(This article was written and published in August of 2005, when there was a speculation about the then President Elect of Iran)
These are difficult days for an aging newspaper hack who tries to maintain his reputation as the person who has the inside track and knows what is really going down. So when the story broke that the President-Elect of Iran has been accused of being actively involved in the 1979 hostage-taking at the US Embassy in Tehran I had to basically run for cover, cover my behind and start digging. Uncomfortable position.
It seems that some of the former 52 hostages who were held for 444 days as hostages during the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, claim that they recognize Iranian President-Elect Mr. Ahmadinejad as one of the captors and another former hostage has even claimed that he was interrogated by the President-Elect. The United States Department, it is reported, is investigating these claims.
These being serious accusations to be leveled against a lawfully elected leader of an independent country, I decided to launch my own brand of investigation to get to the bottom of these accusations. This is to say that I called my “contact” at the State Department and convinced him to reveal all. Under pressure he confirmed that the claims regarding the Iranian President-Elect was one among several such on-going active investigations currently being undertaken by his select group of special investigators.
Being the shrewd fellow I am, and after spending a couple of hours in a dark room with cold compresses on my head, I was finally able to figure out that he had admitted to there being several such investigators. Once I had that figured, it was just a matter of time and money before I got some information from him. Not the details, mind you. No snippets of where the investigations were at, or where they were going, just general information about the investigations.
The following then, are direct verbatim accounts from official files. As promised I have removed sections relating to the status of the investigations and the direction in which there are heading.
Case File 1
Allegations regarding Ariel Sharon.
It is alleged that the present Prime Minister of Israeli looks awfully like the previous Israeli Defense Minister who is responsible for the slaughter and massacre carried out by the Lebanese Christian militia inside the Sabra and Shatila camps in 1982.
Facts
In the summer 1982 Israeli Army led by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon, claiming that they were looking to protect their borders against Palestinian freedom fighters. Israeli’s soon lay siege to West Beirut and after fierce fighting for two months the Palestinians were finally beaten and an estimated 14,000 fighters were evacuated from Beirut under the sponsorship of a multi-national force.
Meanwhile Palestinian refugees driven out of their ancestral homes by the illegal Israeli occupation were living in Lebanon in large camps, the biggest two being Sabra and Shatila. When the fighters were evacuated, the camps lost all able bodied fighting men and the remaining were mostly women, children and the elderly. The residents of these camps were genuinely afraid of reprisals from the victors, especially from the Lebanese Christian militia known at the Phalange, with whom the Palestinians had been waging a ruthless and bloody war for more than 7 years. The securities of the non-militants in the camps were promised under a deal brokered by the Americans.
On the morning of Thursday 16th September, Israelis moved with impunity into Beirut and the Israel’s Chief of Staff told Defense Minister Sharon, that the whole city was in the hands of the Israelis. Under International Law, an occupying army, once it has declared that they were in control, is from that moment on, legally responsible for the safety and security of non-combatants in that area. Therefore, from the morning of the 16th September 1982, all of Beirut was under Israeli control, including of course the defenseless residents of Sabra and Shatila camps
On the 16th September, around 7 in the evening about 150 or so members of the Lebanese Christian Militia; the Phalangists, were allowed inside Sabra and Shatila by the Israeli Defense Forces and for the next 38 hours killed, tortured, raped and generally slaughtered at least 1,000 innocent civilian of the camps. The killings were supervised and looked on by the Israeli Defense Forces who guarded the camps with their tanks and even used flares to provide light for the Phalangist forces.
Not one single person has been prosecuted for this atrocity and in fact those responsible have been promoted within the Israeli political structure.
Case File 2
Allegations regarding John Bolton
It is alleged that President Bush’s nominee as US envoy to the United Nations looks very similar to a US career diplomat of the same name who has long vilified and generally called for the destruction of the United Nations.
Facts.
Mr. Bolton is on record, in fact there are video footage of Mr. Bolton’s rantings and raving against the United Nations one even saying that there is “no such thing” as the United Nations.
In fact Mr. Bolton believes that the United States is the only legal entity with power over other countries and that international politics and decisions should be an extension of the US State Department’s Policy. Mr. Bolton has also been quoted as saying that the US is the world’s “only real power”
Not being satisfied with such rhetoric, Mr. Bolton has also gone on record stating that if the United Nations “lost 10 stories” of its 38 storey building then “it wouldn’t make a bit of difference” for world politics.
Case File 3
Allegations against President Bush and Tony Blair
Allegations against President Bush and Tony Blair claim that they look awfully similar to the former President and Prime Minister who promised to save Iraqis from destitution and offer them a free, prosperous and safe future.
Facts
Iraqis are being killed by ever increasing numbers and ordinary people go in fear of their life. While there are no official figures of Iraqi death, some analysts put the figure beyond 100,000. As even admitted by US Intelligence, Iraq has become a hot bed of insurgency which is being used to spread terror throughout the world.
Meanwhile the economy is in ruins and Iraq’s economic infrastructure has been especially badly hit. While pre-invasion oil production was at 2.5 million barrels per day, rarely has production passed these levels and 2005 production estimated are well below 2 million barrels per day.
Iraq’s social infrastructure has been decimated. Electricity and Water supply is a daily problem and recent surveys show that only half of Iraqi households have access to stable and safe drinking water.
A quarter of Iraqis are totally dependent on food rations distributed by the government and unemployment is at record highs. Meanwhile Iraq’s education system is in decline and literacy rates have plunged.
August 2005