Antiwar.com Blog

Historian and journalist Gareth Porter discusses Moqtada al Sadr’s outreach to the Sunnis and the Bush administrations insistence in backing the Iran factions instead and Dick Cheney’s determination to have a war with Iran whether Bush wants one or not.

MP3 here.

Gareth Porter is a historian. His latest book is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam (University of California Press).

For the third time this week, a retired CIA officer has told Antiwar Radio that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is the driving force in al Qaeda’s recruitment and motivation for attacking America on September 11th.

Ray McGovern, a 27 year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, when asked Friday afternoon what he thought of the exchange between Congressman Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani said (at 23:45 out of 43:23)

MP3 here.

“I’m really edified by Ron Paul stepping up and stating what he believes to be the case.

“If you believe that they hate us for our democracy or for our freedoms, well I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I’d really like to sell you at a cut rate.

“They hate us for our policies and that’s what Ron Paul was saying. …

“Giuliani … really showed his true colors there as a demagogue.”

Earlier this week Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit and Philip Giraldi, another former CIA counter-terrorism officer, made much the same statements to Antiwar Radio.

McGovern then made the common analogy of terrorists and mosquitos and why the policy should be to “drain the swamp.” But rather than advising more invasions in the name of swamp draining as the Bush administration has maintained is their policy, McGovern says you want to remove the circumstances which create terrorism, by “find[ing] out where these terrorists are breeding.”

“[There is a] swamp of grievances dating back decades: Three generations of people living in the equivalent of concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza, dictatorial regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other places.

“If you look at those grievances and instead of trying to shoot those terrorists as they leave that swamp, you drain that swamp by addressing those grievances and giving these people some reason to hope for a better future. …

“People will come back and say, ‘Now Ray, for God’s sake, Osama bin Laden doesn’t give a darn about the Palestinians.’ Well, that doesn’t matter whether he does or he doesn’t. He knows the kind of resonance that kind of appeal has.”

McGovern then quoted the 9/11 Commission Report regarding the motivation of Kahlid Sheik Mohammad, the ringleader of the September 11th attacks:

“Kahlid Sheik Mohammad was motivated not by any antipathy resulting from his stay in the United States [where he had attended college years before], but by his profound hatred for U.S. policy toward Israel – favoring Israel one-sidedly.”

McGovern then summarized a footnote in the back of the 9/11 Commission Report as saying:

“These are practically the exact words of what Ramzi Yousef – Kahlid Sheik Mohammad’s nephew – used in bragging about his pride in being condemned to 140 years in a federal penitentiary for trying to knock down one of the Twin Towers back in 1993.”

That is indeed what Yousef said.

Also discussed: How the 9/11 Commission whitewashed the role of U.S. Israel policy in their report, How the Dick Cheney-neoconservative cabal lied us into war in Iraq and Tenet’s failure to stop them, the history of the “crazies in the basement,” Bush Jr.’s relationship with Cheney in light of Steve Clemons’ scoop about Dick Cheney’s efforts to force a war with Iran in an end run around the President, Brent Scowcroft’s statement that Ariel Sharon had Bush wrapped around his little finger and why he made it, Cheney’s twisted motivations for the exercise of his power, the interest which put Cheney firmly in the camp of the Israel Lobby over most of the rest of the establishment and why he hasn’t completely given up on the Democrats.

Not really, but a great humor piece from Andy Borowitz:

Bush Names Wolfowitz President of al-Qaeda
Hopes to Undermine Terror Network

In a bold move to undermine the international terror network, President George W. Bush today named former deputy defense secretary and World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz to be the new president of al-Qaeda.

Mr. Wolfowitz, who has no experience running an international terror organization, struck many Washington insiders as an unlikely choice for the al-Qaeda job.

But in a White House ceremony introducing his nominee for the top terror post, President Bush indicated that Mr. Wolfowitz’s role in planning the war in Iraq and bringing scandal to the World Bank showed that he was “just the man” to bring chaos and disorder to al-Qaeda.

more…

Let me see if I get this right:

These are the people who don’t want war with Iran:

Secretary of State Rice

Her deputies, Negroponte and Burns

Secretary of Defense Gates

The Joint Chiefs of Staff

CentCom Commander Admiral Fallon

CIA Director Hayden

National Intelligence Director McConnell

James Baker III

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Henry Kissinger

You, me and every American soldier fighting with a Shi’ite at his back in Iraq.

While those in favor of war with Iran are: Osama bin Laden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dick Cheney, John Hannah, David Wurmser, the never been in a fight brigade over at Treason HQ: The American Enterprise Institute – and the rapidly dropping number of fools who follow them.

What’s a child-emperor to do in a situation like this?

Probably not, Rudy’s an old dog.

Yesterday, Ron Paul held a news conference to give it a try anyway.

The controversy started at the second Republican debate.

Rep. Paul said that the the attacks on the United States on September 11th were “blowback” from the American government’s interventionist foreign policy. Giuliani, insisting that they hate us for our “freedom,” demanded Paul retract his statement – which Paul refused to do.

Yesterday, Rep. Paul presented a reading list to Rudy of several books (as well as a “Cliff Notes” version in case Rudy lacks the time and attention-span) to educate him on the causes of 9/11.

Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden Unit, appeared at the event to support Paul’s candidacy and support his position on the causes of 9/11.

The event received excellent news coverage. Watch it now.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, Visiting Pakistan Sudies Professor at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the various purposes to which American aid to Pakistan is spent, various social and political elements there, the recent riots over Musharraf’s removal of the Chief Justice of their supreme court and how much danger the dictator is in.

MP3 here. (15:05)

Prof. Rizvi is one of the leading political science scholars in Pakistan, with over 30 years of teaching and research experience at the post-graduate level. He served on the Faculty of Political Science at Punjab University from 1971 to 2001. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Quaid-i-Azam Distinguished Professor of Pakistan Studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he taught classes on South Asia. In 2002, he was also a Visiting Research Scholar at the Cooperative Monitoring Centre at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, where he co-authored a paper on “Nuclear Terrorism and South Asia.” He has published numerous books and articles on Pakistan’s politics, society and foreign policy, as well as over 500 newspaper articles in both English-language and Urdu-language publications.