Thursday, July 5, 2007

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2007 - AN INSPIRATION AND A WARNING

Independence Day 2007, celebrating 237 years of American democracy, came hard on the terror attacks in Great Britain. The failed bombings once again demonstrated the global nature of the terrorist threat against free societies. They presented a poignant reminder that freedom is not free, and that an attack against democracy anywhere in the world is a threat to our freedom here at home.

Two months ago, Canon Andrew White had a chilling meeting with an al Qaeda leader in Jordan. He reported the following:

"He told me that they were going to start killing in the UK then the USA. One sentence I remembered but did not understand was, "Those who cure you will kill you."

It is now very clear what he meant. Most of the people involved in the most recent UK plot were associated with the medical profession. Those who had been sworn to heal were bent on destroying life through acts of terrorism.

We cannot ignore the larger significance of this warning "to start killing in the UK then the USA." We have been promised a long, hot summer. We dare not consider this an idle threat. We ignore it at our great peril.

The immediate threat to America comes from the radical Islamist groups like al Qaeda who want to destroy us through violent mega-attacks that will claim large numbers of victims - even greater than on 9/11 - and create a surge of renewed commitment from their followers throughout the world.

They are supported by organizations like Jamaat al Fuqra and Darul Uloom, who have set up their communities throughout the United States. While they maintain a benign public face that feeds on our naïve political correctness, they strive to undermine us from within by supporting terror abroad and training their followers in our own backyards. Their methodology is to use local talent - residents (legal and illegal) who already have established themselves here and can strike whenever they receive the order. Our insistence on a national policy of political correctness - even to the extent of giving privilege to this particular minority at the expense of all others - has made us highly vulnerable to the growing threat which they represent.

The larger threat comes, not from a single enemy, but from many sources. It comes from our overt enemies - states like Iran and Syria, which openly support terror against America and the free world, and from organizations like al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah, which have sworn to destroy us - from without and within. It also comes from our so-called friends, states like Saudi Arabia and Russia, whose duplicity threatens us because even as they negotiate with us and speak about joining forces in the global war against terror, they openly support the terrorist states and plot against us.

The following article, by Konstantin Preobrazhensky, a former Colonel in the KGB who defected to the United States, highlights a major problem which haunts American policy - our failure to recognize the enemy, our inability to understand their cultural perspective, and our efforts to overcome the breach between us by naïve and uninformed diplomatic efforts.

Ilana Freedman, Editor

BUSH AND PUTIN - WHAT CAN A RABBIT SEE IN THE EYES OF BOA CONSTRICTOR?

By Konstantin Preobrazhensky

On his recent visit to the US, Russia's President Vladimir Putin was given a privilege which other foreign leaders have not enjoyed - he was a guest at the Bush family home in Kennebunkport, Maine. It was, in fact, a privilege he has done nothing to deserve.

According to the Washington Post, "Bush hoped that the relaxed atmosphere at his father's summer home and the opportunities for leisure activities like boating and fishing would ease the growing strains in his relationship with the increasingly outspoken Putin," (Maine Coast a Relaxed Setting For Bush, Putin Talks, by Caren Bohan, June 29, 2007).

But the logic which drives American policy does not coincide with Russian logic. It has only brought the Russian people a sweet satisfaction that Americans do not yet comprehend. Russians see Bush's effort towards diplomacy as a sign of surrender. They perceive that President Putin has won a victory over America once again! According to Russian thinking, Bush has demonstrated his weakness in front of Putin, confirming that the Russian President was right and just in his anti-American policy.

The Russian mentality has been deeply affected by 70 years of Communism. Many millions of Russians have prison experience, and bring a criminal psychology into the national perspective, which perceives that delicacy and concessions are characteristic of defeat.

Putin's Real Agenda

At the end of June, just a few days before coming to America, Putin hosted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Moscow. His visit to Russia became a mammoth anti-American demonstration, which the American government has largely ignored. By not challenging this overt affront, America again demonstrated our weakness and defeat, according to Russians' minds.

It appears that President Bush's attempts to ease strains with Putin indicate that he really thinks that the roots of Putin's anti-Americanism are somehow the result of American foreign policy. But in fact, this country is not to blame. Putin's anti-Americanism is firmly rooted in Russia. Hatred of America is hatred of democracy. Russia's increasing deviation from democracy at home has been accompanied by a growing wave of anti-Americanism. In fact, Putin needs it in order to consolidate the nation on the basis of hatred of the exterior enemy. It helps him to put the screws to Russians. Anti-Americanism lives in the souls of a few generations of Russians being nourished by the Communist school education. Putin just cunningly exploits this historical relic.

He is therefore not interested in improving relations with America. He wants to preserve the current situation. That is why he only feigns diplomatic activity, following the rule of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the communist Soviet State.

Lenin used to say that the best way to avoid solving a problem is to appoint a commission for its resolution. For example, introduce a commission to fight hunger instead of actually fighting hunger.

What then is a missile information center in Moscow, the creation of which Putin has proposed to Bush, if not such a Lenin commission? What kind of missile information does Moscow lack? Its intelligence has provided a lot of such information. The Moscow missile informational center will become a mere center of endless discussions and will provide the opportunity for the FSB (the Federal Security Service, formerly the KGB) to steal American missile information. Putin has proposed to use an early warning base, which is under construction in southern Russia. But do the Americans know how long the construction may last in Russia? It will last for decades, if necessary.

In June 2001, at a press conference with Putin, Bush commented that he had looked Putin in the eye, and "found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. I was able to get a sense of his soul." A lot of Americans want President Bush to look into Putin's eyes once again and reassess his conclusions. But what will he see there?

At KGB schools, young officers are taught to make their eyes expressionless so that nobody would understand his emotional state, especially his civil collaborator, or informant. Are the KGB officers satisfied with his report or not? Does he like him or hate him? Is the KGB officer going to praise his informant or kill him? None of this should be reflected in his eyes.

Were President Bush meeting Putin for the first time today, his attempt to "look him in the eye" might be accurately characterized as an attempt by a rabbit to see anything in the eyes of a boa constrictor. Putin is much more cynical and sophisticated then his Western colleagues. His severe childhood experience goes far beyond what Western people can imagine or understand. His parents could not buy enough food for him, not only because of lack of money, but also because of the lack of food in the Soviet stores. Only the children of privileged families, as I was, could eat well in the 1960s! When I got out of my father's black Volga limousine, I saw the eyes of poor boys, like Putin, which were full of hatred and envy. They will never forgive me this limousine, like Putin will never forgive President Bush for his life of privilege, as opposed to his own impoverished childhood.

We can all try to look into Putin's eyes on the TV screen. We shall see there a coldness mocking the efforts of a naïve policy. We shall see the cold eyes of a murderer. We shall see the signs of a strong inferiority complex, and we shall also see a man who is not happy at all though he is a President. He has been crushed by the burden of the merciless KGB state he has created out of the ashes of a democratic experiment. His aim is to maintain the power that he has achieved and to destroy whatever threatens his universe.

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