[Media-watch] Charles Clark

[Mark Priestley]

Charles Clark's attempts to articulate a three phase framework for the war
are fatuous to say the least (PM: 1st April). This is post hoc
rationalisation of the conflict - quite clearly the government are making it
up as they go along.

I was disappointed at your interviewer's lack of a challenge to one of the
most frequently used justifications for war, namely his assertion that Iraq
has used weapons of mass destruction against both his own people and within
the wider global community. These statements are deeply problematic. I take
it the latter refers to the Iran-Iraq war. If so he seems oblivious to the
fact that this use predated Saddam's falling out with the west; there was no
condemnation at the time, and indeed the weapons were being supplied by
western companies with the blessing of their governments. There is no
evidence that such weapons have been used (or even exist) since the last
gulf war.

Even the oft-cited 'fact' that Saddam gases his own people is contested,
despite the lack of coverage of this in the mainstream media in Britain.
Aside from the fact that this attack was not condemned by western
governments at the time (Tony Blair was one of many British politicians who
failed to sign an early day motion condemning the attack), there is some
doubt that it was Iraq that carried out the attack. According to Stephen
Pelletiere (the senior CIA analyst on the Iraq-Iran war), we can only say
with certainty that the people concerned were gassed. In fact the gas used
was found to be a type used by the Iranians. A US marine corps report stated
that "blood agents [i.e., cyanogen chloride] were allegedly responsible for
the most infamous use of chemicals in the war-the killing of Kurds at
Halabjah. Since the Iraqis have no history of using these two agents-and the
Iranians do-we conclude that the Iranians perpetrated this attack". This
report is available at http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/.  
 
This accords with the media reports at the time. For instance, according to
the Washington Post (May 3, 1990),  "a Defense Department reconstruction of
the final stages of the Iran-Iraq war has assembled what analysts say is
conclusive intelligence that one of the worst civilian massacres of the war,
in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja, was caused by repeated chemical
bombardments from both belligerent armies" . Mr. Pelletiere's report, which
appeared in the New York Times, is found at
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-08.htm.  
 
Best wishes 
Mark Priestley
Beechwood
Menstrie
FK11 7BW