The Hidden Invasion of Iraq

The Hidden Invasion of Iraq Paulo Casaca Member of the European Parliament Copyright © 2008 by Paulo Casaca. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any methods, photocopying, scanning, electronic or otherwise, except as permitted by notation in the volume or under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the author. Requests to the author for permission should be addressed to: Acacia Publishing, Inc. 1366 E. Thomas Road, Suite 305 Phoenix, AZ 85014 ISBN 978-1-935089-07-0 Published by Acacia Publishing, Inc. Phoenix, Arizona www.acaciapublishing.com Cover: Design Ambroise Perrin; Graphics Patricia Gless Printed and bound in India. Price: $2495 Foreword “But why are you so interested in Iran and Iraq?” This question has been put before me time and again, and oddly enough, not by those outside the political and diplomatic circles, but by those within. In response, I would always come up with a counter-question: “But how can you work in politics or foreign affairs without being interested in Iran and Iraq?” This went on till my colleague and friend, the late Fausto Correia, persuaded me to settle the debate once and for all—by way of writing a book that would provide a true picture of the situation in Iran and Iraq; a book that would bring to fore my political reasoning in the light of my personal experiences. Talking about experiences, after interacting with those who had stayed in Iraq for a while, including some of my colleagues in the European Parliament, I realised that there were sharp differences between the views of those who had spent some time in the Red Zone and those who had seldom ventured outside the Green Zone. In the subsequent pages, I shall be referring to several books written by American journalists and former British civil servants, which provide a first-hand account of the prevailing situation in the Red Zone and analyze the peculiar relationship between religious fanaticism and Western policies. Much to our disadvantage, the US military personnel, easily the most reliable source of information, (i) are not yet permitted to publish or narrate their experiences. To put things in perspective, the invasion of Iraq, anticipated to be the starting point of a democratic revolution, actually turned out to be the starting point of an Islamic revolution. It brought to power a sectarian government, resulting in civil war in the country, and triggering a wave of ethnic cleansing that led to thousands of killings and millions of displacements. The country is in shambles, with a crumbling state, society and economy. Far from serving as an example for the entire Gulf region, the political developments in Iraq have made people of the region more sceptical than ever before towards democratic experiments. The seeds of Islamic revolution in Iraq were sown in the year 1982, when the late Ayatollah Khomeini passed an edict to establish an institution, whose aim was defined in its very name—the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Towards the beginning of 2007, the council decided to rename itself to “Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council” as it believed that the objectives of the revolution had been attained, and now Iran needed to consolidate its grip over Iraq, under its supreme leader’s strict command. Only time will tell whether the analysis of Iranian theocracy was correct or it was over-optimistic. For the time being, I shall focus my attention on the question of why the Western coalition, in the name of war against terrorism, allowed reigns of power slip into the (ii) Children picking wood for the fire in the outskirts of Al-Khalis Photo Sameerah Shibli (January 11, 2007) hands of organisations condemned as the “earliest examples of religious, suicidal terrorist organisations” in the specialized literature on the subject. The Western governments and media have chosen to overlook the fact that in the shadow of Allied forces, a much more sinister invasion force came from Iran to Iraq, with a radically different agenda. The fact remains that this “hidden invasion” that drove the country into disaster had started much earlier—right in the heart of the decision- making process in the Western capitals. Several actors of this book fell victims of terrorist attacks, or managed to escape Iraq often only after imprisonment and torture in the hands of more or less politically organised thugs. This book, in its entirety, is dedicated to them. Paulo Casaca Member of the European Parliament (iv) INDEX CHAPTER 1 9 1. Approaching the Middle East 11 a) Iran 11 b) Israel 16 c) Lebanon 23 d) Jordan 32 CHAPTER 2 35 2. Iraq by April 37 a) Travelling in Iraq without a map 37 b) Iraqi Oasis 41 c) Parlez-vous français? 52 CHAPTER 3 61 3. The unfolding Iraqi drama 63 a) Lost in translation 63 b) Human Rights Watch under watch 68 c) Democracy, Iranian style 74 d) Iraq with A Future 76 CHAPTER 4 89 4. Tales of the lives of two brothers, Ali and Omar 91 a) The Iraqi Western mirror 91 b) Down to the Abyss 99 c) New hopes 110 (v) CHAPTER 5 119 5. The Iranian Theocracy and the dawn of a new era of terrorism 121 a) On Terrorism and Fanaticism 121 b) Islamic Fanaticism 130 c) Teheran and Al-Qaeda 137 CHAPTER 6 145 6. WMD and terrorism: Fiction and reality 147 a) The manipulation 147 b) The challenges to the Rule of Law 155 c) Containing Teheran 165 CHAPTER 7 173 7. A new relation with the Arab World in the context of a solid transatlantic partnership 175 a) Oil or democracy? 175 b) Photo Opportunity 182 c) Building bridges 190 Epilogue 199 Acknowledgements 209 Bibliography 213 (vi) Chapter 1 APPROACHING THE MIDDLE EAST Chapter 1 Approaching the Middle East a) Iran My love affair with Iran started on a sunny October afternoon in 1982, while I was hitch-hiking around Italy’s Tyrrhenian coast, on my way back from Sicily to Portugal. Stopping by a motorway cafeteria, I saw a stunningly beautiful woman asking for a glass of water using a somehow affected English. It apparently did not impress the barman who turned her down in Italian. I tried not to look too out-of-purpose while offering the lady a bottle of mineral water and a glass. She hardly took a sip, but warmly thanked me for the gesture. Being an experienced hitch- hiker, my eyes followed her, only to realise she was travelling in a fully packed car with two other passengers and a lot of luggage in the back seat. Tough luck! However, as she spotted me coming out of the cafeteria with my rucksack, I heard her now familiar voice behind my back, insisting that I should get into the car. I felt quite embarrassed for causing so much trouble, but nevertheless took the offer. As the journey progressed, the conversation picked up. I was with an Iranian couple who were exiled in London, and were accompanied by a cousin who had escaped from Iraq by bribing border guards on either side. In the next few hours, I became familiar with the values, perspectives, and experiences that were not much different from my own, except for one crucial point. Iran, instead of witnessing a revolution to gain freedom, like the one I experienced in Portugal, witnessed the opposite of it; the country being sent back to the 11 Medieval Age by a bunch of sick fanatics claiming to act in the name of religion. By the time the journey came to an end, my world view had been considerably transformed: the dictators I had known, the evils of capitalism, reactionary fellow citizens whom I had come across, all of them seemed to be “harmless doves” compared with the clerics that had taken hold of this country. Previously, the Iranians did not have political freedom, but after the Islamic Revolution they did not have any kind of freedom. The account of Iranian theocracy’s sophisticated brutality, sadist torture, and crime that my hosts narrated sent shivers down my spine, and made me remember the horror stories of the Inquisition in my own country. My Iranian hosts were driving down to Lisbon (which was my destination as well to catch a flight to Ponta Delgada in the Azores). The purpose of their journey, as I came to know, was that Portugal was about the only country where an Iranian refugee still had a chance of being accepted, even if merely as a tourist. I also became aware of the ethnic complexity of the country when my hosts insisted on their Azerbaijani ethnic origin rather than their Iranian nationality. Portugal was the last European country slamming its doors on Iranian refugees, not for some humanitarian or political reasons, but probably because it was least likely to be chosen by the Iranians trying to escape the Islamic revolution that had devastated their homeland. Poor and distant, Portugal was merely a lost chapter in the 16th century history of Iran and was “the country of oranges,” like everywhere else in the region. So, there was no particular reason for the Iranians to visit it. 12 Few months later, I wrote a lengthy letter to the Editor of O Jornal, protesting against the Portuguese government’s intention of shutting the last European door on the Iranian refugees. The letter was titled Solidarity with the Iranian refugee and was published on 11 March, 1983.

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