• Familiar faces, institutions connected to woman who brought down CIA chief
By Ralph Forbes
The establishment media tells a tangled tale about the scandal that forced the resignation of David H. Petraeus as Central Intelligence Agency director. However, there are important details that shed new light on the matter compared to what the mainstream media has been reporting.
Many believe the scandal was a set-up designed to bring down the general precisely because he was a highly-placed figure standing in opposition to the push by Israel’s current rulers to engage the United States in a war against Iran.
Although previously a favorite of neoconservative supporters of Israel, Petraeus ended up on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘destroy’ list after the general testified before Congress on March 16, 2010, that United States interests and Israeli interests are not identical; Israel is a strategic burden, not an asset, to the U.S.; and Israeli policies endanger the lives of our troops.
The reaction to the candid remarks by Petraeus provides a revealing list of his critics. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)—a personal friend of Netanyahu and a leading supporter of Israel—was outraged. Foreign Policy, a magazine of the Foreign Policy Association, whined that Petraeus was “hardening” U.S. policy toward Israel. Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, issued a statement condemning Petraeus.
The web that entangled Petraeus also features a similar cast of interconnected individuals and institutions. When Petraeus took command of the troops in Iraq, the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism at Tufts University—an incubator for counter-terrorist strategies—was cooperating closely with pro-Israeli policy groups such as the Hudson Institute, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Project for the New American Century.
The “other woman” in the Petraeus affair—Paula Broadwell (née Kranz)—just happens to have been deputy director of Jebsen. A West Point graduate, Mrs. Broadwell—a specialist in ‘black ops’—had participated in a summer cadet exchange program in Israel and even lived in a kibbutz.
Notorious for his interest in younger women, Petraeus was a perfect target for a ‘honeypot’ operation. Broadwell insinuated herself into the general’s world by writing a bragging account of his extremely successful career.
The scandal—it seems—was supposed to be unveiled before the election, perhaps intended to prevent President Barack Obama’s reelection, but backstage maneuvering prevented that from happening. However, the result has been that high-level opposition in Washington to Israel’s agenda has certainly been crippled with Petraeus’s ouster.
Ralph Forbes is a freelance writer based in Arkansas. He is also a member of AFP’s Southern Bureau.
U.S. Generals Counsel Against War on Iran
• Chairman of Joint Chiefs, other U.S. generals tell Israelis to abandon dangerous dream of holocausting Persians
By Peter Strahl
While nearly all members of Congress prostitute themselves to the Zionist occupation government in Palestine, at least a few of the ranking generals in the United States military have become increasingly critical of the warmongering efforts of the Israeli government to drag America into a disastrous, unwinnable war against Iran. Most recently, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, in a face-to-face meeting, warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to back off when it comes to Iran.
In mid-August 2012, as reported by Israeli news sources, Dempsey tried to clip the war hawks’ wing feathers, stating: “Israel may perhaps be able to delay Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but it cannot destroy them.”
The general tried to impress upon the Israelis the foolishness of a military attack against Iran. When this effort did not succeed in damping Netanyahu’s bloodlust, and perhaps recognizing the danger of world war, Dempsey was even more forthright two weeks later.
“I would not like to be made guilty of participating in an Israeli military strike against Iran,” he said.
Clearly, Dempsey was not shaken by an apparent assassination attempt against him in Afghanistan in late August, six days after his first statements—an attempt some attribute to Israel or its proxies. Dempsey was unhurt, but two crew-members were not so lucky. The two airmen were injured when missiles were fired at the general’s plane on the runway in an airport in Afghanistan.
Driving home the point, U.S. generals made it known privately that they will be reducing their military cooperation with Israel. They joined the chorus of critical voices, which includes even former chiefs of Mossad who believe war with Iran would be a mistake.
In early October 2012, in a direct slap to Netanyahu, Vice President Joseph Biden publicly reiterated that both American and Israeli intelligence services agree that Iran is far removed from being able to produce nuclear weapons.
Possibly recognizing the sea change, Barak began backpedaling at the end of October, admitting that Iran quietly has used a third of its enriched uranium for civilian purposes, thereby delaying any production of an atom bomb.
Netanyahu has called for elections in 2013. He is seeking to ensure his own power through the blood sacrifice of countless American lives.
Peter Strahl is the pseudonym of a freelance German language translator for AMERICAN FREE PRESS And THE BARNES REVIEW (TBR). He is also the author of a report on Bethlehem and Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, which appeared in the September/October 2012 TBR.
