-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 14:13:31 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: U.S. Bombing of Sudan: One Year Later Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________ Friday, August 20, 1999 U.S. BOMBING OF SUDAN: ONE YEAR LATER A year ago -- on August 20, 1998 -- the U.S. government launched cruise missiles at Sudan and Afghanistan, claiming retaliation for the U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya two weeks earlier. Key assertions by U.S. government officials -- that the al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan was producing chemical weapons and that it was linked to Osama bin Laden -- turned out to be inaccurate. The owner of the plant, Salah Idris, has brought suit against the U.S. government. The following analysts are available for interviews: JASON VEST, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.villagevoice.com A Washington correspondent for the Village Voice, Vest has investigated the al-Shifa bombing. He comments: “It’s difficult to say what is more amazing: the apparently glaring failures in the intelligence operation that led to the al-Shifa plant being fingered as a chemical weapons site; the actual bombing of the factory; the Clinton administration’s over-the-top pattern of obfuscation and contradictions in explaining its rationale for the bombing; Congress’ less-than-zealous attitude about holding the administration accountable for an unnecessarily destructive act (lying about sex gets you an independent counsel, but bombing another country with shoddy evidence and lying about it doesn’t?); the mainstream media’s unwillingness to hammer on this issue; or the public’s lack of interest.” HUSSEIN IBISH, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.adc.org/news Communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Ibish said: “The bombing of the al-Shifa factory was an act of aggression of the most reckless and lawless variety. The information upon which it was based has proven to be flimsy at best, if not outright fabrications. No attempt was made to deal with the supposed problem through diplomatic means. Property was destroyed and lives taken in a crude ‘revenge attack’ aimed at innocent third parties… The timing of the incident with regard to the president’s political fortunes is highly suspect, coming just after his belated admission of an ‘inappropriate relationship.’ It is truly one of the moral low points of recent American foreign policy.” MARTIN BUTCHER, [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.basicint.org Senior visiting fellow at the British American Security Information Council, Butcher said: “The case of the U.S. bombing the al-Shifa plant shows the perils of the U.S. launching strikes against alleged proliferators. This is particularly of concern since Presidential Decision Directive 60, approved in November 1997, allows for the use of nuclear weapons against alleged proliferators.” For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 FAIR-L Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting Media analysis, critiques and news reports August 17, 1999 Contact: Seth Ackerman (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) WILL THE MEDIA REMEMBER AL-SHIFA? Embassy Bombings Commemorated Without Mention of Factory Attack This month marks the anniversary of the August 7, 1998 terrorist attacks on American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, which claimed the lives of 224 people, including 12 Americans. The anniversary has received substantial media attention, including stories on NBC's Sunday Today (8/8/99), ABC's World News Saturday (8/7/99), CBS's Evening News (8/7/99), and the Washington Post (8/8/99), the New York Times (8/7/99), and Los Angeles Times (8/7/99). But virtually absent from this coverage has been any mention of the U.S. response which followed those attacks: the cruise missile raids launched two weeks later by President Clinton against camps in Afghanistan and against the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan. Although U.S. officials originally claimed the Sudanese factory was involved in the production of chemical weapons and had links to accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, those assertions-along with many of the subsequent, shifting allegations offered in the days following the attack-have turned out to be inaccurate. To date, the U.S. has presented no convincing evidence directly linking the factory to either bin Laden or chemical weapons. But it should be noted that even if the U.S. could offer credible evidence that the Al-Shifa plant made chemical weapons, or that it was linked to bin Laden, the missile strike would almost certainly still be a violation of the United Nations charter and a serious contravention of international law. The Charter permits countries to use force only in "self-defense" against an "armed attack"-an attack which, according to the accepted legal standard, must be so imminent as to leave "no choice of means, and no moment of deliberation." August 20 will mark the anniversary of the Al-Shifa attack. With the notable exceptions of the Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report, which recently ran informative articles about the Al-Shifa case (Washington Post, 7/25/99; U.S. News &World Report, 8/16-23/99), the mainstream media have paid little attention to the Al Shifa case. FAIR encourages journalists to use the anniversary of the cruise missile attacks as an opportunity to review the evidence upon which the Sudan attack was based, and the legality of the attacks on both Sudan and Afghanistan. Media outlets should look back in their reporting not only on crimes committed against the U.S., but also on possible crimes committed by the U.S. *** For more information on the media's response to the Al-Shifa attacks, please read "Media in Cruise Control" at: http://www.fair.org/articles/cruise-control.html A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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