26. mai 2003

Saddam Hussein the murderer, not the sanctions For years, Saddam Hussein found willing accomplices in the west for his propaganda. Countless news stories told us that Iraqi children were starving and died from lack of medication because of the UN-imposed sanctions after the first Gulf war. Journalists were taken to hospitals and doctors told them horror tales that were willingly propagated in the west, and used by leftists who wanted the sanctions to be lifted. Now, after Saddam Hussein's fall, the same doctors are free to tell a different story. Under the sanctions regime, "We had the ability to get all the drugs we needed," said Ibn Al-Baladi's chief resident, Dr. Hussein Shihab. "Instead of that, Saddam Hussein spent all the money on his military force and put all the fault on the USA. Yes, of course the sanctions hurt - but not too much, because we are a rich country and we have the ability to get everything we can by money. But instead, he spent it on his palaces." The U.S. government and others long have blamed Hussein's spending habits for the poor health of Iraqis and their children. For years, the Iraqi government, some Western officials and a vocal anti-sanctions movement said UN restrictions on Iraqi imports and exports were at fault. "Saddam Hussein, he's the murderer, not the UN," said Dr. Azhar Abdul Khadem, a resident at the Al-Alwiya maternity hospital in Baghdad. Doctors said they were forced to refrigerate dead babies in hospital morgues until authorities were ready to gather the little corpses for monthly parades in coffins on the roofs of taxis for the benefit of Iraqi state television and visiting journalists. The parents were ordered to wail with grief - no matter how many weeks had passed since their babies had died - and to shout to the cameras that the sanctions had killed their children, the doctors said. Afterward, the parents would be rewarded with food or money. The propaganda campaign was organized by the ministries of health and information and by the Iraqi Intelligence Service, the mukhabarat, according to the doctors and a former agent in another of Iraq's security agencies, the General Security Service. "The mukhabarat would go all over Iraq gathering the dead bodies, put them in coffins, make a whole line, put them on top of taxis and make big propaganda out of it," said the former agent, who asked that only his first name, Walid, be published. It is tragic to see to what degree leftist intellectuals have always been willing, not to say eager, to believe the worst about the democractic west and the best about ruthless dictators in the third world. 11:20:07 PM    comment []

Nuns face long prison sentence after anti-nuclear demonstration Three nuns are facing eight years in jail after demonstrating against nuclear weapons by hammering on a nuclear missile silo and smearing it with their own blood. The three, Jackie Hudson (68) Ardeth Platte (66), and Carol Gilbert (55) have already served six months awaiting the verdict. I can see that some reaction to such demonstrations is necessary as a deterrent, but eight years in prison can charitably be described as an over-reaction. As far as I know, the demonstrations hurt nobody. It was, however misguided, done with the best of motives. They did some property damage, sure, but do they deserve a stiffer penalty than people who maliciously set out to hurt others? I don't think so. I also find myself worrying that if three nuns can get access to nuclear silos, so could a group of determined al-Qaeda terrorists. Perhaps the nuns did us a favour? Assuming security is seriously beefed up afterwards, that is. 10:53:45 PM    comment []

Mother puts child in washing machine This week's crazy mother award goes to Erma Osborne of Pomona, California, for putting her two year old girl into a washing mashine. I know toddlers have an almost supernatural talent for getting dirty, but this is overdoing it. Thanks to a well-placed swing of a baton from police officer Willie Morataya, who came rushing to the public laundromat, the girl is in "stable but guarded" condtion at a local hospital. The mother is in jail. 9:31:09 PM    comment []

Matrix Reloaded — the explanation (or one of them) The Marprelate Tracts has received lots of traffic lately, thanks to his brilliant article on the latest installment of the Matrix trilogy. Be warned, this is beyond spoiler, so if you haven't seen it and intend to, don't read this! By "beyond" I mean it will not only ruin the film if you read this first, it will ruin your own reflection over it, too. So see it first, ponder a bit, and then read the articles. However, once you are initiated to the mysteries of the Matrix part 2, he provides lots of interesting points for debate and pondering. I have to say that I originally held to the theory he rejects at the end of this article, but admit that Martin gave me something to think about. I guess we'll know in some months. Martin has also posted a number of must-read followups: More about, The Councilor, and lately Merovingian, the Oracle and the Architect. And, no, before you ask: we are not taking this movie too seriously. 8:38:38 PM    comment []

Virtual Occoquan A new edition of the Occoquan Inquirer is online, with some of the best of last week in Salon blogging. 7:36:46 PM    comment []

Toronto back on Sars-list The WHO has put Ontario back on the list of Sars-infected areas, after Canadian health officials discovered new possible cases and warned of additional deaths. The disease has resurfaced after more than a month of no new cases, 7:34:01 PM    comment []

Iraqi-administration cancels Russian, Chinese oil contracts The US-run Iraqi administration begins it work on resuming the oil industry, and one of the early things it does is to cancel or suspend contracts the Saddam Hussein regime signed with Chinese and Russian companies. Thamir Ghadhban, Iraq's US-appointed de facto oil minister, still insisted countries that opposed the war will not be discriminated against. Well, pardon my skepticism... 12:19:13 PM    comment []

Reformists' letter censored in Iran The strongly worded letter from Iranian parliamentaries to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been censored by order of the hardline National Security Council. Ordinary Iranians will thus be prohibited from reading a letter written by their elected lawmakers. The supreme leader has not replied yet, but if this is any indication, Iran moves towards a confrontation between the extremists and the reformists. 5:58:11 AM    comment []

NRA to open office in Baghdad? "U.S. administrators in Baghdad have ordered Iraqis to turn over their weapons by mid-June, as part of an effort to return public security to cities under American occupation." (VOA)  I thought the Bush administration, like most US conservatives, hold that the more weapons ordinary citizens have, the more secure they are. 4:44:18 AM    comment []

Appoint a guardian for Jeb Bush! Florida governor Jeb Bush's disgusting treatment of a pregnant, raped, severely disabled woman again demonstrates that for fundamentalists, life begins at conception and ends at birth. 4:21:32 AM    comment []

Conservatism comes to campus Long hotbeds of leftist ideas and political correctness, a new brand of young conservative is taking on the American ivory towers. 12:48:27 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:31:55.