Monday, August 26, 2013

Echoes of past outrage burp up


National Iraqi News Agency reports a Kirkuk roadside bombing left 2 Iraqi soldiers injured, a Wasit Province roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 person and left three more injured,  and a Hilla mortar attack claimed 1 life and left three other people injured,.  AFP adds, "Militants in police uniforms claiming to be carrying out a security operation kidnapped and killed six men in a pre-dawn attack north of Baghdad, officials said."  Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 685 violent deaths this month so far. And the month ends this week.

Which means the monthly death toll will be noted by a few press outlets.  W.G. Dunlop (AFP) reports Nouri's government is undercounting and downplaying deaths:
The government has downplayed the number of deaths from attacks in its official statements, even as violence in Iraq has reached levels not seen since 2008.
It has also challenged media reports on unrest, saying some were as dangerous as attacks themselves.


Another story has captured attention in the region.  To appreciate it, you have to remember how Bully Boy Bush repeatedly insisted that Saddam Hussein was not to be trusted because he 'gassed his own people.'  From CNN, March 22, 2002, here's one example of Bully Boy Bush noting that:


 What we're telling our friends is that Saddam Hussein is a man who is willing to gas his own people, willing to use weapons of mass destruction against Iraq citizens.  Evidently there's a new article in New York magazine, or New Yorker magazine, or some East Coast magazine, and it details about his barbaric behavior toward his own people. And he not only did it to his own people, he did it to people in his neighborhood.


There were many variations on that and Bully Boy Bush was always citing it as a need to go to war on Iraq.   Press TV reports today:
Newly declassified CIA documents show that the United States had a hand in Iraq’s deadly chemical attacks on Iran during the 1980-1988 war against the Islamic Republic, a new report says.
During the war, the Iraqi military attacked Iran several times using mustard gas and sarin with the help of satellite imagery, maps and other intelligence provided by the US government, the Foreign Policy magazine said, citing CIA documents and interviews with former US intelligence officials.
US officials have long denied having knowledge of the US involvement but retired Air Force Colonel Rick Francona, a then military attaché in Baghdad, said the American officials knew of Iraq’s intention.
"The Iraqis never told us that they intended to use nerve gas. They didn't have to. We already knew," Francona told Foreign Policy.

Fars News Agency picks up the story as well but brings in current claims regarding Syria:
The US government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus, while there is no clue to throw the responsibility for the attack on anyone's shoulder, except for the common sense which says rebels should be blamed. But a generation ago, America's military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy said in a report.

In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq's war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. US intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein's military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.

The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on US satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq's favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration's long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn't disclose.


Look for Bully Boy Bush to appeal to the Supreme Court to put him back in the White House so he can now go after Donald Rumsfeld, his own father and the ghost of Ronald Reagan.



Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Wag The Kennel"  went up last night.   On this week's Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) topics addressed include Michael Ratner discussing the Chelsea Manning verdict, Kevin Gallagher discussing the targeting of journalist Barrett Brown and Sharla Manley on ho Hawaii transfers prisoners to other states.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.











 
  wbai
law and disorder radio
michael s. smith
heidi boghosian
michael ratner


















 

















 

















iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
iraq
Posted by at