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Whose Bombs were they?

Mike | 26.02.2006 16:19 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Social Struggles | World

"It is difficult to imagine that the perpetrators of this heinous attack didn’t anticipate its disastrous effects. Certainly, the Sunni-led resistance does not benefit from alienating the very people it is trying to enlist in its fight against the American occupation. Accordingly, most of the prominent Sunni groups have denied involvement in the attack and dismissed it as collaboration between American and Iranian intelligence agencies. "


Whose Bombs were they?
By: Mike Whitney on: 26.02.2006 [07:45 ] (306 reads)


02/25/06 "ICH" — -- “We should stand hand in hand to prevent the danger of a civil war. We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq’s unity.” Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

There’s no telling who was behind the bombing of the al-Askariya Mosque. There were no security cameras at the site and it’s doubtful that the police will be able to perform a thorough forensic investigation.

That’s too bad; the bomb-residue would probably provide clear evidence of who engineered the attack. So far, there’s little more to go on than the early reports of four men (three who were dressed in black, one in a police uniform) who overtook security guards at the mosque and placed the bombs in broad daylight.

It was a bold assault that strongly suggests the involvement of highly-trained paramilitaries conducting a well-rehearsed plan. Still, that doesn’t give us any solid proof of what groups may have been involved.

The destruction of the Samarra shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, has unleashed a wave of retaliatory attacks against the Sunnis. More than 110 people were reported killed by the rampaging Shia. More than 90 Sunni mosques have been either destroyed or badly damaged. In Baghdad alone, 47 men have been found scattered throughout the city after being killed execution-style with a bullet to the back of the head. The chaos ends a week of increased violence following two major suicide bombings directed against Shia civilians that resulted in the deaths of 36 people.

The public outrage over the desecration of one of the country’s holiest sights has reached fever-pitch and it’s doubtful that the flimsy American-backed regime will be able to head-off a civil war.

It is difficult to imagine that the perpetrators of this heinous attack didn’t anticipate its disastrous effects. Certainly, the Sunni-led resistance does not benefit from alienating the very people it is trying to enlist in its fight against the American occupation. Accordingly, most of the prominent Sunni groups have denied involvement in the attack and dismissed it as collaboration between American and Iranian intelligence agencies.

A communiqué from “The Foreign Relations Department of the Arab Ba’ath Socialist Party” denounced the attack pointing the finger at the Interior Ministry’s Badr Brigade and American paramilitaries.

The Ba’ath statement explains:

“America is the main party responsible for the crime of attacking the tomb of Ali al-Hadi…because it is the power that occupies Iraq and has a basic interest in committing it.”

“The escalation of differences between America and Iran has found their main political arena in Iraq, because the most important group of agents of Iran is there and are able to use the blood of Iraqis and the future of Iraq to exert pressure on America. Iran has laid out a plan to embroil America in the Iraqi morass to prevent it from obstructing Iran’s nuclear plans. Particularly since America is eager to move on to completing arrangements for a withdrawal from Iraq, after signing binding agreements on oil and strategy. America believes that without the participation of “Sunni” parties in the regime those arrangements will fail. For that reason ‘cutting Iran’s claws’ has become one of the important requirements for American plans. This is what Ambassador Zalmay spoke of recently when he declared that no sectarian would take control of the Ministries of the Interior or Defense. Similarly, America has begun to publish information that it formally kept hidden regarding the crimes of the Badr Brigade and the Interior Ministry.”

Whether the communiqué is authentic is irrelevant; the point is well taken. The escalating violence may prevent Iraq from forming a power-sharing government which would greatly benefit the Shia majority and their Iranian allies. Many critics agree that what is taking place Iraq represents a larger struggle between the United States and Iran for regional domination.

This theory, however, is at odds with the response of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following the bombing. Khamenei said, “The occupation forces and Zionism, which seeing their plans dissolve, have planned this atrocity to sew hate between Muslims and fuel divisions between Sunnis and Shiites….Do not fall into the enemy trap by attacking mosques and sacred places of your Sunni brothers….The enemy wants nothing more than weakening of the Islamis front right as Muslims with a single voice have been protesting against the continual provocations of their enemies.”

The belief that the attack was the work of American and Israeli covert-operations (Black-ops) is widespread throughout the region as well as among leftist political-analysts in the United States. Journalist Kurt Nimmo sees the bombing as a means of realizing “a plan sketched out in Oded Yinon’s “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” (the balkanization of Arab and Muslim society and culture.) Nimmo suggests that the plan may have been carried out by “American, British or Israeli Intelligence operatives or their double-agent Arab lunatics, or crazies incited by Rumsfeld’s Proactive Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG) designed to ‘stimulate’ terrorist reaction.”

Nimmo is not alone in his judgment. Other prominent analysts including, Pepe Escobar, Ghali Hassan, AK Gupta, Dahr Jamail, and Christian Parenti all agree that the Bush administration appears to be inciting civil war as part of an exit strategy. Certainly, the Pentagon is running out of options as well as time. Numerous leaked documents have confirmed that significant numbers of troops will have to be rotated out of the theatre by summer. A strategy to foment sectarian hostilities may be the last desperate attempt to divert the nearly 100 attacks per day away from coalition troops and finalize plans to divide Iraq into more manageable statlets.

The division of Iraq has been recommended in a number of policy-documents that were prepared for the Defense Department. The Rand Corporation suggested that “Sunni, Shiite and Arab, non-Arab divides should be exploited to exploit the US policy objectives in the Muslim world.” The 2004 study titled “US Strategy in the Muslim World” was to identify key cleavages and fault-lines among sectarian, ethnic, regional, and national lines to assess how these cleavages generate challenges and opportunities for the United States.” (Abdus Sattar Ghazali; thanks Liz Burbank)

This verifies that the strategy to split up Iraq has been circulating at the top levels of government from the very beginning of the occupation. A similar report was produced by David Philip for the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) financed by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation a conservative think-tank with connections to the Bush administration and the American Enterprise Institute. According to Pepe Escobar:

“The plan would be ‘sold’ under the admission that the recently elected, Shi’ite dominated Jaafari government is incapable of controlling Iraq and bringing the Sunni-Arab guerillas to the negotiating table. More significantly, the plan is an exact replica of an extreme right-wing Israeli plan to balkanize Iraq—an essential part of the balkanization of the whole Middle East.”

Is the bombing of the Golden Mosque the final phase of a much broader strategy to inflame sectarian hatred and provoke civil war?

Clearly, many Sunnis, Iranians, and political analysts seem to believe so. Even the Bush administration’s own documents support the general theory that Iraq should be broken up into three separate pieces. But, is this proof that the impending civil war is the work of foreign provocateurs?

The final confirmation of Washington’s sinister plan was issued by Leslie Gelb, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, in a New York Times editorial on 11-25-03. The CFR is the ideological headquarters for America’s imperial interventions providing the meager rationale that papers-over the massive bloodletting that inevitably follow. Gelb stated:

“For decades, the United States has worshipped at the altar of a unified Iraqi state. Allowing all three communities within that false state to emerge at least as self-governing regions would be both difficult and dangerous. Washington would have to be very hard-headed and hard-hearted, to engineer this breakup. But such a course is manageable, even necessary, because it would allow us to find Iraq’s future in its denied but natural past.”

There you have it; the United States is only pursuing this genocidal policy for ‘Iraq’s own good’. We should remember Gelb’s statesman-like pronouncements in the years to come as Iraq slips further into the morass of social-disintegration and unfathomable human suffering.


 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12063.htm

-----

Please spread far and wide. Joe

Mike

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

Left's support for fascist Ba'ath Party coming home to roost

26.02.2006 22:00

"There’s no telling who was behind the bombing of the al-Askariya Mosque."

There's no telling how desperate those on the "Left" are getting given their support for the fascist Sunni militias of the so-called "Iraqi resistance".

And I don't just mean that lickspittle in Bethnal Green

Virtually the entire American diplomatic and political effort in Iraq has been geared toward getting the Sunni to join the political process - not split the Iraqis up.

Only a complete fucking imbecile would imagine the US would want MORE civil unrest in Iraq.

But seeing as IndyMedia is more or less synonymous with complete fucking imbeciles, that's precisely the line being taken here.

Not even the Iranians want MORE civil unrest in Iraq, because the only people who could possibly benefit would be the Sunni militias. Oh, them - and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The entire direction of left wing policy on Iraq has been to act as lickspittles to the Sunni militias.

Hence, they will peddle any line, no matter how stupid, to preseve the illusion that the Sunni fascist reactionary militias are some kind of national resistance.

Any fanciful account of the bomings of the Mosque will do. Such as that posted earlier on this blog

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334533.html?c=on#c143184

The desparation is palpable. Take this;

"Samarra is the new Fallujah. Resistance from Sunni Arabs over the last year has been fierce and the US 1st infantry division are bogged down in a bloody guerrilla war which is destroying the city."

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334410.html?c=on#c143012

Actually, most of the "resistance" attacks are on other Iraqis. Which makes sense, as they are from the "resistance" viewpoint the main enemy.


Simon Simple


Old Colonial Trick

27.02.2006 07:08

"There's no telling how desperate those on the "Left"

There is no "left" here, moron.

It's just that you're so far to the Right that EVERYONE seems left by comparison. Your Opposition is the diverse Majority, not of this country, but of the world.

"given their support for the fascist Sunni ..."

You're the only one supporting Fascists here, Idiot Spook.

There is no "Sunni militia". That's weak Propaganda intended to erode support for the Iraqi Resistance, made up of Iraqis of every stripe (as supported by testimony of US Generals), which was sadly legitimized by the illegal Aggression of the criminals you support.

"Virtually the entire American diplomatic and political effort in Iraq has been geared toward getting the Sunni to join the political process - not split the Iraqis up."

That's utter bullsh*t, refuted directly by leaked documents, emanating from the highest offices of both the US and British Governments.

www.downingstreetmemo.com/docs/iraqoptions.pdf

"and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."

More weak Propaganda, not supported by one shred of evidence.

Not one.

This from the people who committed "the Supreme International Crime" in starting this conflict, the same ones who swore up and down that Saddam not only had a vast arsenal of WMD, but that he could strike the US/UK with them, and that they knew where they were.

... The same criminal LIARS who claimed Zarqawi's death in Afghanistan in 2002 as a "success in the (ahem!) 'War on Terror'" ...

"Actually, most of the "resistance" attacks are on other Iraqis."

No, they are not, LIAR, and even those few that have been reported in the media as such (without investigation) are called into question, when events like the British soldiers caught red-handed in a False Flag in Basra, or consistent accounts of Iraqis having their cars wired while in US custody, are taken into account.
 http://www.alternet.org/story/31508/

Not when you consider those leaked documents ...

 http://bc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/13631/index.php#13639

Hard Right's Desperation On Display


Hard Right's Desperation On Display a.k.a Jordan

27.02.2006 11:34

I'd recognise that blend of chauvinistic zealotry, propagandist disinfo and insults anywhere! A lie oft repeated is after all still a lie Jordan.

Haven't I humiliated you enough in pointing out that there was no "flase flag" in Basra. Just because you want it so badly to be true, doesn't make it so.

May I draw your attention to this thread? Please join in if you wish to embarress yourself further.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334410.html?c=on#c143220

And he has the cheek to call someone a liar hahahahaha!

M


And Who Might You Be?

27.02.2006 19:56

Heed your own words. Just because you say you've done something, doesn't mean it's true. Spook. It's interesting to note that you haven't actually said anything. As usual.

"There's no telling how desperate those on the "Left"

There is no "left" here, moron.

It's just that you're so far to the Right that EVERYONE seems left by comparison. Your Opposition is the diverse Majority, not of this country, but of the world.

"given their support for the fascist Sunni ..."

You're the only one supporting Fascists here, Idiot Spook.

There is no "Sunni militia". That's weak Propaganda intended to erode support for the Iraqi Resistance, made up of Iraqis of every stripe (as supported by testimony of US Generals), which was sadly legitimized by the illegal Aggression of the criminals you support.

"Virtually the entire American diplomatic and political effort in Iraq has been geared toward getting the Sunni to join the political process - not split the Iraqis up."

That's utter bullsh*t, refuted directly by leaked documents, emanating from the highest offices of both the US and British Governments.

www.downingstreetmemo.com/docs/iraqoptions.pdf

"and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."

More weak Propaganda, not supported by one shred of evidence.

Not one.

This from the people who committed "the Supreme International Crime" in starting this conflict, the same ones who swore up and down that Saddam not only had a vast arsenal of WMD, but that he could strike the US/UK with them, and that they knew where they were.

... The same criminal LIARS who claimed Zarqawi's death in Afghanistan in 2002 as a "success in the (ahem!) 'War on Terror'" ...

"Actually, most of the "resistance" attacks are on other Iraqis."

No, they are not, LIAR, and even those few that have been reported in the media as such (without investigation) are called into question, when events like the British soldiers caught red-handed in a False Flag in Basra, or consistent accounts of Iraqis having their cars wired while in US custody, are taken into account.
 http://www.alternet.org/story/31508/

Not when you consider those leaked documents ...

 http://bc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/13631/index.php#13639

Still The Hard Right's Desperation


Still Jordan; still peddling the same old disinfo undettered.

28.02.2006 11:03

Well if you are so confident in your position join the thread and give me the point-by-point rebuttal and the good drubbing I deserve.

But you can't, can you. All you can do is waste IMC's resources by reposting other people's ill-informed disonformation garbage.

Jordan the spook catcher, Jordan the journo... how may lies do you have to caught on before you stop calling other people liars? How many times do people more knowledgable than you have to rubbish your allegations before you stop calling people morons?

C'mon now, school me on how my assessment of what constitutes a covert op is flawed. The world needs to know.

M


Who Might You Be?

28.02.2006 19:54

Funny you only "recognize my style" when I post from my home computer ...

Heed your own words. Just because you say you've done something, doesn't mean it's true. Spook. It's interesting to note that you haven't actually said anything. As usual.

"There's no telling how desperate those on the "Left"

There is no "left" here, moron.

It's just that you're so far to the Right that EVERYONE seems left by comparison. Your Opposition is the diverse Majority, not of this country, but of the world.

"given their support for the fascist Sunni ..."

You're the only one supporting Fascists here, Idiot Spook.

There is no "Sunni militia". That's weak Propaganda intended to erode support for the Iraqi Resistance, made up of Iraqis of every stripe (as supported by testimony of US Generals), which was sadly legitimized by the illegal Aggression of the criminals you support.

"Virtually the entire American diplomatic and political effort in Iraq has been geared toward getting the Sunni to join the political process - not split the Iraqis up."

That's utter bullsh*t, refuted directly by leaked documents, emanating from the highest offices of both the US and British Governments.

www.downingstreetmemo.com/docs/iraqoptions.pdf

"and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."

More weak Propaganda, not supported by one shred of evidence.

Not one.

This from the people who committed "the Supreme International Crime" in starting this conflict, the same ones who swore up and down that Saddam not only had a vast arsenal of WMD, but that he could strike the US/UK with them, and that they knew where they were.

... The same criminal LIARS who claimed Zarqawi's death in Afghanistan in 2002 as a "success in the (ahem!) 'War on Terror'" ...

"Actually, most of the "resistance" attacks are on other Iraqis."

No, they are not, LIAR, and even those few that have been reported in the media as such (without investigation) are called into question, when events like the British soldiers caught red-handed in a False Flag in Basra, or consistent accounts of Iraqis having their cars wired while in US custody, are taken into account.
 http://www.alternet.org/story/31508/

Not when you consider those leaked documents ...

 http://bc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/13631/index.php#13639

You Try Point-For-Point


Simple simon is very simple

01.03.2006 06:36

'Virtually the entire American diplomatic and political effort in Iraq has been geared toward getting the Sunni to join the political process - not split the Iraqis up. '


Unfortunately for you, this is very far from the truth. You obviously arent familiar with PNAC, where the idea of balkanising iraq is made plane. An idea that goes a long way back:

'Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations (!!!), is proposing that Iraq be broken up into three states, a Shia south, a Kurdish north, and those lousy Sunnis left oillessly in the middle to their own devices. Needless to say, this would be a disaster, as a Kurdish state would never be tolerated by the Turks, and such a division might lead to World War Three. Even the Kurds recognize that their best solution is as part of a federal state, with autonomy like Catalonia has in Spain, or, if they play their cards right, like Quebec has in Canada. The break-up of Iraq is part of the long-term Zionist plan to break all the states that might pose a threat to Israel into smaller pieces. The key document, 'A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s', was written by Israeli journalist Oded Yinon and appeared as long ago as February 1982, although the basic ideas are much older than that. Yinon wrote (scroll down for his essay; the explanatory material in front and after the Yinon essay by Israel Shahak is excellent, and the italics have been added by Shahak):
"Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north."

Yinon also argues for the forced removal of the Palestinians into Jordan, what is now called 'transfer'. It is amazing that such detailed plans have been published (for a highly cynical but reasonable view of why there is no danger in publishing these plans, read Shahak's section "Why is it assumed that there is no special risk from the outside in the publication of such plans?" printed after the Yinon essay). We've seen the same phenomenon with the publication of all the detailed PNAC materials, and the infamous essay "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm", written by patriotic Americans Perle, Feith and Wurmser, etc., in which even more of the Zionist neocon crazed plans are set out. Besides the fact that the break-up of Iraq would be likely to lead to a massive war in which Israel would find itself, there is no guarantee that these new small parts wouldn't join into new coalitions which Israel might not like. What if the southern Iraqis decided to join Iran? Even from a Zionist point of view, the whole plan is nuts. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine how it is that the Council on Foreign Relations is parroting hard-core Zionist insanity.

 http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2003/11/yinon-and-gelb-on-iraq.html

Brian


Paranoia, surely?

01.03.2006 09:31

'Funny you only "recognize my style" when I post from my home computer ...'

To be fair to 'M', if you just happen to visit this site on a regular basis you can soon spot regular posters merely by their style of writing, without having to resort to paranoid accusations that you are under survelliance by 'spooks'. Indeed, the frequently cited accusation that anyone who happens to disagree with you is a 'spook' -is precisely one of those traits that makes you easy to recognise. As is your apparent habit of 'shouting' LIAR in bold capitals, constantly re-posting the same stock arguments/phrases in all your posts - such as the ubiquitous line -'this from the LIARS that brought you Saddam's WMD' and the more recent 'the failed/thwarted FALSE FLAG attempt in Basra' and signing yourself something along the lines of 'Divide and Rule' or 'Old Colonial Trick'. It is not rocket science really, though I expect by merely pointing this out, I too will end up being labelled as a 'spook'.

Amused Observer


FAO: amused observer

01.03.2006 10:51

Any viewer of Newsnight knows when a liar is on the run. They just keep repeating their obtuse and irrelevant spiel. Jordan's doing a Newsnight. He's done it here too:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/02/334574.html?c=on#c143418

And on all the thread he's been spreading his disinfo, he has failed to respond to my challenge of rubbishing my stance. The topic of contention has been hacked over several times and he still insists in what I can only assume to be the willful spreading of disinformation.

He's easier to spot than a pink elephant as, as you rightly point out, his phrasal vocabularly is pretty formulaeic.

So there we go: there was no attempted "flase flag" in Basra. Goodnight Jordan.

M


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