response 27 of 140:

Dec 15 05:21 UTC 2003

Re #24, you are forgetting the half-a-million or so Iraqi 
children who died for the lack of food and medicines during a decade 
of sanctions. It is appalling, how the international community can 
demonize Saddam for it and not take any blame for that??!!

The Lancet
Volume 351(9103)
February 28, 1998             
p 657
------------------------------------------
Does Iraq's depleted uranium pose a health risk?

Birchard, Karen
-------------------------------------------
The office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights has
received a report hypothesising that the current health and 
environmental problems in Iraq may be linked to US and British weapons 
left behind after the Gulf War in 1991.

The literature review, compiled by Bill Griffin, an Irish petrochemical
engineer, with access to material in both the West and Iraq, points out
that the mortality rates among children have increased sharply: as 
many as 500 children a day are dying in Iraq along with cancer rates. 
He proposes that radioactive waste caused by projectiles containing 
depleted uranium (DU) may have played a part. DU weapons were 
developed by the Pentagon in the late 1970s as anti-tank armour-
piercing shells but were not used in combat until the Gulf War. DU is 
a radioactive by-product of the enrichment process used to make 
nuclear fuel rods and nuclear bombs.

The report notes that the death rate per 1000 Iraqi children under 5 
years of age increased from 2.3 in 1989 to 16.6 in 1993. Cases of 
lymphoblastic leukaemia have more than quadrupled with other cancers 
also increasing "at an alarming rate". In men, lung, bladder, 
bronchus, skin, and stomach cancers show the highest increase. In 
women, the highest increases are in breast and bladder cancer, and non-
Hodgkin lymphoma. Diseases such as osteosarcoma, teratoma, 
nephroblastoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma are also increasing with, 
according to the review, the most affected being children
and young men. Congenital malformations have also increased, as have
diseases of the immune system.

The review says that a confidential report by the British Atomic Energy
Authority in 1991 estimated that at least 40 tonnes of DU were 
dispersed in Kuwait and Iraq; but according to Greenpeace-based on US 
government information released under the Freedom of Information Act-
"over 300 tonnes of DU mostly in fragmented form (dust) were left on 
the battlefields in Iraq and Kuwait".
--------------------------------------------------------------------

See the whole item here:
http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/1999/msg00246.html

Who accounts for these??

response 29 of 140:

Dec 15 06:48 UTC 2003

It is possible that Saddam will cooperate with the US, tell all, and
offer to speak to his country to tell the guerillas to lay down their
arms and cooperate in rebuilding the country. It might save his skin -
or even make him a candidate for the Nobel prize.

response 31 of 140:

Dec 15 07:31 UTC 2003

Uh, yeah.

So you want to like pass some of whatever it is your having
down this way?  

:-)

response 33 of 140:

Dec 15 09:43 UTC 2003

Not unless the US recognizes the International Court of Justice.

Btw, by the looks of him I truly think I have seen Saddam scurrying 
around the dustbins nearAmsterdam Central Train Station, the last 
couple of months.

Seriously, 
I am curious what details mr. Hussein is going to provide in about the 
US schemes in the eighties when they supported him in the war against 
Iraq. Or before that when they virtually helped get into power.
Every single time this happened with republicans in office. Coincidence?

response 35 of 140:

Dec 15 10:10 UTC 2003

Neither the US nor Iraq recognise the ICC. However, if the new Iraqi
administration chooses to recognise it, they might turn him over
instead of trying him in their own courts.

Also, a separate war crimes tribunal could be set up under the UN (the
court that is trying Milosevic is a war crimes tribunal, not the ICC).
However, this would require the legalization under UN law of the
occupation of Iraq, otherwise the UN would have no jurisdiction.

response 37 of 140:

Dec 15 14:24 UTC 2003

Pax Americana?

response 39 of 140:

Dec 15 14:35 UTC 2003

Agora *is* the conspiracy item.

response 41 of 140:

Dec 15 16:29 UTC 2003

"It is appalling, how the international community can
demonize Saddam for it and not take any blame for that??!!"

Implies that Saddam is definitely to blame but so are the countries 
that supported the crippling sanctions. 

And you conveniently skipped the BIG issue of DU shells!!

response 43 of 140:

Dec 16 00:14 UTC 2003

For a potential link between Saddam/Iraq and Osama/AlQauida, see:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/14/wterr14.xml
&sSheet=/portal/2003/12/14/ixportaltop.html

response 45 of 140:

Dec 16 09:04 UTC 2003

There was Saddam-got-captured celebrations. There were saddam-got-
captured protests (though, definitely smaller is number). Half of the 
Arab world celebrated the capture of a tyrant and the other half was 
humiliated by the capture of an Arab hero who stood against the Jews 
and Americans. 

There were communistst waving flags in the streets of Baghdad. There 
were religious political parties waving. 

Al-Jazeera shows a cartoon of Uncle Sam hoisting Saddam first, then 
pulling him down and then arresting him. Fox reports nothing about the 
blasts in Baghdad or US Army blowing kids to bits in Afghanistan.

Saddam's sister accused that he had been drugged before capture. An 
american soldier said Saddam wanted to *negotiate* the capture. 
Rumsfeld sneered that Saddam didn't even fire his pistol and 
surrendered meekly. 

Saddam himself cooperated after the arrest and for the medical 
examination. But thereafter is reported to be spouting anger and 
abuse. He is reported to be defiant and showing no remorse.

Blair could be seen on a definite high in the British parliament - 
attacking the opposition and shouting loudly.

The Sanchez guy in Baghdad was grinning ear-to-ear all the time. There 
were more blasts in Baghdad meanwhile killing more people.

So and so forth.

response 47 of 140:

Dec 16 14:48 UTC 2003

Re resp:44: Actually, I heard about the anti-Saddam celebrations.  On
liberal NPR, no less!

(Do you actually ever watch/listen to/read any of the "liberal media",
or do you just make assumptions based on what you think their bias is? 
Also, by what stretch of the imagination is Fox News "independent"?)


Incidentally, have you noticed that the reaction of Iraqis to pretty
much anything seems to be to fire guns into the air?  During the same
newscast yesterday I heard about one incident of them firing into the
air in celebration, and another of them firing into the air in mourning.
 That country is like the NRA's wet dream. ;>

response 49 of 140:

Dec 16 16:41 UTC 2003

And BBC News is liberal?? How about CNN? 

Hehehe ... I don't know if this is true ... but still thought it was 
worth posting.
From http://www.moderateindependent.com/v1i3mediawatch.htm

MAY 15, 2003   MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA   Taking on those Democrats and 
others who are  unpatriotic , Australian-owned Fox News, USA Today, NY 
Post, Chicago Sun Times, and numerous other Aussie-controlled news 
operations promise to clear things up by presenting the  true, American 
view of things. 

Rupert Murdoch, owner of all the above listed news sources   and many, 
many more   helped explain his  Americanizing  mission from his 
original home town of Melbourne, Australia.

 As someone who was born in Australia,  said Rupert Murdoch, speaking 
beside a  barbie  on which he was throwing another shrimp,  and who is 
married to a woman who is from China, I feel that I and my Australian-
owned news sources are the most qualified to present the true American 
perspective on things.  Those other, American-owned news sources, like 
the New York Times and NPR, simply don t know anything about being a 
good American.  They betray American values on a daily basis, as far as 
I can tell from down here on the other side of the world, where I was 
born and all my family live. 

The American flag a permanent fixture on the screen of his Fox News 
Network, Murdoch sits stroking his pet koala, eating some Vegamite, 
pointing out a kangaroo in the distance.   Of course my news sources 
are the real American ones.  How could some paper owned by New Yorkers 
be more patriotic than the ones owned by me?  Or a radio network funded 
by donations from American listeners?  No, no, no.  I know the true 
voice of America, like no American possibly could if I didn t spell it 
out for them on a daily basis. 

Throughout the interview, his love and respect for his wife Wendy Deng 
Murdoch was very much apparent.   Any time I have some doubts about 
whether I   since I am not from America   am striking the right 
American note, I ask Wendy, who is also from the other side of the 
world.  Between my Down-Under upbringing and her Red China view of 
things, we come up with the real American perspective like no actual 
American possibly could.