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[casi] RE: imbeciles and ignoramuses



Dear Hassan and list members,

I too commend Zaid for exposing Sweeney's smugness and ignorance.  So much for
an "award-winning journalist".

Praise for Zaid's effort is where my agreement with Hassan ends.  I find
self-righteous generalisations about "westerners" and descriptions of
"average" people as "imbeciles and ignoramuses" to be objectionable, out of
place and out of order.  The suffering of Iraqis does not excuse this kind of
language, even less, the sentiment that lurks behind it.

Kamil Mahdi



>
>Message: 3
>From: hasseini@maktoob.com (Hassan Zeini)
>To: casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk
>Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 02:38:25 -0400
>Subject: [casi] on Sweeney ....
>
>Dear Zaid and list members,
>
>I must commend Zaid on his perseverance and consistent pursue of the truth.
>John Sweeney is not the exception; rather the norm.
>
>In over 20 years living in the west, I have come across the same problem, o=
>f
>dealing with imbeciles and ignoramuses. The westerner, on average, is ignor=
>ant of
>issues of Middle East and Arab politics. I say on average, even though some=
>times
>this ignorance is expressed by politicians in the highest positions. The Ir=
>aq case
>is a good example.
>
>Sweeney=92s lies are not the first, nor will they be the last. The incubato=
>r
>case was orchestrated by the world=92s leading =93democracy=94, and believe=
>d by the
>other western =93democracies=94 who advocate truth and accuse Iraq of lying=
>. Sweeney
>only continues the trend. In 1991, one editor of a British daily said in a =
>TV
>interview. =93Western civilization is superior. We are always right!....=94=
>. That
>seems to be the starting point for Sweeney and the rest of the gang.
>
>It is quite clear that Sweeney has no idea, at all, about sanctions or the
>subject he is tackling. He is paid to do a job, and he does it to the best =
>of his
>ability.
>When he says:=94 A pipe carries liquid. If Iraq can move oil, it can move c=
>lean
>water=94, I don=92t honestly know whether to laugh or cry.
>To start with, oil pipelines have been there for decades. They were not lai=
>d
>down now. In addition to that, a drinking water system needs pipes, purific=
>ation
>stations, pumps stations, and tremendous work inside cities. It also needs =
>the
>chemicals needed for the sterilization process, something the sanctions com=
>mittee
>refuses to allow Iraq to buy. In order to 2move clean water=94, you must fi=
>rst
>=93clean the water=94, then move it=85 For example, Risafa in Baghdad suffe=
>rs from huge
>shortages of water. Unless the UN allows Iraq to build a new water network =
>and
>locates money for it, Iraq can not buy the pipes and equipment needed for t=
>his
>project. And that project would take some 10 years to finish.
>
>On medicine, Sweeney shows worse ignorance. The UN sanctions committee has =
>to
>approve every single purchase, be that medicines or food. At the beginning =
>of the
>work of the committee in 1991, its chairman (Finland=92s Ambassador) public=
>ly
>announced that Iraq should not be allowed even to buy medicines, because it=
> can
>make chemical weapons from it. She later apologized, blaming =93experts=94 =
>at the UN
>for giving her such an advice. It seems natural to assume that those =93exp=
>erts=94 are
>some of Scott Ritter=92s former colleagues=85
>And so Iraq was prevented from importing anaesthetics, because according to=
> the
>Sanctions Committee, they are not medicines. So some Iraqis underwent opera=
>tions
>without anaesthesia. My nephew is an eye surgeon, who told me stories of
>operations he had performed without anaesthesia. Would Sweeney accept it if=
> his
>child would have tonsillectomy, or his wife would have a C-sections without
>anaesthesia?
>
>Then when calculating Iraq=92s income, a major factor is forgotten. Of the
>whole sum, 30% goes to reparations, and 13% go to the Northern area (with a=
> cash
>factor involved). That leaves Iraq only 57% of the income, under the contro=
>l of
>the UN Sanctions Committee. So of course, officials at the Un and the Iraq =
>program
>would love the sanctions to continue. They will continue to enjoy the good =
>life in
>New York, the status, and the travels and money. Yuri Vorontsov would other=
>wise be
>unemployed, having been retired by Russia=85.
>
>Sweeney advises Zaid to go to Iraq. Has Sweeney himself gone to Iraq, walke=
>d
>the streets, seen what his criminal government has done to the people, befo=
>re he
>made his miserable program? Or has he just relied on a word from some myste=
>rious
>perosn, who had heard it from some taxi driver, who has heard it.... Is tha=
>t the
>investigative journalism we hear so much about? Does Sweeney even read Euro=
>pean
>papers to see what they say about the US and the UK??
>
>And if we accept Sweeney=92s conviction that the Iraqi propaganda is not to=
> be
>believed, why would we believe his BBC or the CNN or any Western media outl=
>et?
>Have we forgotten the incubators case, the Anthrax case, the terrorism link=
> (Atta
>and Iraqi agents), the discovery of Atta=92s passport in the middle of the =
>debris at
>the WTC site, that Iraq threw UNSCOM out in 1998, and the long list of lies=
> and
>fabrications propagated by the BBC and the likes of Sweeney?
>
>If this shows anything, it shows how miserable the British media must feel =
>to
>revert to open lies and fabrications. They know the moral war is lost, so t=
>here is
>nothing more to loose. After all, Blair can not leave Uncle Dubya alone, ca=
>n he??
>
>Greetings
>HZ
>
>_________________________________________________________
>Share your artistic, creative and literary work on My Corner with many, man=
>y others!
>http://www.maktoob.com/
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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>End of CASI-discuss Digest

Dr Kamil Mahdi
University of Exeter


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