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August 2, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
Dark Deeds in the Black Hills:
Daschle Dooms the
Sacred Land of the Sioux
August 1, 2002
Steven Higgs
Activists
Under Siege
Anthony Gancarski
Draft
Picks:
Staffing the Latest War
Zeynep Toufe
Invisible
Children: AIDS,
Africa and Selective Vision
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel and Squawk:
Angelina Jolie, the NYT
and the Attack on McKinney
July 31, 2002
Amelia Peltz
Inside
Ramallah:
How Can the World Witness Such Suffering and Do Nothing?
M. Shahid Alam
The Academic
Boycott of Israel
Bernard Weiner
20 Things
We've Learned Since 9/11
Philip Cryan
Discourse
and War in Colombia
Neve Gordon
A Feast
of Bombs:
Sharon's Endgame for Palestine
July 30, 2002
Pierre Tristam
Branding September 11
PS Burton
Financial
Journalism:
A Very Small Cog
Tom Stephens
Hypocrites in the House:
Fast Track After Midnight
Dave Marsh
Censorship
Goes Global
July 29, 2002
Linda Belanger
Why Do They Do It?
Alfredo Castro
Colombia's
Disappeared
Anne Brodsky
Inside Pakistan and
Afghanistan with RAWA
Andrew George
The Fires
of Summer:
Don't Blame the Greens
David Vest
A Blind Mule and
a Box of Medals
July 28, 2002
Bob Geary
Our Dinner
with Fidel Castro
July 27, 2002
Ian Daoust
The New
Mahler, Seattle Style
Gavin Keeney
Zizek
and Lenin
Ralph Nader
Citigroup
Heal Thyself
M. Shahid Alam
American
Presidents (Poem)
Mokhiber / Weissman
Push Back: Women Take
on the Corporate Beasts
July 26, 2002
Jerre Skog
American
Dictatorship:
It Couldn't Happen...Could It?
Philip Farruggio
Lie,
Rob and Steal
Rep. Ron Paul
Monitor
Thy Neighbor
Ron Jacobs
Thinking
About the
Weather (Underground)
Walt Brasch
Ashcroft's War on Bookstores
July 25, 2002
Norman Madarasz
Paul
Krugman's Howl:
Populism, War and
the Melting Economy
Gavin Keeney
Van Morrison: In September
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
War
on Terrorism or
Police State?
July 24, 2002
Gary Leupp
An Islam Primer
July 23, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Battle
for Zuni Salt Lake
Ansar Ahmed
Am I with You, George?
Bill Christison
The
Disastrous Foreign Policies of the US: Oppression Abroad Means
Repression at Home
July 22, 2002
Rick Giombetti
Glaxo Raises White Flag
in Paxil Case
Wayne Madsen
Forbidden
Truth
The Press, Bush, Oil
and the Taliban
July 21. 2002
Francis A. Boyle
The Rogue Elephant
Jennifer Harbury
Why are
the FBI & CIA Targeting Me?
Joan Claybrook
Time
for a Special Prosceutor
for Thomas White
Gloria Bergen
The Struggle
of Workers
in Palestine
Dave Marsh
Mr. Big Stuff:
Alan Lomax, Great White Fraud
James T. Phillips
"I'll
Tell You No Lies"
The Human Rubble of War
July 20, 2002
Gavin Keeney
The Grave
New Urbanism
World Trade Center Burlesque
Jacob Levich
"I
Was Schooled in Hate"
Confessions of a
Summer Camp Terror Tot
Thomas Croft
Augusta,
GA
Growing Up in the Deep South
Alexander Cockburn
The
Market Hogwallow:
Popgun Populism Isn't Enough
July 19, 2002
Abe Bonowitz / SueZann
Bosler
A Discussion
with Jeb Bush on the Death Penalty
Jonathan Power
No Need
for War Against Iraq
Rick Giombetti
Qwest
Death Watch
Kurt Nimmo
Of Mice,
Bullets & Bombs
M. Shahid Alam
Through
Racist Eyes:
Is Eurocentrism Unique?
July 18, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
Business
As Usual
Jerre Skog
I Spy: Now
Let's be Fair,
the USA Ain't East Germany
Ralph Nader
The CEO
Crimewave:
Corporate Socialism
Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)
The Rising Tensions
Between Spain and Morocco
Alexander Cockburn
Drivel
and Squawk:
Can the Times' Jeff Gerth
Save the White House?
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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August
2, 2002
What About
Those Chemical Weapons?
The Saddam in Rummy's
Closet
by Jeremy Scahill
"Man and the turtle are very much
alike. Neither makes any progress without sticking his neck out."
Donald Rumsfeld
Five years before Saddam Hussein's now infamous
1988 gassing of the Kurds, a key meeting took place in Baghdad
that would play a significant role in forging close ties between
Saddam Hussein and Washington. It happened at a time when Saddam
was first alleged to have used chemical weapons. The meeting
in late December 1983 paved the way for an official restoration
of relations between Iraq and the US, which had been severed
since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
With the Iran-Iraq war escalating, President
Ronald Reagan dispatched his Middle East envoy, a former secretary
of defense, to Baghdad with a hand-written letter to Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein and a message that Washington was willing at any
moment to resume diplomatic relations.
That envoy was Donald Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld's December 19-20, 1983 visit
to Baghdad made him the highest-ranking US official to visit
Iraq in 6 years. He met Saddam and the two discussed "topics
of mutual interest," according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
"[Saddam] made it clear that Iraq was not interested in
making mischief in the world," Rumsfeld later told The New
York Times. "It struck us as useful to have a relationship,
given that we were interested in solving the Mideast problems."
Just 12 days after the meeting, on January
1, 1984, The Washington Post reported that the United States
"in a shift in policy, has informed friendly Persian Gulf
nations that the defeat of Iraq in the 3-year-old war with Iran
would be 'contrary to U.S. interests' and has made several moves
to prevent that result."
In March of 1984, with the Iran-Iraq
war growing more brutal by the day, Rumsfeld was back in Baghdad
for meetings with then-Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. On
the day of his visit, March 24th, UPI reported from the United
Nations: "Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been
used on Iranian soldiers in the 43-month Persian Gulf War between
Iran and Iraq, a team of U.N. experts has concluded... Meanwhile,
in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, U.S. presidential envoy Donald
Rumsfeld held talks with Foreign Minister Tarek Aziz (sic) on
the Gulf war before leaving for an unspecified destination."
The day before, the Iranian news agency
alleged that Iraq launched another chemical weapons assault on
the southern battlefront, injuring 600 Iranian soldiers. "Chemical
weapons in the form of aerial bombs have been used in the areas
inspected in Iran by the specialists," the U.N. report said.
"The types of chemical agents used were bis-(2-chlorethyl)-sulfide,
also known as mustard gas, and ethyl N, N-dimethylphosphoroamidocyanidate,
a nerve agent known as Tabun."
Prior to the release of the UN report,
the US State Department on March 5th had issued a statement saying
"available evidence indicates that Iraq has used lethal
chemical weapons."
Commenting on the UN report, US Ambassador
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick was quoted by The New York Times as saying,
"We think that the use of chemical weapons is a very serious
matter. We've made that clear in general and particular."
Compared with the rhetoric emanating
from the current administration, based on speculations about
what Saddam might have, Kirkpatrick's reaction was hardly a call
to action.
Most glaring is that Donald Rumsfeld
was in Iraq as the 1984 UN report was issued and said nothing
about the allegations of chemical weapons use, despite State
Department "evidence." On the contrary, The New York
Times reported from Baghdad on March 29, 1984, "American
diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with relations between
Iraq and the United States and suggest that normal diplomatic
ties have been restored in all but name."
A month and a half later, in May 1984,
Donald Rumsfeld resigned. In November of that year, full diplomatic
relations between Iraq and the US were fully restored. Two years
later, in an article about Rumsfeld's aspirations to run for
the 1988 Republican Presidential nomination, the Chicago Tribune
Magazine listed among Rumsfeld's achievements helping to "reopen
U.S. relations with Iraq." The Tribune failed to mention
that this help came at a time when, according to the US State
Department, Iraq was actively using chemical weapons.
Throughout the period that Rumsfeld was
Reagan's Middle East envoy, Iraq was frantically purchasing hardware
from American firms, empowered by the White House to sell. The
buying frenzy began immediately after Iraq was removed from the
list of alleged sponsors of terrorism in 1982. According to a
February 13, 1991 Los Angeles Times article:
"First on Hussein's shopping list
was helicopters -- he bought 60 Hughes helicopters and trainers
with little notice. However, a second order of 10 twin-engine
Bell "Huey" helicopters, like those used to carry combat
troops in Vietnam, prompted congressional opposition in August,
1983... Nonetheless, the sale was approved."
In 1984, according to The LA Times, the
State Department_in the name of "increased American penetration
of the extremely competitive civilian aircraft market"_pushed
through the sale of 45 Bell 214ST helicopters to Iraq. The helicopters,
worth some $200 million, were originally designed for military
purposes. The New York Times later reported that Saddam "transferred
many, if not all [of these helicopters] to his military."
In 1988, Saddam's forces attacked Kurdish
civilians with poisonous gas from Iraqi helicopters and planes.
U.S. intelligence sources told The LA Times in 1991, they "believe
that the American-built helicopters were among those dropping
the deadly bombs."
In response to the gassing, sweeping
sanctions were unanimously passed by the US Senate that would
have denied Iraq access to most US technology. The measure was
killed by the White House.
Senior officials later told reporters
they did not press for punishment of Iraq at the time because
they wanted to shore up Iraq's ability to pursue the war with
Iran. Extensive research uncovered no public statements by Donald
Rumsfeld publicly expressing even remote concern about Iraq's
use or possession of chemical weapons until the week Iraq invaded
Kuwait in August 1990, when he appeared on an ABC news special.
Eight years later, Donald Rumsfeld signed
on to an "open letter" to President Clinton, calling
on him to eliminate "the threat posed by Saddam." It
urged Clinton to "provide the leadership necessary to save
ourselves and the world from the scourge of Saddam and the weapons
of mass destruction that he refuses to relinquish."
In 1984, Donald Rumsfeld was in a position
to draw the world's attention to Saddam's chemical threat. He
was in Baghdad as the UN concluded that chemical weapons had
been used against Iran. He was armed with a fresh communication
from the State Department that it had "available evidence"
Iraq was using chemical weapons. But Rumsfeld said nothing.
Washington now speaks of Saddam's threat
and the consequences of a failure to act. Despite the fact that
the administration has failed to provide even a shred of concrete
proof that Iraq has links to Al Qaeda or has resumed production
of chemical or biological agents, Rumsfeld insists that "the
absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
But there is evidence of the absence
of Donald Rumsfeld's voice at the very moment when Iraq's alleged
threat to international security first emerged. And in this case,
the evidence of absence is indeed evidence.
Jeremy Scahill is
an independent journalist. He reports frequently for Free Speech
Radio News and Democracy Now! In May and June 2002, he reported
from Iraq. He can be reached at jeremybgd@yahoo.com.
Today's
Features
Jeffrey St. Clair
Dark Deeds in the Black Hills:
Daschle Dooms the
Sacred Land of the Sioux
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