Part 18,  LURE TO WAR: Bush Sucks Saddam Into Kuwait [Agee]
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  PRODUCING THE PROPER CRISIS
    A speech by former CIA official Philip Agee
      Transcribed from the Oct. 1990 issue of Z Magazine,

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                       (continuation)
Another document on C.I.A. operations from the same period said,
in extracts: 

   "Hitherto accepted norms of human conduct do not apply ....
    Long-standing American concepts of fair play must be
    reconsidered .... We must learn to subvert, sabotage, and 
    destroy our enemies [JD: Their "enemies" have become US, the
    people of the United States whose needs cannot be reconciled
    with the insatiable greed of the small elite circle who rule
    our United States from the shadows.] by more clever, more
    sophisticated, and more effective methods than those used 
    against us. It may become necessary that the American people
    be made acquainted with, understand, and support this
    fundamentally repugnant philosophy."

And so, from the late 1940's until the mid-1950's, the C.I.A.
organized sabotage and propaganda operations against every country
of Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union. They tried to
foment rebellion and to hinder those countries' efforts to rebuild
from the devastation of World War II. Though unsuccessful against
the Soviet Union, these operaions had some successes in other
countries, notably East Germany. This was the easiest target because,
as one former C.I.A. officer wrote, before the wall went up in 1961,
all an infiltrator needed was good documents and a railway ticket.

From about 1949, the C.I.A. organized sabotage operations against 
targets in East Germany in order to slow reconstruction and
economic recovery. The purpose was to create a high contrast
between West Germany, then receiving billions of U.S. dollars for
reconstruction, and the "other Germany" under Soviet control.
William Blum, in his excellent history of the C.I.A., lists an
astonishing range of destruction: 

[JD: I believe the following passages are from "The C.I.A.:
 A Forgotten History -- U.S. Global Interventions Since World War II",
 by William Blum; Zed Press, 1986.]

   "Through explosives, arson, short-circuiting, and other methods,
    they damaged power stations, shipyards, a dam, canals, docks,
    public buildings, petrol stations, shops, outdoor stands, a
    radio station, public transportation .... derailed freight trains,
    .... blew up road and railway bridges, used special acid to
    damage vital factory machinery .... killed seven thousand cows,
    added soap to powdered milk destined for East German schools,"

and much, much more. These activities were worldwide, and 
NOT ONLY directed against Soviet-supported governments.

During forty years, as the East-West military standoff stabilized,
the C.I.A. was a principal weapon in waging the North-South
dimension of the Cold War. It did so through operations intended
to destroy nationalist, reformist, and liberation movements of the
so-called Third World, through political repression (torture and 
death squads), and by the overthow of democratically elected
civilian governments, replacing them with military dictatorships.
The Agency also organized paramilitary forces to overthrow
governments -- with the Contra operation in Nicaragua only a recent
example. This North-South dimension of the Cold War was over 
control of natural resources, labor and markets. And it continues  
today, as always. [JD: Further proof that the big business elite
have confiscated and subverted the government of the people
of the United States.]

Anyone who thinks the Cold War ended should think again. The
East-West dimension may have ended with the collapse of communism
in Eastern Europe, but the North-South dimension, which is where
the fighting really took place, as in Vietnam, is still on. The 
current Persian Gulf crisis is the latest episode, and it provides
the Bush Administration with the pretext to institutionalize the
North-South dimension under the euphemism of a "new international
order," as he calls it. The means will be a continuation of U.S.
militarism within the context, if they are successful, of a new
multi-lateral, international framework. Already James Baker has
been testing the winds with proposals for a NATO-style alliance
in the Gulf, an idea that William Safire aptly dubbed "GULFO".

The goal in seeking and obtaining the current [JD: missing word; 
probably something like "status quo"] stops short, I believe, of a
shooting war. After all, a war with Iraq will not be a matter of
days or even weeks. Public opinion in the U.S. will turn against
Bush if young Americans in large numbers start coming back in body
bags. And Gulf petroleum facilities are likely to be destroyed in
the process of saving them, a catastrophe for the world economy. 
Nevertheless, press accounts describe how the C.I.A. and U.S. 
Special Forces are organizing and arming guerrillas, said to be
Kuwaitis, for attacking Iraqi forces. These operations provide the 
capability for just the right provocation, an act that would cause
Hussein to order defensive action that would then justify an
all-out attack.

Such provocations have been staged in the past. In 1964, C.I.A.
paramilitary forces, working in tandem with the U.S. Navy, provoked
the Tonkin Gulf incidents, according to historians who now question
whether the incidents, said to be North Vietnamese attacks on U.S.
ships, even happened. But Lyndon Johnson used the events as a
pretext to begin bombing North Vietnam and to get a blank check
resolution from Congress to send combat troops and escalate the war.

I think the purpose is not a shooting war, but a crisis that can 
be maintained as long as possible, far after the Iraq-Kuwait
problem is resolved. This will prolong the international threat --
remember Truman in 1950? -- and allow Bush to prevent cuts in the
military budget, to avoid any peace dividend, and prevent
conversion of the economy to peaceful, human-oriented purposes.
After all, when you count all U.S. defense-related expenses, they
add up to more than double the official figure of 26 percent of
the national budget for defense. Some experts say two-thirds of 
the budget goes for defense in one way or another.

The so-called national security state of the past forty years has
meant enormous riches, and power, for those who are in the game.
It has also meant population control -- control of the people of
this and many other countries. Bush and his team, and those they
represent, will do whatever is necessary to keep the game going.
Elitist control of the U.S. rests on this game. If anyone doubts
this, recall that from the very beginning of this crisis, 
projections were coming out on costs, implying that Desert Shield 
would last for more than a year, perhaps that large U.S. forces 
would stay permanently in the Gulf. 

Just imagine the joy this crisis has brought to U.S. military
industries that, only months ago, were quaking over their survival
in a post-Cold War world. Not six weeks passed after the Iraqi
invasion before the Pentagon proposed the largest arms sale in
history: twenty-one billion dollars worth of hardware for the
defense of the Saudi Arabian throne. Very clever when you do the
sums. With an increase in price of $15 per barrel, which had 
already happened, Saudi Arabia stands to earn more than forty
billion extra dollars during the fourteen months from the invasion
to the end of the next fiscal year. Pentagon calculations of
Desert Shield costs come to eighteen billion dollars for the same
fourteen months. Even if the Saudis paid all that, which they
won't because of other contributors, they would have more than
twenty billion dollars in windfall income left over. OK! Bring
that money to the States through weapons sales. That, I suppose,
is why the Saudi arms sale instantly became known as the Defense
Industry Relief Act of 1990.  
                      (to be continued)
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        The American Public is evidently in dire need of the truth, 
        for when the plutocracy feeds us sweet lies instead of the 
        bitter truth that would evoke remedial action by the People,
        then we are in peril of sinking inextricably into despotism.

        So, please post the episodes of this ongoing series to 
        computer bulletin boards, and post hardcopies in public places,
        both on and off campus. The need for concerned people, alerting
        their neighbors to overshadowing dangers, still exists, as it 
        did in the era of Paul Revere. That need is as enduring as
        society itself.
      
             John DiNardo

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