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

[Hassan Zeini <hasseini@DELETETHISyahoo.com>]

Dear List,

In addition to the many comments on the article I
would like to add mine.

If we look at the original Sydney Herald article, we
can trace the misinformation from the title.

The article is titled "Doctors tell how children's
deaths became propaganda", so we expect that "doctors"
(in the plural) would expose the alleged propaganda..
We go into the article, and there is only "one doctor"
whose remarks are quoted: chief resident, Dr Hussein
Shihab.. Surely one doctor does not qualify for
"doctors"??

Dr. Shihab tells the reporter "we had the ability to
get all the drugs we needed. Instead of that, Saddam
Hussein spent all the money on his military force and
put all the fault on the USA. Yes, of course the
sanctions hurt - but not too much, because we are a
rich country and we have the ability to get everything
we can by money. But instead, he spent it on his
palaces."

So Saddam "spent all the money on his military force"
while at the same time spending it "on his palaces"..

And that, according to the SMH (and to members of the
IPO) is the absolute truth about the cause of the
death of children in Iraq.. An allegation lacking in
proof, coming from a doctor at one hospital in
Baghdad, summarizes 13 years of sanctions and death..

Forget about the UN, its organizations and officials;
forget about all those surveys and studies; forget
about DU and its effects; forget about non-sterilized
water, lack of chlorine, electricity shortages, lack
of equipment; forget all of that and blame everything
on Saddam Hussein, now that his regime is overthrown..
Justify the support for war with such excuses... That
one doctor has all the truth, and all the others are
liars.

Why? Because the man can now speak freely..
I am of course assuming that Dr. Hussein Shihab is a
real character and not a figment of the imagination of
an Anglo-Saxon reporter.

Please bear with me: we had before this the incubator
babies; we had the oil-covered bird; we had the WMDs;
we had the anthrax, etc. We had lots of lies and
fabrications.. The last time we were told they were
there to liberate Iraq, now they say they are staying
as occupiers..

Can Dr. Hussein Shihab really speak freely in a
country occupied by a foreign army, whose soldiers
shoot women, children and anyone or anything that
approaches them? Shoot at cars that don't give way to
the US tanks? An occupation force that encourages
looting, prohibits parties, dissolves the army and the
judiciary, and demands employees to sign statements
denouncing the Ba'th party? How do we know the man is
not a Ba'thist, afraid to say anything that the
Americans might consider to be supportive of Saddam's
regime and he looses his job? The man admits he used
to lie before for Saddam, so why wouldn't he lie now
for the Americans?? After all, they are the ones with
the guns..

How did Saddam spend all the money from the
Oil-for-food on his military forces? Nobody has come
up with an explanation...
How would Iraq have bought all the drugs it needed
without approval from the UN? Nobody has come up with
an explanation...
How can anyone in Iraq (or outside it) deny the fact
that from 1991 until 1996, the GOI provided Iraqis
with a food basket and with medicines almost free,
even before the UN adopted the OFF program?

Nobody denies that Saddam spent some of the money
acquired from "sanctions busting" sales of oil through
Syria and Turkey, but some was also used for food,
medicines, spare parts etc..

I am again referring all to the article of Reuters
which explains some of those issues:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2777711

For the attention of Dr. Shihab and all those on this
list who believe he was telling the truth, I would
like to give one example of Iraqi efforts to buy
medicines, which were rejected by the UK government:
the same government that is now "helping" Iraq become
democratic and denying sanctions killed people.

This is the transcript of a telex message from
Wellcome Foundation Ltd to the Iraqi medicines
importing organization KIMADIA. I have a copy of the
original telex in my possession:

"
MAR 16 1993  15:45
= 212672KIMAD IK
8951486 TBLOID G
STE CPUAO14 930316124 /UCEXGO8 (1073) UKTLX016
9303161243
UCEXGO
8 AC162

ATTN – IMPORT MANAGER KIMADIA
SUBJECT – YR TL & NO 1955 DD 15/3/93
          ORDER REF 40/91/155
OUR REF : DAR/5296/93

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ABOVE TLX.
I HAVE AGAIN DISCUSSED THIS MATTER WITH THE UK
GOVERNMENT AND THEY WILL STILL NOT ISSUE THE EXPORT
LICENCE FOR ANGISED TABS.
I HAVE EXPLAINED TO THE UK GOVERNMENT THAT GLYCERYL
TRINITRATES FOR ESSENTIAL MEDICAL PRODUITS IS NOT
REFUSED BY THE UN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE. THE UK
GOVERNMENT INFORMED ME THAT THEIR REJECTION OF MY
APPLICATION FOR AN EXPORT LICENCE IS A UK GOVERNMENT
DECISION AND NOT A UN SANCTIONS COMMITTEE DECISION.
THE ONLY THING I CAN SUGGEST IS THAT YOU REQUEST THE
IRAQI EMBASSY (INTEREST SECTION) IN LONDON TO CONTACT
THE UK DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY REGARDING THE
DECISION NOT TO ISSUE AN EXPORT LICENCE FOR ANGISED
TABS.
AGAIN I APOLIGISE FOR INCONVENIENCE THIS WILL CAUSE
YOU BUT THE MATTER IS OUTSIDE OF OUR CONTROL.
0REGARDS

D A ROBB
MEA ZONE
WELLCOME FOUNDATION LTD
16 MARCH 1993
12:44:53
NNNN

3954486TBLOID G.
=212673KIMAD"

I am sure that most would recognize that Angised is a
medicine used for heart diseases.
In private discussions with Wellcome, the Iraqi health
officials were told that the real reason given to
Wellcome by the British officials was the following:
TNT can be extracted from those tabs to make
explosives!!!
Some would laugh, I am sure, but this goes to show the
extent to which the US and UK went to destroy the
Iraqis. Remember the pencils? They too could be used
to extract Graphite for the core of nuclear reactors,
and were therefore prohibited.

When one knows that each Angised tablet has 0.5
milligram of GLYCERYL TRINITRATES, one can calculate
how many tablets would be needed to extract some 500
grams of TNT (my calculations say one billion tabs to
give 500 gm of GLYCERYL TRINITRATES, but I could be
mistaken)... And that would require laboratories and
equipment and time.. Wouldn't it be easy to just
smuggle it from Iran, Turkey or Syria, like it
probably did? Besides, Iraq was not prohibited from
buying explosives or weapons: it was prohibited from
developing WMDs and the missiles to deliver them, but
it was still allowed its defensive abilities, and
missiles with a range of 150 kilometers..

Angised was not the only medicinal item prohibited.
Anesthesia was also prohibited by the UN Sanctions
committee, because it was NOT considered medicine. And
so, even though Iraq tried to buy anesthetics from
different sources outside the UN, they were not
enough, and numerous live-saving operations were
performed for several years without anesthesia. I
suppose those guys at IPO would say it is an
acceptable price, just so that we get rid of Saddam...
The ends justify the means.

Would one be surprised anymore why Saddam thought he
was great: his removal was worth the lives of over 1.5
million Iraqis..

I leave you with the following words of Bernard Shaw:

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to
hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the
essence of inhumanity."


Hassan





__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.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