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US Intelligence Operation:

America's goal is to create sectarian violence across Iraq

1924.Org, 5 March 2004
www.globalresearch.ca   13 March 2004

The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/POL403A.html


Who is behind the attacks on Karbala and Baghdad?

Washington  has "announced her intentions in advance by fabricating lies that Al-Qaeda was intending to carry out the bombings against various groups in Iraq".

On Tuesday 2nd of March, western leaders in unison with Arab leaders condemned the attacks against the Shias in Karbala and Baghdad. In their condemnation some of them suggested that the attacks were carried out by Al-Qaeda aimed at creating rifts between the Shia and Sunni populations to divert Iraq on the path of sectarian violence as opposed to democracy. White House spokesman, Scott McClellan said, "We condemn these brutal terrorist attacks in the strongest terms." He further added: "There are enemies of freedom in Iraq who seek to undermine a peaceful and democratic future for the Iraqi people. They will fail. Democracy is taking root and it cannot be turned back..". Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said that the attacks appeared designed to "set the different religious communities in Iraq against each other, to destroy the progress in Iraq, and cause the maximum amount of dissent, division and hatred.". His foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said that it was "no coincidence" that the blasts came on a Shiite religious holiday and came just one day after the Iraqi Governing Council had completed difficult negotiations for an interim constitution for Iraq.

Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, said that he condemned "unreservedly these heinous acts of violence, and the criminals who have turned the holy day of Ashoura into a nightmare and a bloodbath." Arab leaders said they feared the bombings were meant to sow discord between Iraqi Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said a "prime suspect" in the attacks was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian in Iraq who American officials say is planning spectacular attacks on Shiites aimed at sparking a Sunni-Shiite civil war and derailing plans to hand over power to the Iraqis on 30 June. Earlier in January the US intelligence claimed to have found a computer disc which contained a letter written by him to his superiors in Al-Qaeda abroad. In the letter it is alleged that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said concerning the Shias of Iraq.

"(They are) the insurmountable obstacle, the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy and the penetrating venom...The unhurried observer and the inquiring onlooker will realize that Shi'ism is the looming danger and the true challenge. They are the enemy. Beware of them. Fight them."

But the letter also goes beyond any doctrinal differences. It lays out a military strategy in which four enemies are identified - Americans, Kurds, Iraqi security forces and the Shias. Of the latter, the letter says: "These in our opinion are the key to change. I mean that targeting and hitting them in (their) religious, political and military depth will provoke them to show the Sunnis their rabies...and bare the teeth of the hidden rancor working in their breasts." On 3 March, America publicly confirmed Al-Qaeda's involvement in the bombing.

General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, told a US congressional committee: "We have intelligence that ties Zarqawi to this attack." Despite these claims the US did not publish any evidence to support this view. However the American allegations were contradicted by Al-Qaeda. The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper received a letter on the 3rd of March by e-mail, purporting to come from Al-Qaeda Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades. He said, "The American troops have carried out a massacre to kill innocent Shia in Karbala, their infidel city, and in Baghdad," the letter read. "We say to the Muslims that we are innocent of this act."

Furthermore, there were more flaws in America's version of events. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt of the US occupation forces said 15 people had been arrested in connection with the attacks. He said five were Farsi-speakers, which would appear to mean they were Iranians. This assertion undermines the accusations against Al- Qaeda. The overwhelming majority of Iranians are Shia - and there are believed to be no Shia in Al- Qaeda. It would be surprising if a Shia were involved in the attacks, a desecration of the Shia's most holy festival and shrines. Also Brigadier General Kimmitt said that earlier reports that a fourth suicide bomber whose explosive belt failed to go off had been caught in Baghdad were untrue. US forces said that it now appeared that the attacks in Karbala included explosives brought into the city on hand-drawn wooden carts used to carry supplies and old and crippled worshippers, as well as one suicide bomber and possibly some mortar attacks.

Likewise both the Sunni and Shia leaders of Iraq have found it difficult to believe that Al-Qeada were behind the bombings. They blamed the American's for the bombing and also accused them of attempting to ignite sectarian hatred. Sheikh Moayad Naimi, a Sunni cleric said, "We are facing critical hours and days ... so open your eyes against the plots of America and Israel to sow dissension."

"If the two sides fight it's the Americans who benefit to find an excuse to stay in Iraq," said Sheikh Raed al-Kazemi, a Shia cleric. In a funeral sermon for those buried in Karbala yesterday. Ayatollah Hadi al-Muddaresi, a senior Shia cleric, said: "Those who did this want a civil war in Iraq, but we will not be drawn into it." As he spoke, supporters of the radical cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, shouted him down: "We want our revenge against Saddam the infidel and against America," they screamed. In Beirut, Sheik Hamed Khafaf, a spokesman for Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini, blamed American soldiers, saying they ignored repeated requests to bolster security for the pilgrims.

From all of this it appears that America's goal is to create sectarian violence across Iraq. America announced her intentions in advance by fabricating lies that Al-Qaeda was intending to carry out the bombings against various groups in Iraq. In the past she has fabricated similar lies to justify her attack on Iraq. Most notably the well publicised link between Iraq, Al-Qaeda and September 11, which later President Bush admitted to be untrue and the presence of WMD, which Bush continues to blame on the CIA. Now she plans to extricate herself from Iraq and believes that by igniting sectarian violence she regain control. It is an open secret that she has recruited former members of Baath regime to help her police Iraq. Most likely she is using the same people who sowed seeds of hatred under Saddam to execute her plan. This she hopes will subvert the Iraqi resistance, stem the demands from the Shias for direct elections, delay calls for an independent Kurdish State and help her withdraw from Iraq by allowing the UN to supervise the transition. It should be noted that the American withdrawal scheduled for 30 June is misleading. What she intends to do is to disguise her direct occupation through a pro-American government in Iraq that has more legitimacy than the Iraqi governing council that has none. However, she will still keep a considerable number of troops and bases in Iraq to conduct operation against other Muslim countries.

 


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