Re: [casi] Doctors tell how children's deaths became propaganda

["Yasser Alaskary" <ya1980@DELETETHIShotmail.com>]

1.
> That interview has nothing to do with the issue of
> WMDs in any way, and doesn't address it at all. I
> wonder why Alaskary referred us to it...

2nd paragraph:

'I have always said that declaring war on the basis of the presence of
weapons of mass destruction was stupid'

2.
With regards to your questioning of the IPO website. May I applaud you for
monitoring and recording our activities with almost "informer-level"
thoroughness. The IPO constitution, as its first point aims to help
establish a genuinely democratic, proportional democracy. This has always
been our ultimate goal and continues to be so.

The addition of the removal of Saddam in our 'slogan' on the website was for
clarification that we believed the above could not even begin to be achieved
without Saddam Hussein's removal. The latest change was also for
clarification. We believe that a proportionally representative interim
authority is essential for Iraq's transition to a genuine, proportional
democracy.

3.
With regards to your sectarian analysis: our aim to establish a proportional
democracy - proportional to the make up of the population - this means we
believe that all the population should be represented in a proportional way,
starting with the interim authority. Our focus on the Shi'a of Iraq is based
on the fact that they have been generally excluded from government and are
not at all well represented and this needs to be amended if Iraq is to
progress.

4.
Our opposition to Adnan Pachachi is not based on his ethnicity or religion,
but rather our information and analysis that we believe the forces backing
him aim to hinder the establishment of a true democracy.

Yet, we have never set our support on any particular political party or
figure. Maybe that's why over the months you've never figured out who we
support, accusing us of supporting the Da'wa Party, then SCIRI, then INC,
and then INA. The truth is we believe that it is not our position to support
one party over the next, but for the Iraqi people to make this choice - what
we want is a genuine system that allows them to do that.

Within the IPO, I know for a fact that members disagree on who they would
vote for and many who are unsure at the moment since nothing attracts them
from the present choice. One man, one vote.

5.
> So Iraq should get help to get a government up and
> running (from the US and UK occupiers) and that is
> good, but various countries try to shape Iraq's future
> as they see fit (the UN and the rest of the world),
> and that is bad in Alaskary's mind.. Does Iranian
> intervention belong to the good or bad interventions??

Actually, my last comment in the interview ('It is now that Iraqi people
really need help to get a government up and running, but all we get is
various countries trying to re-shape Iraq's future as they see fit.') was
referring to all the above. There are some forces within the US that do not
want to see a genuine democracy, there are some forces in Iran, in Saudi
Arabia, in Jordan, in the UK, in the UN, etc. that do not want to see a
genuine democracy. And we oppose any force that attempts to hinder the path
towards a genuine democracy.

I hope this has clarified matters and apologise for any misunderstanding.

Best wishes
Yasser


----- Original Message -----
From: "Hassan Zeini" <hasseini@yahoo.com>
To: "CASI" <casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk>
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2003 5:58 PM
Subject: Re: [casi] Doctors tell how children's deaths became propaganda


>
> Dear List,
>
> When Saibal Mitra asked "Talking about stories, it
> would be most interesting to know were the stories
> about WMD came from", Yasser Alaskary replied with a
> reference to an interview in the Guardian.
>
> That interview has nothing to do with the issue of
> WMDs in any way, and doesn't address it at all. I
> wonder why Alaskary referred us to it...
>
> I don't intend this to be a personal attack, but the
> way the Iraqi Propsect Organisation has presented
> itself and its case on CASI makes one wonder what
> agenda it has.
>
> Let me give all an example and let you all be the
> judge.
>
> On 23 Dec 2002, Yasser Alaskary from the Iraqi
> Prospect Organisation posted the following:
>
> "The Iraqi Prospect Organisation is a network of young
> Iraqi men and women living in the west, working to
> promote a proportional democracy for Iraq."
>
> On 9 Mar 2003, the objectives changed to the
> following:
> "The Iraqi Prospect Organisation [
> http://www.iprospect.org.uk ] is a network of young
> Iraqi men and women living in the west working to
> promote the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the
> establishment of a proportional democracy in Iraq."
>
> Then when the military actions started, IPO went to
> sleep! Not a word, no press releases, nothing...
>
> Only after the fall of Baghdad, did IPO come back to
> life, when the Chairman of IPO, Ahmed Shames (the
> proper way to write the name of course is Shams!)
> posted the following on CASI on 10 Apr 2003:
>
> "A New Dawn
>
> On this historic day, we would like to congratulate
> all Iraqis around the world and all people who care
> for humanity on the fall of Saddam Hussein and his
> ruthlessly oppressive regime.
>
> In a day filled with symbolism, the Iraqi Prospect
> Organisation will symbolically change its mission
> statement from:
> '.a network of young Iraqi men and women living in the
> west working to promote the overthrow of Saddam
> Hussein and the establishment of a proportional
> democracy in Iraq.'
>
> To:
>
> '.a network of young Iraqi men and women living in the
> west working to promote the creation of a
> proportionally representative Interim Iraqi Authority
> leading to the establishment of genuine democracy in
> Iraq.'
>
> With joy and tears at the end of a dark age we look
> ahead to the future, to the challenges that lie
> ahead."
>
> The IPO is NOT working anymore towards "promoting the
> establishment of a proportional democracy in Iraq",
> and now concentrates on promoting " the creation of a
> proportionally representative Interim Iraqi Authority
> leading to the establishment of genuine democracy in
> Iraq", whetever that may mean.
>
> And so, in less than six months, the IPO changed its
> objectives twice, bending with the wind and the
> direction of funding, it seems...
> This behavior has a name, which I am sure we all
> know..
>
> In his interview in the Guardian, Yasser states "Now I
> realise that people's opinions of this war were based
> almost entirely on a hatred of American policy."
> I suppose Yasser's opinions were NOT based entirely on
> a personal hatred of Saddam Hussein? So why can't
> people have similar biases when it comes to the US??
>
> Yasser expresses disregard and ignorance of the
> history of the sanctions, not that he opposed them at
> all. He states that "declaring war on the basis of the
> presence of weapons of mass destruction was stupid",
> without seemingly realizing that the reasons for
> imposing sanctions from 1991 until now was the alleged
> possession of WMDs by Iraq. If the presence of WMDs
> was a stupid reason for declaring war, was it also a
> stupid reason for continuing sanctions?
>
> And Yasser continues in the same sentence to expose
> his reasons for supporting war by saying " but I would
> have supported anything that got rid of Saddam." So it
> IS personal hatred..
>
> Yasser then says "The Iraqi Prospect Organisation
> [IPO] has always worked to promote the establishment
> of a genuine democracy".
> What he doesn't say is that the IPO is a bit over one
> year old.. So this "always worked" is a bit
> misleading, to say the least. And Alaskary doesn't say
> that the IPO doesn't have definite objectives for more
> than three months..
>
> Then Alskary exposes the sectarian agenda of IPO, when
> he starts talking about how "the new regime has to be
> proportionally representative of all ethnicities",
> referring to some Arab countries wanting to maintain
> minority Sunni rule.
>
> If the issue is democracy, how can we draw the lines
> and make divisions based on sectarian identifications,
> not competence or a record of honesty and integrity?
> Would IPO want Iraq to be divided in the same as
> Lebanon has been, with each religious group allocated
> a certain part of the institutions? That, if anything,
> is catastrophic for the country and it would be a
> recipe for civil war.
>
> Yasser Alaskary, who talks about democracy, doesn't
> want Adnan Pachachi to get involved in the interim
> regime, because "he has had nothing to do with Iraq
> for many years and, as foreign minister, he approved
> everything that Saddam did." Yet, we are asked to
> accept Ahmad al-Chalabi (a thief who has left Iraq in
> 1958); Iyad Allawi (an ex-Ba'th member and head of the
> National Union of Iraqi Students in England); Najib
> al-Salihi (a commander of a battalion of Saddam's
> forces until 1995); Tawfiq al-Yassiry (a general in
> Saddam's army until 1991) and others, regardless of
> their history, simply because they are Shi'is.
> Al-Pachachi is not suitable because he is a Sunni, I
> presume??
>
> Yasser ends his interview with a rare expression of
> wisdom; so contradictory that one wonders if one
> should laugh or cry:
> "It is now that Iraqi people really need help to get a
> government up and running, but all we get is various
> countries trying to re-shape Iraq's future as they see
> fit."
>
> So Iraq should get help to get a government up and
> running (from the US and UK occupiers) and that is
> good, but various countries try to shape Iraq's future
> as they see fit (the UN and the rest of the world),
> and that is bad in Alaskary's mind.. Does Iranian
> intervention belong to the good or bad interventions??
>
> HZ
>
>
>
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