Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Special Edition - Mid February 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
What a terrible embarrassment for Downing Street.
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s dossier of
what he called solid evidence of Iraq’s weapons
of mass destruction turned out to have been plagiarized
from a thesis prepared twelve year ago by a Californian
postgraduate student Ibrahim al-Marashi.
The UK intelligence document, published in the Middle
East Review of International affairs in early February
2003, apparently was designed to help win over skeptics
by detailing Saddam Hussein’s efforts to hide any
weapons of mass destruction.
Apparently the plagiarized document was copied verbatim,
(included grammatical errors and spelling mistakes), apart
from what Mr. Al-Marashi quoted as some minor cosmetic
changes and the inflation of some of the numbers.
American Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell praised the
document in a recent speech aimed at promoting America’s
case against Iraq. The presentation of this document was
definitely a considerable embarrassment to both Governments
in their in their efforts to try to make a case for war
against Iraq.
France and Germany throw a spanner in the works.
Munich (8th of February 2003), France and Germany
are weighing up a joint initiative to be presented to
the United Nations that would send additional weapon inspectors
and possibly international military observers to Iraq.
The Bush administration immediately brushed aside the
suggestion and Secretary of State Colin Powell said in
a recent television interview, “More inspectors
doesn’t answer the question”, and dismissed
the French-German suggestions as, “A diversion,
not a solution”.
Diversion from what---President Bush’s intention
to enter into a war with Iraq as soon as possible no matter
what the cost.
Stalemate: Germany holds the chairmanship of the Security
Council, and France is a permanent Member of the United
Nations, but every effort by them to introduce a new approach
to disarming Iraq would certainly be blocked by the United
States and Great Britain.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
