The recent conference of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) opened with an
announcement that Cuba would become a signatory to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The last three hold-outs
in the world are Israel, India, and Pakistan. The Arab
states, led by Iraq, have proposed that Israel should sign
on as part of a framework for peace in the Middle East,
but the Israelis want to hold on to their weapons of mass
destruction. As Ha'aretzreports:
"Gideon Frank,
director-general of the Atomic Energy Commission in the Prime Minister's
Office, told the International Atomic Energy Agency's 46th
General Conference in Vienna yesterday that Israel opposes Iraq's proposal
to the conference agenda that it discuss 'Israeli Nuclear Capabilities and
Threat.' Frank said that 'many dangerous proliferation developments in our
region and in other regions have occurred in recent years, none of which
involve Israel. On the contrary: Israel has neither threatened any of its
neighbors nor has it acted in defiance of international commitments.' He
added that the Iraqi proposal for the agenda lacks 'factual justification'
and that 'there is no need to single out Israel.'"
A better question is: why
not single out Israel, a country that we know has nukes and the will
to use them instead of Iraq, which doesn't have fissionable material or
the technology to create and deliver a nuclear warhead?
Remember the case of Pat Roush
and her two daughters, supposedly "kidnapped" by their Saudi father and
held "incommunicado" in the desert Kingdom? The Wall Street Journal
tried to create an international incident out of what was basically a
family feud, and even Congress got involved, with
grandstanding lawmakers passing resolutions and
neoconservative polemicists denouncing "Arabists" and "appeasers" in the
State Department.
The neocons turned Ms. Roush
and her daughters into the Saudi-phobic equivalent of Mumia abu Jamal and
Sacco and Vanzetti all rolled into one: here was a perfect example of
Saudi perfidy and medievalism. Rod Dreher
screeched in National Review:
"Congress should order
State to deny visas to any Saudi government official until and unless
Aisha and Alia al-Gheshayan, and indeed all American citizens held
illegally in Saudi Arabia, are allowed to return home."
The State Department, however,
understandably did not think that a child custody squabble ought to have
been elevated into a casus belli and rightly so. As it turned
out, Ms. Roush's daughters can't stand the sight of her and want to stay
with their father in Saudi Arabia. Associated Press
reports:
"'I don't want the United
States or any contact with my mother,' the 23-year-old Alia al-Gheshayan
said. 'I want her to leave us alone,' said her 19-year-old sister, Aisha
al-Gheshayan. 'We will not rest until she dies.'"
That should be clear enough,
even for Rod Dreher.
Speaking of National Review,
you'll remember that it was the editor of that once-interesting
periodical,
Rich Lowry, who put forward the essence of the
neoconservative foreign policy stance by suggesting that we "nuke Mecca." Now it appears that, while not
specifically targeting the Saudi holy city, the Bushies have been warming
to the idea that we had better damn well nuke something, because
well, just because we can. A recent report in the [UK] Daily
Mirrorreveals a secret Pentagon "hit list" of seven nations
that could conceivably feel Uncle Sam's nuclearized ire: China, Russia,
Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria and Libya. Among the conditions that could
trigger such unspeakable horror: a generalized Arab-Israeli conflict, or
an attack by Iraq on Israel or another neighbor.
Okay, let's see if I get this
straight: the U.S. is preparing to go to war with Iraq because Saddam
might, in the future, develop "weapons of mass destruction" and therefore
threaten the peace of the Middle East. But the U.S. is itself prepared to
use weapons of mass destruction if the Arabs and Israelis should come to
blows no matter who starts it or if nuclear-armed Israel is attacked.
Perhaps those UN arms inspectors, instead of picking over the ruins of
Iraqi military installations, should be demanding access to American
nuclear weapons sites.
A statue of
Felix Dzerzhinsky that once adorned the front of KGB
headquarters in Moscow was put in storage after the Great Revolution of
1989, but in a sign of the times
it is being brought back, albeit not without protests
from horrified Russian liberals and human rights activists. Dzerzhinsky,
the first head of the Soviet secret police, was responsible for the deaths
of tens of millions but no matter, says Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Lauding the bronze monument of 14 tons as "a flawless work of art,"
Luzhkov avers that old "Iron Felix," as they call him, "must be given
credit for taking care of homeless children and helping rebuild the
national economy."
Announcements
In
the late 1970s, I worked in the National Office of Students for a
Libertarian Society (SLS), a national libertarian youth organization
founded by the progenitors of the Cato Institute, and funded by
billionaire Charles Koch. We had a million-dollar annual budget, a staff
of half a dozen, and a lot of enthusiasm. For a while we had some success,
building chapters on campuses from coast to coast and putting out a
plethora of publications, including Liberty, a monthly newspaper,
SLS Action, an internal bulletin, and a variety of pamphlets (my
In Praise of Outlaws: Rebuilding Gay Liberation,
is today a collector's item, noted for its artsy
picture of burning police cars on the cover.) Unfortunately, SLS fell prey
to the vagaries of libertarian factionalism, the opportunism of its
National Director, and the fickleness of its chief funders: it was torn
asunder in the factional warfare that plagued the libertarian movement of
the mid-80s, and soon fell apart. A great problem for SLS was that, among
other things, the era of the Carter years was not exactly conducive to
building a campus movement: the sense of complacency was too great, and
the Left was still ensconced as the dominant activist force. Today,
however, the situation is quite different, and it looks like SLS will be
reborn under far more favorable circumstances.
Now, more than ever, the
nation's campuses are ready for a national libertarian youth movement
and the indefatigable Mike Ewens, of Washington University, in St, Louis,
Missouri, has gathered an organizing committee that is even now planning
to revive SLS at a national convention to be tentatively held on the
weekend of March 7th- 10th.
Check out the SLS
website it's good and getting better by the day. And it's only been
up there for a week!
I will be speaking at
Washington University on October 9, on "Iraq First Stop on America's
Road to Empire."
Write Mike for more info.
An article, written by me,
"Larry Ellison and the Mark of the Beast," will be published in the
November 2002 issue of Chronicles.
More
Good News
I have
reached an agreement with Verso Books to publish my latest tome, The
Terror Enigma: Unsolved Mysteries of 9/11, that is going to blow the
lid off of the Israeli "art student" spy scandal. The book this one
is going to be very controversial is more than half finished.
I'll be sure to keep you posted on further developments, so stay tuned
.
Mr. Justin Raimondo
is the editorial director of Antiwar.com
Source:
by courtesy & © 2002 Justin
Raimondo & Antiwar.com
by the same author:
