Brad Pitt and the Girl Guerrillas

The celibates of Ocalan

Reese Erlich

March/April 2007 Issue

The green and brown scrub brush in the Qandil Mountains acquires a thick layer of snow by late fall. In happier times, these peaks at the border between Iraq and Iran would offer tourists spectacular views, but these days the only sightseers are men and women with AK-47s slung over their shoulders. They are Iranian Kurdish guerrillas based among their Kurdish brethren in northern Iraq, and at the moment, they may be the closest thing the Bush administration has to an ally in its confrontation with Tehran.

Kurdish and American sources say the United States has been supporting guerrilla raids against Iran, channeling the money through organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan; last fall, The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh reported that Israel is also providing equipment and training. When I arrived in Sulaymaniyah, the Kurdish city closest to the Iranian border, it was hard to miss the Green Berets in civvies walking down the main street. "Suli is like some Balkan city years ago," one U.S. officer told me. "You've got spies everywhere. Everyone wants to know what everyone else is doing." The seedy Ashti Hotel looked like something out of a Graham Greene novel, its smoke-filled lobby a meeting place for obscure diplomats, businessmen, soldiers, and spies. Men sat around staring at glasses of strong tea; every now and again they'd pour a bit of tea into their saucers, let it cool, and slurp it down. I met a Kurdish military adviser at the Ashti, and when the U.S. Army came to escort me for a story on its operations, Humvees pulled up by the hotel.

Getting to the actual guerrilla camps was relatively easy. Kurdish officials unconvincingly insisted they had no idea how to find the fighters, but cabdrivers had no trouble pinpointing the camps. As my four-wheel-drive vehicle climbed the mountainside, young women in green pants and the distinctive twisted Kurdish headscarf appeared along the road. They were fighters with the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or pjak, which claims its troops are almost 50 percent female.

Part underground movement, part cult, pjak requires its fighters to eschew sex and study the teachings of Abdullah Ocalan, a Nietzsche-quoting Turkish Kurd who is its spiritual leader. Ocalan's political organization, the radical Kurdistan Workers Party (pkk), is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. pjak's relationship with the party is supposed to be arm's length, but I had to pass through two pkk checkpoints on my way to the guerrillas' camp, each of them relaying information up the line via walkie-talkie. Finally, the fighters welcomed me into a room with a threadbare carpet on the floor and a kerosene stove blasting heat; posters of Ocalan hung on the wall along with the pkk flag. While waiting for their leaders to descend from the mountains, I asked one of the women what they did to stave off boredom. "We watch satellite TV," she said, insisting that they cared only for news programs before confessing, with a shy smile, "We like Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson."

That was about the only American influence anyone at the camp would admit to. The fighters' commander had recently died in a flash flood, and his replacement—a fortysomething man with prematurely gray hair who stood perhaps 5 feet 5 inches—introduced himself as Zenar Agri. He informed me that in 2006 the guerrillas had killed about 100 Iranians in their cross-border skirmishes. He said they were not getting U.S. help, then smiled, "But we would love to have American support." He also told me that before the pkk's emergence, "the Kurds didn't know about their history and how to struggle," but now Kurds could follow Ocalan's road to liberation.

Back in the valley, I found a different kind of Kurdish organizing at the University of Sulaimani, where many Iranian Kurdish activists have come to study. The scene could have been any U.S. campus; almost everyone wore blue jeans, and only a few of the women had their heads covered. I sat down with two Iranian students who said they had come to Iraq illegally, following smugglers' trails over the mountains. They talked openly about the competition between Iranian Kurdish parties to attract U.S. support. Hiwa, a film student who described himself as the future Stanley Kubrick of Kurdistan, told me Washington ought to be ecumenical: "All parties should have connections with the U.S."

So far, Washington seems to feel the same way. The two main Iranian Kurdish parties, Komala and the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (kdpi), have been allowed to operate openly in northern Iraq; both say their focus is on political organizing within Iran. "We have not opposed armed struggle," Mustafa Hejri, leader of the kdpi, told me. "But for now we believe political activity benefits the party more." Hejri, along with other top kdpi and Komala officials, went to Washington last year for meetings at the State Department and on Capitol Hill. They "listened to us and asked questions," Komala leader Abdullah Mohtadi told me. "It was a step forward." Most other Iranian opposition leaders I spoke to were critical of U.S. policy toward Tehran and said the administration's allocation of $85 million to "promote democracy" in Iran had backfired by making the population rally around the embattled Islamist government. The Kurdish Iranian parties, on the other hand, told me they were looking forward to getting U.S. funding. "We're pragmatists," Mohtadi told me. The United States "can't make democracy by force, but it can topple dictators."

Reese Erlich's book, "The Iran Agenda: The Truth Behind US Policy and the Middle East Crisis," will be published in September 2007. See his interviews with Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and other Iranian opposition leaders at: motherjones.com/iran_dissidents.

The Kurdish problem

This situation has the potential to blow up the world.
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Related
How an ex-Mossad chief, a German uberspy, and a gaggle of top-dollar GOP lobbyists helped Kurdistan snag 15 tons of $100 bills
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03:51pm

The EU today voiced predictable alarm after Turkey's top brass said a cross-border incursion into northern Iraq "was a must" to deal with Kurdish rebels. A large-scale incursion into northern Iraq would hardly boost Turkey's chances of joining the EU club, and has been a long-standing nightmare scenario for the US as it desperately tries to stabilise Iraq.

With his hands full in Baghdad, the last thing the US general in charge of Iraq, General David Petraeus, needs is for northern Iraq, one of the few havens of stability in the country, to descend into conflict pitching two of its allies at each other's throats.

As Juan Cole notes: "The Turkish-Iraqi border is now a tinderbox. This is the other shoe in the Iraq conflict."

What set alarm bells ringing in Brussels and Washington were remarks from Yasar Buyukanit, Turkey's chief of staff. In comments probably even too candid for Turkey's civilian leaders, the be-medalled general said: "Should there be an operation into northern Iraq? From a solely militaristic point of view, yes, there should be."

The general did acknowledge that such a decision would ultimately have to come from parliament, but the Bush administration will find such remarks unsettling. Although part of Nato, Turkey refused to allow its territory to be used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Tension between the Turks and the Iraqi Kurds has been steadily rising. Recent clashes have left a dozen Turkish soldiers dead and Turkey has complained about American unwillingness or inability to crack down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) insurgents operating out of northern Iraq.

Recent remarks by Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish leader of northern Iraq, have infuriated Turkey. He effectively told the Turks to butt out of Kurdish affairs, and said if the Kurds wanted to make Kirkuk their capital that was their business and threatened to interfere in Turkish interests for good measure.

Turkey's biggest worry is that the Iraqi Kurds will form a separate region - or even achieve independence - in northern Iraq with the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as their capital. They fear it would become a magnet for Kurdish separatists in Turkey as well as Kurds in Iran and Syria.

Turkey has been rehearsing its arguments for intervention, including its claim to be the protector of the Turkmen ethnic minority in northern Iraq. American and European diplomats will have to work overtime to dissuade Ankara from military action that will only add to the chaos in Iraq.

By Mark Tran / World news

Ukraine, Turkey, Kurdistan Conflicts, A Tale of Two Realities, Iran-Iraq War, Dana Gas and Egypt

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Regarding the Iran-Iraq war. In a past blog entry of August 24, 2005 I quoted from a French book from 1981 regarding initiation of the Iran-Iraq conflict. In a current entry at the uruknet website, more is quoted from this very same source. I will link to the uruknet entry, first, and, then, after, I will link to a blog entry of my own from March 10, 2006, with some further commentary as well as an embedded link refering back to the August 24, 2005 book quotes. It's unfortunate that the entire book is not available on line, since there's much more background and historical context, including the contested area in the South called Arabistan. However, I'm very glad uruknet posted at least alittle more from this book. First link, www.uruknet.de/?p=m32038&hd=&size=1&l=e
For some further commentary on this subject from my blog entry from March 10, 2005, which includes embedded link back to my blog of August 24, 2005, www.karlmarxwasright.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-really-happened-to-shah-of-iran.html
Extending from the previous material and other entries, a translation (a thank you note for the effort of translating) which HELPS to shed some light on the current situation, "Entrapped," www.uruknet.de/?p=m32023&hd=&size=1&l=e
and, from an Arab source, this time, basically, recapitulating the information on some of my previous blogs, www.arablinks.blogspot.com/2007/04/advice-for-iraqi-resistance-on-us.html
In addition, the Arab Baath Socialist Party's own statement on the matters, above, www.uruknet.de/?p=m32064&hd=&size=1&l=e
By the way, a personal note as to the question surfacing regarding the American use of a neutron bomb in Iraq. I am definitely NOT a military specialist. As a matter of fact, I don't even know the names and differences between one gun and another and what they do. HOWEVER, I happen to recall a talk I heard awhile back regarding a "new" weapon PRIOR to the FIRST Gulf War that was to be possibly tested at that time. I cannot presently recall it's name for sure, but, I believe it is/was a "fuel air explosive???" However, I remember it functioned SIMILAR to a neutron bomb but was NOT a neutron bomb. Apparently, as I recall, it killed EVERYTHING that moved, breathed, crawled and was alive underneath it, but, left the structural edifices standing. The way it worked had something to do with creating an enormous explosion/fire in the atmosphere that sucked oxygen from the ground, thus suffocating and incinerating everything alive underneath but left structures standing. Could this be the weapon instead of a neutron bomb to which everyone is referring?? I can also tell everyone who is/was the person who gave the talk to which I referred, above. His name is David F. Noble and the last time I heard he is/was a Professor of History, I believe, at York University in Canada. (He was then living and working near here, instead, which is why I heard him). For those who might be interested in his works or contacting him, here's a wikipedia reference ( I do NOT recommend wikipedia, however, this is a SNAPSHOT link), www.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Noble
Or, do a search for yourself under his name.
Regarding my above heading a "Tale of Two Realities," I am, of course, referring to the ongoing, economic "internationalization and privatization of Iraq" moving ahead as if oblivious to the direction of the military realities exploding on the ground with more explosions, dislocations and destablization in the offing vis-a-vis Turkey and Kurdistan, as well as Ukraine and elsewhere. In case the reader STILL doesn't get it after voluminous information on my blogs, I can hit you/her/him/them over the head with a blunt instrument, "Iraq PM Calls for International Help to Rebuild," www.petroleumworld.com/story07041202.htm
Developments are fluid, ongoing, dynamic, so, I can only highlight a few points.
On the Turkish elections and Kurdistan, for example, "US-Kurdish Rift Emerges on Kirkuk Referendum Timing," www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70448
Then, "Turks [that is, private Turkish companies] Are Reconstructing Northern Iraq" www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70442 and, lastly, exemplifying THE fundamental contradiction represented by the above and the following, "Top [Turkish] General Talks Today," www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70504
As an aside, there's an English translation from a Turkish language source, Hurriyet, suggesting the following, "Barzani Bribed Former Iraq Justice Minister," regarding the deportation of Arabs from Kirkuk, www.uruknet.de/?p=m32053&hd=&size=1&l=e
However, there's no question on which side in Turkey stands the US Fascist state. With private business, naturally. The economic state of Turkey be damned! And, likewise, the economic state of Iraq! Both of which have been and are being privatized, destroyed, sold out, sold off and deconstructed as I write. "For whom the State tolls/toils, NOT for thee my fellow working class."
As an aside about privatization, in consideration of my previous blogs documenting US labor/union pension fund investment in this process, there was an interesting article, ironically, in the Turkish press gleaned from the Independent, about pension fund and privatization in Canada. Here's the link, "Pension Fund Set to Lead World's Largest Leverage Buyout," regarding Bell Canada, www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70443
As for the "battle for Ukraine," well, that's being reported ad nauseum. Try some international and Russian websites. For starters, www.rian.ru (English).
Meanwhile, in the ongoing saga of Dana Gas and Crescent Oil of the UAE which I've been following since its emergence, Dana has recently expanded into Egypt, with the distinct possibilities of supplying gas to Israel and well beyond, www.ameinfo.com/111787.html (If you happen to be unfamiliar with the Dana Gas, Crescent Oil saga, go to my blog of March 27, 2007 and work backwards, www.karlmarxwasright.blogspot.com/2007/03/crescent-dana-gas-internationalizing.html Previous links contained in that blog entry).
ALL of this, of course, merely being the extension, continuation, realization of economic plans after the dissolution of the Soviet Union to transform this highly nationalized, energy rich and strategic region into a center, pivotal point of a privatized, commodified and capitalized "Middle East Free Trade Zone," a critical component of the larger, greater global economic transformation.
So, along these lines, let me end on two opposite notes. First, the Pakistanis militant trade unionists, "Meeting in Solidarity with Airbus Workers in Multan," www.ptudc.org/content/view/120/36 A refreshing antidote to the American AFL-CIA.
And, lastly, an HYPOTHESIS on the "Eagle Group of Iraq." Since I have so far been unable to ascertain from any public sources available on the internet WHO precisely constitutes (private individuals and/or corporations) the "Eagle Group of Iraq" in what can only be described as a potential EXTRAORDINARILY lucrative oil bonanza, agreement between Canada's Heritage Oil Company, Mr. 5% Gulbenkian, and the KRG, Kurdistan Regional Govt, then, let's suppose, for example, it turns out that the Eagle Group of Iraq is none other than either Talabani and/or Barzani himself/themselves??!!! I challenge anyone reading this to disprove my HYPOTHESIS by publicly PROVIDING me (or others) the exact names of the investors and/or individuals who compromise the "Eagle Group of Iraq."