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14th April 03:52
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MOSSAD Can Target U.S. Forces, Framing Arabs
What they did not know what the mossad was planning the next day.
MOSSAD Can Target U.S. Forces, Framing Arabs
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/washingtontimes091001.html
U.S. troops would enforce peace under Army study
by Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
September 10, 2001
An elite U.S. Army study center has devised a plan for enforcing a
major Israeli-Palestinian peace accord that would require about 20,000
well-armed troops stationed throughout Israel and a newly created
Palestinian state.
There are no plans by the Bush administration to put American soldiers
into the Middle East to police an agreement forged by the longtime
warring parties. In fact, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is
searching for ways to reduce U.S. peacekeeping efforts abroad, rather
than increasing such missions.
But a 68-page paper by the Army School of Advanced Military Studies
(SAMS) does provide a look at the daunting task any international
peacekeeping force would face if the United Nations authorized it, and
Israel and the Palestinians ever reached a peace agreement. Located at
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the School for Advanced Military Studies is
both a training ground and a think tank for some of the Army's
brightest officers. Officials say the Army chief of staff, and
sometimes the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ask SAMS to develop contingency
plans for future military operations. During the 1991 Persian Gulf
war, SAMS personnel helped plan the coalition ground attack that
avoided a strike up the middle of Iraqi positions and instead executed
a "left hook" that routed the enemy in 100 hours.
The cover page for the recent SAMS project said it was done for the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. But Maj. Chris Garver, a Fort Leavenworth
spokesman, said the study was not requested by Washington.
"This was just an academic exercise," said Maj. Garver. "They were
trying to take a current situation and get some training out of it."
The exercise was done by 60 officers dubbed "Jedi Knights," as all
second-year SAMS students are nicknamed.
The SAMS paper attempts to predict events in the first year of a
peace-enforcement operation, and sees possible dangers for U.S. troops
from both sides.
It calls Israel's armed forces a "500-pound gorilla in Israel. Well
armed and trained. Operates in both Gaza and the West Bank. Known to
disregard international law to accomplish mission. Very unlikely to
fire on American forces. Fratricide a concern especially in air space
management."
Of the MOSSAD, the Israeli intelligence service, the SAMS officers
say: "Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target U.S.
forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act."
On the Palestinian side, the paper describes their youth as "loose
cannons; under no control, sometimes violent." The study lists five
Arab terrorist groups that could target American troops for
assassination and hostage-taking.
The study recommends "neutrality in word and deed" as one way to
protect U.S. soldiers from any attack. It also says Syria, Egypt and
Jordan must be warned "we will act decisively in response to external
attack."
It is unlikely either of the three would mount an attack. Of Syria's
military, the report says: "Syrian army quantitatively larger than
Israeli Defense Forces, but largely seen as qualitatively inferior.
More likely, however, Syrians would provide financial and political
support to the Palestinians, as well as increase covert support to
terrorism acts through Lebanon."
Of Egypt's military, the paper says, "Egyptians also maintain a large
army but have little to gain by attacking Israel."
The plan does not specify a full order of battle. An Army source who
reviewed the SAMS work said each of a possible three brigades would
require about 100 Bradley fighting vehicles, 25 tanks, 12
self-propelled howitzers, Apache attack helicopters, Kiowa Warrior
reconnaissance helicopters and Predator spy drones.
The report predicts that non-lethal weapons would be used to quell
unrest.
U.S. European Command, which is headed by NATO's supreme allied
commander, would oversee the peacekeeping operation. Commanders would
maintain areas of operation, or AOs, around Nablus, Jerusalem, Hebron
and the Gaza strip.
The study sets out a list of goals for U.S. troops to accomplish in
the first 30 days. They include: "create conditions for development of
Palestinian State and security of Israel "; ensure "equal distribution
of contract value or equivalent aid" . . . that would help legitimize
the peacekeeping force and stimulate economic growth; "promote U.S.
investment in Palestine"; "encourage reconciliation between entities
based on acceptance of new national identities"; and "build lasting
relationship based on new legal borders and not religious-territorial
claims."
Maj. Garver said the officers who completed the exercise will hold
major planning jobs once they graduate. "There is an application
process" for students, he said. "They screen their records, and there
are several tests they go through before they are accepted by the
program. The bright planners of the future come out of this program."
James Phillips, a Middle East ****yst at the Heritage Foundation, said
it would be a mistake to put peacekeepers in Israel, given the "poor
record of previous monitors."
"In general, the Bush administration policy is to discourage a large
American presence," he said. "But it has been rumored that one of the
possibilities might be an expanded CIA role."
"It would be a very different environment than Bosnia," said Mr.
Phillips, referring to America's six-year peacekeeping role in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The Palestinian Authority is pushing for this as
part of its strategy to internationalize the conflict. Bring in the
Europeans and Russia and China. But such monitors or peacekeeping
forces are not going to be able to bring peace. Only a decision by the
Palestinians to stop the violence and restart talks could possibly do
that."
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