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Cooking Intelligence Again

In his article dated Aug. 29, 2006, Gordon Prather states that the "International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors had been allowed back into Iraq (in 2000, 2001, and 2002) to inspect all the remaining nuclear-related sites in Iraq – including Kuwaitha, where our 'intelligence' had suggested the Iraqis might be doing something untoward – and found nothing untoward."

I have checked the IAEA Web site and there is no mention of these inspection (between 2000-2002). Can you please ask Dr. Prather where he sourced this information from?

~ Andre De Angelis

Gordon Prather replies:

I have read those Iraq Safeguards reports for 2000, 2001, and 2002 at the IAEA Web site, but am not sure now how to access them. However, contained within the IAEA Action Team Consolidated Reports submitted by ElBaradei each year to the Security Council – which are still available on-site – are summaries of those "null" Safeguards reports. Here is ElBaradei's report for the 1999 Safeguards inspection [.pdf]:

"As I recalled in my letter to the President of the Council of 10 December 1999 (S/2000/120), during the time IAEA was able to perform its mandate in Iraq pursuant to the above-mentioned Security Council resolutions, the activities which it was to carry out pursuant to Iraq's Safeguards Agreement with the Agency in accordance with the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons were subsumed under the activities pursuant to the Security Council resolutions. However, in the light of the fact that the latter activities had ceased in December 1998, and given the requirements of the IAEA safeguards system, mentioned in my letter of 10 December, a five-person IAEA team carried out a physical inventory verification of the nuclear material in Iraq between 22 and 25 January 2000.

"As I informed the IAEA Board of Governors during its recent meeting, the Agency inspectors were able to verify the nuclear material subject to safeguards, which consists of low enriched, natural and depleted uranium. Iraq provided the necessary cooperation for the inspection team to perform its activities effectively and efficiently, even though the inspection, planned initially for December, could take place only in January because of the delay in the provision of the necessary visas by the Government of Iraq."

Here are later reports:

http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Programmes/ActionTeam/reports/S_2000_983.pdf

http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Programmes/ActionTeam/reports/s_2001_337.pdf

http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Programmes/ActionTeam/reports/s_2001_945.pdf

http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Programmes/ActionTeam/reports/s_2002_367.pdf

Here is the pertinent part of the last report:

"As it has for the last two years, the Agency carried out, in January 2002, a verification of the declared nuclear material in Iraq, pursuant to Iraq's Nonproliferation Treaty safeguards agreement with the Agency. With the cooperation of the Iraqi authorities, Agency inspectors were able to verify the presence of the declared nuclear material remaining in Iraq that is subject to safeguards."

Should the US Nuke Iran and Syria?

Does David Henderson not believe that there are not "millions of innocent" Americans "trying to make their way" "under a really horrible government"?

~ Alterkocker

David R. Henderson replies:

Dear Mr. Alterkocker,

I do believe that millions of innocent Americans are trying to make their way under a horrible government. The largest subset of these millions are those who are in prison simply for using or selling illegal drugs. I was trusting my readers, though, to make distinctions among degrees of horror. The governments of Iran and Syria, in the way they treat the people they govern, are much more horrible than local, state, and federal governments in the United States.

The Real Threat We Face in Britain Is Blair

Nice to read the truth for a change. Just one point. I don't think Blair and Bush derive their obsessions from Christianity at all. I guess I am quite fanatical myself, in that I campaign for peace, justice, and an end to poverty as a Christian, along with millions of non-Christians, of course. I agree that the secular state is obviously a great historical development – government at all levels is best when secular. Combining Church and State corrupts both.

Thanks for a blessed moment of reality in a world of utter crap, anyway.

~ Peter Byrne

Israel's Deceptions a Way of Life

Jonathan Cook's reports from northern Israel are generally accurate and reliable, but one point he has raised more than once is incorrect – the fact that Arab towns and villages in the north do not have air-raid sirens is not due to discrimination (as is the absence of bomb shelters). It is due to the request of the local Arab councils and municipalities who do not wish to hear the sirens on Holocaust Day and on Memorial Day (for the fallen in Israel's many wars).

It's a minor point, but became significant when the Katyusha rockets were falling, and killed Arab children playing in the street.

Otherwise, Cook's reports are sound and praiseworthy.

~ Yael Lotan

Jonathan Cook replies:

I am surprised to hear this familiar argument being repeated by someone of Yael Lotan's stature. In a nondiscriminatory state, especially one that considers itself under constant threat of war from its neighbors, would we think it reasonable to learn that the minority ethnic group lacks air raid sirens because it does not want to participate in memorial days commemorated by the majority ethnic group? Is it right that Arab communities are unprotected in times of war because they do not want to stand to attention on Memorial Day, which commemorates the fall of Jewish soldiers in a war to defeat and destroy the Palestinian nation, a war in which the friends and relatives of Arab citizens were either killed or ethnically cleansed? Despite what many Israelis believe, the use of air raid sirens is not primarily about getting your population to stand to attention when the state wants it, but about protecting civilians in times of war. The state of Israel dismally failed its Palestinian citizens, as it has done so many times before, when they relied on it most.

Etc.

Has Trent Lott's house been rebuilt?

Military medical personnel in the U.S. and Germany have estimated American casualties in Iraq at approximately 1,300 per month. For 36 months that's 46,800 American casualties. Given a death to wounded ratio of 1-to-7 (Vietnam was 1-to-5) that's 6,686 killed Americans. Why doesn't anyone quote these numbers?

~ Martin Bluestein

Mike Ewens replies:

The U.S. military has reported over four dozen deaths in Germany, Texas, Maryland, etc., from wounds received in Iraq. Just check this page and filter by location.

… During the Iraq action the Bush administration has pulled the HREX documents from the DOE Web site, although they still continue to recognize that their are over 3.2 million cubic square feet of human radiation experiments.

Our judicial process has recently ruled against our future veterans and families seeking compensation on behalf of our atomic veterans and our courts have adopted a policy to protect our government from being responsible for their actions.

It is estimated that between 1940 and 1950, 220,000 veterans were exposed to radiation. One study showed that over 18,000 atomic veterans had filed claims as of Oct. 2004 and that less that 1,900 of them had been approved.

One program (Project Shad) exposed over 10,000 veterans to biological and chemical weapons and our courts are still currently protecting the release of these documents.

If you read such articles as "Wonder Weapons" by Douglas Pasternak (7/7/97 in U.S. News) you get an understanding how the Pentagon desires to continue a program of massive human experimentation even though the mind-control technology doesn't work. I don't think you can recognize torture as being a program of mind control.

What separates democracy and communism is the accountability and disclosure of all government and political actions conducted against their own citizens. This is the balance of justice that totalitarian countries don't have. If your government can do anything they want to you and you have no form of retribution or action, then you don't have any constitutional or human rights. Also see "Vets Exposed to Radiation Lose Ruling" and "DOE Openness: Human Radiation Experiments."

~ Richard Hellstrom

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