COMPUTERS FOR REPRESSION AND DEATH
MER - 7/7/98:
The computer age is not all about the Internet, telecommunications,
and Windows98. It is also about repression and death. Two Israeli cases in point.
Next year the Israelis will be issuing new computerized
"Identity cards". One of the major purposes will be to control and monitor the
movements of all Palestinians in "real time". Such technology is in fact giving
Israel's unique neo-Apartheid approach to "peace" with the Palestinians far more
capabilities than the South Africans had decades ago when they pursued the
"Bantustans" approach to peace without such "smart identity cards".
And the Israelis now have a new tactical "smart" missile
they are trying out in Lebanon. It's not a big multi-million dollar cruise missile fired
from destroyers and submarines and designed to take out a building in Baghdad or go
searching for Saddam's bunker. It's a much smaller, cheaper, battlefield version using new
computer and telecommunications technology that can be used to hunt down guerrillas giving
Israel the edge in today's unconventional warfare theaters.
This article by Robert Fisk in THE INDEPENDENT discusses this latest
battlefield twist of the computer age. And remember of course, little of what Israel is
doing would be possible without ongoing and massive American financial, technological, and
military support.
SMART MISSILE SCARES LEBANON
By Robert Fisk in Beirut
Israel has introduced a new anti-personnel rocket into its guerrilla
war in occupied southern Lebanon, a four-foot missile which can be guided over mountains,
through valleys and round houses in its search for a target. Code-named "Spike",
the new weapon has already been used at least twice in southern Lebanon - both times at
night - and has been observed by soldiers of the United Nations' Finnish peacekeeping
battalion.
An Amal militiaman was killed and three others wounded when the
rocket sought them out near the village of Toulin earlier this year. The missile appears
to be guided to its target either by a control point on the rocket's fuselage - a
remote-controlled television camera, for example - or by a line-of-sight controller
positioned near the potential victim.
At Toulin, guerrilla sources suspect Israeli troops may have
approached the village and remotely guided the weapon - fired from a neighbouring hilltop
bunker - on to the guerrillas.
Its disadvantage, noticed by both Finnish UN personnel and by Amal,
is that it makes a roaring sound as it approaches its target and emits a three-foot tongue
of flame from the rear of the missile. It was the sound of its engine that alerted
the four Amal men, giving three of them time to throw themselves to the ground and avoid
serious injury.
The "Spike" is believed to be made by the Israeli Raphael
missile company, which at present has close technical and financial links with the US
Lockheed aerodynamics company in Florida. But the missile has not had a happy career.
Weapons specialists believe it was an early model of the "Spike" - apparently
intended to be used in an assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein or against the
leader of the Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah - that exploded
prematurely and killed five Israeli soldiers in the early 1990s. At the time, Israel would
only say that five of its men had died in an explosion during a weapons experiment in a
desert area.
In southern Lebanon, the "Spike" was seen climbing over a
mountain, flying round the side of a ravine, swooping into a "wadi" and then
turning to head for the village of Toulin.
If it was considered a suitable means of attacking the Iraqi
leadership five years ago - when it would presumably have been handed over to
American-backed Iraqi assassins - it would have to have been smuggled to Baghdad for use
in the city.
Since this sounds more like the plot for a Hollywood film, it is
more likely the weapon was intended for the Hizbollah leadership. Sayed Nasrallah's
predecessor, Sayed Abbas Moussawi, was himself assassinated by an Israeli guided missile,
fitted with a television camera, fired from a helicopter over southern Lebanon in February
1992, as he was returning to Beirut from the village of Jibchit.
While Israel has been trying to introduce new technology into its
war inside southern Lebanon, the Hizbollah themselves have clearly acquired a considerable
quantity of extra weapons in the past few weeks. In last week's mass attack on positions
run by Israeli occupation troops, it now transpires, the Hizbollah fired 83 Saggar
wire-guided anti-tank missiles at artillery batteries belonging to Israeli occupation
forces.
They were also seen using recoilless rifles - small artillery pieces
fired from trucks - and 49mm Russian anti-aircraft guns fired with flat trajectories at
Israeli positions. Both these weapons are old - but ferocious enough when fired over open
sights at fixed positions in the hills of southern Lebanon.
Far more disturbing for the Israelis is the growing suspicion that
the Hizbollah have also acquired a new, longer-range version of the Katyusha rocket, with
a range of up to 50 miles. In theory, this would put Haifa in range of the guerrillas.
In reality, a longer-range rocket is more likely to be used not
against Haifa but against Israeli troops inside southern Lebanon - fired from Beirut or
its suburbs. This would geographically extend any future guerrilla war in Lebanon to
embrace up to half the country.
A five-power monitoring group continues to meet to hear complaints
from Lebanese and Israelis about breaches of the 1996 ceasefire in southern Lebanon. The
committee is to hear at least 11 complaints from both sides when it meets again later this
week. Israel is complaining Hizbollah are now using 122mm artillery against them.
Hizbollah's capture of an Israeli position last week demonstrated yet again how poorly
Israel is able to defend its occupation zone inside Lebanon.
THE INDEPENDENT - 7 July
