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Hi, Here's a somewhat waspish piece which was published re this various places around 12th May. To be fair they've done some good stuff. But its the smash and grab angle that gets me. Compounded by taking over someone else's home, someone else's printing press (Iraq is help yourself country these days - looting comes to mind again. When Denis Halliday first went to Iraq he was shown house after house of people who had left: '... clothes still in the closet, change, even medication on the bedside table, tapes, books and records on their shelves ... I had to ask them to stop showing them to me, I was trespassing on peoples homes, lives.' No such scruples for Baghdad Bulletin staff. Further, if I was had a proposal to share my prining press with the US military, I'd be changing the locks and battoning down the hatches. But then I always like to spoil a good party, just a sour old moo .. best, f. Felicity Arbuthnot Baghdad Bulletin. Amazing who is pitching up in formerly isolated Iraq these days to pick over Meapotamia¹s bones and make a bit of dosh in the process. The latest is a relation of the last British Ambassador to Iraq, Sir Harold Walker. Ralph Hassall is moving in almost as fast as Sir Harold moved out. In what is widely considered a diplomatic first and a discourtesy of mammoth proportions, Sir Harold scarpered down the road Jordan just ahead of the 1991 bombs, allegedly without even delaying long enough to hand in his diplomatic credentials to Iraq¹s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Since then he has been a keen advocate of bombing Iraq during every crisis, from the safety of a television or radio studio thousands of miles away. Hassall has reportedly raised money from Middle East banks, to start an English language newspaper in Baghdad. ŒI think we need to listen to what the Iraqi people want to say about the future of their country¹, he is quoted as saying with more than a whiff of whiff of colonial patronisation. How the Iraqi people - who brought the world writing and the first written records - will respond to an Englishman interpreting their views, remains to be seen. Iraq has excellent journalists and Editors, most of whom speak and write fluent English, now free of censorship sensitivities of the previous regime. Prior to the embargo, Iraq printed the most newspapers of any Middle East country and anyway has long had an English language paper, The Baghdad Observer, whose offices were bombed last month. ŒIraq for the Iraq¹s¹ eh? It is predictable that a blow in from a country just involved in trashing every aspect of Iraq¹s culture, attempting to hi-jack a remaining bit of it, will be met with a less than warm welcome. Think again, Mr Hassall. 300 words. _______________________________________________ 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