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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998
Sender: Bob Djurdjevic <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Re: cj#775> Margolis' spin on Iraq
FROM JACKSONVILLE, FL
Richard, I read that Margolis piece a few days ago. It was one of the
(few) times he and I saw eye-to-eye on something.
Enclosed below is another piece which carries the same theme, but is much
more hard-hitting. Similar thoughts crossed my mind when I read George
Melloan's OpEd piece in today's WSJ about the reasons for bombing Iraq. He
never once mentioned Israel, of course.
Bob Dj.
A pop quiz on the Middle East -- answers may surprise you Published in The
Orlando Sentinel, February 8, 1998:
Just so you can keep up with the perpetual crisis in the Middle East, I
have a little quiz for you.
Question: Which country in the Middle East has nuclear weapons?
Answer: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-
proliferation treaty and bars international inspections?
A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other
nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United
Nations Security Council resolutions?
A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international
borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval
gunfire?
A: Israel.
Q: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into
other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called
exporting terrorism)?
A: Israel.
Q: In which country in the Middle East have high-ranking military officers
admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to prosecute its soldiers who
have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East created 762,000 refugees and refuses to
allow them to return to their homes, farms and businesses?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East refuses to pay compensation to
people whose land, bank accounts and businesses it confiscated?
A: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East was a high-ranking United Nations
diplomat assassinated?
A: Israel.
Q: In what country in the Middle East did the man who ordered the
assassination of a high-ranking U.N. diplomat become prime minister?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East blew up an American diplomatic facility
in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship in international waters, killing 33 and
wounding 177 American sailors?
A: Israel.
Q: What country in the Middle East employed a spy, Jonathan Pollard, to
steal classified documents and then gave some of them to the Soviet Union?
A: Israel.
Q: What country at first denied any official connection to Pollard, then
voted to make him a citizen and has continuously demanded that the American
president grant Pollard a full pardon?
A: Israel.
Q: What country on Planet Earth has the second most powerful lobby in the
United States, according to a recentFortune magazine survey of Washington
insiders?
A: Israel.
Q: Which country in the Middle East is in defiance of 69 United Nations
Security Council resolutions and has been protected from 29 more by U.S.
vetoes?
A: Israel.
Q: What country is the United States threatening to bomb because
``U.N.Security Council resolutions must be obeyed?''
A: Iraq.
[Posted 02/07/98 3:20 PM EST]
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forwarded by: "Carolyn Ballard" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Fw: South News: US threat of nukes on Iraq
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 21:48:35 -0500
> From: Ed Haynes <•••@••.•••>
> To: Multiple recipients of list mlas-vets
<•••@••.•••>
> Subject: South News: US threat of nukes on Iraq
> Date: Monday, February 02, 1998 7:14 PM
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Support MSANEWS, a project of learning and enlightenment
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Source: South News
Email: <•••@••.•••>
To: MSANEWS <•••@••.•••>,
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 13:24:56 +1100
Title: US threat of nukes on Iraq
TEXT:
Dear colleagues,
Newspaper stands in Melbourne today are featuring a front page story in
the Age
Nukes aimed at Iraq
The paper full headline is entitled
"Atomic warheads aimed at Iraq after policy switch"
The article cites president Clinton's top secret Presidential Directive 60
of November 1997 and talks about the B61 series of mininukes.
Full text attached:
While the United States preaches for the elimination of chemical and
biological weapons it is hypocritically increasing the deployment of new
nuclear weapons technology. Six radar-evading B-2 stealth bombers were
officially put into the U.S. nuclear force on April 1 1996 at an
estimated cost of $US 12 billion. The 3 metre long B61-11 drills deep
into the earth before exploding in a small blast whose shockwaves can crush
targets hundreds of feet below.
The threat of using mini nukes and new convential DU bombs must be
resisted.
During 1991 gulf war the used small calibre penetrator depeleted uranium
weapons which have caused serious radiation sickness problems both in
Iraq and Kuwait.
It is still hiding the facts from even it own Gulfwar veterans about the
Depleted Uranium contamination of its own personnel.
DU radiation sickness will not go away.
Dave
Atomic warheads aimed at Iraq after US policy switch
Melbourne Age
Page 1 , Monday Feb 2 1998
Washington, Sunday
The United States can direct tactical atomic warheads at Iraq
for the first time after changing its nuclear weapons policy,
according to White House and Pentagon officials.
The top-secret directive, signed by the President, Mr Bill
Clinton, in November, is part of the administration's
contingency plan to consider using atomic bombs on Iraqi
weapon sites if President Saddam Hussein launches a
biological attack on Israel or other neighboring countries
using Scud rockets, say the officials.
They said the policy shift involving tactical nuclear
weapons and so-called "rogue states", such as Iraq, was made
as part of the most extensive overhaul of US policy regarding
strategic and tactical nuclear weapons since the Reagan years.
"It is US policy to target nuclear weapons if there is the
use of weapons of mass destruction" by Iraq, said a
senior Clinton adviser who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "Whether we would use it is another matter."
The new policy was part of Presidential Policy Directive 60,
which Mr Clinton approved after consultation with the
Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, and the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton.
The United States is the only country to have used atomic
weapons in war, dropping bombs on the Japanese
cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Through the Reagan
administration, US policy promised massive retaliation to
prevent nuclear confrontations with the Soviet Union and
China.
With the end of the Cold War, the threats changed from
long-range strategic nuclear weapons targeted against major
nations to more flexible weapons of mass destruction
that could be used by smaller rogue states such as Iraq.
Administration officials say they fear Mr Hussein might
use a handful of Scud rockets to spread a powdered version of
anthrax spores over Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel, killing thousands
and making parts of Riyadh, Kuwait City and Tel Aviv uninhabitable
for decades.
During the Gulf War in 1991, President Bush threatened to
retaliate with nuclear force if Mr Hussein used biological weapons,
but his administration never formally adopted a policy. But it
was Mr Bush's warning that has evolved into Mr Clinton's
directive.
Until November, first use of nuclear weapons on Iraq would
have violated US pledges never to make such an attack on a signer of
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which includes Iraq. But US
officials say Mr Hussein's efforts to develop nuclear weapons would
forfeit Iraq's treaty protection.
Mr Clinton's threat has been deliberately vague. Pentagon
spokesman Mr Ken Bacon said last week the US refused to "rule in or
rule out" the use of tactical nuclear warheads. Mr Bacon's words have
caused rumblings abroad and among the arms control community.
The B61 series of tactical warheads involved in the
contingency planning are so-called "mini-nukes" with an explosive
force less than one kilotonne.
The bomb dropped on Hiroshima had an estimated 13 kilotonnes of
explosive power.
Even so, the mini-nukes are 300 to 500 times more powerful than
the largest conventional, non-nuclear warhead in the US
arsenal -AP
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Forwarded by: Carolyn Ballard <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Fwd (the right way)--William Blum on Iraq
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 10:04:51 -0500
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/ |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
/ /|_/ / /_/_ / /\ Making Sense of the Middle East
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www.MiddleEast.Org M E R E X C L U S I V E :
AUTHOR CONDEMNS U.S. POLICIES TOWARD IRAQ
__________________________________________________________________
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M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S
News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups,
and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know from Independent
Middle East Experts Around the World.
____________________________________________________________________
MER EXCLUSIVE:
T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S V S . I R A Q
A S T U D Y I N H Y P O C R I S Y
By William Blum*
Author of - Killing Hope: U.S. Military and
CIA Interventions Since World War II
"Far and away the best book on the topic" - Noam Chomsky
"I enjoyed it immensely" - Gore Vidal
"We have heard that a half million children have died," said
"60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl, speaking of US sanctions
against Iraq. "I mean, that's more children than died in
Hiroshima. And -- and you know, is the price worth it?"
Her guest, in May 1996, U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright,
responded: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price --
we think the price is worth it."
Today, Secretary of State Albright travels around the world
to gather support for yet more bombing of Iraq. The price,
apparently, is still worth it. The price is of course being paid
solely by the Iraqi people -- a million or so men, women and
children, dead from the previous bombings and seven years of
sanctions. The plight of the living in Iraq, plagued by
malnutrition and a severe shortage of medicines, is as well
terrible to behold.
Their crime? They have a leader who refuses to cede all
sovereignty to the United States (acting under its usual United
Nations cover) which demands that every structure in Iraq,
including the presidential palaces, be available for
inspection for "weapons of mass destruction". After more than
six years of these inspections, and significant destruction of
stocks of forbidden chemical, biological, and nuclear weapon
material, as well as weapons research and development programs,
the UN team still refuses to certify that Iraq is clean enough.
Inasmuch as the country is larger than California, it's
understandable that the inspectors can not be certain that all
prohibited weapons have been uncovered. It's equally
understandable that Iraq claims that the United States can, and
will, continue to find some excuse not to give Iraq the
certification needed to end the sanctions. It can be said that
the United States has inflicted more vindictive punishment and
ostracism upon Iraq than upon Germany or Japan after World War 2.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"In the not too distant future, when Iran
begins to flex its muscles a bit more, in
ways not to Washington's pleasure, it may
then be their turn for some good ol'
American "diplomacy"."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Saddam Hussein regime must wonder at the high (double)
standard set by Washington. Less than a year ago, the U.S.
Senate passed an act to implement the "Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use
of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction" (Short title:
Chemical Weapons Convention), an international treaty which has
been ratified by more than 100 nations in its five-year life.
The Senate act, Section 307, stipulates that "the President
may deny a request to inspect any facility in the United States
in cases where the President determines that the inspection may
pose a threat to the national security interests of the United
States." Saddam has asked for no more than this for Iraq.
Presumably, under the Senate act, the White House, Pentagon, etc.
would be off limits, as Saddam insists his presidential palaces
should be, as well as the military unit responsible for Saddam's
personal security, which an American colonel demanded to visit.
Section 303 further states that "Any objection by the
President to an individual serving as an inspector ... shall not
be reviewable in any court." Again, this echoes a repeated
complaint from the Iraqis -- a recent team of 16 inspectors
included 14 from the US and Britain, Saddam's two principal
adversaries, who are -- even as you read this -- busily planning
new bombing raids on Iraq. The team was led by a U.S. Marine
Corps captain, a veteran of the Gulf War, who has been accused of
spying by Iraq. But the Iraqis do not have a corresponding right
of exclusion. The same section of the Senate act provides,
moreover, that an FBI agent "accompanies each inspection team
visit".
The wishes of the Iraqi government to place certain sites
off limits and to have less partisan inspectors have been
dismissed out of hand by U.S. government spokespersons and the
American media. "What do they have to hide?" has been the
prevailing attitude.
The hypocrisy runs deeper yet. In his recent State of the
Union address, President Clinton, in the context of Iraq, spoke
of how we must "confront the new hazards of chemical and
biological weapons, and the outlaw states, terrorists and
organized criminals seeking to acquire them." He castigated
Saddam Hussein for "developing nuclear, chemical and biological
weapons" and called for strengthening the Biological Weapons
Convention. Who among his listeners knew, who among the media
reported, that the United States had been the supplier to Iraq of
much of the source biological materials Saddam's scientists would
require to create a biological warfare program?
According to a Senate Report of 1994: From 1985, if not
earlier, through 1989, a veritable witch's brew of biological
materials were exported to Iraq by private American suppliers
pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of
Commerce. Amongst these materials, which often produce slow and
agonizing deaths, were:
Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.
Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.
Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs,
brain, spinal cord and heart.
Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.
Clotsridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing
systemic illness.
Clostridium tetani, highly toxigenic.
Also, Escherichia Coli (E.Coli); genetic materials; human
and bacterial DNA.
Dozens of other pathogenic biological agents were shipped to
Iraq during the 1980s. The Senate Report pointed out: "These
biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were
capable of reproduction."
The United Nations inspectors have uncovered evidence that
Iraq was conducting research on pathogen enhancement and
biological warfare-related stimulant research on many of the
identical types of biological agents shipped to the country from
the United States. These shipments continued to at least
November 28, 1989 despite the fact that Iraq had been reported
to be engaging in chemical warfare and possibly biological
warfare against Iranians, Kurds, and Shiites since the early 80s.
During the Iraq-Iran war of 1980-88, the United States gave
military aid and intelligence information to both sides, hoping
that each would inflict severe damage on the other, in line
perhaps with what Noam Chomsky has postulated:
It's been a leading, driving doctrine of U.S. foreign policy
since the 1940s that the vast and unparalleled energy
resources of the Gulf region will be effectively dominated
by the United States and its clients, and, crucially, that
no independent, indigenous force will be permitted to have a
substantial influence on the administration of oil
production and price.
Indeed, there is evidence that Washington encouraged Iraq to
attack Iran and ignite the war in the first place. This policy,
as well as financial considerations, were likely the motivating
forces behind providing Iraq with the biological materials.
(Iran was at that time regarded as the greater threat to the
seemingly always threatened U.S. national security.)
As the American public and media are being prepared to
accept and cheerlead the next bombing of the people of Iraq, the
stated rationale, the official party line, is that Iraq is an
"outlaw" state (or "rogue" state, or "pariah" state -- the media
obediently repeats all the White House and State Department buzz
words), which is ignoring a United Nations Security Council
resolution. Israel, however, has ignored many such resolutions
without the U.S. bombing Tel Aviv, imposing sanctions, or even
cutting back military aid. But by some arcane ideological
alchemy, Israel is not deemed an "outlaw" state by Washington.
Neither does the United States regard itself so for turning its
back on a ruling of the U.N.'s World Court in 1984 to cease its
hostile military actions against Nicaragua, nor for the numerous
times the U.S. has totally ignored overwhelming General Assembly
resolutions, or for its repeated use of chemical and biological
agents against Cuba since the 1960s.
The bombing looks to be inevitable. The boys are busy
moving all their toys into position; they can already see the
battle decorations hanging from their chests. Of course, no one
knows what it will accomplish besides more death and destruction.
Saddam will remain in power. He'll be more stubborn than ever
about the inspections. There may be one consolation for the
Iraqi people. The Washington Post has reported that Secretary of
Defense William Cohen has indicated that "U.S. officials remain
wary of doing so much military damage to Iraq as to weaken its
regional role as a counterweight to Iran." In the not too
distant future, when Iran begins to flex its muscles a bit more,
in ways not to Washington's pleasure, it may then be their turn
for some good ol' American "diplomacy".
* William Blum is the author of: Killing Hope: U.S. Military
and CIA Interventions Since World War II. See:
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm
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