>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >July 5, 2000 >Ken MacLeish, > >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sarah Sloan > >Attention: Assignment Editor (212) 633-6646 > > New U.S. Demand for Iraq >Inspections in August > Signal Possible Election-Year Ploy > The new UN commission for weapons inspections UNMOVIC, is preparing >to enter Iraq in August. According to Former U.S. Marine Intelligence >Colonel and weapons inspector Scott Ritter the new demand for inspection is >a Clinton administration election ploy to provoke an escalation of bombing >and a new round of open warfare against the people of Iraq. Ritter told the >British newspaper. The Independent yesterday that the inspection team >clearly had no realistic chance of being allowed into Iraq in August. Ritter >was a member of the UNSCOM inspection team that was ejected from Iraq in >December of 1998 after carrying out spy operations in collusion with the CIA >and collecting target data for U.S. and British military forces. > > >"The new commission, UNMOVIC, will not be allowed into Iraq in August, >three months away from the election," said Ritter. "You have got a Vice >President, Al Gore, trailing behind in the polls, and what better way to appear >tough and switch attention away to a so-called foreign threat." Gore has said >in campaign speeches that he had favored the continuation of all-out war >against Iraq in 1998 when President Clinton moved to de-escalate the >conflict. Ritter added that he expects the U.S. to draft Britain into the >action as well, "to give it the appearance of something multilateral," since >the UN Security Council is unlikely to approve military action against Iraq. > > >Earlier this week, former UNSCOM head Richard Butler also predicted >another U.S.-Iraq crisis. In a June 23 interview with Melbourne, Australian >newspaper <italic>The Age, Butler echoed Ritter by predicting that "we'll >probably have another Iraqi crisis on our hands" sometime in the next six >weeks. > > >"These statements indicate that Iraqi lives may once again become cannon >fodder for U.S. politics," said Sara Flounders of the International Action >Center. "The horrible irony here is that the U.S. has been waging a genocidal >war on Iraq non-stop for the past ten years and the media has suppressed >this." Flounders said that statement like these from political figures with an >insider perspective on U.S. aggression against Iraq were an alarm call for the >anti-war and anti-sanctions movement. "It's clear that a major attack may >happen very soon," she said, "and we have to be ready to mobilize >opposition to this further aggression. The UNSCOM team conducted over >9,000 inspections in Iraq without finding any significant violations. Their >expulsion was the Clinton administration's excuse for its 1998 renewal of >hostilities against Iraq. Since then more than 21,600 U.S. and British >warplanes have flown into Iraqi airspace. In addition to enforcing sanctions >that have killed over a million Iraqis since 1990, there has been a bombing or >missile attack on an average of once every three days. Now a further >escalation is being planned. > > >The Pentagon claims that it is merely patrolling the no-fly zones over >northern and southern Iraq, and that the bombings are in response to radar >locks from Iraqi anti-aricraft weapons. Their targets are mostly civilian >infrastructure, including schools, roads, food, power and water facilities, and >the oil wells that provide Iraq's only source of income. Pentagon officials >admit that there is no strategic relationship between Iraqi "aggression" and >these reprisal attacks. None of these activities have the approval of the UN >Security Council. > > >International Action Center >39 West 14th Street, Room 206 >New York, NY 10011 >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >web: www.iacenter.org >CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE www.mumia2000.org >phone: 212 633-6646 >fax: 212 633-2889 > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
