Representative Press Blog

The US media has once again kept most Americans in the dark.

"The assassination of Sheikh Yassin certainly harmed the US
in Iraq, quite directly.  Though the media are keeping
pretty quiet about it, the murder of the four US security
contractors in Fallujah appears to have been retaliation
for the Yassin assassination; responsibility was taken
immediately by a previously unknown group in Iraq called
"Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin."

You can learn alot from Chomsky. Yes the US media has been keeping pretty quiet about it. It really is amazing watching how American reporters conform to powerful interests, in this case the interests of Israel and it's supporters.

Australia's media managed to report it:
"A previously unknown group has claimed responsibility for the the gruesome killing of four US contractors in Fallujah, western Iraq.

It said the action was in revenge for Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

"This is a gift from the people of Fallujah to the people of Palestine and the family of Sheik Ahmed Yassin who was assassinated by the criminal Zionists," said in the statement from the "Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin".

"We advise the US forces to withdraw from Iraq and we advise the families of the American soldiers and the contractors not to come to Iraq," said the statement obtained by AFP.

The statement, entitled "Fallujah, the graveyard of the Americans", claimed the group's fighters killed "members of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Zionist Mossad", referring to Israel's intelligence agency.

It said the "blind violence" of Fallujah residents resulted from an increasing hatred of the Americans and was also in response to the "US aggression, raids on mosques and homes, the arrests, the torture of clerics and the terrorising of women and children."

Yassin, the spiritual leader of the hardline Palestinian militant group, was killed last month in an Israeli air strike as he left a Gaza City mosque.

The four US security contractors were killed in an ambush in Fallujah on Wednesday as they were escorting a truck carrying food supplies to a nearby military base.

Two of their charred bodies were then dismembered and paraded by angry residents."
The Sydney Morning Herald

"A PREVIOUSLY unknown group overnight claimed responsibility for the the gruesome killing of four US contractors in Fallujah, western Iraq. It said the action was in revenge for Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

"This is a gift from the people of Fallujah to the people of Palestine and the family of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was assassinated by the criminal Zionists," said in the statement from the "Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin".

"We advise the US forces to withdraw from Iraq and we advise the families of the American soldiers and the contractors not to come to Iraq," said the statement obtained by AFP.

The statement, entitled Fallujah, the graveyard of the Americans, claimed the group's fighters killed "members of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Zionist Mossad", referring to Israel's intelligence agency. " NEWS.com.au

"A hitherto unknown group, the Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin, has claimed responsibility in reprisal for Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
"We advise the US forces to withdraw from Iraq and we advise the families of the American soldiers and the contractors not to come to Iraq," the group said in a statement.

Yassin, the spiritual leader of the hardline Palestinian militant group, was killed last month in an Israeli air strike as he left a Gaza City mosque." Special Broadcasting Service

Here is Noam Chomsky's full post:
"I don't think lobbies, or the love affair with Israel after
1967 on the part of many intellectuals, are marginal.  They
are often a swing factor, and very influential when no
major power interests are involved, as is often the case. 
But I don't think they've been decisive in the past, and
don't think anything has changed in that respect. 

Israel is probably perceived as more valuable as a
"strategic asset" than before.  By now it is virtually an
off-shore US military base and high-tech affiliate. 
Relations are so close that one of Israel's leading
military industries (Rafael, Israel Armament Development
Company) is moving a large part of its development and
manufacturing to the US, so it can integrate more closely
with US firms and the military market here.  Israel claims
to have air and armored forces larger and more
sophisticated than any NATO power (US excepted), and the US
is now beefing these up by sending over 100 of its most
advanced jet bombers, with the very prominent announcement
that they can fly to Iran and back and that they are an
updated version of the US planes Israel used to destroy an
Iraqi reactor in 1981 (incidentally, thereby initiating
Saddam's nuclear weapons program, though that's kept
quiet), and equipped with what the Hebrew press calls
"`special' weaponry." Whatever the purpose of all this,
it's doubtless intended for the ears of Iranian
intelligence, perhaps to rattle the Iranians and provoke
them to some action that can justify US "retaliation," or
to destabilize the country internally.  In this and many
other ways a rich and very powerful client state, closely
allied to the other regional military power, Turkey, and at
the edge of the world's major energy resources is of no
slight value.  Probably more than before, when Israel was
seen as one of the guardians of the dictatorships that
govern the oil producing states.

The assassination of Sheikh Yassin certainly harmed the US
in Iraq, quite directly.  Though the media are keeping
pretty quiet about it, the murder of the four US security
contractors in Fallujah appears to have been retaliation
for the Yassin assassination; responsibility was taken
immediately by a previously unknown group in Iraq called
"Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Yassin." And we see what that set
off.  Though some reaction was anticipated, I doubt that
anything like this was.  And even though Sharon used US
helicopters sent with the foreknowledge that they'd
continue to be used for such purposes as assassinations, I
doubt very much that the Yassin assassination was
explicitly authorized by Washington.  About the "Arab
street" elsewhere, the assumption for years has been that
the local allies can handle anything that comes up, and
that's been well enough verified so that it's
understandable -- if not necessarily correct -- that US
planners should not consider it a major problem.

Israel aside, the US quite often undertakes actions on its
own that planners know will arouse rage and retaliation in
the Arab and Muslim worlds.  Take the invasion of Iraq, for
example.  It was expected to have that effect, and did.  As
also predicted, support for al-Qaeda networks increased
substantially, as did terrorism worldwide.  But it was
considered worth it anyway.

One could certainly argue that these longstanding
commitments are harmful to US interests.  Many do, right
within the establishment.  And sometimes plans have been
reversed when that is recognized.  There are famous cases. 
E.g., in 1971 Kissinger backed Israel's rejection of an
Egyptian offer of a full peace treaty (not under the
influence of lobbies or articulate opinion, who probably
knew nothing about it), but was compelled to reverse course
after the 1973 war made it clear it was a serious mistake,
leading to the Camp David agreements of 1978-9, where the
US-Israel accepted the 1971 offer (basically)."

See my new post ( August 17, 2005) : One of the Reasons for the War on Iraq