http://cryptome.org/bush-kills.htm
31 January 2002
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J'ACCUSE: BUSH'S DEATH SQUADS
By Wayne Madsen
31 January 2002
Today, The Washington Post ran the fifth segment in its series on what
transpired within the Bush Cabinet in the aftermath of September 11. Of
particular interest is what CIA Director George Tenent brought to the
table at Camp David last September 15. According to the article by Bob
Woodward and Dan Balz, when Tenent produced a Top Secret "Worldwide Attack
Matrix" that specified targets in 80 countries around the world, he sought
unprecedented authority to simply assassinate foreign terrorists directly
or though allied intelligence services. The CIA even prepared a
"Memorandum of Notification" which would allow the agency to have virtual
carte blanche to conduct political assasinations abroad. This Memorandum
trumped previous mechanisms by which the President would authorize
intelligence actions (but not assassinations) through individual
Presidential Findings. The fail safe mechanisms established under the
administrations of Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton
were simply erased at the urging of Tenent. In light of these
revelations, what was authorized by the President may have led to the
assassinations of a umber of human rights and ethnic leaders not connected
in any way with Al Qaeda but did represent bothersome roadblocks to a
number of U.S. military and corporate interests.
It now seems likely, given the unprecedented "license to kill" President
Bush granted to the CIA, there was U.S. complicity in the murders of the
following individuals. Human rights commissions and war crime tribunals in
Belgium and France should take a close look at these likely criminal
misadventures:
1. Theys Eluay. Today, the Indonesian army chief, General Endriartono
Sutarto, confirmed in Jakarta that West Papuan independence leader Theys
Eluay was assassinated by Indonesian Army units after he was kidnapped
last November 11. The assassins were members of KOPASSUS, a special
operations unit trained by U.S. Special Forces and CIA personnel and was
involved in massacres in East Timor during the Indonesian occupation of
that country. In 1969, West Papua was formally handed over to Indonesia by
the United Nations after a referendum, now widely recognized as rigged,
determined that the non-Indonesian population wanted to be Indonesian.
Eluay was a thorn in the side of Freeport McMoran, a Louisiana-based
mining company that has pillaged West Papua's natural resources and has
been accused by local activists of propping up local Indonesian army and
KOPASSUS officers with bribes and favors. Henry Kissinger serves as a
Director Emeritus on the board of directors of Freeport and former
Louisiana Senator J. Bennett Johnston, recently identified as a lobbyist
for Enron, serves as a full member of the board.
2. Abdullah Syafii. On January 22, 2002, Indonesian army troops
assassinated the military commander of the Free Aceh Movement, Abdullah
Syafii. The Free Aceh Movement demands independence for Aceh, a region in
northwest Sumatra, and is a member of the non-violent Unrepresented
Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), an international organization
headquartered in the Netherlands. It has also been at loggerheads with
ExxonMobil, which has extensive drilling and refining operations in the
territory. Aceh's Governor Abdullah Puteh, who is claimed by local
activists to be on the payroll of ExxonMobil, had written a letter to
Syafii inviting him to attend peace talks with the government. Syafii's
lieutenants claim that the letter contained a small microchip that
permitted Indonesian KOPASSUS troops to track him down and ambush him. The
operation has all the earmarks of the CIA, which can rely on National
Security Agency (NSA) satellites to track such microchip transponders.
3. Elie Hobeika. Elie Hobeika was the head of the Lebanese Forces militia,
a right-wing Christian army that was allied with Israel during its 1982
occupation of Beirut. Although Hobeika was in charge of the Christian
forces that massacred hundreds of Palestinian men, women, and children at
the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps that year, he had irrefutable
evidence that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had authorized the mass
murder in his role as Israeli Defense Minister. An official Israeli
commission of inquiry found Sharon indirectly responsible for the
massacres. Hobeika was going to testify against Sharon at an upcoming
Belgian war crimes tribunal which has already indicted Sharon for the war
crimes. It was that testimony that resulted in Hobeika being silenced by a
Mossad car bomb that exploded near his SUV near Beirut. The bomb killed
Hobeika and his bodyguards. The CIA, now closely allied with Mossad, is
said to have given its approval for the action.
4. Chief Bola Ige. On December 23, 2001, Chief Bola Ige, the Minister of
Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria, was assassinated in the bedroom
of his home in Ibadan by unknown gunmen. Ige was a leader of the Yorubas,
a largely Christian ethnic group that has championed the cause of southern
Nigerian Christian tribes like the Igbo, Ogoni, and Yoruba that maintain
grievances against exploitative Western oil companies that have spoiled
their lands with pollution and pocketed most of the oil revenues for
themselves and corrupt Nigerian politicians. Ige was the presidential
candidate of the pan-Yoruba Alliance for Democracy but lost to the current
President Olusegum Obasanjo, a former general who is thought by many
Nigerians to be in the hip pocket of western oil companies, including
Chevron and ExxonMobil. A lucrative CIA and Pentagon front operation, the
private military contractor MPRI, has been training special units of the
Nigerian armed forces. These forces have been active in putting down
anti-oil industry protests by Igbo, Ogoni, and Yoruba tribal peoples along
the Nigerian coast. Michael J. Boskin, the Chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisers under President Bush I is a member of the Exxon Mobil
board, while current National Security Adviser Condolleezza Rice served on
the board of Chevron. Currently serving on Chevron's Board is Bush I trade
representative Carla Hills and former Louisiana Senator Johnston, who also
serves on the board of Freeport McMoran.
In all likelihood all of these assassinations were likely known to the CIA
and allowed to take place unhindered. The killings all directly benefitted
the interests of the US military-industrial complex that President
Eisenhower so poignantly warned us about some 40 years ago.
****
I more or less predicted the Indonesian murders a few months ago (just
after Tenent received authorization to conduct assassinations of
"terrorists") during an interview with Radio Singapore International. The
transcript of that broadcast follows:
CIA assassination missions - a look into the implications of this US
Foreign policy
Source: Augustine Anthuvan, Newsline, Radio Singapore International
Broadcast date: 30 October 2001
Wayne Madsen, a former Intelligence Officer at the National Security
Agency in Washington with this comment.
When Senator Frank Church had a committee in the
Senate that found out that the CIA was conducting assassination missions
against foreign leaders and they passed very stringent laws against the
CIA to prevent any abuses. And now what we're hearing is that the late
Senator Church went too far. Well Senator Church was responding to some
very severe abuses of authority by the CIA. And now we're hearing
basically history is being changed on us here and we're hearing that
Senator Church went too far in what he did.
And I think its very important now to understand that
these things are all in context and what people like Senator Frank Church
did in the 1970s really still applies today."
If CIA assassination missions are taken beyond the
present operations in Afghanistan to other countries where terrorists are
known to be operating, what sort of repercussions will this present for
country to country relations? A concern I posed to Wayne Madsen.
"Especially in countries in South East Asia, we have a
President who is very much in it with the US multi-national companies.
What if they decide that West Papua independence movement in Irian Jaya -
West Papua - could be a terrorist organization. And they could decide well
we're going to target their leadership for assassination because they
happen to be against the interests of Freeport McMoran - one of the
biggest mining companies in West Papua. Or what if they decide that the
Aceh movement in Northern Sumatra happens to be ... to the interests of
Exxon Mobil corporation, and they decide to target their leadership for
assassination. I think this is the problem with this type of wide sweeping
authorization to assassinate foreign leaders. We may find ourselves
assassinating people because they just so happen to be against US
interests. "
