|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Max B. Sawicky
|| you should be horsewhipped. -- mbs
Temper, temper. OK, here's a hint, you old skinflint, but I'm not responsible for your blood pressure.
Hakki ---------------------------------------------------
Victor Ostrovsky: By Way of Deception, pp 321-322
"In the summer of 1983, this same informant told the Mossad about a large Mercedes truck that was being fitted by the Shi'ite Muslims with spaces that could hold bombs. He said it had even larger than usual spaces for this, so that whatever it was destined for was going to be a major target. Now, the Mossad knew that, for size, there were only a few major logical targets, one of whihc must be the U.S. compound. The question then was whether or not to warn the Americans to be on particular alert for a truck matching the description.
The decision was too important to be taken in the Beirut station, so it was passed along to Tel Aviv, where Admony, then head of the Mossad, decided they would simply give the Americans the usual general warning, a vague notice that they had reason to believe someone might be planning an operation against them. But this was so general, and so commonplace, it was like sending a weather report; unlikely to raise any particular alarm or prompt increased security precautions. in the six months following receipt of this information, for example, there were more than 100 general warnings of car-bomb attacks. One more would not heighten U.S. concerns or surveillance.
Admony, in refusing to give the Americans specific information on the truck, said, 'No, we're not there to protect Americans. They're a big country. Send only the regular information'.
At the same time, however, all Israeli installations were given the specific details and warned to watch for a truck matching the description of the Mercedes.
At 6:20 a.m. on October 23, 1983, a large Mercedes truck approached the Beirut airport, passing well within the sight of Israeli sentries in their nearby base, going through a Lebanese army checkpoint, and turning left into the parking lot. A U.S. Marine guard reported with alarm that the truck was gathering speed, but before he could do anything, the truck roared toward the entrance of the four-story reinforced concrete Aviation Safety Building, used as a headquarters for the Eighth Marine Battalion, crashing through a wrought iron gate, hitting the sand-bagged guard post, smashing through another barrier, and ramming over a wall of sandbags into the lobby, exploding with such a terrible force that the building was instantly reduced to rubble.
A few minutes later, another truck smashed into the French paratroopers' headquarters at Bir Hason, a seafront residential neighborhood just two miles from the U.S. compound, hitting it with such an impact that it moved the building 30 feet and killed 58 soldiers.
The loss of 241 Marines, most of them still sleeping in their cots at the time of the suicide mission, was the highest single-day death toll for the Americans since 246 died throughout Vietnam at the start of the Tet offensive on January 13, 1968.
(...)At Mossad headquarters, there was a sigh of relief that it wasn't us who got hit. It was seen as a small incident so far as the Mossad was concerned- that we had stumbled over it and wouldn't tell anybody(...)
(...)The general attitude about the Americans was: 'Hey, if they wanted to stick their nose into this Lebanon thing, let them pay the price'. " ----------------------------------------------------
|| From: Carrol Cox
|| _But_ the claim here is a reasonable one, and not to be confused with
|| the sort of claims which are usually included under the label of
|| "conspiracy theory."
I love this. All these solid-thinking upright citizens of the U.S. left have an unerring sense of when information about covert action is untouchable conspiranoia and when it's legit info. I'm trying to discover the covert rules of this religion. The first rule seems to be: If the theory says the conspiracy didn't do anything wrong, then it's legit. Doesn't matter if it's disinfo, it's solid gold.
|| And the 'hope' for secrecy is not irrational, since
|| also such actions do not involve the sort of (fantastically) elaborate
|| planning and the large number of people which (for example) the various
|| conspiracy theories re 9/11 presuppose -- nor is part of their 'appeal'
|| the racist assumptions which lurk below the surface of most conspiracy
|| theories of 9/11.
Rule #2 - But I suspect Carrol is making these up as he goes - the covert guys have to be a small group. Large groups attract attention.
They certainly do, as Atta & co. did. But so what? The FBI was told to look the other way. 200 Mossad agents also attracted plenty of attention - as red herrings, probably - but the media won't touch the story. Anyway, according to Carrol covert ops like Carter's attempt to spring the hostages don't exist. The Bay of Pigs: Castro made it up.
Rule #3 - Conspiracies theories are racist. Arabs are made to look dumb.
It's not the Arabs that look dumb, it's the U.S. left with its head in the sand. I don't know if that counts as racism. Arabs can't send a rocket to Jupiter either unless they work at NASA.
|| But note, even in the case of a "reasonable hypothesis" such as this one
|| on the anthrax attacks, the political gain of spending time establishing
|| it is very slight, and probably only detracts from more important
|| agitational tasks.
We've been talking about Dimitrov lately. I guess his defence in the Reichstag fire trial only had ass-saving value and did nothing to damage the Nazi's credibility, huh? Shucks, just when I was getting to like the guy ;-) Come to think of it, people have been drawing parallels between S11 and the Reichstag caper. How gratuitous of them.
|| The Iran/Contra connection was established clearly
|| and publicized through establsihment sources. What did it gain us?
If the US left waits for its rulers to reveal their own wrongdoing, it can't expect a full disclosure. Little guys like Ollie will take the fall and the Reagans of this world will remain unsullied. The end result will be public sympathy for good soldier Ollie who only obeyed orders.