First if I may, a brief review on the past and continued defiance of Iraq of the US, the UN, and the entire civilized world:



-- April 3, 1991: U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 (1991), Section C, declares that Iraq shall accept unconditionally, under international supervision, the "destruction, removal or rendering harmless" of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles with a range over 150 kilometers. One week later, Iraq accepts Resolution 687. Its provisions were reiterated and reinforced in subsequent action by the United Nations in June and August of 1991.

-- May 1991: Iraq accepts the privileges and immunities of the Special Commission (UNSCOM) and its personnel. These guarantees include the right of "unrestricted freedom of entry and exit without delay or hindrance of its personnel, property, supplies, equipment."

-- June 1991: Iraqi personnel fire warning shots to prevent the inspectors from approaching the vehicles.

-- September 1991: Iraqi officials confiscate documents from the inspectors. The inspectors refuse to yield a second set of documents. In response, Iraq refuses to allow the team to leave the site with these documents. A four-day standoff ensues, but Iraq permits the team to leave with the documents after a statement from the Security Council threatens enforcement actions.

-- Oct. 11, 1991: The Security Council adopts Resolution 715, which approves joint UNSCOM and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) plans for ongoing monitoring and verification. UNSCOM's plan establishes that Iraq shall "accept unconditionally the inspectors and all other personnel designated by the Special Commission."

-- Oct. 1991: Iraq states that it considers the Ongoing Monitoring and Verification Plans adopted by Resolution 715 to be unlawful and states that it is not ready to comply with Resolution 715.

-- Feb. 1992: Iraq refuses to comply with an UNSCOM/IAEA decision to destroy certain facilities used in proscribed programs and related items.

-- April 1992: Iraq calls for a halt to UNSCOM's aerial surveillance flights, stating that the aircraft and its pilot might be endangered. The President of the Security Council issues a statement reaffirming UNSCOM's right to conduct such flights. Iraq says that it does not intend to carry out any military action aimed at UNSCOM's aerial flights.

-- July 6-29, 1992: Iraq refuses an inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM said it had reliable information that the site contained archives related to proscribed activities. Inspectors gained access only after members of the Council threatened enforcement action.

-- January 1993: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq.

-- June-July 1993: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.

-- Nov. 26, 1993: Iraq accepts Resolution 715 and the plans for ongoing monitoring and verification.

-- Oct. 15, 1994: The Security Council adopts Resolution 949, which demands that Iraq "cooperate fully" with UNSCOM and that it withdraw all military units deployed to southern Iraq to their original positions. Iraq withdraws its forces and resumes working with UNSCOM.

-- March 1996: Iraqi security forces refuse UNSCOM teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites after delays of up to 17 hours.

-- March 19, 1996: The Security Council issues a presidential statement expressing its concern over Iraq's behavior, which it terms "a clear violation of Iraq's obligations under relevant resolutions." The council also demands that Iraq allow UNSCOM teams immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites designated for inspection.

-- March 27, 1996: Security Council Resolution 1051 approves the export/import monitoring mechanism for Iraq and demands that Iraq meet unconditionally all its obligations under the mechanism and cooperate fully with the Special Commission and the director-general of the IAEA.

-- June 1996: Iraq denies UNSCOM teams access to sites under investigation for their involvement in the "concealment mechanism" for proscribed items.

-- June 12, 1996: The Security Council adopts Resolution 1060, which terms Iraq's actions a clear violation of the provisions of the council's earlier resolutions. It also demands that Iraq grant "immediate and unrestricted access" to all sites designated for inspection by UNSCOM.

-- June 13, 1996: Despite the adoption of Resolution 1060, Iraq again denies access to another inspection team.

-- Nov. 1996: Iraq blocks UNSCOM from removing remnants of missile engines for in-depth analysis outside Iraq.

-- June 1997: Iraqi escorts on board an UNSCOM helicopter try to physically prevent the UNSCOM pilot from flying the helicopter in the direction of its intended destination.

-- June 21, 1997: Iraq again blocks UNSCOM teams from entering certain sites for inspection.

-- June 21, 1997: The Security Council adopts Resolution 1115, which condemns Iraq's actions and demands that Iraq allow UNSCOM's team immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any sites for inspection and officials for interviews.

-- Sept. 13, 1997: An Iraqi officer attacks an UNSCOM inspector on board an UNSCOM helicopter while the inspector is attempting to take photographs of unauthorized movement of Iraqi vehicles inside a site designated for inspection.

-- Sept. 17, 1997: While seeking access to a site declared by Iraq to be "sensitive," UNSCOM inspectors witness and videotape Iraqi guards moving files, burning documents and dumping ash-filled waste cans into a nearby river.

-- Nov. 12, 1997: The Security Council adopts Resolution 1137, condemning Iraq for continually violating its obligations, including its decision to seek to impose conditions on cooperation with UNSCOM. The resolution also imposes a travel restriction on Iraqi officials who are responsible for or participated in instances of noncompliance.

-- Nov. 3, 1997: Iraq demands that U.S. citizens working for UNSCOM leave Iraq immediately.

-- Dec. 22, 1997: The Security Council issues a statement calling upon the government of Iraq to cooperate fully with the commission and stresses that failure by Iraq to provide immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any site is an unacceptable and clear violation of Security Council resolutions.

-- Feb. 20-23, 1998: Iraq signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations on February 23, 1998. Iraq pledges to accept all relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate fully with UNSCOM and the IAEA, and to grant to UNSCOM and the IAEA "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" for their inspections.

-- Aug. 5, 1998: The Revolutionary Command Council and the Ba'ath Party Command decide to stop cooperating with UNSCOM and the IAEA until the Security Council agrees to lift the oil embargo as a first step toward ending sanctions.



With this information, it is clear that Iraq had, and has [b]no intention [/b]whatsoever of complying with [b]any[/b] governing body at all.



Saddam continues to rule a nation with the callous disregard of a Hitler or a Stalin. Now consider this:



In December 1998, when U.N weapons inspector Dr. Richard Spertzel became exasperated by Iraqi evasions and misrepresentations, he confronted Dr. Rihab Taha, the woman the Iraqis identified as the head of their biological weapons program and asked her directly, “You know

that we know you are lying. So why do you do it?” She straightened herself up and replied, “Dr. Spertzel, it’s not a lie when you are ordered to lie.”1

Dr. Taha’s brief reply is one symbol of a highly developed, well disciplined, and expertly organized program designed to win support for the Iraqi regime through outright deceit. This elaborate program is one of the regime’s most potent weapons for advancing its political, military, and diplomatic objectives. In their disinformation and propaganda campaigns, the Iraqis use elaborate ruses and obvious falsehoods, covert actions and false on-the-record statements, and sophisticated preparation and spontaneous exploitation of opportunities. Many of the techniques are not new, but this regime exploits them more aggressively and effectively –

and to more harmful effect – than any other regime in power today.

In the weeks ahead, as the international community seeks to enforce UN Security Council resolutions and disarm the Iraqi regime, governments, the media, and the public are urged to consider the regime’s words, deeds, and images in light of this brutal record of deceit. Apparatus of Lies discusses the lies that Iraq has used to promote its propaganda and disinformation in four broad categories:

· Crafting Tragedy: To craft tragedy, the regime places civilians close to military equipment, facilities, and troops, which are legitimate targets in an armed conflict. The Iraqi regime openly used both Iraqis and foreigners as human shields during the Gulf War, eventually bowing to international pressure and releasing them. It has also placed military equipment

next to or inside mosques and ancient cultural treasures. Finally, it has deliberately damaged facilities and attributed the damage to coalition bombing and has attempted to pass off damage from natural catastrophes, such as earthquakes, as the result of bombing.

· Exploiting Suffering: To exploit suffering, Saddam blames starvation and medical crises – often of his own making – on the United Nations or the United States and its allies. This is such an effective ruse that the Iraqi regime actually causes or actively ignores hardship and then aggressively exploits the Iraqi people’s suffering. For the last few years, the Iraqis have

aggressively promoted the false notion that depleted uranium – a substance that is relatively harmless and was used for armor-piercing munitions during the Gulf War – has caused cancers and birth defects among Iraqis. Scientific evidence indicates that any elevated rates

of cancer and birth defects are most likely due to Iraqi use of chemical weapons.

· Exploiting Islam: Experts know that Saddam Hussein is a non-religious man from a secular – even atheistic – party. But to exploit Islamic sentiments, he adopts expressions of faith in his public pronouncements, and the Iraqi propaganda apparatus erects billboards and distributes images showing him praying or in other acts of piety – all while the regime

prevents pilgrims from making the Hajj. The regime also has made many false claims designed to incite Muslims against its adversaries.

· Corrupting the Public Record: To corrupt the public record, the regime uses a combination of on-the-record lies, covert placements of false news accounts, self-inflicted damage, forgeries, and fake interviews.

The Iraqi regime uses several tools in various combinations to disseminate false information and images in the expectation that supporters and commentators will cause it to reverberate through the media. Many of these falsehoods die quickly, but even the most implausible claims can find

believers or at least a permanent home in the public record. Under certain circumstances, some will gain vigor and continue to be repeated and grow, even after they have been proven false. The Iraqis have adapted and varied their mix of themes and techniques over the years, depending

on the situation, and they have quickly seized new opportunities to spread false information. Iraq’s disinformation effort is serious and sophisticated. The regime commits substantial resources to this effort and has achieved some remarkable successes.



Main Tools of Iraqi Disinformation

· Staged suffering and grief

· Co-location of military assets and civilians

· Restricting journalists’ movements

· False claims or disclosures

· False man-in-the-street interviews

· Self-inflicted damage

· On-the-record lies

· Covert dissemination of false stories

· Censorship

· Bogus, edited, or old footage and images

· Fabricated documents



An important priority of Saddam’s deception apparatus is to manipulate the televised images the world sees. This is accomplished by controlling the movements of foreign journalists, monitoring and censoring news transmissions, disseminating old or fake footage, and carefully staging

events or scenes. The regime’s most cynical strategy is to actually cause severe civilian hardship or even deaths and then exploit the Iraqi people’s suffering by placing the blame on UN-imposed sanctions or other nations.

Recent U.S. government reports, including A Decade of Defiance and Deception, have documented Saddam’s deceit regarding UN resolutions and weapons inspections. In order to raise awareness of many of the regime’s other forms of deception, particularly those likely to be repeated, Apparatus of Lies examines the facts behind Iraqi disinformation and propaganda since 1990. Given the nature and history of the regime, evidence of further deception is almost certain to come to light.



Given all this information, it is clear that action must be taken. Saddam has had 12 years to defy Resolution 687 which clearly stated in 1991 that Saddam has 90 days to disarm. Well he hasn't, and the international community, intimidated by the Germans and French (who have supplied muuh of the hardware and equiptment that Saddam has used to make these banned weapons) are unable to gather the impitus to make a decisive move to disarm Saddam. Don't believe me about German and French compliance in Saddams weapons of death? Read this:



Remember that North Korean ship that delivered Scud missiles to Yemen late last year? Bill Gertz reports in Tuesday's Washington Times that the ship headed back to North Korea earlier this month is carrying a shipment of sodium cyanide. That's a precursor chemical used in making nerve gases like sarin. Kim Jong-Il now has several tons of it thanks to his good friends, the peace-loving Germans.

This is a nation that we're told is against war, yet they're sending this stuff to the North Korean Stalinists for the almighty Euro. The Germans refused to comment on this. They could say that this is a "duel use" chemical, but that would beg the question, "Why send it to him in the first place?" Those nuclear reactors Clinton gave Kim are duel use too, and we know how he used those. I think this is a clear example of what Germany and France are trying to hide in Iraq.

Remember, most of the weapons we destroyed in Gulf War One were French. (That partially explains why the Iraqis surrendered so quickly.) We also know that the Germans helped Saddam get the centrifuges he needs to enrich uranium. I think France is just as dirty (no pun intended) as Germany on this, and that they are opposing the liberation of the Iraqi people because they are desperate to keep this news from being made public. They'll take the heat for whatever kind of outrageous behavior they engage in now, because they can do so in the name of "peace." That's far less offensive than this kind of stuff being learned.



As to the anti-war protesters, they represent a dying breed. A generation bred in the Vietnam war who have no connection with the realities of todays geopolitics. They see things through rose-colored glasses, and in the end, their view is false and erroneous. I pity their naievite, for there are 200,000 American soldiers who are about to destroy a madman and a butcher so that they may rally in the streets - using a freedom that doesnt exist in Iraq. In fact, if they attempted to stage such a protest on any subject except abject worship of the Butcher of Baghdad, they would be shot. Their families would be shot. Their relitives and friends would be shot. Simple as that. Saddam loved the protesters, he believes (and I sometiems wonder if they do) that they support him and his regime. I'm telling you folks, Saddam will not be stopped by a bunch of inspectors searching milk factories. He has all of his facilities buried deep underground in subterranian caves in the desert and around his palaces; in mobile trucks and 18-wheelers. Dont believe me?



Perhaps you would believe a former [b]Top Iraqi Nuclear Scientist[/b]:



Hussain Al-Shahristani, former chief adviser to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, said he believes Iraq’s nuclear program has been dismantled, [b]but Saddam still has chemical and biological weapons. [/b]



He said such weapons are relatively easy to make and that Saddam has "mobile" laboratories that roam the countryside, making it hard for U.N. weapons inspectors to find them.



He said stockpiles of those weapons are also located underground and in tunnels.



“Saddam has mastered his concealment tactics,” Al-Shahristani said in a TV interview in the Philippines. “He has appointed thousands of security officers and trained them well in hiding these weapons."



The former scientist was jailed in 1979 for refusing to take part in Saddam's nuclear weapons development program, but he escaped from prison in 1991 during the chaos following the Gulf War.



He said his knowledge of the current state of Iraq's weapons programs is based on information he received from contacts who were also involved in Saddam's arms programs but have since fled the country.



"Iraqis cannot feel safe and secure in their country, he said. “They cannot practice their basic human rights without Saddam being forced to leave and relinquish power in the country."



He added Iraqis had suffered human rights abuses for 30 years under Saddam, losing about one million people -- about half killed in the suppression of resistance and opposition and the other half in wars against Iran and Kuwait.



“These weapons have been used against the Iraqis in the past. In the 80s and also in suppressing the uprising of 1991,” he said. “And Saddam might use them again against the Iraqi people in the event of military confrontation because he knows that his real opponents are the Iraqi people.”



“However, I was more fortunate than many of my fellow political prisoners in the country,” he said during a briefing on Iraqi human rights abuses in London in December.



“I did not have my eyes gouged out,” he said. “Women of my family were not brought in and raped in front of me, as happened to many of my colleagues.... I was not among the hundreds of political prisoners who were taken from prison as guinea-pigs to be used for chemical and biological tests.”



Another former Iraqi scientist, Khidhir Hamza, who headed Saddam's nuclear program in the late 1980s, told Fox News in August that Saddam could have nuclear weapons in just a few years.



“Many intelligence estimates say that Saddam is within two to three years," he said. "The Americans say at least a year... the Germans say in 2005, he should have three nuclear weapons.”



Hamza, who defected in 1994 and is the author of Saddam's Bomb Maker, also said Saddam has a stockpile of chemical weapons. “That's a worry because although the U.S. forces would be able to take care of that… the population is not," he said. "So the idea is to take [the chemical repositories] out ahead of time…”



Hamza said it did bother him to help Saddam develop nuclear capabilities. “Initially we started in an innocuous way. All we needed was two or three nuclear weapons to counterbalance Israel. It was a deterrent sort of thing.



"Then, when the Iranian war… started, the scheme changed into attempts to more or less control the region, be a dominant power in the region.”



“Then when the Gulf War started, the worries started because he wanted one nuclear weapon to use if his regime was going to go away. And that worried us, so we dragged our feet.”



The war of libration for the Iraqi people will be soon. It is a forgone conclusion. Iraq will be free from a tryanical dictator. No longer will his execution squads roam at will, no longer will his rape units brutalize women. No longer will people cower in fear of expressing their own thoughts. [b]Iraq will be free.[/b]



:!: -"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men." -General George S. Patton, Jr.



[/b]

I've beeen keeping a running log of my thought on this situation, pulling bits and pieces from news articles I have seen. Only about a quarter of this piece is my own writing; I just thought a presentation of facts would be good for people to think about. A lot of this I drew from international news services (Associated Press, etc.). I dont have specific datelines, or reprorter names, Im sorry I never copied it down.

You know, for all the Israel bashing that goes on these days, I hasten to remind people that these are God's chosen people. The Palestinian situation we have here can be traced back to the Yom Kippur war and the efforts of the Muslim nations to crush the Israelites and the nation of Israel. After by what must have been divine intervention, the young fledging nation fought back and captured territory, Muslim nations forced Palestinians out of their borders and created what we now know as the "Palestinian crisis". Fed by the $25,000 checks that Saddam hands out to any homicide bomber, rogue groups like Hamas, with the full (but always denied) blessing of Yassar Arafat’s PLO group conduct horrible massacres of innocent Israeli citizens.

The IDF has done what it can to keep these elements out of their country. Previous administrations in Israel had even offered to give all that the PLO wanted for peace, and then some. But it was rejected. Why? [b]Because peace is not what they want![/b] What they are after is the entire destruction of a people, a race, and a religion. Personally it makes me sick to see people espousing anti-Semitic venom in our culture and internationally. In France, it is even smiled upon (remember all the Synagogue burnings?) But on this I am sure: God will protect His people to the final days.

I don't think they take the Bible so literaly. They look for what they want to hear. You know,I can take the Bible, Jurrasic Park or Go Dog Go and develop a way to use it against other people. Thats how Terrorist justify themselfs, they look so hard for a just reaon to kill and they find it in word interpitation. Its sad how Muslims are now stereotyped as terrorist becuase a few bad apples are confused about what they hear, read and confused about themselfs.