On Tuesday 2nd of March, western leaders in unison with Arab
leaders condemned the attacks against the Shias in Karbala and Baghdad. In
their condemnation some of them suggested that the attacks were carried out
by Al-Qaeda aimed at creating rifts between the Shia and Sunni populations to divert Iraq on the
path of sectarian violence as opposed to democracy. White House spokesman,
Scott McClellan said, "We condemn these brutal terrorist attacks in the
strongest terms." He further added: "There are enemies of freedom
in Iraq who seek
to undermine a peaceful and democratic future for the Iraqi people. They will
fail. Democracy is taking root and it cannot be turned back..".
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said
that the attacks appeared designed to "set the different religious
communities in Iraq against
each other, to destroy the progress in Iraq, and
cause the maximum amount of dissent, division and hatred.".
His foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said that it was "no
coincidence" that the blasts came on a Shiite religious holiday and came
just one day after the Iraqi Governing Council had completed difficult
negotiations for an interim constitution for Iraq.
Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, said that he
condemned "unreservedly these heinous acts of violence, and the
criminals who have turned the holy day of Ashoura
into a nightmare and a bloodbath." Arab leaders said they feared the
bombings were meant to sow discord between Iraqi Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said a
"prime suspect" in the attacks was Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian in Iraq who American
officials say is planning spectacular attacks on Shiites aimed at sparking a
Sunni-Shiite civil war and derailing plans to hand over power to the Iraqis
on 30 June. Earlier in January the US
intelligence claimed to have found a computer disc which contained a letter
written by him to his superiors in Al-Qaeda abroad.
In the letter it is alleged that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said concerning the Shias
of Iraq.
"(They are) the insurmountable obstacle, the lurking snake, the crafty
and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy and the penetrating venom...The
unhurried observer and the inquiring onlooker will realize that Shi'ism is the looming danger and the true challenge.
They are the enemy. Beware of them. Fight them."
But the letter also goes beyond any doctrinal differences. It lays out a
military strategy in which four enemies are identified - Americans, Kurds,
Iraqi security forces and the Shias. Of the latter,
the letter says: "These in our opinion are the key to change. I mean
that targeting and hitting them in (their) religious, political and military
depth will provoke them to show the Sunnis their rabies...and bare the teeth
of the hidden rancor working in their
breasts." On 3 March, America publicly
confirmed Al-Qaeda's involvement in the bombing.
General John Abizaid, the commander of US forces in
the Middle East, told a US
congressional committee: "We have intelligence that ties Zarqawi to this attack." Despite these claims the US did not
publish any evidence to support this view. However the American allegations
were contradicted by Al-Qaeda. The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper
received a letter on the 3rd of March by e-mail, purporting to come from Al-Qaeda Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades. He said, "The American troops have
carried out a massacre to kill innocent Shia in Karbala, their infidel
city, and in Baghdad,"
the letter read. "We say to the Muslims that we are innocent of this
act."
Furthermore, there were more flaws in America's
version of events. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt
of the US
occupation forces said 15 people had been arrested in connection with the
attacks. He said five were Farsi-speakers, which would appear to mean they
were Iranians. This assertion undermines the accusations against Al- Qaeda. The overwhelming majority of Iranians are Shia - and there are believed to be no Shia in Al- Qaeda. It would be
surprising if a Shia were involved in the attacks,
a desecration of the Shia's most holy festival and
shrines. Also Brigadier General Kimmitt said that
earlier reports that a fourth suicide bomber whose explosive belt failed to
go off had been caught in Baghdad were
untrue. US forces
said that it now appeared that the attacks in Karbala included explosives
brought into the city on hand-drawn wooden carts used to carry supplies and
old and crippled worshippers, as well as one suicide bomber and possibly some
mortar attacks.
Likewise both the Sunni and Shia leaders of Iraq have found
it difficult to believe that Al-Qeada were behind
the bombings. They blamed the American's for the bombing and also accused
them of attempting to ignite sectarian hatred. Sheikh Moayad
Naimi, a Sunni cleric said, "We are facing
critical hours and days ... so open your eyes against the plots of America and Israel to sow
dissension."
"If the two sides fight it's the Americans who benefit to find an excuse
to stay in Iraq,"
said Sheikh Raed al-Kazemi,
a Shia cleric. In a funeral sermon for those buried
in Karbala
yesterday. Ayatollah Hadi al-Muddaresi,
a senior Shia cleric, said: "Those who did
this want a civil war in Iraq, but we
will not be drawn into it." As he spoke, supporters of the radical
cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr,
shouted him down: "We want our revenge against Saddam the infidel and
against America,"
they screamed. In Beirut, Sheik Hamed Khafaf, a spokesman for Iraq's
leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini,
blamed American soldiers, saying they ignored repeated requests to bolster security
for the pilgrims.
From all of this it appears that America's goal
is to create sectarian violence across Iraq. America
announced her intentions in advance by fabricating lies that Al-Qaeda was intending to carry out the bombings against
various groups in Iraq. In the
past she has fabricated similar lies to justify her attack on Iraq. Most
notably the well publicised link between Iraq, Al-Qaeda and September 11, which later President Bush
admitted to be untrue and the presence of WMD, which Bush continues to blame
on the CIA. Now she plans to extricate herself from Iraq and
believes that by igniting sectarian violence she regain control. It is an
open secret that she has recruited former members of Baath
regime to help her police Iraq. Most
likely she is using the same people who sowed seeds of hatred under Saddam to
execute her plan. This she hopes will subvert the Iraqi resistance, stem the
demands from the Shias for direct elections, delay
calls for an independent Kurdish State and help
her withdraw from Iraq by
allowing the UN to supervise the transition. It should be noted that the
American withdrawal scheduled for 30 June is misleading. What she intends to
do is to disguise her direct occupation through a pro-American government in Iraq that has
more legitimacy than the Iraqi governing council that has none. However, she
will still keep a considerable number of troops and bases in Iraq to
conduct operation against other Muslim countries.
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