Criminal State

On May 18, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu assured President Obama that Iran posed a greater threat to peace in the Middle East than Israel’s six-decade occupation of Palestine. Three days later, headlines reported a “Jihad plot” to bomb synagogues in New York. Despite the repetitive pattern of such well-timed threats, few dare suggest a common pro-Israeli motive.

Criminal State readers will recall that on June 2, 2007, global headlines reported a “JFK Bomb Plot” featuring a “suspected Muslim terrorist cell.” According to U.S. Attorney Rosalyn Mauskopf, daughter of a Holocaust survivor, that threat was “one of the most chilling plots imaginable” that would “cause greater destruction than the Sept. 11 attacks.”

Suspects in that “homegrown terrorist plot” against New York’s JFK airport were motivated by “hatred toward the West” by those “eager to bring death to Jews.” The four suspects, closely monitored by an FBI informant, never obtained any explosives. Only one lived in the U.S.

May 21, 2009 saw a similar headline-grabbing arrest featuring the requisite “suspected Muslim terrorist cell.” According to assistant U.S. attorney Eric Snyder, “It’s hard to envision a more chilling plot” involving a “homegrown terrorist plot” motivated by “hatred of the West and Jews.” A FBI informant provided four suspects with inert explosives and a deactivated missile.

Both plots involved an informant whose role in provoking and facilitating the plot remains unclear. In the “JFK Bomb Plot,” the ringleader was a former baggage handler who had retired from his job. Airport security had since been significantly tightened and his knowledge of airport operations was severely outdated. Two other suspects were arrested in Trinidad.

In the “New York Synagogue Bomb Plot,” an informant began appearing at a mosque in 2007. He quickly aroused the iman’s suspicions with talk of violence and jihad. Claiming links to a Pakistani terror organization, he offered substantial funds to at least one of four arrested “jihadists.” None of the “Muslim men” were active in the mosque. All four were down-and-out ex-convicts. The first media interview featured a Holocaust survivor.

When it became clear that the “JFK Bomb Plot” was baseless, media coverage was minimal. We can only wait to see how this latest plot plays out. The four “Muslim jihadists” face a life sentence if convicted as charged with conspiracy to deploy (inert) weapons of mass destruction.

This latest chilling plot emerged during the same news cycle as Netanyahu’s latest ploy to shift the focus off Israel and shine it instead on Iran and the threat to the Jewish state of “Islamo” fascism. Writing for The Nation, Robert Dreyfuss accused a “government agent-provocateur” working to “reinforce the very fear that Dick Cheney is trying to stir up” by strengthening “the narrative that the ‘homeland’ is under attack. It’s not.”

Nowhere was there even a hint in mainstream media that only Israel and its supporters have the means, motive, opportunity and stable nation state intelligence to mount such false flag operations—with impunity—inside the U.S. As the repetitiveness of such well-timed operations becomes apparent, their common source is becoming transparent. To accuse a “government” agent-provocateur misses the mark.

Whether liberal or conservative, pro-Israeli analysts are consistent in creating doubt about the ability of America’s leaders to protect the nation. So long as U.S. foreign policy is filtered through pro-Israeli interests, lawmakers will continue to encourage well-timed “plots” that associate U.S. national security with the security of Israel.

As the “global war on terrorism” loses its appeal, domestic extremism is being marketed as the threat. A recent report by the Department of Homeland Security sought to link returning Iraq War vets to extremism. Forced to backpedal on veterans as a source of homegrown terrorism, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano found her job in jeopardy. Less than 48 hours later, she announced the swine flu pandemic as the latest threat.

The greater the transparency, the greater the need for a plausible plot that features national security at risk from Muslim jihadists and domestic extremists. As “Islamo” fascism loses its allure and “jihadist” terrorism loses its credibility, a form of homegrown fascism is becoming transparent.
Modern-day fascism succeeds by displacing facts with what the public can be induced to believe. Thus the key role of complicit media—whether the deceit is Iraqi WMD, phony ties to Al Qaeda or a “Muslim jihadist” attack on New York synagogues. Facts are irrelevant. When waging war by way of deception, plausible associations are the goal.

To restore national security requires a reappraisal of the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship.” So long as this entangled alliance remains intact, the real terrorists will have every incentive to continue such opinion-shaping operations. And U.S. foreign policy will continue to be shaped by those skilled at provoking the U.S. to deploy its military in pursuit of Israeli goals.

Criminal State, Distorted Media, Politics Benjamin Netanyahu, Department of Homeland Security, Dick Cheney, entangled alliance, Eric Snyder, fascism, global war on terrorism, homegrown terrorist, Iraqi WMD, Islamo fascism, Janet Napolitano, JFK Bomb Plot, Jihad plot, Muslim jihadist, Rosalyn Mauskopf, special relationship, Synagogue Bomb Plot

April 21, 2009 – an article in today’s New York Times implicates Congresswoman Jane Harman and Zionist media mogul Haim Saban in treason. Reporting on a Jeff Stein article in Congressional Quarterly, the Times notes that Saban offered in 2005 to withhold campaign contributions to Nancy Pelosi, an aspirant for House Speaker, unless Pelosi would help Harman become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

The quid pro quo? Harman agreed to intervene in an espionage case in which two executives for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were indicted for transferring to the Israeli embassy classified Defense Department intelligence on Iran with the help of a Pentagon analyst (already convicted) who worked for Bush-era war-planners Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith. AIPAC is the most visible component of a transnational network known as the Israel lobby.

The articles report that the National Security Agency “inadvertently” monitored Harman’s phone call with Saban. Harman’s concluding comment in their discussion concedes her apparent criminal intent: “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/politics/21harman.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

The reported facts suggest not only political corruption but also outright treason. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declined to pursue Harman, allegedly because the Bush Administration needed her support for a domestic eavesdropping initiative. If the facts are correct, the criminality is clear, including treason proposed by Saban and advanced by Harman with Saban’s help.

There may be more at work here. Why did Jeff Stein report this four-year old story NOW? Why did the New York Times consider this account newsworthy NOW?

With the oft-delayed AIPAC spy trial soon to begin, President Obama is being lobbied to dismiss the case by the same network of pro-Israelis that funded his career, influence his schedule and inform his political priorities. Why release top-secret memos revealing CIA torture techniques NOW? Why report them NOW in New York Times Review of Books?

While Stein reported the Harman-Saban treason in Congressional Quarterly, Obama visited the CIA. Why would Obama claim NOW that the release of top-secret torture memos may not result in liabilities for CIA employees? What “associative” strategy is at work here? What’s the intended correspondence? For those adept at waging war by way of deception, what is the strategic goal?

The best defense is a good offense. The timing suggests that pressure is being applied to the intelligence agencies and the FBI to support dismissal of an espionage case that implicates the Israel lobby. A Federal District Court gave clearance for the former AIPAC executives to subpoena in their defense testimony from senior national security personnel.

The Harman/Saban/AIPAC affair increased the perception that even more sensitive intelligence may yet be exposed if this spy case proceeds. The cumulative impact signals “the mark” that a dismissal may be preferred if the case: (a) exposes “sources and methods” that could damage national security, (b) hampers relationships with foreign intelligence services, and (c) creates potential liabilities—such as for those who “inadvertently” monitored Harman’s phones.

The “mark” is the Office of the President. The commander-in-chief must be persuaded that dismissal of an espionage case is in the interest of the United States. Those pro-Israelis around Obama may be assuring him that, with dismissal, right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can be persuaded to support a two-state solution, enabling Obama to be perceived as the president who brought peace to the Middle East.

Jeff Stein is also the reporter who claimed that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was “getting tough” with Netanyahu. The son of an Irgun terrorist who twice volunteered to serve in the Israel Defense Forces, Emanuel and chief White House strategist David Axelrod could lose their jobs if, as expected, this case confirms espionage by pro-Israelis collaborating with Iraq war planners Wolfowitz and Feith in an alliance with Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff.

The timing requires that one also question the purpose of last week’s announcement by Homeland Security that our Iraq war veterans are a threat to national security due to their susceptibility to right-wing extremism. Why was this report, a product of the Bush administration, released NOW?

If, as anticipated, the spy case were to result in convictions for two senior officials of the Israel lobby, will veterans have a court-confirmed reason for their concerns about just which nation’s interests were served by their fighting in this war? If veterans resort to their Second Amendment rights to express their grievances, would that make them extremists or patriots?

Is what we now see unfolding another case of misdirection by those masterful at waging war by way of deception? Is the Harman/Saban duplicity obscuring a more systemic treason imbedded in the U.S.-Israeli relationship?

Is another president being deceived to make decisions not in the national interest but in the interest of those who helped make him president? If the case is dismissed against spies working for the Israel lobby, will that decision show how treason can proceed in plain sight and, to date, with impunity?

Criminal State, Politics, Washington Politics aipac, Alberto Gonzales, Benjamin Netanyahu, David Axelrod, Dick Cheney, Douglas Feith, eavesdropping, espionage, Haim Saban, Homeland Security, House Intelligence Committee, irgun, Israel lobby, Jane Harman, Janet Napolitano, Jeff Stein, Lewis Libby, Nancy Pelosi, National Security Agency, Paul Wolfowitz, Rahm Emanuel, Second Amendment, treason, U.S.-Israeli relationship