Former CIA agent Philip Giraldi has been making waves for a while. In 2005, he blew the whistle on clandestine schemes to set up Iran for an attack, revealing:
“a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States… [including] a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons… not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States.”
Philip Giraldi
Giraldi also went public with claims that two crucial pieces of evidence that had been used to mount a case for attacking Iraq in 2003 – the Niger Yellowcake document and the Habbush letter – were forgeries.
On May 19th 2009 antiwar.com published an article by Giraldi that neatly takes apart claims that people opposed to the Israel Lobby are unreasonably obsessed with the troubles of one small part of the world.
The whole of Picking on AIPAC? is well worth reading. Here are a few extracts (emphasis added):
Republicans and Democrats seek to outdo each other when it comes to praising and defending Israel, particularly during election years. The mainstream media likewise marches in lockstep, burying stories critical of Israel within a day or two after they first appear. Even in the blogosphere, Israel has many friends, at least some of whom are Israel Defense Forces soldiers fluent in English tasked with presenting a rebuttal whenever a critic surfaces. Israel has no shortage of allies, but most would agree that its principal supporter in the United States is the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC.
AIPAC is generally regarded as one of the three most powerful lobbies in Washington. Unlike most other major lobbies, which engage on a variety of issues, AIPAC has only one objective: strengthening American support for the state of Israel through creation of a “special relationship” between the two countries. AIPAC’s support is uncritical, no matter what Israel does and no matter what the impact on the U.S. might be. Because Congress and the White House are fearful of confronting AIPAC, it enjoys a unique status. Even though it acts as a foreign lobby, it has not been required to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Not having to register is significant, as it means that AIPAC’s sources of income and its disbursements are not a matter of public record….
Web sites like Antiwar.com that frequently criticize AIPAC’s disproportionate influence over U.S. foreign policy are sometimes attacked for “singling out” Israel and holding it to a higher standard than other regimes with shaky human rights records. This complaint fails to take into account Israel’s unrivaled ability to shape U.S. policies through AIPAC, something that despotic regimes in places like Zimbabwe and Myanmar cannot do. Because of AIPAC’s power, much criticism of Israel might more accurately be viewed as part of the debate on a proper global role for the United States.
The word's out...
There are three major reasons why critics of the Israel lobby must continue their fight to expose AIPAC and its activities. First is the fact that Israel’s lobby is the real party of war in the United States. The Iraq war, which continues to bedevil the U.S., would likely not have taken place without the advocacy of Israel’s government and its friends in high places. The enabling role of Israel in the march to war is not just an isolated or crank opinion. It is a view shared by Gen. Anthony Zinni, Rep. Jim Moran, former senator Ernest Hollings, and former executive director of the 9/11 commission Philip Zelikow, among many others. If critics of the Israel lobby do not keep the heat on by exposing the role of AIPAC and the Israeli government, there will almost certainly be a war with Iran. The AIPAC-supported Iran Diplomatic Enhancement Act of 2009 (HR 1905) making its way through Congress authorizes cutting off imports of refined petroleum products to Iran, an act of war. Meanwhile in Israel the most right-wing government in the country’s history is committed to no compromise with the Palestinian majority that it rules over, and it regularly threatens Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and AIPAC want the United States to attack Iran, and Congress has been more than willing to support the effort. Only an informed public aware of how AIPAC and Congress work together on behalf of Israel can stop the march to war.
The second reason to criticize AIPAC is its completely false argument that U.S. and Israeli foreign and security policies should be essentially the same. This argument has been pushed by AIPAC and the various pro-Israel think-tanks with a flood of “position papers” produced by the Lobby. The United States under George Bush completely bought into Israeli policies regarding terrorism and the Middle East, with AIPAC frequently drafting the bills coming out of Congress supporting Israel and attacking countries such as Iran. Most recently, a May 12 bipartisan draft letter by House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Republican Rep. Eric Cantor emphasizing that Washington must be “a devoted friend to Israel” was determined to have been drafted by AIPAC.
AIPAC can make sure that only its friends become powerful in Washington. The independent-minded Chas Freeman was derailed as head of the National Intelligence Council because he was critical of Israel. Freeman knows, as does anyone who has studied the issue, that the U.S. is a target of terrorism largely because of the Israeli-crafted slant in foreign policy and uncritical support of Israel in world forums. Israel is in fact the source of the two most pernicious national security doctrines of the past eight years: the global war on terror and democracy promotion. Washington’s “all terrorists are the same” security paradigm, which conveniently consigns national-liberation groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to the same category as al-Qaeda, was crafted in Tel Aviv. Israel’s enemies thereby become America’s enemies, even when they are not. The U.S. adoption of made-in-Israel counterterrorism policies also guarantees that the war against so-called Islamofascism will go on forever….
The third reason to oppose AIPAC is the corruption of the U.S. political system by the Lobby’s money and power, resulting in a bought-and-paid-for Congress and a rule of law for everyone except those guilty of crimes on behalf of Israel…
Not even registered as a foreign lobby!
While some might argue that critics of AIPAC have gone too far, it is equally possible to argue that they have not gone far enough. It is time for the American people to demand that AIPAC be registered as a foreign lobby and cease and desist from its interference in U.S. politics. Neither America nor Israel is well served by having a United States Congress, White House, and media so cowed by AIPAC that they will endorse anything the corrupt politicians in Tel Aviv choose to do. It is time for Washington to return to a foreign policy based on the United States’ national interest, not Israel’s.
