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Zinni slams Jewish Pentagon officials
Jerusalem Post ^ | 5-24-04

Posted on 05/24/2004 7:23:03 PM PDT by SJackson

Senior Jewish Pentagon officials have come under attack from former special US envoy to the Middle East, General Anthony Zinni, in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview to be broadcasted Monday night.

Although Israelis remember Zinni as Secretary of State Colin Powell's would-be broker of an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, he served before that as commander-in-chief of the US Central Command from 1997 to 2000 and was in charge of all US troops in the Middle East.

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Zinni has recently become a major critic of the Bush administration's Iraqi war, specifically the Pentagon's failure to advise the President properly.

"There has been poor strategic thinking in this," Zinni said. "There has been poor operational planning and execution on the ground. And to think that we are going to 'stay the course'; the course is headed over Niagara Falls. I think it's time to change course a little bit, or at least hold somebody responsible for putting you on this course. Because it's been a failure."

Zinni specifically aimed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, Former Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, National Security Council member Eliot Abrams, and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby - a group of policymakers within the administration known as "the neo-conservatives" whom he claims saw the invasion of Iraq as a way to stabilize American interests in the region and strengthen the position of Israel.

"I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington - has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do," says Zinni.

"Because I mentioned the neo-conservatives, who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic. I mean, it's unbelievable that that's the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it. I certainly didn't criticize who they were. I certainly don't know what their ethnic religious backgrounds are. And I'm not interested."

Zinni said he believed their strategy was to change the Middle East and bring it into the 21st century.

"All sounds very good, all very noble. The trouble is the way they saw to go about this is unilateral aggressive intervention by the United States - the take down of Iraq as a priority," Zinni added. "And what we have become now in the United States, how we're viewed in this region is not an entity that's promising positive change. We are now being viewed as the modern crusaders, as the modern colonial power in that part of the world."

Zinni said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz should accept responsibility for the Iraqi impasse and resign. "60 Minutes" said Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz had declined a request to respond to Zinni's remarks.

Several days ago, Senator Ernest Hollins accused President Bush of embarking on the Iraqi war to buy the Jewish vote. In a speech to the sentae last week, Hollins refused to retract his words and attacked the Jewish lobby AIPAC.

With Agencies


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: zinni; zionist
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1 posted on 05/24/2004 7:23:04 PM PDT by SJackson
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
2 posted on 05/24/2004 7:24:16 PM PDT by SJackson (Strength of the prophets of Israel...proclaimed the Truth when everything was against it, A. Malraux)
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To: SJackson
That's it Tony. Just keep driving the Jewish vote to the Bush column. Keep it up.
3 posted on 05/24/2004 7:24:54 PM PDT by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: SJackson

Boy, are we in the midst of an anti-Semitic backlash thingy or what?


4 posted on 05/24/2004 7:26:41 PM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: SJackson
Bill Clinton's failure on terrorism

By Richard Miniter

Part one of an exclusive four-part series of excerpts. Clinton administration counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke attended a meeting with Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Attorney General Janet Reno, and others. Several others were in the room, including Leon Fuerth, Gore's national security advisor; Jim Steinberg, the deputy National Security Advisor; and Michael Sheehan, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism. An American warship had been attacked without warning in a "friendly" harbor — and, at the time, no one knew if the ship's pumps could keep it afloat for the night. Now they had to decide what to do about it.

Mr. Clarke had no doubts about whom to punish. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had compiled thick binders of bin Laden and Taliban targets in Afghanistan, complete with satellite photographs and GPS bomb coordinates — the Pentagon's "target decks." The detailed plan was "to level" every bin Laden training camp and compound in Afghanistan as well as key Taliban buildings in Kabul and Kandahar. "Let's blow them up," Clarke said. . . . Around the table, Clarke heard only objections — not a mandate for action.

This is how Clarke remembers the meeting, which has never before been described in the press. . . . Attorney General Janet Reno insisted that they had no clear idea who had actually carried out the attack. The "Justice [Department] also noted, as always, that any use of force had to be consistent with international law, i.e. not retaliation but self protection from future attack," Clarke told the author. Reno could not be reached for comment.

Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet joined Reno in insisting on an investigation before launching a retaliatory strike. Tenet "did not want a months-long investigation," CIA spokesman Bill Harlow said. "He simply believed that before the United States attacked, it ought to know for sure who was behind the Cole bombing." While Tenet noted that the CIA had not reached a conclusion about what terror group was behind the surprise attack on the USS Cole, "he said personally he thought that it would turn out to be al Qaeda," Clarke recalls.

"We're desperately trying to halt the fighting that has broken out between Israel and the Palestinians," Albright said. Clarke recalls her saying, "Bombing Muslims wouldn't be helpful at this time." Some two weeks earlier, Ariel Sharon had visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which touched off a wave of violence known as the "second Intifada" and threatened to completely destroy the Clinton Administration's hopes for Middle East peace settlement.

Mr. Clarke remembers other objections from the State Department. "State noted that we had been bombing Iraq and Serbia and were getting the reputation internationally as a mad bomber nation that could only address its problems that way." "It would be irresponsible," a spokeswoman for Albright told the author, for the Secretary of State, as America's chief diplomat, not to consider the diplomatic impact of a missile strike that might try but would quite likely fail to kill bin Laden.

Albright urged continued diplomatic efforts to persuade the Taliban to turn over bin Laden. Those efforts had been going on for more than two years and had gone nowhere. It was unlikely that the Taliban would ever voluntarily turn over its strongest internal ally. . . .

Secretary of Defense Cohen also did not favor a retaliatory strike, according to Mr. Clarke. The attack "was not sufficient provocation," Clarke remembers Cohen saying, or words to that effect. Cohen thought that any military strike needed a "clear and compelling justification," Clarke recalls. (Cohen, despite repeated phone calls over more than one week, failed to respond to interview requests.) Cohen also noted that General Anthony Zinni, then head of CENTCOM, was concerned that a major bombing campaign would cause domestic unrest in Pakistan (where bin Laden enjoyed strong support among extremists) and hurt the U.S. military's relationship with that nation.

Mr. Cohen's views were perfectly in accord with those of the top uniformed officers and Clinton's political appointees at the Pentagon, Sheehan told the author. "It was the entire Pentagon," he added. The chief lesson that the Defense Department seemed to draw from the assault on the USS Cole was the need for better security for its ships, what was invariably called "force protection." Listening to Cohen and later talking to top military officers, Sheehan, a former member of Special Forces before joining the State Department, told the author that he was "stunned" and "taken aback" by their views. "This phenomenon I cannot explain," he said. Why didn't they want to go hit back at those who had just murdered American servicemen without warning or provocation?

The issue was hotly debated. Some of the principals were concerned that bin Laden might somehow survive the cruise-missile attack and appear in another triumphant press conference. Clarke countered by saying that they could say that they were only targeting terrorist infrastructure. If they got bin Laden, they could take that as a bonus. Others worried about target information. At the time, Clarke said that he had very reliable and specific information about bin Laden's location. And so on. Each objection was countered and answered with a yet another objection.

In the end, for a variety of reasons, the principals were against Mr. Clarke's retaliation plan by a margin of seven to one against. Mr. Clarke was the sole one in favor. Bin Laden would get away — again.

___________

"Cohen also noted that General Anthony Zinni, then head of CENTCOM, was concerned that a major bombing campaign would cause domestic unrest in Pakistan (where bin Laden enjoyed strong support among extremists) and hurt the U.S. military's relationship with that nation."

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was also against a counterstrike — but for diplomatic reasons.

5 posted on 05/24/2004 7:28:23 PM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: SJackson

The very same Zinni who didn't want to strike at the attackers of the USS Cole...the ship that had been a sitting target because of his policies.


6 posted on 05/24/2004 7:29:21 PM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: CWOJackson

ZINNI= A ANTI SENTIC PIG !


7 posted on 05/24/2004 7:29:48 PM PDT by KQQL (@)
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To: CWOJackson

ZINNI AKA AN ANTI SEMTIC MORON !


8 posted on 05/24/2004 7:30:09 PM PDT by KQQL (@)
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To: SJackson
I certainly don't know what their ethnic religious backgrounds are.

I don't believe for a second that Zinni is unaware that Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith and Abrams are all Jewish.

9 posted on 05/24/2004 7:30:57 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: CWOJackson

Zinni on H & C now. Perle was just on and accused Zinni of being anti-semitic. Zinni is accusing people of lying. Says he doesn't know the ethnic make-up of neocons and didn't use names.


10 posted on 05/24/2004 7:34:14 PM PDT by Miss Marple
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To: SJackson
"I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington - has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do," says Zinni.

"It be dem durned wascally Jews, ah tells yuh! Da JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS -- !"

11 posted on 05/24/2004 7:35:35 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle (I feel more and more like a revolted Charlton Heston, witnessing ape society for the very first time)
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To: Miss Marple

Hannity is killing Zinni.


12 posted on 05/24/2004 7:36:33 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: Miss Marple

Perle is the one guy whose presence in the U.S. Department of Defense has been an enormous albatross around the neck of this administration. I was really hoping he would just disappear and never show his face anywhere again.


13 posted on 05/24/2004 7:37:09 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium . . . sed ego sum homo indomitus")
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To: Pukin Dog
That's it Tony. Just keep driving the Jewish vote to the Bush column. Keep it up.

Looks like Zinni has just joined Democratic Sen. Hollings (S.Carolina?) and Democratic US Rep. Jim Moran in the "lets blame the Jews" wing of the Democratic Party.(Both said similar things lately blaming Israel for our problems with terrorists)

Am I disappointed? Not really.

It's just another event that proves the Republican Party to be the true friend of Israel, and the Democrats to be out of their hateful freaking minds.

14 posted on 05/24/2004 7:37:58 PM PDT by Edit35
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To: jwalsh07

"Hannity is killing Zinni."

I know, isn't it great! heehee


15 posted on 05/24/2004 7:38:04 PM PDT by GottaLuvAkitas1 (Bush plays CHESS not checkers)
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To: Miss Marple

Zinni is a disgrace to the Marine Corps uniform. He sold out the Cole sailors and now he's selling out his nation.


16 posted on 05/24/2004 7:38:27 PM PDT by CWOJackson
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To: SJackson
Gen. Zinni, Sir, I hope you read this:

<SARCASM> Sir, with all due respect, I believe you are a Jew-baiting slimeball.

I do hope you will look beyond your nose and see that most Christians in this country are more supportive of Israel's policies than most of our Jews.

It may behoove you to do an exposé on all those pesky Chistians in the Pentagon. That would be more fair and balanced.</SARCASM>

Respectfully submitted;
TSG Michael B. Fulstone, USAF(ret), former Marine, staunch Christian and dedicated Defender of Israel

AM YISRAEL CHAI!

17 posted on 05/24/2004 7:38:39 PM PDT by mfulstone
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To: GottaLuvAkitas1

Hannity nailed his butt to the wall with that Clinton quote, everything Zinni said after that was moot. Great job, Sean !


18 posted on 05/24/2004 7:40:17 PM PDT by John Lenin (Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn't cure)
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To: CWOJackson
Thats right Chief. The question Sean should ask Zinni is why didn't he recommend Clinton seek a declaration of war after bin Laden declraed war on America for the second time in '98. Or why didn't he recommend seek and destroy missions after Kohobar Towers and the USS Cole?

Just what the heck were you thinking General Zinni????

19 posted on 05/24/2004 7:40:43 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: SJackson
"And what we have become now in the United States, how we're viewed in this region is not an entity that's promising positive change. We are now being viewed as the modern crusaders, as the modern colonial power in that part of the world."

Zinni seems to have forgotten that they didn't like us long before Iraq. They disliked us enough to hijack planes and crash into tall office buildings murdering thousands, and then to cheer such activities. And if people misjudge and irrationally misrepresent our motives, that is more their fault than ours. And in any event, democratization of Iraq and hopefully of the Middle East was a long term proposition, not a short term fix, and was never advertised as the latter. It is addressing the "root causes", something that liberals usually call for, but when Republicans do it, decry.

20 posted on 05/24/2004 7:40:48 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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