| Author | Message | | Guest | |  | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 12:04 am Post subject: |
| | Quote: | Oil and Israel?
Aren't you forgetting...
Imperialism
Colonialism
Personal revenge
Capitalism
And of course my personal favorite, WMD? |
There are so many obvious reasons as to what this proposed war is really all about that I'm surprised that anyone still believes what B B & co (Bush Blair & co) say when they state it's all about saving the Iraqi people from their leader. Umm, killing people in order to save them? - pull the other one it's got bells on. | | | | Guest | | Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 12:41 am Post subject: |
| | Anonymous wrote: | | Quote: | Oil and Israel?
Aren't you forgetting...
Imperialism
Colonialism
Personal revenge
Capitalism
And of course my personal favorite, WMD? |
There are so many obvious reasons as to what this proposed war is really all about that I'm surprised that anyone still believes what B B & co (Bush Blair & co) say when they state it's all about saving the Iraqi people from their leader. Umm, killing people in order to save them? - pull the other one it's got bells on. |
Right. So many obvious reasons, but only the ones IAC wants to see.
Saddam is going to be disarmed. | | | | Guest | | Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:45 am Post subject: UN snookers Bush |
| http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=246
Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
January 20, 2003, 11:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Blix-ElBaradei Act breaks up US Iraq strategy
Two senior UN officials, chief arms inspector Hans Blix and nuclear controller Mohamed ElBaradei, handed Saddam Hussein an epic diplomatic victory Monday, January 20 – no doubt acting on a nod from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. They gained the Iraqi ruler yet a further stay of military action until March 27 before he risks facing war for failing to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
At the United Nations, US Secretary of State, smarting at the blind man’s bluff played out at Washington’s expense in Baghdad, appealed to members “not to be shocked into impotence” by difficult choices. He stressed that Saddam has had ample time to solve the problem. “They know what they have,” he said, “…we cannot let them dribble out this information” to thwart the will of the international community. If Iraq does not come into full compliance, we must not shrink from our responsibilities, Powell declared.
Separately Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed suggestions that UN weapons inspectors would need months of additional time to determine whether Iraq is meeting its obligation to disarm.
The inspectors wound up their two days of talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad – cynically billed as tough demands for more cooperation – by signing onto a feeble 10-point accord that, point by point, blunted the teeth US and British diplomacy had inserted in UN Security Council resolution 1441.
Iraq undertakes to provide the inspectors with more documents: This is an admission that Iraq has to this day held back documents.
Iraqi officers will join inspection flights on Iraqi helicopters. Iraqi officers will be given the chance to keep an eye and report on the inspectors’ actions and conversations to their superiors. DEBKAfile’s intelligence experts add that the Iraqi officers will no doubt be equipped with miniature bugs for jamming the inspectors’ electronic surveillance systems.
Iraq refuses to allow UN U-2 surveillance craft to carry out inspections. Unlike the helicopter flights, the Iraqis have no access to the U-2s.
Iraq will provide supplementary data to the 12,000-page arms declaration presented to the UN Security Council on Dec. 7. Baghdad candidly admits by this point that it flouted Resolution 1441demanding a full and truthful account of its forbidden weapons. That declaration was termed at the time Saddam’s last chance to comply with the resolution and avoid military action. On Monday, the UN inspectors rewarded Saddam with one more last chance in the lengthening series of last chances.
Iraq will enact laws prohibiting proscribed weaponry. Blix and ElBaradei must be congratulating themselves. Obviously, the Saddam regime was able to develop – and deploy - weapons of mass destruction for 22 years, only because it had no time to enact appropriate legislation! Fortunately, the UN inspectors have arranged for this lacuna to be corrected.
All these points cover a variety of commitments by Baghdad, barring one: to disclose and hand over its arsenal of unconventional weapons.
The document produced in Baghdad Monday enables the UN to inform the Bush administration that everything possible has been done to make Iraq provide information on its weapons of mass destruction by March 27. Therefore, even if US intelligence were to produce conclusive proof prior to that date that Iraq is concealing proscribed weapons and their precise whereabouts, Annan, Blix and ElBaradei, have made Saddam Hussein safe from US attack for another two months. During that period, the Iraqi dictator has been assured of immunity by the UN weapons inspectors. | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 4:35 am Post subject: Re: UN snookers Bush |
| | Anonymous wrote: | http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=246
Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
January 20, 2003, 11:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Blix-ElBaradei Act breaks up US Iraq strategy
Two senior UN officials, chief arms inspector Hans Blix and nuclear controller Mohamed ElBaradei, handed Saddam Hussein an epic diplomatic victory Monday, January 20 – no doubt acting on a nod from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. They gained the Iraqi ruler yet a further stay of military action until March 27 before he risks facing war for failing to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
At the United Nations, US Secretary of State, smarting at the blind man’s bluff played out at Washington’s expense in Baghdad, appealed to members “not to be shocked into impotence” by difficult choices. He stressed that Saddam has had ample time to solve the problem. “They know what they have,” he said, “…we cannot let them dribble out this information” to thwart the will of the international community. If Iraq does not come into full compliance, we must not shrink from our responsibilities, Powell declared.
Separately Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed suggestions that UN weapons inspectors would need months of additional time to determine whether Iraq is meeting its obligation to disarm.
The inspectors wound up their two days of talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad – cynically billed as tough demands for more cooperation – by signing onto a feeble 10-point accord that, point by point, blunted the teeth US and British diplomacy had inserted in UN Security Council resolution 1441.
Iraq undertakes to provide the inspectors with more documents: This is an admission that Iraq has to this day held back documents.
Iraqi officers will join inspection flights on Iraqi helicopters. Iraqi officers will be given the chance to keep an eye and report on the inspectors’ actions and conversations to their superiors. DEBKAfile’s intelligence experts add that the Iraqi officers will no doubt be equipped with miniature bugs for jamming the inspectors’ electronic surveillance systems.
Iraq refuses to allow UN U-2 surveillance craft to carry out inspections. Unlike the helicopter flights, the Iraqis have no access to the U-2s.
Iraq will provide supplementary data to the 12,000-page arms declaration presented to the UN Security Council on Dec. 7. Baghdad candidly admits by this point that it flouted Resolution 1441demanding a full and truthful account of its forbidden weapons. That declaration was termed at the time Saddam’s last chance to comply with the resolution and avoid military action. On Monday, the UN inspectors rewarded Saddam with one more last chance in the lengthening series of last chances.
Iraq will enact laws prohibiting proscribed weaponry. Blix and ElBaradei must be congratulating themselves. Obviously, the Saddam regime was able to develop – and deploy - weapons of mass destruction for 22 years, only because it had no time to enact appropriate legislation! Fortunately, the UN inspectors have arranged for this lacuna to be corrected.
All these points cover a variety of commitments by Baghdad, barring one: to disclose and hand over its arsenal of unconventional weapons.
The document produced in Baghdad Monday enables the UN to inform the Bush administration that everything possible has been done to make Iraq provide information on its weapons of mass destruction by March 27. Therefore, even if US intelligence were to produce conclusive proof prior to that date that Iraq is concealing proscribed weapons and their precise whereabouts, Annan, Blix and ElBaradei, have made Saddam Hussein safe from US attack for another two months. During that period, the Iraqi dictator has been assured of immunity by the UN weapons inspectors. |
Not handing over the documents is a material breach.
Not allowing U2 overflights is a material breach.
Don't count on Saddam being safe because of what Annan, Blix and ElBaradei him. They do not have authority to override 1441, and no second resolution is needed. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 6:08 am Post subject: DISARM THE ROGUE STATE OF ISRAEL |
| | Anonymous wrote: | | Anonymous wrote: | http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=246
Blix, ElBaradei Unravel Resolution 1441
DEBKAfile Special Analysis
January 20, 2003, 11:02 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Blix-ElBaradei Act breaks up US Iraq strategy
Two senior UN officials, chief arms inspector Hans Blix and nuclear controller Mohamed ElBaradei, handed Saddam Hussein an epic diplomatic victory Monday, January 20 – no doubt acting on a nod from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. They gained the Iraqi ruler yet a further stay of military action until March 27 before he risks facing war for failing to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
At the United Nations, US Secretary of State, smarting at the blind man’s bluff played out at Washington’s expense in Baghdad, appealed to members “not to be shocked into impotence” by difficult choices. He stressed that Saddam has had ample time to solve the problem. “They know what they have,” he said, “…we cannot let them dribble out this information” to thwart the will of the international community. If Iraq does not come into full compliance, we must not shrink from our responsibilities, Powell declared.
Separately Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed suggestions that UN weapons inspectors would need months of additional time to determine whether Iraq is meeting its obligation to disarm.
The inspectors wound up their two days of talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad – cynically billed as tough demands for more cooperation – by signing onto a feeble 10-point accord that, point by point, blunted the teeth US and British diplomacy had inserted in UN Security Council resolution 1441.
Iraq undertakes to provide the inspectors with more documents: This is an admission that Iraq has to this day held back documents.
Iraqi officers will join inspection flights on Iraqi helicopters. Iraqi officers will be given the chance to keep an eye and report on the inspectors’ actions and conversations to their superiors. DEBKAfile’s intelligence experts add that the Iraqi officers will no doubt be equipped with miniature bugs for jamming the inspectors’ electronic surveillance systems.
Iraq refuses to allow UN U-2 surveillance craft to carry out inspections. Unlike the helicopter flights, the Iraqis have no access to the U-2s.
Iraq will provide supplementary data to the 12,000-page arms declaration presented to the UN Security Council on Dec. 7. Baghdad candidly admits by this point that it flouted Resolution 1441demanding a full and truthful account of its forbidden weapons. That declaration was termed at the time Saddam’s last chance to comply with the resolution and avoid military action. On Monday, the UN inspectors rewarded Saddam with one more last chance in the lengthening series of last chances.
Iraq will enact laws prohibiting proscribed weaponry. Blix and ElBaradei must be congratulating themselves. Obviously, the Saddam regime was able to develop – and deploy - weapons of mass destruction for 22 years, only because it had no time to enact appropriate legislation! Fortunately, the UN inspectors have arranged for this lacuna to be corrected.
All these points cover a variety of commitments by Baghdad, barring one: to disclose and hand over its arsenal of unconventional weapons.
The document produced in Baghdad Monday enables the UN to inform the Bush administration that everything possible has been done to make Iraq provide information on its weapons of mass destruction by March 27. Therefore, even if US intelligence were to produce conclusive proof prior to that date that Iraq is concealing proscribed weapons and their precise whereabouts, Annan, Blix and ElBaradei, have made Saddam Hussein safe from US attack for another two months. During that period, the Iraqi dictator has been assured of immunity by the UN weapons inspectors. |
Not handing over the documents is a material breach.
Not allowing U2 overflights is a material breach.
Don't count on Saddam being safe because of what Annan, Blix and ElBaradei him. They do not have authority to override 1441, and no second resolution is needed. |
US/UN Double Standard When It Comes to Israeli Weapons of Mass Destruction:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/middle-east-and-asia/2002/09/15/us-un-double-standard-when-it-comes-to-israel.php | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2003 6:29 am Post subject: Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11 |
| http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,819931,00.html
Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11
America's most controversial novelist calls for an investigation into whether the Bush administration deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks to happen
Talk: Gore Vidal on Bush
Observer Worldview
Terrorism crisis: Observer special
Sunder Katwala
Sunday October 27, 2002
America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of Al-Qaeda's plans.Vidal's highly controversial 7000 word polemic titled 'The Enemy Within' - published in the print edition of The Observer today - argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used the terrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda to invade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties at home.Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it is fairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not only to much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheney junta.'Vidal argues that the real motive for the Afghanistan war was to control the gateway to Eurasia and Central Asia's energy riches. He quotes extensively from a 1997 analysis of the region by Zgibniew Brzezinski, formerly national security adviser to President Carter, in support of this theory. But, Vidal argues, US administrations, both Democrat and Republican, were aware that the American public would resist any war in Afghanistan without a truly massive and widely perceived external threat. 'Osama was chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long-contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan ... [because] the administration is convinced that Americans are so simple-minded that they can deal with no scenario more complex than the venerable, lone, crazed killer (this time with zombie helpers) who does evil just for the fun of it 'cause he hates us because we're rich 'n free 'n he's not.' Vidal also attacks the American media's failure to discuss 11 September and its consequences: 'Apparently, "conspiracy stuff" is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.''It is an article of faith that there are no conspiracies in American life. Yet, a year or so ago, who would have thought that most of corporate America had been conspiring with accountants to cook their books since - well, at least the bright dawn of the era of Reagan and deregulation.'At the heart of the essay are questions about the events of 9/11 itself and the two hours after the planes were hijacked. Vidal writes that 'astonished military experts cannot fathom why the government's "automatic standard order of procedure in the event of a hijacking" was not followed'. These procedures, says Vidal, determine that fighter planes should automatically be sent aloft as soon as a plane has deviated from its flight plan. Presidential authority is not required until a plane is to be shot down. But, on 11 September, no decision to start launching planes was taken until 9.40am, eighty minutes after air controllers first knew that Flight 11 had been hijacked and fifty minutes after the first plane had struck the North Tower.'By law, the fighters should have been up at around 8.15. If they had, all the hijacked planes might have been diverted and shot down.'Vidal asks why Bush, as Commander-in-Chief, stayed in a Florida classroom as news of the attacks broke: 'The behaviour of President Bush on 11 September certainly gives rise to not unnatural suspicions.' He also attacks the 'nonchalance' of General Richard B Myers, acting Joint Chief of Staff, in failing to respond until the planes had crashed into the twin towers.Asking whether these failures to act expeditiously were down to conspiracy, coincidence or error, Vidal notes that incompetence would usually lead to reprimands for those responsible, writing that 'It is interesting how often in our history, when disaster strikes, incompetence is considered a better alibi than .... Well, yes, there are worse things.'Vidal draws comparisons with another 'day of infamy' in American history, writing that 'The truth about Pearl Harbour is obscured to this day. But it has been much studied. 11 September, it is plain, is never going to be investigated if Bush has anything to say about it.' He quotes CNN reports that Bush personally asked Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to limit Congressional investigation of the day itself, ostensibly on grounds of not diverting resources from the anti-terror campaign.Vidal calls bin Laden an 'Islamic zealot' and 'evil doer' but argues that 'war' cannot be waged on the abstraction of 'terrorism'. He says that 'Every nation knows how - if it has the means and will - to protect itself from thugs of the sort that brought us 9/11 ... You put a price on their heads and hunt them down. In recent years, Italy has been doing that with the Sicilian Mafia; and no-one has suggested bombing Palermo.'Vidal also highlights the role of American and Pakistani intelligence in creating the fundamentalist terrorist threat: 'Apparently, Pakistan did do it - or some of it' but with American support. "From 1979, the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA was launched in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ... the CIA covertly trained and sponsored these warriors.'Vidal also quotes the highly respected defence journal Jane's Defence Weekly on how this support for Islamic fundamentalism continued after the emergence of bin Laden: 'In 1988, with US knowledge, bin Laden created Al-Qaeda (The Base); a conglomerate of quasi-independent Islamic terrorist cells spread across 26 or so countries. Washington turned a blind eye to Al-Qaeda.'Vidal, 77, and internationally renowned for his award-winning novels and plays, has long been a ferocious, and often isolated, critic of the Bush administration at home and abroad. He now lives in Italy. In Vidal's most recent book, The Last Empire, he argued that 'Americans have no idea of the extent of their government's mischief ... the number of military strikes we have made unprovoked, against other countries, since 1947 is more than 250.'
Observer special reports
Terrorism crisis: Observer special
Observer Worldview
9/11 and after: Observer Comment highlights
The new terrorism
27.10.2002: Peter Beaumont: The new romantics of death
Worldview highlights: more from Peter Beaumont
27.10.2002: Leader: Chechnya needs a careful response
27.10.2002: The Chechen terrorist leader
News
27.10.2002: Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11
Talk: Gore Vidal on Bush
27.10.2002: Armed forces call up medics as Britain goes on a war footing
Iraq: Observer special
After the Bali bomb
27.10.2002: Indonesia asks, who are the terrorists?
Unseen Wars: Observer Worldview
20.10.2002: Mary Riddell: Innocent? Not any more
Comment highlights: best of Mary Riddell
20.10.2002: Leader: Know the enemy
The Al Qaeda trail
20.10.2002: Jason Burke: Secret mastermind behind the Bali horror
20.10.2002: Bin Laden's $20m African 'blood diamond' deals
More from Jason Burke
Observer special reports
Observer Worldview
Terrorism crisis: Observer special
Jason Burke's terrorism dispatch
Worldview: Peter Beaumont
Worldview: Dan Plesch
Worldview: Mark Leonard
Debating American power
Liberty Watch campaign
Iraq
Iraq: Observer special
15.09.2002: Jason Burke: Return to Kurdistan
Worldview highlights: best of Jason Burke
20.10.2002: How Iraqis are facing up to the threat of a US attack
20.10.2002: War plans under fire as even Bush heartland talks peace
Afghanistan
06.10.2002: Jason Burke: One year on in Afghanistan
23.06.2002: Dan Plesch: Can the Afghan peace hold?
Afghanistan: Observer special
Observer Comment highlights: the broadest debate
Observer Terrorism Crisis comment
Iraq: Observer special
08.09.2002: Bill Clinton: My vision for peace
14.07.2002: John Pilger: The great charade
25.08.2002: Christopher Hitchens: Hawks in the dovecote
08.09.2002: Andrew Rawnsley: Why war stirs the blood of Tony Blair
18.08.2002: Dirk Winterborn: Life after death
08.09.2002: Ariel Dorfman: An open letter to America
11.08.2002: Mark Leonard: Could the left back war on Iraq?
18.08.2002: Michael Steinberg: A lonely voice of New York dissent
11.08.2002: Anthony Sampson: West's greed for oil fuels Saddam fever
11.08.2002: Nick Cohen: Who will save Iraq?
04.08.2002: Richard Harries: This war would not be a just war
03.03.2002: Paul Kennedy: Has the US lost its way?
08.09.2002: Geoffrey Robertson: Use the law, not war
18.08.2002: Walter Mosley: Time for a new Black Power movement
10.03.2002: Fred Halliday: New world, but the same old disorder
Peter Beaumont: Bin Laden's men wait to take bloody revenge
10.03.2002: Peter Beaumont: America gears up for a new kind of war
07.10.2001: Kanan Makiya: Fighting Islam's Ku Klux Klan
23.12.2001: Henry Porter: The triumph of reason
20.01.2002: Christopher Hitchens: What Bush got right
27.01.2002: Paul Rogers: American unilateralism is back
23.09.2001: Peter Carey: letter from New York | | | | Alpha | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
