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[ This message has been sent to you via the CASI-analysis mailing list ] This discussion of the targetting of water a decade ago is going nowhere. Unless anybody wishes to share new information on the current situation, I'm going to consider the thread closed, and I'll reject any further emails on the topic. Hassan, Gabriel and Felicity have all gone to the trouble of writing further replies already. I've pasted their comments below: I hope that between them they'll be the last word on this. Daniel O'Huiginn [list moderator] *********************************** Felicity writes: Dear List, I decided not to respond to the comments regarding a small, insignificant article I wrote on the Baghdad Bulletin, since people more eloquent than me, did it for me and frankly, given the hell Iraq is now, it became even more insignificant, though I stand by the content absolutely. However, now, here we go again, the very significant accusation unearthed by Professor Tom Nagy of George Washington University, that in 1991, Iraq's water systems were deliberately targetted, as outlined in a Department of Defence document sent to the Heads of all Allied Commands. When I ran that article in the Sunday Herald, it had not alone been checked by the ultra careful Professor Nagy through the relevant experts, but the Sunday Herald had it minutely checked by their relevant military/intelligence advisors. Professor Nagy subsequently spoke to the US Association of Genocide Scholars, a cautious, conservative body, who had no doubts about the document's validity. He and I also spoke at various venues in Ireland about it and were widely interviewed in print and on radio, who would certainly have done their own checks on the document's validity. Britain and America have reduced the Cradle of Civilisation to a pile of rubble, built on lies, misleading, duplicity - destroyed countless lives, hopes, homes, dreams, broken the tenets of numerous great Treaties and Conventions and their fine words. A pink, frilled bassinet in the rubble of a Fallujah 'terrorist' homes complex, destroyed Lebanon and Palestine style, said it all. Let us not, on this remarkable list, which has done so much, with such committment and midnight oil burnt over the years, let further lies prevail. Apologies for the anger, I can feel no different - it is not about an attack on my writings, it is about an effort to pervert truth. Felicity Arbuthnot. ******************** Gabriel writes: Dear List Members, This is a time-waster and I - in common with most other list members - have much better things to do with my time right now, so I'll keep it brief. In his previous post to the list Hassan claimed that 'before the 1991 attacks [ie. the 1991 Gulf War], the US had planned to attack water installations and plants' and that 'In 1991, the US intentionally destroyed water purification plants and sewage treatment plants.' I e-mailed the list to ask what, if any, evidence existed to support these claims. My query was motivated by the fact that, though it has frequently been asserted, I have yet to see any evidence that the US either: (a) planned, prior to the 1991 Gulf War, to target Iraq's water treatment plants during the war; or (b) deliberately targeted water treatment plants during the war itself. Both of these claims are implied by Hassan's statements, hence my question. As far as I can tell he provides zero evidence to support either of these two claims. Indeed, in the sources he cites I could find only two relevant assertions: the claim, in a piece from 'Green Left Weekly' by someone called Eva Cheng, that '[Iraq's] extensive water purification facilities were destroyed [during the war]' and the assertion - by an activist who apparently spent some time in Iraq in 2003, 12 years after the 1991 war - that the US military 'bomb[ed] nearly every water-treatment facility in Iraq' during the 1991 Gulf War. However, neither author provides any evidence to back these claims, so we are once again left with bold assertion. The "IRAQ WATER TREATMENT VULNERABILITIES" document - cited in several of Hassan's pieces of "evidence" - concerns sanctions, not bombing, and therefore has no bearing on either of the two questions raised above. (For what it's worth, the International Study Team - who did on-the-ground research regarding the impact of the 1991 Gulf War and its aftermath - concluded that "Direct physical damage, either from bombing or from looting during the civil uprisings, was found to be only a minor factor in the impairment of water and wastewater systems....") Finally, Hassan asks "why this criticism of Tom Nagy's research, and why now." Since there was no 'criticism of Tom Nagy's research', the question does not even arise. I referred to Tom Nagy and the DIA documents, precisely because I anticipated replies citing the DIA documents as 'proving' that such had plans existed. I did not claim that Tom Nagy had misrepresented the documents in this fashion, though others certainly have, nor was I 'critiquing' his research. I fully anticipate further posts to the list, claiming that the DIA documents *do* prove (a) above etc... etc... but I for one won't be responding. On the other hand if anyone really does have some relevant evidence regarding either (a) or (b) above I'd be glad to see it. Best wishes, Gabriel ********************** Hassan writes: Dear Mark & List, I think it is not that we did not know, it is that we did not want to believe sources other than our governments. There was enough evidence in front of our eyes supported with documents and research. But it all hinged on what one once said Iraq is not a reliable source of information!! The same applies to the sanctions. We knew very well what the score was. But we chose to believe the Clintons, Bushes and Blairs. Unfortunately for Iraq and Iraqis, such attitudes were responsible for the catastrophe. Now Annan says the war was illegal. And now Blix says Iraq didnt have weapons. And now Kay says it was all a lie... After over two million dead Iraqis, we discover it was all a lie... _______________________________________ Sent via the CASI-analysis mailing list To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-analysis All postings are archived on CASI's website at http://www.casi.org.uk