Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
August 28, 2003
Gilad Atzmon
The
Most Common Mistakes of Israelis
David Vest
Moore's
Monument: Cement Shoes for the Constitution
David Lindorff
Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed
Chris Floyd
Cheap Thrills: Bush Lies to Push His War
Wayne Madsen
Restoring the Good, Old Term "Bum"
Elaine Cassel
Not Clueless in Chicago
Stan Goff
Nukes in the Dark
Tariq Ali
Occupied
Iraq Will Never Know Peace
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Behold, My Package
Website of the Day
Palestinian
Artists
Recent
Stories
August 27, 2003
Bruce Jackson
Little
Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq
John Feffer
Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution
Dave Riley
an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War
Lacey Phillabaum
Bush's Holy War in the Forests
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Website of the Day
The Dean Deception
August 26, 2003
Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead
David Lindorff
The
Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate
Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists
Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints
and a Palestinian Madonna
Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala
Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!
Saul Landau
Bush:
a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?
August 25, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America
David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime
Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the
Iraq Invasion
Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups
Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
29, 2003
Programmatic Deceptions
When
in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
Last week the Washington Post commented on claims
made about Iraq's supposed possession of nuclear weapons. "Bush
evoked the mushroom cloud on Oct 7 [2002], and on Nov 12 General
Tommy Franks, [then] chief of US Central Command, said inaction
might bring "the sight of the first mushroom cloud on one
of the major population centers on this planet."
There were other claims made at all levels
of government, notably from Vice-president Cheney who stated
unequivocally, and contrary to detailed evidence presented by
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that there was
a nuclear threat in being. The IAEA's assessment that that there
was no such thing has been confirmed beyond doubt. But the declaration
by Franks that an Iraqi nuclear weapon could result in "the
first mushroom cloud on one of the major populations centers
of this planet" is not only astonishing but grotesquely
ignorant. Has Franks never heard of Nagasaki or Hiroshima? The
first man-made mushroom cloud on Earth was created by a US atomic
bomb test in New Mexico. The second and third nuclear mushroom
clouds on our planet were made by US bombs that killed hundreds
of thousands of civilians. For Franks to say that an Iraqi nuclear
weapon (this phantasm which existed only in his mind and those
of his political masters) would create the first mushroom cloud
over "one of the major populations centers of this planet"
is preposterous. But his commander-in-chief, Bush, embraced a
slavishly supportive British government paper on the same lines,
which leads to another quotation.
This is from The Guardian (London) concerning
the "weapons of mass destruction" alleged by Bush and
Blair to be possessed by Iraq. The report was that "The
Hutton inquiry heard last week that the language surrounding
the claim [by Blair] that Iraq forces could deploy chemical and
biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order to do so was
hardened as drafts of the dossier were revised. The strongest
language, claiming that the weapons could be "ready"
within 45 minutes, was used in the foreword -- signed by Tony
Blair."
The document's words were "Iraq's
military forces are able to use chemical and biological weapons,
with command, control and logistical arrangements in place. The
Iraqi military are able to deploy these weapons within 45 minutes
of a decision to do so." I have for some time been intrigued
by "forty-five minutes" because anyone with knowledge
of the process involved in preparing a missile, mating it with
a warhead (be that nuclear, high explosive, chemical or biological),
and performing calculations in firing procedures knows that to
claim it can be done in three-quarters of an hour is ludicrous.
Technical operations involved in delivery by tube artillery are
almost as extensive. The mating process of shell to cartridge
is much simpler than a rocket operation, but one does not treat
a carrier shell filled with a chemical or biological agent as
one would a celebratory firework, for they pose just as much
danger to the firer as to the target if handled casually or out
of fixed, and time-consuming, procedural sequence. (It was obvious,
in spite of claims at the time, that Iraq had no air force and
that the drone aircraft supposed to deliver such weapons didn't
exist.)
The head of Britain's Joint Intelligence
Committee, John Scarlett, said on August 26 it was his committee's
assessment of the 45 minute threat that was included in the "dodgy
dossier" produced by Britain's prime minister to justify
his support for the Bush war on Iraq. Associated Press reported
that "Scarlett acknowledged that the 45-minute warning came
from a single, uncorroborated source in Iraq, but said: "It
was an established and reliable line of reporting, and it was
quoting a senior Iraqi military officer".'' How very interesting.
It will make a lot of people wonder whether Britain's Intelligence
services make it a habit to rely on single-source information
specifically to bolster a politician's case for going to war,
even from a paid high-level informant. This was not a tidbit
of dross or trivia : it wasn't a staff list of the Iraqi high
command, with dietary preferences. It wasn't an indication of
Sadam Hussein's brand of toothpaste or the ferry schedule on
the Tigris river. It was an enormously sensitive report indicating
that a country against whom war was about to be waged could deliver
a devastating nuclear/chemical/biological riposte against invading
troops -- and even further afield -- within 45 minutes of decision
to do so. And it wasn't queried or indepently checked? There
was no detailed technical evaluation of the claim? There was
no attempt made to obtain confirmation from US Intelligence?
The Iraqis were supposed to have Scud
rockets which are similar to early US nuclear missiles about
which I know a bit because for two years I was a reconnaissance
and survey officer in a nuclear missile regiment in Germany,
and commanded a troop of Honest Johns. These were basic, short
range (32 km), solid fuel rockets with a simple guidance system,
in that one pressed a button and hoped they would land somewhere
on the planet, preferably in the centre of an enormous concentration
of Warsaw Pact tanks. The wonderful irony in this was that one
of my soldiers, Gunner John Brown, the 'Number Three' on a launcher,
who would actually press the nuclear button, was the great grandson
of the trumpeter who sounded the Charge of the Light Brigade.
His operation was part of a less complicated
process than that required by the Scud system allegedly held
by Iraq, and the al-Samoud missile which, as noted in an analysis
by Dr Robert Schmucker of Schmucker Technology in Munich, is
also a liquid-fuelled missile. There is a considerable difference
between rockets driven by solid and liquid fuels. The main one
(without going into boring technicalities) is that arming and
firing the first is quicker than arming and firing the second.
The sequence for the old Honest John was simple but lengthy
in spite of it being a solid-fuel device. It took us about four
hours (depending on distances involved) but perhaps that might
be thought an unfair comparison against Blair's 45 minutes, so
I draw on a paper by Tim McCarthy of the Center for Non-proliferation
Studies for Scud time-frames. The al-Hussein (Iraq's name for
the Scud) would require, in conditions of an "error-free
cycle of order-launch-egress" some three hours to be fired.
Dr McCarthy's breakdown is:
1. Order communications and movement:
20 minutes;
2. Fuelling/warhead mating: 120 minutes;
3. Drive to launch site--20 minutes;
4. Launch and egress--30 minutes.
(This is based on fuelling and mating
being effected at the same time, which is a hazardous and unwise
concurrency.)
From a practical standpoint I can say
from experience that this estimate is extremely optimistic. Mind
you, much depended on Iraq having had Scuds in the first place.
Which it didn't. Dr Schmucker also observes that "Most
of the data for this missile are established from UNSCOM inspections
and information provided by Iraq through the associated missile
experts", and the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies notes
that "During their time in Iraq, UNMOVIC inspectors destroyed
72 Al Samoud-2 missiles that violated the 150km-range limit,
as well as certain equipment for the production of solid rocket
motors." These observations are complemented by a little-known
US Defense Department briefing on November 14, 1997. (UNSCOM
and UNMOVIC were the UN inspection teams, respectively from the
Special Commission and the Verification and Inspection Commission,
that operated in Iraq.)
This was an informative presentation
on "Iraq's Chemical & Biological Weapons Capability",
during which a reporter observed "He [Saddam Hussein] had
certain SCUD warheads which were weaponized for delivery of BW
[biological warfare] agents, but I think I'm right in saying
that UNSCOM found those, accounted for them and destroyed them.
That's correct, isn't it?" The anonymous briefer's answer
was: "That's correct. The . . . question about UNSCOM destroying
the weapons, the SCUD warheads designed for delivery of BW is
a correct statement . . . [but] [W]e have evidence, documentary
evidence, that leads to our belief that some number of missiles
may be missing and have not been discovered, and attendant warheads
is a possibility."
Irrespective of the caveats ("may",
and "a possibility"), and the fact that there were
no missiles "missing" and no "attendant warheads",
and the evidence presented by experts concerning the time it
would take to operate a missile system (if one existed), we should
note one of the most fascinating statements made by a US president
in recent years. This concerns the non-existence of UN inspectors
in Iraq, the experts of UNSCOM and UNMOVIC.
On July 14 the President of the United
States of America said "The larger point is, and the fundamental
question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the
answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow inspectors
in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable
request, we decided to remove him from power."
Note the word "program". The
fundamental justification for war by Bush was that Saddam Hussein
had nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, period. Not that
there was "a program", or that there might at some
unspecified time be the possibility that he could perhaps develop
or maybe acquire such weapons. The world was told by Washington
that Iraq was in actual possession of weapons and that they had
to be found and destroyed because they were a menace to all humanity.
This was why Iraq was bombed and invaded.
But the really amazing phrase is "he
wouldn't let them in." So anyone who mentions the UN inspection
teams that operated in Iraq, is imagining things. According to
the President of the United States, in a public speech, Iraq
refused to permit UN weapons' inspectors to enter the country.
We all must have dreamed that the UN Monitoring, Verification
and Inspection Commission was created by adoption of a Security
Council resolution and went to Iraq on 27 November 2002, where
it carried out its duties until 17 March 2003 when "The
Secretary-General today informed the Security Council that, based
on information which he had received from the United Kingdom
and United States authorities regarding the continued safety
and security of United Nations personnel, he had authorized the
withdrawal of all remaining United Nations system personnel from
Iraq." (SG/SM/8640 SC/7693 IK/330 of 17 Mar 03.)
The convolutions of Bush and Blair pass
all understanding. From non-existent nuclear bombs via fatuous
assertions of threat-time to the final chocolate-topped denial
of truth, they have deceived us all and demonstrated that their
automatic reaction when in doubt is to lie their heads off.
Brian Cloughley
writes about defense issues for CounterPunch, the Nation (Pakistan),
the Daily Times of Pakistan and other international publications.
His writings are collected on his website: www.briancloughley.com.
He can be reached at: beecluff@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
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