A Report from Cairo on the International Campaign against U.S. Aggression
on Iraq
By Peter Phillips
Cairo - December 19th, Bid-Meellah-E Rahman-E Al Rahim, In the name of God,
the Merciful, the Compassionate, was the prayer by President Ahmad Ben
Bella of Algeria introducing the start of the International Campaign
Against Aggression on Iraq. The Conrad Hotel on the Nile River in Cairo
served as the gathering place for over 400 people from some twenties
countries on December 18-19, 2002. We assembled to launch an international
effort to prevent United States military aggression and in the hope of
stimulating worldwide protest against the pending war on the people of
Iraq. There was a shared belief among the participants that a unified
Cairo Declaration from the center of the Arab world would contribute to
the growing millions of people worldwide who have protested and marched
against what is now being described as Bush's War.
President Ben Bella, hero of the Algerian revolution, expressed what were
to become common themes at the conference: that Regime change in Iraq would
only be the first Arab country to be attacked, and that Iran, Syria, and
even Egypt would follow. Oil is Islam, declared Ben Bella, the United
States is part of a long line of colonial powers. Each in turn has been
destroyed and nothing else is possible for the United States. Arab peoples
will not be subject to colonial rule; continued struggle will emerge to
defeat the invaders. Arab civilization is the museum of humanity' and will
not be the subject of a New World Order or a final crusade.
In private Ben Bella was less than optimistic about the chances of avoiding
war. At 85 years of age, he is a striking six feet four inches tall with a
firm handshake. When finding out I was an American he said through a
translator, tell the American people that they are the only ones who can
stop this war. I told him of our anti-war protests and marches but he said
we must try harder.
For two days speakers from Europe, the Arab world and the Americas
expressed solidarity with the people of Iraq and outrage at U.S.
unilateralism.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark spoke of the great urgency
facing the world. He described the huge U.S. Military build-up taking place
in the Gulf and how if the U.S. attacks we will become the enemy of
humanity.
John Rees from the Stop the War Coalition, in Great Britain, said that over
two thirds of the British oppose the war, and that over half a million
marched in London already, and by February 15th millions will march in
every city in Europe.
Mr. Saad K. Hammoundy, Iraq's ambassador the Arab League, sees U.S.
aggression as militarily inter-linked with the globalization of capital
investments. American capital penetration requires a military presence to
insure its security. The quest for the control of oil lead the U.S. to
steal Iraq's weapons declaration from the United Nations in order to change
it and find an excuse for an invasion. The U.S. cooked the Iraq report he
claimed. Hummoundy went on to say that the U.S. can teach nothing about
Democracy to a country that first had a parliament 3000 years ago and
continues to have deep democratic traditions.
Denis Halliday, (Ireland) was the United Nations Assistant
Secretary-General heading the Oil-for-Food program in Iraq up through 1998.
He resigned in protest of the genocide the embargoes were having on Iraq.
Halliday described how the UN Security Council is afraid to stand up to the
United States ambitions for a global empire.
Halliday's successor as the UN director of the Oil-for-Food program, Dr.
Hans Von Sponeck, resigned from his 30 year UN career rather than carry out
a genocide of truth and information cleansing, associated with the
Oil-for-Food program. Dr. Von Sponeck's calculations showed that Iraq
people are expected to live on only $174.00 per person per year under UN
sanctions. He describes the 150% increase in child morality from 1990 to
1999 as genocide and a Dictatorship of the Security Council.
Throughout the conference powerful descriptive words like hegemony,
imperialism, colonialism, and fascism were used to describe U.S. policy.
There was a clear smoldering anger towards the U.S. labeling of resistance
fighters as terrorists. Dr. William Ottman, representing the International
Federation of Journalists, reminded the conference participants how as a
young Dutch resistance fighter in World War II he was labeled by the Nazis
as a terrorist. His companions were hunted down and murdered much like the
license the CIA now holds to assassinate terrorists anywhere in the world.
Summarizing on the second day of the conference, George Galloway, Labor
member of Parliament in the UK, exclaimed, that the charge that Iraq holds
weapons of mass destruction is simply pulp fiction. Everyplace visited
by the inspectors so far has been completely empty, he stated. Galloway
warned the Arab countries that Great Britain and the U.S. behave as
imperial
