Let the sham begin!

Somehow, the imperialist forces snuck by us, when we were all planning our demonstrations to coincide with the beginning of the phony handover of Iraq to CIA-connected Iraqi National Accord. With over 14 US military bases, checkpoints and a general air of occupation, and the continuing exploitation of the massive opportunity for privatization by US corporations and contractors with US labor, there is little to cloud the view of anyone from Mosul to Montana about the lack of any real sovereignty in this latest colonial acquisition.

The Bush regime and Bremer, its colonial governor, claims that the early turnover happened for two major reasons: first to assuage security concerns by doing it secretly and early, and second because the interim CIA agent, er Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, wanted it early and so it was a political decision. Just to be clear, the Iraqi National Accord was the second favorite group of the US, after the similarly named Iraqi National Congress, a CIA-front so obvious its name was created by the CIA-contracted public relations firm Rendon Group.

The INA is well known to have been co-founded by Saudi intelligence in 1990 (and supported by both the US State Department and British MI6), and is largely made up of upper level military and security personnel from Iraq. Not a very democratic or grassroots sounding group. And while it is not as blatantly a CIA front, it is well known for being very closely linked to the global secret police agency, with CIA case officers supervising many of the group’s operations. The CIA, of course has a long history of experience with creating or controlling subversive groups working against a government that the US opposes, from Nicaragua to Angola to Viet Nam. The INA carried out the same tactics that the CIA has trained its front groups to use the world over, including car bombings and other terrorist attacks, mostly used in the mid-1990s. Now Allawi is setting his own ‘war on terrorism’ as top priority, over the labor situation, unemployment, electricity, hunger, the US occupation (actually, maintaining it is a top priority of his as well), developing any real democracy, and other major issues that Iraqis on the street really care about. Employed by the CIA in 1992 o earlier, Allawi has just won the ultimate promotion, being the lieutenant to US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte, the various generals stationed in Iraq, and the Bush regime.

The Prime Minister has made statements of the kind that he is going to be an authoritarian hardliner, repressing dissent as his major focus, although he has made claims that some of the insurgents may be granted the opportunity to join an amnesty program, although he has not specified which ones.

The question at this point is what does the US anti-war/anti-imperialist movement do with this surprise turn of events? The actions against the colonial control and sham handover will commence on Wednesday, but will they have the same impact and media response as they would have otherwise?

The interim government lineup is largely made up of old CIA-buddies and creations, including the INA, Iraqi National Congress, Kurdish Democratic Party, and everyone’s favorite: the Ba’ath Party!
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp

INA and CIA www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0609-02.htm
www.wsws.org/articles/2004/may2004/iraq-m31.shtml
www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2004/060904helpedagency.htm
www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/29/1085641765271.html
www.serendipity.li/cia/saddam.html
www.pbs.org/now/politics/iraqiopposition.html
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Iraqi-National-Accord
www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php

resistance
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1248745,00.html