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Blame Unprincipled Foreign Polciy for 9/11

July 28, 2003
FrontPageMagazine.com
Onkar Ghate

The 900-page Congressional report criticizing the operations of the FBI and CIA in the months prior to the September 11 attacks misses the fundamental point.

Whatever incompetence on the intelligence agencies' part, what made September 11 possible was a failure, not by our intelligence agencies--but by the accommodating, range-of-the-moment, unprincipled foreign policy that has shaped our government's decisions for decades.

September 11 was not the first time America was attacked by Islamic fundamentalists engaged in "holy war" against us. In 1979 theocratic Iran--which has spearheaded the "Islamic Revolution"--stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 54 Americans hostage for over a year. In 1983 the Syrian- and Iranian-backed group Hezbollah bombed a U.S. marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 servicemen while they slept; the explosives came from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. In 1998 al-Qaeda blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 individuals. In 2000 al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors.

So we already knew that al-Qaeda was actively engaged in attacking Americans. We even had evidence that agents connected to al-Qaeda had been responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. And we knew in 1996 that bin Laden had made an overt declaration of war against the "Satan" America.

But how did America react? Did our government adopt a principled approach and identify the fact that we were faced with a deadly threat from an ideological foe? Did we launch systematic counterattacks to wipe out such enemy organizations as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Fatah? Did we seek to eliminate enemy states like Iran? No--our responses were short-sighted and self-contradictory.

For instance, we initially expelled Iranian diplomats--but later sought an appeasing rapprochement with that ayatollah-led government. We intermittently cut off trade with Iran--but secretly negotiated weapons-for-hostages deals. When Israel had the courage to enter Lebanon in 1982 to destroy the PLO, we refused to uncompromisingly support our ally and instead brokered the killers' release. And with respect to al-Qaeda, we dropped a perfunctory bomb or two on one of its suspected camps, while our compliant diplomats waited for al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks to fade from the headlines.

At home, we treated our attackers as if they were isolated criminals rather than soldiers engaged in battle against us. In 1941 we did not attempt to indict the Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor--we declared war on the source. Yet we spent millions trying to indict specific terrorists--while we ignored their masters.

Despite emphatic pronouncements from Islamic leaders about a "jihad" against America, our political leaders failed to grasp the ideology that seeks our destruction. This left them unable to target that enemy's armed combatants--in Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia--and the governments that assist them. Is it any wonder then that, although our intelligence agencies prevented many planned attacks, they could not prevent them all?

Unfortunately, little has changed since September 11. Our politicians' actions remain hopelessly unprincipled. Despite the Bush administration's rhetoric about ending states that sponsor terrorism, President Bush has left the most dangerous of these--Iran--untouched. The attack on Iraq, though justifiable, was hardly a priority in our war against militant Islam and the countries (principally Saudi Arabia and Iran) that promote it. Moreover, when Bush does strike at militant Islam, he does so only haltingly. Morally unsure of his right to protect American lives by wiping out the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Bush feared in Afghanistan world disapproval over civilian casualties. Consequently, he reined in the military forces (as he also did in Iraq) and allowed numerous Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters to escape. And Bush continues to allow their comrades-in-arms in the Mideast to go unharmed. He pretends that the Palestinians and Islamic militants attacking Israel--and who have attacked Americans in the past and will try again in the future--are, somehow, different from the killers in Afghanistan and deserving of a "peace" plan.

Instead of taking consistent, principled action to destroy our terrorist adversaries, politicians from both parties continue to focus on details like reshuffling government bureaucracies and haggling over how much criticism of Saudi Arabia the 900-page Congressional report can contain. Thus, too unprincipled to identify the enemy and wage all-out war, but not yet completely blind to their own ineffectualness, our leaders resignedly admit that we're in for a "long war" and that there will be more terrorists attacks on U.S. soil.

There is only one way to prevent a future September 11: by rooting out the amoral, pragmatic expediency that now dominates our government's foreign policy.

Onkar Ghate, Ph.D. in philosophy, is a resident fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

http://frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=9106

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Roots of Hope in a Realm of Fear

July 28, 2003
The Washington Post
Paul Wolfowitz

Behind the police academy in Baghdad stands the forked trunk of a dead tree, unusual for the fact that on each branch the bark is permanently marked by two sets of ropes -- one high enough to tie up a man, the other, a woman. Near the tree is a row of small cells where special prisoners were held.

Our guide, the newly appointed Sunni superintendent of the academy (who had spent a year in jail for having made a disparaging comment about Saddam Hussein to his best friend) told us of unspeakable things that once happened to men and women tied to that tree and held in those cells. Beyond the torture tree, a small gate leads to the Olympic Committee Headquarters, run by Uday Hussein, who would often slip through the back gate at night to torture and abuse prisoners.

Traveling throughout Iraq last week, I heard many more accounts of unspeakable brutality -- on a scale unimaginable for Americans. While we were in the north, one commander told us workers had temporarily stopped the excavation of a newly discovered mass gravesite, after unearthing the remains of 80 women and children -- some still with little dresses and toys.

In the south, we met other remnants of the regime's horrific brutality, the Marsh Arabs, for whom liberation came just in time to save a fragment of this ancient civilization. But for the Marsh Arabs, the marshes are no more. Where there was once a lush landscape of productive, freshwater marshes, there is now a vast, nearly lifeless void. The children there greeted us with loud applause and cheers of "Salaam Bush" and "Down with Saddam." Their first request was not for candy or toys. It was, instead, a single word: "Water?"

One of my strongest impressions is that fear of the old regime is still pervasive. A smothering blanket of apprehension and dread woven by 35 years of repression -- where even the smallest mistake could bring torture or death -- won't be cast off in a few weeks' time. Iraqis are understandably cautious. Until they are convinced that every remnant of Hussein's old regime is removed, and until a long and ghastly part of their history is overcome, that fear will remain. That history of atrocities and the punishment of those responsible are directly linked to our success in helping the Iraqi people build a free, secure and democratic future.

What happened to Uday and Qusay Hussein last week is essential to the process of building that future. Their demise is an important step in making Iraqis feel more secure that the Baathist tyranny will never return, in restoring order and in giving freedom a chance. Even in Baghdad, far from the Shi'a and Kurdish areas that we associate with Hussein's genocidal murders, enthusiastic and prolonged celebrations over the news of their deaths erupted almost at once -- suggesting something else I observed: Hussein and his sons were equal-opportunity oppressors.

It was a significant step forward to get Nos. 2 and 3 on our most-wanted list of regime criminals. That same day we captured the commander of the Special Republican Guard. But we've learned in our days on the ground that the roots of that regime go deep -- burrowing into precincts and neighborhoods, like a huge gang of organized criminals. So it is the coalition's intensified focus on mid-level Baathists that we think will yield even greater results in apprehending the contract killers and dead-enders who now target our soldiers and our success. Recently captured functionaries have revealed new and helpful information, and we are working to encourage this trend.

Even though the enemy targets our success, we will win the peace. But we won't win it alone. We don't need American troops to guard every mile of electrical cable. The real center of gravity will come from the Iraqi people themselves -- they know who and where the criminals are. And they have the most at stake -- their future.

While Iraqis may remain in the grip of fear, our troops, our coalition allies and the new Iraqi national and local Iraqi councils are making significant progress in lessening its iron hold. When inevitable challenges and controversies arise, we should remember that most of the people of Iraq are deeply grateful for what our incredibly brave American and coalition forces have done to liberate them from Hussein's republic of fear.

When we've convinced Iraqis that we mean to stay until the old regime is crushed and its criminals are punished -- and that we are equally determined to give their country back to them -- they will know they can truly begin to build a government and society of, by and for the Iraqi people.

In many ways, the people of Iraq are like prisoners who endured years of solitary confinement -- without light, without peace, without much knowledge of the outside world. They have just emerged into the bright light of hope and fresh air of freedom. It may take a while for them to adjust to this new landscape free of torture trees.

The writer is deputy defense secretary.

http://iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news_en.pl?l=en&y=2003&m=07&d=29&a=7

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In a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, Middle East Studies Association of North America condemns attacks on university students in Iran

25 July 2003

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran

c/o H.E.Javad Zarif

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

Your Excellency:

We are contacting you to express our great concern about and strong condemnation of the violent attacks on university students, and the wide scale arrest, imprisonment, intimidation, and maltreatment of hundreds of students throughout Iran in recent weeks.

The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) comprises 2700 academics worldwide who teach and conduct research on the Middle East and North Africa, and is the preeminent professional association in the field. The association publishes the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and is committed to ensuring respect for the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression in the region and in connection with the study of the Middle East and North Africa in North America and elsewhere.

According to the information we have received, following some minor student protests on June 12 in Elm-o Sanaat and Shahid Beheshti Universities the dormitories of these universities were viciously attacked by bands of vigilantes in the early hours of the morning on June 12 and 14, when their residents were asleep and defenseless. The attackers broke down the doors with pick axes and sledge hammers, destroyed the personal property of the residents, and physically abused and attacked the students with knives, clubs, and chains. Subsequent to these attacks 80 students were arrested, some in the hospital where they were taken for treatment, but very few of the perpetrators of these crimes have been identified and arrested.

These attacks on the Tarasht, Shahid Beheshti, and the Tarbiat Modaress (June 17) dormitories are clearly a recurrence of the criminal attacks by vigilantes and police forces on the dormitories of the Tehran University that took place on July 9, 1999. On that occasion at least one student, Ezzat Ebrahimnejad, was killed, and several other students were maimed and seriously injured. The subsequent criminal court, in a travesty of justice, vindicated the attackers, including General Farhad Kazemi, the police commander who had led the attacks. But a number of students who were arrested in demonstrations following these events were condemned to unjustly heavy sentences. Ahmad Batebi, a student whose only crime was to have had his picture published on the cover of the ‘Economist’ magazine received a ten-year jail sentence. Other students, such as Mehrdad Lohrasbi, Akbar Mohammadi, Abbas Fakhravar, among others are still languishing in prison.

Although the police have shown greater restraint during recent events, the vigilantes and the judiciary seem to have acted with even greater impunity and disregard for laws and the civil and legal rights of the students. In reaction to these treatments student protests, sit-ins, and food strikes spread to other cities and campuses in the cities of Karaj, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Zahedan, Hamedan, Kermanshah, Rasht, Sabzevar, Tabriz, Urumieh, Kerman, Sanadaj, and Yazd. In response to these protests 4000 people were arrested, 2000 of whom are still in prison. In Tehran at least 400 people are still under arrest, among which there are at least 66 students. These numbers do not include those students arrested under ‘political charges’, whose exact numbers and whereabouts are not known.

We are deeply disturbed that your Excellency seems to have contributed to this state of affairs. In July of 1999, you made a public announcement demanding your followers to treat students ‘with respect and kindness’, even if they insulted you in person. This commendable call to restraint was not heeded by your followers who went on a rampage without any of them being punished. During the recent confrontations you did not exercise even this minimal rhetorical tolerance and ordered your followers to treat the students and protesters “with decisiveness and without pity”. Regrettably, your disturbing statement has been widely echoed throughout the country by other officials appointed by and only accountable to yourself. These include local Friday prayer leaders, military commanders, the judiciary, the National Iranian Radio and Television, and some major newspapers, like the Kayhan Daily, all of whom have publicly called for the ‘ruthless and harsh’ treatment of student protesters.

We have received information that several prominent student activists have been violently arrested by unknown security forces operating outside the government’s jurisdiction. It is highly suspected that these rogue forces operate under the jurisdiction of the Counter-Intelligence Department of the Revolutionary Guards Corp as well as the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Judiciary Branch. Both these institutions are under your direct supervision. The government institutions legally in charge of security, which include the Intelligence and Interior Ministries, as well as the Police and the Prison Administration have declared that they have no knowledge of these arrests, or the whereabouts of the detainees. These arrests have been without the defendants being legally notified of the formal charges against them. Ali Akrami, of Amir Kabir University disappeared on June 14. Mojtaba Najafi and Morteza Safaee, student activists at Allameh Tabatabaee University, were attacked with mace spray and driven away in unmarked cars in front of their colleagues on June 16. Abdollah Momeni and Mehdi Pour-Rahim, of Elm-o Sanaat University, have disappeared on June 29. Mehdi Aminzadeh was seen being forcefully pushed into an unmarked car on June 29. Qolamreza Zarifian, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, announced on June 26 that at least 36 students in Tehran and 50 in the provinces had either disappeared or had been arrested by unknown agents. On 27 June 24 students disappeared in Tabriz.

Several other elected leaders of the main Islamic Student Association (Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat) have been arrested at gunpoint by unidentified security agents. Saeed Razavi-Faqih of Tarbiat Modaress University was arrested when leaving a meeting of the Association of Journalists on July 10. His whereabouts are unknown to this day. His lawyer has not been able to determine why he was arrested and under what conditions he is being kept. Other student leaders have been violently arrested under similar circumstances. These include Saeed Habibi, Reza Amerinasab, and Arash Hashemi (on July 10); and Ali Sadeghi, Saeed Babaei, and Amir Motamedi (on July 17) in Tehran; as well as Saeed Ardeshiri and 9 other leading activists in Kerman (July 17).

According to several reports by members of the Iranian Majlis the detained students are being subjected to lengthy interrogations and serious physical and psychological abuse and torture. Many are being kept in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, and are deprived of sleep, decent food, and proper medical care. The families of many detainees are being subjected to pressure and threats. These illegal abuses are aimed at forcing the arrested students to make false confessions about themselves and against fellow students and other political activists. The ‘Revolution Court’ seems to have emphasized this attitude when it announced on July 18 that it was releasing 14 students on parole after having posted heavy bails, because they had “honestly admitted their culpability and shown remorse by confessing they had committed these crimes under the poisonous influence of certain individuals. The students are being released after they have implicated the real culprits and the main sources of the recent conspiracies”.

Your Excellency, we would like to remind you that according to Article 22 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the life, property, and rights of individuals are inviolable. Article 23 forbids the persecution of individuals for their beliefs. Article 27 permits the free holding of public gatherings and marches provided arms are not carried. Article 38 bans all forms of torture for the purpose of extracting confessions or acquiring information. It prohibits the compulsion of individuals to testify, confess, or take an oath, states that any testimony or confession obtained under duress is devoid of value, and states that the violation of this article is a crime punishable by law. Article 39 prohibits any and all abuse of the dignity and repute of persons detained and imprisoned, and makes the violation of this article a crime punishable by law.

Furthermore, these articles correspond to legal protections enshrined in the United Nation’s Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As a signatory to this International Covenant, Iran is obligated to respect and protect the exercise of these rights. Article 7 of the Covenant prohibits torture and inhuman treatment of the individual. Article 9 prohibits arbitrary arrest and deprivation of liberty, except under legally established procedures. Article 10 cites that anyone arrested should be treated with respect and dignity. Article 14 cites that anyone charged must be informed of the nature of the charges against him/her. Articles 18, 19, and 21, state that everyone should enjoy the freedom of thought, expression, opinion, and assembly.

We therefore urge you in the strongest terms to speak out publicly and to take all the necessary steps to ensure that these clear infringements of the legal rights of the imprisoned students are stopped, that the imprisoned students and political activists are freed immediately, and that all those guilty of violent attacks on student dormitories and gatherings, or of illegal arrest, maltreatment, and intimidation of students and the university community be identified and punished according to law.

Your Excellency, we can only persist in reminding you that these steps are critical to help prevent further deterioration of Iran’s international standing. Iran’s reputation as a country with a great tradition of learning and scholarly inquiry has suffered as a result of these most recent violations of the sanctity of the university community. We urge you to treat this situation with the urgency and the gravity that it requires.

We thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and look forward to your reply.

Yours respectfully,

Amy W. Newhall

Executive Director

cc. HE Kamal Kharrazi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, IRI

HE Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Head of the Judiciary, IRI

HE Mohammad Khatami, President of the IRI

HE Mehdi Karoubi, Speaker of the Majlis, IRI

HE Kofi Anan, United Nations

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/jul/1192.html

Naji: Facing external pressure, Iranian hardliners crack down

Concern rises with U.S. troops on east and west
By Kasra Naji
CNN
Tuesday, July 29, 2003 Posted: 9:11 AM EDT (1311 GMT)

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Some 350 Iranian reformists, writers, university professors and intellectuals sent a letter to the country's all-powerful spiritual leader recently, urging him to choose democracy as a way of defending the country against U.S. threats.

"Resorting to violence, crackdowns and authoritarian methods, as we see today toward students, are not only illegal and lacking popular, religious and moral legitimacy, but will also bear no result and will only exacerbate the crisis," they said in the letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a reference to the widespread arrests of students after recent anti-government protests.

Such straight talking to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the country was unheard of a few months ago.

It is a measure of the strength of the political undercurrents in Iran. The letters are part of a debate developing in Iran about what it should do to deflect foreign threats at a time when there is deep and widespread internal discontent in the country, as well as growing opposition to the clerical leadership.

The debate has gained a new urgency with the arrival of the U.S. forces in Iraq on the western border of Iran, only a couple of years after their arrival in Afghanistan on Iran's eastern border. There is rising concern in Iran that it might be next on the U.S. target list.

Judging by the developments in the past few weeks, Iran's hardliners who control key levers of power and who have Ayatollah Khamenei as an ally have chosen to crack down on internal opponents, instead of ushering in greater democracy.

In recent weeks, in the aftermath of nearly 10 nights of pro-democracy protests by students and others, more than 4,000 people have been arrested, according to Iran's prosecutor general.

Iranian hardliners have blamed the recent pro-democracy protests on what they call hooligans and agents of the United States.

Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has spoken about the need to watch out for "the internal cavalry of the enemy." The commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards has said that his forces will weed out all those who in his words act as "fifth column of the United States," in other words, the enemy within Iran.

Newspaper reports say more than two-dozen journalists have been arrested and others assaulted while covering the protests. Several newspapers have been closed down. Newspapers that have been allowed to publish have complained of severe pressure to censor politically sensitive stories.

Even so, reformist newspapers have reported the arrests of dissidents who have been picked up in the streets, put in cars and whisked away by plainclothes men.

The leader of the biggest reform party in the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Reza Khatami -- the brother of President Khatami -- has written to the president complaining of shadowy security services that operate outside the government, in parallel with the Intelligence Ministry. He says torture is rife in prisons where dissidents are forced to incriminate themselves.

The first-ever visit to Iran by the U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion has been postponed at the last minute. Foreign Ministry spokesman said there were problems in arranging some of the meetings he had requested.

There has also been a clampdown on access to Internet sites specializing in Iranian news and political commentary. The authorities have blocked some Web sites. Newspapers have published new regulations set out by the traditionally hardline judiciary. They list 20 types of online violations, including publishing articles that insult Islamic values, Iran's leadership, top clerics, revolutionary values and the ideas of the late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In addition, the government has stepped up jamming of several Farsi language satellite TV channels that broadcast pro-democracy messages from California -- the home to the largest exile Iranian community abroad.

U.S. authorities now say they suspect a jamming station in Cuba -- an ally of Iran -- may have been commissioned by Iran to stop the broadcasts, which encourage Iranians to rise up against their clerical leadership.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/29/otsc.naji/index.html

German Ambassador Urges Tehran, Berlin to Strengthen Ties

TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) –
The newly appointed German ambassador to Tehran, Baron Paul Maltzahn, said the cooperation between Iran and Germany as an EU member will be will be reinforced by signing trade agreements.

"We are at the beginning of a new era of cooperation between the two states which will be reinforced by the conclusion of trade agreements between Iran and Germany," Maltzahn said.

He immediately added that his country is not subservient to the U.S. and sometimes there are differences between Berlin and Washington. Maltzahn told the Mehr News Agency that the European Union, including Germany, has always followed its own interests but sometimes the U.S. and EU interests converge but sometimes they differ.

On Iran, he said, there is differences between EU and U.S. but in some cases they share similar views.

The German ambassador described Iran as an important country in the Middle East and said Tehran and Berlin enjoy an old and deep-rooted relationship which has underwent ups and downs during the history. Both Iran and German are completely aware of their own capabilities and they also know about each others’ expectations, the ambassador noted

“We have some expectations from Iran within the EU and we hope that these expectations are fulfilled with Iranian cooperation and a mutual understanding on the part of EU,” Maltzahn said.

When asked about the future EU stance toward Iranian nuclear activities, the ambassador said the EU position is totally dependent on a report by the UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei in September.

The EU foreign ministers issued a statement in Brussels on Monday, July 21, saying that Iran should cooperate more fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and change its policy toward the Middle East peace process and develop its human rights otherwise the relations with be strained.

On the Iraq war he said Germany was strongly against the war but it could not stop it from happening.

The ambassador said EU seeks a leading role in reconstruction of Iraq but some countries within the EU including Germany and France have put some preconditions on the matter saying that they will participate only when the UN supervises the reconstruction.

Germany is the most industrialized country in Europe and it plays a leading role within the European Union.

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=7/30/03&Cat=2&Num=020