RE: Ultra-right and anti-sanctions

[Third Way <thirdway@DELETETHISdircon.co.uk>]

Just what is Mr Williams up to?


>From: Chris.Williams@open.ac.uk
>To: soc-casi-discuss@lists.cam.ac.uk
>Subject: Ultra-right and anti-sanctions
>Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 16:25:29 +0100
>Sender: soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk
>
>It's interesting that just after the far-right group Third Way turn up on
>this list, we see that in Austria, Germany and France, the far right are
>actively supporting the anti-sanctions cause.


What is really interesting is the degree to which Mr Williams has 
engaged in deliberate disinformation and innuendo... so a few points 
of correction:

For starters, 3W is *not* a "far-right" group and does not associate 
with such groups. Third way is not anti-semitic; indeed, 3W has 
itself been condemned by the far right as being pro-semitic!

Nor does 3W support Haider - who in our opinion might well be a 
right-wing "trojan horse" of the Atlanticist wing of NATO's political 
support and convergence nexus.

Third Way was opposed to the sanctions and military attacks upon 
Iraqi civilians well before it became fashionable or the 
far-rightists took any interest in the situation.


>It's time for all good humanitarians and anti-imperialists in this movement
>to decide that they'll cooperate with a lot of people to end sanctions, but
>not fascists.


Weasel words from Williams; it happens that Third Way is not a 
fascist organisation. See the 3W website at http://www.thirdway.org
In fact, 3W is of the opinion that the present government of the UK 
is fascist or very close indeed to being thus - but it is intriguing 
that Mr Williams has voiced no objection whatsoever to NuLab and its 
Stazi State, or to co-operation with it and its transatlantic MIC 
imperialist cronies.

Indeed, on closer perusal of the item he has posted one becomes ever 
more curious as to which side Mr Williams himself is actually on, and 
as to whether he is genuinely concerned about the persecution of 
ordinary people in Iraq or simply out to hijack the anti-sanctions 
campaign for his or his own group's sectarian political advantage, 
whatever that may be.


>We've always got to be careful to remember the distinction
>between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
>
>Chris Williams


That's just about the only non-dubious comment Mr Williams has made.



============================================


>
>*  CONVICTED ARMS DEALER FUNNELS AID FROM EUROPE'S FAR RIGHT TO IRAQ
>by Eric Geiger,
>San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2001
>
>St. Viet an der Glan, Austria -- Until recently, residents of this sleepy
>village took little notice of a portly middle-aged Arab businessman living
>inconspicuously on the edge of town with his family, assuming him to be a
>successful carpet dealer.
>
>But Austrian media, citing security authorities, identified Abdul Moneim
>Jebara, 60, as a convicted Iraqi arms dealer allegedly acting as Saddam
>Hussein's liaison with sympathetic far-rightist groups in Europe.
>
>"He calls himself a mere export and import trader, but Austrian and German
>security agencies see Jebara as a pivot of an alarmingly close cooperation
>emerging in recent months between extreme rightists in the two countries and
>radical Islamists," said Vienna's usually well-informed and influential
>newsmagazine Format.
>
>From his hilltop bungalow sporting satellite dishes and surveillance
>cameras, Jebara allegedly is coordinating unspecified aid programs from a
>network of rightist supporters in Europe for Iraq, which is still under U.N.
>sanctions imposed in 1990 after its invasion of Kuwait.
>
>What seems to unite the European far rightists and the Iraqis are their
>common anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiments. In its latest report on
>the rightist scene in Germany, the Agency of the Protection of the
>Constitution (a sort of German FBI) said, "The American democratic system is
>seen by (the two groups) as an expression of cultural decadence and economic
>imperialism."
>
>A recent debate in Austria's parliament seemed to suggest that since
>settling in St. Viet (near Klagenfurt in Carinthia province) in the early
>1990s, Jebara has enjoyed the protection of high-level politicians who are
>aware of his activities and background.
>
>"How is it possible that a man of Jebara's caliber, who is known to have
>close contacts to the extreme right and the Iraqi secret service and served
>part of a six-year sentence for arms dealing, blackmail and tax evasion in
>Germany, was allowed to settle in Austria?" thundered Karl Oellinger, a
>prominent opposition Green Party lawmaker.
>
>Austria's 15-month-old center-far-right coalition government quickly passed
>the buck, saying that attempts to start deportation proceedings against
>Jebara have always been thwarted by Carinthian authorities. Joerg Haider,
>founder of the far-right Freedom Party and still its driving force, is
>Carinthia's governor.
>
>In an interview last week, Haider insisted that provincial authorities have
>no power to block proceedings related to federal alien laws.
>
>He also denied media reports quoting Jebara as saying he knows Haider well:
>"I'm vaguely familiar with the case, but I have never met that man (Jebara)
>and never had any contact whatever with him.
>
>"I am being blamed for just about everything these days."
>
>Among those reportedly spearheading the effort to funnel aid to Iraq is
>Germany's National Democratic Party, which openly woos skinheads and
>sponsors annual protests marking the 1987 death in prison of Hitler deputy
>Rudolf Hess that often wind up in neo-Nazi violence.
>
>The party, which all German democratic parties seek to ban, recently
>proclaimed "strong support for the suffering Iraqis" on its Internet home
>page.
>
>"The so-called community of nations against Iraq is a structure held
>together by means of blackmail, lies, bribery, corruption and violence by
>the satraps of the east coast," the statement said, using a term far
>rightists usually apply to the U.S. Jewish community.
>
>Also regularly expressing "solidarity" with Hussein's regime is the Munich
>weekly Deutsche National Zeitung, circulation 130,000 (15,000 in Austria).
>Its owner is Bavarian millionaire publisher Gerhard Frey, leader of the
>German Peoples Party (DVU), a group accused of racism and anti-Semitism that
>won 13 percent of the 1998 vote in the eastern state of Saxony Anhalt.
>
>In an editorial, the weekly attacked the United States for keeping Iraq in a
>"stranglehold" and asserted that Germany spent $18.8 billion in tax money to
>help finance the Persian Gulf War "even though Germany was in no way
>threatened by Baghdad."
>
>The publication also ridiculed as "ludicrous horror stories" recent media
>reports that the German intelligence agency (BWD) has new evidence that
>Hussein has revived his nuclear weapon production and may be capable of
>making an atomic bomb within the next three years.
>
>Openly pitching for cash for "our Iraqi brothers" are leaflets issued by a
>shadowy organization calling itself "German and Austrian Patriots." The
>flyer's signatories include Franz Schoenhuber, 78, the former Waffen SS
>sergeant who co-founded the once-surging extreme rightist Republican Party,
>and the leader of a Salzburg-based neo-Nazi group identified only as
>"Richard R."
>
>Security officials say funds and commodities collected for Iraq on
>"humanitarian grounds" are usually channeled to Jany le Pen, the wife of
>Jean- Marie le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front. Running
>a special aid organization called "SCS -- Children of Iraq," she then
>arranges for the transfer to Baghdad.
>
>"The idea of helping Saddam Hussein seems to have a bizarre unifying effect
>on assorted extreme rightist groups . . . not only in Austria and Germany
>but also in the rest of Europe," said the Austrian security official.
>
>Apparently that's where Hussein's man in St. Viet comes in. In an
>impassioned plea for donations for Iraq published recently by the Austrian
>far- rightist periodical Rule, Jebara was named as "coordinator for the aid
>action for Iraq by German Patriots."
>
>Questioned about it by Austrian reporters in January, Jebara not only did
>not deny his role as "aid coordinator" but also minced no words about his
>admiration for Hussein and proudly showed off a wristwatch whose dial showed
>a portrait of the Iraqi despot.
>
>"The Iraqi people are starving, our children are starving, and Bill Clinton
>(then U.S. president) is much worse than Hitler," he said. "The people
>helping us are just ordinary young people who finally recognize what the
>truth is -- and besides, their ideology resembles ours."
>
>Jebara, a former resident of Munich, was sentenced in 1986 to 6 1/2 years in
>prison for attempting to smuggle 40 combat helicopters from Germany to Iraq
>during the Iran-Iraq war, as well as for trying to blackmail a business
>partner.
>
>The verdict specifically referred to Jebara's "close contacts" with high-
>level Iraqi government and secret service officials, including Hussein's top
>security officer and the chief of the national "procurement agency."
>
>According to Format, Jebara also was questioned in the court in connection
>with the reported participation of German firms in the construction of
>chemical weapon plants at Iraq's heavily guarded Samarra industrial complex.
>The magazine said he was accused of engineering a hostage-taking plot in
>Iraq to force his release from prison. Jebara has vehemently denied both
>allegations.
>
>Jebara was prematurely released from prison for unknown reasons in the early
>1990s, and his motive for moving to Austria is also unclear.
>
>But some analysts point out that before the Gulf War, Iraq was Austria's
>most important trading partner in the Middle East, with Austrian exports
>amounting to about $400 million annually. State-owned and private companies
>-- such as Voest-Alpine, OMV and ELIN -- did large-scale business in the
>fields of manufactured goods, oil and power plant construction,
>respectively.
>
>"The Gulf War and the embargo ended the Austrian-Iraqi trade almost
>completely, and that's why it was with satisfaction that the easing of the
>sanctions in recent years was registered here," said the Vienna Daily
>Standard.
>
>--
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