Dahlan goes on the record about these events for the first time, saying
that
despite pleas from Fatah that they were unprepared for elections, Bush
pushed ahead. "Everyone was against the elections," Dahlan is quoted as
saying. "Everyone except Bush. Bush decided, "I need an election. I want
elections in the Palestinian Authority."
Following Hamas's victory, "everyone blamed everyone else," the re****t
quotes an official with the Department of Defense as saying. "We sat there
in the Pentagon and said, "Who the f*** recommended this?"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1204546391346&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
Vanity Fair: Bush approved plot to oust Hamas
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST
Mar. 4, 2008
US President George W. Bush is said to have approved a covert initiative
to
overthrow the Hamas government shortly after Hamas won the January 2006
parliamentary election, according to confidential do***ents obtained by
Vanity Fair magazine.
The do***ents, which have been corroborated by sources at the US State
Department and Palestinian officials, reveal that the plan was supposed to
be implemented by the State Department.
The re****t confirms allegations by Hamas and other Palestinians that the
US
has been supplying Fatah with weapons and money so that its forces could
bring down the Hamas government. Some senior Fatah officials have also
accused the US of "meddling" in Palestinian affairs by encouraging Fatah
to
work toward toppling the Hamas government.
The magazine said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy
National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams were entrusted with provoking a
Palestinian civil war, in which forces led by Fatah strongman Muhammad
Dahlan - fortified with new weapons supplied at America's behest - would
remove the democratically elected, Hamas-led government.
The State Department, according to Vanity Fair, declined to comment.
The magazine quoted a former US intelligence official with experience in
covert plans that said the plan was "close to the margins" with regards to
its legality. But, he added, "it probably wasn't illegal."
The re****t said that instead of driving its enemies out of power, the
US-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total
control
of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
David Wurmser, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief Middle
East adviser a month after the Hamas takeover, said he believed that Hamas
had no intention of taking over the Gaza Strip until Fatah forced its
hand.
"It looks to me that what happened wasn't so much a coup by Hamas but an
attempted coup by Fatah that was preempted before it could happen," he was
quoted as saying. Wurmser said that the Bush administration engaged in a
"dirty war in an effort to provide a corrupt dictator****p [led by
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] with victory."
Wurmser said he was especially galled by the Bush administration's
hypocrisy. "There is a stunning disconnect between the president's call
for
Middle East democracy and this policy," he said. "It directly contradicts
it."
Neocon critics of the administration told the magazine that the old State
Department vice of ru****ng to anoint a strongman rather than solving
problems directly had led to the terrible missteps in the Gaza Strip.
To rely on proxies such as Dahlan, former UN ambassador John Bolton said,
was "an institutional failure, a failure of strategy." Bolton blamed Rice,
saying Rice, "like others in the dying days of this administration, is
looking for a legacy. Having failed to heed the warning not to hold the
elections, they tried to avoid the result through Dayton." Lieutenant
General Keith Dayton was the US security coordinator for the Palestinians,
who reached a secret agreement with Dahlan to strengthen Fatah's forces.
According to three US officials, Bush referred to Dahlan as "our guy," a
sentiment that was shared by Rice and Assistant Secretary David Welch, the
man in charge of Middle East policy at the State Department.
The re****t uncovers three different confidential memos that describe the
covert plan: One, prepared by US Consul-General in Jerusalem Jake Walles,
states how the Bush Administration intended for him to tell Abbas in
Ramallah in 2006 to dissolve the Hamas government if it would not
recognize
Israel, promising the US would back him if he did.
"We believe that the time has come for you to move quickly and
decisively,"
the text reads. "If Hamas does not agree within the prescribed time, you
should make clear your intention to declare a state of emergency and form
an
emergency government explicitly committed to that platform. If you act
along
these lines we will sup****t you both materially and politically... We will
be there to sup****t you."
The second memo, drawn up by the State Department, asserts that means had
to
be found to produce an "endgame" by the end of 2007 for Abbas to remove
Hamas from power by collapsing the government, and that he must be given
the
means to strengthen his forces.
According to the Vanity Fair re****t, the third memo, described as a US
"action plan" for the PA president, set out a plan by which Abbas would
fire
his own Fatah-Hamas "unity" government and rely on a security deal between
Dahlan and Dayton to strengthen Fatah's forces.
Meanwhile, the magazine said, US officials led by Rice had spent several
months begging Arab governments for money in order to supply Fatah's
forces
with new weapons from Egypt under a previously undisclosed covert US
program - a scheme described by some sources as "Iran-Contra 2."
Dahlan goes on the record about these events for the first time, saying
that
despite pleas from Fatah that they were unprepared for elections, Bush
pushed ahead. "Everyone was against the elections," Dahlan is quoted as
saying. "Everyone except Bush. Bush decided, "I need an election. I want
elections in the Palestinian Authority."
Following Hamas's victory, "everyone blamed everyone else," the re****t
quotes an official with the Department of Defense as saying. "We sat there
in the Pentagon and said, "Who the f*** recommended this?"
--
+
Pucker your lips for the Apocalypse!
Johnny Asia, Guitarist from the Future
http://music.download.com/johnnyasia
"These are the times that try men's souls." - Thomas Paine
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
|
