Palestinians Should Seek a One State Solution Concludes Majority of Panel of Experts

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/23/18590978.php

 

Palestinians Should Seek a One State Solution Concludes Majority of University of Montana Panel of Experts

By Edward Campbell

 

Missoula, April 23 (Al-Masakin)—Missoula reporter Ian Marquand moderated a discussion on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict on the University of Montana campus this evening.

The main presenter for the Palestinian side was Dr. Shukri Abed of the Department of Languages and Regional Studies, Middle East Institute, in Washington D.C.

Mr. Abed was born a Christian, a Catholic, a Palestinian, an Arab, born in Israel, an Israeli citizen, a student of Israeli schools as a youth who knows many Jews and speaks Hebrew as well as any Israeli. He called Israel “My country.”

He went on to say that is was in the Israeli schools that he first encountered discrimination. They said, “He runs like and Arab, he eats like an Arab.” He was there that he first learned “We are a minority, a second-class citizen…despite the fact that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were born there,” he said.

In 1967 the PLO was formed. Recognizing the realpolitik of the situation, after the 1967 war, in 1974 the PLO began to shift toward a two state solution with Israel. In 1993 the Palestinians entered into the Oslo process and concluded a treaty which provided for a separate Palestinian state. It was concluded

by PM Rabin “the most distinguished military person in the history of Israel,” Mr. Abed said. As a result of that treaty Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin was assassinated in 1994 by a right-wing Israeli named Yigal Amir. In the meantime, Israel did not abide by its agreements and end the occupations of Palestinian land primarily in the West Bank, but also in Gaza and in the Golan. Instead, Israel expanded its settlements, primarily in the West Bank, but elsewhere as well, and filled them with 300,000 to 400,000 fanatics like Yigal Amir.

“They are fanatics and they are ready to die for what they believe,” he said.

In addition to this terrible fact, Mr. Abed stress the racism entrenched in the Israeli government and pointed-out remarks by Israeli high officials to the effect “It doesn’t matter what the Goyim think, it’s what the Jews do. That matters.” And “The dogs can bark as much as they want.”

In addition to this kind of sordid and provocative rhetoric; Mr. Abed pointed out that Israel’s now Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, whom he called “a Russian who can barely speak Hebrew,” demands that all Arabs such as himself recognize Israel or lose their citizenship in Israel. He said that he fears that Palestinians like himself will in the near future lose their status in Israel and be expelled.

He said he had lost his family home which was confiscated by Israel and turned into Kibbutzim. He said, “I witnessed my brothers turned into slaves, into construction laborers to build the Kibbutzim” which were built on the land that his home once occupied.

“I fear Israel will expel Arab citizens from Israel in the near future,” he said.

On account of these things, he went on to say that he felt pessimistic about the Two State Solution on account of fanatics the fanatics, like Amir, in the West Bank.

“I’m very pessimistic. I don’t think there will be a resolution in the near future despite the best intentions of President Obama,” he said, “unless they are removed…but it would take a miracle.”

He concluded that as long as AIPAC continues to control the Congress of the United States on the question of Palestine and Israel, he said this will continue.

“The is no incentive for Israel to seek peace as long as they have the blind support of the Congress of the United States,” said the distinguished professor.

On account of the influence of AIPAC in the Congress of the United States, “If Israel wants $10 billion they will get it and nobody will even hear about it,” he said.

He went on to reiterate the point that on account of this blind support by the United States that Israel has no incentive to seek peace.

“AIPAC has emasculated the Congress of the United States,” he said.

All the Palestinians have received on account of negotiations and treaties such as the Oslo Accords has been more settlements and more road blocks. “What is Hamas does recognize Israel?” he asked. “They will get nothing.

The therefore proposed a one state solution to the conflict, “but Israel will never accept.”
Later on he said that he seeks a “common heritage between Jews and Arabs.” And concluded: ‘Remove AIPAC and we’ll reach a just conclusion.”

Dr. Amos Guiora, Lt. Colonel, 19 year veteran of the IDF, Professor of Law at the University of Utah, former legal advisor to the IDF for operations conducted in Gaza, and principal in the 1994 Oslo negotiations between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli President Yitzak Rabin spoke next.

“It’s nice outside…so why are we all here?” to laughter he began.

Mr. Guiora sought to answer the questions: “Where are we going in terms of the Middle East?” And “Where are we going in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?”

With respect to the former question he suggested that other things that are going on in the Middle East were more worthy of the President’s attention than the Palestinian and Israeli conflict and that other things occupied the minds of both administration officials and the American people more than the question of Palestine and suggested that the nation focus on these threats to American security.

With respect to the latter question, he said that he supported the two state solution to the Palestinian and Israeli conflict and that the main obstacle to a resolution of the conflict along these lines was the fact that Hamas is in political power in Gaza.
“Voting for Hamas was the single worst thing they [the people of Gaza] could have done to themselves.”

He went on to falsely state that Palestinians in the West Bank did not support Hamas in its election, when the Hamas organization was elected by a mass referendum under universal suffrage of Palestinians both West Bank and of Gaza.

Instead of recognizing the facts of the issue he drew a picture in the minds of the audience to the affect that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are at diametrical odds and roundly concluded that what must be done in order to succeed with the two state solution is that the Palestinians of the West Bank ought to attack the Palestinians of Gaza. “Take the fight to them he said…take the fight to the terrorists.”

He denounced the loyalty oath for Arab Israelis proposed by Lieberman but said to the audience: “You must see this from and Israeli point-of-view.”

He then digressed into contemporary affairs for America’s national security and said that Israeli and Palestinian conflict “is not the issue of the day.”

America, according to him, ought to be focused on the fact that the Taliban are within 70 miles of Islamabad in Pakistan. He raised the issue of Pakistan’s reported 100 nukes and asked: “what if Iran gets the bomb?”

He urged America to define its goals and ask itself: “Why are we doing this…why are we in Iraq…what are the moral goals of America…why are we in Afghanistan?”

He noted that he was once given the opportunity to address cadets at the United states Military Academy at West Point whom he asked who among them understood Arabic and how many could tell a Shi’ite Muslim from a Sunni Muslim? He said that “2 ½ hands went up.”

He said that “each nation must protect its own people.” And without discussing the terrors of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation, their numbers or what atrocities they feared said that 1 in 7 Jews lives in fear of Hamas rocket attacks. And without mentioning the more than 1400 Palestinians killed in Israel’s recent Gaza campaign, within which only 13 Israelis died, that 6000 of these missiles total had been launched against them and, on account of that, “we have not become convinced” that the Palestinians are sincere in seeking a peaceful solution.

Dr. Abed called Dr. Guiora’s assertion that West Bank Palestinians did not support Hamas and that Israel had disengaged from Gaza: “Misinformation.”

“Hamas was not elected by Gaza, but by all the Palestinian people.”

He furthermore underscored that fact that Israel surrounds Gaza land, sea, and air. “what do you expect them to do, sit there in silence?” he asked.

Dr. Guiora replied to this by way of a parable about Ben Gurion’s order and Yitzak Rabin’s subsequent attack on a ship named the Altalena and said that when Rabin had met with Arafat Rabin told him that there will never be a Palestinian state until the Palestinians commit an act unto the equivalent of the Haganah’s attack on the SS Altalena, ordered by Ben Gurion and carried out by Rabin in June of 1948.

Owen Sirrs of the University of Montana’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center expressed some unease at addressing such a difficult and sensitive topic and said: “I’d rather be talking about Iran.”

He expressed pessimism about the viability of the two state solution. “The two state solution is done…It’s over,” he said.

He went on to suggest that if the two state solution were to be saved, Israel must give the Palestinians “a viable living entity, which means that which was taken in 1967.”

He went on to rebuke the idea that the Israeli and Palestinian conflict could be “de-linked” from what is happening elsewhere in the Middle East and urged the audience not to become distracted “from this fundamental problem.”

Noureddine Jebnoun, a faculty associate of the University of Montana’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center spoke next.

Dr Jebnoun decried the bias in the American media in relation to the Palestinian and Israeli conflict calling it a “Weapon of Mass Deception (WMD).”

He accused the American media of the “deliberate deception of the American people.”

He said in relation to this conflict there are two medias: the one America leans from and the one that is seen by the whole world, including Israel.

He said the 2008 Palestinian-Israeli truce was not broken by Hamas Dec. 19 but by Israel on Nov. 4. He continued, nevertheless, to point out the fact that lifting the siege on Gaza was part of the truce deal to being with, and that Israel never respected that agreement.

He cited Israeli strikes on the media, saying that Israel ignores laws. He said that Israel is holding 4 million Palestinians hostage. And that the occupation is a prison administration.

He said that the Palestinian Authority is a misnomer for an entitiy which has “no authority, no sovereignty, no jurisdiction, and no power.”

He spoke about Israeli detention of 11,000 Palestinian citizens, the kangaroo Israeli military courts which criminalizes the Palestinian identity. He spoke about torture and said that the torture in Israeli jails only stops on Shabbat and resumes on the next working day.

He said previous victims of torture in both Fatah and Hamas use this practice against their own people.

He said that if one were to check the CIA Factbook, one would clearly see that the United States still considers Gaza to be under occupation under a doctrine of what is called “the Principle of Effective Control,” which Israel achieves by controlling Gaza by Land, Sea and Air. He said Israel is in violation if the IV Geneva Convention.

He said that Israel is in violation of its agreements with the United States by using the military hardware supplied to them in an offensive manner when American weapons contracts stipulate that American weapons may only be used in self-defense.

He spoke about Israel’s illegal use of White Phosphorus and pointed out the disproportional deaths on both sides. He said that Israel’s recent assault on Gaza was “more like shooting fish in a fish tank than a real war,” and called Gaza “an open sky prison.” He pointed out Israel’s insult to the United Nations by insinuating that the U.N. was permitting militants to occupy its building and therefore they were attacked.

He went on to say that the American media’s depiction of Hamas as an armed militia was completely wrong, saying that the movement is deeply entrenched in Palestinian society.

“Hamas is a fact of life. It is not going away. It will not raise the White Flag no matter how many their casualties,” he said.

He said that the blockade of Gaza was collective punishment designed to cause the Palestinian people to revolt against their own lawfully elected government.

He concluded that the one state solution was the only path to peace. In the future he sees a Palestine with an Arab majority, based on tolerance of the religious beliefs and practices of the Jewish minority.

He concluded by suggesting that President Obama engage in a dialogue with Hamas and that Israel end the occupation.

Dr. Guiora replied to this as “an outrageous and obscene litany of lies.” And said that the University of Montana and the participants in the dialogue had violated the ground rules of the debate. “The time has come to grow-up,” he said.

He called the Palestinian case victimology and said that the other speakers were presenting “a laundry list.”

In response to a questions from Al-Masakin to the effect as law professor and legal advisor to the IDF: “When is it in your opinion permissible to shoot a reporter, and how did you advise the IDF on this question?”

Dr. Guiora replied that the IDF had never asked him about that.

To a follow-up question from Al-Masakin: “When is it permissible to bomb a television station?”

He said it would be permissible to bomb a television station only when an armed group had taken it over and was shooting from there. He went on to say he had no specific knowledge as to why the NBC bureau in Gaza city was bombed during Israel’s recent military campaign there.

EHC / EHC

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Nushin Arbabzadah (UCLA): Afghan consitution puts media and Islam into conflict

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/22/18590837.php

Nushin Arbabzadah (UCLA): Afghan consitution puts media and Islam into conflict

By Edward Campbell

 

Missoula, April 22 (Al-Masakin)–The University of Montana kicked-off its 7th Annual Southwest and Central Asian Conference with a presentation by Nushin Arbabzadah of UCLA’s International Institute. Ms. Arbabzadah praised the media, particularly the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and Internews, for spreading democracy and nation building, though she herself admitted she is afraid to read Taliban media website Al-Emarah out fear of being targeted by western powers.

Ms. Arbabzadah said, however, that the media is the only reconstruction project undertaken in Afghanistan which has been successful. Although Ms. Arbabzadah said that she does not believe that Islam and the principle of freedom of speech are locked in irreconcilable conflict, the phraseology of the Afghan Constitution which limits freedom of speech by the laws of Islam has created this conflict by its failure to clearly define where Islam stops and free speech begins. The constitution of Afghanistan stipulates that freedom of speech cannot contradict the laws of Islam without going into detail as to what the ‘laws of Islam’ are.

This failure to clearly define in the Afghan Constitution what in fact Islamic law is has resulted in what most Americans would believe to be unjust detentions for religious scholars and secular radicals alike under charges of blasphemy.

According to Ms. Arbabzadah that while statutory law in Afghanistan is frequently ignored or is unenforceable, the Afghan

regime has been compelled to aggressively pursue charges of blasphemy in order to prevent the Taliban from making political gains.

Ms. Arbabzadah mentioned several instances of the oppression of journalists including the 2005 murder of a female journalist for Afghanistan’s Tolo TV. According to Ms. Arbabzadah at least three female reporters for Tolo TV have been murdered since 2001, none of the murders were investigated by the Afghan government. Ms. Arbabzadah said that among the most influential television stations in Afghanistan were Noorin TV which targets the youth with all of the things which annoy even American parents, ‘fun and fashion,’ and Ariana TV which has taken up a positive role through the dissemination a progressive views of Islam.

Arbabzadah on the other hand noted the shutdown of the Afghan newspaper Payman Daily, which took a scientific approach to theology, after it published an article which said something to the effect that the ‘question of the afterlife is and unsolved mystery,’ and that those who have claimed to know what the afterlife (Jannah جنّة‎, which means ‘paradise’) is like do not know.

In addition to these unfortunate events, since 2001 Islamic scholar Ghaus Zalmay, along with his Imam, was jailed for 20 years for publilshing a Dari translation of the Qur’an which failed to include its corresponding Arabic ayatun (آيات, verses) and for somewhat softening the a verse of the Qur’an which claims other religions will be ‘conquered’ with the word ‘pursuaded.’

In addition to this tragedy of law, Shi’ite scholar Ali Mohaqeq was jailed for 6 months for claiming there is no punishment for those who repudiate their faith in Islam. Mr. Mohaqeq would have very like been sentenced to a much longer term had it not been for pressure emanating from Iran, where he was educated.

This year’s Central and Southwest Asian conference was begun with an announcement by Professor Mehrdad Kia that the University of Montana has promulgated a new Major in Central and Southwest Asian studies, one of the very few in the United States, which is expected to bring not only a great amount of prestige to this once wild-backwater, but also an influx of world class talent in the field.

The conference will continue tomorrow with presentations on Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Kyrgyzstan, the Arabic language, and the conflict between Georgia and Russia will discussed on Friday.

EHC / EHC

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Former IDF Lt. Colonel Amos Guiora to speak at University of Montana April 23

Missoula, April 21 (Al-Masakin)–Former Lt. Colonel, 19 year IDF vetern, and former legal adviser to the IDF Amos Guiora will speak at the University of Montana at 7pm Thursday April 23.  Guiora will be participating in the 7th Annual Central and Southwest Asia Conference to be kicked-off Wednesday April 22 and will conclude Friday April 24.  Mr. Guiora is an alleged legal expert on Israeli targeting of civilians.  Guiora is a Professor of Law at the University of Utah.

The main topics of discussion at the event will be Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.  Israeli terrorism and Palestinian counter-terrorism, Iran, and the role of Arabic language studies in efforts to curb international and state sponsored terrorism will also be discussed at the event.

It is unknown whether Mr. Guiora has or will be indicted for war crimes.  Al-Masakin is not aware of any outstanding Interpol Red Notices for Mr. Guiora and it appears unlikely that he will be arrested at the event.

EHC/EHC

Media Alert: University of Montana to host 7th Annual Central and Southwest Asia Conference April 22-24

Conference On Central, Southwest Asia At UM April 22-24

Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Jennifer Sauer Thursday, 16 April 2009 16:46

UM will host the Seventh Annual Central and Southwest Asia Conference at UM from Wednesday to Friday, April 22-24.

April 16, 2009

Contact: Brian Lofink, UM Central and Southwest Asia Program coordinator, 406-243-2299, brian.lofink@mso.umt.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

CONFERENCE ON CENTRAL, SOUTHWEST ASIA AT UM APRIL 22-24

MISSOULA –

The University of Montana will host the Seventh Annual Central and Southwest Asia Conference at UM from Wednesday to Friday, April 22-24.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is presented by UM’s Central and Southwest Asia Program. The theme of this year’s conference is “Beyond the Headlines: Peace and Conflict in Central and Southwest Asia.”

The conference will bring internationally renowned scholars, diplomats, analysts and journalists to UM to engage the campus and the community in a discussion about the challenges countries in Central and Southwest Asia are facing and how those challenges impact the United States.

A complete conference schedule with information about all speakers is online at http://www.umt.edu/ip/newsevents/centralasiaconference.aspx.

Wednesday, April 22:

• 7-9 p.m.: Keynote presentation — “Islam in the New Afghan Public Sphere,” University Center North Ballroom.

Thursday, April 23:

• 9:30-11 a.m.: “Tajikistan: An Ancient Nation in Transition,” University Center North Ballroom.
• 12:30-2 p.m.: Keynote presentation — “Independence, Civil War and International Mediation: Tajikistan’s Path to Peace,” University Center North Ballroom.
• 2:30-4 p.m.: “On the Frontline: Afghanistan and the Struggle Against Terrorism,” University Center North Ballroom.
• 7-9 p.m.: Keynote panel — “Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights in Israel and Palestinian Territories,” University Center North Ballroom.

Friday, April 24:

• 10:30 a.m.-noon: “Kyrgyzstan and the New Great Game,” University Center Theater.
• 1-3 p.m.: “The Role of Arabic as a Language of War and Peace,” University Center Theater.
• 2 p.m.: Tajik Corner Opening Ceremony, University Center Room 220.
• 3:30-5 p.m.: “Confrontation in the Caucasus: The Conflict Between Georgia and Russia,” University Center Theater.
• 7-9 p.m.: Keynote presentation — “Islamist Movements in the Arab World, Iran and Afghanistan and the Potential of U.S. Engagement,” University Center Theater.

The conference is sponsored by the University’s Central and Southwest Asia Program, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, International Programs, the Office of the Provost and UM President George Dennison, the Office of the Provost, the Montana World Affairs Council and Humanities Montana.

NSEP panel discussion debates ‘Middle East disengagement or limited reengagement’ at the University of Montana

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/05/18575136.php

Defense Critical Language and Culture Program discusses the future of America’s role in Afghanistan

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By Edward Campbell

Four distinguish scholars on Middle East affairs, Rochelle A. Davis, Clement M. Henry, Marvin G. Weinbaum, and Hekmat Karzai discussed America’s future in the region this morning at a University of Montana sponsored NSEP program Defense Critical Language and Culture Program of the University of Montana’s Mansfield Center. The panel discussion was moderated by retired Brigadier General Russell Howard.

Rochelle Davis

The first speaker, Rochelle Davis, Assistant Professor of Arab Culture and Society at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, read from a paper she has written ‘Through the Occupiers Eyes’ which examined how American GIs in Iraq perceived Iraqi loyalties, and how those loyalties differed from American expectations. Her report is based on interviews of both American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

Ms. Davis’ presentation presented a picture of an Iraqi civilian population whose loyalties are far from the politics which are being trotted out by certain elements of the extreme left who typically frame the Iraqi politics under a rubric of extreme nationalism and Arabism under slogans such as “the Iraqi nation,” or “the Arab nation,” the Iraqi population indeed lacks a national focus. Instead loyalties among the Iraqi

population are primarily to family, tribe, and religion.

According to Ms. Davis, American GIs inculcated with national patriotism under the rubric of Truth, Faith, and Allegiance; which extend vertically through the Chain of Command and horizontally to their fellow soldiers.

The Iraqi people on the other hand were more concerned with who they believed would be able to solve their immediate problems, to who would be able to provide safe guards and services; Order, Security and Fear.

What Americans typically understand as ‘national identity’ is effectively non-extant. She learned that Iraqis found discussions of central nationalism irrelevant whereas Americans tend to believe that national identity is paramount.

Ms. Davis believes that America, if it is to succeed in Iraq, must replace family, tribal, and religious loyalties with state loyalties.

It would be difficult not to conclude from this theory that if the vacuum created at the national center, by the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which caused a reversion to the more fundamental loyalties, were to be over come it would very likely need to rely on the principles of Order, Security, and Fear which gave Iraq a national center under Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime, because Iraqi national identity before the war was founded on that. Ms. Davis believed that cultural training could aid in occupation and state building.

Clement M. Henry

Clement M. Henry, Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Austin spoke second. Mr. Henry was the strongest proponent for disengagement. Mr. Henry began his part of the panel discussion with a quotation from Mark Twain’s ‘Our Flag is not Polluted:’

“I am not finding fault with this use of our flag; for in order not to seem eccentric I have swung around, now, and joined the nation in the conviction that nothing can sully a flag. I was not properly reared, and the illusion that a flag was a thing which must be sacredly guarded against shameful uses and unclean contacts, lest it suffer pollution; and so when it was sent out to the Philippines to float over a wanton war and a robbing expedition I supposed it was polluted, and in an ignorant moment I said so. But I stand corrected. I conceded and acknowledge that it was only the government that sent it on such an errand that was polluted. Let us compromise on that. I am glad to have it that way. For our flag could not well stand pollution, never having been used to it, but it is different with the administration.”

He spent the remainder of his part of the discussion relating the history of failed imperialism and colonialism in the region focusing on the defeat of the British by the Atatürk and their failed occupation of Iraq in the 1930’s, the failure of Napoleon in Egypt, the failure of the French in Algeria, including their brutal pacification campaigns which ended in disaster for themselves, the failure of the Italians in Libya, and the failure of the French in Morocco.

He said the region is so sensitive to occupation that we could not be greeted as liberators and said: “Its been a very destructive enterprise…we have to get out as soon as possible.” And went on to say that America needed to figure out how to have a positive influence “without being tarred with the imperialist brush.”

On the question of Palestine he said that even if we fully withdraw from Iraq we’re going to be tarred with the brush “of being an accomplice to a little imperialist settler colonialist Israel.”

Hekmat Karzai

The third part of the presentation was delivered by Hekmat Karzai, an Afghan native, who called himself “a big fan of the United States, and the Founder and Director of the Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies (CAPS) in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Mr. Karzai said that the security situation in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating indicating the rapid rise of suicide bombing terrorism in the country which went from zero in 2004 to 25 in 2005, 116 in 2006, 143 2007, 118 in 2008.

He said there is no comprehensive strategy to bring things together and that the NGOs remain in Kabul whereas 80% of the Afghan population in Afghanistan is rural. He underscored the fact that the allied forces do not consult the Afghan people before acting and stressed the need to engage the Afghan people in the decision making process. Mr. Karzai advanced a two pronged approach: Military and Political.

Military: Train the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National police; stop using air power and heavy handed tactics.

Political: Involve the Afghan people in a lead nation strategy where the lead nation is Afghanistan itself along with continuous internal engagement; develop a strategy for Pakistan including addressing the ‘safe haven’ there; engage the moderate Taliban 80 to 85% of whom only fight because it’s the only culture they know; create jobs and opportunities particularly in agriculture.

Marvin G. Weinbaum

The final speaker was Marvin G. Weinbaum, Scholar-in-Residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. Mr. Weinbaum stressed the deteriorating security situation, the need for change, and the need for a new strategy for Afghanistan. Mr. Weinbaum was a proponent of limited reengagement with an exit strategy.

He said that the United States overloaded the Afghan systems with systems that they don’t understand, but thinks if America were to leave it could become easy prey to other extremist forces. “Whatever was possible 5 and 6 years ago, I would argue, is not less important, but more difficult.”

After noting the rise of the suicide bombers in 2005 he said America needs to do is clarify its objectives understanding that the war in Afghanistan is not an anti-terror campaign, but a counter-insurgency campaign which can only be defeated when the native people themselves want it. He underscored four types of engagement which thinks are necessary: Military, Broad, Local, and Regional. He said that the United States needs to convince Afghan neighbors that they will be better off with a peaceful Afghanistan. He stressed the need for a strong central government.

“What we need is a fresh start…we need a game changer,” he said.

He said that American forces should work from the counter-insurgency textbook: Clear, Hold, and Build. He went on to say that on account of the terrain the war in Afghanistan is much more difficult than the war in Iraq. “We do need more forces,” he said.

Mr. Weinbaum went on to say that in addition to a new strategy and more forces America needs a new contract with its partners there who are planning to leave in two years.

He said America needs to develop assistance for the Afghan people, stressing Agriculture, and that America needs a dual strategy which includes community policing to deal with crime and a strong central government to combat the insurgency along with better communication between the center and the periphery.

He said America needs to engage Iran. He said that Iran hates the Taliban as much as we do and that Iran almost went to war with Afghanistan in 1998. He did note however that some of the weapons that the Taliban is using have come from Iran, but did not point any fingers on account of the fact that Iran has “many centers of power.”

He said that the idea that the Afghans are xenophobic is a myth, but that they are concerned that foreigners are there to exploit them and rule them.

“It’s not the graveyard of foreigners, it’s the graveyard of invaders,” he said.

He went on to say that America in order to succeed in Afghanistan needs more that 17,000 troops and even more than 30,000 troops, but underscored the need for America to engage Afghanistan’s people and leadership. He said that the moment America hints that it may be leaving, the Afghan people will immediately find their interest with those who they perceive will be around the longest, that it will become a launching pad for terrorism if America leaves which could precipitate a full blown insurgency in Pakistan.

He concluded that what America should seek in Afghanistan before it leaves should be “a minimally effective state able to defend itself…a normal low income state.”

EHC / EHC
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John Duke Anthony at NSEP symposium calls U.S. Foreign Policy for the Middle East: “World Champion of Hypocrisy”

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/04/18575010.php

John Duke Anthony to President Obama: “Open a dialogue with Hamas immediately”

Calls American Foreign Policy in the Middle East: “The Olympic Champion of Hypocrisy”

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By Edward Campbell

Missoula, March 4 (Al-Masakin)–John Duke Anthony who delivered the keynote address to the “New Avenues for U.S. Middle East Policy” symposium at the University of Montana told a University of Montana audience if he had 10 minutes with President Obama he would tell the President to open a dialogue with the Palestinian Hamas organization.

On a question from the audience: “If you had ten minutes with President Obama, what would you tell him?” John Duke Anthony, founding President and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations who has spent 46 years studying the Middle East, said that the preconditions for negotiations of the Quartet (the USA, the EU, the UN, and Russia), that Hamas must renounce violence and recognize Israel as precondition to any negotiations with the resistance movement, is not corroborated by America’s history, citing America’s negotiations with the Viet Cong, and was philosophically unsound.

He said that “no donors conferences can paper over the root cause of the conflict,” and referred to three principles of the UN Charter which make recognition by the body: (1) national sovereignty, (2) political independence, and (3) territorial integrity; the lack of which he holds to be the root causes of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

According to Mr. Anthony there are six interests vital to the national security of the United States: Industry, Economics, Politics, Commerce, Defense, and Culture.

According to him, in the final days of the G.H.W. Bush presidency he was asked to answer a question called Vision 20/20. The gist of this question presented by the President was how would he define America’s vital interests if America wish to remain “the sole superpower by the year 2020. Mr. Anthony at the time defined America’s vital interests in those six categories.

With respect to Industry, Mr. Anthony referred to the National Defense University Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Ft. Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC

With respect to Economics he said that basically means energy which means “access to the regions resources.

To him Politics meant the three principle aspects of the UN Charter: Sovereignty, Independence, and Territory.

With respect to Commerce, he said that it would be necessary to lower the import bill and increase the export bill.

He divided Defense into two categories: the power to provide domestic safety and external defense which to him meant a base on Saudi Arabian soil abroad and civil peaceful and effective justice at home.

Culture he referred to a people-to-people vital interest which included Americans understanding and feeling comfortable in foreign cultures, language, NGOs, ESL, democracy, women rights, freedom of the press, et al.

He said that polls by the Pew Charitable Trust and others that showed that the Arab world does not hate America for its democracy or even American lifestyles, but underscored that American foreign policy was the main cause of America’s conflicts in the region, calling America on this front “the Olympic champions of hypocrisy.” And he pointed directly to Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and said that we should follow it.

He defined the Arab world as 22 nations, the Middle East as 28 nations (26 Muslim + Israel and Lebanon), and the Islamic world as 57 nations, or one quarter of the United Nations. Mr. Anthony is an expert primarily on the Arab world, particularly the Gulf States of the GCC. He is a founder and a board member of the U.S.-GCC Corporate Cooperation Committee; founding President of the Middle East Educational Trust; co-founder of the Commission on Israeli-Palestinian Peace; co-founder and board member of the National Commission to Commemorate the 14th Centennial of Islam. He has worked at the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense, among other things.

Mr. Anthony is participating in a National Security Education Program (NESP) symposium at the University of Montana March 4-5 entitled “New Avenues for U.S. Middle East Policy.” The symposium is being by the Defense Critical Language and Culture Program of the University of Montana’s Maureen & Mike Mansfield Center. The Defense Critical Language and Culture Program launched in 2007 at the University of Montana is being spear-headed by Senator Max Baucus “to provide intensive language and culture training to U.S. military and civilian personnel in Arabic, Dari, Chinese, Russian, and ‘strategic cultures.’ The program has recently hired nine faculty and staff members whom University of Montana President George Dennison called “a stellar array of experts” who are also training students in issues related to Homeland Security and counter-terrorism.

EHC / EHC
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URGENT: John Duke Anthony to President Obama: “Open a dialogue with Hamas immediately”

By Edward Campbell

Missoula, March 4 (Al-Masakin)–John Duke Anthony tells University of Montana audience if he had 10 minutes with President Obama he would tell the President to open a dialogue with the Palestinian Hamas organization

On a question from the audience: “If you had ten minutes with President Obama, what would you tell him?”  John Duke Anthony, founding President  and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations who has spent 46 years studying the Middle East, said that the preconditions for negotiations of the Quartet (the USA, the EU, the UN, and Russia),that Hamas must renounce violence and recognize Israel as precondition to any negotiations with the resistance movement, is not corroborated by America’s history, citing America’s negotiations with the Viet Cong, and was philosophically unsound.

He said that “no donors conferences can paper over the root cause of the conflict,” and referred to three principles of the UN Charter which make recognition by the body: (1) national sovereignty, (2) political independence, and (3) territorial integrity; the lack of which he holds to be the root causes of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Mr. Anthony is participating in a National Security Education Program (NESP) symposium at the University of Montana March 4-5 entitled “New Avenues for U.S. Middle East Policy.”  The symposium is being by the Defense Critical Language and Culture Program of the University of Montana’s Maureen & Mike Mansfield Center. 

EHC / EHC

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Former CIA officer calls 9-11 Commission Report “a whitewash”

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/23/18572792.php

Former CIA officer Michael Scheuer calls 9-11 Commission report “a whitewash” at University of Montana lecture

michael_scheuer.23feb09.pdf
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By Edward Campbell

Missoula, Feb. 23 (Al-Masakin)—Former CIA officer in charge of the bin Laden tracking unit and Machiavellian political theorist Michael Scheuer (pronounced “Sh-oi-er), a Catholic, speaking today at the University of Montana said that the 9-11 Commission Report is “a whitewash” designed to protect the careers of American politicians not an attempt to cover-up alleged CIA involvement in the 9-11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

He discounted the 9-11Truth movement and said that at the level of intelligence the amount of evidence that al-Qaeda was behind the attacks is overwhelming. At the same time however, Mr. Scheuer asserted that when the 9-11 archives are eventually made public “the American people will be shocked” at the dereliction of American politicians to deal with the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. “The 9-11 Commission Report was a whitewash designed to hide culpability,” he said.

He likewise discounted the theories that Osama bin Laden was on kidney dialysis, that bin Laden was following a form of numerology based either on the Qur’an published by assassinated Imam Rashad Khalifa who was murdered by the Al-Farooq organization at his mosque in Tucson in 1990 or upon numerology of his own design. He also did not believe that the 9-11 hoaxes generated shortly after the attacks were orchestrated by al-Qaeda itself, but that an attack of such catastrophic size easily lends

itself to conspiracy theories. He said he felt no animosity towards the movement saying that America has free speech and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but nevertheless did not feel that the 9-11 Truthers have presented anything that is very convincing. He also maintained that from an intelligence perspective we have every reason to believe that bin Laden is alive and said that through rumors about bin Laden’s alleged kidney failure the American people are “being fed a bill of goods.”

He instead placed the blame for the 9-11 terrorist attacks on American foreign policy which continues to support despotic regimes such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Algeria and Israel. He furthermore denounced the Israeli lobby, said that America has lost the war in Afghanistan, and that America will probably never leave Iraq. “We came, we saw, and we got stuck.”

He went on to say that American foreign policy is not going to change and that President Obama’s mantra about change was about the last thing that was actually going to happen.

Mr. Scheuer praised, on the other hand, the CIA saying he very much enjoyed working for the agency. He said that the CIA is not the rogue organization that it is frequently made out to be calling such accusations made since the Church Commission “off the mark.”

Al-Masakin News Agency
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Media Alert: Former CIA agent Michael Scheuer to speak at the University of Montana

Former CIA Officer To Speak About America, Islam After Iraq

Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00) Written by Jennifer Sauer Thursday, 12 February 2009 21:33

Former CIA officer and author Michael Scheuer will give the next installment of the President’s Lecture Series at UM on Monday, Feb. 23.

Feb. 12, 2009

Contact: Richard Drake, history professor and lecture series organizer, 406-243-2981.

FORMER CIA OFFICER TO SPEAK ABOUT AMERICA, ISLAM AFTER IRAQ

MISSOULA—

Former CIA officer and author Michael Scheuer will give the next installment of the President’s Lecture Series at The University of Montana on Monday, Feb. 23.

Scheuer will present “Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq” at 8 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom.

Earlier that day from 3:10 to 4:30 p.m., he will give a seminar titled “A Conversation with CIA Veteran Michael Scheuer” in Gallagher Business Building Room 123.

Both events are free and open to the public.

In his 22-year career with the CIA, Scheuer served as the chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station and the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center. He also worked as special adviser to the chief of the bin Laden unit from 2001 to 2004.

Scheuer will talk about how America’s political leaders and citizens have generally misunderstood the motivation of bin Laden, al-Qaida and their steadily increasing number of Islamist allies. He argues that Islamist militants are attacking America because of what it does in the Islamic world and not because of the way America’s people think, vote, behave and believe or not believe in God.

Scheuer is a news analyst for CBS News and a terrorism analyst for the Jamestown Foundation’s online publication “Global Terrorism Analysis.” He is an adjunct professor of security studies at Georgetown University, where he teaches a graduate-level course on al-Qaida.

He graduated from Canisius College in 1974 and earned a master’s degree from Niagara University in 1976 and another from Carleton University in 1981. Scheuer received a doctorate in British Empire-U.S.-Canada-U.K. relations from the University of Manitoba in 1986.

He is the author of several books, including “Through Our Enemies’ Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America,” “Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror” and “Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam after Iraq.”

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