 |
Special Report |
|
Special Report |
|
Voices in the wilderness Since the end of the Cold War, the United States which has assumed for itself the role of the global policeman has been often accused of using the United Nations as an extension of its foreign policy department. Now there is fresh proof. On January 6, the Washington Post reported the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan has gathered evidence to show that U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq had been evesdropping, collecting sensitive information that the U.S. needs to get rid of President Saddam Hussein. “The secretary-general has become aware of the fact that UNSCOM directly facilitated the creation of an intelligence collection system for the U.S. in violation of its mandate, said an Annan advisor. “The UN cannot be party to an operation to overthrow one of its member states. In the most fundamental way, that’s what’s wrong with the UNSCOM (UN Special Commission) operation”. Tim Weiner, reported in the January 9 edition of the Calcutta–based, The Telegraph: “In March, in a last-ditch attempt to uncover Saddam Hussein’s covert weapons and intelligence networks, the United States used the UN inspection team to send a US spy into Baghdad to install a highly sophisticated electronic evesdropping system. The spy entered Iraq in the guise of a U.S. weapons inspector and left the evesdropping system behind. For 10 months, the device let the US and a select elite within the UN inspection team monitor the cell phones, walkie-talkies and other communications instruments used by the military and intelligence officers who protect Saddam and conceal Iraq’s weapons”. This exposing of the illicit affair between US intelligence agents and inspectors of UNSCOM, which is meant to be an independent UN body, is as glaring an instance as any of how the US administration treats the UN as an apparatus in its foreign policy. Responding to the furore that this shocking revelation created, the US claimed its intelligence agents merely “helped UN hunt for Iraqi weapons”. Admitting that in the process they gained information that “assisted US military planners”, they denied that the Americans who sneaked into Iraq on false identity were acting as spies for their country. The unilateral decision of the US and the UK to bomb Iraq last month becomes all the more questionable in the light of the latest revelations. In view of this, we are reproducing for the benefit of our readers, some documents and appeals put out on the Internet by some conscientious objectors in the US and in Canada. Statement on the bombing of Iraq by the International Action Center
(IAC), USA
The US motives in overthrowing the Iraqi government are about the same as they were when the US CIA ousted the Chilean government of Salvador Allende in 1973, replacing it with the fascist puppet government of Augusto Pinochet. It is about the same as the US CIA subversion of the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954 after that government had nationalized US–owned United Fruit Company plantations. The US government had pursued a similar strategy and used similar tactics to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Dr. Mohammed Mossedegh in Iran in 1953 after Mossedegh nationalized Western oil interests. In that case, the CIA brought the Shah of Iran to power and used that bloody monarch as its proxy in the Persian Gulf region. The US govern-ment always seeks to demonize the targets of its aggression. In the case of the Middle East, this has meant a large dose of anti-Arab racism. People in the US were mortified when a single bomb was detonated by a right–wing terrorist in Oklahoma City. Today, the same politicians and media personalities who tearfully reported the Oklahoma City bombing story on April 19, 1995, blandly support the bombing of Iraqi cities where millions of human beings live. When does the bombing of civilians and cities cease to
be considered a terrorist act? Is it when Iraqis die? Is it really legal
or justifiable in any sense, for the Pentagon to arrogate to itself the
right to bomb people in the Third World?
Instead of spending $50 billion each year on the US military domination of the Persian Gulf region, funds should be spent to provide health care for the 43 million people who are without benefits for education, housing, healthcare, and jobs. International Action Center
To the General Assembly of the United Nations:
Each nation has a duty in law and to common decency to aid Iraq with food, medicines and the means to rebuild its cities and society by condemning and ignoring the sanctions and aiding its victims. No nation on earth will be sovereign while the United States with its overwhelming military capacity for destruction and its enormous economic power to control the flow of foods, medicines, capital and material necessities of life remains unrestrained from assaulting chosen enemies and impoverishing their people. Act now to stop the United States directly and to prevent
the US from making NATO its private enforcer, by–passing the United Nations
and using rich and powerful Caucasian, Christian North Atlantic, high–tech
military power against the masses of the poor in Asia, Africa, Europe and
Latin America.
Ramsey Clark
December 20, 1998
December 22: Ministry of trade building. We will hold a press conference at the ministry of trade to announce that we continue to publicly defy US laws regarding the embargo as we have in 18 previous delegations travelling to Iraq and bringing medicines to children and families. On December 3, Voices in the Wilderness received a letter from the US treasury department proposing a $163,000 fine for delivering “medicines and toys” to children in Iraq. We will explain our refusal to pay any penalties, as all donations to our campaign are intended for the purchase of medicines and to assist with efforts to end the embargo against Iraq. We will invite members of the US government and other governments to join us in our effort to alleviate the suffering by ending the embargo. The time has come for people throughout the world and governments of the world to act in spite of the US veto in the UN Security Council, and to begin free trade and travel with Iraq and to resume buying Iraq’s oil so that Iraqi families can feed themselves and care for their urgent physical and medical needs. We will symbolically declare an end to the embargo by purchasing a small amount of Iraqi oil, which will be used to light a small lamp. This act will demonstrate our determination to “shed light” on the suffering caused by the embargo, and our continued commitment to work with others worldwide to avoid further destruction and to reinstate free trade and travel with Iraq. 23 December: We will display a large banner bearing our logo of a woman crouching over her child to protect the infant from a weapon labeled “sanctions” at a primary and secondary school in Baghdad asking the students to help us understand what they have experienced this past week. 24 December: Christmas Eve Vigil. At 12 noon, we will hold a press conference in the maternity ward of a hospital damaged by the recent bombing. In the US, people will be preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus, revered as the Prince of Peace. We will erect a nativity scene by setting up a tent and a Star of Bethlehem at the site where children were born into the world under bombardment. Voices in the Wilderness
|