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Old November 28th, 2005 #1
lawrence dennis
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Default New Raimondo column: 'Scooter's Motive: We're Getting Closer to the Truth'

at http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8164

excerpt:
Quote:
... Cheney's office, it is quite true, is permeated through and through with officials formerly associated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a think tank set up by AIPAC. As Middle East scholar Juan Cole points out: "WINEP wields enormous influence, to the point where it almost functions as a governmental entity." Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher once remarked, according to Cole, that "the State Department owes WINEP a finder's fee for providing it with key personnel," and this is doubly true these days when it comes to the Office of the Vice President. John Hannah, former WINEP director, is Cheney's chief Middle East expert (although he doesn't speak Arabic, and, like so many neocons, his area of expertise is really Sovietology).

David Wurmser, another WINEP alumni, also figures prominently in Cheney's national security team. Wurmser has the added distinction of being a co-author, along with Douglas Feith (former deputy secretary of defense for policy), and Richard Perle, and others, of a now-famous policy paper, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for the Realm," written in 1996 for Israel's then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The theme of the paper was that Israel had been backed into a corner and needed to break out of its isolation by going on the offensive and changing the strategic balance of the region. With the ultimate goal of destroying Syria and moving back into Lebanon, the authors of "A Clean Break" averred that the road to Damascus had to go through Baghdad. This paper, as Joe Wilson pointed out in a talk (transcript here) given before the publication of his Times op-ed piece, underscored the real source of the administration's war fever:
"The real agenda in all of this of course, was to redraw the political map of the Middle East. Now that is code, whether you like it or not, but it is code for putting into place the strategy memorandum that was done by Richard Perle and his study group in the mid-90's which was called, 'A Clean Break: A New Strategy for the Realm.' And what it is – cut to the quick – is if you take out some of these countries, some of these governments that are antagonistic to Israel then you provide the Israeli government with greater wherewithal to impose its terms and conditions upon the Palestinian people – whatever those terms and conditions might be. In other words, the road to peace in the Middle East goes through Baghdad and Damascus. Maybe Tehran. And maybe Cairo and maybe Tripoli if these guys actually have their way. Rather than going through Jerusalem."
In the question period, Wilson opined that if Americans wake up some day and realize that their soldiers are "dying for Israel," the backlash would undermine our long-standing strategic relationship with Tel Aviv....
Perhaps another title for this column might be: 'I'm getting closer to telling the truth'
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