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=A9 2002 Independent Digital (UK) = Ltd

15=20 September 2002 05:16 BDST

Home = > Argument = > Commentators =

Robert Fisk: America's case for war is built on = blindness,=20 hypocrisy and lies

George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are wilfully ignoring = the=20 realities of the Middle East. The result can only be=20 catastrophic

15 September 2002

Internal links

Bush=20 hails capture of prime suspect

Sort=20 out Iraq or we will, Bush tells UN

Straw=20 seeks ultimatum on Iraqi weapons

Britain=20 and US marshal crack troops to intensify pressure on = Saddam

Fortunes=20 of war await Bush's circle after attacks on Iraq

Saddam's=20 Iraq is the ideal enemy

FBI=20 joins interrogation of prime suspect

Al-Qa'ida=20 still a threat despite loss of key men

Robert=20 Fisk: America's case for war is built on blindness, = hypocrisy and=20 lies

The=20 case for attacking Iraq is still not made

Neutral?=20 Not on your life!

Years ago, in a snug underground restaurant in downtown = Tehran,=20 drinking duq =96 an Iranian beverage of mint and yoghurt =96 = Saddam=20 Hussein's former head of nuclear research told me what = happened when=20 he made a personal appeal for the release of a friend from = prison.=20 "I was taken directly from my Baghdad office to the director = of=20 state security," he said. "I was thrown down the stairs to = an=20 underground cell and then stripped and trussed up on a wheel = attached to the ceiling. Then the director came to see = me.

" 'You will tell us all about your friends =96 = everything,' he=20 said. 'In your field of research, you are an expert, the = best. In my=20 field of research, I am the best man.' That's when the = whipping and=20 the electrodes began."

All this happened, of course, when Saddam Hussein was = still our=20 friend, when we were encouraging him to go on killing = Iranians in=20 his 1980-88 war against Tehran, when the US government =96 = under=20 President Bush Snr =96 was giving Iraq preferential = agricultural=20 assistance funding. Not long before, Saddam's pilots had = fired a=20 missile into an American warship called the Stark and almost = sunk=20 it. Pilot error, claimed Saddam =96 the American vessel had = been=20 mistaken for an Iranian oil tanker =96 and the US government = cheerfully forgave the Iraqi dictator.

Those were the days. But sitting in the United Nations = General=20 Assembly last week, watching President Bush Jr tell us with = all his=20 Texan passion about the beatings and the whippings and the = rapes in=20 Iraq, you would have thought they'd just been discovered. = For sheer=20 brazen historical hypocrisy, it would have been difficult to = beat=20 that part of the President's speech. Saddam, it appears, = turned into=20 a bad guy when he invaded Kuwait in 1990. Before that, he = was just a=20 loyal ally of the United States, a "strong man" =96 as the = news agency=20 boys like to call our dictators =96 rather than a = tyrant.

But the real lie in the President's speech =96 that which = has=20 dominated American political discourse since the crimes = against=20 humanity on 11 September last year =96 was the virtual = absence of any=20 attempt to explain the real reasons why the United States = has found=20 itself under attack.

In his mendacious article in this newspaper last week, = President=20 Bush's Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, also attempted to = mask=20 this reality. The 11 September assault, he announced, was an = attack=20 on people "who believe in freedom, who practise tolerance = and who=20 defend the inalienable rights of man". He made, as usual, = absolutely=20 no reference to the Middle East, to America's woeful, biased = policies in that region, to its ruthless support for Arab = dictators=20 who do its bidding =96 for Saddam Hussein, for example, at a = time when=20 the head of Iraqi nuclear research was undergoing his = Calvary =96 nor=20 to America's military presence in the holiest of Muslim = lands, nor=20 to its unconditional support for Israel's occupation of = Palestinian=20 land in the West Bank and Gaza.

Oddly, a very faint ghost of this reality did creep into = the=20 start of the President's UN address last week. It was = contained in=20 two sentences whose importance was totally ignored by the = American=20 press =96 and whose true meaning might have been lost on Mr = Bush=20 himself, given that he did not write his speech =96 but it = was=20 revealing nonetheless. "Our common security," he said, "is=20 challenged by regional conflicts =96 ethnic and religious = strife that=20 is ancient but not inevitable. In the Middle East, there can = be no=20 peace for either side without freedom for both sides." Then = he=20 repeated his old line about the need for "an independent and = democratic Palestine".

This was perhaps as close as we've got, so far, to an = official=20 admission that this whole terrible crisis is about the = Middle East.=20 If this is a simple war for civilisation against "evil" =96 = the line=20 that Mr Bush was so cruelly peddling again to the survivors = of 11=20 September and the victims' relatives last week =96 then what = are these=20 "regional challenges"? Why did Palestine insinuate its way = into the=20 text of President Bush's UN speech? Needless to say, this = strange,=20 uncomfortable little truth was of no interest to the New = York and=20 Washington media, whose wilful refusal to investigate the = real=20 political causes of this whole catastrophe has led to a news = coverage that is as bizarre as it is schizophrenic.

Before dawn on 11 September last week, I watched six = American=20 television channels and saw the twin towers fall to the = ground 18=20 times. The few references to the suicide killers who = committed the=20 crime made not a single mention of the fact that they were = Arabs.=20 Last week, The Washington Post and The New York Times went = to=20 agonising lengths to separate their Middle East coverage = from the 11=20 September commemorations, as if they might be committing = some form=20 of sacrilege or be acting in bad taste if they did not. "The = challenge for the administration is to offer a coherent and=20 persuasive explanation of how the Iraq danger is connected = to the=20 9/11 attacks" is about as far as The Washington Post got in = smelling=20 a rat, and that only dropped into the seventh paragraph of = an=20 eight-paragraph editorial.

All references to Palestine or illegal Jewish settlements = or=20 Israeli occupation of Arab land were simply erased from the = public=20 conscience last week. When Hannan Ashrawi, that most humane = of=20 Palestinian women, tried to speak at Colorado university on = 11=20 September, Jewish groups organised a massive demonstration = against=20 her. US television simply did not acknowledge the = Palestinian=20 tragedy. It is a tribute to our own reporting that at least = John=20 Pilger's trenchant programme =96 Palestine is Still the = Issue =96 is=20 being shown on ITV tomorrow night, although at the = disgracefully=20 late time of 11.05pm.

But maybe all this no longer matters. When Mr Rumsfeld = can claim=20 so outrageously =96 as he did when asked for proof of Iraq's = nuclear=20 potential =96 that the "absence of evidence doesn't mean the = evidence=20 of absence", we might as well end all moral debate. When Mr = Rumsfeld=20 refers to the "so-called occupied West Bank", he reveals = himself to=20 be a very disreputable man. When he advances the policy of a = pre-emptive "act" of war =96 as he did in The Independent on = Sunday=20 last week =96 he forgets Israel's "pre-emptive" 1982 = invasion of=20 Lebanon which cost 17,500 Arab lives and 22 years of = occupation, and=20 ended in retreat and military defeat for Israel.

Strange things are going on in the Middle East right now. = Arab=20 military intelligence reports the shifting of massive US = arms=20 shipments around the region =96 not just to Qatar and = Kuwait, but to=20 the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. = American=20 and Israeli military planners and intelligence analysts are = said to=20 have met twice in Tel Aviv to discuss the potential outcome = of the=20 next Middle East war. The destruction of Saddam and the = break-up of=20 Saudi Arabia =96 a likely scenario if Iraq crumbles =96 have = long been=20 two Israeli dreams. As the United States discovered during = its=20 fruitful period of neutrality between 1939 and 1941, war = primes the=20 pumps of the economy. Is that what is going on today =96 the = preparation of a war to refloat the US economy?

My Israeli colleague Amira Haas once defined to me our = job as=20 journalists: "to monitor the centres of power". Never has it = been so=20 important for us to do just that. For if we fail, we will = become the=20 mouthpiece of power. So a few thoughts for the coming weeks: = remember the days when Saddam was America's friend; remember = that=20 Arabs committed the crimes against humanity of 11 September = last=20 year and that they came from a place called the Middle East, = a place=20 of injustice and occupation and torture; remember = "Palestine";=20 remember that, a year ago, no one spoke of Iraq, only of = al-Qa'ida=20 and Osama bin Laden. And, I suppose, remember that "evil" is = a good=20 crowd-puller but a mighty hard enemy to shoot down with a = missile.=20

Also from the Commentators = section.

Clive=20 Anderson: The first rule for TV is, never let content get in = the way=20 of a good title
Paul=20 Barker: Shame on how Britain treats its children
Robert=20 Fisk: Glimmers of hope and decency during a bad week for = Arabs in=20 America
Rupert=20 Cornwell: Be warned, this President means what he = says
Robert=20 Fisk: The mantra that means this time it's = serious

Return=20 to top=20

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