Antony Loewenstein

Robert Fisk’s new book, “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East” is soon to be released. His newspaper, the Independent, is running extracts this week. First up, his access to the inner sanctum of al-Qaeda.

This appeared in the Washington Post on September 22, page A23:

“The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress’s ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.”

Let me get this straight. The report found “inadvertent double accounting” by the Navy and Marine Corps and inaccuracies totalling billions of dollars. “Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent,” the report to Congress stated.

Columbia Journalism Review’s Gal Beckerman wonders why such a story is buried and why such figures aren’t causing newspaper editors to investigate much further:

“Perhaps newspaper editors have become insensitive to the idea of a few billion dollars misplaced or, worse, just missing. But from the looks of things down south, with New Orleans in ruins and Hurricane Rita barrelling toward land with 165 mph winds, the federal government is going to need every cent it can find.”

Meanwhile, back in fantasy land, the Sydney Morning Herald today leads with this: “Biggest ever surplus: now for tax cuts.” The paper ends the article like so:

LET’S GO SHOPPING

What to do with the surplus:

- Business: cut the top tax rate and capital gains tax.

- Labor: tax relief for middle-income earners.

- Motorists: cheaper petrol.

- Access Economics: save it for when we need it.

In a different part of the paper, there is an extensive examination of global environmental degradation.

Clearly the Sydney Morning Herald sees no contradiction in both these stories. Tax relief may win votes, but environmental destruction could eventually kill any children born through the baby bonus. It’s time for responsible journalists and editors to wake up and join the dots.

“We took up positions of ‘Straw Widow’ (a disguised ambush). We were told that this ‘Straw Widow’ was against armed people and against people climbing on our armed vehicles. Our APCs (armed personnel carriers) were cruising 24 hours a day close to buildings (in Jenin), waiting for kids to climb on them and try to dislodge the top – mounted MG (machine gun) – and when the kids come, to shoot them. We had fixed observation posts in houses inside Jenin’s Casbah, the APCs were on the streets, below us. They were moving continuously.

“We were expressly told that we were just waiting for someone to climb on an APC. We were ordered to shoot to kill. We quickly understood that we weren’t expected to deal with armed people, as no armed Palestinian would roam the streets with so many APCs around. They (our authorities) were looking for children or plain people daring to climb on an APC or on any other armoured vehicle. We understood that from the talks with our officers.

“After a day or two, a 12-year old kid climbed on one of the APCs. There were lots of guesses about his age. First they said he was 8, later, that he was 12. I don’t know. In any case he climbed on an APC and one of our sharpshooters killed him. I already mentioned, we were looking for kids. The neighbouring company also had an incident with a kid or teenager, climbing an APC, who was also killed. Some of us said that this whole operation was unnecessary as its purpose was to kill kids, while others said that it was very good.”

1st Sergeant, Paratroops, Jenin, February-May 2003
Breaking the Silence

Tariq Ali writes in the Guardian about the disastrous Iraqi occupation and all-important Iranian connection. Australian journalists, care to ask John Howard about this? No, didn’t think so. You’d much prefer hyping up the “imminent” threat posed by Tehran.

“The argument that withdrawal will lead to civil war is slightly absurd, since the occupation has already accelerated and exacerbated ethnic and religious tensions in Iraq. Divide and rule is the deadly logic of colonial rule – and signs that the US is planning an exit strategy coupled with a long-term presence is evident in the new Iraqi constitution, pushed through by US proconsul Zalmay Khalilzad. This document is a defacto division of Iraq into Kurdistan (a US-Israeli protectorate), Southern Iraq (dominated by Iran) and the Sunni badlands (policed by semi-reliable ex-Baathists under state department and Foreign Office tutelage). What is this if not an invitation to civil war?

“The occupation has also created a geopolitical mess. Recent events in Basra are linked to a western fear of Iranian domination. Having encouraged Moqtada al-Sadr’s militias to resist the slavishly pro-Iranian faction, why are the British surprised when they demand real independence?

“The Iranian mullahs, meanwhile, are chuckling – literally. Some months ago, when the Iranian vice-president visited the United Arab Emirates for a regional summit, he was asked by the sheikhs whether he feared a US intervention in Iran. The Iranian leader roared with laughter: “Without us, the US could never have occupied Afghanistan or Iraq. They know that and we know that invading Iran would mean they would be driven out of those two countries.”"

Ali concludes by reminding us that England can no longer call itself a representative democracy:

“He [Tony Blair] was re-elected with only 35 % of the popular vote and barely a fifth of the overall electorate – the lowest percentage secured by any governing party in recent European history. Britain is undergoing a crisis of representation: a majority of the population opposed the war in Iraq; a majority favours withdrawing British troops; 66% believe that the attacks on London were a direct result of Blair’s decision to send troops to Iraq.”

Sydney’s Monthly Arts & Debate night gets up close and personal with the USA and the American way of life.

While the Australian media rarely challenges Howard government spin on Iraq – indeed, Iraq is rarely in the news anymore – the city of Basra is experiencing strong dissent against the presence of British forces after the occupiers forcibly raided a prison and freed two SAS soldiers. Who exactly were these two soldiers and what were they doing there?

Journalist William Bowles investigates and finds it hard to get past the British and BBC spin:

“When viewed in the context of all the stories that have been circulating about the mythical ‘al-Zarqawi’ and the alleged role of al-Qaeda, the events in Basra are the first real evidence that we have of the role of occupation forces in destabilising Iraq through the use of agents provocateurs masquerading as ‘insurgents’.”

As for American, British and Australian ambitions in Iraq, this gives us a clue:

“A Foreign Office source said the goal of the US Administration to turn Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East had long ago been shelved. “We will settle for leaving behind an Iraqi democracy that is creaking along,” the source said.”

For some Australian armchair warmongers, however, blind propaganda for the Iraq cause will always smell sweet, no matter the facts.

“Travel on the roads of Gaza, which were closed to Palestinian traffic for years, exposes the full dimensions of the physical destruction Israel left behind. A thousand words and a thousand images cannot describe it. That’s not because of the weakness of words and photos, but because of the ability of most Israelis not to see and not to grasp the extent of the vineyards and groves and orchards and fields that the people’s army of Israel turned into desert, the green that it painted yellow and gray, the sand turned over and the exposed land, the thorns, the weeds.”

Amira Hass, Haaretz, September 22

And how do pro-Israel supporters feel about this?

“Sixty-one women have given birth at Israeli checkpoints since 2000 due to delays in getting through the checkpoints, and 36 of their babies died as a result, the United Nations said on Thursday.”

The Iraq war, dissent, geo-politics and Halliburton are all discussed in this Fox news debate. Watch it.

O’REILLY: “We’re in a war on terror. Our cause is noble.”

“U.S. immigration officials refused Tuesday to allow Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the London newspaper, The Independent, to board a plane from Toronto to Denver. Fisk was on his way to Santa Fe for a sold-out appearance in the Lannan Foundation’s readings-and-conversations series Wednesday night.”

It’s too early to tell whether this was merely a bureaucratic bungle or something more sinister.

“Another paediatrician and another baker got a bullet in the face from a paratroopers unit. All day we search houses and kill children.”

The “Wild West” of Israel’s occupation is detailed in a compelling report published in mass circulation paper, Yediot Ahronot.

The occupation has corrupted untold numbers of Israeli men and women and dehumanised generations of Palestinians.

Sleepless in Sudan is an essential blog about life in Sudan and Darfur. Written by a Western aid worker, she writes with urgency and often desperation.

“Governor-General Michael Jeffery has urged US-led coalition forces in Iraq to study classic counter-insurgency tactics used in Vietnam and the Malayan emergency to win the war in Iraq.”

The Australian reports this “exclusive” today. Note that Jeffrey doesn’t question the legitimacy of the war nor the real reasons behind it. “We” must win, whatever the cost. Let’s not forget that this is a man who once said: “I believe passionately that Vietnam was a just cause in the circumstances of the time.”

Jeffrey represents a military establishment that thrives on conflict. Without it, their role seems somehow irrelevant. John Howard has defended Jeffrey. And he offers this telling comment: “It’s tough [in Iraq] but it’s all the more reason therefore that we stay the distance because if we give up and the place lapses into total chaos, that will put enormous pressure on neighbouring countries and it will be a very bad outcome for the west if that were to occur.”

Shame about those tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, Prime Minister.