Hersh: US, Israel support PKK

Press TV
Monday October 29, 2007

PKK Kurdish rebel group and its sister organization, PEJAK, have been receiving support from the US and Israel, an American journalist claims.

"In the past months, Israel and the United States have been working together in support of PKK and its Iranian offshoot PEJAK, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon," said Pulitzer Prize-winning, Seymour Hersh.

In an interview with Turkish gazette, Zaman, the leading American investigative journalist also revealed that the White House has lost control over PKK which has gone rogue.
Earlier, the renowned American journalist accused Washington and the Zionist regime of providing PKK and PEJAK with 'training and equipment' in a secret ploy to destabilize the region.

Commenting on PEJAK, Hersh asserted that Washington considers it as “part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran.”

The Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PEJAK) has been behind a string of deadly attacks on security forces in northwestern Iran. PEJAK is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.

The PKK-Kurdistan Trap

Last November Seymour Hersh wrote in "The Next Act" (4):

"In the past six months, Israel and the United States have also been
working together in support of a Kurdish resistance group known as the
Party for Free Life in Kurdistan.

Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Iran expert, noted in February that
Israel has a long-standing relationship with Iraqi Kurdish leader
Massoud Barzani (KDP):

"It would not surprise me to discover that Israel is using the Kurdish
areas of Iraq to undermine Iran's influence in Iraq and monitor what's
going on along the Iranian border, as well as to undermine the Iranian
government itself," Javedanfar said. According to a PEJAK training camp
commander, Hussein Afsheen, "PKK gives ideological and logistical
support" to the western backed militia. (18)

http://www.nowpublic.com/politics/pkk-kurdistan-trap

Israel would prefer a weak and decentralized Iraq, if not a divided one. According to Beirut's Daily Star of July 17, "It appears that Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, one of Erdogan's closest confidants, was behind the leak on Israeli interference in Kurdistan, to demonstrate Ankara's deepening anxiety that Kurdish aspirations of independence will be fueled by Israeli interference

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG28Ak02.html

Israel and Kurdistan: What's the Connection?
It seems as though Israel is losing confidence in America’s ability to establish a democratic and free state in Iraq. According to recent reports, Israel is cultivating a military relationship with the Kurds in the region - a relationship which would allow them to use the Kurds to strike at Iran and others in the region if needed.
Seymour M. Hersh writes for the New Yorker:

In a series of interviews in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, officials told me that by the end of last year Israel had concluded that the Bush Administration would not be able to bring stability or democracy to Iraq, and that Israel needed other options. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government decided, I was told, to minimize the damage that the war was causing to Israel’s strategic position by expanding its long-standing relationship with Iraq’s Kurds and establishing a significant presence on the ground in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Several officials depicted Sharon’s decision, which involves a heavy financial commitment, as a potentially reckless move that could create even more chaos and violence as the insurgency in Iraq continues to grow.
There are a couple of reasons why this is seen as dangerous. First, Turkey doesn’t like the idea of the Kurds becoming even more armed and dangerous:

Israeli intelligence and military operatives are now quietly at work in Kurdistan, providing training for Kurdish commando units and, most important in Israel’s view, running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. (...)

Just about the Kurds’ only friend will be Israel who is already hated so they don’t have as much to lose and much to gain.

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/094132.htm

Plan B
As June 30th approaches, Israel looks to the Kurds.

A former Israeli intelligence officer said that Israel’s leadership had concluded by then that the United States was unwilling to confront Iran; in terms of salvaging the situation in Iraq, he said, “it doesn’t add up. It’s over. Not militarily—the United States cannot be defeated militarily in Iraq—but politically.” (...)

He visited Tel Aviv afterward and found that the Israelis he met with were equally discouraged. As they saw it, their warnings and advice had been ignored, and the American war against the insurgency was continuing to founder. “I spent hours talking to the senior members of the Israeli political and intelligence community,” the former official recalled. “Their concern was ‘You’re not going to get it right in Iraq, and shouldn’t we be planning for the worst-case scenario and how to deal with it?’ ”

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/200.../040628fa_fact

Israelis 'using Kurds to build power base'

"Israel has always supported the Kurds in a Machiavellian way - a balance against Saddam," one former Israeli intelligence officer told the New Yorker. "It's Realpolitik. By aligning with the Kurds Israel gains eyes and ears in Iran, Iraq and Syria.(...)

By supporting Kurdish separatists, Israel also risks alienating its Turkish ally and undermining attempts to create a stable Iraq. "If you end up with a divided Iraq it will bring more blood, tears and pain to the Middle East and you will be blamed," a senior Turkish official told Mr Hersh.

Intel Brief, an intelligence newsletter produced by former CIA chiefs, noted early this month that the Israeli actions are placing increasing stress on their relationship with Turkey, which was already strained over the war. "The Turks are increasingly concerned by the expanding Israeli presence in Kurdistan and alleged encouragement of Kurdish ambitions to create an independent state."

Israel has a longstanding relationship with the Kurds, whom they regard as one of the few non-Arab allies in the area.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Sto...243588,00.html