Said K Aburish

Said K Aburish

 
   

ARTICLE - Intelligence vs diplomacy - How to lose the middle east on your own


There is a sense of déjà vu about the CIA’s misjudgement of Saddam’s unconventional weapons and what has followed the invasion of Iraq. The agency’s aim for complete dominance in the Middle East goes back to the 1950s and, as in creating a governing council in Iraq, it has always tried to achieve this aim through using unacceptable political leaders as its deputy sheriffs.

The CIA has been misled into disasters similar to the Baghdad one in progress for decades. In the middle 1950s America’s leading Arab enemy was a ‘clean’ army colonel full of good intentions. Gamal Abdel Nasser and a small group of army officers had overthrown Egypt’s corrupt and unpopular monarchy with American knowledge and help in 1952. In fact, the man loved things American; he saw the film IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE more than twenty times.

But even then the CIA pre-empted the State Department and acted independently. American intelligence officers arrived in the Middle East in the early days of the cold war, when the 1948 Arab defeat by Israel produced an opportunity for Communism. Young and naïve, most of them could not deal with Arab frustration and Communist penetration plans and the day-to-day problems they created. Meanwhile, the State Department concentrated on the bigger long-term picture. But there were few diplomats in Washington or the Middle East embassies to deal with the complexities of the Middle East and the region slid, almost imperceptibly, under the CIA.

When Nasser insisted on devoting himself to internal reform and introduced mild socialism he ran foul of America’s preoccupations with a mostly imaginary Communist threat to the oil-rich region. Later Nasser steadfastly refused to join an anti-Communist American-sponsored military alliance. Under the Dulles brothers, John Foster as Secretary of State and Allan as Director of the CIA, Nasser became an enemy. The CIA made Nasser and Communism its enemies.

This was the beginning of cooperation between the CIA and Islamic fundamentalist groups. Naively the agency launched Operation Billy Graham, an attempt to assassinate Nasser and replace him with a right wing Islamist. Several other attempts followed and failed. Meanwhile, the Israelis tried to use America’s opposition to Nasser and his consequent weakness to force a humiliating peace on him.

His refusal to accept Israel’s terms made them resort to military action. Israeli raids into Sinai became routine and eventually produced a high level of casualties. Egyptian public pressure threatened Nasser’s government and made him decide to re-equip his army to resist the Israeli incursions. Nasser made no less than eight requests to America to buy arms, and one to France, but he was turned down. Dejected, Nasser bought arms from Czechoslovakia under the auspices of the Soviet Union.

This simple act of breaking Western monopoly on the supply of arms to the Arabs turned him into an Egyptian and Arab hero overnight. Encouraged by his rising popularity Nasser began opposing Western hegemony over the Middle East, in particular the oil concessions. The response of the Dulles brothers was to meet the threat to oil and Israel head on.

John Foster Dulles withdrew the American financial offer to help build the Aswan High Dam. Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal followed and the British, French and Israelis used that to justify invading Egypt. Though he lost the military confrontation, his standing up to the West and Israel turned Nasser into the most popular Arab hero since the Prophet Mohamed.

The consequent threat Nasser followers posed to pro-western leaders such as King Hussein of Jordan and Faisal of Saudi Arabia precluded finding a diplomatic solution and produced more CIA capers. Both Hussein and Faisal advocated closer cooperation with the Islamists. When the Islamists failed to assassinate or remove Nasser the agency took direct control of these efforts. The Islamists who escaped Nasser’s security apparatus stole American aid money and became very rich. Even kings took the CIA for a financial ride.

In the late 1950s the agency gave King Hussein three million dollars to destabilize pro-Nasser Syria. Hussein pocketed the money and did nothing. This coincided with American support for the autonomy-seeking Kurds against Iraq’s central government. Very little of the millions Kurdish leaders received was used for its intended purpose. In 1961 the agency offered former Saudi Arabia Minister of Oil Abdallah Tariki 15 million dollars to stop attacking the non-conservationist practices of the American oil consortium Aramco. Dozens of similar incidents followed.

But in what must be a record, in the late 1950s the agency toppled the elected government of Syria three times and in sequence put generals Zaim, Hinawi and Shaishakley in power. The generals were so corrupt and incompetent; they contributed to the neurotic country we know today.

Under Lyndon Baines Johnson things got worse. Slowly a CIA alliance developed with conservative and sometimes backward regimes. Johnson was the first president to accept Saudi backing for CIA operations. In 1966 the CIA sponsored an anti-Qaddafi Libyan group based in London to overthrow the anti-West ruler of their country. The group convinced the agency that a popular uprising would follow any US attack on Libya. A US air force attack on the country solidified Qaddafi’s internal position and angered the rest of the Arab world. The Libyan conspirators are alive, well and rich.

In the 1970s America’s policy for the Middle East became dependent on Saudi financial support. Working through the Saudi Chief of Intelligence and King Faisal’s brother-in-law Kemal Adham, both sides agreed to support Islamic fundamentalist groups throughout the Middle East. This misguided policy produced results. Among other things, Arab nationalism was no longer a threat to the West. In fact, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States became so close, it was inevitable that they would pull apart – which is what is happening now.

This is what 11 September 2001 exposed, above all the dependence on short term policy and feckless leaders. We utter heavy gasps of disbelief when the agency’s actions produce similar results to what they produced decades ago, but the lesson has not been learned. In the case of Iraq, the shortage of qualified leadership is very near the surface. Not only is America’s man in Baghdad, Dr Ahmad Chalabi, unknown to the Iraqi people, but he has been sentenced to a prison term for embezzlement. It goes further and according to members of the Iraqi desk and the State Department, millions of dollars given to Saddam’s political opponents under the Iraqi Liberation Act have simply vanished.

Things are no better politically. The alternative to feckless and corrupt leaders unknown to the Iraqi people appears to be cooperation with the very same people we oppose, the parties that represent the Islamic fundamentalists. Their potential acceptability is a greater long term danger. People sentenced to prison terms eventually vanish in the Middle East, occasionally violently. Religious zealots take your money to build institutions which eventually turn against you.

© Said K Aburish

 

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