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                    Emperor's Clothes
                    [ www.tenc.net ]

To be used *only* if it works...

In 1954, the US Ambassador foments anti-Jewish racism in Iraq

by Jared Israel

[Posted 23 April 2003]

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Below is posted the transcript of a 1954 dispatch from the US 
Ambassador to Iraq, Burton Y. Berry. Ambassador Berry reports 
on US involvement in fomenting anti-Jewish racism.  

We at Emperor's Clothes have charged that the US-led Empire in 
general and the Bush administration in specific has a two-faced policy. 
While professing support for Israel, and supplying military aid, the 
Empire also uses Israel as a convenient scapegoat and, most 
important, foments anti-Jewish racism by creating the false impression 
that aggressive US policies are dictated by Israel. This serves to 
strengthen Muslim fundamentalism, which the US-led Empire then uses 
as a political weapon in the Balkans, in the Indian subcontinent, in 
Central Asia and, as we shall discuss in an upcoming article, even in 
Western Europe. [1]  

We understand that many people find such alleged duplicity hard to 
believe. Could it be that the US - widely pictured as the *friend* 
of Israel - would employ such dirty tricks?  

In an article to be posted shortly, we quote the leader of the Iraqi 
National Congress, Ahmed Chalabi. Mr. Chalabi admits that the US 
sponsored the first Baath Party coup in 1963. Of course, US operatives 
had to know that the Baath Party was formed by people who emulated 
the German Nazis, and that a central tenet of Baath philosophy was 
anti-Jewish racism. [2]  

And Mr. Chalabi is financially dependent on US largesse. It is 
therefore likely that he would understate, rather than exaggerate, 
the US involvement in bringing Saddam Hussein to power. [3]  

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US Embassy document: a smoking gun

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Below is our transcript of the dispatch from Ambassador Berry, 
acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. [1A]  

As the document makes clear, Mr. Berry supported the use of anti- 
Jewish racism to spread anti-Communism...as long as it worked. (Are 
we to believe that other countries employ nefarious methods because 
they *don't* work?)  

And remember, we are talking about the US Embassy, not the CIA per se. 
The CIA's scope of operations was far broader and entirely covert. 
It did the *dirtiest* work.  

Mr. Berry describes the contents of a pamphlet mailed out to 500 
Iraqi addresses supplied by the US Information Service.  

Some parts of the pamphlet are described as attacking Israel or 
Zionism, and therefore, of course, some people would argue that 
the US was not appealing to or inspiring hatred of Jews as an ethnic 
group. The falseness of this argument is revealed when Ambassador 
Berry comments that one part of the pamphlet,  

"...is a letter to the author of the Al-Yaqdha editorial - from one 
Ahmad Naji Al-Kurawi, who says that no one should be surprised at 
the expression of pro-Jewish sentiments by the Communists."  

Note that he did not say, "in addition to the rest of the pamphlet, which 
attacks Zionism and Israel, *this* part of the pamphlet attacks Jews." 
Rather he made no distinction between Israel, Zionism and Jews for the 
obvious reason that he did not expect the people reading the pamphlet 
to make such a distinction.  

Note also that one of the articles in the pamphlet criticizes the 
Communists "for referring in friendly terms to Israel." In other words at 
that time Reds - even Reds in the Arab world! - did not exhibit knee-jerk 
animosity towards Israel, did not equate Zionism with racism, and so 
on. This of course belies the claim that Left wing animosity towards 
Israel results from bad things Israel is now accused of having done 
during the 1948 war. If that were the cause, why would these Arab 
Communists be friendly towards Israel six years after the 1948 war, 
whereas Communists were intensely hostile towards Israel in the 
1970s?  

The violently anti-Israel position took root in the Left after the defeat 
of the USSR's Arab allies in the 1967 war. Starting in 1967, the Soviets 
launched a ferocious campaign against Zionism, complete with 
caricatures of hook-nosed, maniacally grinning "Zionists". [4]  

And finally, note that in his comments, Mr. Berry expressed 
dissatisfaction with the anti-Jewish propaganda *not* because of its 
racism, but because it did not receive "the popular reaction expected."  

In other words, the US and its Iraqi proxies were in the advance guard 
of ant-Jewish racism in Iraq. They were fomenting it, stirring it up...and 
the US Ambassador was disappointed about the weak popular response!  

The lesson could not have been lost on Iraqis: if you want the US to 
sponsor your coup d'etat, virulent anti-Jewish racism is no obstacle...
it just has to work.  

And of course the lesson was *not* lost on the Baath Socialist Party. [2]

-- Jared Israel
Editor,
Emperor's Clothes

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