Hi Lazlo,
Just visiting. I must start by saying I've been called a self-hating Jew on more than one forum/YouTube debate, but there exists contraindications that Sept 11/Afgh War/Iraq War was completely set up to benefit Israel -- though it did and certainly seems to be part of the agenda.

For one example, cooperativeresearch (no i don't buy their conclusions completely or anyone's) had a history of Chalabi going back to 1991. At that time, Poppy Bush told the CIA to begin creating foreign propaganda to overthrow Saddam.

By the way, Bush was considered an enemy by many Israelis -- Ari Ben Menashe's ex-spy book Profits of War said Israelis plotted to killing Bush and blame Palestinians. Or was that Ostrovsky? Or both? Anyhow ...

The CIA funded the Rendon Group in London and a Mr. Francis Brooks (evangelical Christian) began disseminating anti-Iraq propaganda for $40,000/month. Rendon group is who "created" Chalabi. Chalabi wanted Saddam's job. Chalabi moved to DC, and Brooks and Brooks' family moved into Chalabi's expensive Georgetown condo. In a nutshell, they tried lobbying Democrats, but Dems were reluctant to launch a war, so Brooks had Chalabi switch to Republicans, Neo-Cons. Chalabi allegedly "charmed" Wolfowitz. Brooks also told Chalabi to woo Israel by telling them he'd open up an old pipeline that Saddam had sealed. And the rest ...

This shows that the Iraq War was planned LLLOOONNNGGG before Bush Jr. was appointed. Let's say that the Neo-Cons, having a plan, needed to hire a front man. Good ol Gomer Bush was selected from a field of other dignified men. Bush embodies certain PR skills that dignified men don't.

Another indication that Israel was not necessarily the lead is a book I consider a matching pair to the PNAC documents -- the Grand Chessboard. Brzezinski's book -- while not outright advocating military invasion, he's against that you see - more into Black Ops like forming Al-Qaeda -- did focus heavily on *controlling* Eurasia. This was about preventing any local factions from forming that could threaten the US (i.e. a strong Iraq) but more importantly, to prevent Russia/China from having free play there. Dr. B did not specify WHICH country to invade and overthrow. The Neo-cons did. But so did Bush/CIA, notwithstanding CIA analysts' disagreements over WMD's and the NIE. But Brzezinski was definitely interested in controlling Russia's and China's border states. A friend tells me about a Tenggezz (sp?) oil field North of Iraq, one that Russia covets.

PNAC (the whole group and dozens of ally "think tanks" i.e. PR pressure groups found on Rightweb IRC website) were not the only warmongers, nor Dr. B. American Enterprise (AEI) was in on it. So was Heritage, which originally sponsored the Afgh "freedom fighters", i.e. Al-Qaeda. We already have a bunch of "conservative-identified" war proponents, but also a Brookings/CFR member (considered a "liberal" group) and others.

Futhermore, MOSSAD participated in a lot of School of the Americas Latin American shit in the 80's, selling weapons, training military thugs on "counter-insurgency" from their skills kicking the Palestinians around, but it was the US/CIA leading these ops. (Some of what's now "Neo-Cons" were part of Team B in the 80's. Their role was to hype the Soviet communist threat, all out of proportion and literally based on "imagination".)

Given these examples and a few more I can't think of, I see what amounts to a dovetailing of interests between Israel and the US.

I don't discount Israel's crimes in Palestine. I don't discount the near-total media blackout on Israel and pressure to silence critics, plays (Rachel Corrie), Kahlil Gibran, Congressmen, etc. I find it impossible to discount "Jewish-controlled media", though it's not clear that all Jews in media are necessarily pro-Israel at their roots, there's a strong bias.

My impression is that in a "democracy" -- I mean a democracy amongst the elites in the sense they use that word, i.e. a business deal -- various players must come together on agreement, sign a contract. All the players expect to get SOMETHING out of it. One of the PNAC documents asks American business (high level target audience) to do some short-term sacrifice for longer term US hegemony and therefore, their own profitability and power.

Notwithstanding Zackheim, Feith (whose law partner is in Israel), Wurmer, Wolfowitz, and many others, and considering how "in charge" or in collaboration the US is with other Intell orgs around the globe (Brit, Pakistan, Germany, Indonesia, Saudi, etc), I tend to see 9/11 as more of a joint covert military operation which INCLUDED Israel, and Iraq as an overt operation the same.

I am willing to be found mistaken on this, but to me, it just makes more sense overall.