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<DIV><SPAN class=703224319-28052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">You may find this
of interest....</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=703224319-28052004><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=703224319-28052004><!--StartFragment -->
<P>-----Original Message-----</P>
<P>From: David.Aaronovitch@guardian.co.uk</P>
<P>[mailto:David.Aaronovitch@guardian.co.uk] </P>
<P>Sent: 28 May 2004 16:16</P>
<P>To: Mark Priestley</P>
<P>Subject: Re: Interview on Today programme</P>
<P> </P>
<P> </P>
<P>Dear Mark,</P>
<P>You wrote a very long medialensish e.mail asking questions the answers to</P>
<P>which are all contained in various pieces that I have written over the
last</P>
<P>18 months, and all available on Guardian Unlimited. Even if I were to</P>
<P>re-answer each one just for you it wouldn't change your mind about this</P>
<P>issue one iota, would it? And then I'd have to do it again ad nauseam for</P>
<P>all the other medialens folks, including the mad fascists and barmy</P>
<P>conspiracists. You want a dialogue? Write a letter that suggests you are</P>
<P>genuinely interested in one. Otherwise save your own time and mine, and
in</P>
<P>particular that save yourself from that false tone of hurt amour propre
when</P>
<P>I don't respond to one of your interminable epistles. Yours finally,
David</P>
<P>Aaronovitch</P>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff><SPAN class=703224319-28052004>28th May</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff>Dear David,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff>I
wrote the email below to you on 17th May, and I am surprised that you
have not replied. This is especially surprising given that on the day I wrote,
you replied within several hours to some emails sent to you by regular
contributors to Medialens. These letters were rude in tone (which mine was not),
and your replies were equally rude (if I remember correctly, one accused
the correspondent on talking 'bollocks') .</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff>I
do not agree with sending rude or abusive emails to people, but it does appear
that one has to take this approach in order to receive a reply from you. Again I
would welcome your comments, both in response to the points made today, and to
my original email.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff>Yours sincerely,</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
color=#0000ff>Mark</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><SPAN class=703224319-28052004><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS">17th May</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS"></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Dear
David</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">I listened with
interest to your interview on <EM>Today</EM> this morning. Several of your
comments intrigued me, and I would be grateful if you could answer some
questions.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">You stated that
you have always been sceptical about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass
destruction. I would like to believe this. There was ample evidence that these
weapons were non-existent before the invasion; evidence that a journalist of
your standing must have been aware of. <STRONG>I am therefore curious to hear
your views about how this scepticism squares with statements that you
made in the past affirming your belief that Iraq possessed such
weapons.</STRONG> For example you wrote in the Independent on 22nd
September 2002, <EM>'</EM><SPAN><EM>But I am more convinced that what marks
Saddam Hussein out is his willingness to use weapons of mass
destruction'</EM>.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>You went on
to say that the improvement of conditions for ordinary Iraqi people - democrats,
trade unionists etc. - justifies the invasion. There are several points to
make about this:</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<UL>
<LI><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>May I
remind you that this was not the original justification for the invasion,
although it has strangely assumed prominence in the absence of any discovery
of the much vaunted weapons of mass destruction. We were told that we were
going to war because of the threat that Iraq posed to the international
community. It was even asserted that such a course of action was not
pre-emptive - as the threat was not immediate; rather the new doctrine of
a preventive war was cited, to counter this grave threat that Iraq posed in
the long term. All this seems laughable today given the failure to even find
evidence of programmes (as was predicted by the likes of Scott Ritter
before the invasion). <STRONG>As a supporter of the war, how can
you accept the validity of such a shift in justification for the
invasion?</STRONG></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </LI>
<LI><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>If we
assume that humanitarian intervention was justified, and that this was a major
and legitmate reason for invasion, then we seem to be missing several
points:</SPAN></FONT></SPAN>
<UL>
<LI><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>This was
a unilateral action by a small group of countries in defiance of
international opinion, norms and law. <STRONG>How can you justify such
palpably illegal action?</STRONG> This is analogous to the recent vigilante
action of a minority against suspected paedophiles; something that I suspect
you would rightly oppose. Such actions are based upon power, not right or
the riule of law.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </LI>
<LI><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>The
abysmal human rights record of Iraq has been well established, but it is
accepted that most of the humanitarian evidence used to justify invasion
happened in the past, and that the impact of the regime on ordinary Iraqis
has been less brutal in recent times. It has never been conclusively proved
that Iraq carried out the chemical attacks at Fallujah (although I accept
that Saddam Hussein would have been capable of doing so). There is some
evidence that the gas used was Iranian, and that the attack was a tragic
consequence of a battle in the Iraq/Iran war. The widespread pogroms
following the uprisings in 1991 were certainly carried out by Ba'athist
regime, but one has to question the role played by the coalition in not only
allowing this, but actively enabling it (the temporary lifting of the no-fly
zone, for example). <STRONG>Can you explain to me why action against Iraq
became more urgent as the humanitarian situation
was improving?</STRONG></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </LI>
<LI><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>If
humanitarian intervention in the form of a massive invasion is justified in
the case of Iraq, then <STRONG>why</STRONG> <STRONG>are you not calling for
similar action in the cases of Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Sudan and the
DRC</STRONG> - just to name a few countries where the human rights situation
at least parallels that in Iraq? Given your logic, shouldn't we be helping
democrats and trade unionists in these
countries?</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></LI></UL></LI>
<LI><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>Last year
you said, <FONT face="Times New Roman"> <FONT
face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>'If nothing is eventually found, I - as a supporter
of the war - will never believe another thing I am told by our government or
that of the US, ever again. And more to the point, neither will anyone else.
Those weapons had better be there somewhere.'</EM> In the light of the
failure to find anything,<STRONG> could you please confirm that you will
never trust the government
again?</STRONG></FONT> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></LI></UL>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN>I would
welcome your comments.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=573454909-17052004><FONT
face="Comic Sans MS"><SPAN></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV></SPAN></DIV>
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