:
From: John McAuliff <jmcauliff@ffrd.org>
Subject: Propaganda wars; the uranium seizure, the
assasination attempt
As the temperature of war fever rises, stories appear
that could be conscious disinformation or simply sloppy reporting based on the
psychology of mob hysteria. The first story may fall into the second
category. The second may be the political version of an urban myth given
new credibility because it serves a political purpose. I don't know who
the author is, whether a Williams student or prof.
John
Turkish police say seized uranium weighs 140 grams
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A Turkish police
official said on Sunday the amount of uranium recently seized by officers was
around 140 grams (5 ounces) and did not weigh 15 kg (33 lbs) as initially
reported.
The state-run Anatolian news agency on Saturday reported that paramilitary
police in the southern province of Sanliurfa detained two men after discovering
15 kg of uranium in a lead container hidden beneath a taxi car seat.
But that amount had included the weight of the container and the radioactive
material was actually around 140 grams, an official from the gendarmes force in
Sanliurfa said on condition of anonymity.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna was also sceptical
because the amount previously reported would have been enough to make a nuclear
bomb, spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Reuters on Sunday.
The Turkish official said the weapons-grade uranium was seized on Friday after
police stopped the vehicle on a road in Sanliurfa, which borders Syria and is
about 250 km (155 miles) from the Iraqi border.
The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between the United States and
Iraq, accused by Washington of developing weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. President George W. Bush claims Baghdad has tried to acquire uranium to
develop a nuclear bomb as his administration works to build international
support for a military operation to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The IAEA also questioned the contents because the word uranium was spelled in a
strange way on the container, which itself was made in West Germany, Fleming
said.
"We have no primary information and are trying to verify the contents of
the object but it's very suspicious," she said.
The Anatolian agency on Sunday quoted Sanliurfa's provincial governor Muzaffer
Dilek as saying experts had yet to determine the amount of uranium but that
intelligence agents believed it only weighed about 100 grams.
Dilek also said police charged the two men in connection with the case but
released them pending trial.
"These people said they believe that what was given to them was medical
material," he said, adding police were now looking for two other suspects.
*************************************
WHAT ASSASINATION ATTEMPT?
arc Lynch
Williams College
August 22, 2002
What assassination attempt?
For Ken Adelman a member of the Defense Policy Board and a key player
among the partisans of an offensive war against Iraq,
the "1994 [sic] Iraqi attempt to assassinate" former
President George H. W. Bush "is an undisputed fact"
and a "flagrant example of Iraqi terrorist activity." This
allegation has become an important one for war
partisans because of their inability to uncover any
evidence of Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda (CNN tapes recently
showed Osama bin Laden describing Saddam Hussein
in less than complimentary terms) and the troubling fact
that both the Reagan and elder Bush administrations
willingly overlooked Iraq's use of chemical weapons
during its war with Iran and the genocidal campaign
against the Kurds.
But there's one problem - there was never any evidence
that the assassination attempt actually happened.
Endless repetition dulls the memory, but in 1993 (not
1994) the announcement of the Iraqi plot to kill the
former President met a skeptical reception from many,
including many current hawks. Many Republicans
accused the new Clinton administration of seizing upon
the first available excuse to demonstrate toughness
against the Iraqi president. Seymour Hersch decisively
discredited the supposed plot in a subsequent
investigation for The New Yorker. Journalists on the
ground in Kuwait reported widespread skepticism. Even
the Washington Post wrote at the time that the United
States had no evidence linking the alleged plot directly
to Saddam.
The plot itself was revealed by Kuwaiti intelligence,
which at the time had every reason to feel uneasy about
the Clinton administration. During the campaign, Clinton
had openly mused about the possibility of a new
relationship with Iraq. But no president, not even
Clinton, would be able to ignore such a provocation, and
publicly presented with Kuwaiti evidence, he felt
compelled to act. After former President Bush visited
Kuwait in mid-April 1993, the Kuwaiti government
arrested eleven Iraqis and five Kuwaitis who seem to
have been involved in smuggling, and accused them of
plotting Bush's assassination. Their confessions were
produced under compulsion, presumably under torture.
No corroborating evidence was ever produced. Indeed,
at the time many news services with little reason to favor
Saddam Hussein pointed out a wide range of holes in
the story. Kuwait postponed the trial repeatedly,
dismissed charges against the Kuwaiti citizens involved
in the supposed plot, and then executed the others.
On June 26, Clinton responded with a barrage of cruise
missiles aimed at Iraqi intelligence offices in Baghdad.
While these attacks did little physical damage, other
than killing the famous Iraqi artist Leila Attar, they
decisively ended the prospect of a shift in American
policy under the new Clinton administration.
In short, there was no evidence at the time, and no new
evidence has ever been produced, that the Iraqi
assassination attempt ever actually happened. Its rising
prominence in the rhetoric of war partisans suggests
growing panic over their failure to find other compelling
reasons, as well as their distressing tendency to assume
that repetition substitutes for evidence. There may be
good reasons to change the Iraqi regime. But barring
the release of previously undisclosed evidence, this is
not one of them. If we must go to war, let's do it for real
reasons, not because we have come to believe our own
propaganda.