National Security State Conditions Prior to 9-11

[Charles Jannuzi <b_rieux@xxxxxxxxx>]

Of course it is well known how many now
associated with the current Bush regime made
'regime change' and US military action against
Iraq priorities LONG BEFORE 9-11.

But I have repeatedly argued that if we want to
understand something on the immense scale of
9-11, and we don't want to use conspiracy
theories to explain it, then we have to account
for what was going on the federal government that
allowed 9-11 to happen. We also have to ask, were
the conditions TYPICAL and something like 9-11
bound to happen sooner or later? Or were
conditions quite particulary messed up, and could
this be used to account for the military,
intelligence, and administrative failures that
created the conditions for the 9-11 plot to
flourish and succeed?

My theory is actually quite simple: that the
national security state got so wrapped up in
regime change in Iraq and wild weapons of mass
destruction scenarios that it got completely
blindsided and caught flat-footed. (And of course
the WMD scenarios were quite profitable once spun
into 'federal services' peddled by the usual
federal contracting parasites like Halliburton
and the holdings of Carlyle Group.)

We need to go back and look at the rather
low-intensity war and covert operations that the
US and UK had going for over a decade after the
first Persian Gulf War. Specifically, we need to
look at the period 1996-2001, as national
security state efforts against Iraq intensified
and the transition from Clinton to Bush created
an opportunity for the 9-11 plot. Be entirely
clear on this point: I am not arguing that Iraq
struck first. I'm arguing that the national
security state was so busy with their anti-Saddam
Hussein efforts that they allowed 9-11 to happen.

Consider this article and ask yourself, just why
were the FBI and the CIA at war with each other
over Iraq operations. Could the hostility and
lack of cooperation be the letdowns on the US
side that allowed 9-11 to happen? It could even
be that CIA-led efforts to recruit Sunni Arabs
for their mounting campaign to remove Saddam
Hussein created quite specifically the national
security holes that allowed the 9-11 pilots and
commandos into the US. Consider the information
in this article before you decide:

http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/feb1998/mi6.shtml

CIA and MI6 plot to assassinate Hussein revealed
19 February 1998
By Julie Hyland

The US and British intelligence agencies, the CIA
and MI6, plotted together to assassinate Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein in 1995. Senior US
intelligence officers confirmed to the Los
Angeles Times that the CIA and MI6 worked through
opposition groups in northern and southern Iraq
-- providing them with intelligence, finance and
arms -- in preparing several attempted coups and
bombing campaigns.

Since the 1991 Gulf war, a US presidential
finding has authorized "lethal" covert operations
against Iraq. By 1994 the CIA was working with
two umbrella dissident groups -- the Iraqi
National Congress (INC) and the Iraqi National
Alliance (INA).

The INC is led by Ahmad Chalabi, an
American-educated Iraqi and a leader in the
Shiite community. In early 1995 the INC launched
a botched military offensive against the Iraqi
army on the instructions of the CIA.

The INC was protected by the US-enforced "no-fly"
zone in northern Iraq. The Los Angeles Times
commented that this "allowed the United States to
claim that it was supporting a democratic
alternative to Hussein's regime."

In Autumn 1994 two senior staff members from the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence visited
the INC and urged the Clinton administration to
give it its full backing. As a result, CIA
officers were sent to northern Iraq to direct
Chalabi's group.

Under CIA pressure the INC planned a military
campaign against the Iraqi army for March 1995.
Chalabi was able to secure the cooperation of two
major Kurdish groups in the INC -- the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) -- after implying that the
US would provide air cover for the offensive.

Chalabi also tried to persuade Iranian-backed
dissident groups in southern Iraq to attack the
Iraqi army. Later he met two Iranian intelligence
officers. Under the directions of the CIA, he
told them that "the United States would not
oppose Iranian support for an attack by
Iranian-backed groups in southern Iraq."

At the same time, the CIA was working with MI6 in
a covert operation with the INA. According to a
report in the British Independent newspaper, the
INA was recruited "from Iraqi army, party and
intelligence officers, as the instrument through
which to organize a military coup in Baghdad." It
is led by Dr. Iyad Mohammed Alawi, a former
member of Iraq's ruling Baath party, who has
lived in London since 1971.

This is the first time that MI6 involvement in
covert operations within Iraq has been confirmed.
Both intelligence agencies financed the INA as a
favored means for engineering a military coup
against Hussein. The CIA was authorized by the
White House to "distribute explosives to agents
inside Iraq to blow up power pylons and other
elements of Iraq's infrastructure."

Both operations failed as a result of internal
wrangling within the dissident groups and
security leaks, at a cost of hundreds of deaths.
In early March 1995 Chalabi and the PUK sent
15,000 troops into combat, but they were defeated
within months. The INA's attempted military coup
in Baghdad was crushed before it started. It was
followed by wave of repression -- including mass
arrests and executions.

These revelations have come to light because the
operation's failure prompted a probe by the FBI.
Five CIA officers were the subject of the
investigation. Though all proceedings were
quietly dropped in 1996, the US government's
spies and assassins are complaining that even
this limited scrutiny, "had a chilling effect on
the CIA's ability to conduct covert operations
against Iraq." Military intelligence has
complained that the inquiry is a "strong
indication that the Clinton administration is not
committed to a determined effort against
Hussein."

By blaming past failures on a lack of
determination on the part of Clinton, the CIA is
seeking to force a revival of its agenda for
deposing Hussein in the present conflict. This
week Chalabi is meeting with senior US
administration officials and members of Congress
to push them to adopt a strategy of overthrowing
Hussein.

Chalabi also recently met with Iraqi opposition
figures in London. He is counterposing to a
military strike the lifting of US sanctions in
northern and southern Iraq in order to foster a
rebellion by "supporters of a provisional
democratic government"-- i.e., a puppet US
regime. This would be accompanied by the
imposition of "no-drive" zones to back up the
no-fly zones and the freeing of frozen Iraqi
assets in the US and Europe to support a new
government.

----------

C. Jannuzi
Fukui, Japan





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