From: Pat Fallon (pfallon@ptd.net)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 10:22:53 MST
Every day TV coverage of Iraq mentions that Saddam "gassed his own people."
Haven't heard much mention of Stephen Pelletiere's op ed piece in the New
York Times (Jan. 31, "A War Crime or an Act of War").
Pelletiere was the CIA's senior political analyst on Iraq during the 1980s
war between Iraq and Iran, and later served as a professor at the US Army
War College (1988-2000).
His op ed piece attacks the theory that Saddam gassed the Kurds. You know,
"Saddam gassed his own people." That oft-repeated charge that makes up a
significant part of the administration's argument for war now.
Pelletiere had access to a lot of the classified data that was generated
around the Kurd matter. He was in charge of the 1991 Army probe that
investigated the question: How would Saddam fight a war against the US?
The major gassing incident occurred in March 1988 at a town called Halabja.
"But the truth is," Pelletiere writes, "all we know for certain is that
Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day." This occurred near the end
of the Iraq-Iran
war.
Pelletiere writes, "immediately after the battle [at Halabja] the United
States Defense Information Agency investigated and produced a classified
report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a
need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed
the Kurds, not Iraqi gas."
Pelletiere goes on to write that both the Iraqis and the Iranian troops used
gas at Halabja. "The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated
that they had been killed with a blood agent---that is, a cyanide-based
gas---which Iran was known to have. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used
mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at
the time."
Remember, the charge that has been leveled at Saddam is, he gassed his own
civilians. Pelletiere is offering evidence collected by US intelligence and
military analysts that refutes that charge.
Haven't heard this mentioned much by Bush, Powell, Blair, and the talking
heads on TV.
Of course, if we were consistent in condemning leaders for "gassing their
own people" there might be a few more questions about the use of CS-gas in
the attack on the Branch Davidian "compound" at Waco. As I understand it,
the US had signed international treaties banning use of that chemical agent
in times of war against our enemies. Apparently our leaders will sign
treaties agreeing not to use it against our enemies, but reserve the right
to use it against domestic civilians, including women and children.
Pat Fallon
pfallon@ptd.net
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