ARMENIANS, TURKISH BRIBES, AND CYA

"Edmonds reportedly added that the recordings also contained repeated references to Hastert’s flip-flop, in the fall of 2000, over an issue which remains of intense concern to the Turkish government – the continuing campaign to have Congress designate the killings of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 a genocide."
~ David Rose, An Inconvenient Patriot.

Above is a photo from a friend, taken last June on the road between Hewlêr and Silêmanî. The flags are the Chinese flag and the Kurdistan flag, and this was a Chinese construction company hired to widen the highway. I had passed along the same road in mid-April, 2005, and at that time there was only one of these Chinese "camps" along the road. I assume that they were just arriving when I passed by, but my friend informs me that in June, there were four or five of these Chinese "camps".

Thanks for the photo, heval.

It is time that China, Russia, and the SCO are explored in order to create other alliances that might be mutually beneficial, especially in light of recent developments with the Americans and the EU. Such exploration needs to be done by a coalition of all the major Kurdish political organizations and intellectuals in order to work for the benefit of all Kurdistan. If Kurdistan stands unified, no one can stand against her.

At such time, we need to rethink all the current business arrangements with the US, EU, and the Turkish military, and if the SCO can do better, the current contracts should be cancelled and new ones negotiated with the SCO. By "better" I mean by tying business to human rights and political freedoms.

On to the news . . .


Trouble for Turkey in 2007? You bet, and it's coming from those pesky Armenians:

The new Democratic-dominated Congress elected in the Nov. 7 polls is due to open on Jan. 4, and pro-Armenian lawmakers are preparing to introduce fresh genocide resolutions to both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Armenian groups have made it no secret that they are seeking congressional approval of at least one genocide resolution before April 24, designated by U.S. presidents as day of commemoration for the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

New Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced before the Nov. 7 elections that she would back recognition of an Armenian genocide in the new Congress. On the Senate side, Democratic majority leader Harry Reid and Joe Biden, who is due to become chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are both sympathetic to the Armenian cause.

And Turkish diplomats are concerned. "We are heading for a tough year in Congress, and anything is possible," said one diplomat.

Bijî Ermenistan!

The Ankara regime wouldn't have this problem if it would be generous and spread around some more of its drug money to the new members of Congress, as it did the last time an Armenian Genocide resolution was due to come up for a vote. That was back in the year 2000, when Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, accepted a Turkish bribe to the tune of half a million dollars to pull the resolution, from Lukery at WotIsItGood4:

In David Rose's blockbuster (but whitewashed) article in Vanity Fair, there are three separate bribery claims:

a) Hastert received tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions

b) Hastert received tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments in exchange for political favors and information. These bribes were apparently delivered in cash, in suitcases. We don't know specifically what these payments were for.

c) Hastert is believed to have accepted another $500,000. Reportedly in return for pulling a Congressional resolution acknowledging the Armenian genocide.

Got that? At least three different bribes that we know about.

We aren't exactly sure who was doing the actual bribing, or whether there are more than one group that 'owns' Hastert. There are three groups suspected of bribing Hastert, and there is probably significant overlap between the groups.

The first group is a criminal element of the Military Industrial Complex, represented primarily by Richard Perle, Doug Feith and Marc Grossman among others - generally using AIPAC and the American Turkish Council as front organizations.

The second group suspected of bribing Hastert is the 'mafia-like' Turkish 'Deep State', probably a mix of Turkish military, heroin producers and drug-runners. It is suspected that these funds are laundered through 'lobbyists' - originally Perle & Feith's company International Advisors Inc, and later (and currently) through Bob Livingston's company The Livingston Group.

The third group is a bit more hazy, but it is suspected that it is a group of Turkish heroin 'baba' (mafia) operating in the US, probably headquarted in Chicago. This group appears to use front organisations such as the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (A.T.A.A.) and the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (T.A.C.A.)

Check out the rest of that post for much more information.

From the TDN article on the Armenian Genocide resolution fears, a Turkish member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is quoted. The CSIS is another one of those think-tanks that should be watched, just like AEI. Among the trustees and counselors of the "think-tank" are William S. Cohen (of The Cohen Group), Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft (head of the ATC), and Frank Carlucci (of the Carlyle Group).

In what may be one of its greatest acts of collective hubris, in 2003 the CSIS demanded that, "US government officials be given the right to sit in on the European Union's inter-governmental conference and on meetings of its other executive bodies so that the USA can keep an eye on the direction Europe is taking." From Scoop:

The proposal was signed by one of those ephemeral constellations into which the luminaries of the American political establishment frequently arrange themselves in order to encourage policy to navigate by their lights: Madeleine Albright, Harold Brown, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Frank Carlucci, Warren Christopher, William Cohen, Bob Dole, Lawrence Eagleburger, Stuart Eizenstat, Al Haig, Lee Hamilton, John Hamre, Sam Nunn, Paul O'Neill, Charles Rob, William Roth, and James Schlesinger. [2] That makes four former Secretaries of State, one former National Security Adviser, two former Secretaries for Defense, a former Secretary of the Treasury, a former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a former Director of the CIA, and three Senators.

How many of those names do you recognize from the Iraq Study Group? More on CSIS from Sourcewatch.

Finally, in connection with the looming Armenian Congressional crisis, there's the usual Turkish threat of a temper tantrum, in which the Ankara regime would cut all ties to the Washington. The Turkish stooge at the CSIS, Bulent Aliriza, darkly warns that Washington should "prepare for the worst." After all, it's too much to ask for Turkey to have elections and an Armenian crisis all in one year, especially when it's still throwing temper tantrums over EU accession. But in reality, Aliriza is throwing around red herrings instead of serious threats. After all, there's business to be made . . . just ask Lockheed Martin Board of Directors member, Joseph Ralston.

Speaking of whom, there's something from the Cover-Your-Ass Department: The terrorist Turkish "Defense" Ministry claims there are no direct contacts between it and Lockheed Martin:

Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it had awarded a $635 million contract to Lockheed Martin. Under the terms of the Dec. 22 contract, Lockheed Martin will provide 216 modernization kits to upgrade Turkish F-16C and F-16D model aircraft in the air force inventory.

The Defense Ministry's statement was actually a response to Turkish news reports that interpreted the Pentagon announcement as meaning that the contract was granted to Lockheed Martin, on whose board of directors sits retired Gen. Joseph Ralston.

Of course there's no direct contact between the "Defense" Ministry and Lockheed Martin; Ralston is the go-between, and therein lies the problem, which is called "conflict of interest." TDN even quotes Ken Silverstein's article on Ralston's conflict of interest from the influential Harper's Magazine, titled "Lost in the Valley of the Wolves. Kudos Ken; they've got you under their skin.

Now we know that Turkey knows all about the conflict of interest that Ralston represents.

Last item of the day . . . the secular Turkish government's Directorate of Religious Affairs has issued a warning to everyone: Don't mix infidel champaigne bubbly with bayram on New Year's Eve. Such a mix might lead to "provocations" and confusion.

You've been warned.


By the way . . . please check out Nijmaldin Karim's excellent essay, "Justice, but No Reckoning" at KurdishAspect.

END OF STORY

"While condemning Iraq's chemical weapons use . . . The United States finds the present Iranian regime's intransigent refusal to deviate from its avowed objective of eliminating the legitimate government of neighboring Iraq to be inconsistent with the accepted norms of behavior among nations and the moral and religious basis which it claims"
~ White House Press Statement, March 5, 1984.

The Americans continue to congratulate themselves on having buried the Anfal trial with the execution of Saddam, thus hiding their complicity in Anfal and the complicity of NATO member, Turkey. You can check out the rejoicing at PajamasMedia and its blogroll, as well as at Gateway Pundit. In fact, Gateway Pundit has an interesting post mentioning the joy of the Badr Brigade (bottom of post), which should give us a clue as to which sectarian/ethnic division the US is now supporting.

Infidel Bloggers' Alliance is not happy that yours truly does not exhibit the proper submissive attitude toward America's greatness in disposing of the official testimony of the victims of Anfal. In my opinion, it is the Americans who do not exhibit the proper submissive attitude toward Kurdish fighters who secured all of South Kurdistan, Mûsil, and Kerkuk in March and April, 2003. It should be remembered well by the Americans that it was Kurds who stepped up to the plate to play ball when good ally Turkey wimped out. South Kurdistan is the place where no American troops have suffered so much as a hangnail, much less even the threat of an IED.

The burial of the memory of the Kurdish Anfal victims in an undisclosed location near Tikrit is the thanks that the US offers the Kurdish people.

Everyone should expect the American propaganda of the Stephen Pelletiere/US Army War College report blaming Iran for the use of chemical weapons against the people of Helebçe to come back into vogue as the US continues to press Iran. That particular report was specifically designed to whitewash the Saddam regime, and American support for the Saddam regime, while blackening the Teheran regime. In an article from the NYTimes, January, 2003, we have Pelletiere's own words on the matter:

But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story.

I am in a position to know because, as the Central Intelligence Agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and as a professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, I was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf. In addition, I headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States; the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair.

This much about the gassing at Halabja we undoubtedly know: it came about in the course of a battle between Iraqis and Iranians. Iraq used chemical weapons to try to kill Iranians who had seized the town, which is in northern Iraq not far from the Iranian border. The Kurdish civilians who died had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange. But they were not Iraq's main target.

Good for him. He knows better than the survivor-witnesses because he was privy to intelligence information, which can be wrong, and he investigated how Iraqis would fight against the US, but he never went to Helebçe immediately after the attack to confirm any of his information. Genetic specialist Christine Gosden, who has done a lion's work for the Kurdish people on this matter, doesn't mention the use of cyanide-based agents (blood agents), but believes that the effects of the attacks seen in the survivors are a result of a "cocktail" of mustard and nerve agents--and Dr. Gosden's work is based on science, not classified intelligence materials.

Evidence found as a result of scientific work with survivors, the testimony of survivors, and official Iraqi documents pertaining to the Anfal campaign (and implicating Turkey in the genocide) are the kinds of evidence that will never make their way on to the world stage in the vehicle of the Anfal trial.

For this, Kurds should thank America?

Again, writing before the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Pelletiere concludes with the following:

Before we go to war over Halabja, the administration owes the American people the full facts. And if it has other examples of Saddam Hussein gassing Kurds, it must show that they were not pro-Iranian Kurdish guerrillas who died fighting alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Until Washington gives us proof of Saddam Hussein's supposed atrocities, why are we picking on Iraq on human rights grounds, particularly when there are so many other repressive regimes Washington supports?

Here the ignorance of Pelletiere really shines, mistaking so-called pro-Iranian Kurds for "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." I don't recall any dead Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the evidence from Helebçe, nor do I believe that all the dead children, mothers, and grandparents at Helebçe were pro-Iranian "guerrillas." Ditto for all the other villages attacked at the same time. As for other "repressive regimes" that Pelletiere's regime supports, we can name Turkey.

Statement from Masûd Barzanî's office, from AFP, carried on KurdistanObserver:

"We hope that Saddam Hussein's execution will open a new chapter among Iraqis and the end of using violence against civilians," said a statement from the office of Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani.

"It is important the execution should not be a pretext for not documenting the crimes of Anfal and Halabja, and the mass killing against thousands of the Kurds and Barzanis. Curtains should not be closed on these issues."

Man . . . that is so flaccid, flaccid as in limp, as in lacking any kind of strength or firmness. It's so flaccid, it's a sellout, especially in light of this:

But Saturday's execution also brought to an end his prosecution in a separate case in which he is charged with genocide in the deaths of around 182,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign by Iraqi security forces.

Prosecutors have said the case will go ahead with Saddam's six surviving co-defendants, but that the late dictator will no longer figure in the list of the accused.

Translation: End Of Story.

In the meantime, the Americans are eager to spill more Kurdish blood to defend the albatross hanging around their necks: Baghdad. From the KurdishGlobe:

According to a report published in The New York Times on December 14, the Iraqi government is keen to replace U.S. troops in Baghdad largely with Kurdish Peshmarga forces. The report refers to Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie, who announced previously that the plan had been presented during the meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan, on November 30. However, the primary task of the Kurdish forces would be to combat terrorist groups and contribute to the security of the capital of Iraq.

In spite of strong opposition that many Kurdish political analysts and intellectuals display in this domain, the decision to send Kurdish armed forces to Baghdad seems to be a very likely scenario. KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani maintained upon his return from Baghdad that if "Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki officially asks the President of Kurdistan to send Peshmarga forces to the middle of Iraq, then we agree, but only for specific purposes." Moreover, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told the Kurdish paper Kurdistani Nwe that the central government could benefit from Peshmarga, as it is a recognized and legitimate military force in the region. Kurdish forces will be compensated by obtaining that part of Iraq's national budget for defense affairs.

Ax! Ew qehbexanî ye.

THE SPOILS OF WAR

"They ask you (O Muhammad ) about the spoils of war. Say: "The spoils are for Allah and the Messenger." So fear Allah and adjust all matters of difference among you, and obey Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad ), if you are believers."
~ Surah al-Anfal.

Well. The news all day has been whether or not Saddam will hang in fifteen minutes or on Saturday; whether or not he was still in American custody or had been handed over to the Iraqis; whether or not the constitution specified execution within thirty days of the decision on appeal or after thirty days of the decision on appeal. Now it looks like Saddam will swing within the next two hours.

Why is there a sudden rush to hang Saddam?

Perhaps we should look at some news from last week in which secret evidence in Saddam's Anfal trial implicated Turkish complicity in the genocide of the Southern Kurds, originally from AFP:

Prosecutors seeking to prove that the ousted Iraqi dictator ordered the slaughter of 182,000 Kurdish civilians in the 1988 Anfal campaign produced a series of Iraqi military documents during the day’s hearing.

One was sent to the commanders of the 1st and 5th Corps of the Iraqi Army on August 21, 1988 and ordered them to carry out “heavy special strikes before starting the project to create a condition of panic among the citizens”.

Prosecutors have previously said that the term “special strikes” in Iraqi documents refers to the use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas or sarin. The document, signed by Iraqi chief of staff Nazar Abdul Kareem Faisal, insisted: “There must be full destruction of saboteurs in the northern area.”

And, in a revelation likely to stir anger among Kurdish survivors, the memo orders the Iraqi officers “to cooperate with the Turkish side, according to the cooperation protocol with them to chase all the refugees”. No detail was given of the alleged agreement between Turkey and Iraq. Ankara has long opposed the idea of an independent Kurdish homeland in northern Iraq, but it has never been proved that Turkey cooperated with Saddam’s forces during Anfal, which prosecutors describe as a genocide. While the document touching on Turkish links was read out, sound was cut off to trial reporters and no discussion of the memo could be heard, although the Arabic-language document could still be read on the court screens.

More from News24:

Evidence relating to Saddam Hussein's alleged use of poison gas against Kurdish civilians was given to his genocide trial in secret on Thursday, so as not to embarrass Turkey.

After seeing a string of memos issued by Saddam's chief of staff in 1988 ordering "special ammunition" attacks, the court cut off its microphones while studying documents relating to Iraq's northern neighbour.

"We will now cut the microphones because this concerns Iraqi-Turkish relations," said chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, who then presented various documents while the sound in the reporters' box was cut off.

No details were given of the evidence presented in this part of the trial, nor was it explained how it touched on Turkey.

Suddenly, Baghdad and the US are rushing the execution of Saddam to protect Turkey.

The long-time "ally" and client state of the US, Turkey has used chemical weapons against the Kurdish population of North Kurdistan. Rumors that Turkey was once again using chemical weapons against PKK gerîlas in February and March, 2006, sparked an uprising in Amed (Diyarbakir) at the end of March which spread throughout the Kurdish region. In keeping with its genocidal stance against the Kurdish people, the Turkish general staff, through Erdogan, gave the order to spare no Kurds during the protests, but to shoot all "supporters of terrorism" even if they were women and children. This is exactly what the Turkish army did, murdering a number of children and young people in Amed alone. Hundreds of other children were arrested and tortured. The hated Ozel Timler moved into Amed to direct the murders and also attacked the city's popular Kurdish mayor, Osman Baydemir.

Then the silencing of evidence in the courtroom last week, evidence that appears to show NATO member Turkey having a hand in the Anfal campaign. The Anfal trial has been of immense importance to all Kurds as a stage upon which all the evidence of Baghdad's genocidal actions could be aired and preserved. This becomes especially important in light of American propaganda that was designed to deflect blame from Saddam to the Iranians, and which ran counter to all the eyewitness survivors of the chemical attacks who clearly identified the perpetrators as Iraqis. But, Saddam was supported by the US against Iran, the arch-enemy who merely held a few Americans hostage for a short period of time.

Now the Iraqis and the Americans rush to execute--after all, it would be offensive to hang Saddam during Kurban Bayrami--while the Anfal trial remains unfinished, in an attempt to bury the evidence of genocide and the complicity of the US and Turkey in that genocide.

This is another betrayal of the Kurdish people by the US, thus proving once again that the Americans cannot be trusted . . . except by fools.

At this very moment the American broadcast media is busily dragging out all the "pundits," "experts," and all around know-it-alls to create the facade with which to justify this most recent American betrayal of the Kurdish people. "It's time to move on," and "The Iraqi people want closure," are the catch phrases of this evening, but no one asks for whom is it time to move on or whether or not the Kurdish people are ready for closure at the expense of the evidence of the Anfal campaign.

Besides, they're upset that they've only lost a few thousand troops and they think that Saddam's immediate execution will make Iraq safe for Americans.

Or they get really funny and invoke "Justice."

The blogosphere has been interesting all day, if you have a strong stomach. As suddenly as the rush to execute Saddam, the American bloggers can tell you exactly how many Kurdish villages were destroyed during Anfal; they can tell you how many Kurds were gassed by Saddam (hehehe . . . suddenly it's no longer all about Iran, is it?); they can tell you how many and in what manner Kurds were tortured by Saddam, and they do this to justify their war and their rush to execute. Americans have suddenly discovered humanitarianism for a victim that is now worthy to them because the victim is useful to them.

Why is it that these same humanitarian, Kurd-loving, Saddam-hating Americans cannot tell me how many Kurdish villages Turkey has destroyed? How many Kurds has Turkey displaced? How many Kurds has Turkey outright murdered in a so-called War Against Terror, Turkish-style? How many Kurds have been tortured, extrajudicially executed, and disappeared by this great NATO ally, this "Model of Democracy," this Eternal Victim of the forces of evil in the world? The Americans cannot tell me any of this information; they cannot tell me how much weaponry the US has sold to Turkey; they cannot tell me how much of that weaponry is used against unarmed Kurdish civilians.

The reason no Americans can tell me this is because the Kurds under Turkish occupation are not worthy victims, nor are they useful to American national interests. Turkey is the American ally and member of NATO. Turkey is America's Model of Democracy. Turkey buys a lot of American weapons.

Well . . . it looks like Saddam will swing in an hour. How lucky for the hypocrites in Ankara, Washington, and Baghdad that the Anfal evidence will now be buried and forgotten, so that all of them can move on and find closure.


See more protest of immediate execution from KurdishMedia:

Don’t execute Saddam yet

Saddam’s execution now is unfair, illegal and a plan against Kurds

An interview with Nijmaldin Karim of WKI on NPR, Kurds Feel Cheated by Saddam's Execution

THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA

"We have to make America the best place in the world to do business."
~ Dick Cheney.

Now we know what Lockheed Martin's PKK "coordinator" for Turkey, Joseph Ralston, was discussing with Edip Baser in Germany in mid-December. They managed to come to a deal to upgrade Turkey's current fleet of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter aircraft for a sweet $635 million, from the Washington Business Journal:

The U.S. government has awarded Lockheed Martin a $635 million contract to upgrade the Turkish Air Force's fleet of F-16 aircraft.

Bethesda-based aerospace giant Lockheed (NYSE: LMT) will provide the Turkish fleet with 216 modernization kits to upgrade the F-16s. The contract also includes flight testing, training and technical support.

The award continues work from an initial contract in July 2005 and is based on an agreement signed by the governments of Turkey and the U.S. earlier that year.

Most of the work and support for the program will take place at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility in Fort Worth, Texas and at Tusas Aerospace Industries in Ankara, Turkey. The contract runs through 2016.

There are thousands of Lockheed-made F-16 aircraft worldwide, with 24 countries participating in the program.

Lockheed employs about 140,000 people worldwide and reported 2005 sales of $37 billion.

Lockheed Martin reported third-quarter 2006 earnings of $629 million at the end of October and fourth quarter earnings promise to be up over previous years, and there won't be any changes in store for the defense industry, including Lockheed Martin, when the Democrats take over next year, from the NYTimes:

“I wouldn’t look for Democrats to make cuts in the defense budget,” said Michael O’Hanlan, a military expert at the Brookings Institution. “You didn’t hear a lot about the defense budget in the last campaign and the Democrats know that you don’t mess with the top line.”

Still, the industry can expect some harsh scrutiny. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has lead the efforts to tighten oversight of military contractors and programs, moves up to become the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Harsh scrutiny, my ass. They are all part of the game, whether they are Republicans or Democrats. There is no difference. Besides, Lockheed Martin is the top defense industry lobbyist in the US, having filled campaign coffers to the tune of some $1.5 million during the 2006 election cycle. It's big bucks like that which help Lockheed Martin lobbyists like Joseph Ralston arrange so many nice deals for the company . . . like the $635 million upgrade deal for Turkey's old F-16s, or the $2.9 billion deal for Turkey's new F-16s, or the $10 billion deal for Turkey's new F-35s.

(By the way, you can check Lockheed Martin's top recipients of lobbying funds here. President Bush comes in at Number 2 and John Murtha, the Democrat who wanted to pull out of Iraq so badly this year, comes in at Number 3.)

It's small wonder then that the US continues to support the ruling military regime in Turkey and continues to supply it with the weapons it needs to murder Kurds. Defense industry profits are the reasons why the US has rejected the PKK ceasefire and any political solution to Turkey's genocide of the Kurdish people. This is why the US and Turkey are itching to conduct military operations against Kurdish refugees at Maxmur, why they refuse to "integrate" gerîlas back into society in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, why they refuse to allow PKK to become a political party within Turkish-occupied Kurdistan, and why the Americans make the absurd argument that PKK is worse for Turkey than al-Qaeda is for the US. All of which are comments of Lockheed Martin's PKK "coordinator" for Turkey, which you can read at the US Embassy in Ankara. That Ralston visit coincided with Turkey's selection of the Lockheed Martin F-35 over the Eurofighter.

More reasons for maintaining, if not for increasing, defense industry profits can be read at the State Department from the end of September, just before the PKK ceasefire announcement and the the Pentagon's request for a Turkish purchase of F-16s made the news. In this transcript, notice how Ralston brushes off a journalist's question about Turkish troops that are already present in South Kurdistan:

QUESTION: Margaret Besheer, Voice of America. I understand there's about 2,000 Turkish troops inside northern Iraq and I wanted to know what the status -- what their purpose is there and also what the extent of U.S. troop involvement is in northern Iraq in terms of countering the PKK.

GENERAL RALSTON: I don't think it's useful to go into various force levels and where they are in Iraq, other than to say that I did have discussions with General Casey. General Casey understands the seriousness of this issue and the significance of this issue. General Casey pledged his full support. I have been in discussions with General Abizaid as recently as yesterday. General Abizaid understands the seriousness of this effort and has pledged his full support.

That's a BS answer. How many Americans know there are Turkish troops in South Kurdistan? How many know that these remain in place due to an agreement between the former US-backed Baghdad government and the US client state, Turkey?

The US has refused to allow a negotiated settlement between the PKK and the Ankara regime like, oh, I don't know, the Nepalese Maoists and the Nepalese government? The IRA and the British government? ETA and the Spanish government? But none of those places have oil, do they? And none of those governments purchase the billions upon billions of dollars of military hardware that Turkey does. I guess the US also has a contract to sell body bags to Ankara, because that's what the US is building up for, from the anonymous "experts" at The Economist:

“It's no longer a matter of if they [the Turks] invade but how America responds when they do,” says a seasoned NATO military observer. America would be loth [sic] to let the Iraqi Kurds help their PKK kinsmen fight back, since Turkey is a cherished NATO ally and a pivotal Muslim state in the region. Turkey's airbase at Incirlik, in southern Turkey, is a hub for non-combat materiel flown in for American and allied troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If Turkish forces do invade Iraq, America's response will depend largely on the scope and scale. Most probably, they would not penetrate far into the country. “If they did, they would find themselves in the position that we do in Iraq, bogged down in a guerrilla insurgency,” says Henri Barkey, an American expert on the Kurds who served in the State Department during the Clinton administration.

Plainly, it is in America's interest to cut a deal between the Turks and the Kurds, including a plan to disarm the PKK for good, in return for wider cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey.

[ . . . ]

With Turks and Kurds digging their heels in, the Americans hint that they may be resigned to a limited Turkish operation that aims at PKK bases close to the Turkish border; and they would tell the Iraqi Kurds to stay put. But some in the Bush administration say the Americans should actually help Turkey swat the PKK in Iraq. “At this rate,” says another American official, “we're not only going to lose Iraq but Turkey too.” That, for America, is a prospect too ghastly to contemplate.

And that is the reason Kurds need to create a greater alliance with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, because the US will never choose Kurds over Turkey. There's also a nomenclature problem in The Economist article. All references to Kurds in the article are to the Southern Kurds, not to those Kurds under Turkish occupation. Kurds under Turkish occupation are never allowed a voice of their own and the Kurdish leadership in the South has never fought for Northern Kurds. Not the Americans, nor the Turks, nor the Southern Kurdish leadership are in any position to speak for Kurds who suffer under American-backed Turkish brutality.

The PKK is the premier voice of Kurds under Turkish occupation.

What to do? Invest in body bags. Buy stock in those companies that manufacture body bags. How many times has Turkey invaded South Kurdistan to fight PKK in the past? Each time they come, they bleed, they die, they retreat. . . and the US knows this very well. The US is encouraging a continuation of this low-intensity conflict to benefit the defense industry and to maintain regional control. For the US, instability is stability. The Pashas are along for the financial ride, while pretending to be too anal to figure all of this out, but the truth is, just like the American elite, the Pashas don't give a damn how many Mehmetciks die.

When the ceasefire ends, as it must because it has been ignored by all those who claimed they wanted it, Turkey will need those body bags. Demand increases profits.

Lockheed Martin stock should go up in the next year, so it might be a good idea to invest in LMT, too.

Send all of your dividends to Qendil.

LOOKING TO THE EAST

"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."
~ Adam Smith.

Exactly a year ago next week, The Jamestown Foundation published a short analysis of China's Kurdish policy, in which it outlined steps taken by the two main Southern Kurdish parties to engage China. The desire for engagement appears to be a mutual one fueled by China's growing energy needs.

Given his Marxist ideological roots, it's not surprising that Celal Talabanî was the first Kurdish leader to arrive in Beijing:

In early August 2003 Beijing hosted Jalal Talabani, chairman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and member of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, who was later to become the first president of post-Saddam Iraq. Representing Iraq rather than the Kurds, he was invited by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, an official “unofficial” instrument, and headed the first Iraqi delegation to visit China after the war.

After Talabanî was appointed as Iraqi president, the Chinese made their first visit to Kurdistan:

. . . a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) delegation led by Ding Lifen [ . . . ] arrived in early May 2005 through the Al-Munziriyah Crossing near Khanaqin (on the Iranian border). The delegation was received by the heads of the PUK Khanaqin media office and organization center. A member of the delegation said that the visit came in response to the PUK invitation and followed a visit by a PUK delegation to China that led to the “strengthening of relations between the two parties.” He added that these relations have gathered momentum, particularly after the “historic visit” by PUK leader Jalal Talabani to China (Al-Ittihad [Baghdad], May 11, 2005).

Within days of the arrival of the Chinese delegation, Masûd Barzanî met with Chinese officials, including the Chinese ambassador to Iraq, and was invited to make an official visit to China:

Stressing the Chinese people’s appreciation for the many sacrifices endured by the Kurdistan people, he [the Chinese ambassador] expressed his hope for closer relations between the two peoples through expanded ties between the PRC and the Kurdistan regional government and especially between the CCP and the KDP. He underlined the important role of the Kurdistan people in rebuilding a federal and democratic Iraq. In response Barzani expressed his hope that the Chinese government would play its role in rebuilding Kurdistan (Khabat [Arbil], May 16, 2005).

The Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan also seems to have endorsed the Sino-Kurdish engagement. In October, 2005, China hosted another PUK delegation, headed by politburo member, Kosrat Rasul Alî.

The Jamestown Foundation notes the following as reasons for Chinese interest in South Kurdistan: as leverage against Turkish support of Uighur separatists in China's Xinjiang region; as an effort to gain a foothold in the Middle East; and, of course, as a source to help satisfy future Chinese energy needs. With such a need for energy resources to drive the Chinese economy, would China lend support to the KRG in a showdown over Xanaqîn, if needed, or over Kerkuk? If Iraqi "territorial integrity" were maintained through federalism, then Chinese support for Kurdish control of Kerkuk could be the beginning of a mutually beneficial alliance, especially since the Norwegian DNO Company subcontracted the construction of the drilling rig outside of Zaxo to a Chinese company.

From all this activity, it appears that China is ready to accept a federal status for Kurdistan within the Iraqi state. If so, would China also support a similar arrangement within the other states that continue to repress their own Kurdish populations? For a number of years the PKK has emphasized its desire to work within a framework that would guarantee Turkish "territorial integrity," repeating this position as recently as the end of August, 2006. A PKK ceasefire was called on October 1, 2006, in response to PKK-KRG negotiations. Both the ceasefire and calls for negotiation that would allow PKK to work legally and politically within North Kurdistan have been rejected by both Ankara and Washington.

Given the PKK's position vis-a-vis Turkish territorial integrity, there is no reason why access to Kurdish oil by China, or by the wider Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), cannot be linked to Kurdish political rights in Turkey. The Russian Duma has expressed support for the cause of the Kurdish people in North Kurdistan in the past. As a member of the SCO, Russia might also bring pressure against Turkey and the US to negotiate a peaceful, political solution with the PKK. Pressure may also be brought against severe Iranian repression of Kurds, since Iran recently received observer status with the SCO.

As a reminder, there is oil in North Kurdistan as well as in the South.

Washington rejects a political solution to the Kurdish situation in North Kurdistan for the business interests of its own defense industry, as is obvious from the appointment of Lockheed Martin board of directors' member, Joseph Ralston, as the PKK "coordinator." Also listed with the US Senate as a lobbyist for Lockheed Martin, working for The Cohen Group, and as a member of the American Turkish Council's advisory board, the appointment of Ralston is another example of US intentions to control the oil-rich region. Another indication was the visit of Condoleeza Rice to Ankara at the end of April, 2006, as the Turkish army massed along the border between North and South Kurdistan, fired weaponry upon South Kurdistan, and infiltrated more JITEM operatives into South Kurdistan. Such attacks against the so-called American ally in "Northern Iraq" while the Secretary of State was on an official visit to Ankara indicate just how valuable the Southern Kurdish "allies" are.

With the publication of the Iraq Study Group recommendations, we know how other influences in the US establishment view Iraq and Kurdistan. These influences desire to return to the pre-Gulf War status quo, no matter how badly that status quo treated the Kurdish people. All hot air expended for the facade of concern for human rights aside, these influences are interested in returning to the good old days for the sake of their personal involvement in the oil industry. In connection with the ISG, we have Tony Blair's earlier announcement, in the Sunday Telegraph, that Kurds should "acquiesc[e] in their treatment." Then there was the EU's utter silence over the Amed Serhildan and the Amed Bombing, a silence which also urges the Kurdish people to "acquiesce." Of course, these are only the most recent betrayals of Kurds by the West.

In an article from the beginning of December, 2006, JINSA takes an openly hypocritical stand against the SCO, citing human rights violations and crying for the sake of "democracy" worldwide, without any hint that the US itself only uses the "democracy" argument as a shell game to further its own national interests. The result is an extreme case of the pot calling the kettle black.

It is time that Kurdistan began to explore other options, with its own national interests in mind. It may be that there are others, in the East, with whom alliances can be made that will be mutually satisfying. To that end, there should be a conference of the Kurdish people worldwide, represented by the executive council of the Koma Komalên Kurdistan and Kongra-Gel, the KRG, DTP, KNK, any other regional parties or organizations, intellectuals from Kurdistan and from Diaspora. This conference should stress the fact that the leadership must follow a policy that will maximize Kurdish interests in all parts of Kurdistan.

Anything less is unacceptable.

SADDAM AND OSAMA

For the kid in all of us, thanks to Xale . . .





Hilarious.

TURKISH HEZBOLLAH, YEZIDI ŞEHÎDS, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF GUNDÎS

"The displacements carried out by the [Turkish] security forces were punitive operations, and in many cases they machine-gunned sheep and cattle, or burned them in their pens . . . Over the course of a week of interviews with displaced villagers in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Bingöl, and Elazığ, Human Rights Watch did not hear of a single applicant who had been compensated for being deprived of his livelihood as a stockkeeper."
~ Human Rights Watch.

Something related to Thursday's post on Turkish Hezbollah . . . the Americans picked up on more Deep State propaganda at Little Green Footballs. Pretty funny. Apparently, they thought the Turkish variety was really another Iranian version spread to Turkey, until one of the commenters posted info on Turkish Hezbollah. Still, they're in denial about the fact that Turkish Hezbollah is a product of their very own client state and in all the mostly ridiculous comments, there's not a word to be found about Turkey's genocide of Kurds.

Typical. Well, I guess they can't admit that they've been complicit in that same genocide for 50 years. Plus, with the number of dead Iraqi civilians, they should be very careful about comparing Kurdish leaders with terrorists. I mean, we could, after all, compare certain American leaders with Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler . . . you get the picture.

Interesting comments about Kurdistan on this blog:

Kurdistan: Kurdistan is a part of Iraq, and the only part apparently friendly to the US. We should introduce our Kurds to the Turks and Iranians and see if a deal can be worked out where Kurdistan is not a sanctuary for rebel groups and the Turks and Iranians do not attack the Kurds. The US should, perhaps, train and equip the Kurdish Peshmerga. On the other hand, if pushed by the Turks and Iranians, I'm willing to abandon the Kurds again. I just don't see getting into a war in the Middle East to maintain the de facto independence of Kurdistan, which is not a US vital interest.

"Our" Kurds? What the hell is that? That guy must be a Persian nationalist.

The only deal that could possibly be worked out whereby Kurdistan was not a sanctuary for Kurdish freedom fighters is to get Turks and Iranians to agree to the steps outlined by PKK in its Declaration for a Democratic Resolution to the Kurdish Question. As a reminder, the enemies should issue statements to show willingness to negotiate a peaceful solution, end all attacks, end the heavy isolation imposed on Ocalan. Then we can move forward to obtain acknowledgement of the Kurdish identity through constitutional guarantees; lift all obstacles to Kurdish culture; acknowledge Kurdish language as the official second language of The Region; acknowledge the rights to free thought, belief, and freedom of expression; lift all social inequalities, especially gender inequalities; establish a truth and justice commission; release all political prisoners with subsequent freedom to participate in political and social life; remove all security forces from The Region; abolish the village guard system; make genuine efforts to return displaced villagers; and, at the same time, initiate the gradual disarmament of The Region with increasing full legal participation in society. A timetable for the last must be jointly established.

These are the only reasonable steps that must be taken to solve the Kurdish issue, which is a political issue and has been so for over 80 years within Turkey. In spite of American and Turkish cooperation to impose a military solution, the problem remains a political one. As such, no military solution is possible. Military solutions never have been possible.

By the way, there's a good article about Kurdish agriculture at Soma Digest:

However, as the years went by farmers could have progressed into a modern system to produce not only wheat and barley but sugar, soybean, cotton, sunflower, potatoes as well as others. But they were not encouraged and were displaced and treated very inhumanly. This barbaric process did not take long for it to have its heavy toll on every aspect of agricultural products.

Though, nowadays roads, bridges and communications are much easier and advanced, but regrettably in view of the past events of our country, many of the original countryside inhabitants have not returned to their farming and agricultural activities. This has resulted in drastic lessening of their agricultural and farming products and leaving behind all those sources of water supply and fertile land insufficiently utilized. This has resulted in importing all our requirements of animal products, poultry, eggs, groceries, household items, clothes, and fuels from abroad – which in turn has caused continuous harm and loss to our economy, thereby draining our hard-currency and increasing unemployment, particularly among the youth. It has also turned us from a producer nation to a consumer one.

Everyone agrees that for Kurdistan to feel viable and self-sufficient, it needs to revive its effective capacity for producing a safe and sufficient food supply that is grown in an environmentally responsible fashion, which is essential for its inhabitants, if not even able to export its surplus.

There's even a reference to Kurdish animal husbandry and the importance of the job of shepherd among Kurds, an aspect of the Kurdish economy that has been especially decimated by the Ankara regime. Call me a gundî but unless there is an effort to reestablish the importance of Kurdish agriculture and severely reduce dependence on foreign food imports, Kurdistan will always be at the mercy of the enemies. Let globalization go to hell; localization in this matter is a way of guaranteeing Kurdistan's internal strength.

Onnik Krikorian at OneWorldMultimedia has a post on Yezidis in Georgia. Unfortunately, there are no photos--Come on, Onnik, you do the best photos--but he does have a link to an article on Yezidis that he wrote for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, which you can read here. He mentions something of the Yezidis' PKK relationship in Armenia, as well as referencing a PKK şehîd from the Yezidi community in Armenia. Although they are not Onnik's photos, you can still view some great photos of Armenia's Yezidi community here.

Some of you are familiar with the efforts that we've made in trying to get the Joseph Ralston/Lockheed Martin/PKK conflict of interest in the media for the last few months, and an article at Working for Change has something that might shed some light on the difficulties with the American media--the most overhyped and underreported stories of 2006.

Among the most hyped are the Democratic mid-term election win, the Dubai Port scandal, the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, nonexistent "terrorists", and the Iraq Study Group.

Among the most underreported are the anonymous (i.e. false flag) bombing of the Samarra mosque, selective underreporting about what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear nightmare that is Pakistan/India, and more strife in Israel/Palestine/Lebanon. On the US homefront, among the most underreported stories are the grassroots victory for net neutrality against the fascists who run the US Congress, US advocacy of torture and related excising of the right of habeas corpus, and domestic spying sans warrant. Also noted is the fact that the War on Terror® as marketing strategy for corrupt government and corporations:

Much of the so-called "Global War on Terror" is all about power and profiteering: Neocons wanted an empire abroad and expanded state power at home, sure. But wherever the U.S. military has gone in the last five years, which pretty much resembles a map of Planet Earth, privatization and lucrative contracts for well-connected companies have followed. Much of the logic of this so-called war is economic and intended to benefit only a very, very select few.

I think the author needs to know about Ralston. If you think so, send him an email (included in the article) because he's asking for suggestions for more overhyped and underreported stories.

Since the EU and the US are not going to change the status quo regarding the Kurdish people, it's time for Kurds to look elsewhere for other alliances that would give a better return on investment. It's time to look East, to China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Stay tuned. More on that later.

BACKFIRE

"The Kurdish bombers and planners in Turkey, meanwhile, were part of Turkish Hezbollah (even if they have re-branded themselves) and are also Islamic fundamentalists. These terrorists, amazingly enough, are widely believed to have been financed by the Turkish government itself until about 1999 -- a strategy that seems akin to extinguishing a fire with gasoline."
~ Ximena Ortiz.

In January of the year 2000, in Istanbul, there was a shoot out between Turkish police and Turkish Hezbollah. The event was broadcast live on Turkish TV and when it was finished, the head of Turkish Hezbollah, Huseyin Velioglu, was dead and two of his associates captured. In the end, prosecutors were able to charge and try members of Turkish Hezbollah for the murders of 156 people. Videotapes recording the torture Turkish Hezbollah had carried out on its victims were among the evidence obtained from the house by the Ankara regime. The contents of those videotapes have never been revealed. Why?

Turkish Hezbollah emerged from The Southeast sometime in the mid-1980s, at the same time that Turgut Ozal, among others, and the pashas were creating the Turkish-Islamic synthesis. In the early 1990s, one branch of the group, the Ilim branch, the one that Huseyin Velioglu eventually came to head, decided to take revenge against the PKK for having killed one of Turkish Hezbollah's leaders. The state encouraged this because it was a cheap way to fight PKK and the Ankara regime couldn't pass up the irony of Kurd killing Kurd. It also allowed the regime to keep more Mehmetciks out of harms' way. After all, the life of each one is worth the entire world.

The Ilim branch probably decided to engage in a little bit of false flag operations by killing off the main leaders of the other branch of Turkish Hezbollah, the Menzil branch. Turkish security forces (notably Ozel Timler and Ozel Hareket Timler) specialized in false flag operations as part of the psyops, or black ops, that were taught to them by NATO, particularly the US. More than likely, Turkish security forces taught Turkish Hezbollah whatever it needed to know. In 1996, the Ilim branch of Turkish Hezbollah effectively put an end to the milder, Menzil branch. The assassinations of the Menzil leadership also cleared the way for the more radical version of Turkish Hezbollah, the Ilim branch, to run amock, with the assistance of Turkish state security forces.

A report by the UNHCR seems to verify rumors that, although Iran had some influence in helping to establish Turkish Hezbollah in conjunction with the Ankara regime, it pulled out of the venture early on because Turkish Hezbollah was too violent, too extreme for the mullahs. According to information from the UNHCR, the Ilim branch "had an ideological aversion to Iran, which adhered to Shia Islam; the Ilim group was striving for a Sunni Islam state," which is in accordance with Ankara's Turkish-Islamic synthesis. This would make fellow travelers of Turkish Hezbollah and Turkish security forces, especially Ozel Timler and Ozel Hareket Timler, whose members are recruited from the extremist Gray Wolves. Everyone will remember that it was a Gray Wolf who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul 2.

But the videotapes from the house in Istanbul . . . why were they never released? Are they still in existence? Probably not. Writing the month after Velioglu was fired up by Ozel Hareket Timler, Kani Xulam described the best reason for the regime's turning against Turkish Hezbollah and need to conceal the videotapes:

At Beykoz, in Istanbul, he [Velioglu] could have been easily tricked out of his house and arrested to account for his crimes. But the police chose to kill him and in so doing wanted to protect certain circles in the government.

But enough has surfaced about him to ascertain that he was a Kurd in name only. He allowed himself to be used by the Turkish government against his people's rising struggle for political rights and self-determination. With Kurdish rebels' declaration of peace, he became a burden and liability. He was killed because he knew the dirty laundry of too many. Some careers might have come to an abrupt end with his admissions. A few can now rest and die as statesmen worthy of Machiavelli's "Prince".

Deep State strikes again.

More recently, after the Istanbul bombings in 2003, Charles Radin, writing for the Boston Globe, describes Turkish Hezbollah as backfiring on the Ankara regime in the same way that al-Qaeda has backfired on the US:

When the Kurdish rebellion wound down in 1999, Hezbollah's usefulness to the security forces ended and the state moved -- by most accounts unsuccessfully -- to wipe it out.

Police who in 2000 raided two houses in Konya rented by Hezbollah members found dozens of bodies -- including the tortured and burned corpse of Konca Kuris, 39, a mother of five who was a leading Muslim feminist. The body count nationwide was in the hundreds.

The authorities' failure to destroy Hezbollah became clear the following year, when Hezbollah militants killed the police chief of Diyarbakir, a major southeastern city, and five other officers. This led to further suppression efforts in 2002, the failure of which was demonstrated by the Hezbollah connections of at least two of the four recent Istanbul suicide bombers and a recent, unconfirmed operation in Konya.

[ . . . ]

Further, said Ozlem Tur Kavli, a professor of international relations at Middle East Technical University who specializes in studies of Islamist groups, there are growing questions since the Istanbul bombings about the commitment of the ruling party -- which itself has Islamist roots -- to pursuing Islamic militants.

"Hezbollah is big in Bingol, in Batman" -- cities to which the recent suicide bombers had direct ties -- "but the government has turned a blind eye," Kavli said.

She noted that top government officials have stopped using terms associating Islamic militants with terror since a recent speech by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he said that "the expression `Islamic terror' offends me."

Officials now speak of "religionist terror" and refer far less often to Hezbollah connections to the bombings than they did in the days immediately following the blasts, domestic and foreign analysts note. Also, three leading anti-Hezbollah police commanders recently were transferred to cities with no known militant activities. The government said the transfers were part of a routine rotation that involved a total of 28 top police officials.

Writing in 2004, after the simultaneous Ansar al-Islam bombings in Hewler against the PUK and KDP, Ximena Ortiz makes a wise observation:

Although the past alliance between Turkish Hezbollah and the Turkish government has been widely documented, many news reports failed to point out this important dynamic, which demonstrates how explosive Kurdish issues have been in the region.

A Nov. 27 article in The New York Times points out that the bombers had "strong connections to Turkish Hezbollah," but fails to mention the connection of that group to the Turkish government.

Yes, it's widely known that Turkish Hezbollah is an arm of the Turkish Deep State. And you should bear that in mind that when you read that "authorities" say Turkish Hezbollah is issuing terror threats.

Deep State is getting ready to strike again.

MID-WEEK KURDISH NEWS ROUNDUP

“One should rather die than be betrayed. There is no deceit in death. It delivers precisely what it has promised. Betrayal, though ... betrayal is the willful slaughter of hope.”
~ Steven Deitz.

Lemme see . . . I meant to point something out the other day but forgot to do so. Hiwacan at Hiwakan has a post about a new Gulen hospital in Hewlêr. That's Gulen as in Fethullah Gulen, Hodjaefendi, as in the Turkish Islamist who's living fat, dumb, and happy here in the US. The pashas were looking for this guy so why is the US protecting him? I thought the US was allergic to Islamists? They probably think they can control Turkish-Islam, just like the pashas thought they could control Turkish-Islam, but as long as the main targets of Turkish-Islamists are Kurds, what the hell?

I have to agree with Hiwa. Why does KRG allow Gulen hospitals and Gulen schools (the most poisonous of all) to soil Kurdistan with their presence? The KRG is certainly aware of Fethullahci political leanings and their inherent racism against Kurds, so why does it permit the Gulen Gang to run South Kurdistan, unless it is preparing South Kurdistan to become the next Turkish colony. These Fethullahci vermin should be driven from the land. . . with extreme prejudice. Let them come to America and set up schools and hospitals and convert the Americans to Turkish-Islam. I mean, I would pay to see that.

In other news, the US has suddenly discovered that Moqtada al-Sadr is more dangerous than al-Qaeda in Iraq. No, really?

Fatih Tas, two editors of Aram Publishers, and one translator for the same, have been acquitted of "insulting Turkishness" for translating and publishing Noam Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent. It appears that Fatih Tas and more Aram Publishers' translators are still charged with the translation and publication of John Tirman's Spoils of War, a far more dangerous work because it specifically discusses US arms sales to Turkey and the use of those arms against the Kurdish population under Turkish occupation. For more on that, and other problems that translators face in the Turkish "Model of Democracy," see an item from Bianet, carried courtesy of the hevals at KurdishInfo.

The US Department of Agriculture has banned AWB from participating in American government programs and from contracting with the American government, from ABC News. AWB was involved with kickbacks to Saddam under the UN Oil-For-Food scam. Rastî readers will remember that the former US Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, his infamous The Cohen Group, and their partners, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, were involved with the AWB cover-up in Washington, so the question to ask is when will the US government investigate the slimeballs from TCG and DLA PRGC?

Don't hold your breath on that because, after all, American agriculture also benefited from business with Saddam. American denial of chemical weapons usage against Kurds was a direct result of American rice and wheat growers pressure on Congress to keep business ties with Iraq well-oiled. It takes a big fool to imagine that Kurds will get justice from the US.

Speaking of which, a statement by Masrour Barzanî in the Washington Post, carried on KurdishMedia has created a few waves in the blogosphere. Masrour even indirectly mentions the American friendly fire incident in 2003 which killed a number of pêşmerge and left Wajee Barzanî permanently and severely incapacitated. This is the first mention I've seen of that incident in public by the Barzanîs. In August, I posted the BBC video of that friendly fire incident, which you can see here.

Guess what? It must be pretty freaken' serious when one senior Barzanî mentions an incident carried out by Americans which left another senior Barzanî a vegetable. And what kind of gratitude does the US show for these kinds of Kurdish sacrifices? The ISG. If nothing else, the Başûrî should see clearly, at this point, that the Americans can never be trusted.

On the other hand . . . come on, Kak Masrour, don't be so insensitive, man. You know it's a tragedy only if Americans are blown up. And don't go around beggin, man. You sound like a Turk.

One right-wing blogger refers to Masrour's statement as commenting on the "lack of credibility of the ISG" and says that Masrour is correct in being suspicous of the ISG. It doesn't read that way to me; I hear Masrour commenting on the lack of American credibility and his suspicions of the US.

There is also a reference made there to the fact that, in complete opposition to the will of 98% of the Kurdish population of Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan, the Southern Kurdish leadership caved in to the demands of the US so that Kurds could be given what? The ISG. It's clear that in disregarding the will of the Southern Kurdish people, the US has no interest in bringing democracy to the region. The ISG merely adds weight to the fact.

Naturally any alleged American concern for Turkish invasion of South Kurdistan, and "setting up yet another genocide," is another smelly red herring. The Americans purposely ignored the attempted genocides of the past and continue to ignore the ongoing genocide in North Kurdistan, one in which the Americans have been directly complicit. The Americans have ignored the atrocities committed against Kurds under Syrian- and Iranian-occupation. The current American desperation which will lead to "dialog" with both Syria and Iran will include a continued disregard of the severe repression of Kurds by the Syrian and Iranian regimes.

The conclusion of this blogger is just as absurd as the rest of the post:

We need new directions in Iraq, but reverse shouldn't be one of them. We have responsibilities to the people who believed in us and in our mission, and a second betrayal in two decades would devastate our ability to win allies anywhere in the world. It could also convince the Kurds to act pre-emptively in their own defense by declaring their independence, which could touch off a war with the Turks. An American withdrawal without establishing Iraq's sovereignty and internal security will result in death and destruction on a far greater scale than anything we have seen from Iraq to this point, on top of the exposure of American will as non-existent.

Do you see it? The Americans continue to oppose the will of the people of South Kurdistan--independence. Why? Because it will start a war with the US-backed Turkish regime. Funny that there's no mention here of how the US stood by while its client state, Turkey, bombed South Kurdistan numerous times during Operation Northern Watch, and these bombings resulted in the deaths of innocent Kurdish civilians and the destruction of their villages. But this is connected to the genocide red herring. The real issue for those Americans who oppose the ISG is that implementation of the ISG will make the US look bad. It will create a credibility issue. It will expose "American will as non-existent."

Image isn't everything; it's the only thing.

More of the same can be read here. Pay attention to the last paragraph. Another is here.

How many times have I said it? No more cooperation.

In the meantime, Talabanî rescinded permission for a demonstration against the ISG report in Silêmanî. 2006 should go down in Kurdish history as the year in which the PUK worked like demons to repress free expression rights of Kurds.

ANONYMOUS "EXPERTS" AND THE PKK

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state."
~ Noam Chomsky.

The Economist came out with a couple of articles about Kurds last week. Of particular interest are the many mistakes in the one about the PKK gerîlas.

Maybe the anonymous "experts" at The Economist are just too lazy to do their homework or maybe it serves the interests of their readers to spread joint Turkish-American propaganda. How else could anyone take seriously the statement that "attempts to find the culprits" of the Semdinli bombing "have come to nought"? The culprits were apprehended by the local population moments after the bombing and the contents of the vehicle the state's bombers used were seized (said vehicle, by the way, having been registered to JIT). Everyone, except the anonymous "experts" at The Economist, knows that the Semdinli bombing was a Deep State false flag operation, but to really discuss the incident would lead in directions inimical to joint TC/US/EU interests. Such a discussion would, in fact, lead to a discussion of the Deep State.

A more striking indication of the propagandistic nature of The Economist's article is a reference to Turkish families "who have lost family members to PKK bullets since the rebellion started in 1984." This is a variation of the Shit-Just-Happens line, the one which says that "40,000 people died in the war in the Southeast," yes, the same one that always fails to mention that those 40,000--a questionable, "official" figure--were Kurds murdered by the US-backed Turkish army. Propaganda such as this never brings up the TC's long-standing, never-changing policy of genocide against the Kurdish people, a policy that has been in effect since the founding of the Turkish state in 1923.

"Experts" never mention the quarter of a million Kurds exterminated by the Ankara regime between 1925 and 1928. They never mention the Resettlement Law of the 1930s which made ethnic cleansing the official state policy. They never mention the wholesale slaughter of Kurds well into 1930 after Xoybûn's resistance. They never mention Article 1 of Law No. 1850 which permitted an open hunting season on Kurds from June to December, 1930. They never mention the slaughter of Dersim. Just so, these "experts" never mention the atrocities perpetrated by the Ankara regime in the wake of the US-backed 1980 coup, nor the destruction of Kurdish villages in the 1990s, with accompanying forced displacement of Kurdish civilians (i.e. ethnic cleansing), nor the impunity enjoyed by Turkish security forces as they raped, tortured and murdered the Kurdish population under the occupation of the second-largest NATO army. Nor is there a mention of Erdogan's statement during the Amed Serhildan that every Kurd, including women and children, would be fair game for security forces.

Obviously, the Geneva Conventions do not apply to the subhuman Kurds under the brutality of Turkish occupation.

The anonymous "experts" at The Economist attempt to dismiss PKK as "not prospering," while only one sentence previously admitting that PKK "could easily add to the 5,000-plus guerrillas it has." Apparently, "success" is measured by the "experts" as being able to move gerîlas between the Western-created colonial borders that divide Kurdistan. This measure of "success" is a red herring; if PKK gerîlas cannot move where they choose, why are Turkey and Iran, with US support, cooperating with each other against gerîlas operating in both Turkish- and Iranian-occupied Kurdistan? Why does the Ankara regime continually cry to Washington and Baghdad that PKK is operating out of "Northern Iraq," which by implication means that gerîlas are able to freely cross borders?

It is also a red herring to say that Karayilan "laments" that Syria and Iran are transferring PKK "militants" to the Ankara regime, or that PKK can no longer "successfully manipulate rivalries between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria." It is the enemy states that have manipulated rivalries among Kurds and have handed over Kurds to each other for two decades under the pretext that they are PKK "militants." It suffices to be a Kurd in order to be considered a PKK "militant."

More dismissal of PKK is attempted through the sudden revelation by The Economist's "experts" that PKK "has dropped its demand for an independent country," yet that demand was dropped years ago. Along with this revelation comes another: PKK only wants a few cultural freedoms, the end of solitary confinement for Serok Apo, and an amnesty. The "experts" failed to notice the six steps proposed for a political solution by the PKK at the end of August, 2006. The "experts" failed to notice that such steps are in conformity with EU accession criteria, and they contain more than simply asking for a few cultural rights. On the other hand, the "experts" believe that "[t]hree months have elapsed since" Karayilan announced a ceasefire. Check the calendar: October 1 was not three months ago.

Our "experts" don't even know who wanted this ceasefire, suggesting that perhaps "it may have been Iraq's Kurdish leaders who persuaded the PKK to announce a ceasefire." Wrong. After an extremely successful summer campaign that resulted in a regular arrival of body bags to the doorsteps of Turkish homes, after Turks began to criticize and challenge Erdogan openly about the war in The Southeast; in other words, after ordinary Turks had learned to cry in vain, did the US and its client state run to the Başûrî leadership to intercede with PKK for a ceasefire. It was the US, Turkey, and Hewlêr that begged for relief from the "[g]uerrillas without a proper war."

As for claims that PKK "will unravel, as it nearly did in 2003, before defectors were assassinated or silenced," there is no mention of the fact that the CIA visited Qendil several times in 2003, prior to any alleged unravelling. Neither is there any mention of the fact that "defectors" were assassinated or silenced by JITEM operating in South Kurdistan. The murder of Kani Yilmaz in Silêmanî could not have been accomplished without the knowledge of the PUK, and in spite of PWD's claims to the contrary, the hard evidence of that murder has never been made available. Such is always the case.

Certainly no one can secure the mountains of Kurdistan as the PKK has. The US will not even attempt it, because then it will not be engaged in an easy "proper" war. The "Iraqi" Kurds will not want to become bogged down in the mountains fighting against PKK with their Turkish partners, as they have in the past; they have more pressing concerns at the moment including securing the border with Arab Iraq and the issue of Kerkuk. If the situation in Kerkuk comes to a head, the Başûrî may need the help of experienced fighters such as the PKK gerîlas, and PKK maintains a standing offer of assistance to the Başûrî with regard to Kerkuk.

That leaves the Turks and Iranians to come to the mountains to die in a "proper war," just as they were doing before the Ankara regime begged for a ceasefire . . . and no amount of propaganda from The Economist's "experts" can hide that reality.

BANNED FOR HAVING A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

"I had no steady income to support my research, so I wrote newspaper articles about the Kurds, as I also had information about issues other than my research topic. This worked in my favour, as it made many Kurds trust me [ . . . ] they trusted my sincerity after reading newspaper articles in which I presented them from another perspective than seeing them as terrorists."
~ Kristiina Koivunen.

I'd like to thank Anonymous for leaving me a little note yesterday about a Finnish sociologist who had been arrested in Wan by the Ankara regime.

The sociologist is Kristiina Koivunen. A few years ago she wrote her thesis which was titled The Invisible War in North Kurdistan. You can read it here. Slightly short of 300 pages, her thesis goes into detail about health care (or lack thereof) in North Kurdistan during the Dirty War, but she also gives much background information, touching on the history of the Northern Kurds, the ethnocide (cultural genocide) of Kurds, the use of GAP to destroy Kurds, and the militarization of North Kurdistan. That last item covers the "State of Emergency," army, police, paramilitary groups, and pacification methods used against the Kurdish people.

From that you can get a pretty good idea of why someone like Kristiina Koivunen would be arrested by the Turkish state. On the bright side, although Dr. Koivunen was deported, she is safe and sound. There's a small article on her deportation at NewsRoom Finland and another by AFP over at KurdistanObserver, but you'll find a more detailed one at Helsingin Sanomat:

Dr. Kristiina Koivunen an expert on the Kurdish question, and an outspoken advocate of the Kurdish cause was arrested on Friday in the southeastern part of Turkey. She was flown back to Finland on Sunday.

The apparent reason for the arrest and deportation was that Koivunen had violated a ban on her entering the country.

According to the Finnish Ambassador to Turkey, Maria Serenius, Koivunen was stopped at the airport of the city of Van, as she was about to board a plane there.

Ambassador Serenius did not know why Koivunen had been denied entry into Turkey.

Read her thesis, Ms. Ambassador, and the reason for her banning will become obvious.

Koivunen says that she was banned from entering Turkey in August, for reasons of state security. "This is a very severe action, and in my opinion, it reflects a worsening of the situation in Turkey", Koivunen commented.

She is correct. In mid-April, Jonathan Sugden, a veteran researcher for Human Rights Watch, was detained and then deported from North Kurdistan by Ankara. Sugden had monitored the situation for some 20 years in North Kurdistan. At the time, I wondered if this was the beginning of another regional information blackout, a tactic that fascist states use in order to hide their crimes.

Kristiina Koivunen, who wrote her doctoral thesis on the health situation of Kurds, has been outspokenly critical of Turkey’s treatment of its Kurdish minority in several magazine articles and in two books. She has travelled regularly to Turkey’s Kurdish areas since 1997.

The Finnish News Agency STT reported that Koivunen had travelled to Turkey in November without any problems.

She said on Sunday that she plans to find out if she has the right to appeal the ban order. She also says that recently-passed tougher anti-terrorism legislation is reflected in the overall atmosphere in Turkey, which she says has become more conservative than before.

"A power struggle is underway, between supporters and opponents of EU membership, and the opponents are in a stronger position now."

Koivunen said that the Turkish officials behaved in an appropriate manner toward her. She would have liked to have stayed in Istanbul to clarify the situation, but she was not given any possibility to do so.

As she sees it, Turkish legislation is still far from being compatible with that of the EU.

Exactly. Nothing has changed and cosmetics don't count.

I'd love to hear Dr. Koivunen's comments on the bird flu outbreak in the Wan area last January.

The Southern Kurds are still hot about the ISG recommendations and you can check out the latest series of opinion articles on that at KurdishMedia.

And, before I forget to mention it, Abdullah Ocalan's prison writings will be coming out in English. Publication date will be 28 March and you can preorder at Amazon.com. Thanks to the hevals at KurdishInfo for posting that information on their homepage.

In fact, while you're browsing around at Amazon, you might want to consider picking up a copy of Nadire Mater's Voices from the Front: Turkish Soldiers on the War with the Kurdish Guerrillas.

I mean, it's winter, right? If you can't fight, you might as well read.

A SPECTRE HAUNTING KURDISTAN

“Terrorism doesn't just blow up buildings; it blasts every other issue off the political map. The spectre of terrorism - real and exaggerated - has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.”
~ Naomi Klein.

Well, well, well . . . South Kurdistan's reaction to the ISG's Baker-Hamiltion report does not look good for the Americans. The Kurdish Globe reports that implementation of the ISG report on Kerkuk would spark Kurdish secession and war:

Ghafur Makhmuri, a member of the Kurdish regional parliament, told "The Kurdish Globe" on December 12 that if the recommendations by the Iraq Study Group concerning the fate of Kirkuk are implemented, then the Kurds might be forced to secede from Iraq.

"The part of the report that calls for postponing the implementation of the constitutional Article [140] on Kirkuk will lead to an explosive situation in the country," Makhmuri said.

Secession by the Kurds would present a disastrous scenario that could ignite a regional conflict. Iraq's fragmentation would greatly increase the likelihood of Turkish military intervention, not only to prevent its own Kurdish population from seceding, but also to protect northern Iraq's Turkoman population, who are ethnic Turks.

More bluntly, the president of the Kurdish regional government, Mas'ud Barzani, warned that if Article 140 was ever deferred, then the region would plunge into war, Kurdistan Satellite Television reported on December 9.

"If there ever would be serious strife, it would happen then. If there ever would be a bloody war, an organized and a determined war, it would only take place then, and only then would it [the situation] become dangerous," Barzani said.

From reports earlier in the week, we know that both Masûd Barzanî and Celal Talabanî reject the ISG report, however, what has not been more widely carried in Western media, has been the reaction of ordinary Kurds in South Kurdistan. Their reactions have not been favorable. An opinion piece in the Kurdish Globe put it this way:

Politic [sic] is nothing but the struggle of interests. Political forces are there for nothing but to safeguard their group, class, national, and etc, interests. It is delicate times for the Kurdish political establishment to protect the Kurdish national interests in such muddy waters. The Kurdish leadership and the Kurdish nation must make sure that both the US and the regional powers understand that should the tide go against Kurdish interests then the Kurds have as much will as the Sunnis to turn Iraq and the region into a chaos. No one should expect submissiveness from the Kurds anymore.

Finally, someone says something sensible. But there should be no mistake; this statement is in reference to the Başûrî. As for the Bakûrî, the old, "submissive" Kurd died in the North in 1978. The new Kurd in the North was born on 15 August, 1984. We need to see the same death and rebirth in the South, but the question is: Will we?

Another check of which direction the wind is blowing, from KurdishMedia:

Although the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report has had a marginal impact on southern and central Iraq, it has created a public outrage in the Kurdistan region. Since disclosure of the report’s findings three days ago, the streets, teahouses, markets, television, and radio stations have not ceased their criticisms. Demonstrations are being conducted and petitions signed against the report, referred to as another American sell-out of the Kurds. Some are calling for less compromise and more muscle in dealing with their unappreciative ally. The Kurdish president Massoud Barzani revealed this hostility in a regional news conference, criticizing the ISG for not having visited the Kurdistan region and assuring that the Kurds would have no part in Iraq if the ISG recommendations were implemented.

Another report on KurdishMedia shows the reaction against the ISG report in Silêmanî:

It is believed that the ISG violated all the rights of Kurdish people in southern Kurdistan and created uncertain environment among Kurds, which may not help the security and the stability of the region. Most Kurds see the report as the Bush administration's pre-plan to demolish the political entity of Kurdistan Regional Government and returning Iraq to a dictatorial rule similar to that of Saddam Hussein. Others believe that this is the view of the Bush administration but they want to break the news to Kurds in this fashion via a report by a partisan group such as ISG. In other words, they just wanted to know the Kurdish reaction to such drastic plan. Other Kurds blame the Kurdish leadership's immaturity of handling their relationship with superpowers and acting as puppets. Others believe that the Kurdish leadership’s depth in corruption world [sic] not allow them to pursue the Kurdish interests internally and externally.

More on the Kurdish street's reaction at Tiare's Notebook.

All of this is enough to make one wonder what was said and what deals were made, if any, during a recent telephone call between Bush and the Başûrî leaders, as reported by AFP. Call me skeptical.

In a report by Asia Times, carried on Kurdish Globe, the KRG representative to the EU, Saywan Barzanî, speaks on the American lack of respect for the Iraqi constitution, particularly with regard to implementation of Article 140 and the issue of federalism. The KRG also refuses reconciliation with the Ba'athi and dialog with either Iran or Syria. Note the following:

The Baker report calls for a stronger central government, especially in the management of oil resources. Kurds instead want regional control in each province.

The American desire for a "stronger central government," and Kurdish suspicions that a return to rule-by-dictator is approaching on the horizon puts this article by Jonah Goldberg in an interesting light, from the LATimes:

I THINK ALL intelligent, patriotic and informed people can agree: It would be great if the U.S. could find an Iraqi Augusto Pinochet. In fact, an Iraqi Pinochet would be even better than an Iraqi Castro.

Both propositions strike me as so self-evident as to require no explanation. But as I have discovered in recent days, many otherwise rational people can't think straight when the names Fidel Castro and Augusto Pinochet come up.

Let's put aside, at least for a moment, the question of which man was (or is) "worse." Suffice it to say, both have more blood on their hands than a decent conscience should be able to bear. Still, if all you want to do is keep score, then Castro almost surely has many more bodies on his rap sheet. The Cuba Archive estimates that Castro is responsible for the deaths of at least 9,240 people, though the real number could be many times that, particularly if you include the estimate of nearly 77,000 men, women and children who have died trying to flee the "socialist paradise."

First of all, be aware that Jonah Goldberg is a former staffer from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which is anti-Kurd to its very core. Notice the regret expressed for Ahmed Chalabi not living up to Pinochet's standards, thus devastating the hopes of his American handlers. Chalabi was AEI's pet. Just ask Chalabi's old friend, Michael Ledeen.

Secondly, as with all the creatures affiliated with AEI, Goldberg avoids a regional comparison for Iraq. If he had actually used a regional comparison, he could have noted the millions of Kurds murdered by the Ankara regime over the course of almost a century of repression. He could have noted the tens of thousands murdered by the Ankara regime during the Dirty War alone. He could have noted the millions of Kurds ethnically cleansed from their villages throughout the heart of Kurdistan--the majority region of Kurdistan, that of Kurdistan Bakur. On the other hand, it simply would not do to risk opening the ugly can of worms that the US has backed in Turkey, it's own client state and a great model of so-called democracy and secularism in the Middle East.

Thirdly, this AEI creature also fails to mention that Saddam Hussein was also backed by the US, and that the US conveniently looked the other way when Saddam was busy slaughtering Kurds . . . or anyone else, for that matter. Goldberg, therefore, has absolutely no business criticizing "moral myopia."

Over and above the extreme hypocrisy and vile cynicism regarding the lives of Kurds and other Middle Easterners which the Goldberg article represents, we should wonder whether this article also represents the first motion toward a compromise between the neocons and the Kissingerians. The use of extremely centralized governments ruled by US-installed "stongmen" is another pattern used by the US to maintain its own interests throughout the world. In order to maintain control over Kurdish and Iraqi oil resources--which is what the ISG report is all about--will the search be on for a suitable candidate for the US to install over "Iraq" once again?

At this point, I see no candidates for the job of new Iraqi dictator, but that does not mean his spectre is not approaching somewhere on the horizon.