Two factors may be impelling Sharon to take such provocative steps.

First, there is a growing chorus of leading U.S. military figures, active duty and retired, and prominent Republican Party foreign policy mandarins, who are voicing opposition to the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. On Aug. 25, former Secretary of State James Baker III added his name to the list of opponents of a unilateral American attack on Iraq on the op ed page of the New York Times. The previous day, the Tampa Tribune had reported that Gen. Anthony Zinni (USMC-ret), who was the previous Commander-in-Chief of the Central Command, and now an adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell, came out strongly against an Iraq attack, warning of grave strategic consequences.

Zinni also assailed the group of Bush Administration neo-con war advocates who never served a day in uniform. This whole grouping—including Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, James Woolsey, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and even Vice President Dick Cheney—is being widely referred to as the "chickenhawks."

"It's pretty interesting," Zinni told an audience in Tallahassee, Fla., "that all the generals see it the same way, and all the others who have never fired a shot and are hot to go to war, see it another way."

Sharon Popularity Crashing
The second factor driving Sharon perhaps to launch a false-flag 9/11-type terror attack on the U.S. is his falling popularity in Israel. It is almost a certainty that there will be a government crisis before the end of the year, and early elections, perhaps over Israel's dire economic crisis and the inability of the Sharon government to agree on a budget.

In recent weeks, Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna, a decorated retired Israeli general, has declared his intention to run for the Labor Party chairmanship and nomination as candidate for Prime Minister. He is committed to reviving the peace process with the Palestinians and Arabs, and has endorsed President Bush's "two-state" solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. His emergence as a "new Rabin" has added to Sharon's sense of desperation, and willingness to take such a risk.

Spy Scandal Coverup
One factor emboldening Sharon to attempt a "made in Baghdad" or similar terror attack on U.S. soil or against American targets abroad, is the John Ashcroft-led coverup of the Israeli spy scandals that form an integral part of the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, reports surfaced that a group of Israeli nationals, ostensibly working for a moving company in New Jersey, had been detained by the FBI for suspicious behavior on 9/11, behavior which had been reported to police in Hoboken, N.J.

It was later confirmed that the men were working for the Israeli Mossad, and that the moving company was a Mossad front.

Further revelations established that the Hoboken team was part of a vast Israeli military spy operation that had been activated throughout the U.S. beginning no later than early 2000, and which continued to operate, following the 9/11 attack.

Sources report that the Senate Judiciary Committee is now reviewing evidence that the Israeli espionage probe has been covered up, top-down, by Ashcroft's Just Department.

Lyndon LaRouche, Democratic Party 2004 Presidential pre-candidate, issued a call Aug. 27 for the coverup to end. He warned that any effort by Ashcroft to suppress the spy scandal would increase the likelihood of another 9/11-type attack on the U.S., and, by constituting reckless disregard for the national security of this country, would be cause for Ashcroft's removal.

Iraq War, Mass Expulsion
LaRouche also warned that a staged terrorist incident against a U.S. target—whether orchestrated by Sharon or by Sharon-allied covert networks inside the U.S. military/intelligence apparatus—could impel President Bush to violate the Constitution by launching a unilateral military action against Iraq, without consulting with Congress or America's European or Arab allies, and without proof of Iraqi involvement. This kind of action would delight the President's enemies, who might then move to impeach him from office.

For his part, Sharon would use the occasion of a U.S. attack on Iraq to launch mass expulsion of the Palestinian population from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This would trigger a general conflagration beyond belief.

One well-placed Arab intelligence source pointed to signs that Sharon is preparing to activate his longstanding "Jordan is Palestine" scheme.

For the past month, the Israeli press has been full of violent attacks against the "Arabs of 1948," the Arab inhabitants who remained in Israel after statehood, and who now constitute 20% of the Israeli citizenry. These attacks are preparatory to a move to expel them from Israel, as part of the mass transfer operation.

Sharon is aware that the Bush Administration, in recent meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II, has pledged that Israel will be stopped from launching the mass transfer, if the U.S. goes to war on Saddam. However, one source warned that Sharon is already planning the overthrow of King Abdullah, and the hand-over of Jordan to Islamic radicals linked to his own secret allies in Hamas. Sharon would use the overthrow of the Hashemite ruler as further "justification" for the ethnic purification of the West Bank and Gaza, claiming the need to expel all "terrorists" from Israeli-occupied lands.

Eytan Reactivated?
A second source, whose information has not been independently verified, provided what he claimed were details of the terror plot. He says Rafi Eytan, former Mossad European operations director and Jonathan Jay Pollard spymaster, has been assigned by Sharon to set in place a "mega-terror" operation in the United States.

According to the source, Eytan, the target of a U.S. arrest warrant for his role in the 1980s Pollard espionage affair, has been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico, and is now believed to be in the Ohio area, advancing the terror plot. Several former associates of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, of the Jewish Defense League terrorist organization, are said to be protecting Eytan.

Whether the Eytan lead pans out or not, the Sharon staged-terror provocation threat is deadly serious—and must be stopped now! One way to do that, LaRouche reiterated, is for Attorney General Ashcroft to end the top-down coverup of the massive Israeli spy operations.