[NYTr] General Petraeus in his labyrinth

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Paul Wolf - activ-l

[You probably haven't heard from me in some months now. I've been taking
a break from my normal obsession with world news, feeling like there
isn't much that can be done about the foreign policy and military
quagmires we've created for ourselves.

Over the last 10 years that I've been doing this, I find that I go
through periods like this, but ultimately what's important is the long
term commitment.  I'm committed to my news obsession.  I've also been
quite busy with other political and legal activism, mainly centered on
the war in Colombia. I am more effective in that arena because of my
ability to speak spanish and credibility with the South American news
media. So that's been my focus.  My latest and largest project is a
billion dollar lawsuit against Chiquita Brands for the thousands of
murders that have occurred in Uraba, Colombia, as a result of their
colonial business model. I've spent six weeks this year in Colombia
working in the field, so to speak.

I don't want to sound alarmist, but recent world events have caught my
attention, and they do justify sounding an alarm.  Turkey is on the
brink of intervening in the Iraq war - and not on the side of the US -
due to cross-border PKK attacks.  The Afghan conflict involves Pakistan
more and more each week.  One wonders how such an unpopular dictator as
Pervez Musharraf has been able to hold on to power under such adverse
conditions. US-Russia relations are taking on a cold war aspect, and
almost every diplomatic move the US tries to make is doomed because of
worldwide opposition to American foreign policy. Everything we touch
seems to turn to ruin.

No one can say they weren't warned.  Fooled, perhaps, but that's not
saying much. Today I listened to Zbigniew Brzezinski on Wolf Blitzer's
show, and he may be the only American political analyst I consistently
agree with. Other than Pepe Escobar, of course, but I'm not sure if he
is an American.

Brzezinski talked about the absurdity of a global war on Islamic
terrorism, and how such a view of the Muslim world can only create a
self-fulfilling prophecy.  One part of me wants to just sit back and
watch the religious right destroy the US, say "I told you so" and then
retire to the tropical paradise of Colombia in relative safety.
However, there is another part of me that believes that the situation
can be turned around, that the US can return to its respected position
as a beacon of democracy, and that the presidency of George Bush can be
written off in history as an aberration.

It's not true, of course. I have always maintained that George Bush
truly represents the average American, and he particularly did in the
wake of 9/11.  I suspect that the next administration, Democrat or
Republican, will continue with the same foreign policy problems, and
will also fail. This's why I'm looking for a Republican candidate to
vote for.  I'd rather see them take the hit, then the Democrats will
have a real chance to reverse course 5 years from now. If someone like
Obama wins there will be no one left to blame, and we need someone to
blame.

I don't have the normal 10 articles for you to read, but these two
illustrate my concern with the two most likely ways the Iraqi and Afghan
wars can escalate.  The solution to both problems is, first of all, for
the US to leave and for other countries, probably regional ones, to help
these countries get back on their feet.  True, we will have "lost" both
wars, but this is already a fact, and a great deal of bloodshed and
misery can be spared by recognizing it. -Paul]

Asia Times Online - Oct 13, 2007
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IJ13Ak01.html

General Petraeus in his labyrinth

By Pepe Escobar

General David Petraeus, media-hungry US supreme commander in Iraq
doubling as Pentagon counterinsurgency messiah, will continue to be the
key pawn in the current, breathless demonization-of-Iran campaign,
whose target is to manufacture consent for an American attack against
the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) inside Iran.

Petraeus's latest is that Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan
Kazemi-Qomi, "is" a member of the elite al-Quds force of the IRGC, now
upgraded by Washington to the status of "terrorist organization".

In - what else - a remix of the lead up towards war on Iraq, Petraeus
even has his own Kurdish version of Ahmad Chalabi. According to
Rozhnama, a credible, independent daily paper published in Sulaymaniah,
in Iraqi Kurdistan, he is "a special and informed source belonging to
an Iranian opposition group".

A seasoned, highly respected US-based Kurdish scholar, who'd rather
remain anonymous, says: "I'll bet my every dollar this means a Kurdish
group. No Persian group is going to give information to the Iraqi
Kurds."

Petraeus's dubious sources also include the ragtag Mujaheddin-e Khalq
(MEK), a micro-terrorist group that used to be harbored by Saddam
Hussein inside Iraq and now is protected by the Americans in Diyala
province. So from Saddam's terrorists the MEK are now elevated to the
status of "our" terrorists.

The Kurdish scholar stresses that this Kurdish source, or sources, don't
have close relations with the MEK. "The Kurdish group with whom the US
and Israel are doing business is the PKK arm - PJAK [the Party for a
Free Life in Kurdistan]. Which explains why the PKK's reward is a
Washington wink while they attack Turkey. At this time, the indigenous
Iranian Kurdish groups are not leaders, they are followers hoping to
replicate the Iraqi Kurdish situation in Iran if they can help to bring
down the Tehran regime."

So what we have is basically a situation of Kurdish PKK guerrillas
attacking Turkey from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan, and PJAK guerrillas
attacking Iran also from bases in Iraqi Kurdistan. As early as six
months ago United Press International was reporting that "the Bush
administration was actively courting PKK leaders and Iranian opposition
groups based in Iraq to stir up trouble inside Iran".

Tehran knows exactly what's going on. Editorials at the conservative
Mehr news agency in Iran routinely accuse the US - and especially the
CIA - of using both MEK and PJAK to "destabilize Iran". As much as
Turkey now wants to go after the PKK rear bases in Iraqi Kurdistan,
Iran has already shelled PJAK rear bases in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Round up the usual suspects
Also according to Rozhnama, Mahmood Farhadi - part of an Iranian
commercial delegation from Kirmanshah and arrested by the Americans in
Sulaymaniah in late September - "was" a commander of the al-Quds force.
And like most Iranians in consular and trade delegations in Iraqi
Kurdistan, he hailed from Iranian intelligence agency Ittilaa't,
Petraeus was told by his source.

Semantics do count. Some of these Iranians may have had a background in
intelligence services. But this does not mean they still work for them,
or are still IRGC commanders. This correspondent was repeatedly told in
Tehran - and relatively independent Iranian media like Ettemad-e Melli
confirm - that since President Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 he has
sprinkled many of Iran's ministries and even Iranian Red Crescent
positions with people from Ittilaa't.

Anyway, as far as the White House/Pentagon/Green Zone axis is concerned,
all arrests - including previous cases in Baghdad and Irbil - concern
Iranian "terrorists", be they former or current al-Quds force or
Ittilaa't. This is at the heart of the restless spin unleashed on US
public opinion.

The Kurdistan regional government has officially asked US Ambassador
Ryan Crocker in Baghdad what this is all about - and has demanded the
release of Farhadi, the Iranian official, who was legally on a mission
in Kurdistan. These arrests offer additional proof - if any was still
necessary - of the degree of "sovereignty" enjoyed by Iraqis whatever
region they are in.

Iraqi Kurdistan depends on Iran for as much as 40% of its imports, and
for much of its gas. There's a healthy free flow of trade along the five
border crossings. Iran has already closed the borders for a few days
after the arrest of Farhadi - to the despair of Iraqi Kurd officials.
Now Iraqi Kurds are caught between a rock and a hard place. They have
to convince Tehran in no uncertain terms that Washington still fashions
itself as the absolute power in Iraq and even in virtually independent
Kurdistan - and there's not much they can do about it. And at the same
time they have to tell Washington to please not arrest people without
telling us first - we have to maintain at least an appearance of
"sovereignty". No one knows whether Iraqi Kurds will be able to remain
neutral as they are caught in a merciless war between the US and Iran.

Show me the money
Regarding the alleged Iranian "terrorists", where is Petraeus' hard
evidence? There is none - and US corporate media, politicians and
presidential candidates have not even bothered to ask him for it.

So much for US "diplomacy" - when Ambassador Qazemi-Komi, now derided
as a "terrorist", had already conducted two meetings with Crocker in
Baghdad to discuss the Iraqi quagmire. From now on the Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, could record a standard
video response and release it for every new arrest by US forces;
"terrorists" are bound to proliferate as Iran will soon open two
consulates in Iraqi Kurdistan - in Irbil and Sulaymaniah.

Petraeus' mantra is that the al-Quds force supplies material for
roadside bombs - including the armor piercing variety - that kill US
soldiers in Iraq. It would be enlightening to hear Petraeus' outrage on
an even more lethal form of roadside bomb: mercenaries of the
Blackwater variety who kill not occupying troops but Iraqi civilians in
their own country.

And it's not only Blackwater. There are Lebanese Christians, South
African white supremacists, former soldiers under the Pinochet
dictatorship in Chile, the British from Aegis. There's Vinel Corp and
BDM International - both affiliated with the US Carlyle Group. There
are the Israelis from Interop and Colosseum training Iraqi Kurd
militias. From Peruvians making US$1,000 a month to Americans making
US$1,000 a day, all these mercenaries are ultimately financed by
American taxpayers - the whole net subcontracted by Petraeus' former
boss, Donald Rumsfeld. Petraeus is just a general caught in a
(mercenary) labyrinth - without a Garcia Marquez to elevate him to
glory.

It was not the al-Quds force in a convoy of SUVs that opened fire -
unprovoked - on a car this Tuesday in Karrada, in central Baghdad,
killing two Christian women, Marou Awanis and Geneva Jamal; Awanis,
like so many Baghdadis in distress, was using her own car as a taxi,
taking government employees to work as a way to get a little bit of
cash to take care of her
- now orphaned - three daughters. And it was not the al-Quds force which
on September 16, also in Baghdad, "deliberately killed" - according to
an official investigation by the Iraqi government - no less than 17
civilians.

Blame it on market forces
As reported by the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, an October 5
US operation in Baquba killed 26 Iraqi civilians and wounded 40. The
pretext - according to the Pentagon - was destroying an "Iranian cell".

Let's even assume that Petraeus could produce hard evidence - which he
won't. Even if rogue, former or de facto al-Quds force commanders are
helping Shi'ite militias in southern Iraq - and that would be
predominantly the Badr organization, trained by the IRGC and allied with
the Americans - this is part of a war. The US is an occupying power, and
the local resistance, in this case Shi'ite, has the right to use all
means necessary to kick the occupiers out.

On the other hand absolutely nothing justifies a direct consequence of
the Bush administration's methods of privatizing war and commercializing
death: the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians by mercenary armies with
absolute impunity - as they are all impervious to Iraqi law since the
days when the country was subjected to J Paul Bremer's sinister
Coalition Provisional Authority.

This correspondent has witnessed it live in Baghdad. What Iraqis fear
most is not "ghost" al-Quds forces (bundled up in the magma known as
"the Iranians") or even al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers' suicide
bombers (widely referred to as "the Wahhabis"). Ultimate fear means a
convoy of gleaming SUVs with tinted windows, lights frantically
flashing, sirens wailing, masked, beefed up guys in khaki clothing with
their high-tech weapons scanning the sidewalks. They are referred to by
a universally comprehensible term, even in Arabic: "mafia".

Some Iraqis even miss those days when they just had to contend with
Saddam's goons. At least it was an Iraqi-Iraqi affair. Now the name of
the game is no-holds-barred, globalized commercialization of death.
Mercenaries conducting dirty wars against the barbarians; that's exactly
how the Roman Empire started to collapse.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071010.PAKISTAN10/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/

Hundreds killed in tribal regions of Pakistan

Thousands flee violence as troops hammer militant positions, leaving the
mutilated bodies of soldiers and civilians in their wake

SAEED SHAH, The Globe and Mail, October 10, 2007

ISLAMABAD -- The fiercest fighting in Pakistan's wild tribal region
since the country joined the U.S.-led war on terrorism has left
thousands of civilians fleeing in fear and at least 250 dead.

Pakistani troops have been pounding militant positions for days around
the town of Mir Ali, in North Waziristan, known to be a stronghold of
al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. At least 45 soldiers, some with their
throats slit, and dozens of civilians, are believed to be among the
dead.

Yesterday, Pakistani aircraft bombed a village close to Mir Ali, killing
more than 50 suspected militants and civilians and wounding many others.
The village, Epi, was rocked by a dozen explosions yesterday afternoon
that destroyed homes and shops, followed by an intense gun battle,
residents said. Abdul Sattar, a local shop owner, said he had counted
more than 60 dead and 150 wounded. He said many victims were mutilated.

"Some did not have heads, hands or legs. Some people were searching for
their children and women," Mr. Sattar told The Associated Press. The
bazaar had been crowded with people from surrounding villages buying
food to break their day-long Ramadan fast.

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Go to the World section
 Violence has surged in Pakistan since July, when security forces
stormed a radical mosque in central Islamabad, resulting in a bloodbath
and sending the army back into the lawless tribal region that borders
Afghanistan.

The continuing clashes come as the authority of Pakistan's military-led
government is weakened. President Pervez Musharraf is set to relinquish
his post as army leader and plans to hold general elections in the next
three months.

The fighting will further harden feelings in the region against the
Musharraf government and its alliance with the United States. Thousands
of families have poured out of Mir Ali and outlying villages, making
their way on foot, in tractor-trailers and cars. Desperate locals used
mosque loudspeakers to urge the army not to target civilian districts.

Separately, a powerful bomb ripped through a CD and video shop in
Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, which borders
the tribal zone. Police said they suspect Islamic militants planted the
bomb, which wounded at least 12.

The Pakistani army offensive in North Waziristan was launched after an
army convoy was ambushed late on Saturday. About 90,000 troops are
deployed in the tribal belt, a part of Pakistan traditionally governed
only by local custom. It is widely believed that Osama bin Laden is
hidden in the area, where the mountainous terrain provides the ideal
environment for guerrilla warfare.

Last year, the Pakistani government negotiated a ceasefire with chiefs
in the tribal area, which Washington said had given free rein to the
militants. That agreement broke down in July, but Pakistan had been
trying to exercise restraint until events over the weekend ignited an
all-out battle.

Yesterday, a White House report stated that al-Qaeda has "regenerated a
safe haven" in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Although a jirga, or meeting of tribal elders, has again been called in
a bid for peace, the Pakistan army seems prepared to fight it out. The
army said in a statement it had rejected a ceasefire proposed by the
militants and will "continue punitive action till complete peace is
restored."

In an interview earlier this week, Major-General Waheed Arshad, the army
spokesman, said that Pakistan would seek a new peace accord with the
tribal leaders, despite the unpopularity of the last such deal with the
Bush administration.

"What has it got to do with America? It is not their business," Gen.
Arshad said.

The U.S. and British governments have provided strong backing to exiled
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who says that she would be better
able to negotiate with the tribal forces.

A senior member of her Pakistan People's Party, Senator Enver Baig,
said: "This government has tried a peace agreement through the
generals. But you cannot dictate to these people. If you show them your
guns, they will pick up theirs."