Beneath the Surface of Events
تحت سطح الأحداث
November 12, 2002
In this issue of the Free Arab Voice (FAV) we present:
1) Why UN Security Council Resolution 1441 of November 8, 2002? A Free Arab
Voice Editorial on the Significance of SC Resolution 1441 (See Text Below)
2) A U.S. Diplomat Kills a Jordanian Citizen in Amman: The Untold Story
3) (In Arabic)ديبلوماسي أمريكي يقتل مواطناً أردنياً: القصة المدفونة
كن صبوراً عندما تضغط على هذا الرابط، فهو مليء بالصور والوثائق
4) Two Kuwaiti Heroes Light Up a Shining Example for Arabs and Muslims: An
Article Evaluating the Attacks on U.S. Marines off the Kuwaiti Island of
Faylaka, by Ibrahim Alloush
5) (In Arabic) Two Kuwaiti Heroes Light Up a Shinning Example
:كويتيان بطلان يضيئان مثالاً ساطعاً للعرب والمسلمين
تقييم للهجوم على الجنود الأمريكيين في جزيزة فيلكا الكويتية، د. إبراهيم علوش
6) UN Relevance a Sham: A Short Comment on the Irrelevance of the United
Nations, by Hazem Biqaeen
7) The Status of Jerusalem: An Incisive Analysis of U.S. Congress Resolution
1646 Considering Jerusalem the Capital of "Israel", by Nabila Harb/Co-editor
of the Free Arab Voice
8) On the Resolution of the U.S. Congress on Jerusalem, A Short Comment by
Muhammad Abu Nasr/ The Free Arab Voice
9) (In Arabic) A Comment on the Resolution of the U.S. Congress
10) (In Arabic) A Third Piece on the Jewish-American Connection, with an
Introduction from the Free Arab Voice
11) The English Text of the Debate Between Thomas Friedman of the New York
Times and Ibrahim Alloush of the Free Arab Voice on the Qatari Satellite
Station Al Jazeera: On America and Its International Relations
12) (In Arabic) Debate with Friedman
13) Readers' Corner: Would I Mind Speaking to a Jew? by Chadi Serhal
14) The Official Arab Communist Line on Arab Unity: What Could Have Been
15) The Speech of Khaled Bakdash, Speaking for Arab Communists, in the
Comintern of 1935: Never Published Before!
16) The Azmi Bshara Phenomenon: Only For Those Circulating Save Bshara
Petitions
17) (In Arabic) Who Is Azmi Bshara?
من هو عزمي بشارة؟
18) (In Arabic) Foreign Aid to Jordan: A Blessing or a Curse?
المساعدات الأمريكية للأردن: نعمة أم نقمة؟
19) A Jordanian Grass-Roots Petition in Support of Iraq: Add Your Name
20) (In Arabic) Jordanian Grass-Roots Petition
عريضة شعبية أردنية للدفاع عن العراق: أضف اسمك
21) A Sit-In at the Union of Professional Associations to Demand the Release
of Jordanian Anti-Normalization Activists
22) (In Arabic) Sit-In to Demand Release of Jordanian Anti-Normalization
Activists
إعتصام للمطالبة بإطلاق سراج مقاومي التطبيع المعتقلين في الأردن
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1) Why UN Security Council Resolution 1441 of
November 8, 2002?
A Free Arab Voice Editorial on the Significance of SC Resolution 1441
It wasn't surprising that the UN security council
would pass the American war powers resolution. It WAS
surprising that Syria would enthusiastically join all
the other countries. Maybe the US promised Damascus
that this was a resolution for peace.
More likely they promised Syria to spare it for now.
Whether Syria, Russia, China, or any other regional
or international power believes such promises from the
U.S. government is highly unlikely. They all know that
appeasing aggression never works, and America was just
whetting its appetite in Afghanistan. They are probably
just biding time thinking: "they", not "us" will be next!
But how self-deluding! For Washington has already drawn
up its plans for many of them.
The world has cowered before the American war machine at
its own risk. It has just handed America in the United
Nations Security Council loaded dice with only two
numbers on the sides. The first number is an excuse for
war. The second number is the spoils of war without
having to go to war.
The resolution is an outrage.
It deplores the "absence, since December 1998, in Iraq
of international monitoring, inspection, and
verification as required by relevant resolutions, of
weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles"
even though it was the Americans who ordered them out
of Iraq when they decided to bomb Iraq in December
1998!
It deplores the failure of the Iraqi government "to
comply with its commitments pursuant to resolution 687
(1991) with regard to terrorism".
Iraq dosen't support terrorism, but it supports the
Palestinian guerrillas, and presumably those are the
"terrorists" referred to here. So as long as Iraq
supports Palestine, it will be held to be in
"violation" of international law!
The resolution "decides that Iraq has been and remains
in material breach of its obligations," but how can
that be, since the inspectors haven't found any
violations?
The new resolution requires Iraq, in addition to its
regular reports, to provide "a currently accurate,
full, and complete declaration of all aspects of its
programmes to develop chemical, biological, and
nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and other
delivery systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles and
dispersal systems designed for use on aircraft,
including any holdings and precise locations of such
weapons, components, sub-components, stocks of agents,
and related material and equipment, the locations and
work of its research, development and production
facilities, as well as all other chemical, biological,
and nuclear programmes, including any which it claims
are for purposes not related to weapon production or
material";
So these "weapons" that Iraq must disclose every
detail about include devices for spraying chemicals on
crops by biplanes. It also includes "all" chemical,
biological, and nuclear programmes even if they are
for purely peaceful civilian ends. Thus any
pharmaceutical company must be listed and all the
components and subcomponents of things they use.
According to the resolution, Iraq must "provide
UNMOVIC and the IAEA immediate, unimpeded,
unconditional, and unrestricted access to any and all,
including underground, areas, facilities, buildings,
equipment, records, and means of transport which they
wish to inspect, as well as immediate, unimpeded,
unrestricted, and private access to all officials and
other persons whom UNMOVIC or the IAEA wish to
interview in the mode or location of UNMOVIC's or the
IAEA's choice pursuant to any aspect of their
mandates; further decides that UNMOVIC and the IAEA
may at their discretion conduct interviews inside or
outside of Iraq, may facilitate the travel of those
interviewed and family members outside of Iraq, and
that, at the sole discretion of UNMOVIC and the IAEA,
such interviews may occur without the presence of
observers from the Iraqi government";
This is one of the most intrusive items. The
"inspectors" have the right to go anywhere without
prior warning even into military camps, presidential
palaces, mosques, churches, people's homes and if
anybody interferes, bars their way, etc., (as we see
later) that puts Iraq in breach of this resolution.
Further, and more outrageously, the "inspectors" have
the right to arrest officials, scientists, and anybody
else that they want, together with their families, and
take them out of the country for interrogation! They
don't even get to have the presence of Iraqi personnel
during their interrogations, i.e., not even Iraqi
embassy staff!
A little later comes this paragraph:
"-- UNMOVIC and the IAEA shall have unrestricted
rights of entry into and out of Iraq, the right to
free, unrestricted, and immediate movement to and from
inspection sites, and the right to inspect any sites
and buildings, including immediate, unimpeded,
unconditional, and unrestricted access to Presidential
Sites equal to that at other sites, notwithstanding
the provisions of resolution 1154 (1998)";
This reiterates what was noted above, that the
resolution demands immediate access to Presidential
palaces without warning or "impediment". The guards
of the President aren't even allowed to question their
purpose or identity, and presumably must stand by if
they decide to take the Iraqi president out of the
country for interrogation!
The next paragraph reads:
"-- UNMOVIC and the IAEA shall have the right to be
provided by Iraq the names of all personnel currently
and formerly associated with Iraq's chemical,
biological, nuclear, and ballistic missile programmes
and the associated research, development, and
production facilities;"
So Iraq is supposed to hand over lists of all the
people remotely associated with any chemical,
biological, nuclear, or missile research and their
facilities. Presumably this would furnish the basis
for the "inspectors" to chose from when they kidnap
people together with their families for interrogation
outside the country. Where would they go, by the way?
To Guantanamo, maybe?
In case anyone was worried that these extra-legal
marauders called "inspectors" might feel ill at ease,
the resolution provides as follows:
"-- Security of UNMOVIC and IAEA facilities shall be
ensured by sufficient UN security guards;"
So they'll bring their own "security force" with them
into Iraqi territory to insure the "inspectors'"
safety. How large a force? It doesn't say.
Now here's an interesting item:
"-- UNMOVIC and the IAEA shall have the right to
declare, for the purposes of freezing a site to be
inspected, exclusion zones, including surrounding
areas and transit corridors, in which Iraq will
suspend ground and aerial movement so that nothing is
changed in or taken out of a site being inspected";
In other words the "inspectors" have the right to
declare whole areas of Iraq and the roads and air
routes leading to and from that area "closed exclusion
zones" and ban all transportation on the ground or in
the air in that area! In other words they can declare
whole chunks of the country to be under a kind of
curfew! Since the Iraqis aren't allowed to interfere
with the "inspectors", that means that the UN Security
forces will effectively be in charge of those closed
"exclusion zones" which in other contexts would be
called occupied territories.
Next paragraph:
"-- UNMOVIC and the IAEA shall have the free and
unrestricted use and landing of fixed- and
rotary-winged aircraft, including manned and unmanned
reconnaissance vehicles";
Obviously this gives the "inspectors" control of the
air in their "exclusion zones". In addition this
paragraph legitimizes the use of reconnaisance
aircraft, in other words it extends protection to the
American and British air incursions into Iraqi
airspace and bans any Iraqi anti-aircraft resistance.
Later we read this paragraph in which the UN decides
that "Iraq shall not take or threaten hostile acts
directed against any representative or personnel of
the United Nations or the IAEA or of any Member State
taking action to uphold any Council resolution";
In other words, guards at a presidential palace aren't
allowed even to take up defensive positions at their
posts, else the UN can declare Iraq in breach of this
resolution.
The way this is worded, it virtually provides for a
peaceful occupation of parts or perhaps all of the
country. It legalizes the kidnapping of any Iraqi
citizen and his or her being taken out of the country.
At the very least, it gives the "inspectors" a kind
of extraterritorial rights that even the old colonial
officials lacked.
It is clear that resolution 1441 is so intrusive, it
was enacted so Iraq would reject it. If it doesn't,
it's just the same. Implementation brings about the
same control of Iraq that war will have brought. It's
like a proposition for rape under the watchful eyes of
the Security Council. No matter what Iraq does, short
of surrendering itself completely to America, will
likely be found in material breach of a Security
Council resolution, thus war.
The dice are rolling now, but no matter which numbers
come up, the world has already lost, and the ball is
now in the court of the people of the world who have
no choice but to prepare to defend themselves from
American aggression. That's the only real hope left, us.
We just wonder which of the member states in the Security
Council would vote for similar conditions to be laid
down for their own country and people?!
If Iraq abides by the resolution, it will open its military
and security to America so aggression would be more effective
when it occurs. Perhaps Iraq will just accept resolution 1441
so it won't be standing openly in the path of the Security
Council, then perhaps it will try to prevent inspections
that infringe on its sovereignty. This way, the issue will
go to the Security Council as resolution 1441 stipulates,
then America will attack, but at least not with the undivided
blessing of the Security Council. That seems to be Iraq best
hand, short of an uprising in the Arab World.
In either case, war is knocking our doors because Iraq cannot possibly
implement 1441. That's what 1441 was invented for.
The Free Arab Voice
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