Former CIA Official: End the unconditional support for Israel now

Former CIA Official: End the unconditional support for Israel now

…by Jonas E. Alexis and Mark Dankof

 “Israel has consistently been able to make whoever is in the White House dance to its tune without suffering any serious consequences. With Donald Trump, one might even argue that it has been able to so condition the president that he goes around looking for things to do to please Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel has not even yet asked for."

 

America to perpetual wars in the Middle East, immediately called Giraldi’s views anti-Semitic—and anyone who quoted that article approvingly, i.e. former CIA agent Valerie Plame, who incidentally happens to be Jewish—must also be anti-Semitic.[1] Newsweek also did characterize Giraldi’s article in the same way.[2]

Yet neither the Weekly Standard nor Newsweek addressed the key issues that Giraldi raised in the article. In fact, Giraldi defined what he meant by “America’s Jews”: they are essentially the Neoconservatives, who we all know have been heralding perpetual wars in the Middle East for Israel. Those wars have never been good for America, and that is a historical point.[3] Israel and the military-industrial complex are the ones that are benefitting from perpetual wars, not the average Muslim or American. As USA Today itself has pointed out:

“The business of war is profitable. In 2011, the 100 largest contractors sold $410 billion in arms and military services. Just 10 of those companies sold over $208 billion…These companies have benefited tremendously from the growth in military spending in the U.S., which by far has the largest military budget in the world.

“In 2000, the U.S. defense budget was approximately $312 billion. By 2011, the figure had grown to $712 billion. Arm sales grew alongside general defense spending growth… between 2002 and 2011, arms sales among the top 100 companies grew by 51%.”[4]

In the same vein, the Financial Times reported:

“An analysis by the Financial Times reveals the extent to which both American and foreign companies have profited from the conflict – with the top 10 contractors securing business worth at least $72bn between them.

“None has benefited more than KBR, once known as Kellogg Brown and Root. The controversial former subsidiary of Halliburton, which was once run by Dick Cheney, vice-president to George W. Bush, was awarded at least $39.5bn in federal contracts related to the Iraq war over the past decade.

“Two Kuwaiti companies – Agility Logistics and the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation – are the second and third-biggest winners, securing contracts worth $7.2bn and $6.3bn respectively.

“The US hired more private companies in Iraq than in any previous war, and at times there were more contractors than military personnel on the ground.”[5]

The interesting thing is that towns in states like Missouri are dying because, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, “the lack of a college education has become a public-health crisis.”[6]
In other words, the lack of education in America is less important than supporting incessant wars in the Middle East.

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Giraldi has recently dragged the political cat out of the bag by arguing that we need to have “a new Declaration of Independence for 2018.” That Declaration of Independence would state that Israel should not exert an enormously powerful influence on US foreign policy. It’s just that simple. And why should that Declaration of Independence be put forth?
Well, just the past twenty years alone should teach us that Israel has effectively destroyed much of the Middle East through covert operations and has sent a six-trillion dollar bill to the American people.[7] And that six-trillion dollar bill is only for the war in Iraq![8] Moreover, that doesn’t include the 360,000 veterans who almost certainly had brain injuries.[9] Giraldi tears the Israeli narrative apart by saying:
“Note that all the major problems that America is experiencing versus the rest of the world are pretty much self-inflicted. In my view, looking beyond Russia and North Korea, America’s principal foreign policy problems continue to be centered on the Middle East and all originate in the deliberate instability generated by Israel, currently joined in an unholy alliance by its former enemy Saudi Arabia. The Tel Aviv (excuse me, Jerusalem) to Riyadh axis is current working hard to bring a new war to the Middle East as part of their plan to have the United States military destroy Iran as a major regional power.”
“The problem with Israel is that it and its powerful billion-dollar domestic lobby have their hooks so deeply embedded in the American political system as well as in the national media that the Jewish state is virtually bullet-proof. Most recently, we have learned that Facebook has been deleting critical accounts at the request of the Israeli government.
“Meanwhile, that same government has been working hard to make any consideration of Palestine or the Palestinians disappear, recently successfully demanding that the National Basketball Association remove a website reference to Palestine, which Israel’s sports minister described as an ‘imaginary state.’
“NBA Commissioner Adam Silver apparently agreed. Even recent blockbuster revelations that Israel rather than Russia had been corrupting Team Trump produced a few Israelgate stories before disappearing completely down the memory hole.

“Israel has consistently been able to make whoever is in the White House dance to its tune without suffering any serious consequences. With Donald Trump, one might even argue that it has been able to so condition the president that he goes around looking for things to do to please Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel has not even yet asked for.
“The moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is one such gift, something that pleases Israel so much that it is going to name a train station after the president, but which gives nothing but grief to the United States and to American citizens and businesses abroad.
“Of course, one might argue that Trump had help in coming to his decision. He is surrounded by Orthodox Jews as well as Christian Zionists like Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, all of whom appear to put Israel first, not exactly a good formula for ‘Making America Great Again.’ The Jewish advisers also have financial and business ties to Israel, suggesting that Robert Mueller might look towards the Middle East if he actually wants to find foreign government interference in U.S. politics.”
If you doubt Giraldi’s analysis here, then you are being dishonest precisely because the scholarship on this very topic over the last fifteen years or so is just an embarrassment to riches.[10] But there is a bigger issue here. Israel doesn’t just hurt US relations in the Middle East. Israel supports terrorism as well. We have seen that in Syria, and even Zionist organs such as the Wall Street Journal have reluctantly admitted this.[11]
But this was not the first that that the Israelis were caught with their pants down. We are going to pass this torch to Mark Dankof, who will take us to the dark and nihilistic world of the Israeli regime’s love affair with the MEK, a terrorist organization[12] which has been responsible for assassinating Iranian scientists and even Americans[13] but which amazingly got political and financial support from the Bush administration[14] and a number of US officials such as Michael Mukasey, Fran Townsend, Andy Card, Tom Ridge, Rudy Giuliani, Howard Dean, Ed Rendell, Bill Richardson, and even Wesley Clark.[15]
Those people, the Christian Science Monitor reported, “have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK.”[16] But all those puppets always ended up aiding and abetting the Israeli regime. This got so obvious that even the Obama administration asked Israel to stop assassinating Iranian scientists using MEK.[17] Mark Dankof, enlighten us on the MEK.

Mark Dankof: One presumes that the Israeli and American money trails going to and from the MEK are closely guarded black-operational intelligence secrets not necessarily even known in details and numbers by the denizens of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.  Or shall we say, at least not known to anyone on those Committees of Alleged Oversight not in the back political and financial pocket of the Israeli Lobby.
That in and of itself, raises a related issue—the amount of PAC money going into American elections from approximately 30 PACS known to have direct or disguised links to the Israeli monolith in this country, as chronicled by Janet McMahon and Hugh Galford of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA).
One recent news article is most suggestive, however.  That is Elizabeth Rubin’s New York Times op-ed of August 13th, “An Iranian Cult and its American Friends.”
This article, in the most Corporate Establishment, pro-Zionist newspaper in America (along with The Washington Post), underscores that the MEK is exactly what the Habilian Association, Mark Dankof, Ed Blanche of The Middle East desk in Beirut, and the RAND Corporation say it is:  a totalitarian cult which not only possesses a warped “Islamic-Marxist” ideology that is inherently contradictory, but is led by Miryam and Masoud Rajavi in a fashion reminiscent of that which governed the Reverend Jim Jones’ leadership of his demonic religious cult at Jonestown a generation ago in Guyana.
Even more significantly, the Elizabeth Rubin expose provides a laundry list of people in the American military, intelligence, and political establishments who are fraudulently working to have the MEK removed from the State Department terrorist organization list and subsequently legitimized.

This would be bad enough, but they are doing it for money—plenty of it, to the tune of $25,000 to $50,000 a speaking engagement on the MEK’s behalf.  (see the excellent RAND Corporation report on the MEK at RAND_MG871 MEK PAPER).

Most critically, Rubin’s essay is potent for what it doesn’t say, and is patently obvious to anyone familiar with the subject:  These paid American denizens of pro-MEK activities and plans have Israel’s fingerprints all over them.
The names in her article overlap with the Israeli oriented think tanks Inside the Beltway, and the Israeli money on Capitol Hill documented by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA).
One does not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what is going on here.  This is ultimately the Israeli Lobby and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman at work for apocalyptically nefarious purposes.
The Elizabeth Rubin New York Times expose also mentions the “millions” at the disposal of the MEK for its current public relations campaign in the United States, using these bought-and-paid for players in the American establishment.  It begs the question:  Where do Miryam and Masoud Rajivi and the MEK get this kind of money?  On what basis does Elizabeth Rubin cite the ambiguous but potent term “millions” to describe their financial power?
How many “millions” are we talking about specifically?  And what rag-tag “Islamic-Marxist” cult presently camped out in Paris and Camp Ashraf can have “millions” to dispense on political hired guns in America without major outside sources of funding?  And who are these outside sources of this kind of cash?  Oil and banking come to mind as possible places to look.

Beyond that, one doesn’t have to look too much further to find Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Israel Lobby in the United States, and international oil consortiums, as the chief targets of suspicions as to who and what really constitutes the force behind the attempted renovation of the MEK’s image and fortunes in the West.

Rubin’s New York Times piece is also noteworthy for what it doesn’t mention or explain:  The MEK’s most well-heeled and connected American power broker is the Iran Policy Committee of Dr. Raymond Tanter of Georgetown University, his colleague Clair Lopez of the Central Intelligence Agency, and the assortment of Israeli oriented think tanks and individuals who shadow the Iran Policy Committee, including the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) strongly linked to Dr. Tanter.
This picture is abundantly clear, despite the reticence of The New York Times, at least to this point, to cover the real players and angles in the story.
Perhaps the most spicy and inflammable aspect of the story of Dr. Raymond Tanter, Clair Lopez, and the Iran Policy Committee involves the explosive divorce of Raymond Tanter from his ex-wife, Constance Tanter.
Mrs. Tanter alleges a most incredible tale of international intrigue that resulted in the targeted demise of her marriage, career, and personal life, up to and including the specific charge that at the direction of her ex-husband, the MEK and Clair Lopez forcibly held Constance Tanter captive; transported her against her will to Paris, France; and subjected the Georgetown University professor’s wife to a coercive interrogation in the French capital designed to extort a signed capitulation to a divorce settlement characterized by Mrs. Tanter as literal robbery at gunpoint.
If Constance Tanter is telling the truth, Madam Rajavi was personally present for her interrogation and forced capitulation to a dictated divorce decree introduced into the American court system after the fact.
Are the charges true?  Outsiders who have heard the allegations are at one level incredulous, yet uncommitted because of the cultic history of the Rajavis chronicled by Ed Blanche of The Middle East and other internationally credible sources.
One thing is crystal clear: Mrs. Tanter is taking her allegations to The New York Times and other outlets who have already covered the MEK’s activities up to this point.  Her allegations are buttressed by a thick file of papers, diary notes, photostatically reproduced copies of Iran Policy Committee documents, and a complete list of the Iran Policy Committee’s e-mail contacts by name and accompanying e-mail addresses.
That list represents a virtual Who’s Who of the American Neo-Conservative, pro-Zionist Right; major figures in the Israeli government and intelligence community; MEK assets around the globe; and major players in a number of world governments and media outlets who seem to have more than a passing involvement with what Elizabeth Rubin terms, “An Iranian Cult.” This story continues to unfold.

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• [1] “The Plame Game,” Weekly Standard, September 29, 2017; see also “
• [2] Stav Ziv, “American Jews are starting wars, Jewish former CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson retweets,” Newsweek, September 21, 2017.
• [3] For scholarly studies on similar issues, see John Tirman, The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012); Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005 and 2008); Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013).
• [4] Samuel Weigley, “10 companies profiting the most from war,” USA Today, March 10, 2013.
• [5] “Contractors reap $138 bn from Iraq war,” Financial Times, March 19, 2013.
• [6] Sarah Brown and Karin Fischer, “A Dying Town,” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 29, 2017.
• [7] See Mark Kukis, Voices from Iraq: A People’s History, 2003-2009 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); Dana Priest and Joe Stephens, “Secret World of U.S. Interrogation,” Washington Post, May 11, 2004; for similar reports, see Jane Mayer, “The Black Sites: A Rare Look inside the C.IA.’s Secret Interrogation Program,” New Yorker, August 13, 2007; Craig Whitlock, “Jordan’s Spy Agency: Holding Cell for the CIA,” Washington Post, December 1, 2007; Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Anchor Books, 2009); Mark Danner, Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004); George W. Bush: War Criminal?: The Bush Administration’s Liability for 269 War Crimes (Westport: Praeger Pubishers, 2009); Lila Rajiva, The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2005). Rebecca Gordon, Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014).
• [8] Ernesto Londono, “Study: Iraq, Afghan war costs to top $4 trillion,” Washington Post, March 28, 2013; Bob Dreyfuss, The $6 Trillion Wars,” The Nation, March 29, 2013; “Iraq War Cost U.S. More Than $2 Trillion, Could Grow to $6 Trillion, Says Watson Institute Study,” Huffington Post, May 14, 2013; Mark Thompson, “The $5 Trillion War on Terror,” Time, June 29, 2011; “Iraq war cost: $6 trillion. What else could have been done?,” LA Times, March 18, 2013.
• [9] “360,000 veterans may have brain injuries,” USA Today, March 5, 2009.
• [10] Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); Murray Friedman, The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and Public Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Stephen M. Feldman, Neoconservative Politics and the Supreme Court: Law, Power, and Democracy (New York & London: New York University Press, 2013); Muhammad Idrees Ahmad, The Road to Iraq: The Making of a Neoconservative War (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014); Jesus Velasco, Neoconservatives in U.S. Foreign Policy under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush: Voices Behind the Throne (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010); Michael MacDonald, Overreach: Delusions and Regime Change in Iraq (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014); Paul R. Pillar, Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); John J. Mearsheimer, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (New York: Farrar & Straus, 2007).
• [11] Rory Jones, Noam Raydan, Suha Ma’ayeh, “Israel Gives Secret Aid to Syrian Rebels,” Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2017.
• [12] Even Zionist outlets like Politico have admitted this. Daniel Benjamin, “Yes, We Do Know the MEK Has a Terrorist Past,” Politico, December 13, 2016; see also Philip Giraldi, “How The MEK Paid Their Way From Terrorists To ‘Freedom Fighters,’” MintPress News, October 17, 2017.
• [13] Philip Giraldi, “How The MEK Paid Their Way From Terrorists To ‘Freedom Fighters,’” MintPress News, October 17, 2017.
• [14] See Seymour M. Hersh, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?,” New Yorker, March 5, 2007; “Our Men in Iran?,” New Yorker, April 5, 2012; Glenn Greenwald, “Report: U.S. trained terror group,” Salon, April 6, 2012.
• [15] Glenn Greenwald, “Israel, MEK and state sponsor of Terror groups,” Salon, February 10, 2012.
• [16] Ibid.
• [17] Ryan Gorman, “US urges Israel to stop assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists and focus on the Palestine peace process,” Daily Mail, March 3, 2014; “Obama pushes Israel to stop assassinations of Iran nuclear scientists – report,” Russia Today, March 2, 2014; “Israel behind assassinations of Iran nuclear scientists, Ya’alon hints,” Jerusalem Post, August 7, 2015.