In this sense the coming "war" invests the government with complete discretion in the use of force, since evaluation of who is guilty and who is not will be impossible for anyone not privy to classified information.
mbs
-----Original Message----- From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Michael Perelman Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 6:20 PM To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Subject: Re: Jane's: Saddam
Could you say that the Israeli information is a bit self-serving?
On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 05:40:31PM -0400, Max Sawicky wrote:
> >From yesterday's Jane's Intelligence "Foreign Report":
>
>
> 19 September 2001
> Who did it? Foreign Report presents an alternative view
>
> Israel's military intelligence service, Aman, suspects that Iraq is the
> state that sponsored the suicide attacks on the New York Trade Center and
> the Pentagon in Washington. Directing the mission, Aman officers believe,
> were two of the world's foremost terrorist masterminds: the Lebanese Imad
> Mughniyeh, head of the special overseas operations for Hizbullah, and the
> Egyptian Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible
> successor of the ailing Osama Bin Laden.
>
> The two men have not been seen for some time. Mughniyeh is probably the
> world's most wanted outlaw. Unconfirmed reports in Beirut say he has
> undergone plastic surgery and is unrecognisable. Zawahiri is thought to be
> based in Egypt. He could be Bin Laden's chief representative outside
> Afghanistan.
>
> The Iraqis, who for several years paid smaller groups to do their dirty
> work, were quick to discover the advantages of Al-Qaeda. The Israeli
sources
> claim that for the past two years Iraqi intelligence officers were
shuttling
> between Baghdad and Afghanistan, meeting with Ayman Al Zawahiri. According
> to the sources, one of the Iraqi intelligence officers, Salah Suleiman,
was
> captured last October by the Pakistanis near the border with Afghanistan.
> The Iraqis are also reported to have established strong ties with Imad
> Mughniyeh.
>
> "We've only got scraps of information, not the full picture," admits one
> intelligence source, "but it was good enough for us to send a warning six
> weeks ago to our allies that an unprecedented massive terror attack was
> expected. One of our indications suggested that Imad Mughniyeh met with
some
> of his dormant agents on secret trips to Germany. We believe that the
> operational brains behind the New-York attack were Mughniyeh and Zawahiri,
> who were probably financed and got some logistical support from the Iraqi
> Intelligence Service (SSO)."
>
> Mughniyeh was the only one believed to have tried it before. On April 12th
> 1997, he was reported to be only two hours away from achieving the highest
> goal of any terrorist organisation (until last week): blowing up an
Israeli
> El-Al airliner above Tel Aviv. A man carrying a forged British passport
with
> the name Andrew Jonathan Neumann was in a Jerusalem hotel preparing a bomb
> he was supposed to take on board an El-Al flight leaving Israel, when it
> accidentally went off. Andrew Jonathan Neumann was very badly injured but
> strong enough to reveal later to the Israelis that he was not British but
> Lebanese, and that his operation was supposed to be a special "gift" to
> Israel from Imad Mughniyeh.
>
> 'A psychopath'
>
> "Bin Laden is a schoolboy in comparison with Mughniyeh," says an Israeli
who
> knows Mughniyeh . "The guy is a genius, someone who refined the art of
> terrorism to its utmost level. We studied him and reached the conclusion
> that he is a clinical psychopath motivated by uncontrollable psychological
> reasons, which we have given up trying to understand. The killing of his
two
> brothers by the Americans only inflamed his strong motivation."
>
> Experts on Iraq and Saddam Hussein also believe that Iraq was the state
> behind the two terror masterminds. "In recent months, there was a change,
> and Iraq decided to get into the terror business. On July 7th, they tried
> for the first time to send a suicide bomber, trained in Baghdad, to blow
up
> Tel Aviv airport (Foreign Report No. 2651)."
>
> Our sources believe that it will be very difficult to get to the bottom of
> this unprecedented terror operation. However, they believe the chief of
the
> Iraqi SSO is Qusai Hussein, the dictator's son, and his organisation is
the
> most likely to have been involved.
>
> Mughniyeh, 48, is a "sick man", says an intelligence officer who was in
> charge of his file. He is considered by Western intelligence agencies as
the
> most dangerous active terrorist today. He is wanted by several governments
> and the Americans have put a $2m reward on his head.
>
> It was the assassination of one man in March 1984 that is said to have
made
> Mughniyeh the CIA's most wanted terrorist. Mughniyeh allegedly kidnapped
the
> head of the CIA station in Beirut, William Buckley. The kidnapping
triggered
> what later became known as 'Irangate', when the Americans tried to
exchange
> Buckley (and others) with arms for Iran. However, the attempt ended in a
> fiasco. By one unconfirmed account, Mughniyeh tortured and killed Buckley
> with his own hands.
>
> A year later, in a combined CIA/Mossad operation, a powerful car bomb went
> off at the entrance to the house of Hizbullah's spiritual leader, Sheikh
> Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. Seventy-five people were killed. One of them
was
> his brother. Hunted by the CIA and the Mossad, Mughniyeh hid in Iran.
>
> In February 1992, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked the convoy of the
> then head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Abas Musawi, in South Lebanon. Musawi, his
> wife and children were killed and the revenge attack followed a month
later.
> According to press reports, Mughniyeh was called back into action and, in
a
> well-planned and devastating attack, his people blew up the Israeli
embassy
> in Argentina. The building was demolished and 92 were killed. Only last
> year, after a long investigation, did Argentina issue a warrant for
> Mughniyeh's arrest.
>
> The reprisal for the attack in Argentina came in December 1994, when a car
> bomb went off in a southern Shi'ite suburb of Beirut. Four people were
> killed. One of them was called Mughniyeh, but to the deep disappointment
of
> those Israelis who planted the bomb it was the wrong one. Mughniyeh's life
> was saved, but his other brother Fuad was killed. Mughniyeh waited for his
> opportunity for revenge.
>
> Our Israeli sources claim to see Mughniyeh's signature on the wreckage in
> New York and Washington. How to counter this kind of terrorism? "To fight
> these bastards you don't need a military attack," said an experienced
> Israeli commando officer. "You only need to adopt Israel's assassination
> policy."
>
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu