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06/21/2004:

"WHAT??"

Israelis 'using Kurds to build power base'
Gary Younge guardian article
Israeli military and intelligence operatives are active in Kurdish areas of Iran, Syria and Iraq, providing training for commando units and running covert operations that could further destabilise the entire region, according to a report in the New Yorker magazine.

The article was written by Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who exposed the abuse scandal in Abu Ghraib. It is sourced primarily to unnamed former and current intelligence officials in Israel, the United States and Turkey.

Israel's aims, according to Hersh, are to build up the Kurdish military strength in order to offset the strength of the Shia militias and to create a base in Iran from which they can spy on Iran's suspected nuclear-making facilities.

"Israel has always supported the Kurds in a Machiavellian way - a balance against Saddam," one former Israeli intelligence officer told the New Yorker. "It's Realpolitik. By aligning with the Kurds Israel gains eyes and ears in Iran, Iraq and Syria. The critical question is 'What will the behaviour of Iran be if there is an independent Kurdistan with close ties to Israel? Iran does not want an Israeli land-based aircraft carrier on its border."

This article is written as if the U.S. and Israel do not share common interests all down the line. Historically, the U.S. has used Israel to do things they don't want to get caught doing, such as selling weapons to S. Africa in the Aparttheid days. I said from the first that the United States has no interest in a stable democratic Iraq. To promote the 'destabilization of the region' in order to justify 'drastic measures' to gain control of the entire region has been the policy for a long time now. Read Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations 1993.