Saddam Hussein Unplugged
Friday July 3, 2009
Like hooded convicts: Fingerprints on Saddam Hussein's booking sheet (National Security Archives)
"Let me ask a direct question," Saddam Hussein said, in Arabic, at the beginning of one of his "interviews" by American interrogators in Baghdad on Feb. 13, 2004. "I want to ask where, from the beginning of this interview process until now, has the information been going? For our relationship to remain clear, I want to know." So Hussein was told: The U.S. government was doing the interviewing, and the information would likely lead back to George W. Bush.
Hussein seemed satisfied. Agreeable. Said he would have no reservations if others were "brought into" the process. He "does not mind" if the information is published. "If you decide to publish a book, be sure to write it in English as well as Arabic."
He spoke like his own publicist. He might as well have. He'll be the subject of his share of books, and in the next few days and weeks, more than his share of articles, now that the transcripts of 20 interviews and five "casual conversations" conducted with him after his capture by U.S. troops in December 2003 have been released, thanks to the always-industrious and fascinating National Security Archives at George Washington University.
"Saddam," the archives' own sum-up has it, "denied any connections to the 'zealot' Osama bin Laden, cited North Korea as his most likely ally in a crunch, and shared President George W. Bush's hostility towards the 'fanatic' Iranian mullahs, according to the FBI records of conversations from February through June 2004 between Saddam and Arabic-speaking agents in his detention cell at Baghdad International Airport."
It was for the Iranians' sake that he lied about possessing weapons of mass destruction. He feared them more than he feared the United States, so by pretending to have chemical weapons, he hoped to deter an Iranian attack.
From his last "casual conversation" with FBI agent George Piro, one of a scandalously small number of agents who spoke Arabic: "Hussein stated that he was a believer in God but was not a zealot." Hussein believed that religion and government should not mix."
Many of the interviews are searching, oral histories from Saddam Hussein's perspective of a range of matters--coups, the Palestinian-Israeli issue, wars with Israel, the Baath party in Iraq, his relationships with Syria and al-Qaeda--that will fill in his own perspective on Middle East history. But the documents are just as absorbing for the insights they allow about Saddam Hussein's mind at work, his personality, his strange mix of earnestness, clarity and delusions.
He was asked if, as often reported in the past, he had ever used doubles as security measures. "Movie magic," he called it, denying that he'd done so, except maybe when at war. But that's the thing: Iraq was in a virtual state of war for more years than not under Saddam.
"Not included in these FBI reports," the archives note, "are issues of particular interest to students of Iraq’s complicated relationship with the U.S. – the reported role of the CIA in facilitating the Ba’ath party’s rise to power, the uneasy alliance forged between Iraq and the U.S. during the Iran-Iraq war, and the precise nature of U.S. views regarding Iraq’s chemical weapons policy during that conflict, given its contemporaneous knowledge of their repeated use against Iranians and the Kurds." That's too bad: no word, for instance, on the Reagan administration's strategic alliance with Saddam against Iran.
"This series of interviews also does not address chemical warfare in Kurdish areas of Iraq in 1987-1988, although an FBI progress report says Saddam was questioned on the topic. One interview, #20, is redacted in its entirety on national security grounds, although it is not clear what issues agents could have discussed with Saddam that cannot now be disclosed to the public."
But we can guess. Ronald Reagan, Donald Rumsfeld and both Bushes must be breathing a sigh of relief, the redacting pen once again proving their questionable legacies' best friend.
Read the entire set of interviews and casual conversations at the National Security Archives.
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Israel Hijacks Humanitarian Ship Bound for Gaza
Thursday July 2, 2009
Hijacked: The Spirit of Humanity in Cyprus, before it was illegally seized by the Israeli navy while the vessel was on its way to Gaza to deliver humanitarian supplies. (Courtesy of freegaza.org via Flickr)
You'd think that when a Nobel peace prize winner, a former U.S. member of Congress and 21 other passengers and crew members abroad a boat carrying humanitarian supplies are illegally seized in international waters along with their cargo--essentially, an act of piracy--and indefinitely imprisoned, there'd be a bit of an outcry. Or at least some reporting. Not so. At least not in the United States.
The "Spirit of Humanity" is a 66-foot Greek-flagged ship. It was in Cyprus at the end of June, loaded with humanitarian supplies bound for Gaza, the work of freegaza.org. Passengers included Mairead Maguire, who, in 1976, won the Nobel Peace Prize with Betty Williams for their peace initiatives in Northern Ireland. Passengers also included Cynthia McKinney, a six-term member of Congress and 2008 presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket, Mansour Al-Abi, a cameraman with Al-Jazeera TV, and Denis Healey, the British captain of the Spirit of Humanity, making his fifth trip to Gaza. Or not making it: The Israeli navy seized the ship on June 30 and imprisoned the passengers and crew pending their deportation.
Nothing of this in The New York Times. The Washington Post made a passing reference to it, but only in a gossip blog and as an excuse to make fun of Cynthia McKinney. Nothing in the Wall Street Journal or USA Today. The Los Angeles Times ran a four-paragraph brief on July 1, but said Israelis "intercepted" the vessel and treated the encounter as a legitimate police matter, though it took place in international waters. The European press is more alert, with the Irish Times leading the way, considering that Derek Graham, a former member of the Irish military, is among the prisoners.
Back in January, when the Spirit was on another run to Gaza, the Israeli navy surrounded the ship and threatened to open fire if it didn't turn back.
For the past two years Israel has maintained a strict and brutal blockade on Gaza, in response to Hamas being elected to a majority of the Palestinian parliament. "Not one of the siege's aims have been achieved and the damage is only piling up, perhaps for all eternity," writes Haaretz's Gideon Levy. "Folly and malevolence, a fairly common combination, have melded into one of Israel's most fateful mistakes. Even if we leave aside the moral aspect of the inhumane and illegal siege, it is no longer possible to ignore its stupidity as a policy. [Gilad] Shalit has not been released - no siege is going to free him. Hamas has not fallen - the group is only more firmly establishing its regime. And above all, a new reality is developing before our eyes that is worse for Israel than all its predecessors. ... The Palestinians are split and there's no one to talk to."
At least humanitarian supplies were supposed to be exempt from the blockade. More than that: An international conference at Egypt's Sharm-el-Sheikh earlier this year had concluded ion the pledge of $2 billion in reconstruction money for Gaza. Israel hasn't let that money through, either, and Barack Obama, whose administration pledged large amounts, is not pushing the issue. Is it any wonder that humanitarian activists are taking matters into their own hands?
Back in February the Israeli navy stopped another vessel, the Brotherhood Ship,. that had sailed from the Lebanese port of Tripoli with toys, food and medical supplies bound for Gaza. Israel feared it might “threaten security concerns,” banned it from docking in Gaza and hijacked it it instead to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where the crew was detained, questioned then deported to Lebanon.
It's a mockery of law, and of Gaza's status as anything but an open-air prison rimmed by Israeli whims and cruelty, and the useful indifference of the American press. As Levy writes, "When there are no terror attacks, there are no Arabs: When Gaza isn't shooting, it is abandoned to its fate. That is the message Israel is sending its imprisoned neighbors: Launch Qassams and we'll take an interest in you, don't launch Qassams and we won't take an interest. Only abducted soldier Gilad Shalit is still reminding us of Gaza's existence: The activists for his release demonstrated again last week. But instead of demonstrating for the release of Palestinian prisoners, they demonstrated for tightening the siege and collective punishment. Only Gilad was born to be free."
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Wednesday July 1, 2009
Put up your flaps: The Mukefaha, a Lebanese Army anti-terrorism special unit, train in recent years at Beirut International Airport, scene of the 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking, when U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem was murdered. (Courtney Kealy/Getty Images)
Twenty-four years ago yesterday in Beirut, Lebanon (on June 30, 1985), Lebanese Shiite militants associated with Hezbollah released 39 American passengers they held captive for 17 days after hijacking TWA Flight 847.
The plane was on a scheduled flight from Cairo to Athens. Hijackers forced it to Beirut and twice went to Algiers before returning to Beirut releasing most of the (non-American) 152 passengers along the way, and murdering U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, one of the passengers—beating him, shooting him in the temple and dumping his body on the tarmac of Beirut International Airport.
Hijackers had demanded the release of 735 Lebanese Shiites and Lebanese held by Israel either in Israeli prisons or in an Israeli detention camp in occupied South Lebanon.
The hijackers got away—and their operation, perversely, succeeded: On July 3, Israel released 300 prisoners, and 100 more on July 24. None of the prisoners had been charged. They were held in Israeli custody under suspicion of participating in attacks on Israel or on the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army.
It is possible that Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mugniyah was one of the hijacking’s masterminds. German authorities arrested Mohammed Ali Hammadi and convicted him of Stethem’s murder in 1987. Hammadi was paroled in 2005 and returned to Beirut, where he is believed to be living today.
Iran Pulls Triggers as US Troops Pull Back in Iraq
Tuesday June 30, 2009
There is little relationship between what Arab leadders say publicly and what they say privately. Publicly, they take on the language of tabloids, they channel the reactionary mood of streets and coffee shops. They do what Fox News does in the United States: they huff, puff and bloviate for public consumption at the lowest common denominator, for maximum ratings.
So it was when Iraq's prime minister, Nour al-Maliki--a neo-authoritarian in the making--described the withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities on June as a "great victory," an end to occupation, and a thwarting of foreign forces comparable to the Iraqi rebellion against British occupation in 1920.
Privately, al-Maliki is likely more polite, knowing that even as American bases close across Iraq, 130,000 U.S. troops are still on Iraqi soil and can, at the Iraqi government's request, conduct patrols, bash in Iraqi doors and make arrests, as they have since invading the country in March 2003. They may have to. No sooner had an American base closed in Sadr City last week, the sprawling Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, than a bomb killed almost 80 people and wounded 150, a bloody signal that all is not well in "victorious" Iraq. The following day, seven bombs exploded across the country, killing scores.
That Sadr City base was one of 150 that U.S. troops closed. But it's not as if Americans have truly withdrawn.
- U.S. troops still have some 25 bases from which they're operating.
- The U.S. military still flies helicopters unimpeded, a symbolic presence in the skies above Iraq that reminds Iraqis who still has the most firepower.
- Even in the cities, thousands of U.S. troops will still be "advising" Iraqi troops on a daily basis. In the past (remember Vietnam), U.S. advisers' role was often indistinguishable from that of combat soldiers.
The uptick in bombings may have little to do with the withdrawal of U.S. troops and more to do with Iran, ticked off at the Obama administration for its response to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fraudulent re-election, sending the message that it still can trigger what mayhem it pleases across the border. "Shiite militia leaders," the
Wall Street Journal reports, "say a toughening resolve among hard-liners in Iran is translating into direct orders from Iran-based leaders to increase attacks, as well as inspiring militants next door in Iraq to demonstrate their influence."
In other words it doesn't matter what U.S. troops' address may be in Iraq. As long as they're "in country," Iraq remains a target.
