Newsgroup: it.cultura.storia
Titolo: CBS Falsifies Iraq War History

CBS Falsifies Iraq War History
By Robert Parry 
January 28, 2008 
 
There’s a cynical old saying that the victors write the history. CBS’s “60
Minutes” demonstrated how that process works on Jan. 27 in airing Scott
Pelley’s interview with the FBI agent who de-briefed former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein.
 
In a world of objective reality, a reporter might say that the United
States launched an unprovoked invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, under
the false pretense that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction,
even after Iraq had repeatedly – and accurately – announced that its WMD
had been destroyed in the 1990s.
On Dec. 7, 2002, Iraq even sent to the United Nations a 12,000-page
declaration explaining how its WMD stockpiles had been eliminated. In fall
2002, Hussein’s government also allowed teams of U.N. inspectors into Iraq
and gave them free rein to examine any site of their choosing.
Those inspections only ended in March 2003 when President George W. Bush
decided to press ahead with war despite the U.N. Security Council’s
refusal to authorize the invasion and its desire to give the U.N.
inspectors time to finish their work.
But none of that reality is part of the history that Americans are
supposed to know. The officially sanctioned U.S. account, as embraced by
Bush in speech after speech, is that Saddam Hussein “chose war” by defying
the U.N. over the WMD issue and by misleading the world into believing
that he still possessed these weapons.
In line with Bush’s version of history, “60 Minutes” correspondent Pelley
asked FBI interrogator George Piro why Hussein kept pretending that he had
WMD even as U.S. troops massed on Iraq’s borders, when a simple
announcement that the WMD was gone would have prevented the war.
“For a man who drew America into two wars and countless military
engagements, we never knew what Saddam Hussein was thinking,” Pelley said
in introducing the segment on the interrogation of Hussein about his WMD
stockpiles. “Why did he choose war with the United States?”
The segment never mentions the fact that Hussein’s government did disclose
that it had eliminated its WMD. Instead Pelley presses Piro on the
question of why Hussein was hiding that fact.
Piro said Hussein explained to him that “most of the WMD had been
destroyed by the U.N. inspectors in the ‘90s, and those that hadn’t been
destroyed by the inspectors were unilaterally destroyed by Iraq.”
“So,” Pelley asked, “why keep the secret? Why put your nation at risk, why
put your own life at risk to maintain this charade?”
After Piro mentioned Hussein’s lingering fear of neighboring Iran, Pelley
felt he was close to an answer to the mystery: “He believed that he
couldn’t survive without the perception that he had weapons of mass
destruction?”
Wanting an Invasion?
But, still, Pelley puzzled over why Hussein’s continued in his
miscalculation.
Pelley asked: “As the U.S. marched toward war and we began massing troops
on his border, why didn’t he stop it then? And say, ‘Look, I have no
weapons of mass destruction,’ I mean, how could he have wanted his country
to be invaded?”
It’s Bush World, with Pelley – like other prominent U.S. news
correspondents – ignoring the well-established facts of the run-up to war
and following the made-up story first presented by Bush four months after
he forced the U.N. inspectors out, when he began claiming that Hussein had
never let them in.
On July 14, 2003, as the U.S.-led WMD search also was coming up empty,
Bush began asserting that it was all Hussein’s fault because he had never
let the U.N. inspectors in. Bush told reporters:
“We gave him [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he
wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we
decided to remove him from power.”
Facing no challenge from the White House press corps, Bush continued
repeating this lie in varied forms over the next four years as part of his
public litany for defending the invasion.
On Jan. 27, 2004, for example, Bush said, “We went to the United Nations,
of course, and got an overwhelming resolution – 1441 – unanimous
resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your
weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such
programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let
us in.”
As the months and years went by, Bush’s lie and its constant retelling
took on the color of truth.
At a March 21, 2006, news conference, Bush again blamed the war on
Hussein’s defiance of U.N. demands for unfettered inspections.
“I was hoping to solve this [Iraq] problem diplomatically,” Bush said.
“The world said, ‘Disarm, disclose or face serious consequences.’ … We
worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world.
And when he chose to deny the inspectors, when he chose not to disclose,
then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did.”
At a press conference on May 24, 2007, Bush offered a short-hand version,
even inviting the journalists to remember the invented history.
“As you might remember back then, we tried the diplomatic route: [U.N.
Resolution] 1441 was a unanimous vote in the Security Council that said
disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. So the choice was his
[Hussein’s] to make. And he made a choice that has subsequently caused him
to lose his life.”
In the frequent repetition of this claim, Bush never acknowledges the fact
that Hussein did comply with Resolution 1441 by declaring accurately that
he had disposed of his WMD stockpiles and by permitting U.N. inspectors to
examine any site of their choosing.
Journalistic Group Think
Prominent Washington journalists have even repeated Bush’s lie as their
own. For instance, in a July 2004 interview, ABC’s veteran newsman Ted
Koppel used it to explain why he – Koppel – thought the invasion of Iraq
was justified.
“It did not make logical sense that Saddam Hussein, whose armies had been
defeated once before by the United States and the Coalition, would be
prepared to lose control over his country if all he had to do was say,
‘All right, U.N., come on in, check it out,” Koppel told Amy Goodman, host
of “Democracy Now.”
Of course, Hussein did tell the U.N. to “come on in, check it out.” But he
did so in the real history, not in the faux reality that now governs
Washington and pervades America’s top news programs, including “60
Minutes.”
In Pelley’s historical formulation, the question is not why did Bush
invade Iraq in violation of international law, causing the deaths of
nearly 4,000 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, but
rather “How could [Hussein] have wanted his country to be invaded?”  
This strategy of repeating a “big lie” often enough to make it sound true
was famously described in the writings of Nazi propagandist Joseph
Goebbels during World War II. However, given the relatively free U.S.
press, many Americans feel they are protected from “big lie” techniques,
counting on journalists to call lying politicians to account.
But that clearly is no longer the case – and hasn’t been for some time.
Facing career pressure from well-organized right-wing attack groups,
American journalists act more like triangulating politicians, fearful of
accusations of “liberal bias” or unpatriotic behavior or softness on
terrorism.
To have challenged George W. Bush in July 2003 – when he was near the
height of his popularity – or even now with his approval ratings at
historic lows would carry career dangers that few American reporters want
to risk.
So, discretion – or in this case the acceptance of a lie as truth – is the
better part of valor.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the
Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous
Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and
Nat, and can be ordered at 
neckdeepbook.com
. His two previous books,
Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq
and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' are also
available there. Or go to Amazon.com. 
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Come promesso, as ogni messaggio degli antisionisti, su qualunque 
argomento risponderò ricordando loro le parole di Napolitino:
ROMA - No all'antisemitismo "anche quando esso
si travesta da antisionismo". E' l'appello lanciato da Giorgio 
Napolitano nella giornata della Memoria, (dello scorso anno ndt) 
celebrata al Quirinale, in una cerimonia solenne cui hanno partecipato 
anche il presidente del Consiglio Romano Prodi, i presidenti della 
Camera e Senato Fausto Bertinotti e Franco Marini.
"Antisionismo", ha detto il capo dello stato, "significa negazione della 
fonte ispiratrice dello stato ebraico, delle ragioni della sua nascita, 
ieri, e della sua sicurezza oggi, al di là dei governi che si alternano 
nella guida di Israele".

 argomento risponderò ricordando loro le parole di Napolitino:
al fascista arduino d'ivrea, in passato conosciuto sul ng come Veniero
Fogliata in cui si spacciava come ex repubblichino, da fastidio che si
sappia la verita' su vari argomenti.
Peccato per lui che al dunque gli cade sempre la mascherina e si scopre
che non ha nulla di diverso dal suo camerata artamano. 
Vedere il suo applauso all'articolo che artamano ha postato e dove si
diffama e calunnia un Eroe di questa Repubblica antifascista come Arrigo
Boldrini.
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CBS Falsifies Iraq War History
By Robert Parry 
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