Re: [A-List] Middle East intrigue

["Annewilliamson" <Annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Mark, for your astute comments.  I thought it outrageous myself, but
didn't know too much about the publication and thought I'd just throw it up
for comment from those of you more familiar with the UK press. The
propaganda bilge just keeps getting deeper here, and I was really shocked
when I read this piece from your side of the pond.  -A.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Jones" <markjones011@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 9:47 AM
Subject: re: [A-List] Middle East intrigue


> Anne Williamson wrote:
>
> >Iran starts to see benefit of deal with the devil
>
> >  the scotsman ^ | 9/30/02 |
>
> >BORZOU DARAGAHI
>
> This article is CIA-inspired black propaganda of a particularly inept
> variety. Its theme is that Iran (all of Iranian society, seemingly, from
> swinging headscarf-free young women to brow-clenched mad mullahs) will be
> happy when the US makes war on Iraq. The media is so full of this BS
that's
> it's hardly worth contradicting it any more but sometimes the sheer
> stupidity of what is said is insulting to the intelligence. It begins
>
> >IN PUBLIC, the Islamic Republic of Iran has scowled at the United States'
> >apparent plans to overthrow the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. However,
> >a delegation of Iraqi Kurds who travelled to Iran over the past couple of
> >weeks found that even Iran's most traditionally anti-US institutions have
> >accepted and acceded to the possibility of a regime change in Baghdad.
>
> I don't believe a word of this or of what follows. To the contrary, the
> Iranians are talking to Iraq right now about a possible alliance against
> the US, according to the BBC today. But the ending of this Scotsman
article
> is too ludicrous to miss:
>
> >Mr Zebari said the Iranians have been quietly and subtly helping
> >Washington' s war efforts. During the Tehran meetings, Iran agreed to
> >streamline trade routes to northern Iraq, whose people fear it will be
cut
> >off from energy and trade in the event of a long war. Over the past few
> >weeks, Iran's Revolutionary Guards have increased their presence on the
> >Iraqi border and set up refugee camps. A leader of an Iraqi Muslim
> >extremist group was arrested at Tehran's Mehrabad airport and sent to
> >Holland. "These are all added pressures on Saddam."
>
> Added pressures on Saddam? But the person arrested at Amsterdam was a
> _Kurdish_ leader! It is the Kurds, not the Iraqis, which Iran is clamping
> down on! So much for the Kurds being allies of Iran--but why is the
> Scotsman, a reputable paper, allowing itself to be fed such utter crap? If
> there is any point to this story it is that the Kurds themselves are in
bed
> with Al-Qaeda, but that is more embarrassing to Bush than anyone else,
> since US plans for postwar Iraq are based on using the Kurds as US
> quislings to rule the new imperial province.
>
> The Guardian reported on this episode as follows:
>
> Kurdish extremist leader arrested at airport
>
> Michael Howard
> Saturday September 14, 2002
> The Guardian
>
> The head of an extreme armed Kurdish Islamist group with suspected links
to
> al-Qaida was arrested yesterday at Amsterdam airport after being deported
> from Iran - alleged to be one of the group's backers.
> According to a report on Norwegian television, Mullah Krekar, leader of
the
> Ansar Al Islam (supporters of Islam) group, which controls a string of
> remote villages in the Kurdish self-rule area of northern Iraq, was
> arrested after arriving on a KLM flight from Tehran. It is thought Mullah
> Krekar, who has a home in Oslo, was attempting to enter Iran - and from
> Tehran travel north to rejoin his group in the mountains of northern Iraq.
> Police in Oslo said yesterday that Krekar would be taken into custody if
> the Dutch authorities sent him to Norway.
> Authorities in Amsterdam refused to confirm or deny the arrest last night.
> Krekar's refugee status in Norway was revoked at the end of August after
> publicity surrounding his activities with Ansar. Krekar, a disciple of
> Abdullah Azzam, the founder of al-Qaida, had received a charity grant from
> Norway for his religious activities.
> Three weeks ago it emerged that the US had considered bombing Ansar's
> hideouts following reports they had chemical and biological weapons.
>
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,791971,00.html
>
>
>