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> Thur., Mar. 27, 2003
Flashpoints
Flashpoints.net
Today's headlines:
Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter on Failed US Diplomatic
and Military strategy;
Lies, Disinformation and Half-truth in the Corporate Media;
Israeli Colonizers Continue Their Killing in Gaza Under the
Cover of War;
International Solidarity Movement Workers Memorialize Rachel
Corrie and Continue Their Fight Against the Israeli War Machine;
The Knight Report
8:00:00 PM PST
00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: former UN Weapons inspector
Scott Ritter on failed US diplomatic and military strategy;
lies, disinformation and half-truth in the corporate media;
Israeli colonizers continue their killing in Gaza under the
cover of war; International Solidarity Movement workers memorialize
Rachel Corrie and continue their fight against the Israeli
war machine
8:00:44 PM PST
Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: UN Security
Council reaches agreement to make Iraq pay for its own humanitarian
aid.. for many Americans understanding of Iraqi war impeded..
by the media, and even by Human Rights Watch.. HRW blaming
everybody but the US.. now an interview w Alison Parker of
Human Rights Watch)..
8:xx:xx PM PST
Dennis: we hear that AlJazeera is being put under attack for
bias and violating the Geneva Convention.. now w Ali Abunimah
of the Arab-American Action Network, Electronic Intifada &
Electronic Iraq... the last thing the US did before the Northern
Alliance took Kabul, was bomb Al Jazeera TV in Kabul.. I just
saw.. report on the hacking shutdown (link2) of the English
Al Jazeera website (site now down until April).. you're not
allowed to see.. pictures that the government doesn't want
you to see.. they show Iraqis and how they are experiencing
this invasion of Iraq.. the people don't want bombs dropped
on them by their so-called liberators.. Pentagon briefings
and Tony Blair.. women telling how their villages have been
bombed.. US media saying we don't know what is going on in
Basra, but Al Jazeera reporting from Basra.. a latent racism,
that says if it doesn't come from a white European reporter,
the US media ignores it.. about the *uprising* in Basra..
the only source for that story was British.. carried as fact
by the US media.. but when Al Jazeera shows Iraqi kids blown
to bits, the US media says 'no confirmation'.. on Al Jazeera
you see what people look like when they have been killed in
war.. the truth.. US media cheerleading for the war.. shocked
like the government was when the Iraqi started resisting..
backfiring now, they got caught up in their own propaganda,
just like the US government did.. Ali's new site: ElectronicIraq.net..
8:14:45 PM PST
Dennis: now w Scott Ritter.. (download this audio segment)
(the following transcript provided by a magnificent Flashpoints
volunter).. author of the book End Game. Scott: What I see
here is a culmination of a series of mistakes made by the
bush administration. Miscalculations based on ideological
derived arrogance and, frankly speaking, ignorance. We have
an administration whose ideology has blinded them to the need
to build viable coalitions that are founded in international
law. I don't think there are too many nations out there that
were pro-Saddam.. And I think that there were many nations
out there that felt that Iraq needed to be disarmed in accordance
with international law set forth by the Security Council and
there were many nations that were willing to assist the U.S.
to see that the Security Council carried out the letter of
the law and implemented the Security Council mandate. The
problem is, that the Bush administration was never serious
about its disarmament mandate. The Bush administration had
an ideologically driven objective of *regime removal*, eliminating
Saddam Hussein that dovetailed into a larger strategy of American
unilateral domination as set forth in the National Security
Strategy Document which was published last September. The
Bush administration was blinded by its arrogance and by its
ideology into believing that Iraq would be an easy target.
The Bush administration believed that the entire world bought
into the demonization of Iraq, the dehumanization of Iraq
where the focus of Iraq as the center of all that is evil
and that evil resides in the person of one man, Saddam Hussein.
This is what existed in Washington DC in terms of a mindset
and it is so divorced from how the rest of the world views
the situation, yet the Bush administration can't recognize
it because of their arrogance, because they have been blinded,
and as a result they have violated every principle and I mean
across the board. They have violated principals of diplomacy.
We do not have a *coalition of the willing*. I don't care
how many nations President Bush adds on to the list. I think
the current tally is 47. We have one ally whose participating
significantly in the militarily sense and we have two or three
others that are participating in a minor fashion and that's
it. We don't have a foundation of support in terms of financial,
diplomatic, militarily. Furthermore, we have a coalition that
lacks a basis in legality by failing diplomatically. It not
only means that we have failed to assemble a coalition, we
have failed to assemble the means of legitimizing our actions
against Iraq which puts us in a very difficult position of
being an invader of a sovereign state waging illegal war of
aggression. Dennis: As a former military man, talk about the
military situation there. Scott: Well that's the other area
in which we failed, militarily. To wage war, modern war one
needs to bring to bear not only the amazing technology that
the U.S possesses, but you need to deploy these wonderful
men and women that wear the uniform of the US and serve it
so proudly. We need to do so in overwhelming force and we
need to apply that force in a manner which decisively engages
and defeats an enemy to achieve an attainable objective. If
our goal and objective is the liberation of Iraq, the first
thing we have to ask ourselves is do the Iraqi people want
to be liberated.. and liberated by us?. Because that is one
of the preconditions that we have built into how we assemble
force -- that the Iraqi people would welcome us and would
not resist us. So we assumed this and started reducing our
forces. Then we have to ask the question -- will the Iraqi
army fight? And again our assumption was that with the exception
of a few hard core units surrounding Saddam Hussein the majority
of the Iraqi army would not fight. So we again reduced our
military forces. And then we needed international support
and we assumed that the world would unite behind us giving
us this diplomatic force multiplier. That hasn't come. SO
THE END RESULT IS THAT WE BUILT A CAMPAIGN THAT WAS MORE ABOUT
PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION WARFARE. A CAMPAIGN
IN WHICH WE BOUGHT INTO OUR OWN PROPAGANDA AND WE ASSUMED
THE IRAQI PEOPLE AND THE IRAQI MILITARY WOULD BUY IN TOO.
WE SAID THAT YOU ARE GOING TO LOOSE. YOUR DEFEAT IS INEVITABLE.
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED. YOU MUST THROW DOWN YOUR
ARMS AND SURRENDER, AND IF YOU DON'T WE WILL *SHOCK AND AWE*
YOU. AS SOON AS YOU SEE THE MAGNIFICENT POWER OF THE AMERICAN
MILITARY YOU WILL SURRENDER. NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED AND
AS A RESULT WE HAVE INVADED A NATION OF 23 MILLION WITH A
STANDING ARMY OF OVER 450,000, AN ADDITIONAL 120,000 ELITE
REPUBLICAN GUARD TROOPS, AN ADDITIONAL 100,000 ELITE SECURITY
FORCES LOYAL TO SADDAM, 80,000 FEDAYEEN PARAMILITARY FORCES
LOYAL TO SADDAM, 900,000 BAATH PARTY MILITIA AND TRIBAL MILITIA.
AND WE'VE GONE IN WITH LESS THAN 120,000 BOOTS ON THE GROUND.
THAT'S A 120,000 COMBAT FORCES IN IRAQ TO TAKE ON THIS MILITARY
MIGHT, THAT WHILE IT IS NOT CAPABLE OF AFFECTIVE OFFENSIVE
MILITARY OPERATION IT IS CAPABLE AND IT IS WILLING TO FIGHT
AND DIE FOR IRAQ. We've seen impressive military gains in
the first couple of days as part of the *Shock and Awe* campaign.
You mass a mechanized force through empty desert shooting
up the western bank of the Euphrates until you get within
50 miles of Bagdad and then you run into military force. The
problem is now you have a 300 mile line of communication and
this force requires a constant supply of fuel ammunition and
spare parts and when you don't get that this force cannot
fight. And, because the Iraqis didn't surrender, because the
Iraqis didn't cave in they are threatening this line of communication,
choking this fuel, this ammunition and spare parts and now
we are incapable of waging effective offensive military action
against Bagdad. THIS IS ALL PREDICTABLE. I PREDICTED THIS
IN THE FALL OF LAST YEAR. I SAID IF WE CARRY OUT THE RUMSFELD
PLAN, WE WILL BE DEFEATED. WE CAN NOT WIN MILITARILY. WE CAN
NOT WIN DIPLOMATICALLY. WE WILL LOSE ECONOMICALLY AND BUSH
WILL LOOSE POLITICALLY. AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAS HAPPENED
NOW. We have troops stuck outside of Bagdad incapable of waging
effective offensive military operations. Our combat power
has been bled away from the tip of the spear to protect an
overextended line of communication. WE WENT TO WAR WITHOUT
RESERVES. NO MILITARY COMMANDER WOULD EVER DO THAT. WE COMMITTED
TO A MAJOR OFFENSIVE MILITARY OPERATION WITHOUT RESERVES.
Now we have dissipated our combat strength. We find we need
more and it's not there. The 4th Infantry division is on its
way but it won't be ready until April and even that is not
enough. That will help stabilize the situation but to be able
to get back on the offensive WE NEED AT LEAST TWO MORE DIVISION
ELEMENTS, THE 1ST ARMORED DIVISION AND THE 1ST CALVARY DIVISION
WHICH WERE ORIGINALLY EARMARKED TO GO BUT RUMSFELD IN HIS
INFINITE WISDOM SHUT OFF THAT DEPLOYMENT. If you get them
you are talking May so we are looking at about a two month
stalemate outside of Bagdad in which the Iraqis are going
to attrict us militarily and attrict us morally because in
order to sustain this front we are going to have to shift
our tactics to bombing the civilian population center of Baghdad
which will result in not any significant degradation in the
Iraqi command and control but a significant degradation of
the Iraqi civilian population and WE ARE TEACHING THE WORLD
TO HATE US, MORE IMPORTANTLY WE ARE TEACHING THE SHIA OF IRAQ,
60% OF THE POPULATION WHO WE ASSUMED WOULD BE ON OUR SIDE,
WE ARE TEACHING THEM TO DESPISE US, TO HATE US, TO WAGE JIHAD.
WHOEVER PICKED THE TIMING OF (THIS CAMPAIGN) KNEW NOTHING
OF RELIGION, ABOUT IRAQI CULTURE. We are right now in the
middle of the most important religious holiday for the Shia
celebrating the battle of Carbala. Carbala is the city 60
miles south of Bagdad where are troops are currently engaged
in combat with the Iraqis. Carbala is where the prophet Hussein
who died. If you go back and look at why Carbala is important
there you see a little piece of history. Hussein was opposed
by an evil man named Izis. Izis surrounded Hussein and his
followers and said I will (seige and starve) you out until
you surrender to me. Hussein led his followers out and rather
than submit he fought and he died. He was martyred. The Izis
is whoever is condemned in the minds of the religion. TODAY
IN THE SHIA WORLD, IN IRAQ AND ELSEWHERE, PRESIDENT BUSH IS
BEING CALLED IZIS. AND MORE FRIGHTENING, THIS BRUTAL DICTATOR
SUDDAM HUSSEIN, WHO DOES NOT DESERVE ONE IOTA OF RESPECT FROM
ANYBODY IS BEING HAILED BY THE SHIAS HE WANTS TO REPRESS AS
THE NEW HUSSEIN. Dennis: Scott, you are an expert in ballistic
missile technology. We are seeing a lot of missiles flying
around. Do you think it's possible with so many missiles flying
around that they are not killing civilians. Scott: No, I think
one of the things that the American public is being -- there
are many failures in the way the US media has covered this
war and is covering this war. I think most journalists ???
they become anything but objective observers or impartial
observers. They become an extension of the Department Of Defense's
propaganda effort. So the media is not showing you the dead
bodies of the Iraqi children, destroyed homes, the dead Iraqi
civilians, the suffering civilians, children who haven't even
been killed and wounded but who are shivering in shock as
a result of *Shock And Awe* -- the American public is not
seeing that. Are we capable of mistakes? The Pentagon has
admitted that when you wage war accidents happen and civilians
will die and that is one of the reasons why I fought so strongly
against this war because I have been trying to figure out
what it is that those innocent Iraqi people did to deserve
to have us come in and kill them. I THINK WE HAVE TO REMEMBER
THAT PRECISION WEAPONS ARE ONLY PRECISION IF EVERYTHING WORKS
PROPERLY AND PRECISELY, IF THE TECHNOLOGY ON THE WEAPON WORKS,
IF THE TARGET TECHNOLOGY WORKS, AND IF WE TARGET THE RIGHT
TARGET ON THE GROUND. IF WE PICK THE WRONG TARGET ON THE GROUND
THE PRECISION WEAPON MAY HIT THE TARGET PRECISELY BUT YOU
ARE GOING TO KILL SOMEBODY BECAUSE YOU PUT IT ON THE WRONG
TARGET. The best precision weapons are satellite bombs, the
GPS bombs, the JDAMS, Joint Direct Attack Munitions. These
are very accurate but we don't have that many. Most Americans
don't realize that we used up almost our entire stockpile
of JDAMS in the Afghanistan war. We went into emergency production
of JDAM monition last fall shipping thousands of these units
out to the Persian Gulf and we are almost out of satellite
guided munitions. Some aircraft carriers no longer have stock
of JDAM munitions so as a result we have gone back to laser-guided
munitions. In the city of Baghdad, realize that the Iraqis
work the oil trenches for the purpose of degrading the laser
designator, the laser lock. If the laser-guided munitions
breaks lock it becomes a stupid bomb that goes wherever it
lands. We also fire cruise missiles that are again guided
by GPS with preprogrammed coordinates. But these cruse missiles
are slow flying and as they come toward the city the Iraqi
anti-aircraft artillery shoot them. THE FIRST NIGHT WE FIRED
300 CRUISE MISSILES AND OVER 28 OF THESE WERE SHOT DOWN. SHOT
DOWN DOESN'T MEANT THAT YOU BLOW THEM UP IN MID AIR. IT MEANS
YOU HIT A WING AND THEY GO OFF COURSE. IF THEY GO OFF COURSE
THEY CAN VEER DOWN AND HIT A CIVILIAN POPULATION AREA. SO
WE ARE DOING CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE TO THE CIVILIANS OF IRAQ.
IT IS A TRAGIC REALITY OF WAR. I'm not saying we are deliberating
targeting civilians in Baghdad. But we are deliberately targeting
civilians in other areas. I have watched the Marine Corp artillery
and I used to serve in the Marine Corp artillery unit and
I am very proud of the marines. These are honorable men and
women that are asked to do dishonorable things. I don't blame
them, I blame the government. IN ORDER TO SUPPRESS THE IRAQI
RESISTANCE WE ARE FIRING ARTILLERY BARRAGES INTO THE CITY
OF NASSARIA, INTO THE CITY OF NASSARIA. THERE ARE CIVILIANS
THAT LIVE THERE. THIS IS HORRIBLE, WHAT IS HAPPENING. THE
BRITISH ARE FIRING ARTILLERY INTO BASRA, THE CITY OF BASRA.
WE HAVE DESIGNATED THESE TWO CITIES AS MILITARY TARGETS. THEY
ARE NO LONGER CIVILIAN POPULATIONS THEY ARE MILITARY TARGETS.
Given the resistance. HOW CAN WE CRITICIZE THE IRAQIS FOR
RESISTING AN ILLEGAL INVADER? I AM STUNNED BY SOME OF THE
COMMENTS I HEAR ON TV. WHAT DID WE WEAR IN THE REVOLUTION.
I AM TRYING TO REMEMBER WHAT THE MEN WHO STOOD ON THE BRIDGE
AT CONCORD AN LEXINGTON WORE WHEN THEY CONFRONTED THE BRITISH
REGULARS. I AM PRETTY SURE IT WAS CIVILIAN CLOTHES. I AM TRYING
TO REMEMBER WHAT THE FRENCH RESISTANCE FIGHTERS WORE WHEN
THEY CONFRONTED THE GERMAN INVADER. I AM PRETTY SURE IT WAS
CIVILIAN CLOTHES. OF COURSE THE GREAT RESISTANCE CARRIED OUT
BY THE RUSSIANS AGAINST THE GERMAN INVADERS IN WWII, THE RUSSIAN
PARTISANS, THEY NOT ONLY WORE CIVILIAN CLOTHES, BUT A MIX
OF GERMAN UNIFORMS AND GERMAN WEAPONS TO RESIST. WE INVADED.
WE ARE LUCKY TO FIGHT THIS WAR. WE VIOLATED INTERNATIONAL
LAW AND IT'S HYPOCRISY IN THE EXTREME FOR US TO CONDEMN THE
IRAQIS FOR USING WHATEVER TACTICS NECESSARY TO OPPOSE THE
INVADER. WE CANNOT BE HYPOCRITICAL. WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND
THAT THE UNITED STATES HAS MADE A HORRIFIC MISTAKE AND WE
ARE PAYING THE PRICE AND IT IS OUR OBLIGATION AS CITIZENS
OF THIS COUNTRY TO RECOGNIZE THAT OUR NATIONAL TREASURE IS
THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO WEAR THE UNIFORMS OF THE U.S., WHO ARE
BEING MISUSED AND ABUSED AND SHAMED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.
IF THIS IS TRULY A DEMOCRACY WE NEED TO HOLD THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION
ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN OUR NAME.. Dennis:
Tell us about the power of the weapons? Scott: It depends
on what weapons we bring to bear. We have a lot of weapons.
We have air deliver munitions, we have 500 lb. bombs, 1000
lb. bombs, and 2000 lb. bombs. These are tremendous weapons.
Especially the 2000 pound bomb which is basically designed
to collapse major buildings, to penetrate in to a basement,
into a bunker, blowup and collapse and bring the building
down. Anybody who is out in that building is of course has
had a very bad day. If you're a woman and child, you are dead.
We hopefully are targeting those who we believe to represent
enemy combatants, people who represent a hostile threat to
us. BUT WHEN YOU FIRE INTO A RESIDENTIAL AREA, OR A RESIDENTIAL
AREA THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY ENEMY FORCES UNDERSTAND THAT
IN ADDITION TO ELIMINATING THAT HOSTILE THREAT YOU ARE TERMINATING
THE LIVES OF MANY CIVILIANS. We use artillery, 155 millimeter
artillery shells are the round of choice. These tend to be
high explosive point detonating rounds that come in and explode
on impact. You use the time delay fuse so that you can penetrate
into a building before exploding creating more devastation
inside the building. You can use an air verse fuse, that is
a weapon that explodes above ground raining shrapnel down.
When you lay down an artillery barrage what you want to do,
especially in an urban area is do a mix of all three so that
you saturate the entire target area with as many different
kinds of explosive situations devastating whomever is in the
impact area. It is very effective to suppress enemies. It
is also very effective to terminate the live of civilians.
We have something called the *attackums* which is a long range
missile that has the ability to disperse submunitions, cluster
munitions which we will hopefully use to hit enemy armor concentrations
but they are also effective to use as aerial denial munitions.
You fire these munitions into, for instance, a cross roads
in an urban area and you put out basically a minefield so
that enemy vehicles can't move through this area but it also
creates a mine field that affects the flow of civilian traffic,
foot, mobile, and vehicles. During wartimes civilians of course
are fleeing the area so we are creating these hasty mine fields
we are creating barriers that again lead to civilian casualties.
MODERN WAR IS A HORRIBLE THING. THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS
WHY I HAVE BEEN SO VOCIFEROUS AGAINST GOING TO WAR BECAUSE
I RECOGNIZE THAT THIS WAR WILL LEAD TO DEATH, DESTRUCTION
AND SORROW OF AN IMMENSE SCALE AND SOMETIMES I THINK HISTORY
HAS SHOWN THAT YOU NEED TO FIGHT TO SAVE YOURSELF, TO FIGHT
TO SAVE YOUR COUNTRY, AND IF YOU GO TO WAR, DEATH IS AN UNFORTUNATE
BY PRODUCT, A TRAGIC BY PRODUCT. THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN WAGING A WAR FOR A JUST CAUSE AND WAGING A WAR OF
AGGRESSION. THE AMERICAN MILITARY POWER IS WAGING A WAR OF
AGGRESSION AND NOT ONLY IS IT ILLEGAL BUT IT IS SLAUGHTERING
INNOCENT CIVILIANS. SLAUGHTERING INNOCENT CIVILIANS IN A NATION
THAT DOESN'T WANT US THERE. THAT DOESN'T WANT TO BE LIBERATED
BY THE U.S.. Dennis: They (are claiming) that they found gas
masks, chemical suits.. Is this the smoking gun?.. Scott:
Well the 'smoking gun' has to be munitions or munitions production
capabilities that violates the Security Council Resolution.
A smoking gun would be a chemical weapon, a biological weapon,
a nuclear weapon or the means to produce these weapons. They
haven't found that. Chemical suits? I don't know what that
means. On the one hand it could mean that the Iraqis have
chemical weapons and they plan on using them so they have
pre-positioned uniforms ahead to outfit their fighters. The
problem with this is that it deviates dramatically from what
I know to be ground truth. And that is that we destroyed their
chemical weapons production capabilities. We destroyed their
weapons. We accounted for 90-95% of it. There is no evidence
that Iraq either has obtained weapons of mass destruction
or the means to produce them. So I am highly skeptical of
Iraq having any. (also see: Scott's speech at Cornell March
27)
8:34:50 PM PST
music break
8:35:xx PM PST
Dennis: the Israeli colonizers continue their brutal assault
on Palestine, under the cover of the US attack on Iraq.. now
w Kristen Schurr.. Kristen: they killed .. wounded about ten
people, abducted several.. over 9000 in Israeli prisons..
Israel here destroyed hundred of trees, trying to make this
look like a land without a people.. killed a farmer in his
field.. injured a woman while demolishing her home.. anything
that looks like life they are destroying.. these camps in
places where the military decided to build illegal settlements..
massive transfer is what they are talking about now.. they
abducted 17 last night.. more the night before.. the Israeli
military wearing civilian Arab clothes.. opened fire into
a car.. killing three residents.. shot into another car, killing
a 12 year old girl and injuring her parents.. Hebron under
an outrageous curfew.. heavily armed settlers regularly attack
Palestinians.. going into houses, kicking out the residents,
taking over the houses for their own.. Dennis: Israeli assassination
teams dressing as Palestinians civilians?.. Kristen: the US
is complicit in allowing Israel to go against all international
law.. the 'right of return' not negotiable, is a human right..
the kind of talk about peace coming from the mouths of George
Bush and Sharon.. just another opportunity.. we're seeing
an absolute takeover and ethnic cleansing.. Dennis: a great
fear in the Palestinian community of tranfer?.. Kristen: talk
about the transfer being to Jordan.. they are building 6000
units there.. for the refugees from Iraq?.. or for the Palestinians?..
to legitimize the arrest of massive numbers of people.. the
Israeli military makes life so unbearable.. buses driving
up, loading up Palestnians and driving them out to the Jordan
desert.. about the spin the Israelis put on the death of Rachel
Corrie.. the US government has been silent on this.. the Palestinians
have been very supportive.. candle vigils for her.. in Gaza
City.. done a lot to not let the Israelis dehumanize her..
in Rafah Camp today, 10,000 people in the street in solidarity
with the Iraqi people..
8:47:24 PM PST
Dennis: now in studio with ISM members Paul Larudi and Lisa
Nessan.. about tonight's memorial for Rachel Corrie taking
place in Berkeley.. we have to get information about what
is happening out to the public, and get more volunteers like
Rachel to go to Palestine.. now w.. about the shops in the
village mowed down to let Israel build more on their apartheid
wall.. [no further review tonight].. Event: a memorial service
for Rachel tonight at the First Unitarian Church, 1924 Cedar
at Bonita in Berkeley 7:30 til late.. Paul: other ways to
support ISM.. US House Resolution 111 calls for an impartial
investigation into Rachel's death, call your rep.. and you
can donate money, see our website: PalSolidarity.org.. more
info 510-236-4230.. we're planning a sit in at Nancy Pelosi's
office or home.. Dennis: we will not forget what happened
to Rachel Corrie.. and just as we sign off we hear about a
raid on ISM house in Jenin, tune in tomorrow..
8:57:50 PM PST
Dennis: wrapup
8:58:38 PM PST
End today's show. today's review by John Lionheart
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