages where Bush and
his team fail to do so. Unfortunately, most of my fellow
Americans also fail to make the necessary connections.
Instead, along with Tony Blair, the Bush team is still
applying the age old practice of politics by division.
Compartmentalize issues…compartmentalize tribes… divide
and take events out of context. Condoleeza Rice speaks
about a generational commitment to changing the face of
the Middle East. But her proclamations don’t stand up to
the domestic political imperatives of getting
re-elected.
If ignorance were a virtue, we would most certainly have
the most respectable policy team in the history of our
country. The lap dog pundits/apologists are peculiarly
resplendent in their grandiose delusions. They seem so
silly that I now routinely feel sorry for them. It is as
if Baghdad Bob has cloned himself into dozens of
Bush-minions.
In the topsy-turvy world of the Bush administration, de-Baathification
quickly becomes re-Baathification. How many of Saddam’s
generals are now part of the “team?” Before the war, the
UN inspectors were routinely denigrated for not finding
WMDs. Now, after a year of unfettered access to Iraq,
our past rhetoric of condemnation is forgotten.
The once “embedded” and compliant media knows they were
taken for a ride. They enjoyed it for a time because
they relished their access. They were part of the team.
But now the media seems to understand that there are
problems of being embedded and doing one’s job as the
fourth estate.
As the media herd moves against the multitude of
mistakes and dissembling, we now are seeing the logic of
occupation playing out in the glare of media headlines.
*************************************************************************************
Jaffer Ali is an Arab-American businessman who writes on
politics and business ethics. He can be reached at
(Jaffer @ PennMedia.com).
*************************************************************************************
Israeli link possible in US techniques- By Ali
Abunimah
CHICAGO, Illinois: The head of the American defense
contracting firm implicated in the torture of Iraqis at
Abu Ghraib prison has close ties to Israel and visited
an Israeli "anti-terror" training camp in the occupied
West Bank earlier this year.
Jack London, chairman, president and CEO of CACI
International Incorporated, traveled to Israel in
January this year as part of a high-level delegation of
US Congressmen, defense contractors and pro-Israel
lobbyists, sponsored and paid for in part by the
Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, a pro-Israel lobbying
and fundraising group, and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, a
prominent Washington law and lobby firm.
The purpose of the visit, according to a CACI press
release, was "to promote opportunities for strategic
partnerships and joint ventures between US and Israeli
defense and homeland security companies."
As one of the highlights of the visit, London was
presented with the Albert Einstein Technology Award by
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz at a gala dinner at
Jerusalem city hall, for "achievements in the field of
defense and national security."
Delegates also spent several hours in the occupied
Syrian Golan Heights with Housing and Construction
Minister Effie Eitam, a former Israeli general, who is
notorious for his view that Israel should "transfer" -
that is, expel – all the Palestinians.
According to the official itinerary for the Jan. 11-17
Defense Aerospace Homeland Security Mission, obtained
from the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah, London's trip
included a visit to Beit Horon, "the central training
camp for the anti-terrorist forces of the Israeli police
and the border police," in the occupied West Bank. The
visitors were also "briefed by top experts," and were
able to "witness exercises related to anti-terror
warfare."
Two CACI employees, Steven Stephanowicz and John Israel,
were named in the leaked report by US Major General
Antonio M. Taguba on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.
Taguba wrote that Stephanowicz, a ‘contract US civilian
interrogator,’
"allowed and/or instructed MPs (military police), who
were not trained in interrogation techniques, to
facilitate interrogations by 'setting conditions' which
were neither authorized or in accordance with applicable
regulations/ policy. He clearly knew his instructions
equated to physical abuse."
John Israel, an interpreter, did not have the
appropriate Security clearance, according to Taguba.
Although Taguba recommended that Stephanowicz be
terminated and his security clearance revoked, a May 5
statement from CACI confirmed, "at present, all CACI
employees continue to work on site providing the
contracted for services to our clients in that
location." It added: "We have not received any
information to stop any of our work, to terminate or
suspend any of our employees."
Although no evidence has emerged directly linking CACI's
Involvement in the Abu Ghraib atrocities to Israel, it
has long been known that the US military has been
interested in "learning" from Israel's experience
attempting to suppress the Palestinian uprising.
In March 2003, for example, the AP reported that the
"the
(US) military has been listening closely to Israeli
experts and picking up tips from years of Israeli Army
operations in Palestinian areas and Lebanese towns."
This cooperation has included briefings of US personnel
by Israeli officers, and, according to AP, "In January
and February (2003), Israeli and American troops trained
together in southern Israel's Negev Desert ... Israel
has also hosted senior law enforcement officials from
the US for a seminar on counterterrorism."
Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged undermining the US
thesis that the abuses at Abu Ghraib was the work of a
"few bad apples." The Guardian reported that the "sexual
humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was
not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a
system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special
forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among
ordinary troops and contractors."
This system, known to insiders as "R2I," short for
resistance to interrogation, also includes such methods
as "hooding, sleep deprivation, time disorientation and
depriving prisoners not only of dignity, but of
fundamental human needs, such as warmth, water and
food." These are all techniques long employed by Israel.
The visit of the US delegation that included the CACI
head exposes a rarefied web of influence sharing in
which US government officials and congressmen, defense
contractors and lobbyists parcel out huge contracts, and
siphon significant portions off to Israel.
As Batya Feldman of Israel's Globes financial news
service put it, the visit provided Israeli companies
with "an excellent opportunity to encounter big bucks in
homeland security."
To help Israeli companies pry some of these "big bucks"
loose, the visit included seminars for Israeli companies
given by US pro-Israel lobbyists called "How to Approach
the Homeland Security Department," and "How to Sell to
the US Defense Department."
Israeli participants would have had a chance to test the
Helpful tips, since present on the trip were Assistant
Secretary for Homeland Security Robert Liscouski and
many leading US legislators, including top members of
the US House and Senate Armed Services Committees, which
jointly oversee tens of billions of dollars in military
spending.
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Other articles of interest on the Middle East
Israelis train Abu Ghraib Personnel
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html
The Abu Ghraib Spin
http://nytimes.com/2004/05/12/opinion/12WED1.html
Fantastical Occupation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19190-2004May11.html
Chicken hawk Groupthink - by Jim Lobe
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=2555
Here we go again; Syria sanctions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19087-2004May11.html
Decapitated man’s family angry – AP
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/all-islamicsite-side-051104,0,7401208.story?coll=ny-worldnews-headlines
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