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STORY: Head of the United Nation's weapons inspection program, Hans Blix, delivered his much anticipated report to the U.N. Security Council today detailing the status of Iraq's compliance with U.N. Resolution 1441.
While Blix made the case of Iraq's stepped-up compliance with the resolution and his continued support for the ongoing weapons inspection process, the United States along with Britain and Spain gave an ultimatum in a newly proposed U.N. resolution calling for a war to begin on March 17 if Iraq does not "demonstrate full, unconditional, immediate and active cooperation with its disarmament obligations." Meanwhile, a professor of history at a local area community college in Montgomery County, J. Ross-Nazzal, presented a history of the U.S.-Iraqi relations since the late 1970s to a packed lecture hall. Titled "Saddam Hussein: Frankenstein's Monster or the Next Hitler," Dr. Ross-Nazzal explored the changing perceptions of U.S. foreign policy toward Hussein from friend to "public enemy number one." Dr. Ross-Nazzal says the Bush Administration's call for war is oversimplified: "It is however difficult to determine with any certainty that Bush's enthusiasm for using military force to overthrow Saddam Hussein is waning for waxing. But what is certain is that the U.S. certainly had more than a cursory hand in the development of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Just yesterday, President Bush told the American Medical Association that quote 'we are dealing with Saddam Hussein because the dictator can't stand America.' Ladies and gentlemen, foreign affairs are much more complex than that." Dr. Ross-Nazzal also pointed out a lesser-known incident involving the United States Department of Agriculture. According to public record, the United States extended credit to Iraq through the Atlanta branch of an Italian bank known as BNL. BNL financed the sell of over $2 billion in U.S. agricultural products to Iraq. $720 million of that was guaranteed and ultimately paid for by the USDA. But the loans were not official Iraqi aid and were not subject to later investigation. Dr. Ross-Nazzal explains: "Researchers, congressmen and senators discovered that the BNL money was actually used to purchase -- not agricultural products -- but military equipment, and to pay for the development of Iraq's chemical and biological arsenals. As a result of these findings, Henry B. Gonzalez, from San Antonio, sought to have President Bush impeached in 1991. Charging that Bush had violated the Hate Convention, the Geneva Convention, the Nuremberg Charter, the Genocide Convention, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the War Powers Act in part to the U.S. aid to Iraq that resulted in the development of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program." According to Ross-Nazzal, former democratic congressman from San Antonio, Henry B. Gonzalez, saw the former Bush Administration persuading other countries to go along with military action after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Positions Representative Gonzalez saw as less than honest: "Gonzalez also levied lesser charges against Bush, such as bribery: when Bush promised aid to solemn members of the United Nations such as Egypt, Russia, Germany, Columbia, Zaire and Saudi Arabia if they voted in support of the U.S. resolution denouncing the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait." Of those attending, not all shared the views presented by Dr. Ross Nazzal. A student at Montgomery College, Gina Cinco, thinks the current administration is doing what it has to do. "I think that we should keep going like we're going. If we don't, they're going to come here. And we're going to have to fight it here. And it's a risk to us, because of everything that we've done in the past years of our existence." But even Cinco admits the links between Al-Queda and the secular Saddam Hussein are murky at best. "Bin Laden and Saddam aren't together as far as I can see, but it's a possibility." In describing Hussein's rise to power, Dr. Ross Nazzal quoted a former U.S. president: "To paraphrase Franklin Deleanor Rosevelt: Saddam Hussein 'may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch.'" In anticipation of an imminent attack on Iraq, Houston groups like Families for Peace have planned demonstrations against the Bush Administration's unilateral push for war. Jackson Allers & Eric Thompson, KPFT News, Houston.
E-mail Jackson Allers & Eric Thompson at jacksonallers@hotmail.com & news@kpft.org respectively .
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