From: nyxfer%panix.com@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: NEWS:US Bombers to Partition Iraq
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 19:40:07 GMT



Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

U.S. bombers to partition Iraq

By Charles Knight

"We crossed right on the minute," said U.S. Navy Air Commander
Daniel Cain. He piloted the first of 200 U.S. bombers to
penetrate southern Iraq at 10:15 a.m. Baghdad time on Aug. 27,
under George Bush's re-election partition plan.

The military crews for Florida's disaster zone weren't quite as
quick. But then, control of oil profits is not at stake there.

Some 250 U.S. bombers shake the sky above both southern and
northern Iraq 24 hours each day. They have effectively cut off
all the country's oil-producing regions.

The pretext of "humanitarian" protection was blown away both
north and south by these reports: Bombers made and financed by
the U.S. but flown by Turks are hitting Kurdish communities in
the north. And in the south, fishers interviewed by reporter
Susan Sachs of New York Newsday said there were no Iraqi assaults
against the civilian population from which they needed
protection.

News blot

Although detailed news from the war zone has been blotted out,
the outline of the situation is clear. The Bush administration
wants to destroy the Iraqi economy, but establish firm control
over the oil-producing areas. It has the full support of
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

The bomber campaign is complete with aerial refueling, giant
AWACS aerial command ships, and super-high-flying R-135
reconnaissance craft, with sea- and land-based missile power in
reserve.

The attack is off the front pages partly because of the Florida
hurricane coverage, and partly because of tight Pentagon
censorship. A New York Times reporter on the aircraft carrier
Independence admitted that every story filed from the vessel must
be cleared by Pentagon officials on board.

Another report said no government in the region wanted to host a
U.S. Air Force news conference. So the Air Force base commander
in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, had to go aboard a U.S. ship in the
Gulf to speak to the media on the record. Of course, if the
Pentagon wanted to speak to the press, no one in Saudi Arabia or
Kuwait could stop it.

Kuwaiti "ethnic cleansing"

Kuwait has carried out its own "ethnic cleansing" campaign under
the approving eye of Washington. It has driven out more than
300,000 people--mainly Palestinians--using over a dozen types of
torture, according to an Amnesty International report.

The report cites "savage beatings with sticks, hoses, pipes and
rifle butts; whipping with electric cables; electric shocks;
burning with cigarettes, candles and acid; ... and threats of
execution and sexual assault."

U.S. officials explained these atrocities as the "natural
reaction to the trauma of war, and an understandable move in the
reconstruction of a country," according to an April 29 report
from Pacific News Service.

Noting the hypocrisy of U.S. official justifications for its
military escalation should not fool anyone about the deadly
seriousness of the military campaign.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@igc.apc.org".)

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