From: rakeshb@stanford.edu
Date: Thu Feb 06 2003 - 15:03:34 EST
Quoting rakeshb@Stanford.EDU: > > Iraq's challenging of it seems to have truly bothered Harrington > who was one of the directors of Brown Brothers Harrington with > which the Bush family has been aligned since its inception. Well I meant Harriman, Averell Harriman. Still haven't read the Nordhaus piece. > >Robert Fisk: You wanted to believe him - but it was like something out of >Beckett > >06 February 2003 > >http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=375941 > > >Sources, foreign intelligence sources, "our sources," defectors, sources, >sources, sources. Colin Powell's terror talk to the United Nations >Security Council yesterday sounded like one of those government-inspired >reports on the front page of The New York Times - where it will most >certainly be treated with due reverence in this morning's edition. It was >a bit like heating up old soup. Haven't we heard most of this stuff >before? Should one trust the man? General Powell, I mean, not Saddam. > >Certainly we don't trust Saddam but Secretary of State Powell's >presentation was a mixture of awesomely funny recordings of Iraqi >Republican Guard telephone intercepts à la Samuel Beckett that just might >have been some terrifying little proof that Saddam really is conning the >UN inspectors again, and some ancient material on the Monster of Baghdad's >all too well known record of beastliness. I am still waiting to hear the >Arabic for the State Department's translation of "Okay Buddy" - "Consider >it done, Sir" - this from the Republican Guard's "Captain Ibrahim", for >heaven's sake - and some dinky illustrations of mobile bio-labs whose >lorries and railway trucks were in such perfect condition that they >suggested the Pentagon didn't have much idea of the dilapidated state of >Saddam's army. > >It was when we went back to Halabja and human rights abuses and all >Saddam's old sins, as recorded by the discredited Unscom team, that we >started eating the old soup again. Jack Straw may have thought all this >"the most powerful and authoritative case" but when we were forced to >listen to Iraq's officer corps communicating by phone - "yeah", "yeah", >"yeah?", "yeah..." - it was impossible not to ask oneself if Colin Powell >had really considered the effect this would have on the outside world. > > From time to time, the words "Iraq: Failing To Disarm - Denial and > Deception" appeared on the giant video screen behind General Powell. Was > this a CNN logo, some of us wondered? But no, it was CNN's sister > channel, the US Department of State. > >Because Colin Powell is supposed to be the good cop to the Bush-Rumsfeld >bad cop routine, one wanted to believe him. The Iraqi officer's telephoned >order to his subordinate - "remove 'nerve agents' whenever it comes up in >the wireless instructions" - looked as if the Americans had indeed spotted >a nasty new little line in Iraqi deception. But a dramatic picture of a >pilotless Iraqi aircraft capable of spraying poison chemicals turned out >to be the imaginative work of a Pentagon artist. > >And when General Powell started blathering on about "decades'' of contact >between Saddam and al-Qa'ida, things went wrong for the Secretary of >State. Al-Qa'ida only came into existence five years ago, since Bin Laden >- "decades" ago - was working against the Russians for the CIA, whose >present day director was sitting grave-faced behind General Powell. And >Colin Powell's new version of his President's State of the Union lie - >that the "scientists" interviewed by UN inspectors had been Iraqi >intelligence agents in disguise - was singularly unimpressive. The UN >talked to scientists, the new version went, but they were posing for the >real nuclear and bio boys whom the UN wanted to talk to. General Powell >said America was sharing its information with the UN inspectors but it was >clear yesterday that much of what he had to say about alleged new weapons >development - the decontamination truck at the Taji chemical munitions >factory, for example, the "cleaning" of the Ibn al-Haythem ballistic >missile factory on 25 November - had not been given to the UN at the time. >Why wasn't this intelligence information given to the inspectors months >ago? Didn't General Powell's beloved UN resolution 1441 demand that all >such intelligence information should be given to Hans Blix and his lads >immediately? Were the Americans, perhaps, not being "pro-active" enough? > >The worst moment came when General Powell started talking about anthrax >and the 2001 anthrax attacks in Washington and New York, pathetically >holding up a teaspoon of the imaginary spores and - while not precisely >saying so - fraudulently suggesting a connection between Saddam Hussein >and the 2001 anthrax scare. > >When the Secretary of State held up Iraq's support for the Palestinian >Hamas organisation, which has an office in Baghdad, as proof of Saddam's >support for "terror'' - there was, of course, no mention of America's >support for Israel and its occupation of Palestinian land - the whole >theatre began to collapse. There are Hamas offices in Beirut, Damascus and >Iran. Is the 82nd Airborne supposed to grind on to Lebanon, Syria and Iran? > >There was an almost macabre opening to the play when General Powell >arrived at the Security Council, cheek-kissing the delegates and winding >his great arms around them. Jack Straw fairly bounded up for his big >American hug. > >Indeed, there were moments when you might have thought that the whole >chamber, with its toothy smiles and constant handshakes, contained a room >full of men celebrating peace rather than war. Alas, not so. These >elegantly dressed statesmen were constructing the framework that would >allow them to kill quite a lot of people, the monstrous Saddam perhaps, >with his cronies, but a considerable number of innocents as well. One >recalled, of course, the same room four decades ago when General Powell's >predecessor Adlai Stevenson showed photos of the ships carrying Soviet >missiles to Cuba. > >Alas, today's pictures carried no such authority. And Colin Powell is no >Adlai Stevenson. > >World reaction > >Iraq > >A "typical American show complete with stunts and special effects" was >Iraq's scathing dismissal of General Powell's presentation. Mohammed >al-Douri, above, Iraq's UN ambassador, accused the US of manufacturing >evidence and said the charges were "utterly unrelated to the truth. > >"No new information was provided, merely sound recordings that cannot be >ascertained as genuine," he said. "There are incorrect allegations, >unnamed sources, unknown sources." > >Lt-Gen Amir al-Saadi, an adviser to Saddam Hussein, said the satellite >pictures "proved nothing". On the allegation that Iraq had faked the death >certificate of a scientist to shield them from UN inspectors, he added: >"If [General Powell] thinks any of those scientists marked as deceased is >still in existence, let him come up with it." > >Britain > >Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, left, praised General Powell for his >"powerful and authoritative case". He said the presentation "laid bare the >deceit practised by the regime of Saddam Hussein, and worse, the very >great danger it represents. > >"Secretary Powell has set out deeply worrying reports about the presence >in Iraq of one of Osama bin Laden's lieutenants, al-Zarqawi, and other >members of al-Qaida, and their efforts to develop poisons. > >"The recent discovery of the poison ricin in London has underlined again >that this is a threat which all of us face. > >"Saddam is defying every one of us ... He questions our resolve and is >gambling that we will lose our nerve rather than enforce our will." > >France > >France called for the number of inspectors to be tripled and the process >beefed up. Dominique de Villepin, the Foreign Minister, above, said >inspections should continue but under "an enhanced regime of inspections >monitoring". Iraq must also do more to co-operate - including allowing >flights from U-2 spy planes. "The use of force can only be a final >recourse," he said. > >China > >China said the work of the inspectors should continue. Tang Jiaxuan, the >Foreign Minister, said immediately after General Powell's presentation: >"As long as there is still the slightest hope for political settlement, we >should exert our utmost effort to achieve that." > >Russia > >Inspections should continue, Igor Ivanov, the Foreign Minister, above, >said. More study was needed of the evidence presented by General Powell, >he added. Meanwhile, inspections "must be continued". > >Germany > >The Powell presentation and the findings of the weapons inspectors "have >to be examined carefully", said Joschka Fischer, the Foreign Minister. "We >must continue to seek a peaceful solution." > >Israel > >Binyamin Netanyahu, the Foreign Minister, left, said: "We've known this a >long time. We've shared intelligence with the US, and I think the US has >shared some of that today." General Powell "laid bare the true nature of >Saddam Hussein's regime, and I think he also exposed the great dangers ... >to the region and the world". > >_________________________ > >The Middle East & North Africa Email List > >MENA Info - menainfo@aol.com > >_________________________________ > >*To access the MENA Info archive, please visit: > http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/pubarchive.php?MENAinfo > >*To subscribe to the MENA Info List, please add your emailaddress here: > http://hometown.aol.com/menainfo/ > >*To unsubscribe from the MENA Info List, please visit:
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