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It is good to see that gradually there is greater reflection about what we have done to Iraq and its people. On 4 Aug 2003 at 8:44, ppg wrote: > Meet the Real WMD Fabricator > A Swede Called Rolf Ekeus > By ALEXANDER COCKBURN > August 2, 2003 > > Week after week Bush and his people have been getting pounded by newly > emboldened Democrats and liberal pundits for having exaggerated the > threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his still-elusive weapons of mass > destruction. One day CIA director George Tenet, is hung out to dry; > the next it's the turn of Paul Wolfowitz's platoon of mad Straussians. > The other side of the Atlantic, the same sort of thing has been > happening to Tony Blair. > > They deserve the pounding, but if we're to be fair there's an even > more deserving target, a man of impeccable liberal credentials, well > respected in the sort of confabs attended by New Labor and espousers > of the Third Way. I give you Rolf Ekeus, former Swedish ambassador to > the United States and, before that, the executive chairman of the > United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on Iraq from 1991 to 1997. > These days he's chairman of the Stockholm International Peace Research > Institute, a noted dovecote of the olive branch set. > > In the wake of the first Iraq war it was UNSCOM chief Ekeus, exuding > disinterested integrity as only a Swede can, who insisted that Saddam > Hussein was surely pressing forward with the manufacture of weapons of > mass destruction. It was Ekeus who played a pivotal role in justifying > the continued imposition of sanctions, on the grounds that these > sanctions were essential as a means of applying pressure to the tyrant > in Baghdad. > > In 1996 Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General, and a leading critic > of the indiscriminate cruelty of these sanctions, wrote an open letter > to Ekeus beginning thus: "Dear Mr. Ekeus, How many children are you > willing to let die while you search for 'items' you 'are convinced > still exist in' Iraq? Every two months for the past half year, and on > earlier occasions, you or your office have made some statement several > weeks before the Security Council considers sanctions against Iraq > which you know will be used to cause their continuation This cruel and > endless hoax of new disclosures every two months must stop. The direct > consequence of your statements which are used to justify continuation > of the sanctions against Iraq is the deaths of hundreds of thousands > of innocent and helpless infants, children and elderly and chronically > ill human beings." > > Despite many such furious denunciations, till the day he handed over > his job as UNSCOM chief to the more obviously suspect and disheveled > Australian, Richard Butler, Ekeus continued in the manner stigmatized > by Clark and others. US ambassador to the UN Madeline Albright > notoriously said to Lesley Stahl of CBS, of the lethal sanctions which > killed over half a million Iraqi children, "we think the price is > worth it", but Ekeus was the one who furnished the UN's diplomatic > cover for that repulsive calculus. > > It's fortunate for Ekeus's reputation among the genteel liberal crowd > that public awareness of what he really knew about Saddam's chemical, > biological and nuclear weapons is still slight. In fact Ekeus was > perfectly well aware from the mid-l990s on that Saddam Ussein had no > such weapons of mass destruction. They had all been destroyed years > earlier, after the first Gulf war. > > Ekeus learned this on the night of August 22, l995, in Amman, from the > lips of General Hussein Kamel, who had just defected from Iraq, along > with some of his senior military aides. Kamel was Saddam's son-in-law > and had been in overall charge of all programs for chemical, > biological and nuclear weapons and delivery systems. > > That night, in three hours of detailed questioning from Ekeus and two > technical experts, Kamel was categorical. The UN inspection teams had > done a good job. When Saddam was finally persuaded that failure to > dispose of the relevant weapons systems would have very serious > consequences, he issued the order and Kamel carried it out. As he told > Ekeus that night, "All weapons, biological, chemical, missile, > nuclear, were destroyed." (The UNSCOM record of the session can be > viewed at http://www.fair.org/press-releases/kamel.pdf). In similar > debriefings that August Kamel said the same thing to teams from the > CIA and MI6. His military aides provided a wealth of corroborative > details. Then, the following year, Kamel was lured back to Iraq and at > once executed. > > Did Ekeus immediately proclaim victory, and suggest that sanctions > could be abated? As we have seen, he did not. In fact he urged that > they be intensified. The years rolled by and Iraqi children by the > thousand wasted and died. The war party thumped the drum over Saddam's > WMDs, and Kamel's debriefings stayed under lock and key. Finally, John > Barry of Newsweek unearthed details of those sessions in Amman and in > February on this year Newsweek ran his story, though not with the play > it deserved. I gather that when Barry confronted Ekeus with details of > the suppressed briefing, Ekeus was stricken. Barry's sensational > disclosure was mostly ignored. > > And Ekeus's rationale for suppressing the disclosures of Kamel and his > aides? He claims that the plan was to bluff Saddam and his scientists > into further disclosures. Try to figure that out. > > For playing the game, the way the US desired it to be played, Ekeus > got his rewards: a pleasing welcome in Washington when he arrived > there as Swedish ambassador, respectful audiences along the world's > diplomatic circuits. To this day he zealously burnishes his > "credibility" with long, tendentious articles arguing that Bush and > Blair had it right. He betrays no sign of being troubled by his > horrible role. He will never be forced to squirm in hearings by > Democratic senators suddenly as brave as lions. He won't have to wade > through raw sewage to enter the main hospital in Baghdad and watch > children die or ride in a Humvee and wait for someone to drop a hand > grenade off a bridge and blow his head off. > > Today he grazes peacefully in the tranquil pastures of the Stockholm > Peace Research Institute. But if we're going to heap recriminations on > Bush and Blair and the propagandists who fashioned their lies, don't > forget Ekeus. He played a worse role than most of them, under the blue > flag of the UN. > > Alexander Cockburn > http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08022003.html > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > Mark Parkinson Bodmin Cornwall _______________________________________________ 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