Suppose you read that the editor of a major American newspaper group -itself a division one of the largest corporations in the USA – had recently published a book suggesting there’s compelling evidence that 9-11 was an inside job co-ordinated by Mossad and the CIA with the assistance of sympathetic elements within the USA.

You might think that rather surprising.

Suppose you also read that a prominent member of the Democratic National Committee had launched the book and – far from backing down – was pursuing the issue vigorously with a series of strong follow up statements and responses to attacks from political opponents.

Unless you’re a hardened cynic or simply haven’t been paying attention, you really should find that mind-blowing.

Of course, it’s not true…

Yet something like that has been happening in India over the last six weeks. Needless to say, the western mainstream media haven’t really bothered to relay this mind-blowing story to predominantly pink-skinned nongs who rely on them for news.

Aziz Burney at his booklaunch; not on the beach over Christmas

Here in Australia, most of our so-called journalists, commentators and pundits have been on happy holidays, typically lazing on a beach, while all this drama – with such obvious relevance to our own life and times – been going on in India.

But then again, even if the Commentariat caught it on their IPads, why should they bother to report the story? They all already ‘know’ that an extremist Pakistani organisation of fanatical Muslims ‘did’ Mumbai in late November 2008 – just like fanatical Muslims ‘did’ 9-11, the 7/7 London Bombings…. and all the rest of the ‘terror’ that keeps erupting.

That’s the tale they’ve told the populace, again and again and again. And they’re sticking to it! They keep on repeating the mantra of the ‘War on Terror’, with the key memes of fanatical Muslim extremists trying to hold the world to ransom through terror and fear. Such a shame we plebs must fork out squillions of dollars (more each year) to fight those scary radical Islamists. We must fight them without respite, with more and more sophicated and expensive gear, like the unpteenth sequel of Star Wars, everywhere and forever… Amen!

Or must we? Perhaps not?

This is what is going on in India as best I can tell from south of the equator. Up there the mainstream folk – some of them at least – have taken the famous Apple slogan to heart, or so it seems. They think different. They’re not too scared to say so. It’s a joy to behold!

Aziz Burney is group editor of Rashtriya Sahara (Urdu) – part of the Sahara Group which was founded by the remarkable Bengali Subrata Roy Sahara who describes himself as ‘Managing Worker and Chairman’ and has built one of India’s largest businesses from a starting capital of less than $100. But I digress…

Mr Burney published a book in early December 2010 entitled RSS ka shadyantra, 26/11. (26/11 is the numeric descriptor used in India to describe the horror in Mumbai which actually lasted three days. I guess it’s catchy like 9/11 and 7/7. Branding of 21st century ‘terror products’ is consistent, if nothing else)

Digvijay Singh at the booklaunch; a 'Secular Lion' who puts most western politicians to shame

Aziz Burney’s book is a collection of essays by several contributors. Remarkably, its general findings have been endorsed by Digvijay Singh, who attended the launch. Between 1993 and 2003 Mr Singh was Chief Minister of the populous State of Madhya Pradesh (answerable at the time to a somewhat larger electorate than the British Prime Minister). At present he’s a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee – a member of the management committee of the party currently in government at Federal level. In short, Singh is one of the most prominent politicians in India today.

Digvijay Singh has run with the story of Burney’s unothodox take on the Mumbai bombings since the book launch, parrying political attacks and releasing newsworthy tid-bits of additional claims and related information to keep up momentum on his side of the debate. Aziz Burney’s book ran to a second edition by early January, updated to cover the controversy that’s arisen from its publication.

The best English-language overview of this amazing tale I’ve come across so far is by Pradeep Kaushal’s. Digvijaya ‘pins’ Mumbai attack on RSS was run in several newspapers on January 4th. Here’s how it begins (emphasis added):

Digvijaya Singh may love stirring the pot, but guess what lies at the centre of the book to which the Congress general secretary has lately lent his weight and voice? That 26/11 was a conspiracy hatched by the RSS, Mossad and CIA.

This is one of the many points that Aziz Burney, group editor of Rashtriya Sahara (Urdu), puts forth in his book, “RSS ka shadayantra, 26/11”. It was at the launch of this book on December 6 that Singh claimed he had talked to Hemant Karkare before he was killed, and that he appeared concerned about threats to his family from saffron activists.

Burney calls Digvijaya a “like-minded person”. “When two like-minded people talk, you can’t say who has influenced whom, but yes, we both benefit from each other,” he says.

Since the December 6 speech, Burney has brought out a fresh edition of his book, incorporating Digvijaya’s remarks and the “expected furore” it generated.

Hemant Karkare: Honest cop and Indian hero. Parallels with John O'Neill?

Who is Hemant Karkare? A well-known figure to Indians, outsiders may recall he was the police chief killed at the outset of the Mumbai atrocities. In fact, Karkare was Chief of the Mumbai Anti-Terrorist Squad. He’d been investigating a series of unsolved terrorist incidents, his integrity was widely-respected – and he would undoubtably have continued leading the response to the Mumbai attacks had he not been fatally shot, along with colleagues in the anti-teror squad, on the morning of November 26th at the beginning of the series of horrifying incidents in Mumbai that persisted for three agonizing days until November 29th.

People familiar with the story of 9-11 may note possible parallels with the case of John O’Neill, an American anti-terrorism expert, who worked as a special agent and eventually Assistant Director in the Federal Bureau of Investigation until late 2001. O’Neill reportedly left the FBI after ‘friction’ with other FBI top brass and the Bush Administration to become the head of security at the World Trade Center, where he reportedly died during the September 11, 2001 attacks. O’Neill had only just started the new job. Like Karkare, he’d been investigating terrorist incidents of key potential relevance to the attack in which he met his death. The story goes he’d been on the trail of Osama Bin Laden and the mysterious ‘Al Qaida’, no less.

Pradeep Kaushal’s article Digvijaya ‘pins’ Mumbai attack on RSS explains some of the theories propounded by essays in Aziz Burney’s book (emphasis added):

“Communal forces under the patronage of foreign agencies want to destroy India. America wants to destroy Pakistan and encircle China. Therefore, it wants India to get into the influence-zone of America and Israel. That is why Americans, British and Israelis [as well as Indians] were targeted. The Nariman House, according to eyewitnesses, was a centre for unknown Israelis. It is possible these people may have been involved in the attacks and may have killed their own people.”

“Was the Israeli Rabbi actually killed in the attack?,” the book asks, seeking to know if anybody had seen a photograph showing him injured. Burney adds the building had a hidden CCTV camera at the entrance. Shopkeepers apparently said they were unaware of the arrival of any strangers at the building. “How could nanny Sandra Samuel save a child? Why was she flown to Israel though she was an important eyewitness to the attack?”

For those who may be surprised by the thesis that Jews were killed with the help of Mossad, the book offers a counter-question: “Why not?” Zionism, it is argued, is known for killing ordinary Jews just as Hindutva is known for killing Mahatma Gandhi.

As for the “US link” to 26/11, the proof is David Headley, “who might have been an agent of al-Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Toiba, but who came to India in his capacity as an American”. “When he was inducted into LeT, he was taken in as an agent of FBI,” the book argues. “Whenever he was released after arrest for drug trafficking, he was let off only when he consented to be used by the FBI.” “The forged passport on which he came to India had been made at the instance or FBI or CIA.

Chaos in the magic city: Fear and Loathing in Mumbai, December 2008

The Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is also discussed in the book as relevant to the real 26/11 conspiracy.

This is the aspect of the alternative narrative has provoked most debate so far in India. That’s understandable, but it may not be what matters most to India. If the other allegations are true. cutting out malign and murderous outside influences is the most crucial task.

RSS is a large organisation in a very big country with a highly controversial history. Supporters love it; opponents hold it in more or less contempt. But whatever one’s view about the role of RSS in Indian history, which is ultimately a matter of opinion, is somewhat besides the point. No one is suggesting the entire organisation was directly complicit in 26/11, but rather that elements within the RSS may have co-opted by the manipulative foreign influences. Likewise, surely it’s inconceivable that Hindu nationalists – except for a criminal fringe – would knowingly collaborate with murderous foreigners to the detriment of fellow Indians?

As always in this new era of the bogus ‘War on Terror’, Muslims served as patsies. But that wasn’t always the case. Perhaps, as the RSS claims, it was not in fact involved in planning the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Father of modern India?

Much political debate in India reflects the understandable defensiveness of the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu nationalist political party with which it has links. The BJP is currently the second largest party in the Indian Parliament. It accuses Digvijay Singh of spreading communal tensions. He denies it.

Digvijay Singh claims he was phoned by Hemant Karkare only hours before the latter’s untimely death. A flavour of the political debate currently underway in India comes through in this extract from Digvijay’s dramatic disclosure about Karkare in the Indian Muslim MilliGazette:

Digvijay Singh, former MP chief minister and Congress General Secretary, made a sensational disclosure that Hemant Karkare, the slain Maharashtra ATS chief, had spoken to him a few hours prior to his mysterious killing and had divulged to him over the telephone that he and his parents were facing threats. The disclosure exploded like a bombshell making not only the Hindu outfits protest and asking for his arrest and resignation but even the widow of the slain officer strongly condemned politicising his martyrdom, while the Congress party seemed baffled by his statement. Unable to decide whether to own up or disown it, the party preferred to distance itself from it by observing that he was speaking in his personal capacity.

There is no denying of the fact that by his approach, Karkare had earned the ire of rightwing outfits. A concerned Karkare had met Maharashtra DGP Julius Robeiro, to convey his problems. However, immediately after 26/11 these very outfits had declared him a patriot and martyr.

BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu

The BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu certainly has attracted the ire of the BJP leadership. India Today reports:

BJP) General Secretary Venkaiah Naidu slammed his Congress counterpart Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday for reiterating the allegation that Hindu organisations had threatened slain Maharashtra cop Hemant Karkare. Naidu said that Singh was trying to ruin the Congress all over the country after his home state Madhya Pradesh.

Naidu refused to believe Singh’s claim that Karkare had told the latter that his life was in danger. “I am in politics since 32 years. At least I know that if a police officer is facing threats he will inform the home minister, chief minister or the prime minister. Why Karkare would have called Digvijaya to say that his life was under threat? Digvijaya has ruined the Congress in MP in his 10 year tenure. Now, he is going to ruin the party all over the country,” Naidu said.

So there we have it. There real debate at the centre of Indian politics over whether that nation’s most famous ‘terrorist event’ of modern times was really orchestrated and carried out by Muslim extremists backed by Pakistan, with links to ‘Al Qaida’ (Islamic Terror Central) – or whether a mix of Zionist criminals, western spooks, local villains and unfortunate Muslim patsies made it happen?

Visnu

It’s parallel to the debate in the west over 9-11 or 7/7 – but in India this is now mainstream political discourse because of the centrality of the protagonists.

What an amazing turn of events – but perhaps it was to be expected? The Indian media may well be less dominated by Zionists than the western media – and more able to do what media mass should do: report accurately and with fairness.

What’s of supreme importance is that the truth is established in this case. It’s really not – or shouldn’t be – a matter of partisan or sectarian advantage. Ultimately, the only people who lose out from establishing the truth are criminals. Whoever they are – their guilt does not tarnish an entire religion, ethnicity or nation.

Murders must be investigated thoroughly; justice must be done and seen to be done. It’s just basic.

In countries such as the USA, Britian and Australia, powerful criminals and compliant liars have been able (just, so far) to keep the lid on the most heinous false-flag operations. 9-11 and 7/7 are the most obvious examples. The result of the criminals getting away with these crimes has been a world falling deeper and faster into misery, division and chaos.

At this crucial time in human history, does the ancient and magnificent civilisation of India have the moral strength and spiritual purpose to lead humanity towards a better way, a way guided by the truth?

Can eastern civilisation help restore the foundation of what’s best in western civilisation: respect for truth?

Can wise men and women from the east succeed where westerners have been floundering?

This is no game, but the stakes are as high as can be imagined.

You can't fool all the people all of the time. For sceptics, solidarity is strength

A complaint often levied against anti-Zionists by defenders of Israel is that we are obsessed with Israel / Palestine.

Tamil refugees: sheltering from the horror of Sri Lanka's civil war

Look at Darfur – the critics say. What about the Congo? How about Sri Lanka? Why do anti-Zionists always carry on about Israel?

At that point, they often opine that anti-Zionists are obsessed with Israel because we have a darker agenda. ‘Excessive’ or ‘disproportionate’ concern for Palestinian human rights is sometimes cited as an indicator of ‘anti-Semitism’. Who likes to be accused of that?

Years ago, I found this line of argument persuasive. But no more. There are a number of reasons why, over time, I’ve grown a thicker integument which provides a measure of protection against this unpleasant accusation. Here’s a couple of them…

Imagine I discovered that the Sri Lankans, Congolese or Sudanese were interfering in the internal affairs of Israel/Palestine – funding one or more of the warring parties, selling them arms and exerting a mischievous, war-mongering influence on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

If the evidence was strong, it might well change my view about the importance of these regional conflicts. I might form the view that resolving conflicts in Sri Lanka, the Congo or Sudan is not just a matter of direct interest to the people in those regions; it would also have much broader significance for other regions in the world.

In addition, if I discovered that the Singhalese (or Congolese, or Sudanese) Lobbies in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, Canberra and Ottawa had a vice-like grip on the foreign policy of those powerful nations, I’d be even more concerned. In that case, these countries would be truly global in significance; resolving conflicts within them would be a crucial global priority.

Yet there’s no evidence of the former – and no evidence of the latter either. None of these conflict-ridden countries – Sri Lanka, the Congo or the Sudan – interferes in far flung parts of the world. None of them has significant clout in the major capital cities of the most heavily armed nations on earth. The conflicts in those regions are tragic and should be resolved, peacefully and promptly. The world must co-operate to help achieve this. But they are symptoms, not causes, of global society off the rails.

The State of Israel, by contrast, imposes its interests on the world in such as a way that resolving The Israel Problem is now indubitably at the centre of global politics. If we want a peaceful world, there must be peace with justice in the Holy Land.  That fractured whole must be re-healed.

The power of the Israel Lobby – in the USA and elsewhere – is now well-known. It’s become a fairly obvious cabal.  Over the last decade, thanks to a relatively small number of courageous scholars and public figures, discussion about ‘The Lobby’ has moved out of the back corridors. It’s even, on occasion, discussed openly in the western media. Hard to completely overlook an elephant in the living room…

Less well-known is the Jewish State’s malevolent interference in other parts of the world – far, far from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Victor Ostrovsky: ex-Mossad agent and whistleblower

In the late 1980s, a disillusioned Mossad operative called Victor Ostrovsky fled Israel to return to his native Canada. He took extraordinary precautions to arrange for publication of his memoirs. Despite some desperate attempts to suppress publication, the wily Ostrovsky defeated them: St Martin’s Press published By Way of Deception, co-authored by Victor Ostrovsky and Canadian journalist Claire Hoy, in 1990. A few years later, Ostrovsky published a sequel: The Other Side of Deception. Both books are compelling reads. The picture they paint – of brutal, cynical and deceptive Israeli spy agencies that contemptuously treat the world as their oyster –  is frightening indeed.

The gruesome war between the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan Government is topical at present. It appears that the Tigers have been finally vanquished, after many decades. The resulting humanitarian crisis is appalling.

Here are a few extracts from By Way of Deception that concern Ostrovsky’s experiences in the 1980s while working as a trainee Mossad agent. They have some relevance to the agony of Sri Lanka today.

I don’t have the book any more, but Peter Meyers has reproduced some of the text on his website, which I’ve used as my source in this instance (emphasis added).

Some Excerpts From ‘By Way of Deception’

by Victor Ostrovsky & Claire Hoy, St Martin’s Press, New York 1990.

{p. 130} Sympathy for the Tamils runs high in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where 40 million Tamils live. Many Sri Lankan Tamils, escaping the bloodshed, have sought refuge there, and the Sri Lankan government has accused Indian officials of arming and training the Tamils. They should be accusing the Mossad.

The Tamils were training at the commando naval base, learning penetration techniques, mining landings, communications, and how to sabotage ships similar to the Devora. There were about 28 men in each group, so it was decided that Yosy should take the Tamils to Haifa that night while I took the Sinhalese to Tel Aviv, thus avoiding any chance encounters.

The real problem started about two weeks into the courses, when both the Tamils and Sinhalese – unknown to each other, of course – were training at Kfar Sirkin. It is a fairly large base, but even so, on one occasion the two groups passed within a few yards of each other while they were out jogging. After their basic training routine at Kfar Sirkin, the Sinhalese were taken to the naval base to be taught essentially how to deal with all the techniques the Israelis had just taught the Tamils. It was pretty hectic. We had to dream up punishments or night training exercises just to keep them busy, so that both groups wouldn’t be in Tel Aviv at the same time. The actions of this one man (Amy) could have jeopardized the political situation in Israel if these groups had met. I’m sure Peres wouldn’t have slept at night if he’d known this was going on. But, of course, he didn’t know.

When the three weeks were just about up and the Sinhalese were preparing to go to Atlit, the top-secret naval commando base, Amy told me he wouldn’t be going with them. The Sayret Matcal would take over their training. This was the top intelligence reconnaissance group, the one that carried out the famous Entebbe raid. (The naval commandos are the equivalent of the American Seals.)

“Look, we have a problem,” said Amy. “We have a group of 27 SWAT team guys from India coming in.”

{p. 131} “My God,” I said “What is this? We’ve got Sinhalese, Tamils, and now Indians. Who’s next?” …

At the same time, I was meeting with a Taiwanese air-force general named Key, the representative of their intelligence community in Israel. He worked out of the Japanese embassy, and he wanted to buy weapons. I was told to show him around, but not to sell to him, since the Taiwanese would replicate in two days anything they bought, and end up competing with Israel on the market.

{p. 221} That was why Israel wanted to have their own to test, but they couldn’t openly buy it from the French. France had an embargo on selling weapons to Israel. A lot of countries still do, because they know that the moment Israel has certain weapons, it will copy them.

{p. 222} And just to show how nondiscriminatory the Mossad is, it trained both sides in the bloody ongoing civil unrest in Sri Lanka: the Tamils and the Sinhalese, as well as the Indians who were sent in to restore order.

Mahatma Ghandi: Pressured by Zionists over two decades, assassinated 1948

The full text of The Jews In Palestine by Mahatma Gandhi, published in the Harijan on26 November 1938, is well worth a read.

Bear in mind that Ghandi came under sustained pressure from the Zionist lobby to make a statement favourable to the Zionist cause. Godfrey Jansen, author of Zionism, Israel, and Asian nationalism (1971), wrote about the failure of Zionist lobbying with Gandhi:

“His opposition [to Zionism] remained consistent over a period of nearly 20 years and remained firm despite skilful and varied applications to him of that combination of pressure and persuasion known as lobbying, of which the Zionists are past masters.”

This is how Ghandi’s statement concludes (emphases added):

“…according to the accepted canons of right and wrong,
nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of
overwhelming odds.

“Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home, including Palestine, not by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called The Jewish Contribution to Civilization by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich the world’s literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew can refuse to be treated as the outcast of the West, to be despised or patronized. He can command the attention and respect of the world by being the chosen creation of God, instead of sinking to the brute who is forsaken by God. They can add to their many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.

A disadvantage of living in what Australians call ‘the bush’ is there are no major libraries nearby. I try to ensure that my references are accurate and authentic, but without access to first class libraries there’s a limit to the checking I can do.

So if anyone ever notices bogus or innaccurate references cited in this website, please do let me know. I have no wish to recycle false information. When appropriate, I’ll correct the record.

Actually, correcting false historical memes is something of a hobby of mine.

With that proviso, here’s a quotation that’s widespread on the web:

David Ben Gurion

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs.

“This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan.

“Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work therefrom against Pakistan.

“It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.

- David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister)
Jewish Chronicle, 9th August 1967

If genuine, Ben Gurion’s shocking remarks provide insight into the mindset of the Israeli leadership a generation ago – and important context for undertstanding the tumultuous history of Pakistan in recent decades.

[UPDATE, March 30th 2009: see Reality Check: Ben Gurion on Pakistan]

In any event, there’s no doubt about the authenticity of John Gunther Dean’s testimony. It’s available via the online Jimmy Carter Library; see Mr Dean’s narratives at his  Oral History Contents Page.

John Gunther Dean

Mr Dean is a US citizen, raised in a Jewish family, who served with distinction as an American diploment over the course of a long career.

He had interesting adventures while in The Lebanon in the late 1970s and early 80s, described in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: American Ambassador Recalls Israeli Assassination Attempt—With U.S. Weapons.

Mr Dean’s final posting was to India, where he was US Ambassador between 1985 and 1988. It was to be a dramatic posting, to say the least. The Indian Prime Minister  at the time was Rajiv Ghandi, with whom Dean was on friendly terms. General Zia was in power in Pakistan. Zia was killed in a plane crash in 1988 under mysterious circumstances, along with the American Ambassador to Pakistan.

Barbara Crossette takes up the story in Who Killed Zia?, published in World Policy Review around the time Dean submitted his papers to the Carter Library (emphases added).

For almost two decades, John Gunther Dean remained silent about what had led him to suspect the Israelis in the Pakistani crash, and about the price he feels he has paid for trying to interest Washington in his suspicions.

But over the last few years, Dean, now 80 years old, has been collecting his papers and his thoughts for public consumption. He has been interviewed extensively for an official oral history, part of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training in Arlington, Virginia. A large collection of his diplomatic documents have been donated to the National Archives and deposited in the Jimmy Carter Library in Atlanta.

He is also seeking to reopen the question of his reputation within the State Department, where he was, in effect, declared mentally incompetent in 1988 on his visit to Washington following the crash. In diplomatic parlance, he lost his medical clearance. His security clearance was also lifted, and he ultimately resigned from the Foreign Service. He was 62.

The State Department produced as evidence that he was not in a fit mental state a letter from the department’s chief medical officer for the South Asian region, Dr. David Koch, who said that Dean appeared in late August 1988 to be “under stress.” Further neurological tests were done on Dean, with his cooperation, when he was in Washington. He also had his own tests done and has marshaled medical opinion to counter the official diagnoses.

A former foreign service officer who worked on the case said that it was Dean’s state of mind and not his suspicions of Israel that were, at least officially, always the key factor in the startling nonreception he received in Washington. Stephen J. Solarz, then a congressman who was a leading figure on Asian affairs on Capitol Hill—and a friend of both Israel and India—said he was given to understand that Dean had suffered a nervous breakdown.

In any case, Dean was ordered not to return to India. He was sent to his country home in Switzerland to “rest” for more than six weeks and then allowed to travel to New Delhi to pack and say his goodbyes. A successor had already been chosen for the Delhi ambassadorship well before Dean’s ill-fated trip to Washington, and he knew that there were plans to replace him, perhaps several months before Zia’s death.

Policy issues were also a factor in the way Dean was treated, other diplomats from that era say. Among some policymakers in the Reagan administration, Dean was thought to be too close to India and its then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and too willing to accept and explain away India’s persistent support for the Najibullah government in Kabul…  India, echoing Moscow, wanted at the very least a coalition in Kabul with a pro-Soviet faction retaining some power in the capital. This was not in the American plan at that point, though there were proponents of a coalition solution in Washington.

Still, this doesn’t quite explain the timing, or the suddenness with which Dean was “drummed out” of the American diplomatic corps—or how quickly his medical clearance was reinstated before he retired formally and irrevocably from the diplomatic service in April 1989. “If I’m wrong,” he said to me recently, “I don’t mind people telling me I’m wrong. But don’t say I’m mentally deranged.”

General Zia-ul-Haq

…in seeking to reopen the case of what happened to General Zia, Dean also wants to remind policymakers and the public of the unanswered questions about the deaths of Pakistan’s president and an American ambassador beloved by his foreign service colleagues, deaths that should not so easily be written off.

Dean is eager to encourage a new look at the events surrounding the crash and more research into the possibility of American-Israeli collusion in effectively sinking the subsequent investigation.

Dean does not say that he believes Israel was totally to blame for the crash of the Pakistani C-130. Rather, he says that there could have also been other familiar hands sharing in the plot: India (whose relations with Israel have improved dramatically since then), the Afghans, perhaps some Pakistanis, or the KGB. It was the sophistication of the suspected plot’s execution that intrigues him, and points him to Israeli planning. If it was an assassination, it was a very neat job.

The only comprehensive American journalistic investigation into the mystery was written by Edward Jay Epstein and published in Vanity Fair in September 1989. (Epstein, who now writes mostly about Hollywood, did not respond to e-mails about whether he had continued to follow the story.) His account does not mention Israel, but does conclude that there was much more to investigate…

In two days of conversations in May in the Deans’ apartment in the fashionable 16th arondissement of Paris, (Dean) spoke of years of accumulated personal annoyances with Israeli diplomats abroad, pro-Israeli members of Congress, and the lobby group AIPAC—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—who seemed to assume that because he was a Jew born in Germany who fled the Nazis with his family in 1939 he would be an automatic supporter of Israeli governments and policies. He was disturbed that a small country like Israel seemed to have so much power in Washington, among both Democrats and Republicans. “I was AIPAC’s Peck’s bad boy,” he said.

Dean is on record as having blamed the Israelis of trying to kill him in Lebanon in 1980, when he was the American ambassador there and had been criticized in the Knesset for being too pro-Palestinian. He was dismayed to discover, with American government help, that the ammunition that struck his convoy of three cars coming down from the hills near Beirut was American, from a batch sold to Israel.

His ambassadorship in India appears to have been fraught from the start. He said that after arriving in New Delhi in 1986, he was frequently lobbied by congressional delegations or the State Department to intercede with the Indians on Israel’s behalf. (For example, to have Israel’s lone, low-level consulate in India, in Bombay, upgraded during a period when India fawned on Yassir Arafat and made life miserable for Israeli diplomats.)

Dean said he was also pressed to speak up in South Asia about Israel’s views on how dangerous General Zia was becoming to the region. Israel seemed intent on demonizing Zia. But did that mean they would be willing to eliminate him? “If you ask me,” Dean said, “do I have 100 percent proof? No. All I know is I had people from Congress coming to me and saying, John, a man of your background, you have to go and help on the Israeli issue. I said, What are you talking about? I’m the American ambassador [in India]. Whatever my religious views are, are between myself and my maker. I resent this. Go and talk to Arnie Raphel (and Arnie Raphel by the way was Jewish, and he got along great with Zia). Why did these Congress people come to me and say, John, you gotta help curb the Pakistani ambitions for a bomb? Why did they come to me to ask the Indians to be more forthcoming with Israel?“

So there we have it!

Ex-US Ambassador Dean suspects Israeli ‘Intelligence’ might murder a Jewish American Ambassador if it suited its geopolitical agenda. He thinks Israel could have co-ordinated the assassination of Zia and Raphel (although Raphel may have been an unintended victim). And he also offers evidence  the Israelis took potshots at him during his earlier posting in The Lebanon.

The response of his superiors in the State Department when he voiced his concerns? Question his sanity!

You can read more about John Gunther Dean’s time in India in his rather gripping personal account [PDF document].

That was 20 years ago. Has anything changed in Washington since that time? One suspects it may have got worse.

The story highlights a few important ideas:

• Israel, a tiny country, behaves like an aggressive superpower
• Israeli ‘intelligence’ can be be utterly ruthless
• Zionist influence has run deep in Washington for many years
• Voicing suspicions about Israel can damage careers
• Honest, patriotic Jewish Americans do exist

These are important lessons. With the possible exception of the last of them, we can be fairly confident  successful American politicians internalized  these lessons long ago. That’s how they got the USA – and the world – into the terrible mess we’re in now.

Will the same forces now succeed in plunging the Indian sub-continent into chaos?

There are encouraging signs that the people won’t let that happen.

Rajiv Ghandi, Murdered Indian Prime Minister

Neither Indians nor Pakistanis were born yesterday, as the saying goes. They’re sophisticated people with long memories.

Both nations are still looking for the villains who planned the murders  of popular former leaders including Rajiv Ghandi and more recently, Bhenazir Bhutto. Both nations gave rise to dynasties of progresive secular leaders. Both dynasties have been repeatedly and somewhat mysteriously  ‘culled’.

Indeed, there are striking parallels between the Ghandi family, the Bhuttos and the Kennedy family in America.

Could the assailants of all three share a common instigator?

It may seem like a crazy question  Then again, we live in crazy times.