Kremlin puppets and how they work

Editor's note: WND's J.R. Nyquist is a renowned expert on
America's fatal illusion of an international balance of power;
diplomatic and Cold War history; the survivability of a thermonuclear
world war; and is the author of "Origins of the Fourth World War." Each
month Nyquist provides an exclusive in-depth report in WorldNetDaily's
monthly magazine, WorldNet. Readers may subscribe
to WorldNet through WND's online store.

While George W. Bush and Al Gore argued about how to spend America's
budget surplus, U.S. crude inventories were falling as oil prices
continued upward. At the same time, the world's stock markets reacted
negatively. Yesterday's Nikkei Stock Average fell 467.74 points, the
lowest close in 19 months. U.S. stocks also continued to fall. As
these words are being written, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has
dipped below 10,000 for the first time in several months. All this is
happening as Israelis line up at gas mask distribution centers,
preparing for a possible chemical missile attack from the leading mad
dictator of the Middle East. Beyond these outward signs, however, it is
all part of a huge puppet show. We see the puppets, animated on the
world stage, but we ought to consider who the puppet masters are.

Consider the semi-puppet madman in Baghdad, who has sent a powerful
armored division -- made up of Russian-built tanks -- to the Jordanian
border. The Iraqis want a way into Israel so they can destroy the hated
enemy. It is all very theatrical, of course. Several days ago, Saddam
Hussein requested an attack corridor into Israel. But even an elite
Iraqi armored division is not very dangerous. What is needed, in the
last analysis, is an atomic bomb or a missile carrying weaponized
smallpox. But Iraq has been damaged by American and British bombs.
Consequently, it is difficult for Saddam Hussein to mount a nuclear or
biological attack on Israel. Arms control inspectors spent years in his
country, disrupting vital efforts to build weapons of mass destruction.
So other countries had to be used for this purpose.

Iran is of special importance in this matter, because Russia has been
helping Iran to develop its nuclear capability. After all, Iran would
like to be the first Islamic country to drop an atomic bomb on Israel.
In fact, the Russians told Vice President Al Gore about their program to
assist Iran in 1995. On Tuesday Bill Gertz reported that the Washington
Times had obtained a classified letter sent by Russia's prime minister
to Gore, instructing the American vice president to withhold information
about the Russia-Iran nuclear program from the United States Congress.

Is Al Gore a fool who cannot deal properly with the Kremlin bad boys?

And what was Russia's motivation for helping the Iranians? After
all, Russia is supposedly fighting Islamic terrorists in Chechnya. How
could a country supposedly at war with Islam on one front, conspire to
give the Islamics a nuclear device on another front?

Americans should remember that the Kremlin has worked closely with
Arab and Islamic terrorists for decades. Russia has supported and
assisted terrorist states like Libya and Syria. It has given training
and cash to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Russia has always
been the first to give aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Militant Arabists or Islamic extremists have often been found within the
Russian camp -- working as virtual puppets of the Kremlin. In fact,
Islam's strict moral code makes it easy for Russian intelligence
services to penetrate Islamic countries and recruit agents, because sin
is not taken lightly in such countries, and the KGB has always been good
at creating thick files on people with something to hide. Such files
usually assure a lifetime of loyalty to Moscow. And such loyalty, based
on the law of self-preservation, is the only sure foundation for a
puppet and his puppet master.

One chief example should serve to illustrate. In 1970 the Kremlin
became interested in an obscure Arab construction engineer and collector
of racecars, named Rahman al-Qudwa. Evidence shows, contrary to later
claims, that this "construction engineer" was an Egyptian, born in Cairo
during the summer of 1929. Rahman graduated from the University of
Cairo and served as an officer in the Egyptian Army during the 1956 Suez
campaign. Later he set up a business in Kuwait and made a fortune. He
then entered politics, founding a hopelessly small terrorist
organization.

But this terrorist organization would not remain hopelessly small
forever.

According to the former head of Romanian intelligence, Lt. Gen. Ion
Mihai Pacepa, one of the highest ranking communist defectors of all
time, Rahman al-Qudwa became an important political ally of the
communist bloc following the death of Egypt's president, Gamal Abdul
Nasser, in 1970. Gen. Pacepa's account of Rahman's intimate relations
with the communist bloc is related in a book entitled "Red Horizons."
As it happens, Pacepa tells us that the communists trusted Rahman
because he was a voracious homosexual. This alone made him a workable
Kremlin puppet, because once the Romanian intelligence services had
taped Rahman's sex sessions with men and boys, he was completely in
their hands. Afterwards, Rahman's friendship for the communist bloc
would be permanent -- if he valued his growing popularity in the Arab
world.

Rahman al-Qudwa is better known as Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the
PLO since 1968 and the president of the Palestinian Authority -- which
is now at war with Israel. According to Gen. Pacepa's account,
communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu ordered his people to bring Arafat
over to Romania. In late 1970 the chief of Romanian intelligence in
Egypt, Gen. Constantine Munteanu, arrived in Bucharest with Arafat in
tow. Munteanu had gathered an extensive file on Arafat, which
characterized the PLO leader as "so much cleverness, blood, and filth
all together in one man." Pacepa says that this was Munteanu's
"standard definition of Arafat."

Given Gen. Munteanu's extensive file, Arafat could not exactly refuse
the communist's "friendly" overtures. There is little question that
Arafat is fanatically devoted to destroying Israel, and would sell his
soul to the devil to gain his devilish ends. Therefore, a compact
between Arafat and the Soviet Union via communist Romania was not
something that violated any sacred Islamic rule in Arafat's heart.
Arafat is no Moslem. His fanaticism is completely secular. But since
he operates within the Islamic world, he must sometimes appear as a
would-be Muslim liberator.

The KGB and its successor services have gathered files on Arab
leaders. Secret sin is rampant, because men -- especially powerful men
-- are subject to more than the usual temptations. Sin is also
extensive in the Christian world, and we have yet to understand the
peculiar vulnerabilities of the United States in this regard. One of
the reasons the dirt on our politicians is often kept from the public
with great success, is because so many are dirty. There exists, in this
country, a virtual "conspiracy of silence" with regard to official
corruption. We should not be surprised if the same logic applies to the
Arab world as well. But since the Arab world is more corrupt than the
U.S., it is even more vulnerable to Moscow.

Sexual deviancy is only one sin. There are many other sins, as
well. When Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin told Vice
President Gore about Russian nuclear assistance to Iran he was tempting
Gore to compromise himself. Gore had to choose between angering his
Russian friends or obeying U.S. law and informing Congress. The
alternatives were not attractive to a liberal American politician. Gore
had to choose between his friendship for Russia and his oath of office.
It seems, contrary to his statement during Tuesday night's debate, that
Gore chose to break his oath of office.

On Tuesday congressional leaders asked for hearings into Gore's
secret relationship with Russia's former prime minister. Consider how
much trouble Gore got himself into with a simple exchange of
information. In a classic move, Chernomyrdin asked Gore to break U.S.
laws requiring that he report Russia's nuclear proliferation to
Congress. It is typical of KGB agents to ask for these "little
favors." After a certain number of such favors the Kremlin owns you.
Then you are paralyzed, and cannot act against Russia in any meaningful
way. If Americans want to know why our politicians are typically so
weak in their dealings with Russia, here is the reason.

There is nothing inconsistent in Russia's assistance to Iran, which
is simply a way for them to mess with us. And there is nothing
inconsistent with asking the U.S. vice president to break the law. The
Russians have everything they need to make puppets out of those who
start wars in the Middle East, and those who are responsible for
American policy.

It's all part of the grand Kremlin puppet show.