November 1991, Page 5

Letters To (and From) The Editors

Pete McCloskey to the Rescue

I was disturbed to learn during my recent visit to your office that for economic reasons you're thinking of reducing the Washington Report to six issues a year, or closing it altogether. I know from personal experience that journalists and concerned citizens all over the United States depend upon you for accuracy in reporting US-Middle East affairs, and for information and guidance on what to do about them.

If your readers understood your desperate situation, they could help you continue the superb job you're doing. The country doesn't need another occasional journal. It needs your monthly output. Tell me how I can help.

Paul N. "Pete" McCloskey, Jr., Menlo Park, CA

To our joy, it seems that not only crusading former congressmen like you, but a great number of our other readers do understand. As a result we will finish this year having printed 10 issues and with at least guarded optimism about getting through 1992 diminished (we've cut two staff positions) but undaunted. Just keep talking us up. Every gift subscription to a concerned person this year results in more gift subscriptions to more potential supporters next year. One has only to read the newspapers to realize that what you, our readers, and we have been doing for the past 10 years has, finally, made the difference.

Sharing Good News

I am pleased to share with you a copy of a letter I recently received through the good offices of the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, from the Department of State, expressing the Administration's support for H. Con. Res. 43.

As you may know, I introduced Concurrent Resolution 43 early in January of this year, which expresses the Sense of Congress that the Government of Israel should take immediate steps to reopen the universities in the West Bank and Gaza. I am deeply pleased to have the Administration's support for the adoption of the Resolution, and it was my thought that you would appreciate having a copy of the Department of State's letter to this effect for your files.

Rep. Nick J. Rahall, II (D-WV)

The State Department letter of support for your resolution is in our Other People's Mail department on page 75, as is your own letter in The Washington Post setting out the facts on Israel's demand for US loan guarantees. We congratulate you as one of the few congress members who has never succumbed to AIPACs unremitting efforts to turn the House of Representatives into a House of Ill Repute.

We Won One Together

I achieved a victory because of an article which appeared in the Washington Report On Middle East Affairs. It is Parker Payson's "The Real Cost of Israeli Loan Guarantees: $3.1 Billion to $117 Billion. "

The Los Angeles Times ran a series of stories in which the reporters employed the phrase that the loans "would cost the American taxpayers nothing as long as Israel repays the loans. " Having read Payson's article, I knew that that was untrue. So, I wrote a letter to the Times and included with it a photocopy of Payson's article. I mailed my letter and the article to the reporters who wrote the Times series, the publisher, and the executive editor. The Times printed my letter with the information I had distilled from Payson's article. I also received a letter from one of the reporters to whom I had mailed Payson's article, in which he acknowledged that there are indeed "indirect costs" behind the loan guarantees.

I would like now to know more about the mathematics by which Mr. Payson arrived at his figures. Maybe a future article will delineate these numbers. Anyway, I had to share these successes with you. The Washington Report is responsible for them. Keep up the good work because, with your work, the truth will be told, and peace in the Middle East may become a reality.

Arch Miller, Arcadia, CA

Thanks to readers like you, Parker Payson's figures appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and perhaps 100 newspapers and magazines geographically and politically in between. A number of reporters from Jewish weekly publications also called to talk about the figures but, to our disappointment, no one challenged them in print. It might have led to an interesting exchange of views. Forsupporterslike you, and non-supporters as well, the mathematics of the matter (you 71 recall that Mr. Payson was the number-crunching author of our monthly column "Figure it Out, " and compiled the tables for our book, "Stealth PACs ") are on page 90.

Help From A Modest Angel

It has been a long time since I served with your publisher, but I have been following his work through the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Although my personal resources don't permit me to offer real help in meeting the crunch being experienced by the American Educational Trust, here's a modest check to signal my respect for what he and his colleagues are doing. Use it where most needed.

Phillips Talbot, New York, NY

It's a pleasure to welcome another former assistant secretary of state to AET's Choir of Angels. Because the loft is becoming so crowded this year, the choir's help is indeed "real" and significant. In fact we're beginning to believe it will see us safely through this financially perilous year.

Help From a Sea-Borne Angel

I want to ask that you send "get acquainted" subscriptions of the Washington Report to the three people on the attached list. Check enclosed. Wish I could have added a few zeroes to it. You should feel magnificent about what you are doing. There is nothing else like it.

Vice Admiral Marmaduke Bayne (Ret.), Irvington, VA

Welcome to the AET Angels' Choir, again. Regarding your last two sentences: We do, and you're right.

A Shrewd Observation

Enclosed is a copy of Charley Reese's column from yesterday's Orlando Sentinel. Perhaps you might want to include it in the "Other Voices" section compiled by George Shadroui.

When I first moved to Orlando in 1981, Reese's columns on the Middle East looked like direct extracts from AIPAC handouts. In the last two years his columns have become more and more sympathetic to Palestinian grievances. Perhaps he is receiving copies of the Washington Report, which, incidentally, gets better with each issue. Keep up the good work. guarantee.

Frank McCormick, Orlando, FL

You're a shrewd observer. A couple of years ago a reader sent us a very good Charley Reese column, saying it was the first time the syndicated columnist had made sense about the Palestinians and suggesting that if we reprinted it "it would drive him crazy."

In getting permission to reprint it we got to know Mr. Reese. He told us he'd believed the conventional Middle East media mythology until a persistent local Palestinian resident insisted on telling the columnist his own Story, face-to-face. A skeptical Mr. Reese heard the Palestinian out, checked the facts, and then had the courage to admit publicly he'd been dead wrong on the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. Since then, he's been an articulate and informed conservative voice for justice in the Middle East.

It shows the power of one individual (the Palestinian who wasn't too proud to insist on being heard to make a difference. As a group, Palestinians are woefully uninformed but fair-minded people who exhibit a lot of common sense. All the need are the facts. which until recently have been concealed so successfully both by the mainstream media and most of congress. The Reese column you enclosed is reprinted on page 27.

Another Book for the Catalog

At the request of our mutual friend, Pat Twair, I am enclosing a copy of my new book, Israel and the New World Order, which is a revision and update of my previous book, Holocaust II, which you may or may not have read. Revisions have been made throughout the book, and the first two and last two chapters have been completely revised, rewritten or added.

I thought the August-September issue of the Washington Report was outstanding and should certainly impress all of your new readers. In that connection, I would like to point out certain interesting coincidences. In "Background Brief, " it discussed the Bush Baker "ace in the hole" strategy on Soviet immigration into Israel, and mentioned that the "idea had just surfaced."

You may note that the idea "surfaced" and was thoroughly discussed almost six months ago in Chapter XVI of Israel and the New World Order.

I hope you, and the many other interested groups, are successful in resisting Israel's outrageous demands for a $10 billion guarantee. I'll be watching this battle intensely from our home in Maui, for which we are leaving shortly.

Andrew J. Hurley, Shell Beach, CA

We purchased your book from Fithian Press too late to insert it into this month's book catalog, but it's available from AET at $18.95 for one or two for the list price of $22.95.

Do You Need Clippings and Letters?

Attached are copies of letters to the editor on the $10 billion question. Both the Nashville Tennessean and the Knoxville News-Sentinel published my letter, in addition to our local Crossville Chronicle. Also enclosed is a Tennessean editorial supporting the president. I'm a little surprised at this. I also wrote letters to Sens. Gore and Sasser, Rep. Jim Cooper, and President Bush.

Do you folks have a source that supplies you with clippings from the various newspapers? If you don't get such information but would like to, I'll be glad to clip anything on the Israel/Palestine question, or any Middle East news if you wish.

Andrew M. Dolan, Crossville, TN

No, we have no clipping service, not even for articles reprinted from the Washington Report or information attributed to the American Educational Trust. The chairman of our board subscribes to two Wisconsin newspapers and in September alone mailed us five articles from them quoting us. We love to receive such evidence of effective ness from all parts of the country to show to potential donors, and depend upon alert readers for it. As for other Middle East topics, we welcome informed letters on Middle East topics for possible reprinting in our "Other People's Mail " department, and informed and accurate editorials and opinion pieces by local columnists for possible reprint. Nothing but the best since our space is very very limited. We don't need news stories since our own Clipboard monitors the NY and LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Thanks for asking, and you find one of your letters in "Other People's Mail " on Page 74.

Is Zionism Evil?

It is not often that I find myself at odds with my good friend John Dirlik, who reports the news from Canada so well. But he is wrong when he criticizes Abdurrahman Bushnaq (August-September issue) for urging "the struggle against the Zionist Evil."

To be against Zionism is scarcely equivalent to asking for the destruction of Israel. As Uri Avneri wrote in his Israel Without Zionism, and as I have done in my five books, the normalization of Israel's nationalism could lead to Palestinian-Israeli coexistence. An Israeli state propagating Israeli nationalism can reach a just peace with the PLO and the Arab states, but the propagation of Jewish nationalism cannot.

It is the abnormal Zionist nature of Israel that makes peace impossible—that is, the insistence that all Jews of the Diaspora are part and parcel of a worldwide Zionist state and that they must eventually be in gathered ("the ingathering of the exiles") into Israel, meanwhile advancing its interests wherever they may be living. It is this Zionism which endows Jews with a dual loyalty that affords protection to Israel's continual expansionism, including the establishment of settlements in the occupied territories.

It is not Arabs alone who consider Zionism (and we here are referring to political, not humanitarian or religious, aspects which often cloak the movement) an irreconcilable evil. There are many Jewish Americans whose voices may not be raised but who, like so many non-Jews, deeply regret the events in the Middle East of the past 43 years.

Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal, Washington, DC

We'll point out for quick-to-judge readers that you are saying that Zionism would endow Jews with a dual loyalty, and not that this is in any way so for those who reject it.

Statehouse Campaigning Against Loan Guarantees

I recently received a letter from a woman who got my name from a mutual friend. She asked if I might help in fighting Israel's $10 billion grant request.

Enclosed is an article I wrote in Vermont's Peace and Justice News, which has a circulation to more than 900 peace activists. I have also spoken to Sr. Miriam Ward and we along with a couple of other people hope to be meeting with Sen. Patrick Leahy.

I'm sorry I've misplaced the name of the woman who wrote me and included the Washington Report. I'm assuming she is connected with your organization.

Rep. Tom Smith, State of Vermont House of Representatives, Burlington, VT

Thanks for your article singing our song. All 7,567state legislators in the United States received a copy of the August-September issue of the Washington Report, thanks to individual donors. So now you have two copies, and we hope they will persuade you to subscribe and donate some copies to others, as someone did to you.

There Are Arab Terrorists Too

Your July 1991 issue contained a quite detailed portrayal of Benjamin Netanyahu. But your coverage would have been more even-handed if you had done an opposing one of someone like Abu Nidal.

While Mr. Netanyahu's biases toward Israel are not to the advantage of the United States or Palestinians, his position during the Gulf war was certainly mild in the extreme. Israel had every right to respond to being attacked. But because of non-Israeli responses that would have complicated the overall situation, Israel had to hold back.

Saddam Hussein did not hold back. Nor will he if a new Soviet militarism takes hold. Terrorists who bombed planes and shot up innocent civilians at airports held nothing back, including ethics and morality.

Next time you do an exposé on an Israeli who happens to speak English/American well, do one on an Arab who has cut down innocent children who were still being carried in their mothers' arms. That would be the kind of coverage that more of your readers need to see. True, it could be construed as pro-Israeli or pro-Western media exposure, but isn't anything critical of the Third World pro-West anyway?

Frank G. Anderson, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

The Washington Reportcarried a lengthy and highly critical article entitled "Abu Nidal: Portrait of a Renegade, " in its February 1990 issue. Your letter reminds us of the storm of protests from pro-Iraq readers which followed the personality piece on Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US Sheikh Saud Nasir Al Sabah in our October 1990 issue. In it we tried faithfully to present his viewpoints in his own words. That storm was exceeded one month later by protests from anti-Iraq readers after we published a personality piece on Iraqi Ambassador Mohammad Mashat, in which we tried faithfully to present his viewpoints in his own words. We can't recall anyone, except Ambassador Mashat himself, thanking us for just trying to be fair. We agree with you, totally, that there are two (or more) sides to every question. Our job, while acknowledging that, is to make sure our readers are exposed to the sides, and the facts, not myths, they are least likely to find anywhere else.

Your Voice Needs to be Heard

Since we first learned of your publication earlier this year from our good friend, Frank Afranji, we have been devoted readers. Yours is a voice that needs to be heard in the vast wasteland of propaganda we call the "media" of this country. To that end, we have enclosed a small token of our support for all of your work. As you point out in your October issue, what you need is a rich benefactor—which, unfortunately, we are not. But we send our gift in faith, knowing that the God Who blesses all good intentions will use it as befitting the cause. Thank you for all of your hard work. You are always in our prayers and good intentions.

Larry and Mary Hansen, Aloha, OR

Rula Abu Duhou

I, too, was moved to sympathy after reading the article about Rula Abu Duhou in the December 1990 issue of your fine publication., Only unlike the reader from Nashville, TN (Letters, October 1991) who thought that Sen. Albert Gore, Jr., a pro-Israel PAC recipient, might have influence with the Israeli government, I inquired elsewhere concerning the prison wherein Rula is incarcerated. My intent was to let her know that some Americans are aware of the barbarities sanctioned by the Israeli government and practiced by their minions, and that we are protesting the outrages to our government officials.

Shortly after writing to Rula, I received a letter from her which I am enclosing. Unless you feel that printing all, or any part, of it will result in further torture or punishment for her, you have my permission to quote as much of it as you wish in the context of this letter (if it is to appear in your Letters column). While I have no way of ascertaining if Rula would also consent to its publication (without long delay), the thrust of her letter does suggest she would applaud such action.

In short, the oppressed Palestinian people need as much encouragement as possible. Readers interested in bringing Rula encouragement may write to her in care of PO Box 7, HaSharon Prison, Israel.

Thank you for your continuing efforts to give your readership the "other side" of otherwise biased news accounts concerning events and issues pertaining to the Middle East and the Islamic world and to encourage us to lobby for a more balanced political and economic policy in those troubled lands.

George W. Van Tubergen, Upland, CA

It's probably best if we do not publish the letter from this 23-year-old former Bethlehem University student, convicted on the basis of a confession written in a language she did not understand, and signed only after almost indescribably brutal, sustained, systematic and fiendish torture, as attested by her lawyer.

In any case, receipt of more letters to her in prison, plus a continuing stream of inquiries from US and Canadian leaders to Israeli authorities, may result in some alleviation of the harsh conditions under which she and her fellow Palestinians exist, while they wait for the justice they have so grotesquely been denied.

This Is Your Second Warning!

I'm writing in response to your response to Allene Long on getting on with recycling. First of all, let's not confuse issues. Obviously, anyone subscribing to this magazine knows that Americans need this information. But that has nothing to do with the recycling issue, which is just as important.

Next, you need to be as committed to the environment as Allene is and as you are to this magazine. If you had been, you would not have given up after just asking your printer. Maybe you need a printer that is also committed to the environment. Anyway, the technology is available, and I too expect you to start using it.

If you want to know how to access this technology, you can write: Greenpeace Magazine, Paper Department, 1436 U St. NW, Washington, DC 20009. Phone (202) 462-1177.

Hope to hear from you soon, and I hope you put this in the next magazine.

Jirius Isaac, Seattle, WA

We will contact not only Greenpeace but also the several other leads provided by readers to seek recyclable paper suitable for use with a high-speed press that will reproduce four-color photos clearly.

Love that M.M. Ali

I enjoy M.M. Ali's articles in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs—I would like your views on the BCCI affair. I personally know Mr. Abadi from the 1950s, when he was working with the Habib Bank in Karachi.

I request that you also write about Bangladesh. I am from East Punjab and was forced to go to West Pakistan. Because East Pakistan was much better for my business, I settled in Dacca. In 1971 I left Dacca and now live in Chicago with my son. God bless you.

Mohammed Iqbal, Chicago, IL

M.M. Ali's article on Bangladesh is on page 41 of this issue. A preliminary look at the complex BCCI story is on page 49. The editor is still trying to digest 45 pages of BCCI notes he gathered during September visits to Europe and the UAE.

More on Russian Emigrants, Please

On Sept. 30 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed an article on the effect that a reduction in funds voted by Congress for the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement was having on the Seattle and state offices. Last year about 3,500 refugees came to Washington, many from South-East Asia, who have an especially difficult time in adjusting.

Would it not be helpful if you printed an article in the November issue of the Washington Report about Congress cutting back on our domestic needs, while at the same time verging on guaranteeing $10 billion in loans to Israel to resettle Jewish immigrants from Russia who don't want to settle there anyway?

John S. O'Connor, Seattle, WA

Good idea. See page 19.

You're a Comfort

As my frustration grows with the media and Congress, I look forward more each month to my next copy of the Washington Report. When I read the clear-headed observations of events in the Middle East, I feel a rush of relief. It's a very good feeling to know that there are Americans who have the courage to speak out for justice in the Middle East, no matter the pressure not to do so. It's more than a comfort, I feel as though my definition as an American depends on voices like yours. Enclosed is my contribution and subscription renewal. Good luck, and let me know if there is more I can do to help.

David Ryan, Herndon, VA

Thanks From Sri Lanka

We got a copy of your Washington Report from a friend and found it extremely interesting. We are so glad that there are people in America who are concerned about actual "Human Rights" for the Palestinians. Please send us an invoice for a 2-year subscription.

We have done a lot of work for the Palestinian cause here. We have eliminated Zionist propaganda from the print media here by effectively countering it with facts and figures as against the standard myths.

We are in touch with the Americans for Middle East Understanding of New York and have bought a lot of books from them for sale here. Also we circulate their magazine, The Link, among parliamentarians, journalists and influential people. A member of parliament told us that the information in The Link helped him to get the facts right. We have enclosed one of our publications, Guide, and have put you on the mailing list.

Hameed Kareem, Centre for Islamic Studies, 15 A Rohini Road, Colombo 6, Sri Lanka.

No News About Iraqi Suffering

As a subscriber to the Washington Report and a person concerned about the entire Middle East, I have been alarmed by your lack of coverage on the Gulf war. To substantiate this claim, I have researched one year's worth of your magazine from Sept. 1990 to Aug. 1991. My findings are disturbing.

Within this year you have written about the plight of the Palestinians, Indians, Lebanese, Iranian earthquake victims, Sudanese, Kuwaitis, Saudi-Arabians, Soviet Jews, Kurds, Ethiopians, and Bangladeshis, to name a few groups. Within that year you have run photos, both on the cover and inside the magazine. Other groups you have shown are the Israeli Temple Mount Faithful, Kuwaiti, Saudi and American soldiers, and Somalis, to name just a few more groups.

I agree it is necessary to tell these peoples' stories, but with regard to Iraq, I have found, within this year, two photos of the damage and no stories. Shame on you. You deliberately fail to mention the plight of the Iraqis. You claim that your magazine "seeks to balance the scales" and prints articles to "avoid the next war and all the tragedy that will follow if the cycle is not broken. " The only thing you are breaking is my belief and trust in you. Therefore, I would like my subscription cancelled immediately.

Dennis Denno, Farmington Hills, MI

Apparently you missed the 14 photos in the May/June 1991 issue (which wasn't easy since they encompassed both front and back covers, inside and out), and the two stories in that issue's two inside covers laying out both sides of the Iraqi-Kurdish fighting. Too bad you'll also miss the two book reviews on page 64 of this issue, the article by Sadruddin Aga Khan on page 31 delineating "The Human Priority in Iraq," and the back cover photo and caption. Frankly, we're astonished to learn that in only 11 issues we covered so much.

Conspiracies, Anyone?

I am inquiring of you for information pertaining to the role of the National Security Agency and the CIA, among others, in the events that led up to the president's decision to not negotiate in good faith, I feel, with Iraq and which soon resulted in the war.

I am a Ph.D. student/peace activist/writer and visitor to the Gaza Strip during the intifada for the Eyewitness Program of the ADC. I am doing a project this term for Dr. Roger Morris, formerly of the NSA under Kissinger, on how US foreign policy was shaped around the Persian Gulf war. He follows your publication and suggested I check with you as to any recent publications', remarks, papers, or monographs that may have appeared. I have read the standard press articles and am looking into the public testimony around the April Glaspie communications with Iraq in the pre-war period for indications of US intentions.

If you have any materials, ideas or comments on this topic of my research please contact me.

Robert Anderson, PO Box 4351, Albuquerque, NM 87196

We've had our say on the subject, at great length. Deathless as our words may be, they probably don't bear repeating. As the letter preceding yours indicates, however, we have (or had) readers who still want more. Some of them probably can provide more of what you seek than we can. So we've printed your address so that they can contact you directly.

"Two States, One Holy Land"

Continuing my relentless campaign to bring this "Two States, One Holy Land" framework for peace to the attention of readers of the Washington Report, I am FAXing herewith for your consideration a letter and article which I have just received from Paul Findley, as well as the current long-form and short-form versions of the framework.

Ambassador John Gunther Dean, who now spends about half his time in Paris and with whom I frequently discuss Middle Eastern matters, is a great admirer of the Washington Report and of its publisher, Ambassador Killgore, personally. He suggested that I should subscribe to it. Of course I already had.

John V. Whitbeck, 4, Place de la Concorde, 75008 Paris, France

Indeed you are relentless. Your ideas are original and challenging and we subscribe to those concerning Jerusalem. Congressman Findley has described your plan as a masterpiece. Our problem, as always, is space. We need most of it just to describe what governmental bodies are doing. But we'l1 try to give your plan an airing in a future issue.

Keep Your Eye on Congress

I do hope that George Moses correctly assesses the victory of Congressman Dave Bonior as Democratic majority whip as a setback for AIPAC's total domination of the US Congress (Aug./Sept. '91 issue).

However, I am not so optimistic. Politicians rarely buck powerful lobbyists and usually seek an accommodation. With AIPAC's "win-win" policy, which translates into having only candidates who support you as contestants for important seats, I suspect that an "understanding" has been reached. Certainly it bears watching.

Little has been said, by the way, of Mr. Foley's election as Speaker. A fine, upright man, no doubt. But also a key aide to Scoop Jackson for many years and, as such, a man with a long history of AIPAC ties.

Joseph D. Policano, East Hampton, NY

Whatever understandings were reached, we suspect they're all out the window. George Bush totally defeated the Lobby in the 15 days that began on Sept. 3, the day you wrote your letter. The polls indicate that unless the Palestinians do something very stupid, or the Israelis do something very clever, things will never again be the same on Capitol Hill, no matter what schemes Israel's media zealots concoct.

Thanks for Paul Findley's Book

Over the past 10 months I have received two copies of They Dare to Speak Out. I have read the book, and passed both copies on to other people who are interested in the Middle East. I found this book to be well balanced considering the nature of the subject, and very well presented. The documentation of factual information, plus source data, is to be commended.

I spent 12 years of my life living and working in Saudi Arabia and Iran as a petroleum engineer. I was at Ras Tanura during the June 1967 Six-Day War, and since that time I have followed the Middle East very closely!

While I am aware of the historical political-social problems of the Jewish people, and have, I believe, an empathy for them, there is no question in my mind of the unfair, undeserved conditions imposed since 1947 on the Palestinian people! Imposed, that is, by Israel with the backing of the Western world! For anyone who has spent time in the Middle East, and is concerned about the people there, I cannot see how a rational judgment could fail to be on the side of the Palestinians' desperate struggle for release from "second-class citizenship"!

I have also come to believe that if the tragedy is not soon recognized and addressed (primarily by the United States) then, in addition to political events in the Middle East becoming anarchic, there will develop here in the US a backlash against the Jewish people that could well reawaken old anti-Semitic forces which lie not too far below our society's surface. Both of these happenings are to be abhorred. Years ago King Hussein of Jordan said that "time was running out." I believe we are in the last few moments of the countdown!

Your efforts to disseminate factual, accurate and balanced information about the Middle East are to be greatly commended.

Robert Ackerman, New Alexandria, PA

Your copies of Paul Findley's trail-blazing book were probably donated by two separate friends who knew of your concern. AET has distributed more than 100, 000 copies of his book since its publication in 1984. Readers wishing to donate copies may do so by sending the names of recipients and $5 per name, which covers all costs: the book, handling, and postage. Let's make it 200, 000. It's just as timely today as it was when it first was written by this forthright former member of Congress from Illinois.

Independent Kurdistan Failed Treaties

Almost as soon as I received AUB's mailing of a copy of your periodical I subscribed for a year of it for the library of Pilgrim Place, a retirement community, and myself. On page 8 of the May/June issue, in Rachelle Marshall's article on the Kurds' suffering, I read: " . . . the Allies and defeated Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sevres, which provided for an independent Kurdistan ... Because of the opposition of Turkish nationalists and the indifference of the Western powers, the treaty was not enforced and the promise to the Kurdish people was never fulfilled. "

Why does not Ms. Marshall tell also that this treaty never entered into force; and that it was supplanted by the Lausanne Treaty of 24 July 1923 in which the Government of the Grand National Assemby, soon to be that of the Republic of Turkey (29 October 1923), undertook to protect the rights of all minorities, but has been frustrated therein by activities of Kurdish extremists.

Isn't special pleading more effective if fully accurate?

Donald E. Webster, Claremont, CA

Since we stand corrected, we'll seize the opportunity to note that just as few people talk about the water that, literally, underlies the territorial disputes between Israel and, respectively, Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, even fewer talk about the Kirkuk oilfields that are so directly germane to the nationality dispute between Kurds and Iraqi Arabs, and relevant to the aspirations of Kurds in Turkey and Iran as well. A Kurdistan with Kirkuk would become a major oil producer. And Iraq without it would go back to the minor leagues. That, we fear, is what much of the killing is about.

More on David Kimche

Two additional facts to add to Leon Hadar's excellent article on David Kimche:

1. David Kimche was a close personal friend of Robert McFarlane, and they appear to have worked closely together on the Iran arms-for-hostages sale. A New York Times reporter who happened to be in McFarlane's home shortly after McFarlane's suicide attempt reported that the phone rang while she was there, and the caller was David Kimche in Jerusalem.
   
   
2. According to Contemporary Biography it was McFarlane who persuaded President Reagan to appoint Richard Perle (a well known pro-Israel hawk) assistant secretary of defense, an appointment said by some to have had little support from Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. A former military liaison officer between the National Security Council and the Defense Department has hinted that Perle may have been the Defense Department connection in the Kimche-McFarlane-Iran arms-hostages transactions.

Roy Finch, New Rochelle, NY

There is a lot to be written about Robert McFarlane, with whom an Israeli official is said to have boasted "we had an arrangement. " Wherever he went, from Senator Tower's office to the State Department to the White House, Israeli access followed. There is no question that he opened the door through which the Israeli instigators brought Irangate into the White House. The question is whether he was a dupe, an agent, or just an ambitious young man who noted early that cooperation with Israel had a miraculously beneficial effect on his career. Whatever his motivation, his subsequent suicide attempt speaks volumes about those who sup with the Devil.