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Dear List, I read the MEMRI translation of the document published by Al-Hayat, reportedly an official order issued in January 2003 on how to act upon the fall of the regime. I also checked the copy of the original which was published by the same newspaper. Notwithstanding our suspicions of any motives MEMRI may have for publishing “selected” articles, I have the following remarks: 1. The document lacks the official “Bismillah-ir-rahamn-ir-rahim”; literally “In the Name of God (Allah), Most Gracious, Most Merciful”. This has become a “must” in all official letters and decrees. 2. The document has only the Gregorian date, without the Muslim Hijri date, which has been used since the 1990’s, after Saddam started his “Belief Campaign”. 3. The letter head is not clear in the document, and it is therefore not possible to see where it has originated. 4. The document is seemingly type-written; something that has almost disappeared, especially in important organizations like the Security. 5. The dates in the letter were hand-written; a practice that has also disappeared with the use of computers. 6. The text on the page is slanted; not vertical, which is surprising even for a typewritten document. All of the above indicate that the document was perhaps written by someone not familiar with the changes that have occurred in Iraq since 1991… Then there are contextual mistakes, indicating a lack of knowledge of the mechanism of things in Iraq: 1. The document is supposed to be coming from the Secret Services. The Secret Services does NOT have the authority to issue orders to the Military Intelligence, which falls under a different Ministry. The only such order can come from Saddam himself, and only Saddam would be obeyed... 2. If the order emanated from the Secret Services, why was it addressed to the Secret Services? Does a director issue an order to himself?? In this case, an internal memo to the sub-directorates would have been the proper procedure.. 3. The name of the Organizations are not how they are usually written in Arabic in Iraq. The document has them listed as: Security; Intelligence, Secret Services. In an official letter in Iraq, they would be properly addressed as: the Directorate General of Security, the Directorate General of Military Intelligence… 4. There is a mistake (!!??) in the translation. The translation states: “ In the event of the downfall of the Iraqi leadership…”. The original Arabic document states: “After the fall of the Iraqi leadership..”. This seems to be an intentional mistranslation, knowing that the would not have used words like “After the fall”; believing it was imminent… 5. The original letter in Arabic refers to the American, British and Zionists as “Coalition Forces”. This was dropped from the English translation by MEMRI. Why? The reply is simple: the Iraqi regime would never have used the term “Coalition Forces” to describe these forces. It would have used such terms as: the evil forces of the infidel American, British, and Zionist aggressors, or something like that.. 6. The emergency plan would have never used the term “God Forbid” as it was written in Arabic. There is a mistake in this, and the word as it is written would mean “May God not Forgive”…. 7. Another mistake is in the following sentence: “members of the agencies”. In Iraq, the preposition used in this case would be “FI”, while here the preposition used is “BI”. This indicates that the writer is not even an Iraqi; most probably an Egyptian.. 8. The Secret Services in Iraq is referred to as “Ra’is” not “Mudir” as in the document. And thus the Directorate of Secret Services is called “Ri’asat al-Mukhabarat al- ‘Amma”… These are just a remarks about the document, which gives me reason to think it is NOT AUTHENTIC. After the fall of Iraq, it is known that official papers and stamps have been stolen, and are being used to forge all sorts of documents. One can get an “official” passport for 20 USD… Of course the fact that the document is written in Arabic requires some knowledge of Arabic to understand it; it being Iraqi requires further a knowledge of how official documents in Iraq are written. Best HZ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk