The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.

Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.

[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[casi] What You Aren't Being Told About Iraq - Firas Al-Atraqchi



Firas Al-Atraqchi: What You Aren't Being Told
Wednesday, 26 March 2003, 8:59 pm
Column: Firas Al-Atraqchi
What You Aren't Being Told About Iraq
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00247.htm
By Firas Al-Atraqchi

Remember all those "intelligence sources" who promised that Iraqis would be cheering as the U.S. 
and U.K. armies rolled into Basra or Nasiriyah or any major town in southern Iraq? Apparently, in 
day 7 of the invasion of Iraq, these intelligence sources and their data are proving to be fallible.

Unfortunately, the North American public is not told who the intelligence sources are. No, they 
aren't CIA, NSA, or the FBI. They aren't MI-5 or the SAS. They aren't even spies working in Iraq.

They are members of the Iraqi National Congress, an Iraqi opposition group made up of millionaires 
and businessmen, former Baathist henchmen, and generals who aided Saddam in his formative years but 
felt threatened by him and defected. Most of the INC's ruling hierarchy is comprised of people who 
have not set foot in Iraq in more than 30 years. Some, have never set foot in Iraq. And yet they 
claim to be experts.

Many members of the INC have personal vendettas against Saddam himself; former aides or accomplices 
who would believe they should be in his place. The INC has long believed that they can never 
wrestle control from Saddam (because no one in Iraq much cares for them and considers them 
charlatans) and must rely on outside help - the U.S. Consequently, the INC launched a massive 
public relations gambit to convince the U.S. that it should intervene in Iraq.

(Earlier in March, the CIA admitted that an invaluable document linking Niger with Iraqi efforts to 
purchase uranium had been forged - a claim initially made by IAEA head Mohammed Al Baradei. The CIA 
said that the document had been forged by a third party. Guess who? No, not Israel. The INC.)

They met with members of the neo-conservative lobby (Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Donald 
Rumsfeld, etc) and gave them exactly the type of information everyone was waiting to hear. "Enter 
Iraq with a formidable army, and the people will greet you with open arms and cheers."

No one stopped to question whether the INC was really telling the truth or whether 13 years of 
sanctions, which have crippled Iraqi society, may have played a role in slightly altering this view.

So, with a valiant cheer letting loose the bastard dogs of war, the U.S. administration took the 
INC advice, sold the U.S. public on the idea and ignored the advice of most of the senior military 
brass warning that an invasion would not be a cake-walk.

Iraq scoffed at the notion of Iraqis embracing the invading armies and promised hell instead.

That may yet prove true.

In the first few hours of the war, Iraqis in Baghdad hinted to this writer that some would welcome 
U.S. forces. However, the night of "shock and awe" changed all that. Iraqi sources inside Iraq are 
now saying the bombing campaigns shocked the Iraqis to the spectre of annihilation as poorly 
equipped hospitals began to quickly fill up with civilian casualties and fatalities.

Iraqi doctors were awed by the lack of medicine and proper facilities to treat the wounded as U.N. 
sanctions have crippled the Iraqi health care system.

U.S. media, largely CNN, dedicated nearly 0.5 percent of their airtime to the civilian toll in 
Iraq. Instead, they showed us interviews with "Iraqis" living in the U.S. who were cheering the 
war. I recently asked a prominent Iraqi exile what he thought of the statements made by these 
Iraqis. He advised me to look at how long they have been outside Iraq and reminded me that bombs 
weren't falling on them.

Furthermore, what do you expect an Iraqi in the U.S. to say after hearing that the FBI was inviting 
some 11,000 U.S. based Iraqis to 'voluntary' interviews (MSNBC reports that the FBI has already 
interviewed 5,000 Iraqis in the U.S.) and that some Iraqis have been held for visa violations? As 
an Iraqi living in the U.S., a country about to invade your former country and sustain casualties, 
would you dare to say you oppose the war? Would you dare to say what you really felt in the 
post-9/11 frame of mind towards Muslims and Arabs?

No. You will tell them exactly what you know they want to hear, just like the INC, because you 
would fear for your future status in the U.S.

Another bit of misinformation that circulated is that once coalition forces 'liberate' southern 
Iraq, they would find the local populace taking arms up and fighting Saddam's loyalists forces. 
This couldn't be further from the truth. After their defeat in Kuwait in 1991, Saddam's forces 
launched a bloody campaign against what they termed "Iraqi traitors and insurgents" in the south of 
Iraq. Any Iraqi rebel forces that survived that onslaught either fled to Saudi Arabia and 
ultimately for other destinations, or to Iran. In Iran, most were given sanctuary and some joined 
armed Iraqi forces there. One such force is the Badr Brigade, which is currently in the north of 
Iraq and vowing to fight Saddam loyalists in their own private war.

Other survivors of the 1991 backlash flooded the U.K. and the U.S. where they have been ever since. 
So who remains to 'rise up'?

The people of Basra, say the INC.

Let me get this straight: the same people of Basra that were denied clean water facilities because 
the U.S. barred Iraq from importing vital water filtration systems for the past 13 years? The same 
Basra where the effects of depleted uranium used by coalition forces in the last Gulf war have been 
documented by dozens of investigative medical organizations as causing cancer, disease, and other 
deformities? The same Basra where typhoid and cholera have become rampant because of the 
U.S.-supported U.N. sanctions? The same Basra where U.S. and U.K. fighter jets have struck in the 
past 12 years of the no-fly zone and inflicted heavy civilian casualties?

Or is it the Basra where civilian casualties number in the hundreds in this current war? The same 
Basra where an Iraqi father carried the limp body of his daughter, her right foot, barely 
identifiable, shattered and barely attached by a piece of dangling flesh (picture published in 
Globe and Mail - March 24, 2003)? That Basra?

Or is it the Basra where the local Iraqis have been without water and electricity for the past 
three days and are facing a humanitarian crisis?

Iraqis want a regime change? Yes, possibly, but the better question is, do they want it imposed 
from the outside with set rules and regulations dictated terms? Then the picture gets a bit hazy.

Tell the Iraqis that it is the U.S., the country they have been led to believe is the cause of all 
their travesty and suffering, that is coming to liberate them, and the picture becomes even more 
blurry.

The millionaires of the INC didn't care to provide the coalition with the real picture of events 
and conditions in Iraq. They wanted a war at all costs.

Today, the U.K. military forces near Basra have reported that the city is witnessing a civil 
uprising. Within hours, an Al Jazeera reporter reporting from the heart of Basra refuted these 
claims. So did Iraqi TV.

At press time, Iraqi TV and all telecommunications facilities in Baghdad were targeted and knocked 
off the air.

****************

- Firas Al-Atraqchi can be contacted at: firas6544@rogers.com

Copyright (c) Scoop Media


_______________________________________________
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


[Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]