C E B O . org

Posted 4:44 PM by The Moderator

U.N. Experts Question Key U.S. Evidence in Iraq
By Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 23, 2003; 6:14 PM

Findings on aluminum tubes could undermine administration's credibility.

When President Bush traveled to the United Nations in September to make his case against Iraq, he brought along a rare piece of evidence for what he called Iraq's "continued appetite" for nuclear bombs. The finding: Iraq had tried to buy thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes, which Bush said were "used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon."

Bush cited the aluminum tubes in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly and in documents presented to U.N. leaders. Vice President Cheney and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice both repeated the claim, with Rice describing the tubes as "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs."

It was by far the most prominent, detailed assertion by the White House of recent Iraqi efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. But according to government officials and weapons experts, the claim now appears to be seriously in doubt.
(see Truthout.org

Posted 10:01 AM by The Moderator

http://www.calltoconscience.net/
Call to Conscience from Veterans to Active Duty Troops
and Reservists

Started December 6, 2002


We are veterans of the United States armed forces. We stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States’ all out war on Iraq. We span many wars and eras, have many political views and we all agree that this war is wrong. Many of us believed serving in the military was our duty, and our job was to defend this country. Our experiences in the military caused us to question much of what we were taught. Now we see our REAL duty is to encourage you as members of the U.S. armed forces to find out what you are being sent to fight and die for and what the consequences of your actions will be for humanity. We call upon you, the active duty and reservists, to follow your conscience and do the right thing.

In the last Gulf War, as troops, we were ordered to murder from a safe distance. We destroyed much of Iraq from the air, killing hundreds of thousands, including civilians. We remember the road to Basra--the Highway of Death--where we were ordered to kill fleeing Iraqis. We bulldozed trenches, burying people alive. The use of depleted uranium weapons left the battlefields radioactive. Massive use of pesticides, experimental drugs, burning chemical weapons depots and oil fires combined to create a toxic cocktail affecting both the Iraqi people and Gulf War veterans today. One in four Gulf War veterans is disabled.

During the Vietnam War we were ordered to destroy Vietnam from the air and on the ground. At My Lai we massacred over 500 women, children and old men. This was not an aberration, it’s how we fought the war. We used Agent Orange on the enemy and then experienced first hand its effects. We know what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder looks, feels and tastes like because the ghosts of over two million men, women and children still haunt our dreams. More of us took our own lives after returning home than died in battle.

(see the rest on the website).To Sign this Important Call Send Signature to or Contact Us
@Veterans Call to Conscience (or VCC)
4742 42nd Ave SW #142, Seattle, WA, 98116-4553 Call to concience.net

Posted 8:59 PM by The Moderator

SECURITY COUNCIL BRIEFED BY UN OFFICIALS ON INSPECTIONS IN IRAQ (sent by Martha Gallahue)

The Security Council met in closed consultations to hear briefings by the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, Hans Blix, and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei. The two officials provided Council members with an update on the on-going weapons inspection process in Iraq.
[Following consultations, Blix said to reporters that he told Council members that "we still get prompt access from the Iraqi side; that the inspections are covering ever-wider areas, and ever more sites in Iraq; that in the course of these inspections we have not found any smoking gun. However, we are getting more and more information, better knowledge about the situation, and that the Declaration regrettably has not helped very much to clarify any question marks of the past."
In response to a question on interviewing Iraqi scientists, Blix said "we will already next week, for our part, we will ask for some interviews in Baghdad, I can tell you." Asked about the list of experts provided by Iraq, he said, "The list even failed to comprise a number of names that we have from the UNSCOM archives and which should have been there. So it was not an adequate list and we will bring it up in our talks in Baghdad" on January 19 and 20.
On a question about how much time should be given to Iraq to comply, Blix said: "This is entirely in the hands of the Security Council. The history of inspections and disarmament in Iraq did not begin with Resolution 1441, nor does it necessarily end on the 27th of January. It is for the members of the Council to decide where they will go."
ElBaradei, in response to a question on the import of aluminium tubes, said: "We told the Council that we have been investigating Iraqi reports that they have imported aluminium tubes for rockets and not for centrifuge, not for uranium enrichment. We are investigating their efforts to procure aluminium tubes. We are in touch with some of their intended suppliers, and the question is still open, but we believe, at this stage, that these aluminium tubes were intended for the manufacturing of rockets."
In a statement to the press following consultations, the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sablière of France, said members of the Council reiterated their full support for the work and action of Dr. Blix and Dr. El Baradei and to the continuation of inspection activities of UNMOVIC and IAEA pursuant to Resolution 1441 in order to achieve the disarmament of Iraq.]
In Iraq, meanwhile, inspection activities continued. An UNMOVIC multidisciplinary team took off on three Bell-212 helicopters from the Al Rasheed Air Base in Baghdad to inspect a site. Due to weather conditions in the inspection site area, the team returned without landing. Inspections were carried out by UNMOVIC missile, biological and chemical teams, by a Mosul-based multidisciplinary team and by the IAEA, according to today's press statement issued in Baghdad.