Posted on 28-6-2002

Power, Oil, Hypocracy
by Alan Marston

US President Bush told his key allies today that the United States would
cut off aid to the Palestinians if they failed to embrace the kind of
changes he demanded on Tuesday. Officials of other nations meeting at the
latest G8 Summit, including Russia, even though they are politicians who
make a profession out of lies and half-truths, could not bring themselves
down to the new lows of hypocracy + threats that Bush has now reached in
his `international relations' pronouncements.

Biased mud-slinging on my part? Not really. Just pointing out the
rhetorical mud that's already piled high and deep by Bush himeself. Please
frame the below in a country which had a very dodgy presidential election,
which has a growing list of corrupt practises in the biggest companies and
accountancy firms that the world has ever seen, that invades and bombs
other countries at will and that treats itself as seriously as a believer
treats God... and then listen to this:

Mr. Bush told reporters today, "I've got confidence in the Palestinians,
when they understand fully what we're saying, that they'll make the right
decisions." But then he warned, "I can assure you, we won't be putting
money into a society which is not transparent — and corrupt — and I suspect
other countries won't either."

A senior administration official briefing reporters by telephone from the
meeting site, in Kananaskis, (60 miles is as close as journalists can get)
took the warning a step further, saying that while the Palestinian people
were free to re-elect Mr. Arafat, they should know that it would cost them
significant aid. "We respect democratic processes," the official said, "but
there are consequences."

The senior administration official who briefed reporters today confirmed
that the president had received an intelligence report that Mr. Arafat had
approved a $20,000 payment to members of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a
Palestinian terror organization. The official said "the president was well
on his way" to calling for a change of leadership in the Palestinian
Authority, adding that the intelligence report was not "dispositive (sic)."
But another official said, "It was a factor in the president's thinking."

"The president has been very clear that he thinks that there are problems
with terrorism there," the administration official said. "We've been very
clear that it's a leadership that has done virtually nothing to break up
the terrorist brigades that roam around its territory, with which it has
clear links. We've been very clear that Chairman Arafat has failed not just
the world and Israelis, but he's failed his own people."

Hassan Abdulrahman, Mr. Arafat's representative in Washington, said the
Palestinian Authority had not responded to the allegations in the
intelligence report "because we have not seen it."