TRACK 5 : COUNTING ON NEW FRIENDS

Music by ORBITAL -  "THE BOX" - re-mixed by BUMP ‘N’ GRIND -  5:04

 

[19/65.] ‘NAYIRAH’ (Testifying at the Human Rights Caucus)

‘While I was there I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the children to die on the cold floor.’

[20/77.] CBC JOURNALIST

‘The President repeated the incubator story 6 times in his verbal war against Saddam.’

Three hundred babies had died, the President said. But the girl who gave the testimony….

[19/74.] CBC JOURNALIST

‘…..wasn’t just a simple Kuwaiti escapee. In fact, just a few seats away was her father, Kuwait’s Ambassador to the United States and Canada.’

…a fact known to the organisers of the hearing.

[20/83.]

‘Citizens for a Free Kuwait wanted to get public opinion behind a full scale commitment [….] so they paid over 10 million dollars to America’s biggest Public Relations Company: Hill and Knowlton Inc.’

[20/84.] DEE ALSOP OF HILL& KNOWLTON

‘…which is about what it is for a Presidential campaign.’

[20/85.]

‘Most ordinary Americans didn’t care about Kuwait.’

‘So the efforts were – what is it that we can do to emotionally motivate people to support actions through the UN to drive them out?’

 

[1/45.] BUSH

‘Saddam’s power will only grow […] The next conflict will find him stronger still, perhaps in possession even of nuclear weapons.’

 

Many still opposed the war, and Congress had not voted. They were willing…. (Narration overlaps with intro to [20/48.] )

[20/48.] THOMAS FOLEY, SPEAKER – US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

‘….they were willing to have a vote as long as the outcome was more or less certain to be, er, supportive of the administration.’

Bush doubled the troops to 400,000.

[20/49.] BUSH

‘I know in my heart of hearts that what we are doing is right.’

[20/50.]

‘Unable to count on the support of Congress, the administration turned to the United Nations.’

[20/51.] JAMES BAKER.

‘If we could get the Soviet Union to agree to the use of force, China would not veto. It was decided that I would visit with each and every government on the Security Council.’

Debts were written off, loans granted to China, Russia, Israel, Iran…‘incentives’ totalling 23 billion dollars. [1]

 

Resolution 678 authorised the use of ‘..all necessary means.’ (Narration overlaps with intro. to [7/46.])

[7/46.]

’…all necessary means to: '…restore international peace and security in the area.'

[7/55.] UK PRIME MINISTER JOHN MAJOR

‘It is at this stage quite impossible to determine in detail precisely what that may mean.’

[9/73.] TUNISIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

‘This is a very bad precedent for the Security Council. Who knows who's next in line?’

[2/1.]

‘Will those in favour of the draft resolution please raise their hand….’

[9/68.]

‘China abstained and Yemen and Cuba actually voted against the resolution.’

[2/1.]

‘Thank you. The draft resolution has been adopted as 678.’

[20/55.]

‘The next day, all US aid to Yemen was cancelled.’

[1/63.]

‘Secretary of State, thank you for bringing us very closely in contact with these realities.’

[20/55.] US VOICE

‘This meeting is adjourned.’

 

[7/94.] ROBERT GATES

‘The United Nations can now play the kind of role we all have hoped for a long time it could play.’

Iraq was given until January 15th to withdraw.

 

[20/46.] BUSH

‘I have today directed the Secretary of Defence to increase the size of US forces […] to ensure that the coalition has an adequate offensive military option.’

[1/36.]

‘Sent in the early days of the crisis to defend Saudi Arabia, it began to look as if they might be used to attack Iraq. ‘

Across the world people demonstrated as the Allies readied for an assault.

[2/3.]

‘If there is an ideal time for war in the desert, it’s before March, but that drastically shortens the time for sanctions to bite.’

 

Shortly before the deadline. (Narration overlaps with intro. to [12/43.])

[12/43]

‘Shortly before the deadline, hopes were raised, when Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz and the US Secretary of State James Baker, met in Geneva.’

[20/56.] BUSH

‘To go the extra mile for peace…’

Bush wrote a letter to Saddam Hussein. [2]

[20/62.] JAMES BAKER

‘He read the letter; didn’t say a word and then he looked at me and he said: "I cannot accept this letter".'

[12/43.] TARIQ AZIZ

"When it comes to the Arabs, there you raise the stick.'

[20/78.] (OVERLAPPING MIX)

‘..to authorise the use of United States armed forces, pursuant to……’ (fades out)

With four days to go the Senate voted.

‘In the debate the incubator story came up seven times.’

[20/60.]

‘On this vote, the yays are 52 and the nays are 47.’

[2/4.] BUSH

‘This will not be…another Vietnam. [….] We will not permit our troops to have their hands tied behind their backs. And I pledge to you there will not be any murky ending.’

 

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[1] To secure votes for UNSCR 678, the US brazenly bribed and bullied UN member states.

China: VOTE - ABSTENTION. On the 30th of November its’ foreign minister met with George Bush and former US Secretary of State James Baker in Washington. Within a week a World Bank loan of 140 million dollars was deposited in Beijing, the first loan since the Tianenmen Square massacre.

Ethiopia: VOTE - YES. Provided with new aid package, World Bank credits and re-arrangement of IMF grants, as well as new military aid.

Zaire: VOTE - YES. Provided with new aid package, World Bank Credits, re-arrangements of IMF grants.

Columbia: VOTE - YES. Provided with increased aid package in economic and military elements.

Soviet Union: VOTE - YES. Saudi foreign minister Saud Al-Faysalwe travelled to Moscow and offered a billion dollars to President Gorbachov. A further 4 billion in loans and emergency aid was later provided by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The day after the UN vote, the US announced that it would review its’ policy on food aid and agricultural credits to the Soviet Union.

Egypt: VOTE - YES. The most indebted country in the Middle East was ‘forgiven’ 7 billion dollars worth of debt by the US, and 4 billion by Canada, Saudi Arabia and other governments in the Gulf.

Syria: VOTE - YES. Although on the US list of countries ‘that sponsor terrorism,’ President Hafez Assed brokered a deal for the supply of a billion dollars of arms aid.

Israel: VOTE - YES. Despite being in receipt of 5 billion dollars from the US every year, Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai asked US Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger for 13 billion, and a down payment of 650 million, whilst waiting for the loan guarantees.

Cuba: VOTE - NO. Cuba voted against, despite attempts by James Baker to persuade Foreign Minister Isadoro Malmierca, in the first meeting Cuban and US representatives had had for three decades.

Yemen: VOTE - NO. Minutes after the vote US Ambassador Pickering informed Yemeni Ambassador Abdallah Saleh al-Ashtol in the Security Council chamber:

"That was the most expensive ‘no’ vote you ever cast."

Three days later the US cancelled its $70 million aid package to Yemen, and 900,000 migrant Yemeni workers were later expelled from Saudi Arabia.  James Baker later reiterated Pickering's comment, as quoted in 'The Washington Version,' BBC television, 1992

The US paid the UN 187 million dollars, which represented half the debt that it owed the UN in unpaid dues.

For further details see John Pilger’s 'Distant Voices,' chapter IV - ‘How the World was Won Over,' Vintage Books 1992, and Ramsey Clark's 'The Fire This Time.'


[2] "It is said by some that you do not understand just how isolated Iraq is and what Iraq faces as a result……but unless you withdraw from Kuwait completely and without condition, you will lose more than Kuwait…the choice is yours to make. What is at stake demands that no opportunity be lost to avoid a certain calamity for the people of Iraq [....] Iraq is already feeling the sanctions mandated by the UN. Should war come, it would be a far greater tragedy for you and your country [....] I write this letter not to threaten, but to inform."

- Extract from George Bush’s letter to Saddam Hussein, 9th January 1991

"I would like to tell you in all sincerity and seriousness that we would have no problems implementing legitimacy and the rules of justice and fairness if these principles were to be honoured with regard to all regional conflicts. [….] However, we do not want to see these principles implemented with regard to a single issue….this would mean double standards were at work. If you are willing to work to achieve peace, justice, stability and security in the whole region, then you would find us at the forefront of those willing to co-operate with you in this regard."

- Tariq Aziz, Iraqi Foreign minister, in conversation with James Baker in Geneva, 9th January 1991, as quoted from official transcripts reproduced in 'The Gulf Conflict' by Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, Faber and Faber,1993.

Baker announced at the press conference afterwards: "The conclusion is clear. Saddam Hussein continues to reject a diplomatic solution."