The following series of questions and answers was drawn up for a Cambridge anti-war campaign group, and may be of use: http://www.campeace.org/iraqarchive/war_on_iraq.html Nick Megoran --On 03 December 2002 11:46 +0000 Nick Megoran <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Maybe that's Saddam's problem- he hasn't invaded *enough* states to merit > that award. Yet, Gorby collected his the week he sent troops to crush the > Lithuanian independence movement, and he only managed to kill a dozen, if > my memory serves me correctly. Life is unfair... > > --On 02 December 2002 10:50 +0000 Ron Johnston <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > >> But he got the Nobel Peace Prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >> >> On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 10:40:18 GMT Storey Dave <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> >>> From 'The Nation' >>> Looks like irony is alive and well! >>> Dave >>> >>> Kissinger's Back...As 9/11 Truth-Seeker 11/27/2002 @ 4:19pm {HYPERLINK >>> "javascript:email_article_popup()"} Asking Henry Kissinger to >>> investigate government malfeasance or nonfeasance is akin to asking >>> Slobodan Milosevic to investigate war crimes. Pretty damn akin, since >>> Kissinger has been accused, with cause, of engaging in war crimes of his >>> own. Moreover, he has been a poster- child for the worst excesses of >>> secret government and secret warfare. Yet George W. Bush has named him >>> to head a supposedly independent commission to investigate the >>> nightmarish attacks of September 11, 2001, a commission intended to tell >>> the public what went wrong on and before that day. This is a sick, >>> black-is-white, war-is-peace joke--a cruel insult to the memory of those >>> killed on 9/11 and a screw-you affront to any American who believes the >>> public deserves a full accounting of government actions or lack thereof. >>> It's as if Bush instructed his advisers to come up with the name of the >>> person who literally would be the absolute worst choice for the post >>> and, once they had, said, "sign him up." >>> Hyperbole? Consider the record. >>> Vietnam. Kissinger participated in a GOP plot to undermine the 1968 >>> Paris peace talks in order to assist Richard Nixon's presidential >>> campaign. Once in office, Nixon named Kissinger his national security >>> adviser, and later appointed him secretary of state. As co-architect of >>> Nixon's war in Vietnam, Kissinger oversaw the secret bombing >>> campaign in Cambodia, an arguably illegal operation estimated to have >>> claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. >>> Bangladesh. In 1971, Pakistani General Yahya Khan, armed with US >>> weaponry, overthrew a democratically-elected government in an action >>> that led to a massive civilian bloodbath. Hundreds of thousands were >>> killed. Kissinger blocked US condemnation of Khan. Instead, he noted >>> Khan's "delicacy and tact." >>> Chile. In the early 1970s, Kissinger oversaw the CIA's extensive covert >>> campaign that assisted coup-plotters, some of whom eventually >>> overthrew the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende >>> and installed the murderous military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. >>> On June 8, 1976, at the height of Pinochet's repression, Kissinger had a >>> meeting with Pinochet and behind closed doors told him that "we are >>> sympathetic to what you are trying to do here," according to minutes of >>> the session (which are quoted in Peter Kornbluh's forthcoming book, >>> The Pinochet File.) >>> East Timor. In 1975, President Gerald Ford and Kissinger, still serving >>> as secretary of state, offered advance approval of Indonesia's brutal >>> invasion of East Timor, which took the lives of tens of thousands of >>> East Timorese. For years afterward, Kissinger denied the subject ever >>> came up during the December 6, 1975, meeting he and Ford held with >>> General Suharto, Indonesia's military ruler, in Jarkata. But a >>> classified US cable obtained by the National Security Archive shows >>> otherwise. It notes that Suharto asked for "understanding if we deem it >>> necessary to take rapid or drastic action" in East Timor. Ford said, >>> "We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand >>> the problem you have and the intentions you have." The next day, Suharto >>> struck East Timor. Kissinger is an outright liar on this subject. >>> Argentina. In 1976, as a fascistic and anti-Semitic military junta was >>> beginning its so-called "dirty war" against supposed subversives-- >>> between 9,000 and 30,000 people would be "disappeared" by the military >>> over the next seven years--Argentina's foreign minister met with >>> Kissinger and received what he believed was tacit encouragement for his >>> government's violent efforts. According to a US cable released earlier >>> this year, the foreign minister was convinced after his chat with >>> Kissinger that the United States wanted the Argentine terror campaign to >>> end soon--not that Washington was dead-set against it. The cable said >>> that the minister had left his meeting with Kissinger "euphoric." Two >>> years later, Kissinger, then a private citizen, traveled to Buenos Aires >>> as the guest of dictator General Jorge Rafael Videla and praised the >>> junta for having done, as one cable put it, "an outstanding job in >>> wiping out terrorist forces." As Raul Castro, the US ambassador to >>> Argentina, noted at the time in a message to the State Department, "My >>> only concern is that Kissinger's repeated high praise for Argentina's >>> action in wiping out terrorism...may have gone to some considerable >>> extent to his hosts' heads....There is some danger that Argentines may >>> use Kissinger's laudatory statements as justification for hardening >>> their human rights stance." That is, Kissinger was, in a way, enabling >>> torture, kidnapping and murder. >>> Appropriately, Kissinger is a man on the run for his past misdeeds. He >>> is the target of two lawsuits, and judges overseas have sought him for >>> questioning in war-crimes-related legal actions. In the United States, >>> the family of Chilean General Rene Schneider sued Kissinger last year. >>> Schneider was shot on October 22, 1970, by would-be coup-makers working >>> with CIA operatives. These CIA assets were part of a secret plan >>> authorized by Nixon--and supervised by Kissinger--to foment a coup >>> before Allende, a Socialist, could be inaugurated as president. >>> Schneider, a constitutionalist who opposed a coup, died three days >>> later. This secret CIA program in Chile--dubbed "Track Two"--gave >>> $35,000 to Schneider's assassins after the slaying. Michael Tigar, an >>> attorney for the Schneider family, claims, "Our case shows, document by >>> document, that [Kissinger] was involved in great detail in supporting >>> the people who killed General Schneider, and then paid them off." >>> On September 9, 2001, 60 Minutes aired a segment on the Schneider >>> family's charges against Kissinger. The former secretary of state came >>> across as partly responsible for what is the Chilean equivalent of the >>> JFK assassination. It was a major blow to his public image: Kissinger >>> cast as a supporter of terrorists. Two days later, Osama bin Laden >>> struck. Immediately, Kissinger was again on television, but now as a >>> much-in-demand expert on terrorism. >>> In another lawsuit, filed earlier this month, eleven Chilean human >>> rights victims--including relatives of people murdered after Pinochet's >>> coup-- claimed Kissinger knowingly provided practical assistance and >>> encouragement to the Pinochet regime. Kissinger's codefendant in the >>> case is Michael Townley, an American-born Chilean agent who was a >>> leading international terrorist in the mid-1970s. In his most notorious >>> operation, Townley in 1976 planted a car-bomb that killed Orlando >>> Letelier, Allende's ambassador to the United States, and Ronni Moffitt, >>> Letelier's colleague, on Washington's embassy row. >>> Kissinger has more trouble than these lawsuits. The Chilean Supreme >>> Court sent the State Department questions for Kissinger about the death >>> of Charles Horman, an American journalist killed during the 1973 coup >>> in Chile. (Horman's murder was the subject of the 1982 film Missing.) A >>> criminal judge in Chile has said he might include Kissinger in his >>> investigation of Operation Condor, a now infamous secret project, in >>> which the security services of Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, >>> Paraguay, and Argentina worked together to kidnap and murder political >>> opponents. (Letelier was killed in a Condor operation.) The Spanish >>> judge who requested the 1998 arrest of Pinochet in Great Britain has >>> declared he wants to question Kissinger as a witness in his inquiry into >>> crimes against humanity committed by Pinochet and other Latin >>> American military dictators. In France, a judge probing the >>> disappearance of five French citizens in Chile during the Pinochet years >>> wants to talk to Kissinger. Last May, he sent police to a Paris hotel, >>> where Kissinger was staying, to serve him questions. In February, >>> Kissinger canceled a trip to Brazil, where he was to be awarded a medal >>> by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. His would-be hosts said he >>> had pulled out to avoid protests by human rights groups. >>> A fellow who has coddled state-sponsored terrorism has been put in >>> charge of this terrorism investigation. A proven liar has been assigned >>> the task of finding the truth. By the way, in 1976, when Kissinger was >>> secretary of state, he was informed by his chief aide for Latin America >>> that South American military regimes were intending to use Operation >>> Condor "to find and kill" political opponents. Kissinger quickly >>> dispatched a cable instructing US ambassadors in the Condor countries to >>> note Washington's "deep concern." But it seems no such warnings were >>> actually conveyed. And a month later, this order was rescinded. The next >>> day, Letelier and Moffit were murdered. (Peter Kornbluh and journalist >>> John Dinges recently chronicled this sad Kissinger episode in The >>> Washington Post.) Kissinger's State Department had not >>> responded with the force needed to thwart the official terrorism of its >>> friends in South America. Perhaps this provides Kissinger experience >>> useful for examining the government's failure to prevent more recent >>> acts of terrorism. >>> Other qualifications for the job, as Bush and Vice President Dick >>> Cheney might see it? A leaks-obsessed Kissinger, when he served as >>> Nixon's national security adviser, wiretapped his own staff. (One of his >>> targets, Morton Halperin, sued and eventually won an apology.) And >>> when he left office, Kissinger took tens of thousands of pages of >>> documents--created by government employees on government time-- >>> and treated them as his personal records, using them for his own >>> memoirs and keeping the material for years from the prying eyes of >>> historians and journalists. He and the Bush-Cheney White House agree >>> on open government: the less the better. >>> Remember, the White House was never keen on setting up an >>> independent commission that would answer to the public. Cheney at one >>> point reportedly intervened to block a compromise that had been >>> painstakingly worked out in Congress regarding the composition and >>> rules of the commission. Finally, the White House said okay, as long as >>> it could pick the chairman and subpoenas would only be issued with the >>> support of at least six of the commission's ten members. With Kissinger >>> in control, the secret-keepers of the White House--who already have >>> succeeded in preventing the House and Senate intelligence committees' >>> investigation of 9/ll from releasing embarrassing and uncomfortable >>> information--will have little reason to fear. >>> The Bush-Cheney administration has been a rehab center for tainted >>> Republicans. Retired Admiral John Poindexter, a leading Iran-contra >>> player, was placed in charge of a sensitive, high-tech, Pentagon >>> intelligence-gathering operation aimed at reviewing massive amounts of >>> individual personal data in order to uncover possible terrorists. >>> Elliott Abrams, who pled guilty to lying to Congress in the Iran-contra >>> scandal, was warmly embraced and handed a staff position in Bush's >>> National Security Council. But the Kissinger selection is the most >>> outrageous of these acts of compassion and forgiveness. It is a move of >>> defiance and hubris. >>> For many in the world, Kissinger is a symbol of US arrogance and the >>> misuse of American might. In power, he cared more for US credibility >>> and geostrategic advantage than for human rights and open government. >>> His has been a career of covertly moving chips, not one of letting them >>> fall. He is not a truth-seeker. In fact, he has prevaricated about his >>> own actions and tried to limit access to government information. He >>> should be subpoenaed, not handed the right to subpoena. He is a target, >>> not an investigator. >>> With Kissinger's appointment, Bush has rendered the independent >>> commission a sham. Democrats should have immediately announced >>> they would refuse to fill their allotted five slots. But after Bush >>> picked Kissinger, the Democrats tapped former Democratic Senator George >>> Mitchell to be vice-chairman of the panel, signaling that Kissinger was >>> fine by them. How unfortunate. The public would be better served and the >>> victims of 9/11 better honored by no commission rather than one headed >>> by Kissinger. >>> >>> >>> >>> Dr. David Storey >>> Geography Department & >>> Centre for Rural Research >>> University College Worcester >>> Henwick Grove >>> Worcester WR2 6AJ >>> England >>> >>> Tel: 01905 855189 >>> Fax: 01905 855132 >> >> ------------------- >> Ron Johnston >> School of Geographical Sciences, >> University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS >> 0117 928 9116 (FAX 0117 928 7878) >> [log in to unmask] >> >> * This e-mail message was sent with Execmail V5.0 *