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Dear List, When Saibal Mitra asked "Talking about stories, it would be most interesting to know were the stories about WMD came from", Yasser Alaskary replied with a reference to an interview in the Guardian. That interview has nothing to do with the issue of WMDs in any way, and doesn't address it at all. I wonder why Alaskary referred us to it... I don't intend this to be a personal attack, but the way the Iraqi Propsect Organisation has presented itself and its case on CASI makes one wonder what agenda it has. Let me give all an example and let you all be the judge. On 23 Dec 2002, Yasser Alaskary from the Iraqi Prospect Organisation posted the following: "The Iraqi Prospect Organisation is a network of young Iraqi men and women living in the west, working to promote a proportional democracy for Iraq." On 9 Mar 2003, the objectives changed to the following: "The Iraqi Prospect Organisation [ http://www.iprospect.org.uk ] is a network of young Iraqi men and women living in the west working to promote the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of a proportional democracy in Iraq." Then when the military actions started, IPO went to sleep! Not a word, no press releases, nothing... Only after the fall of Baghdad, did IPO come back to life, when the Chairman of IPO, Ahmed Shames (the proper way to write the name of course is Shams!) posted the following on CASI on 10 Apr 2003: "A New Dawn On this historic day, we would like to congratulate all Iraqis around the world and all people who care for humanity on the fall of Saddam Hussein and his ruthlessly oppressive regime. In a day filled with symbolism, the Iraqi Prospect Organisation will symbolically change its mission statement from: '.a network of young Iraqi men and women living in the west working to promote the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of a proportional democracy in Iraq.' To: '.a network of young Iraqi men and women living in the west working to promote the creation of a proportionally representative Interim Iraqi Authority leading to the establishment of genuine democracy in Iraq.' With joy and tears at the end of a dark age we look ahead to the future, to the challenges that lie ahead." The IPO is NOT working anymore towards "promoting the establishment of a proportional democracy in Iraq", and now concentrates on promoting " the creation of a proportionally representative Interim Iraqi Authority leading to the establishment of genuine democracy in Iraq", whetever that may mean. And so, in less than six months, the IPO changed its objectives twice, bending with the wind and the direction of funding, it seems... This behavior has a name, which I am sure we all know.. In his interview in the Guardian, Yasser states "Now I realise that people's opinions of this war were based almost entirely on a hatred of American policy." I suppose Yasser's opinions were NOT based entirely on a personal hatred of Saddam Hussein? So why can't people have similar biases when it comes to the US?? Yasser expresses disregard and ignorance of the history of the sanctions, not that he opposed them at all. He states that "declaring war on the basis of the presence of weapons of mass destruction was stupid", without seemingly realizing that the reasons for imposing sanctions from 1991 until now was the alleged possession of WMDs by Iraq. If the presence of WMDs was a stupid reason for declaring war, was it also a stupid reason for continuing sanctions? And Yasser continues in the same sentence to expose his reasons for supporting war by saying " but I would have supported anything that got rid of Saddam." So it IS personal hatred.. Yasser then says "The Iraqi Prospect Organisation [IPO] has always worked to promote the establishment of a genuine democracy". What he doesn't say is that the IPO is a bit over one year old.. So this "always worked" is a bit misleading, to say the least. And Alaskary doesn't say that the IPO doesn't have definite objectives for more than three months.. Then Alskary exposes the sectarian agenda of IPO, when he starts talking about how "the new regime has to be proportionally representative of all ethnicities", referring to some Arab countries wanting to maintain minority Sunni rule. If the issue is democracy, how can we draw the lines and make divisions based on sectarian identifications, not competence or a record of honesty and integrity? Would IPO want Iraq to be divided in the same as Lebanon has been, with each religious group allocated a certain part of the institutions? That, if anything, is catastrophic for the country and it would be a recipe for civil war. Yasser Alaskary, who talks about democracy, doesn't want Adnan Pachachi to get involved in the interim regime, because "he has had nothing to do with Iraq for many years and, as foreign minister, he approved everything that Saddam did." Yet, we are asked to accept Ahmad al-Chalabi (a thief who has left Iraq in 1958); Iyad Allawi (an ex-Ba'th member and head of the National Union of Iraqi Students in England); Najib al-Salihi (a commander of a battalion of Saddam's forces until 1995); Tawfiq al-Yassiry (a general in Saddam's army until 1991) and others, regardless of their history, simply because they are Shi'is. Al-Pachachi is not suitable because he is a Sunni, I presume?? Yasser ends his interview with a rare expression of wisdom; so contradictory that one wonders if one should laugh or cry: "It is now that Iraqi people really need help to get a government up and running, but all we get is various countries trying to re-shape Iraq's future as they see fit." So Iraq should get help to get a government up and running (from the US and UK occupiers) and that is good, but various countries try to shape Iraq's future as they see fit (the UN and the rest of the world), and that is bad in Alaskary's mind.. Does Iranian intervention belong to the good or bad interventions?? HZ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. 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