[schrocat]

Q: Ever wonder why the innocent children of Iraq die so needlessly?

A: Because they can't eat Marlboro Lights, Scotch doesn't cure dysentery, and the medicines provided to save Iraqi lives doesn't do Iraqi's any good when they are sold to Lebanon.

From ABC News...
— Saddam Hussein may be buying stockpiles of alcohol and cigarettes with the proceeds of food and medicine delivered under international aid programs.
A confidential British Foreign Office report, the details of which were released to the press, says the Iraqi president is importing large quantities of Scotch whisky and cigarettes in exchange for food and medicine destined for the Iraqi people.
The report, the details of which were confirmed by the Foreign Office to ABCNEWS.com, claims Saddam’s government has been buying an average of 10,000 bottles of alcohol — much of it Scotch — and 50 million cigarettes — mostly U.S. brands — each week for the dictator’s military and political elite circle.
The imports, the document said, were arriving as international humanitarian supplies delivered under the U.N. sponsored oil-for-food program, were being sold abroad.
The Kuwaiti coast guard, according to the report, had intercepted ships loaded with food leaving Iraq, while emergency drugs meant for Iraqis had been discovered in pharmacies in Lebanon.
A Foreign Office spokesman told ABCNEWS.com that the information, which came from sources in the region, had been common knowledge within the department for some time.
“This confirms our belief that the interests of the Iraqi regime lies in feathering its own nests and it casts doubts on its commitment to providing humanitarian relief to the people,” he said. “It undermines the efforts of governments such as Britain to provide relief for the Iraqi people under the oil-for-food program.”
The oil-for-food program was initiated by the United Nations in 1996 to help provide food and medicines for the Iraqi population, which has suffered under the sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War.
Same Old Story?
Activists and human rights organizations have expressed outrage, but not astonishment.
“This story is as old as the sanctions, as old as the oil-for-food program,” said Rend Rahim Francke, executive director of the Iraq Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit, non-governmental organization working for human rights in Iraq. “We have documentary evidence of Saddam Hussein selling medicines to Lebanon. Glaxo Wellcome [a British pharmaceutical firm] recently stated that 15,000 units of asthma medicine, targeted mainly at children, had been re-exported to Lebanon.”
Saddam has also been accused of illegally smuggling some 150,000 barrels of oil through the northern border to Turkey. A further 50,000 to 100,000 barrels are smuggled daily through the Persian Gulf from its southern border, the document claims.
Yet another 100,000 barrels of Iraqi oil are sold to neighboring Jordan, although these sales are not viewed as illegal. The United Nations has not authorized this trade, but neither has it criticized it.
Iraqi smugglers have been known to take the oil from Iraqi ports, into the territorial waters of Iraq’s neighbor and former enemy Iran, and thus, beyond the reach of the international interdiction force.

Cigarettes for Rich, Hunger for Poor
The Foreign Office report also details incidents such as Saddam’s recent birthday celebrations. The descriptions of a nearly 10-foot-high cake, while tens of thousands of Iraqi children are starving, is a striking contrast between the luxury enjoyed by Saddam and his inner circle and the poverty elsewhere in the country.
Iraq’s child mortality rate, once comparable to the figures in the industrial world, has now reached alarming rates. According to UNICEF, 8,000 Iraqi children die monthly, joining more than a million that have died since the sanctions were first imposed.
“If Saddam Hussein feels free to sell precious medicine for Iraqi children to acquire luxuries for his inner circle, he is a hypocrite and a murderer,” said Francke. “He is not buying alcohol and cigarettes for the ordinary man on the streets. The ordinary Iraqi is starving. These goods are targeted for the elite, they have all the food they want.”
Francke also said that the fact that the government has been importing alcohol and cigarettes, gives the lie to the belief, in many parts of the Muslim world, that Saddam is a champion of Islam. “Unfortunately many Muslims, not just from the Arab world, believe Saddam is the one who can save Islam from the Western devil. I personally, am more concerned with the fact that he’s diverting money for the elite, but this view of Saddam as a saviour of Islam has gained a lot of currency in the world.”

Impatience With Sanctions
The disclosure comes as international impatience with the U.N.-imposed sanctions seems to be growing. As the price of oil soars internationally, Britain and the United States have found themselves isolated in the international community in trying to keep the sanctions in place.
This week, a rash of flights from France, Russia, Morocco, Yemen and Jordan have landed in Baghdad’s newly opened Saddam Hussein Airport in what is seen as a protest against the ban on flights imposed on Iraq. While most countries had their flights approved — albeit grudgingly — by the United Nations, Russia and France challenged the sanctions procedure by not waiting for authorization from the U.N. committee.
The Foreign Office admitted the information had been released to the press in an attempt to counteract the growing public opinion opposing the sanctions. “This information doesn’t change our picture of the regime, but it might change the picture for the media,” said a spokesman. “Over the last few months, Iraqi propaganda has been gaining currency in the media, so we have provided the information to the media to change this view.”
There have been reports, in the international media, that many Western countries, especially France and Russia, are eager to resume diplomatic relations with Iraq. In August, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz became the first Arab official to be received by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
The growing impatience with the sanctions have come even as the U.S. State Department recently announced it had concluded a cooperative agreement with the Iraqi National Congress providing $4 million to advance the Iraqi National Congress’ ongoing operations and establish new ones. The Iraqi National Congress is one of the Iraqi groups funded by the United States, that opposes Saddam.
However, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen recently conceded that Iraq had been successful in its battle to win international public opinion for lifting its sanctions.
”It’s been very clear to me that he has been successful in waging a propaganda campaign certainly within — among the Arab population, to say, ‘Look at the harm that these sanctions have inflicted upon the Iraqi people,’” said Cohen at a news briefing in Washington on Monday. “And the answer is, there’s been one person who’s inflicted the harm upon the Iraqi people, that’s Saddam Hussein.”

[wgscott]

Oh good. That completely absolves us of all responsibility. I will sleep better tonight knowing that Saddam is smoking himself to death while we bomb water treatment facilities and prevent them from being rebuilt.

Here I thought he was as selfless as mother Theresa.

Ever think of becoming a State-Department shill?

[Ninong]

Schrocat,

This is not meant to diminish your point, because I have made the same point previously, but that's old news: "However, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen recently conceded..."

Cohen was Clinton's Secretary of Defense.

There have been reports for years now that Saddam Hussein was spending lavishly on himself, his inner circle, his elite Republican Guards, and his weapons of mass destruction programs. Every time this subject is raised, someone is sure to post pics of starving innocent Iraqi children and claim that the U.S. is responsible for their plight because of the sanctions. I think most of the sanctions should be lifted, but only because they have not produced the desired results. I used to think that we needed to figure out a way to force Iraq to accept U.N. inspections but I now believe that we need to figure out a way to remove Saddam Hussein.

Ninong

[saltjunkie]

Cant do that, if we go in with military strikes we will be the big bad americans again.......

[schrocat]

Originally posted by wgscott

Ever think of becoming a State-Department shill?

I'm certain it pays better than being a Communist mole.

[organicreefer]

everytime i here our "government " say anything about it ,they claim saddam is to blame for the sanctions ,hence he is to blame for the starvation /suffering.i would contend that we should punish those who are to blame ,and leave innocent women and children(yes!they exist! even in iraq!) out of it.shoulda never listened to those sneaky -ass saudi arabians, and followed them back out of kuwait to iraq and removed saddam from power,unfortunately(as always)money was more important.now saddam is supplying terrorists with anthrax and laughing his ass off.

[wgscott]

I am afraid the main problem is that the US policy is to keep Saddam, or preferably a Saddam clone, in power. This is why the Iraqi Democratic Opposition was never supported, why the Kurd/Shi'ite rebellion was never supported, etc. He is there because the policy makers want him there. Hussain, Assad, the Algerian government, etc. are allowed to stay in power precisely because they will help prevent radical Islamists from taking power, as happened in Iran after the fall of the Shah and his Schwartzkopf-Sr-trained torture and terror police, SAVAK, which make Iraq's look like a boy scout troop.

Iraqi Sanctions and Bombing by Chris Allen-Doucot

On Monday, February 14, Mr. Hans von Sponek, the United Nation's Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq followed in the steps of his predecessor Mr. Dennis Halliday when he resigned in protest of the ongoing sanctions and bombings of the Iraqi people. In an interview with Rueters news service Mr. von Sponek said: ``Well, everyone here in the U.N. is concerned over the inadequacy of the performance of the oil-for-food program ... That is not just my view,''

``So I'm not at all alone in my view that we have reached a point where it is no longer acceptable that we are keeping our mouths shut.

``Our support, my support, my commitment is for the Iraqi people as a group of deprived people whose tragedy should end.''

Within hours of Mr. von Sponek's principled resignation Ms. Jutta Burhardt, the head of the World Food Programme in Iraq since January 1999, also resigned in protest of the sanctions. Mr. von Sponek, Mr. Halliday, and Ms. Burghardt were among the closet impartial observers of the effects of the sanctions in Iraq. Their resignations must cause the world community to reconsider the justification for continuing the present policy of sanctions and bombings.

According to the Congressional Research Service current military operations in support of the sanctions cost the U.S. $1 billion annually. This monumental sum of money pales in comparison to the human havoc wreaked by the sanctions and bombings. As a result of the 88,500 tons of bombs dropped on Iraq by the Allies in 1991 much of Iraq's infrastructure was destroyed. The damage has yet to be fully repaired because of the restrictions of the sanctions. At the behest of the United States contracts for many items which can be used to repair the infrastructure, i.e.. the electrical grid, the water and sewage treatment systems, irrigation equipment, fertilizers and pesticides are blocked because repairs to the infrastructure, which will help the civilian population, will also help the Iraqi military. Top U.N. officials in Iraq have told me that Iraq needs to repair at least half of its total infrastructure. These officials estimate that the cost of these repairs could easily be $30 billion.

This price tag, regardless of continued U.S. obstructions in the U.N., is not likely to be achieved through the current, (or the proposed expanded) version of the ñOil for Foodî deal. This is partly due to the deterioration of the Iraqi oil industry. In a July 1999 letter to the Security Council U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote, ñthe oil industry of Iraq continues to be in a lamentable state. It may be recalled that the group of experts (Saybolt) (has stated) that the productivity of existing oil fields in Iraq ha(s) been seriously reduced, some irreparably...They had also stated that a sharp increase in production without concurrent expenditure on spare parts and equipment would severely damage oil-containing rocks and pipeline systems...approximately 20% of wells are irreparably damaged.î Iraq has attempted to purchase the necessary spare parts to maintain it's oil wells and pipelines but many of the contracts have been held up by the American delegate on the 661 Committee, which oversees Iraqi contract requests.

The combined effects of the bombings and sanctions has led to widespread malnutrition, a sharp rise in child mortality rates, a decrease in crop yields, marked devaluation of the Iraqi Dinar, contamination of drinking water with untreated sewage which has resulted in epidemic proportions of water borne diseases. The numbers are numbing: UNICEF reports that 5,000 children under 5 die monthly due to the sanctions, 2.1 million of the nation's 22 million people are classified as suffering from malnutrition, perhaps 1.5 million civilians have died to date. Meeting just one of these victims leaves an indelible mark.

In July I met Sajah Ali, an emaciated child who wieghed 3.75 pounds. Sajah's ideal weight should have been 11 pounds. Sajah was sick with dysentary contracted from drinking baby formula mixed with the contaminated drinking water. Sajah's mother, Um Sajah, was forced to bottle feed after her malnourished body stopped producing milk. Sajah was the last of her children still living- the other five had already succumbed to preventable diseases.

On top of this American, and occasionally British, warplanes bomb Iraq on average every other day.

Last month I met with Ms. Toni Berry, of the Iraq Desk in the State Department. During our discussion she did not deny the severity of the impact of the sanctions on the Iraqi people and she stressed that the sanctions were a U.N. mandated censure which would remain in place until the U.N. verified that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program is certified as dismantled. Former chief weapons inspector, and Gulf War veteran, Scott Ritter has said: ñToday, Iraq no longer possesses arms of mass destruction.ñ (Al-Hayat 3/31/99, London) Later in our meeting Ms. Berry repeated what the President and Secretary of State have earlier stated, namely that the sanctions against Iraq would remain in place so long as Saddam Hussein remains in power. This U.S. caveat does not appear anywhere in the Security Council resolutions, which define the sanctions. Likewise, there is no U.N. mandate or justification for the American led ñno fly zonesî.

What does appear in UN Security Council Resolution 687, is a call for regional disarmament and nuclear weapons free Middle East. The positioning of American troops in Saudi Arabia, the sale of weapons and related technology to Israel, Turkey, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and Israel's possession of 200 nuclear weapons all constitute serious violations of 687.

If America can justify the no fly zones, the destruction of the water, sewage, educational, medical, and electrical systems because Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait and because Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction are we prepared to extend this same logic to America and Americans? Should America be devastated by indiscriminate bombing because American troops have in the past invaded Panama, Haiti, Grenada, Mexico, and Cuba..? Would it be acceptable for American children to suffer from a lack of food and medicine because the United States, under the authority of Congress and the President, maintains a stockpile of nuclear weapons larger than the combined weapons programs of the rest of the world? Should Iraqi warplanes patrol our skies because we have persecuted African Americans and Native Americans? The Congress, president and people of the United States would not accept any of these actions as justifiable methods of resolving grievances. In fact, when civilians are detained, harmed or killed for a political agenda most of the world is quick to condemn such actions as terrorist. It is not moral or just for us to be bombing and enforcing sanctions against the people of Iraq. In the words of Pope John Paul: ñthe weak and innocent cannot pay for mistakes for which they are not responsible.î

Near the end of my meeting with Ms. Berry of the State Department she said that the people of Iraq would be better off without Mr. von Sponek. Having spent time in Iraq and having met Mr. von Sponek I know that Ms. Berry did not know what she was talking about. Mr. von Sponek is a man of tremendous compassion and integrity. It is the view of the National Council of Churches, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, Pope John Paul II, Nobel Peace Laureates Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire, and 71 members of Congress that the people of Iraq would be better off without American bombs and sanctions. No doubt Um Sajah would agree.

[schrocat]

Well by golly lets end the sanctions right away!!!!

How big of a check would you have us cut Saddam?

[wgscott]

Maybe we could just send him Henry Kissinger.

[Ninong]

Remind him to pack his Nobel Peace prize. That should do it.

Ninong

[schrocat]

Henry Kissinger?

No.

At least Jimmy Carter can still swing a framing hammer.
He could help rebuild a radar site or two.

"Surface to Air for Humanity"

wg,

send me your email address.
I need a couple of links (on the sanctions specificly) and don't want to burden you with a rehash or extra cut and pasting...

tanks,

[Ninong]

Schrocat,

Just enter "UN Security Council Resolution 687" in your search engine and you will get hundreds of links on the sanctions.

All of wg's favorite authors write for the Independent and the Guardian (British press). He almost never quotes domestic sources. I like to quote opposing views from someone on the faculty of his alma mater. That always seems like a fun way to start.

Besides, didn't we beat the sanctions subject to death a few months back? Do you want him to post the starving children pics again?

Ninong

P.S. - I think he's too busy in The Sump at Reefs.org right now to pay much attention to us.

[schrocat]

Originally posted by Ninong
I think he's too busy in The Sump at Reefs.org right now to pay much attention to us.

I just left a Dead Kennedy reference in that particular thread, so he should be asking me about my medication any minute now...

I'm coming up with facts Ok...just not alternatives.


A few megs of finger pointing...that's all I'm finding

[wgscott]

By a strange coincidence, so did I (In God we Trust, Inc).

You shouldn't listen to old Jello Biafra too much. You might start agreeing with him (and therefore me).



PS: I'm not worried about your medication. Just wondering if you've become a chiropracter.

[schrocat]

"well paid scientist" comes to mind...

Actually, IGWTI was perhaps the finest record ever recorded.
At the very least it is my favorite.

[wgscott]

Well paid scientist is a contradiction in terms.

Anyway as luck would have it I saw Hans von Sponek tonight and asked him about this. He dismissed your claim as complete hogwash (except he is extremely polite and German, so he had a different term for it). Anyway he was in charge of the oil for food program and did all of the accounting.

What he then went on to point out was the utter corruption involved in the Iraqi reparation payment assessment, citing as one example where the Kuwaitis submitted a claim for $55 million dollars for oil revenues lost during the Iraqi occupation, and those in charge gave them tripple the amount.

He said the amount of humanitarian aid that went to the Iraqi people amounted to $113 per person over a four year period.

It was because of this he resigned in protest.

This guy isn't some wacko hippie freak, but rather a career UN high-level employee that resigned a prestigious post to spend his time travelling the US and the world in an attempt to get the sanctions lifted. He also denounced the so-called "smart sanctions" as an utter fraud.

Someone else asked him about the "well sure there are half a million dead Iraqi children, and it is all Saddam Hussain's fault" point that some people like to raise. He pointed out that with a humanitarian crisis of these proportions, it would not be proper to giver credibility to the idea that the US is a completely passive player in the sanctions regime. He also pointed out that Iraq has twice met the demands placed upon it for lifting of the sanctions (first withdrawl from Kuwait, and second, admission of the UN weapons inspectors). He also made the point that the Pentagon just recently declassified a study done in January 1991 that predicted the long-term effects of the sanctions (even before the bombing started) and that the estimated fatalities are approximately those we have witnessed, so there was no surprise in the outcome.

[Salty Dog]

Originally posted by wgscott
chiropracter

Don't they teach you how to spell in I HATE AMERICA school??

[organicreefer]

why is it anytime someone voices disagreement /displeasure with our governments policies,they are branded anti - american
what could be more american than voicing youre opinion
ive been called this a couple times recently ,and it really pisses me off
bunch of lemmings.....do you guys even vote?

[schrocat]

Originally posted by organicreefer
why is it anytime someone voices disagreement /displeasure with our governments policies,they are branded anti - american
what could be more american than voicing youre opinion
ive been called this a couple times recently ,and it really pisses me off
bunch of lemmings.....do you guys even vote?

You guys?
*schrocat spits out the lure and swims on*


wg,
Hans Von Sponeck seems to be quite the career UN guy.
But that's all I can find on him..."30 year veteran"
Did he mention any previous associations, or employment, during his talk that might give insight to his current views?

http://www.wakefieldcam.freeserve.co...kinterview.htm

The above link is very interesting.
But my biggest question "are there any hidden agendas" was discussed entirely off the record (3/4 of the way down, before the question and answer transcripts)...he asked all recording devices be turned off.

Were you lucky enough to have this specific question answered?

[wgscott]

I'm not quite sure I understand your question about "hidden agendas." I would guess that the guy is about 50 years old, so if he was with the UN for 30 years, that sounds like most of his adult life.

As for the link, if that was meant to provide an answer, I am sorry that I missed it, but haven't had time to read it thoroughly.

One thing I can say is that the tone of this guys's talk and his q/a exchange with the audience was pretty rigorously non-partisan. He refused to be drawn into endorsing or condemning any political point of view.

His entire talk and q/a session focused strictly on the facts and there was no hint of political partisanship that I could detect, and he went so far as to chastise people in the audience as trying to trivialize a huge humanitarian crisis when they attempted the sort of knee-jerk political analysis that substitutes for critical thinking by much of the so-called "left" in this country.

I guess the main point is we can listen to a composed, rational, well-informed, reasonable person like Hans von Sponek when he speaks about the human catastrophe that these sanctions have wrought, or we can wait until fanatics with boxcutters ram commercial airliners into skyscrapers to make the same point. Either way, the problem will not vanish if we just stick our head in the sand or drop more bombs on people who have little if anything to do with this.