ISRAEL LOBBY MAY BE SOURCE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
by Wayne Madsen
OpEdNews, PA
/articles/opedne_wayne_ma_071023_israel_lobby_may_ be_.htm
Oct 23 2007
October 22, 2007 — Israel Lobby accused of being behind Armenian
genocide resolution
Experts on U.S.-Turkish relations in Washington report that the
recent deterioration in relations between Washington and Ankara are
primarily due to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
and Turkey’s other erstwhile friends, including the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL), pulling support for their former allies in Turkey because
of increasingly closer Turkish relations with both Syria and Iran —
two countries that are being targeted by the neocon cells operating
in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office and among Kadima and Likud
circles in Jerusalem.
In fact, Turkey, Syria, and Iran are cooperating in battling PKK forces
on their respective territories. Israel’s Mossad has re-established
close links with the Kurds in the region. It appears that Israel
is willing to sacrifice its past close relations with Turkey in its
support for the Kurds and creating tension between the non-Arab powers
in the region — Iran, Turkey, and the Kurds. The election of Turkish
Islamist-oriented Abdullah Gul as President of a secular-oriented
Turkey was a green light for AIPAC, the ADL, and the neocons and
other right-wing networks in Washington to turn up the heat on Ankara.
The subsequent threat by Turkey to deploy troops into northern Iraq
to go after Kurdish guerrillas, some of whom are reportedly backed by
the Mossad and U.S. paramilitary private security forces, was enough
to cause the Israel Lobby to break their historic links to the Turks.
Adding to the anger of the Israel Lobby was the recent natural gas
deal inked between Syria, Iran, and Turkey. Iran will provide Syria
with Iranian gas via Turkish pipelines.
Turkish sources are reporting that the Mossad and CIA are providing
direct support to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish group
outlawed in Turkey and designated a terrorist organization by the
United States.
Tensions along the Turkish-Iraq border grew more inflamed on October
21 after PKK guerrillas killed at least 12 Turkish troops in an attack
carried out on Turkish soil.
In July, Turkish authorities seized automatic weapons of U.S. origin
from captured members of the PKK. After Defense and State Department
investigations of weapons smuggling to the PKK, the Justice Department
began investigating Kenneth W. Cashwell and William Ellsworth "Max"
Grumiaux, two former Blackwater USA employees, for trafficking in
the interstate and foreign commerce of stolen firearms.
Eventually, Cashwell and Grumiaux pleaded guilty to possession of
the stolen firearms and began cooperating with the government in
its investigation of smuggling to the PKK via the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG).
The Charlotte News and Observer reported that the federal probe
involves the possibility that Blackwater smuggled automatic weapons
and other military hardware to Iraq that potentially ended up in the
hands of the KRG and then the PKK.
The Pentagon is investigating the loss of some 190,000 U.S. small arms
in Iraq. Blackwater has denied any role in weapons smuggling in Iraq.
WMR has also learned that some of Blackwater’s top officials maintain
close links to the Israeli military and security communities as well as
to a shadowy network of right-wing Republican weapons manufacturers,
law firms, lobbyists, and arms exporters in the Washington, DC area,
including individuals linked to white supremacist organizations.
Turkey blames Israel for the passage by the House International
Relations Committee of the Armenian genocide resolution. Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan reportedly told Israeli President
Shimon Peres earlier this month that since Israel ultimately controls
Jewish-American organizations like the ADL, Turkey held Israel partly
responsible for the passage of the Armenian genocide resolution largely
thanks to the support of the ADL and AIPAC and one of their biggest
champions on Capitol Hill, House International Relations Committee
Chairman Tom Lantos.
It was only after Turkey’s own sizable lobbying machine in Washington
forced President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — and behind the scenes
George H. W. Bush National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, the head
of the American Turkish Council — to exert pressure on the House,
did leading Democrats succeed in killing the Armenian resolution.
However, that put Cheney and his neocon cabal on the defensive. They
were more than willing to sacrifice U.S. relations with Turkey to bring
about a "final solution" for the Iranians, Syrians, Palestinians,
Turks, or anyone else that stood in the way of the ultimate aims of
the neocons: a Western-Islamic "Clash of Civilizations" and iron-fisted
U.S. control of Middle East energy resources.
It also appears certain that the Israeli attack on a alleged Syrian
nuclear facility, said to have been built with the aid of North Korean
and Iranian specialists, was designed to scuttle back channel attempts
by Turkey to help negotiate a peace agreement between Israel and
Syria. The Israeli Likud Party and its allies in Washington, primarily
in Cheney’s office and at two problematic think tanks in Washington
that act as Likud fronts — the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)
and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) — want no
part of an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement of any form of detente.
On October 21, Cheney launched a verbal barrage against Iran and Syria
at a meeting of WINEP held at suburban Virginia’s exclusive country
club venue, the Landsdowne Conference Center. Cheney’s remarks were
hailed by Clinton Middle East envoy and WINEP director, Dennis Ross,
strongly rumored to be a top contender for a major foreign policy
slot in a Hillary Clinton administration.
The Israeli spin that Israeli military planes attacked the Syrian
facility via Turkish airspace was a not-so-veiled warning to Ankara
that Israel looked with disfavor the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement.
The Israeli attack on the Syrian "facility" is now being spun by
the neocon media, primarily the Jerusalem Post and ABC News, as a
commando raid supported by an Israeli "mole" inside the Syrian nuclear
establishment. Most of the reports from the neocons about a Syrian
"nuclear facility" are no more believable than the reports of Saddam
Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction.