http://www.alandix.com/blog/2006/12/31/7/ just starting ... Tue, 6 Jan 2009 04:53:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://www.alandix.com/blog/2006/12/31/7/#comment-9 Alan’s blog » keeping track of history (Blair, Iraq, and all of us) Sun, 14 Jan 2007 08:35:01 +0000 http://www.alandix.com/blog/2006/12/31/7/#comment-9 [...] The US involvement is well documented, both in terms of miltary presence in the Gulf at the time, officially neutrally, but with minimal pretense acting against Iran who was then the ‘evil power’. Indeed (recalling my own and Nad’s earlier posts about the execution), in looking for this I found George Washington University’s National Security Archive of declaissified documents. In this there is a photograph of Donald Rumsfeld, then a special envoy from President Reagan, shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. This is not surprising, diplomatc have to do this all the time. Significantly though this meeting was, as the national secturity archives show, shortly after US intelligence had confirmed Iraq’s use of chemical weapons (Blair’s point 3) and discussed this at a presidential level. The US (in full knowledge) then went on to block UN resolutions deploring Iraq use of chemical weapons … initially with UK support. the ful story of UK support, I’m sure is there, but even harder to find … I seem to recall British warships in the gulf, but it was more than 20 years ago! I an age of instant information, it is amazing that getting the basic facts of ongoing news items is so difficult. I recall a year or so back there was a call for journalists to give more context in theor reporting. However, when interviews a respected journalist insisted that theor job was the news, the changes not the backgrund … but without the background the interpretation of what we hear is different. [...] [...] The US involvement is well documented, both in terms of miltary presence in the Gulf at the time, officially neutrally, but with minimal pretense acting against Iran who was then the ‘evil power’. Indeed (recalling my own and Nad’s earlier posts about the execution), in looking for this I found George Washington University’s National Security Archive of declaissified documents. In this there is a photograph of Donald Rumsfeld, then a special envoy from President Reagan, shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. This is not surprising, diplomatc have to do this all the time. Significantly though this meeting was, as the national secturity archives show, shortly after US intelligence had confirmed Iraq’s use of chemical weapons (Blair’s point 3) and discussed this at a presidential level. The US (in full knowledge) then went on to block UN resolutions deploring Iraq use of chemical weapons … initially with UK support. the ful story of UK support, I’m sure is there, but even harder to find … I seem to recall British warships in the gulf, but it was more than 20 years ago! I an age of instant information, it is amazing that getting the basic facts of ongoing news items is so difficult. I recall a year or so back there was a call for journalists to give more context in theor reporting. However, when interviews a respected journalist insisted that theor job was the news, the changes not the backgrund … but without the background the interpretation of what we hear is different. [...]

]]> http://www.alandix.com/blog/2006/12/31/7/#comment-4 Alan’s blog » Nad’s post on the Saddam execution Wed, 03 Jan 2007 17:24:58 +0000 http://www.alandix.com/blog/2006/12/31/7/#comment-4 [...] Nadeem has written a really detailed analysis of the Saddam trial in “…a tragic assault upon truth and justice“. He describes the US and general western collusion in the Halabja Poison Gas Attack that I refered to briefly in my earlier post on the execution. execution halabja nadeem poison gas attack politics saddam hussein [...] [...] Nadeem has written a really detailed analysis of the Saddam trial in “…a tragic assault upon truth and justice“. He describes the US and general western collusion in the Halabja Poison Gas Attack that I refered to briefly in my earlier post on the execution. execution halabja nadeem poison gas attack politics saddam hussein [...]

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