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Re: [casi] targeting of water treatment facilities




Dear Ruth, Andrew & List,

Firstly, apols for my computer illiteracy - I would have preferred to e-mail
you all this very relevant article, directly. In Sunday Herald (Scotland),
Sept.17, 2000. Prof. J. Nagy, of George Washingtom University, is
interviewed. Seems he came accross a 7-page document, entitled "Iraq Water
Treatment Vulnerabilities", prepared by 'US Defense Intelligence Agency',
issued the day after the Gulf War had started, & circulated to all major
allied Commands. Seems the allies had bombing campaigns on Iraq's 8
multi-purpose dams, these were repeatedly hit. In all, makes very sinister
reading (i.e. the Herald report, haven't yet seen the Defense document). For
more information, try this website:

http://www.mobtown.org/news/archive/msg00885.html

Greetings,

Bert Gedin (Birmingham, UK).









>From: Ruth Blakeley <ruth_blakeley@yahoo.co.uk>
>To: Andrew Goreing <amg@newnham.org>, casi-discuss@lists.casi.org.uk
>Subject: Re: [casi] targeting of water treatment facilities
>Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 11:02:22 +0000 (GMT)
>
>
>[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ]
>
>
>Thanks to Andrew for raising his questions in relation to my paper on US
>targeting during the last Gulf War.  As he points out, I found no
>admittance in the US Gulf War Air Power Surveys that the air campaign had
>deliberately targeted water treatment facilities, and little discussion of
>any collateral damge, although Ramsey Clark's report does states that such
>facilities were extensively bombed.  I did therefore dismiss that these
>were deliberately targeted. However, I am open to being persuaded otherwise
>if there is evidence of either targeting of water treatment (eventhough
>this is not mentioned as a target in the GWAPS) or whether there was
>extensive collateral damage to Iraq water treatment facitilities.  If there
>was, could and should measures have been taken to limit this?  I'm sure the
>sensitivity of this matter makes it hard to get at the truth.
>Thank you
>Ruth
>  Andrew Goreing <amg@newnham.org> wrote:Does anyone have any further
>evidence on the following?
>
>I read Ruth Blakeley's message (23 Jan, Re: [casi] Dual crisis looms for
>millions in Iraq) with interest and followed up her paper Bomb Now, Die
>Later (available at http://www.civilwarfare.co.uk/)
>
>According to Ruth the GWAPS (Gulf War Air Power Surveys) provides no
>evidence that sewage treatment or water purification plants were targeted
>by
>the 1991 allied air campaign. She discounts the report of Ramsey Clark that
>
>"In all areas we visited, and all other areas reported to us, municipal
>water processing plants, pumping stations and even reservoirs have been
>bombed".
>
>Presumably the sentence she quotes from the 1996 WHO report that refers to
>
>"the extensive destruction of electrical generating plants,
>water-purification and sewage treatment plants during the six-week 1991
>war..."
>
>does not in her view provide evidence that Allied forces actually bombed
>such plants.
>
>Obviously, the Allied assault on the Iraqi electrical power infrastructure
>plus the subsequent years of sanctions severely harmed the water
>purification system. Probably no-one on the list is in any doubt about
>that.
>But is there persuasive evidence that water-treatment plants were actually
>bombed?
>
>Obvious issues --
>
>Were there undisputed reports of HE damage at such plants?
>
>Could such damage have come from Iraqi ordnance?
>
>The GWAPS happily admits to intentional destruction of the electrical
>system; however admission of attacks on water facilities (had there been
>any) would be a rather more sensitive matter, one would have thought.
>
>Andrew Goreing
>
>
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>
>Ruth J Blakeley
>265A Hotwell Road
>Hotwells
>Bristol
>BS8 4SF
>0117 929 4156 / 07909 525010
>Website: www.civilwarfare.co.uk
>
>
>
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>
>
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>_______________________________________________
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>All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk


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