Antiwar.com Blog

What’s this about opponents of the PATRIOT Act being “Anti-American“?

Liberty-leaching PATRIOT actors claim that the Sept. 11 attacks succeeded because US spies and secret police were hamstrung by excessive caution and concern for civil liberties. How then to explain, for just one example, the antics of the FBI’s Phoenix, Arizona office? The Justice Dept is investigating charges that Arizona FBI agents incautiously used informants and terror suspects to benefit private businesses the agents were running on the side. It gets even more incautious (and weirder):

“[Former FBI asset Harry] Ellen, a Muslim convert, testified he was taking a trip to the Gaza Strip to bring doctors to the region in summer 1998 when [Arizona FBI agent Kenneth] Williams [of flight schools warning fame] asked him to provide money to a Hamas figure. Williams wanted ‘the transfer of American funds to some of the terrorist groups for violent purposes,’ Ellen testified to the immigration court in a closed June 2001 session. …”

“Ellen testified that Williams told him he hoped the transfer would lead to more money exchanges through terror groups but Ellen refused to earmark money for terrorism. He testified he later learned another FBI operative had offered Hamas and Palestinian figures larger amounts for terrorist attacks.”

(“FBI sent money to Hamas,” Associated Press)

And (surprise, surprise), even back in the pre-PATRIOT days it was FBI policy record suspects without their permission and without a warrant:

“Arizona businessman Harry Ellen testified he permitted the FBI to bug his home, car and office, allowed his Muslim foundation’s activities in the Gaza Strip to be monitored by agents, arranged a peace meeting between major Palestinian activists and gained personal access to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat during more than four years of cooperation with the FBI. … Ellen, stepson of an Air Force intelligence officer, had worked for U.S. intelligence since the 1970s as an ‘asset,’ a private citizen paid to provide information or conduct specific tasks. … The court testimony shows Ellen allowed his home, office and car in Arizona to be bugged so the FBI could listen, without a warrant, to visiting Palestinians or Americans if they discussed illegal activity. The FBI said it commonly uses such recordings. ‘Consensual monitoring does not require a warrant. In cases where the FBI conducts consensual monitoring, the one party is aware he is being recorded,’ it said. …”

(And what are we to make of this surprising quote, from the New York Times’ article, “F.B.I. Agents Are Examined for Tactics With Hamas“?: “We probably have a million people in Israel who provide us with intelligence on the Israelis but we can probably count on two hands the number of people we have in Palestine who can provide us with intelligence about the Palestinians.”)

The same day as The Real Izetbegovic, Izetbegovic’s former colleague in the Bosnian Presidium, Nenad Kecmanovic. published his obituary of the not-so-dearly departed Bosnian Muslim leader in the Serbian weekly NIN. The full article, availabe in Serbian on NIN’s subscriber site, reveals much about Izetbegovic and his organization, both good and bad. Politically, hovewer, Kecmanovic cannot forgive him:
“His skill in parlor politics that kept him on top for over a decade was inversely proportional to his catastrophic political judgments.”
“One can only say that he destroyed every possibility that the former Yugoslav heartland, through a consensus of three equal peoples and democratic agreement of its citizens, could eventually become a sovereign state.” Continue reading “More about Izetbegovic”

Professional bore Peter Beinart of The New Republic gets his tutu in a knot over Dennis Kucinich setting the Democratic agenda on the war.

(I read about this over at Andrew Sullivan’s site. Thanks, Andy!)

– Fewer than 15% of Iraqis view US forces as liberators.

– Bush: Iraq Part of ‘Global Democratic Revolution‘

– A Canadian who the CIA sent to Syria says he was tortured.

Of two articles on comely French dropper-of-libertarian-names Sabine Herold, which is from libertarian Reason, and which is from warmongering National Review?

A. Approvingly notes Herold’s pro-war, pro-Bush sympathies

B. Praises Herold’s politics, but makes no mention of her pro-war, pro-Bush sympathies

Check your answers by clicking:
A
B

Here’s an idea I tossed off to a reader earlier today: a Dennis Kucinich/Ron Paul ticket for 2004.

Now that you’ve picked yourself off the floor and quit guffawing, think about it. The plan is inspired by the Reagan/Ford “co-presidency” floated at the 1980 Republican convention, but it’s much weirder. The campaign would focus on common ground–opposition to war, occupation, the neocon agenda– with both candidates pledging to pursue separate programs where they diverge once elected. Let Congress sort it out.

This would push foreign policy to the foreground in ’04. And if Kucinich/Paul could get a slate of like-minded candidates in congressional races, even better. The coalition could pick up disaffected voters all over the spectrum, with definite potential for the best 3rd party showing since ’92.

Encouraging note: upon Googling the idea to see if I came up with it, another mention appeared.