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Dear List, There is a saying in Arabic that goes like that: “The mountain went into labor, and gave birth to a mouse”. I remembered this when I read IPO’s post. The group only comes out when it finds something that fits within the outlines pre-drawn for it. Otherwise, they are quiet in the face of mounting evidence that their prognosis has been faulty, and their silence in the face of the crimes committed against Iraqis is criminal. This time the result was another mouse.. Take this last post for example. It is a clear show of attempting to claim what is not true. Read what IPO wrote: “..poll after poll proves our opinion is always that of the vast majority of Iraqis”. To prove this, IPO relies on the poll conducted by Gallup in Baghdad. IPO states further: “We were right about Iraqi support for the war. And now it looks like we're right about Iraqis wanting the US not to abandon them like they did in '91, since they believe that will allow Saddam or the Ba'athists to claw their way back.” First of all the poll is called “The Baghdad Poll”, and it only talks about Baghdadis, not all of Iraq. To state that this is a representation of what “the vast majority of Iraqis” want is misleading if not dishonest. It is clearly a distortion of the Gallup results. Secondly the Guardian article does not refer to the fears of Baghdadis that “Saddam or the Ba'athists” would “claw their way back” if the US withdraws. I don’t know where IPO invented this and presented it as representing the results of the Gallup poll. I wonder what Gallup would say if these intentional misquotations were brought into its attention, and it is easy to find out. The Guardian article ends with the following: “Gallup started its operation in Baghdad because it felt Baghdad would have the lowest security risks after the war, but that hasn't turned out to be the case, Burkholder said. Six in 10 Baghdad residents said that within the past four weeks they had been afraid at times to go outside their homes during the day.” That should be enough proof that Iraqis in Baghdad are NOT happy with the situation. It also proves that the rest of Iraq is NOT safe.. Shouldn’t IPO have also told us that the vast majority (60%) of IRAQIS are afraid to go out of their houses?? One thing I must say. IPO has people with excellent imagination; but we are not interested in fiction on this list. What interests us are facts, and we get them directly from people in Iraq, not people whose e-mail addresses and phone numbers are in London... HZ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ 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