[casi-analysis] casi-news digest, Vol 1 #21 - 3 msgs

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Today's Topics:

   1. War in Iraq - Not a Humanitarian Intervention (Human Rights Watch) (Nathaniel Hurd)
   2. Powell Says Iraqi Oil Must Wait (ppg)
   3. Rangwala/Whitaker 50 statements re Iraq (ppg)

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Message: 1
From: "Nathaniel Hurd" <nathaniel_hurd@DELETETHIShotmail.com>
To: newsclippings@casi.org.uk
Subject: War in Iraq - Not a Humanitarian Intervention (Human Rights Watch)
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 10:35:13 -0500

Source: Human Rights Watch Executive Director Ken Roth, "War in Iraq: Not a
Humanitarian Intervention", 26 January 2004,
http://hrw.org/wr2k4/3.htm#_Toc58744952
* Keynote essay to Human Rights Watch, "World Report 2004"

Excerpt: "As time elapses, the Bush administration's dominant remaining
justification for the war is that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant who deserved
to be overthrown=97an argument of humanitarian intervention. The
administration is now citing this rationale not simply as a side benefit of
the war but also as a prime justification for it. Other reasons are still
regularly mentioned, but the humanitarian one has gained prominence.

Does that claim hold up to scrutiny? The question is not simply whether
Saddam Hussein was a ruthless leader; he most certainly was. Rather, the
question is whether the conditions were present that would justify
humanitarian intervention=97conditions that look at more than the level of
repression. If so, honesty would require conceding as much, despite the
war's global unpopularity. If not, it is important to say so as well, since
allowing the arguments of humanitarian intervention to serve as a pretext
for war fought mainly on other grounds risks tainting a principle whose
viability might be essential to save countless lives.

In examining whether the invasion of Iraq could properly be understood as a
humanitarian intervention, our purpose is not to say whether the U.S.-led
coalition should have gone to war for other reasons. That, as noted,
involves judgments beyond our mandate. Rather, now that the war's proponent=
s
are relying so significantly on a humanitarian rationale for the war, the
need to assess this claim has grown in importance. We conclude that, despit=
e
the horrors of Saddam Hussein's rule, the invasion of Iraq cannot be
justified as a humanitarian intervention."

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--__--__--

Message: 2
From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: Powell Says Iraqi Oil Must Wait
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 21:19:50 -0500

Moscow Times
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2004
http://tinyurl.com/ywf8c

Powell Says Iraqi Oil Must Wait
By Vladimir Todres
Bloomberg

Russian oil producers will have to wait until Iraq elects its own
government, in __a vote expected next year__, to negotiate about contracts
to extract oil in Iraq and rebuild energy infrastructure there, U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

The new government will make "its own decision" on whom to give rights to
drill for oil in Iraq, Powell told Ekho Moskvy radio. ___The United States
may "give advice" to the Iraqi government on drilling rights, he said.___

"When the Iraqi people regain sovereignty over their government, it will be
up to them to decide which contracts to give to French, German or Russian
companies," Powell said, according to a transcript.

LUKoil and Tatneft are among Russian oil producers pushing to regain rights
to drill Iraqi oil fields and provide services on the basis of contracts
signed with the Saddam Hussein regime. Russia has offered to cancel some of
the $8 billion it says Iraq owes in exchange for such contracts.

The United States has talked with Russia about reducing Iraq's debt, Powell
said.

"Russian companies are working in Iraq now on contracts with Iraqi
companies," he said. "In the future, there will be additional opportunities
for __subcontracts__ on construction in Iraq for Russian companies."

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, president of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council,
held talks with President Vladimir Putin in December. He also met Vagit
Alekperov, chief executive of LUKoil, Russia's biggest oil producer by
sales.

LUKoil in 1997 won a contract to develop Iraq's West Qurna field, one of the
world's largest.

United Nations sanctions against Hussein's regime prevented LUKoil from
tapping the field after it did preparation work there. Hussein canceled the
contract after work stalled. Al-Hakim told LUKoil in December that Iraq
"isn't averse" to the company participating in the development of West
Qurna.

Tatneft, Russia's No. 6 oil producer, had oilfield-servicing contracts in
Iraq. It lost about $2 million of equipment there when it pulled out of Iraq
before the U.S.-led invasion in March.





--__--__--

Message: 3
From: "ppg" <ppg@DELETETHISnyc.rr.com>
To: <newsclippings@casi.org.uk>
Subject: Rangwala/Whitaker 50 statements re Iraq
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 01:26:20 -0500

The 50 lies, exaggerations, distortions and half truths about the Iraq war
uploaded  from Independent   27 Jan 2004
http://tinyurl.com/3dh5u


Whatever the outcome of the Hutton inquiry and the vote on top-up fees, the
central charge this paper has consistently made against Tony Blair is that
he took this country to war in Iraq on a false pretext. Raymond Whitaker and
Glen Rangwala list 50 statements on which history will judge him and his US
partners.

1 Tonight, British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea.
Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and disarm Iraq of its
weapons of mass destruction.

Tony Blair, televised address to the nation, 20 March 2003

2 I have always said to people throughout that ... our aim has been the
elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Tony Blair, press conference, 25 March 2003

Within days, Mr Blair contradicts himself about the aims of the war.

3 But for this military action, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be
in absolute control ... free to continue the repression and butchery of
their people which ... we now know was on such a savage scale that victims
number hundreds of thousands.

Tony Blair, article in 'News of the World', 16 November 2003

"Regime change" again becomes a central justification of the conflict.

4 You know how passionately I believed in this cause and in the wisdom of
the conflict as the only way to establish long-time peace and stability.

Tony Blair to British troops in Iraq, 4 January 2004

No mention of WMD was made on this trip. But with Saddam now in custody and
the insurgency in Iraq showing no sign of abating, the PM finds a new reason
for the war.

5 As for the existence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, there can be
no doubt ... that those weapons existed. It is the job of the Iraq Survey
Group to find out what has happened, which it will do.

Tony Blair, House of Commons, 21 January 2004

Mr Blair uses lawyer's language, ignoring Iraq's claim that the weapons
existed, but were destroyed more than a decade ago. His next sentence
implicitly acknowledges WMD may never be found.

6 For reasons that have a lot to do with the US government bureaucracy, we
settled on the one issue everyone could agree on, which was weapons of mass
destruction...

Paul Wolfowitz, US deputy defence secretary, 'Vanity Fair', June 2003

The Bush administration made no secret of its desire for "regime change".
Some were ready to admit that WMD was a red herring.

7 We know that he has stockpiles of major amounts of chemical and biological
weapons.

Tony Blair, NBC TV, 3 April 2002

From early 2002, the PM began to stress claims that Iraq had WMD left over
from before the 1991 war, without saying that most agents would have
deteriorated to the point of uselessness.

8 Iraq poses a threat to the world because of its manufacture and
development of weapons of mass destruction.

Jack Straw, interview with David Frost, 24 March 2002

Claims that Iraq was still producing chemical and biological weapons were
prominent, though UN inspectors hadn't found any production of banned
weapons after 1991.

9 It [the dossier] concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons,
that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active
military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could
be activated within 45 minutes ... and that he is actively trying to acquire
nuclear weapons capability.

Tony Blair to the House of Commons, 24 September 2002

No such weapons were found in place once the invasion began.

10 I have absolutely no doubt whatever that he was trying to reconstitute
weapons of mass destruction programmes. ... [Saddam Hussein] has always been
intending to develop these weapons.

Tony Blair to the Commons Liaison Committee, 8 July 2003

Mr Blair switched to claims about weapons "programmes" and Saddam's
intentions. No further mention of weapons "existing".

11 Saddam was a danger and the world is better off because we got rid of
him.

Q: But stated as a hard fact, that there were weapons of mass destruction as
opposed to the possibility that he could move to acquire those weapons
still --

A: So what's the difference?

Q: Well --

A: The possibility that he could acquire weapons. If he were to acquire
weapons, he would be the danger. That's, that's what I'm trying to explain
to you.

President Bush, television interview, 16 December 2003

For Bush, the "possibility" of Iraq obtaining weapons in future was enough
to have justified the war.

12 Already the Kay report identified dozens of weapons of mass
destruction-related programme activities and significant amounts of
equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations.

George Bush, State of the Union address, 20 January 2004

Weapons programmes are now WMD-related programme activities.

13 Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminium tubes and other
equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for
nuclear weapons.

George Bush, 7 October 2002

The White House ignored persistent evidence from US scientists and the UN
nuclear agency that the tubes were useless for centrifuges.

14 The British government has learnt that Saddam Hussein recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

George Bush, 28 January 2003

The CIA knew the claim was based on crudely forged documents.

15 We believe he [Saddam] has reconstituted nuclear weapons.

Vice President Dick Cheney, NBC's 'Meet the Press', 16 March, 2003

16 Q: Reconstituted nuclear weapons. You misspoke.

A: Yeah. I did misspeak ... We never had any evidence that he had acquired a
nuclear weapon.

Mr Cheney on 'Meet the Press', 14 September 2003

The VP took six months to correct his eve-of-war assertion.

17 The dossier shows that Iraq continues to produce chemical agent for
chemical weapons; has rebuilt previously destroyed production plants across
Iraq; has bought dual-use chemical facilities; has retained the key
personnel formerly engaged in the chemical weapons programme; and has a
serious ongoing research programme into weapons production.

Tony Blair to the House of Commons, 24 September 2002

All the sites in Britain's WMD dossier were visited by UN inspectors, and
found to be clean.

18 What we are talking about is chemical weapons, biological weapons,
viruses, bacilli and anthrax - 10,000 litres of anthrax - that he [Saddam]
has.

Jack Straw, House of Commons, 17 March 2003

If the UN said it couldn't prove that Iraq had destroyed agents, Britain
said this proved Iraq still had them.

19 Saddam has ... the wherewithal to develop smallpox.

Colin Powell to the Security Council, 5 February 2003

UN inspectors said there was no evidence Iraq had any seed stock from which
to produce smallpox.

20 Those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned
weapons, they're wrong. We found them.

George Bush, Polish TV interview, 29 May 2003

This claim about mobile biological laboratories, echoed by Tony Blair, was
rubbished by David Kelly, who saw the vehicles and believed they were for
producing hydrogen. They were built to a British design.

21 The Iraq Survey Group has already found massive evidence of a huge system
of clandestine laboratories, workings by scientists, plans to develop
long-range ballistic missiles.

Tony Blair, on British Forces Broadcasting Service, 16 December 2003

The Iraq Survey Group had never talked of a "massive" system, and didn't
link the laboratories with weapons production or research.

22 Is it not reasonable that Saddam provides evidence of destruction of the
biological and chemical agents and weapons the UN proved he had in 1999?

Tony Blair to the House of Commons, 25 February 2003

In 1999 the inspectors emphasised they didn't have proof that Iraq had
prohibited weapons. They had suspicions that needed to be checked.

23 The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient
to produce more than 38,000 litres of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject
millions of people to death by respiratory failure."

President Bush, State of the Union address, 28 January 2003

Unmovic said in March 2003: "It seems unlikely that significant undeclared
quantities of botulinum toxin could have been produced, based on the
quantity of media unaccounted for."

24 By 1998, UN experts agreed that the Iraqis had perfected drying
techniques for their biological weapons programmes.

Colin Powell to the Security Council, 5 February 2003

Unmovic said it "has no evidence that drying of anthrax or any other agent
in bulk was conducted".

25 If Saddam Hussein does ... readmit the weapons inspectors and allow them
to do their job... then the case for military action recedes to the point
almost of invisibility and that is obvious.

Jack Straw, interview with David Frost, 15 September 2002

When the inspectors returned to Iraq, Britain and the US said they were
ineffective and were being obstructed, leaving force as the only option.

26 Journeys are monitored by security officers stationed on the route if
they have prior intelligence. Any changes of destination are notified ahead
by telephone or radio so that arrival is anticipated. The welcoming party is
a give away.

The PM's dossier of 3 February 2003

"In no case have we seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew in
advance that the inspectors were coming," chief inspector Hans Blix told the
Security Council.

27 I have every confidence - and I have expressed that confidence - in the
weapons inspectors ... As long as this regime is in place, and as long as it
is refusing to co-operate, the inspection process becomes well-nigh
impossible.

Jack Straw to the House of Commons, 17 March 2003

28 The reason why the inspectors couldn't do their job ... was that Saddam
wouldn't co-operate.

Tony Blair, interview, 4 April 2003

The inspectors reported they were making progress. Iraq was destroying
missiles they had declared illegal when the US ordered the inspectors out on
the brink of war.

29 Never once did I come to this House and say that I believed that we
should not give the weapons inspectors more time because I did not think
that they were going to get any more co-operation than they had had in the
past.

Jack Straw to the House of Commons, 27 November 2003

The Foreign Secretary tortuously acknowledges that the weapons inspectors
were getting somewhere at the time of the invasion.

30 There is no evidence linking Iraq to the events of 11th September; there
is no evidence either so far that links Iraq to the anthrax attacks in the
United States."

Geoff Hoon, 29 October 2001

This was before the war in Afghanistan to oust al-Qa'ida.

31 Iraq could decide on any given day to provide biological or chemical
weapons to a terrorist group or individual terrorist ...

Dick Cheney, 10 January 2003

The White House concentrated instead on questionable connections between
Iraq and terrorism.

32 There are things that haven't been explained ... like the meeting of
Mohammed Atta [leader of 9/11 hijackers] with Iraqi officials in Prague.

Q: Which now is alleged, right? There is some doubt to that?

A: Now this gets you into classified areas again.

Paul Wolfowitz, to 'San Francisco Chronicle', 23 February 2002

US intelligence had established Atta was in the US at the time of the
alleged meeting.

33 Mohammed Atta met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad prior to September 11. We
have proof of that ... The meeting is one of the motives of an American
attack on Iraq.

Richard Perle, Pentagon adviser, September 2002

If there was any proof, it would surely have been produced by now.

34 Iraq has trained al-Qa'ida members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly
gases

George Bush, 7 October 2002

This claim, four days before Congress authorised war, omitted classified
caveats and warnings that the information might be unreliable.

35 There is some intelligence evidence about linkages between members of
al-Qa'ida and people in Iraq.

Tony Blair to the House of Commons Liaison Committee, 21 January 2003

Blair had just seen an intelligence report, later leaked, which said
al-Qa'ida was "in ideological conflict" with the "apostate" Iraqi regime,
and there were no current links.

36 In the event of Saddam refusing to co-operate or being in breach, there
will be a further UN discussion.

Tony Blair on Security Council Resolution 1441, 8 November 2002

When Britain later claimed that Iraq had violated the resolution, it said
another Security Council meeting was unnecessary.

37 Resolution 1441 gives the legal basis for this [war].

Tony Blair to the House of Commons, 12 March 2003

The opposite of his earlier pledge.

38 France said it would veto a second resolution whatever the circumstances.

Tony Blair to the House of Commons, 18 March 2003

President Chirac said France would vote against any resolution that
authorised force whilst inspections were still working.

39 The oil revenues... should be put in a trust fund for the Iraqi people
administered through the UN.

Tony Blair to the House of Commons, 18 March 2003

Britain co-sponsored a Security Council resolution that gave the US and UK
control of the oil revenues.

40 The United Kingdom should seek a new Security Council Resolution that
would affirm... the use of all oil revenues for the benefit of the Iraqi
people.

Commons motion for war, proposed by Tony Blair, 18 March 2003

Iraq's oil revenues have been used to pay US firms, often at vastly inflated
prices.

41 Over some period of months, the Iraqis will have their government
selected by Iraqi people.

Donald Rumsfeld, press conference, 13 April 2003

Direct elections are not expected until the end of 2005.

42 This is about building a new civil society in Iraq after 35 years when we
know women were suppressed, and ensuring women have a voice in Iraq.

Patricia Hewitt, Trade and Industry Secretary, 16 October 2003

The US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council has removed all the rights Iraqi
women have acquired since the 1950s on divorce, marriage, inheritance and
child custody, reverting them to the "traditional" form.

43 Iraq's ... got tunnels, caves, all kinds of complexes. We'll find them.

George Bush, press conference, 3 May 2003

This combination of vagueness and certainty was common during and
immediately after the fighting.

44 There will certainly not be the quantity and proximity [of WMD] that we
thought of before. [Saddam might even have launched] a massive
disinformation campaign to make the world think he was violating
international norms, and he may not have been.

Kenneth Adelman, member of US Defence Policy Board, 17 May 2003

The excuses begin.

45 It is also possible that they decided that they would destroy them [WMD]
prior to a conflict.

Donald Rumsfeld to the Council on Foreign Relations, 27 May 2003

Hans Blix is now convinced they were destroyed before the conflict - at
least seven years before.

46 It is not the most urgent priority now for us since Saddam has gone ...

Tony Blair 30 May 2003

Finding WMD slides down the scale of importance.

47 In a land mass twice the size of the UK it may well not be surprising you
don't find where this stuff is hidden.

Tony Blair, interview with David Frost, 11 January 2004

This excuse variously describes Iraq as "the size of California" or "twice
the size of France".

48 We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and
east, west, south and north somewhat.

Donald Rumsfeld, 30 March 2003

49 I should have said, 'I believe we're in that area. Our intelligence tells
us they're in that area,' and that was our best judgement.

Mr Rumsfeld, 10 September 2003

WMD excuse which is now most prevalent: we believed it at the time.

50 Q: But it is absolutely clear now that the 45 minute thing and so on,
that the weapons of mass destruction idea and you've moved on to talking
about programmes now rather than weapons of mass destruction. But that was
wrong wasn't it?

A: Well you can't say that at this point in time. What you can say is that
we received that intelligence about Saddam's programmes and about his
weapons that we acted on that, it's the case throughout the whole of the
conflict.

Tony Blair, interview with David Frost, 11 January 2004

The PM blames the intelligence.

Source:   Independent





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