The US, The UN and Iraq

Carter's inaguration was my first in D.C. We did not attend as it was so bitterly cold but watched on TV. But I will never forget my husbands words, this man is way to honest to be successful in this town.

0 Replies

Your husband is a prophet. Carter was, and is a truly good man, but a lousy foriegn policy leader.

0 Replies

Yup. It would be interesting to discuss his "fatal flaw" sometime because it would tell us a lot about ourselves. Washington has never been kind to principles!

0 Replies

Can anyone confirm the very disturbing news that buried in Blix's last report(which he failed to mention) was that Saddam has many UAV(unmanned aeriel vehicles) capable of dispensing chemicals.

Doesn't this seem like it might be the smoking gun that everyone wants to see?

This report was on FOX news tonight-----does this make anyone blink?????? and gasp for air.

Can anyone Pooh Pooh this if it's true?

0 Replies

perception, The UN inspectors already found the smoking gun; those missiles. As you probably know, it doesn't matter to France, Germany, Russia, and China. They want the inspectors to continue their 403 year hunt in Iraq. c.i.

0 Replies

Asherman

Carter as lousy at foreign policy? Compared to whom? Surely not the present office holder. I suppose if one held that widespread - almost ubiquitous - disdain and anger towards America (by populations and governments) was a measure of productive and competent foreign policy, then the present fellow is doing probably better than any other president in history.

0 Replies

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-603370,00.html

Quote:

World News

March 08, 2003

Iraqi drone 'could drop chemicals on troops'
From James Bone in New York

A REPORT declassified by the United Nations yesterday contained a hidden bombshell with the revelation that inspectors have recently discovered an undeclared Iraqi drone with a wingspan of 7.45m, suggesting an illegal range that could threaten Iraq's neighbours with chemical and biological weapons ...

... The decision by Dr Blix to declassify the internal report marks the first time the UN has made public its suspicions about Iraq's banned weapons programmes, rather than what it has been able to actually confirm. "Unmovic has credible information that the total quantity of biological warfare agent in bombs, warheads and in bulk at the time of the Gulf War was 7,000 litres more than declared by Iraq. This additional agent was most likely all anthrax," it says.

The report says there is "credible information" indicating that 21,000 litres of biological warfare agent, including some 10,000 litres of anthrax, was stored in bulk at locations around the country during the war and was never destroyed ...

There has been some criticism of Dr. Blix's objectivity in the past, and his appointment to head UNMOVIC was met with some misgivings; a concerted effort on the parts of certain nations now in opposition to military intervention prevented Rolf Ekeus from the post. There were doubts to Dr. Blix's suitability for the job; this does nothing to dispell such doubts. It is well to remember that while Dr. Blix headed the IAEA, 5 nations developed or expanded nuclear programs outside of "The Nuclear Club". A consumate diplomat, Dr. Blix's agenda appears to be preserving and expanding his own particular bureaucracy. Dr. Blix appears to be attempting to negotiate job security for himself and his associates. Dr. Blix is about "The Process of disarmamment", not about disarmamment itself.

timber

0 Replies

Hell, maybe he works for Sadaam.

0 Replies

Oh, that's unkind, snood. I think Dr. Blix is a fine person. I just don't feel he was the proper choice for the job. Way back then, on another forum, I went on record as being among the doubters, and hypothecated a fairly accurate turn of events. I erred in that I postulated things would come to a head about a year from now, and would be pivotal in the 2004 Presidential Election. Hmmmm ... looking at that, it appears even that part will be half-right.

I think Dr. Blix is working for Dr. Blix.

timber

0 Replies

Sorry, timber, but I don't quite buy this one. The Times piece says:

Quote:

US officials were outraged that Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector, did not inform the Security Council about the drone, or remotely piloted vehicle, in his oral presentation to Foreign Ministers and tried to bury it in a 173-page single-spaced report distributed later in the day. The omission raised serious questions about Dr Blix's objectivity.

"Buried"? Raised "serious questions" of objectivity with whom?

You'll note that Powell already knew, as he had details on a test flight. Right?

At the same time as you originally considered Blix's adequacy for the task, others were noting the liklihood that Snow White's reputation would be conveniently questionable to and by an administration that was already set on an unvariable mission.

If you can find me some paper written by Blix, or even some statements by Blix, which even approach the sort of values and premeditated strategy that we know Wolfowitz, Perle, Rumsfeld, and Cheney have been thinking and planning since 1992, I'd grant your view credibility.

0 Replies

And another example of the sterling genius of present administration foreign policy notions...

Quote:

Among the angriest is Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, whose aides say has pleaded with Mr. Bush to become more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/international/middleeast/09PEAC.html

0 Replies

Timber - the opposition to the appointment of Rolf Ekeus at the time you mention was due to the fact that his Arabic interpreter, a Syrian man, was known (to some) to be a paid agent for Saddam.

0 Replies

perception wrote:

Quote:
Saddam has many UAV(unmanned aeriel vehicles) capable of dispensing chemicals.

So he has flying pharmacies now?

Tartarin Thanks for the quotes, especially from Jimmy Carter. That piece should be read, re read, learned and inwardly digested by all those who have an interest in this matter.

0 Replies

tartarin, I know you posted the link for this article, but in case some readers don't pull it up, here is an excerpt from Tom Friendman's column:

0 Replies

Missouri GOP Chairman Resignation Letter
Jack Walters, March 8, 2003

I grieve for our nation, and the untold suffering that will be wrought. As history has shown, you can possess the greatest armaments in the world, but if your cause and motives are not right, only catastrophe will result

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1980.htm

"....How on earth have we arrived at this crucial juncture in our country’s history? How has a war on terrorism been converted into an attack on Iraq? What threat does Iraq pose to us? We must lay the blame squarely on our congress, who according to our Constitution, only has the power to declare war. For congress to cede it’s war-making power to the executive branch is unconstitutional on the very face of it and effectively destroys our three branches of government. Circumventing our Constitution is very bad, and the undeclared wars, which have resulted in our recent history, have had disastrous results. Undeclared wars have no declared objectives, and therefore can widen at will, and our foray into the Middle East will likely set in motion a long-term wave of retaliation. Indeed, I believe that the administration would like to entice Iraq into firing the first blow so some justification could be paraded at the United Nations. If the United States government can adopt this unreal doctrine of preemptive attack on any nation, anywhere, at any time, so can other nations! This is how world wars begin. If the President goes into Iraq alone without a UN resolution, he will be in violation of the war powers given him last October by congress which was contingent on UN approval. A constitutional crisis will occur...."

0 Replies

One has to be extremely wary of any "report" coming out of Murdoch/Ailes' network -- feverishly pro-establishment and unlikely to squeeze in tidbits of truth between the colorfully presented, demeaning lies. Fox seems to have started a blitz on Blix. They've done this over and over, targeting anyone who dissents from the party line with no respect for truth or decency. They're not at all shy about ruining reputations of perfectly decent people. If you were to watch reruns of the McCarthy hearings, you'd see the origins of their style. They tell lies and, when their reports are shown to have been lies, they move on to the next lie without withdrawing or recanting.

Me? I think Blix's steady, if sometimes quietly enraged, leadership of UNMOVIC has be astonishing, given what he has to put up with. In addition to the pressures of working with a wily Saddam, he and ElBaradei have had to waste precious time disproving forgeries and faulty "intelligence" coming out of the US and Britain. You could hardly blame him if he wanted to poke a stick in the eye of the US. Instead, he's kept his head and focused on doing his job. To get a sense of the time-wasting reinvestigations the US has caused Blix and ElBaradei, read the transcript of ElBaradei's report to the Security Council in full (NYT) or take a look at this recap:

March 8, 2003
U.N. Inspectors: U.S. Used Forged Reports
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:43 a.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. weapons inspectors cast doubts on U.S. assertions about Iraq's weapons programs, saying Baghdad is cooperating with inspections and that some documents presented as evidence were forged.Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that experts had dismissed as counterfeit documents that allegedly showed Iraqi officials shopping for uranium in Africa two years ago.
ElBaradei, who made his strongest statement yet in support of Iraqi cooperation, also rejected a Bush administration claim that Iraq had tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment.
``There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities,'' he said.
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix welcomed Iraq's ``proactive'' cooperation with his teams but didn't declare Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction.
Blix noted that Iraq is now providing inspectors with proactive cooperation, something he had asked for repeatedly through the winter.
However, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States was still convinced Iraq was hiding banned weapons.
``I think I have better information than the inspectors,'' Powell said in an interview with ABC anchor Peter Jennings. ``I think I have more assets available to me than the inspectors do.''
However, CIA Director George Tenet has said all relevant intelligence had been passed to the inspectors.
Blix said that even with continued cooperation from Iraq, it will take some time to ensure that Iraq has carried out key remaining disarmament tasks which he intends to present to the Security Council later this month.
``It will not take years, nor weeks, but months,'' he said, stressing that even after this is completed, Iraq should be subject to ongoing inspections and monitoring of its facilities.
Iraq's destruction of its Al Samoud 2 missiles constitutes a ``substantial measure of disarmament,'' Blix said.
``The destruction undertaken constitutes a substantial measure of disarmament. We are not watching the destruction of toothpicks. Lethal weapons are being destroyed,'' he said.
The chief inspector, whose teams are responsible for the hunt for biological, chemical and missile programs, said Iraq had recently provided additional documentation on anthrax and the VX nerve agent.
``Many have been found to restate what Iraq has already declared.''
In a veiled jab at the United States, he said inspectors had been unable to verify some claims about hidden Iraqi weapons and asked again for more information about suspect sites.
ElBaradei told the council that the IAEA found no evidence to support reports that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.
``Based on thorough analysis, the IAEA has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts, that documents which formed the basis for the reports of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger are in fact not authentic,'' he said. ``We have therefore concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded.''
``In the past three weeks, possibly as a result of ever-increasing pressure by the international community, Iraq has been forthcoming in its cooperation,'' ElBaradei said. ``I do hope that Iraq will continue to expand the scope and accelerate the pace of its cooperation.''
He reported again that in the area of nuclear weapons, inspections were moving forward.
``After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq.'' http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Report.html?pagewanted=print&position=top

Now: there have been a series of "forgeries" and misstatements coming from the US and Britain, one after another.
At this point I would strongly advise anyone trying to follow closely the work of the inspectors that he/she not try to follow it in the US media but stick to more reliable reports from overseas.

0 Replies

This from Timber's quote----as I reported earlier and everyone chose to ignore----these drones can be shipped anywhere in cartons(even to Canada) then assembled and flown over large concentrations of people ---- they are very difficult to detect on radar and some can run electrical current(therefore very quiet).
But HO HUM keep up the chant that Saddam poses no threat to anyone but his own people.

March 08, 2003

Iraqi drone 'could drop chemicals on troops'
From James Bone in New York

Re: Blix---His former Boss (A Swedish diplomat) says Blix is not the man for the job----seems he wants everyone to love him.

0 Replies

Ul, thank you for that post and link.

Quote:

If the United States government can adopt this unreal doctrine of preemptive attack on any nation, anywhere, at any time, so can other nations! This is how world wars begin. If the President goes into Iraq alone without a UN resolution, he will be in violation of the war powers given him last October by congress which was contingent on UN approval. A constitutional crisis will occur...."

perception, did we really think Iraq had no weapons to defend their country? I wonder how many of those drones the US has..

0 Replies

Always keep in mind that there is a large gap between who we say/think we are, and how we actually behave. This article states the case well and reviews the efforts to keep actions consistent with stated humanitarian goals.

March 8, 2003
Ethical War? Do the Good Guys Finish First?

0 Replies

Quote by Tartar
At this point I would strongly advise anyone trying to follow closely the work of the inspectors that he/she not try to follow it in the US media but stick to more reliable reports from overseas.

My God, not only does the administration lie but now all US media lies----I know---It's a conspiracy to make Tartar look bad.

Do you also believe the Israelis staged 9/11?

0 Replies

The US, The UN and Iraq

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know