Respond to Richard Butler Saber Rattling
Thu, 27 Jul 2000 13:41:39 EDT
This message includes:
Articles by Butler in Israel
Article by Butler in Washington Post
responses
action alert
["I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one."
Benjamin Franklin]
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ACTION ALERT – Stop the U.S. from bombing Iraq in August 2000!
1. Background
2. Mailing Address
3. Sample Letter
BACKGROUND:
On Aug. 6th ‘90, the UN imposed broad, economic sanctions on Iraq for
invading Kuwait. Sanctions were re-imposed on April 3rd 1991, after the Gulf
War, to force Iraq to destroy its “weapons of mass destruction.” However,
the Gulf War bombings of Iraq’s civilian infrastructure & the ongoing
sanctions blockade have instead resulted in widespread poverty & skyrocketing
childhood mortality. The UN estimates that between 500,000 & 720,000 children
have died because of the sanctions. According to UNICEF, a child dies every
10 minutes in Iraq due to sanctions.
In Dec. ‘98, a series of confrontations between UNSCOM weapons inspectors &
the Iraqi government resulted in “Desert Fox,” a U.S. bombing campaign that
killed 10,000 people according to Pentagon estimates. One month after the
bombings, the Washington Post & the Boston Globe both reported that Iraq’s
main objection to the weapons inspectors, namely that they U.S. spies, was in
fact true. The ensuing scandal over U.S. infiltration of UNSCOM led to a
year-long deadlock at the UN. In Dec. ‘99, the Security Council passed (with
France, Russia & China abstaining) Resolution 1284, creating UNMOVIC, a new
inspection team. This team will be ready to begin new inspections next month.
Since “Desert Fox,” the U.S. has continued regular bombings of Iraq on the
average of 3-4 times a week: the longest running U.S. air war since Vietnam.
However, both Richard Butler, former head of UNSCOM, and Scott Ritter, former
chief weapons inspector, have predicted that Iraq’s refusal to allow UNMOVIC
into the country next month will likely create a new crisis that could result
in an intensified U.S. bombing campaign against Iraq – with thousands of
casualties. Says Scott Ritter, “The new commission, UNMOVIC, will not be
allowed into Iraq in August, three months away from the election. You have
got a Vice-President, Al Gore, trailing behind in the polls and what better
way to appear tough and switch attention away to a so-called foreign threat.
The UN Security Council did not vote on Desert Fox and we can expect the same
thing to happen again.”
We MUST not let this happen again. Please take a few minutes to write Sandy
Berger, the U.S. National Security Advisor & Clinton’s principle foreign
policy strategist, & demand that the U.S. stop killing civilians in Iraq and
end sanctions & bombings against Iraq rather than increase them.
For more information on a possible August bombing, please visit:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Middle_East/2000-06/sanction230600.shtml
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Middle_East/2000-06/saddam230600.shtml
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Middle_East/2000-06/usarms280600.shtml
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j071000.html
For more information on the Iraq crisis, please visit:
http://www.iraqaction.org
MAILING ADDRESS
Samuel R. Berger
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
National Security Council
Old Executive Building
Washington, DC 20503
SAMPLE LETTER
Samuel R. Berger
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
National Security Council
Old Executive Building
Washington, DC 20503
Dear Mr. Berger,
I am writing you out of deep concern over the continuing civilian casualties
our war with Iraq is causing, and the current press speculation that the U.S.
may be gearing up to increase our bombings. A recent Washington Post article
(“Under Iraqi Skies: A Canvas of Death,” 6-15-00) estimates that as many as
300 civilians have been killed by U.S. bombs over the last 18 months. The UN
Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq confirms many of these deaths,
and the fact that our bombing targets are often in strictly civilian areas
with no military targets nearby. This is unconscionable.
Furthermore, continued U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq are creating a
terrible death toll. The UN estimates that between 500,000 and 720,000
children have been killed by sanctions. Several NGOs, including the
International Committee of the Red Cross, back up these estimates. State
Department allegations that Saddam Hussein is interfering with the
“Oil-for-Food” program have proven spurious. Hans von Sponeck and Denis
Halliday, the two, previous UN directors of the “Oil-for-Food” program both
resigned in protest over the failure of “Oil-for-Food” to adequately address
this humanitarian crisis – and they place the blame for this failure firmly
on the sanctions themselves, and not on the Iraqi government. In a 1996 “60
Minutes” segment, Madeline Albright acknowledged that 500,000 children had
been killed by sanctions and said that, “We think the price is worth it.”
This is not simply unconscionable – it’s profoundly immoral. Such callousness
among our leaders, and in the policies they pursue, does a terrible dishonor
to our nation, and to our interests and security around the world.
I am aware that a new weapons inspection team, UNMOVIC, will be ready to
begin its work sometime this August. And I am aware that it is unlikely the
Iraqi government will give them permission to do so. This is an unfortunate,
but entirely predictable result of our government’s intransigence and our
indifference to the suffering our actions have caused the Iraqi people. Our
policy toward Iraq has been described, by many foreign policy analysts, as
“all stick, no carrot.”
Should Iraq refuse to allow UNMOVIC into the country, we must not respond
with more bombings. The “Desert Fox” bombing campaign did not help our nation
in any way, and simply wrought more destruction on an already hapless people.
Our continuing, almost daily, bombings have not helped our nation in any way.
Sanctions have not helped our nation in any way. Indeed, our violence, and
our seeming indifference to its consequences for the Iraqi people, have
contributed to Saddam Hussein’s rehabilitation in the eyes of many Iraqis,
and throughout the Middle East. Our violence is stoking the fires of
anti-Americanism throughout the world, and isolating us among our colleagues
on the Security Council.
It is in our interest to work toward a peaceful and stable Middle East, and
the continuing destruction of the Iraqi people is neither a peaceful nor a
stable situation. I urge you to advise the President to de-escalate this war,
end our bombings and our blockade, and begin good-faith negotiations with the
Iraqi government to resolve our differences.
Sincerely,
From: "Ramsey Kysia" mbakery@erols.com
Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 21:42:48 -0400
Subject: [iac-disc.] ACTION ALERT! - Stop the U.S. from Bombing Iraq in Aug.!
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Former U.N. arms inspector Butler warns Israel of Iraqi weapons buildup
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/07/18/israel.iraq.ap/index.html
July 18, 2000 Web posted at: 1:43 PM EDT (1743 GMT)
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The former chief U.N. weapons inspector told Israeli
lawmakers Tuesday that he believes Iraq is expanding its arsenal of weapons
of mass destruction, posing a renewed threat to the region.
Richard Butler, who briefed the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the
Knesset, said he has "no doubt at all that Iraq is back in the business of
seeking to extend its weapons of mass destruction."
Calling the situation "very serious," Butler said the absence of U.N.
inspectors in Iraq over the last two years has enabled Iraq to built up its
arsenal.
Butler told Israel television he was "chilled" when Iraqi officials told him,
during inspections tours in Iraq, that they expected one day to use their
unconventional weaponry in battle with Iran and with Israel.
Butler headed the United Nations Special Commission from 1997 on. UNSCOM was
established to monitor the destruction of mass weapons in Iraq.
The Australian diplomat was outspoken in his criticism of Iraqi efforts to
frustrate his inspectors and accused the Iraqis of systematic noncompliance.
Iraq barred U.N. weapons inspectors from returning in 1998, accusing them of
spying for the West and for Israel. Iraqi officials singled Butler out for
vilification, accusing him of kowtowing to U.S. and Israeli interests.
Since the ouster of the inspectors, Western nations have led the effort to
maintain sanctions on Saddam Hussein's regime, and the United States and
Britain have launched punishing air strikes to stymie the Iraqi leader's
efforts to bypass sanctions.
Butler nonetheless felt he did not have sufficient backing at the United
Nations, and allowed his contract to lapse in 1999. He is currently a
diplomat-in-residence at the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York-based
think tank.
He has just published an account of his years as an inspector, "The Greatest
Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iraq brags of biological weapons to 'deal with Zionist entity'
By Etgar Lefkovits
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/07/18/News/News.9758.html
JERUSALEM (July 18) - Former UNSCOM executive director Richard Butler said
yesterday that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had told him his
country has biological weapons "to deal with the 'Zionist entity.' "
Butler said he fears that Aziz's comment, made in a meeting while Butler was
still involved in the disarmament effort in Iraq, is a statement of
"genocidal character."
Speaking at a lecture in Jerusalem sponsored by the Jerusalem Center for
Public Affairs, Butler said that, two years after Iraq kicked out the UN
monitoring agency, Iraq is back in the business of making weapons of mass
destruction, and that only a united Security Council can prevent Iraq from
producing biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.
The regime, now "awash with money," will only be spurred to produce more
weapons following Iran's successful launching of a long-range missile on
Saturday, Butler said.
But it was "from day one" that Saddam decided to refuse to obey the laws,
said Butler, currently a diplomat in residence at the Council for Foreign
Relations in the US. "Either the Iraqis' declarations were false, phony, or
filled with deceptions and evasions," he said.
Faced with political pressure from Russia to "lower his standards" and a
crumbling Security Council consensus, Butler drew up a list of disarmament
requirements for the Iraqis to bring an end to the sanctions.
He asked them to account for 500 tons of fuel used to make Scud missiles, to
list the quantity of mustard shells as well as the amount of VX nerve gas
they had, and most important to reveal what types of biological weapons they
were producing.
Despite the assurances that he received from Aziz, whom Butler terms the
"minister for disarmament resistance," Iraq refused to comply with any of the
conditions, and expelled Butler's group in August 1998.
"They refused to comply with my list because it was right. The things I was
asking for were precisely the weapons that if we got hold of, Iraq would be
disarmed, and they did not want to be," he said.
The new organization that took over after UNSCOM was expelled established six
months ago after nearly a year of UN deliberations six months ago has still
never set foot in Iraq, and is undergoing training in New York about Iraq's
"cultural sensitivities," he said.
Calling Iraq's flaunting of the UN Security Council, with Russia's backing, a
"crisis in global security," Butler said Iraq is basically telling the main
authority of international law to "get lost."
The US, Butler argues, has not made it adequately clear to the Russians that
their behavior is incompatible with their relationship with the US.
"When the Security Council is not united, rogue states get away with
flaunting the law," he said.
The UN, which was set up in the wake of World War II, has a moral imperative
to act, he said. "I don't think we should wait for another catastrophe to
happen before making a change," Butler concluded.
Meanwhile Saddam Hussein marked the 32nd anniversary of the coup that brought
him to power yesterday, telling the Iraqi people they had defeated the West
and exhorting them to overcome UN sanctions.
In a live television and radio address, Saddam said the July 17, 1968
revolution had transformed Iraq from a "wasteland."
Newspapers carried color portraits of Saddam on their front pages and praised
the achievements of his Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party.
"The people and the nation achieve victory and the evil ones meet defeat,"
Saddam said.
In a clear reference to the US, he added: "And thus the free, exalted men and
women win victory over the invaders."
Saddam's address made no reference to Iraq's relations with the UN Security
Council and UN inspections of Baghdad's prohibited weapons.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
From: David Muller davemull@alphalink.com.au
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 10:31:16 +1000
Subject: [iac-disc.] More wip-up: Butler in Israel
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Note that either Butler was either misinterpreted below, or he is confusing
Iran with Iraq when he claims that Iraq has successfully tested a Shihab-3
missile, which is an Iranian weapon, not Iraqi.
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/07/19/News/News.9817.html
Butler: Iraq could have nukes in a year
Jerusalem Post
By Nina Gilbert
(July 19) - Iraq could have nuclear capabilities within a year of obtaining
the raw materials it is missing to complete its program, according to former
UNSCOM director Richard Butler. Butler, who was hosted by the Knesset Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee yesterday, also said that Iraq already has
biological and chemical weapons. Iraq has 16 warheads loaded with Anthrax, he
added.Butler believes the Iraqis will try to obtain the missing materials on
the black market. If they can be obtained, he said, Iraq can complete its
nuclear program within a year.
Butler's weapons monitoring group was expelled from Iraq in August 1998. Iraq
showed its nuclear program to UNSCOM, and at the time it was within six
months of completing it. Butler noted that Iraq does not lack the scientific
and technological knowledge for producing nuclear weapons.He also told the
committee that Iraq has production facilities for 150-km.-range missiles,
allowed under a decision of the Security Council.
However, he said they are making every effort to expand the range of the
missiles and are producing engines that are suited for this. According to
Butler, Iraq refused to give any information to the inspection teams about
the missile engine production that could send the missiles as far as 650
km.He believes that Iraq's successful Shihab-3 test will result in Iraq
boosting its missile program.Moreover, Butler said he has received
information that Iraq has rebuilt its factories for the production of
chemical weapons that were destroyed in the Gulf War.
From: Alex Garabet garabet@mailandnews.com
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:36:16 -0700
Subject: [iac-disc.] Butler: Iraq could have nukes in a year
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Media Alert - Write the Washington Post!
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1. Background
2. Letters to the Editor address
3. Richard Butler Op/Ed
---------------------------------------------
Background:
The Washington Post editorial page has consistently supported both military
action against Iraq and Sanctions. That is their right. However, the
information they continue to base their opinions on is seriously flawed
(see: http://www.fair.org/activism/post-expulsions.html
Regardless, it is the Post's refusal to allow an anti-Sanctions viewpoint on
their Opinion page that is most troubling. The Opinion page is supposed to be
a clearing house of alternative views on the issues in our public life. It
seems the Washington Post does not believe that there is any opposition to
Sanctions in the United States. Please write the Washington Post and urge
them to allow a anti-Sanctions Op/Ed to be published in their paper.
---------------------------------------------
Letters to the Editor addresses:
email:Letterstoed@washpost.com
snailmail:
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20071
---------------------------------------------
Guess Who's Back
By Richard Butler
Monday , July 17, 2000 ; A17
So you thought Saddam Hussein was out of your life? Sorry--he's back,
manufacturing the weapons of mass destruction with which he threatens the
Iraqi people, his neighbors and, by extension, thesafety of the world.
Two separate developments have returned Saddam Hussein to the headlines.
Earlier this month the administration revealed that its satellites had
detected Iraq test-firing Al-Samoud missiles, home-grown, smaller versions of
the Scuds last used against Israel during the 1990 Gulf War. The chief of
U.S. Central Command, Gen. Tony Zinni, said that the range of the Al-Samoud
easily could be increased.
The administration also revealed that Saddam Hussein has been hiding between
20 and 30 Russian Scuds as well as working through front companies outside
Iraq to acquire the machine tools needed to build more missiles.
None of this is new. In my last report as executive chairman of UNSCOM, the
agency charged with disarming Saddam, I warned the U.N. Security Council
about Iraq's missile-development activities. That was almost two years ago,
just before Iraq shut down all international arms control and monitoring
efforts. I've also publicly detailed Iraq's refusal to yield or account for
its holdings of at least 500 tons of fuel usable only by Scud-type missiles.
Iraqi officials told me that a complete accounting for this fuel was
unnecessary because, after all, Iraq had no Scud missiles. I disagreed,
stating that the reverse was true: As long as Iraq refused to yield the fuel,
it clearly had concealed Scuds or planned
to acquire or build them.
Presumably unconnected with the administration's revelation but simultaneous
with it, former UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter, in an article in Arms Control
Today, claimed that Iraq is "qualitatively disarmed." He failed to offer any
new information or evidence to support this dubious concept.
There were two levels of deception in Iraqi dealings with UNSCOM: concealment
and false declarations on the weapons Iraq was prepared to put in play in the
disarmament process. WhenRitter worked for me, he was in charge of the UNSCOM
unit responsible for finding and destroying the concealed weapons, and he was
vilified by Iraqi leaders as their major persecutor. Now he says he has had
private conversations with unspecified Iraqi officials that have persuaded
him they are "qualitatively disarmed" and will accept a new monitoring
program if the Security Council first lifts all sanctions against Iraq.
The facts are clear and alarming, and they do not support this assertion.
Iraq has been free of any arms control or monitoring regime for almost two
years, a consequence of the breakdown ofconsensus among the permanent members
of the Security Council. Now Saddam Hussein is reconstituting his capability
to deploy weapons of mass destruction. I've seen evidence of Iraqiattempts to
acquire missile-related tools and, even more chilling, of steps the Iraqis
have taken to reassemble their nuclear weapons design team. After the Gulf
War, experts assessed Iraq was onlysix months from testing an atomic bomb. It
retains that know-how. It also has rebuilt its chemical and biological
weapons
manufacturing facilities.
If the United States is serious about addressing the threat current
developments raise, it should insist to its fellow permanent members of the
Security Council that there be a new consensus on enforcing arms control in
Iraq. Selective revelations such as those recently issued by the
administration need to be accompanied by a robust policy within the Security
Council, making clear particularly to Russia and France that the United
States is not prepared to accept their patronage of Saddam Hussein.
The writer, diplomat in residence at the Council on Foreign Relations in New
York, was chairman of UNSCOM from 1997 to 1999.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 08:26:22 -0400
Reply-To: mbakery@erols.com
Subject: [iac-disc.] Media Alert - Write the Washington Post!
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Following is Major Scott Ritter's response to Richard Butler's
WashingtonPost OpEd (previously posted, but available here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54632-2000Jul16.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3215-2000Jul18.html
Disarmament Dispute in Iraq
The Washington Post
Wednesday, July 19, 2000; Page A22
In his July 17 op-ed column about Saddam Hussein re-arming, Richard Butler
said that in my article in the June issue of Arms Control Today I claimed
that Iraq is "qualitatively disarmed" without offering new evidence to
support my position. In fact, I quoted from five U.N. arms inspection agency
documents and referenced events in which I was involved to support my
analysis.
Mr. Butler also said that my position regarding Iraq's qualitative
disarmament has been shaped by conversations with "unspecified Iraqi
officials." I have articulated this position since late 1998 through numerous
public speaking engagements and the publication of a book as well as in
opinion pieces in the New York Times, Boston Globe and The Post.
My position regarding Iraq's disarmament status is no about-face, but a
careful assessment based upon an examination of all the facts I was privy to
during my time with UNSCOM, the U.N. inspection team.
Mr. Butler further misrepresented my interaction with the Iraqi officials. My
article noted that Iraq almost certainly would cooperate with an inspection
team if the disarmament program was specifically linked to the lifting of
economic sanctions upon a finding of compliance. At no time did Iraq try to
sell me on the concept of "qualitative disarmament;" it is strictly my own
position.
The missile tests cited by Mr. Butler, all of which reportedly failed, tend
to reflect the reality that Iraq has not had any quantum leaps in the 18
months since weapons inspectors were last in Iraq.
Mr. Butler also cited U.S. assertions that Iraq continues to possess 20 to 30
Scud missiles. This figure is without substance. Since 1991, I had been
struggling with U.S. intelligence over Scud numbers and watched as the figure
shrank from more than 200 to "around a dozen" without any corresponding
analysis. UNSCOM never supported a figure of more than eight, and even that
number was speculation.
SCOTT RITTER
Delmar, N.Y.
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It is probably too long, or some BS like that.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 23:01:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: WILLIAM LAFI YOUMANSwyoumans@umich.edu
To: Letterstoed@washpost.com.
Subject: Butler's article
Richard Butler's 'Guess Who's Back' (7-17-00) is just an extension of the
irrational super-vilification of Saddam Hussein that has made sober analysis
of this whole situation impossible. Not to defend Saddam Hussein, but
policymakers must reformulate US policy rationally, and more importantly,
humanely.
Butler cites Iraq's test-firing of "Al-Samoud missiles," which are
"home-grown, smaller" Scuds. Valuable insight on their effectiveness can be
found in the Muellers' article in the May/June 1999 issue of 'Foreign
Affairs.' General Schwarzkopf was quoted as likening Scud missiles to
"mosquitoes." What does that make the Al-Samoud? Fruitflies?
He reminds us that the Scuds were what Iraq fired at Israel. Yet, Butler
conveniently neglects the fact that of the 27 to 30 used, at most one death
resulted directly from those highly inaccurate Cold War relics. Little is
mentioned of the tragically ironic statistic that the economic sanctions on
Iraq have reaped a higher count of fatalities than "all so-called weapons of
mass destruction (WMDs) throughout history."The irony is that the sanctions
are being justified by the administration's, and Butler's alarmist and
hyperbolic depiction of Iraq's WMD arsenal.
Punishing an entire people of a country with a GNP lower than Kentucky's for
the crimes of an unelected and repressive dictator is morally reprehensible.
Unlike the Iraqis, we are accountable for what our respective leaders do. We
choose them.
Will Youmans
1224 Reeves
1503 Washington Heights
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
734.764.7776 (day and evening)
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