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Washington Scene (an ongoing series):
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THE CIA, WASHINGTON,
AND THE MIDDLE EAST
ROGER TAMRAZ IS HARDLY
ALONE
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MER - Washington - 9/21/97:
Certain things
don't get publicly published very much in today's Washington; but behind-the-scenes
the talking about these matters can be quite substantial. After all there
are some rules of the Washington road if you want to ever cover the White
House or the Pentagon for the national media; not to mention if you want
to be invited to the annual National Press Club dinner! Among
these usually unpublished matters are details of the CIA's involvement
in such key areas as the Middle East, along with the names of those --
both individuals and institutions -- who work closely with the CIA and/or
are agents of "the Agency". The recent notoriety of Lebanese
oil-man Roger Tamraz has unusually lifted the CIA veil abit. The popular
media hasn't said too much about it, but it seems that for more than 20
years Mr. Tamraz has been a "CIA asset" providing considerable
inside information and gossip about many things going on in the Middle
East, Eastern Europe and Russia.
The CIA tried dutifully
to keep this part of Tamraz's dealings secret; but bits and pieces have
leaked out. The larger reality is that Washington is in fact seeded with
persons thought to be connected to the CIA in one way or another; and whose
careers or business interests it seems have been rewarded accordingly.
One need not be
an actual card-carrying agent entitled to a pension; there are plenty of
less direct ways to be "connected" to the Agency in today's Washington;
as the case of Mr. Tamraz makes clear.
There's the notorious
Judith Kipper, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
after various jaunts and assignments taking her repeatedly to the Middle
East since the 1970s. Among other things she is thought to hold the recent
record for sleeping with Arab diplomats and officials hoping to squeeze
what she could out of them. Kipper is Jewish and there is also much suspicion
her connections extend to Mossad, which of course closely cooperates with
the CIA, and which has a long history of using woman and sex to get what
it wants. As for CSIS, it was once connected to Georgetown University,
but more than a decade ago the stink became too prevalent and Georgetown
said good bye insisting that its name be taken off the door.
Then there's Jim
Zogby of the "Arab-American Institute", long suspected, along
with others in his family, of having ties of various kinds to the CIA over
a long period of time. And indeed, Zogby has a long list of actions and
interventions that not so surprisingly conform to what the Americans have
wanted said and done over the years. Considerable money has flowed to Zogby
and his Institute -- which incidentally is widely despised in many Arab
American circles -- in the recent "Peace Process" years. Among
so many other similar things, Zogby was quick to publicly applaud the Clinton
Administration back in its first months for appointing such "even-handed"
officials to deal with the Middle East, including former Israeli lobbyist
Martin Indyk, now Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East!
And one should add to
the list former government officials Andrew Killgore and Dick Curtiss who
in a sense masquerade these days as independent publishers of a monthly
publication known as WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS while in
actuality they are suspected of continuing to work closely with both the
State Department and the CIA, as well as with a number of key Arab "client
regimes", most especially the Saudis who have quietly provided them
considerable funds over the years.
All this is just
the proverbial tip of the iceberg of course. And it should not be very
surprising that hard irrefutable "evidence" is quite hard if
not impossible to come by -- such things are considered "national
security" and very highly classified. In recent years the CIA has
even taken to destroying records regarding the Middle East rather than
risking their becoming public even many decades later.
Even so, over many
years the circumstantial evidence in some cases becomes practically overwhelming;
and the fact that these matters are openly talked about privately by Washington
insiders is as well-known as the affair the new Secretary of State is said
to be having with her youngish press spokesman (something else you're not
likely to find clearly mentioned in The Washington Post or on the News
Hour). Incidentally, the CIA has become very active in recent years in
Gaza and the West Bank, and key persons associated with Yasser Arafat's
"Authority", including Nabil Shaath and Jabril Rajoub, are known
to have close and growing connections with "The Agency".
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[Note concerning a past MER article about
"Messages from Hamas?": The Israeli government spent more than
a quarter million dollars trying to find him, and the P.M. even raised
the "kidnapping" with Madeleine Albright seeking her intervention
with Yasser Arafat. So the MER story last week was well grounded indeed.
However, it now turns out that Mr. Schwartz, the elderly right-wing Israeli
involved, made up the story and tricked everyone. Such are the intrigues
and confusions of the Middle East these days!]
M I D - E A S T R E
A L I T I E S
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(202) 362-6965 MER@MiddleEast.Org
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