THE ORIGINAL 72 PAGE CD BOOKLET

- OPEN FORM -

1.
FROM THE CRADLE....

Written, performed and produced
by
MICHAEL STEARNS


Extract from ‘GILGAMESH - INANNA’S JOURNEY TO HELL’

The mother sings:

Now she is coming to death’s kingdom.
She is the mother desolate
In a desolate place; where once
He was alive, now he lies
Like a young calf felled to the ground.
Into his face she stares, seeing
What she has lost - his mother
Who has lost him to death’s kingdom.
The agony she bears
Shuddering in the wilderness,
She is the mother suffering so much.
“It is you,”
she cried to him,
“but you are changed.”

‘Gilgamesh’ is the oldest major recorded work of literature in the world, and recounts the tale of a fruitless search for immortality. It was discovered in 1845 during excavations at Ninevah of the library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal. It is based on the exploits of the apparently real King Gilgamesh of Uruk who ruled some time between 2700 and 2500 BC in the Sumer region of Mesapotamia. Written on clay tablets circa 2100 BC, it pre-dates Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’ by 1300 years. It is the earliest known writing to utilise rhyme and poetry.

The Sumerians lived in advanced city-states, and had mastered irrigation, engineering and a system of laws at least a millennium before European peoples. Other writings of the time reveal the values of these people as cherishing justice, freedom and compassion. Their libraries were the repository of all the world’s knowledge. Much of this knowledge may have been lost during a cataclysmic flood in 2900 BC, described in ‘Gilgamesh’, which corresponds closely with, and may have been the root source of, the flood myth in the bible.

“We the people of the United Nations determine to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women, and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom....”
- Preamble to Article 1, Charter of the United Nations, 1948

‘We have about 60% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its’ population. In this situation we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world benefaction. We should cease to talk about such vague and unreal objectives as human rights, the raising of living standards and democratisation. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
- George Kennan, Former Head of the US State Department Policy Planning Staff, excerpts from Document PPS23, 24th February 1948

2.
THE PLAYGROUND

Written, performed and produced
by
ASHRA

“One of the charges at the time was that in some way, because I had been Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer, [and] Prime Minister, I must have known what was going on.”
- Former British Prime Minister John Major, in response to Lord Chief Justice Scott’s ‘British Arms to Iraq’ enquiry, 1992

“What is the point of Conservative Party officials denouncing the Iraqi’s use of chemical weapons if down the road in Whitehall, another department was helping to equip the factories that produced them?”
- Robin Cook, Former Labour Party Trade Spokesman, article in ‘The Guardian’, 1992

“It was the rigorous implementation of a flexible interpretation.”
- Michael Heseltine, Conservative MP, on being asked why Britain exported arms to Iraq in defiance of the official arms ban, ‘Arms to Iraq’ enquiry, 1992

“Ministers deliberately misled Parliament, but did not intend to mislead Parliament.”
- Conclusion of the ‘British Arms to Iraq’ Scott Report, 1996

Saddam Hussein, along with other Ba’ath Party activists, met with the CIA in the late 1960’s. “He was a son of a bitch...” joked a CIA agent, “...but he was OUR son of a bitch.” The CIA backed coup that overthrew Iraqi Prime Minister Qasim was also described by them as “...a great victory...it was an operation where all the 't's were really crossed.” Saddam Hussein came to power after a second Ba’athist coup in 1968, serving under President Al-Bakr.

The Rapid Deployment Task Force was formed in October 1980 under the ‘Carter Doctrine’ which stipulated direct US intervention in the Gulf to protect US access to oil. Iraq’s invasion of Iran, and the subsequent eight year war, was not condemned by the UN Security Council. The US trained Iraqi commandos, provided intelligence reports and billions of dollars worth of arms to Iraq throughout the war. Yet it secretly also provided similar assistance to Iran, as the Congressional ‘Pike Report’ later revealed. A Reagan official conceded: “We wanted to avoid victory by both sides.” US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was characteristically direct: “Too bad they both can’t lose.”

In February 1988, Saddam Hussein, by then Iraq’s president, formulated the notorious ‘Al-Anfal’ campaign, systematically destroying Kurdish settlements in the North. Iraqi forces mercilessly attacked and killed as many as 200,000 people. 4000 villages were wiped off the map. No UN Security Council resolutions were ever tabled to condemn Iraq, nor their widespread use of chemical weapons against Iran, despite the UN’s recommendation that Iraq be punished and an arms embargo introduced.

Victims of the gas attack on Halabja, March 16th 1988

High level UK and US officials visited Baghdad in the early to mid 1980’s, negotiating huge arms deals to the regime, despite ‘Al-Anfal’ and other well documented human rights abuses. They included from the UK William Waldegrave, Lord Carrington, Cecil Parkinson, John Nott, Tony Newton, Paul Channon, and John Biffen. In 1984 Vice President George Bush personally lobbied the US Export / Import bank to underwrite exports to Iraq, which was now one of the US’ principle trading partners. The US was also simultaneously building high technology hardened military bases in Saudi Arabia. By 1987 the US was actively fighting on Iraq’s side.

“In May 1987 [during the Iran/Iraq war] an Iraqi aircraft mistakenly attacked the American frigate ‘Stark’ and killed 37 US servicemen. Unbelievably, the Reagan administration was so pro-Saddam that it described the incident as nothing more than an Iraqi error and blamed it on Iranian aggression. [...] On August 29th, 1988, the UN issued a report that detailed Iraqi use of chemical weapons
against the Iranians and Kurds, and called for punitive measures. In January 1989, a TV report alleged that Iraq was also developing biological weapons. But, despite warnings, later that year the US supplied Iraq with helicopter engines, vacuum pumps for a nuclear plant, sophisticated communications equipment, computers, bacteria strains and hundreds of tons of unrefined Sarin, the lethal nerve gas used in chemical warfare.”
- from ‘Father of all Despots’ - article by Said K. Aburish in ‘Weekend’ (The Guardian supplement) January 22nd, 2000

Allegedly, British Foreign Office minister David Mellor was in Baghdad on March 16th 1988, the day that the Iraqi chemical attack on Halabja took place, starting negotiations for a £340 million Export Credit deal on behalf of the Thatcher government. On the 16th of August 1988, 30 British MPs signed a motion condemning the attack. On September 5th, the export credit deal went through. John Major was the Treasury Minister at the Export Credit Guarantee Department that authorised the sale of ‘dual-use’ machinery that the British government knew was destined for Iraqi chemical weapons manufacture. By the end of the Iran/Iraq war, the British taxpayer had underwritten £670 million worth of arms and such ‘dual-use’ equipment to Iraq.

The US State Department only accused Iraq of chemical weapons use against the Kurds 6 months later on September 8th, the day before Iraqi Foreign Minister Sa’dun Hamadi was due to meet with Secretary of State George Schulz in Washington. The US had supplied Iraq with weapons grade bacteria strains originating from the American Type Culture Collection company in Maryland. These sales were approved by the Pentagon and the US Treasury.

The war had cost Iran and Iraq more than the entire oil revenue received by them since they began selling oil on the world market in 1949 and 1931 respectively.

As far back as 1973, US troops on manoeuvres in the Mojave Desert staged war games with fellow troops dressed in Iraqi uniforms.

3.
LINES IN THE SAND

Written, performed and produced
by
THE HIGHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

"We must become the owners, or at any rate the controllers at the source, of at least a proportion of the oil which we require."
- British Royal Commission, agreeing with Winston Churchill's policy towards Iraq, 1913

"Our strategic and security interests throughout the world will be best safeguarded by the establishment in suitable spots of
'Police Stations', fully equipped to deal with emergencies within a large radius. Kuwait is one such spot from which Iraq, South Persia, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf could be controlled. It will be worthwhile to go to considerable trouble and expense to establish and man a 'Police Sation' there."
- British Foreign Office, policy memo, 1947

“The US must carry out some act somewhere in the world which shows its’ determination to continue to be a world power.”
- Henry Kissinger, Former US Secretary of State, as quoted in ‘The Washington Post’, April 1975

“In these twenty post-war years, we have come to recognise in action, though not always in words, that the political boundaries of
nation states are too narrow and constricted to define the scope and activities of modern business.”
- George Ball, Former US Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Nixon Administration, 1967

The custom of the yellow ribbons that Americans tied to trees in support of US troops in the Gulf originates in the 1870’s, when families with relatives serving in the US cavalry would wear them. The 7th Cavalry, under the command of General George Custer, slaughtered thousands of Lakota and Cheyenne peoples whilst appropriating land rich in gold deposits, flagrantly violating
the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. By 1992, of the 298 treaties signed by the US Government with the native American peoples,
not one had ever been honoured.

4.
GET THEE BEHIND ME

Written, produced and performed
by
SOMA

“I venture to say that if Kuwait produced bananas instead of oil, we would not have 400,000 American troops there today.”
- US Congressman Stokes - Ohio, 12th January 1991

“The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. With a country so rich in natural resources, talent and labour power the system can afford to distribute just enough wealth to just enough people to limit discontent to a troublesome minority. It is a country so powerful, so big, so pleasing to so many of its’ citizens that it can afford to give freedom of dissent to the small number who are not pleased.There is no system of control with more openings, apertures, flexibilities, rewards for the chosen. […] There is none that disperses its’ control more complexly through the voting system, the work situation, the church, the family, the school, the mass media - none more successful in mollifying opposition with reforms, isolating people from one another, creating patriotic loyalty.”
- from ‘A People’s History of the United States’ by Howard Zinn, 1st published 1980

During the Iran/Iraq war, Kuwait made incursions into Iraq, gaining them 900 square miles of new territory, much of it situated over the Rumailia oil field, the second largest in the world. The US also supplied Kuwait with ‘Slant Drilling’ technology, and Kuwait allegedly tapped oil from inside Iraq’s border. After CIA director William Webster testified to Congress in 1989 about growing US dependence on Gulf oil, General Norman Schwarzkopf began making regular visits to Kuwait. A Kuwaiti minister is reported to have said:
“These became routine visits to discuss military co-operation, and by the time the crisis with Iraq began [...] we knew we could rely on the Americans.”

According to researcher Daniel Sheehan, two US military publications in 1990 specifically designated Iraq and Saddam Hussein as: “The optimum contenders to replace the Warsaw Pact.” (‘A Strategic Force for the ‘90’s and Beyond’ - US Army, January 1990 / ‘Global reach, Global Power’ - US Air Force, June 1990.) The end of the Cold War had produced plans for an enormous ‘Peace Dividend’ which would divert military spending into civilian welfare and health programmes. These were shelved.

On July 24th 1990 US State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutweiler told reporters:
“We do not have any defence treaties with Kuwait, and there are no special defence or security commitments to Kuwait.”
This official line was confirmed in Congress by Assistant Secretary of State John Kelly, and personally to Saddam Hussein by US Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie. After the invasion of Kuwait, Glaspie accidentally revealed US complicity, telling the New York Times on September 20th :
“Obviously, I didn’t think, and nobody else did, that the Iraqis were going to take ALL of Kuwait.”

40,000 US troops and seven warships were dispatched to the Gulf within a week of the invasion, before the Saudis ‘officially’ requested a US presence to defend their borders. The Saudis were sceptical about any threat to their country and on August 4th rejected the US offer of military assistance. On August 5th, US Defence Secretary, Dick Cheney, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, National Security Agency Director, Robert Gates, and General Norman Swcharzkopf flew to Saudi Arabia. Having convinced the Saudis to accept troops, they were based at the facilities that were built by the US throughout the 1980’s for the Rapid Deployment Task Force, itself now named CENTCOM.

On August 3rd 1990, Saddam Hussein had stated that he would begin withdrawing on the 5th, provided no condemnation was made by the Arab League. On August 7th George Bush told French Defence Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement that he was determined to go to war, yet spent the next five months claiming he wanted a peaceful resolution. Under US duress and economic threats, the Arab League condemned the invasion. Sanctions levied against Iraq included all foodstuffs and medicine. 70% reliant on imports, Iraqis were beginning to starve long before the war began.

On August 12th Iraq proposed a peace plan linking withdrawal to discussions of the Israeli occupied territories, and the replacement of US troops with UN monitored Arab troops. Bush rejected it. The US Congress concluded in late January 1991 that in another Iraqi proposal:
“The Iraqis apparently believed that having invaded Kuwait they would get everyone’s attention, negotiate improvements to their economic situation, and pull out... a diplomatic solution satisfactory to the interests of the US may well have been possible since the earliest days of the invasion.”
The US State Department initially denied having ever received the proposal.

Defence Analyst Peter Zimmerman’s conclusions about the Soviet satellite pictures of questionable Iraqi troop presence near Saudi Arabia were submitted to many major media outlets in the US including ABC Television. All refused to air them.

On December 26th, the ‘Ibn Khaldun’ Peace Ship, crewed by Middle Eastern women volunteers, and taking donations of medicine and food to Iraq, was boarded in the Persian Gulf by American, British and Australian forces. The women were punched, kicked, beaten with rifle butts and subjected to tear gas. 65 were injured. The ship was forced into port, and its’ cargo destroyed.

 “The large industrial powers saw in the Gulf crisis a golden opportunity to re-organise the area according to designs in harmony with their ambitions and interests, at the expense of the aspirations and the interests of the Arab peoples, and to put in place a new international order.”
- Extract from a letter to Saddam Hussein from King Hussein of Jordan, September 1990, ‘Jordan and the Gulf Crisis - The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Document VII’

United Nations Security Council, voting on Resolution 678, 29th November 1990

“In the Middle east and South West Asia, our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve US and Western access to the region’s oil. [...] As demonstrated by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, it remains fundamentally important to prevent a hegemon or alignment of powers from dominating the region.”
- from “US Strategy Plan Calls for Insuring no Rivals Develop” - Article by Patrick Tyler, ‘New York Times’ March 8th 1992, quoting unidentified Pentagon document.

5.
COUNTING ON NEW FRIENDS

Written, performed and produced
by
ORBITAL

Original version 'THE BOX' appeared on 'INSIDES' lp
Re-mix by BUMP 'N' GRIND

“I did say something to the effect that that would be the most expensive ‘no’ vote they ever cast.”
- Former US Secretary of State, James Baker, describing his reaction to the news that Yemen had voted against Resolution 678, BBC television, 1992.

US Ambassador to the UN Thomas Pickering told Yemeni Ambassador Al-Ashotol the same thing two minutes after the vote in the security council chamber itself.

As well as the cancellation of the $70 Million US/Yemen aid package, 800,000 Yemeni workers were later forcibly expelled from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Yemen’s economy was devastated as a result.

Amnesty International initially supported the ‘stolen incubators’ testimony of Kuwaiti escapee ‘Nayirah’, but retracted it after the war. In February 1992, after detailed investigations in Kuwait, Middle East Watch described this and other accusations as ‘...clearly wartime propaganda.”

Two days before the Security Council met to vote on the authorisation of force, Kuwaitis and non-UN diplomats were granted unprecedented access to the Council to present testimonies and videos produced by US public relations company Hill and Knowlton Inc.

Public support for war was patchy until this testimony. It additionally rose with Bush’s suggestion that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, following a survey that looked at rationales for American support for war. After the war International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors concluded that Iraq was at least 3 years away from building a small yield bomb. Parts and technology for the Iraqi nuclear programme had been principally supplied by the US in violation of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Objections by UN Security Council members to the use of the word ‘force’ led to the rephrasing of Resolution 678 to ‘all necessary means’. (This term was used again three years later by the US sponsored resolution prior to the American invasion of Haiti.) There was not one word in Resolution 678 that specifically granted authorisation to the US led coalition to attack Iraq. Approximately 23 billion dollars’ worth of ‘incentives’ to vote for 678 were paid by the US to various UN member states including China, Ethiopia, Zaire, Columbia, the Soviet Union, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Israel. These arrangements took the form of arms supplies, loans, grants and debt forgiveness. The US also paid the UN $187 million, representing half its’ unpaid dues at the time.

On December 10th 1990 ‘US News and World Report’ published an article describing James Baker’s efforts to push Resolution 678 through the Security Council. The article was entitled ‘Counting on New Friends.’

After the resolution was passed, Washington strategists openly referred to a negotiated Iraqi withdrawal as the ‘...nightmare scenario.’

To be seen “...going the extra mile for peace...” George Bush sent Baker to Geneva on January 9th 1991 for last ditch talks with Iraq’s Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. Bush instructed Baker that he would accept “...no negotiations, no compromises, no attempts at face saving and no reward for aggression.” Additionally Baker gave Aziz a letter from Bush to take to Saddam Hussein:
“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. Iraq is already feeling the sanctions mandated by the United Nations. Should war come, it will be a far greater tragedy for you and your country. [...] I write this letter not to threaten but to inform.”

Aziz refused to take the letter to Hussein. Whilst taking a firm stand, and hinting at the Palestinian question, he additionally informed Baker:
“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.”

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

Millions of people world-wide protested the war, the start of which was timed to coincide with EST prime time television news. When on January 16th 1991, Bush ordered the bombing to begin, 250,000 people were gathered in San Francisco alone. Congressman Henry Gonzalez attempted to impeach Bush on five counts. He failed.

Within two days, not a single baby incubator in Iraq was functioning.

6.
THE WHORE OF BABYLON

Written, performed and produced
by
PAN SONIC
Original version ‘URANOKEMIA’ appeared on ‘OSASTO’ e.p.

“[The Iraqi soldiers were] like ghostly sheep, flushed from a pen….bewildered and terrified, jarred from sleep and fleeing their bunkers under a hell storm of fire. One by one they were cut down by attackers they couldn’t see or understand. Some were literally blown to bits by bursts of 30mm exploding cannon. One man dropped, writhed on the ground and struggled to his feet.
Another burst tore him apart. One of the US pilots, Ron Balak, commented: ”When I got back I sat there on the wing and I was laughing…I was probably laughing at myself….sneaking up there and blowing this up and blowing that up. A guy came up to me and we were slapping each other on the back….and then he said, ‘“By God, I thought we had shot into a damn farm. It looked
like someone had opened the sheep pen.”’ Chief Warrant Officer Brian Walker was looking forward to more action: “There is nothing that can take them out like an Apache. It will be a duck hunt.’”
- Reuters Pool Report ‘Apache Pilots in Ground Attack Shooting Gallery’ - quoted in ‘The Independent’ and ‘The Los Angeles Times’, 25th February1991

“[Bombing missions were a] turkey shoot…it’s almost like you flipped on the light in the kitchen at night and the cockroaches start scurrying, and we’re killing them.”
- US Pilot Colonel Richard White, quoted in ‘The Independent’,
6th February 1991

"Big Brother isn't watching you so much as Big Brother is you, watching."
- Mark Crispin Miller

7.
WE’RE DOING WELL NOW

Written, performed and produced
by
BARBED

“April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him. First you saw him wallowing in the water like a porpoise, then you saw him through the helicopter gun sights, then he was full of holes and the sea round him turned pink and he sank as suddenly as though the holes had let in the water. Audience shouting with laughter when he sank. [...] Then the helicopter planted a 20 kilo bomb in among them, terrific flash and the boat went all to matchwood. Then there was a wonderful shot of a child’s arm going up, up, up right into the air, a helicopter with a camera in its’ nose must have followed it up and there was a lot of applause from the party seats…….”
- extract from Winston Smith’s diary in “1984” by George Orwell - 1st Published 1949

“Strikes at population targets (per se) are likely […] to create a counterproductive wave of revulsion abroad and at home. […] Destruction of locks and dams, however - if handled right - might offer promise. It should be studied. Such destruction does not kill or drown people. By shallow-flooding the rice, it leads after time to widespread starvation (more than a million) unless food is provided - which we could offer to do ‘at the conference table’.”
- John McNaughton, US State Department - Vietnam policy, as quoted in ‘The Mentality of the Backroom Boys,’ article by Noam Chomsky, 1973.

"Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidents, if not epidemics, of disease and certain pure-water dependent industries becoming incapacitated. [...] Full degradation of the water treatment system probably will take at least another six months."
- extract from 'IRAQ WATER TREATMENT VULNERABILITIES' - a seven-page document prepared by the US Defence Intelligence Agency, issued seven days after the war started and circulated to all major allied Commands.

8.
NAILS IN THE WALL

Written, produced and performed
by
SPEEDY J
Original version appeared as ‘TERRE ZIPPY’ on ‘A SHOCKING HOBBY’

Vocal effects performed
by
KAIT GRAY

Recorded and produced by ROGER BOLTON at BESPOKE AUDIO PRODUCTIONS
Processed and mixed by Grant Wakefield

CIVIL DEFENCE SHELTER NO. 25 - EL AMERIYAH DISTRICT, BAGHDAD
Designed and built by a Swedish / Finnish consortium.
Its’ capacity was 1200 people, and had been full every night of the war.



An anguished parent outside the shelter awaits news.

The hole in the shelter roof caused by the first laser guided bomb.



Iraqi guide, Um Guida, who lost nine members of her family in the attack, shows the remains of human skin scalded on to the walls of the shelter’s basement. Not visible in this photograph are fingernail marks made by people who attempted to climb them whilst trying to escape the boiling water.

Many Western companies provided blue prints to the US military of buildings they had designed and constructed in Iraq.

Iraqis living in the Ameriyah district later reported that for three days prior to the bombing, surveillance aircraft repeatedly flew over the area. When the attack came, a stealth bomber first pierced the reinforced roof with a GBU-27 ‘bunker busting’ bomb, creating a hole 15 feet across. Four minutes later a second bomber laser designated another through this opening. Temperatures reached in excess of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. Many of those on the top floor simply evaporated. The log book that listed their names was destroyed.

Bodies of the dead laid outside the shelter.

Western estimates of the death toll have declined over the years; it is now generally held that 240 people died. Given the shelter’s capacity, and the fact that shelters were the only places in Iraq that still had water and electricity, this estimate is almost certainly incorrect, indicating a death toll of between two and five times this amount.

The outline of a mother and child burnt into a shelter wall

9.
SAY HELLO TO ALLAH

Written, performed and produced
by
APHEX TWIN
Original version ‘COME TO DADDY’ appeared on ‘COME TO DADDY’ e.p.

Additional production and re-mix
by
David Thrussell (BLACK LUNG) and Francois Tetaz

Re-edit and additional mix by Grant Wakefield

“A concentration of killing, unequalled since Hiroshima.”
- New Statesman and Society magazine, 21st June 1991

“[Dogs] snarled around the corpse of one soldier. They had eaten most of his flesh….the dogs had eaten the legs from the inside out, and the epidermis lay in collapsed and hairy folds, like leg shaped blankets, with feet attached.”
- from ‘Carnage on a Forgotten Road’ - article by Michael Kelly in ‘The Guardian’, 11th April 1991

“Next morning we went up to see what we’d done….there were bodies all over the place….I remember at one point looking down at the car track and I was up to my ankles in blood. The tracks were filled with blood and there were very white faced men going round saying, ‘Jesus, did we really do this?’”
- Journalist Tony Clifton of Newsweek, quoted in ‘Late Show’, BBC Television, 8th June 1991

“The Pentagon recently justified its’ position on censorship by insisting: ‘If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.’”
- from ‘Military Blunders’ - article by Geoffrey Regan in ‘Night and Day’ - ‘Mail on Sunday’ supplement, January 23rd, 2000

“If they do withdraw and go back into Iraq, they will not be attacked. We have made that perfectly clear.”
- John Major, BBC television interview, January 1991

“They are not retreating, they are withdrawing.”
- George Bush, US television address, February 1991

The Basra Road was nicknamed by allied forces as ‘The Highway of Death’. From a ten mile long convoy, consisting of a mix of 12000 military and civilian vehicles, only 450 people are thought to have survived. However, it was not the only one to be decimated by aerial strikes. A sixty mile long convoy on the coastal Jaar Um-Qasr highway was also attacked. There were no known survivors.

On March 2nd 1991, two days after the cease-fire, the US 24th Mechanised Infantry Division, led by General Barry McCaffery,
engaged a retreating Iraqi column, 7000 men strong, who allegedly fired at them.

“ ‘We really waxed them,’ said one commander, who asked not to be identified. […] Although the number of Iraqi troops is killed is still unknown, New York Newsday has obtained army footage of the fight showing scores of […] Iraqi soldiers apparently wounded or killed as ‘Apache’ helicopters raked the [….] division with laser guided ‘Hellfire’ missiles. ‘Say Hello to Allah!’ one American was recorded as saying, moments before a ‘Hellfire’ obliterated one of the 102 vehicles racked up by the ‘Apaches’. [….] Although McCaffery’s division was equipped with loud speakers mounted on helicopters, they were never used to broadcast word of the cease-fire. ‘There wasn’t time to use the helicopters,’ said Operations Chief Patrick Lamar. Instead, after the 6:30am Iraqi attack, McCaffery assembled attack helicopters, tanks, fighting vehicles and artillery for the assault, which began at 8:15 am [and] ended after noon.”
- from ‘Massive battle after cease-fire’ - article by Pat Sloyan, New York Newsday, May 8th 1991

“The time of reconstruction and recovery should not be the occasion for vengeful actions
against a nation forced to war as a result of a dictator’s ambition.”
- James Baker, former US Secretary of State, addressing US Congress, March 1991

“We’re certainly not considering, indeed we’ve ruled out having
any kind of troops here on any kind of permanent basis.”
- Douglas Hurd, former UK Foreign Minister, addressing the House of Commons, March 1991

Contrary to most western media reports of Saddam’s ‘Scorched Earth’ policy, many oil fires had been burning since the earliest days of the war. The Basra refinery was attacked on January 17th 1991. Iran experienced repeated ‘black rain’ events from January 22nd onwards. On January 25th the US Department of Energy issued a gagging order on its’ own researchers’ investigations into oil fires and spills. This order came a month before Bush accused Saddam Hussein of ordering the setting of fires. In March 1992 O.J. Vialls, an Australian oil consultant, wrote in the ‘Australian Guardian’ that in “….a minimum of 66 known cases in Kuwait…” allied air strikes had blown the wellheads off oil wells. By March nearly 800 fires were burning. It took eight months to put them out. A cloud of carcinogenic smoke circled the world three times.

Spillage from allied strikes against coastal loading facilities and oil tankers released approx. 7 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, the largest spill in history; 20 times that of the ‘Exxon Valdez’ disaster.

“I will never apologise for the United States of America. I don’t care what the facts are.”
- George Bush, US television news, 1988

“There are some good things about war sometimes. Our hearts beat faster…our senses are sharper. Everyone accomplishes more in times of war. This war in the Gulf has been, by all odds, the finest war inhistory, including for Iraq, probably.”
- Andy Rooney, presenter of CBS television ’60 MINUTES’, Editorial, March 3rd 1991

10.
CHURCH BELLS

Samples and loops
by
THE HIGHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
and
BASS COMMUNION

Additional loops from ‘MANHASSET’
by
SPEEDY J
from ‘A SHOCKING HOBBY’

Oil fires recorded by Alton Walpole

Mixed by Grant Wakefield

Featured Speaker:
Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, in an address to the
‘Independent Commission of Inquiry’ into US conduct in the Gulf war, New York, February 1992.

"The process of creating and entrenching highly selective, reshaped or completely fabricated memories of the past is what we call ‘indoctrination’ or ‘propaganda’ when it is conducted by official enemies, and ‘education,’ ‘moral instruction’ or ‘character building,’ when we do it ourselves. It is a valuable mechanism of control, since it effectively blocks any understanding of what is happening in the world. One crucial goal of successful education is to deflect attention elsewhere - say, to Vietnam, or Central America, or the Middle East, where our problems allegedly lie - and away from our own institutions and their systematic functioning and behaviour, the real source of a great deal of the violence and suffering in the world. It is crucially important to prevent understanding and to divert attention from the sources of our own conduct, so that elite groups can act without popular constraints to achieve their goals - which are called ‘The National Interest’ "
- Noam Chomsky

Child suffering from malnutrition and typhoid

“[In late 1994] it now emerged that major picture agencies were refusing to use photographs of Iraqi babies that had died of starvation because they were ‘too gruesome.’”
- from ‘Iraq - From Sumer to Saddam’ by Geoff Simons, 1st published 1994

Child with Kwashiorkor, caused by protein deficiency

11.
NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

Oud improvisations performed
by
NASEER SHAMMA

Recorded, processed, mixed, produced, and additional music
by
BASS COMMUNION

"Gulf lesson one is the value of air power. […] It was right on target from day one. The Gulf war taught us that we must retain combat superiority in the skies. […] Our air strikes were the most effective, yet humane, in the history of warfare."
- George Bush, 29th May 1991

"Many of the targets were chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military defeat of Iraq. [...] Military planners hoped the
bombing would amplify the economic and psychological impact of international sanctions on Iraqi society. [...] Because of these goals, damage to civilian structures and interests, invariably described by briefers during the war as 'collateral' and unintended, were sometimes neither. [....] They deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support itself as an industrial society."
- Article by Barton Gellman, The Washington Post, 23rd June 1991

"Iraqis will be made to pay the price while Saddam Hussein is in power. Any easing of sanctions will be considered only when
there is a new government."
- Robert Gates, US National Security Advisor, Los Angeles Times’, 9th May 1991

Nearly two million Iraqis had left the country by the end of the war. The uprising against Saddam Hussein was brutally crushed by troops still loyal to the regime. Atrocities against civilians were widespread, but allied forces did not intervene. Approximately half a million Kurds took refuge in the mountains. Tens of thousands starved and froze to death. An unidentified Bush administration
official is reported to have said: “The United States could not allow the overthrow of Saddam Hussein unless it was sure that his successor would support American policy.”

In Kuwait, 200,000 Palestinians were rounded up and forcibly expelled from the country. Hundreds were tortured and murdered. Kuwaiti authorities estimated 2000-3000 Kuwaitis had died during the Iraqi occupation, and a further 4000-5000 were reported missing. US Navy Secretary John Lehmann estimated 200,000 Iraqis killed.

UN Security Council Resolution 687 was passed on April 3rd 1991 enabling sanctions to be maintained against Iraq until full disclosure of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ was provided. Reports at the time indicated that food was so scarce that some Iraqis were eating grass and weeds. With no specific UN authority, the US imposed ‘no-fly- zones over the North and South of the country.

From mid-1991 onwards, Iraq undertook a massive reconstruction effort, but the civilian infrastructure was so badly damaged, and materials so scarce, that it was at best a temporary measure. The bombing of Iraq’s electrical grid had reduced it to 4% of its’ pre-war level. Power stations in major cities were bombed on the last day of the war. Attacks were so similar that cannibalising parts from one station to another proved extremely difficult. The 661 ‘Sanctions Committee’ routinely blocked Iraqi requests for materials and equipment to repair both them, and water treatment plants. Baghdad did not have any electricity for six months. Hospitals operated by candlelight, with little or no anaesthetic. Raw sewage by the cubic ton poured into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. With no other sources, and treatment facilities destroyed or lacking chemicals, the population was forced to drink the river water. Disease spread rapidly; Typhoid and hepatitis increased ten-fold, cholera twenty-fold. Diarrhoea became the primary cause of infant mortality. With limited supplies, pharmacies were forced to turn away 90-98% of all people.

The economy collapsed as inflation spiralled out of control. The price of flour increased by 4500%. Unconfirmed reports additionally indicated that the CIA flooded Iraq with counterfeit currency. Crime rates rose, and a black market was established. ‘Shiraya’ law was re-introduced into what had been a secular state. Army deserters were branded and had limbs amputated. Doctors refusing to perform the operations were threatened with the same treatment. All political resistance was effectively destroyed. Saddam Hussein and the Ba’ath Party consolidated total control over the country.

 The Agricultural potential of the country had been targeted during the bombing, including farms, food stores and seed factories. Crops failed due to the inability to import fertilisers and pesticides, and a prohibition on aerial spraying. Destroyed and damaged irrigation systems, coupled with lack of electricity to pump water, meant that vast areas of Iraqi agriculture simply died. The animal health of the country was also deteriorating with no feeds or vaccines available, and diseases began to spread. This compounded diet problems as the ration consisted primarily of carbohydrates, and proteins became extremely scarce.

In September 1991, Iraqi authorities finally granted permission for UNSCOM to carry out an inventory of crucial documents detailing Iraq’s nuclear plans and details of procurement agreements with western companies. David Kay and Robert Gallucci earned a rebuke from UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, as key sections of the 25,000 documents seized were transmitted directly to the US State Department without going through UN channels. It also emerged that American U-2 spy planes and spy satellites were collecting surveillance data. Kay’s activities began to cause concern among UN officials. Iraq had long accused Kay of working for US and Israeli intelligence services.

In April 1992 the UN Commission tasked with demarcating the Kuwait/Iraq border ruled in Kuwait’s favour. Kuwait received much of the land situated over the Rumailia oil field, the source of the original dispute. The commission was chaired by Indonesia, whose flagrant violations of UN Security Council resolutions during the invasion and occupation of East Timor had been ignored by the US and Britain. A quarter of a million East Timorese had died under Indonesian rule.

On 29th February 1992, the ‘Independent Commission of Inquiry’ into US conduct of the war held its’ final meeting and passed judgement. After 30 hearings in 16 countries, 19 charges of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity were levelled at George Bush, General Norman Scwharzkopf et al, by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The tribunal jury, consisting of 22 international lawyers and former politicians, found them guilty on all 19 counts. The inquiry’s verdict was front-page news in the Middle East and Asia. Not a single mainstream US paper covered the hearings.

12.
DOG IN AMERICA

Written, produced and performed
by
BOLA

“The claim by the Western governments that food and drugs flow freely into Iraq is not true. I have seen telexes and documents
that showed clearly that the British and the American government interfered with the flow of crucial drugs into Iraq. That is unquestionable. [The sanctions] would not be lifted even if Iraq satisfies the UN Security Council on every single sanction report. […] The Americans are making it clear that the sanctions are not going to be lifted under any circumstances. […] The West’s decision is […] to keep squeezing the country. I do not see any possibility that oil will flow in Iraq between now and the end of 1994, and probably after that.”
- Former BBC Middle East correspondent Tim Llewellyn, speaking at a meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, 16th February 1994

“After 24 years in the field, mostly in Africa starting with Biafra, I didn’t think anything could shock me, but this was comparable to the worst scenarios I have ever seen. […] 70% of the population has little or no access to food. […] Nearly everyone seems to be emaciated. We are at the point of no return in Iraq. The social fabric of the nation is disintegrating. People have exhausted their ability to cope.”
- Mona Hamman and Dieter Hannusch - ‘UN World Food Programme Special Alert Report,’ 26th September 1995

“We do not agree with those nations who argue that if Iraq complies with its’ obligations concerning weapons of mass destruction, sanctions should be lifted.”
- US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, addressing a symposium on Iraq at Georgetown University, USA, 26th March 1997

"We are the greatest country in the world. [….] I am willing to make a bet to anyone here that we care more about the Iraqi people than Saddam Hussein does. [….] If we have to use force it is because we are America! We are the indispensable nation! We stand tall, and we see further into the future."
- Madeleine Albright, open meeting in Town Hall, Columbus, Ohio, 18th February, and NBC Television 'Today' show, 19th February 1998

THE SANCTIONS COMMITTEE

Iraqi applications for humanitarian supplies are vetted by this committee as empowered by UN Security Council Resolution 687. Former US Ambassador to the UN, and US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, was for many years the head of this committee.

The following items have been blocked by the Sanctions Committee on the grounds that they are either ‘...not humanitarian needs...’ or that they constitute ‘...an input to Iraqi industry...’ The first in the list, baby food, was blocked on the grounds that ‘...it might be consumed by adults.’

Under US law, campaign groups who defy sanctions and take medicine and food to Iraq without import licences face fines of up to a million dollars and up to twelve years in jail.

Both the US and the UK were well aware of the dangers of Depleted Uranium ammunition, even before the war began.

"Aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant with potential radiological and toxicological effects. [DU is] a low level alpha radiation emitter which is linked to cancer when exposures are internal, [and] chemical toxicity causing kidney damage. [...] Short-term effects of high doses can result in death, while long term effects of low doses have been linked to cancer. [...] Our conclusion regarding the health and environmental acceptability of DU penetrators assume both controlled use and the presence of excellent health physics management practices. Combat conditions will lead to the uncontrolled release of DU. [...] The conditions of the battlefield, and the long term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU kinetic penetrators for military applications."
- Excerpts from the July 1990 Science and Applications International Corporation report: ' Kinetic Energy Penetrator Environment and Health Considerations', as included in Appendix D - US Army Armaments, Munitions and Chemical Command report: 'Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study, July 1990'

"There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the arsenal. I believe we should keep this sensitive issue in mind when action reports are written."
- Lt. Col. M.V. Ziehmn, Los Alamos National Laboratory memorandum, March 1st 1991

“DU is a low-level radioactive waste, and, therefore, must be disposed of in a licensed repository. [...] No international law, treaty, regulation, or custom requires the United States to remediate the Persian Gulf war battlefields."
- Report by the US Army Environmental Policy Institute: 'Health and Consequences of Depleted Uranium use in the US army', June 1995

To date, both the US Defence Department and the British Ministry of Defence deny that there is any link between DU and the unprecedented rise in cancer and birth deformities experienced by Iraqi civilians and Gulf War veterans. The Sanctions Committee continues to prevent Iraq from importing large-scale quantities of anti-cancer medicines, as they contain radioisotopes, and thus constitute ‘...nuclear materials...’ Iraqi requests for decontamination equipment are similarly blocked.

Iraqi children with extreme birth deformities, photographed in 1999

The cancer rate in Iraq has risen between two and ten fold, the deformity rate between four and six fold. The Iraqi Atomic Agency estimates that 48% of the entire population has been exposed to carcinogenic material.

9,600 US Gulf veterans have died since the war. As at November 2000 only three UK veterans had ever been tested for DU exposure by the Ministry of Defence.

13.
….TO THE GRAVE

Written, produced and performed
by
AMBA

Extract from ‘GILGAMESH - INANNA’S JOURNEY TO HELL’

The son’s reply:

There can be no answer
To her desolate calling;
It is echoed in the wilderness,
For I cannot answer.
Though the grass will shoot
From the land
I am not grass, I cannot come
to her calling.
The waters rise for her,
I am not water to come
For her wailing,
I am not shoots of grass
In a dead land.

“We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral.”
- Dennis Halliday, Former UN Assistant Secretary General, and Humanitarian Aid Co-ordinator for Iraq, in his resignation speech, 30th September 1998

 
After ‘Operation Desert Fox,’ US and UK pilots patrolling Iraq were granted ‘Relaxed Rules of Engagement’ by CENTCOM commanders. They were now permitted to bomb in response to Iraqi forces simply seeing them on radar. This ‘provocation’ was punished by air strikes against totally different areas, often not even on the same day. By mid 2000 there had been 24,000 aerial sorties over Iraq. One third of these were combat missions. There have been 280,000 sorties in total since the end of the Gulf War. Not a single plane has ever been hit by Iraqi fire. Over 300 people have been killed by these patrols, and approximately 800 injured. 40% were civilians.

On January 25th 2000, an American AGM-130 guided missile struck the Al-Jumhuriya residential district of Basra, and ‘unidentified’ missiles hit the village of Abu-Khasib 16 miles to the South. The UN reported that 17 people had been killed, approx. 100 injured and approx. 45 houses damaged or destroyed. The pictures above and below, taken by Iraqi journalist Nabil Al-Jorani, show the bodies of six year old Nor and his sister being removed from the rubble of the Basra attack.

US Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon stated the following day:
“The US regrets any civilian casualties, but has no independent evidence that any Iraqis were killed.”

On March 7th 1999, The Washington Post published an article on these new ‘Rules of Engagement,’ and quoted an unnamed US State Department official:
“…it is….a mini undeclared war.”
They also quoted an unnamed military official:
“It’s a strategy we fell into….it’s not one we originally planned, but it’s working very, very well for us.”


This strategy included attacking animals. In the period April 1999 to May 2000, there were a total of seven attacks on flocks of sheep. Tony Blair told the House of Commons that air strikes were for “….vital humanitarian tasks…” and former British Minster of Defence George Robertson told BBC News in 1999:
"…we have to continue making these air strikes in order to carry on with our humanitarian work."
Members of the UN Security Section in Baghdad and the Middle East Council of Churches go immediately to all bombed sites to record damage and casualty numbers, and produce a yearly report. The British Foreign Office claims it is not possible to verify the bombings.

On 30th April 1999, in the Bashiqa area of Iraq, near Mosul, this flock of sheep and its' attendant shepherds were bombed by a US or UK plane. Six people were killed, including four children aged between 6 and 13. Eyewitnesses confirmed that the plane made two passes.

US/UK air patrols are occasionally stepped down or redirected to allow ‘Turkish Special Missions’ to fly into Iraq and bomb Kurdish villages, the very same people that the ‘No-Fly Zones’ are allegedly designed to protect from Iraqi aggression.

In April 1999, a special UN Humanitarian Panel, set up in late January to additionally assess Iraqi needs, issued a damning indictment of the ‘Oil-For-Food’ program:
“The gravity of the situation is indisputable and can not be overstated. The magnitude of the humanitarian needs is such that they can not be met within the context of the parameters set forth in Resolution 986 - ‘Oil-for-food’ (and succeeding SCR 1153)...nor was the program intended to meet all the needs of the Iraqi people. [...] Given the present state of infrastructure, the revenue required for its’ rehabilitation is far above the funding level available. [...] Under current conditions the outlook will remain bleak and become more serious with time. The humanitarian situation will continue to be a dire one in the absence of a sustained revival of the Iraqi economy.”

The ‘Oil-For-Food’ programme was providing approximately $180 per person, per year. From this figure the Iraqi people had not only to feed themselves, but also bear the cost of rebuilding the entire electrical, transport, water/sanitation, healthcare and oil industry infrastructure of the country. The average citizen was living on 49 cents a day. Highly trained professionals in health
care and teaching were earning less than the equivalent local price of an egg a day. Unemployment was 60%. Power cuts in major cities averaged 10 hours a day; 20 hours in rural areas. 250 Iraqi Dinars, worth $825 before the war, was now worth just 12.5 cents. By June 1999 Iraq was entering what would become its’ worst drought in modern history. Temperatures regularly topped 130 degrees.

The UNSCOM team, having accomplished almost all its’ mandate to disarm Iraq, but having been fatally compromised by Western intelligence agencies, was disbanded. A new inspection body, UNMOVIC, was formed. The US insisted that only Iraq’s full co-operation with them would lead to sanctions being lifted. At the time Iraq had the highest infant mortality rate in the world. Simultaneously, over 1.3 billion dollars worth of contracts for the repair of the water supply, sanitation system, and electrical infrastructure were either being rejected or blocked by the US and UK in the Sanctions Committee.

Iraq ran what UN agencies consistently described as the most efficient and equitable ration system anywhere in the world. By early 2000, the US State Department and the British Foreign Office were engaged in a major propaganda campaign in an attempt to place all the blame for the suffering on Saddam Hussein. So cynical was this effort that the office of British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told film maker and journalist John Pilger that:
“Saddam Hussein makes sure that there are plenty of dying babies for you to film.”

Iraq’s efforts to pump as much oil as possible for the ‘Oil-For-Food’ programme was doing irreparable damage to equipment. The UN reported that output would fall by 6% a year unless US and UK holds on oil industry spare parts were not lifted. In the middle of the year it emerged that the former head of the CIA’s Middle East Desk, John Deutch, and former US Secretary of Defence at the time of the Gulf War, Dick Cheney, were both executive chairmen of Halliburton Inc., an American oil company with contractual agreements with Iraq. Both men were reported to have made approximately $5 million each. Cheney went on to be Vice President in George W. Bush’s administration.

 

It cost the British taxpayer £670 million to arm Saddam Hussein. It cost them approximately £100 million in ammunition costs per week, and £4 million per day for UK troops to fight in the Gulf War. It has cost them £4.5 million every month since to keep troops in the Gulf. The US has spent $2 billion per year patrolling the ‘No-Fly Zones.’

Since the ‘Oil-for-Food’ programme was introduced, Iraq earned $37 billion from oil exports. As at November 2000, it had received only $9 billion of this for humanitarian aid and reconstruction. $2.3 billion worth of aid contracts remained blocked by the US and UK, and $1.2 billion worth had yet to be submitted to the Sanctions Committee by the UN Secretariat. Iraqi funds floated or held in the UN controlled escrow account totalled $11.4 billion.

Iraq has paid out $9.4 billion in compensation claims, including $47 million to US companies. Claims against Iraq received by the UN Compensation Commission total $320 billion. The Arab Monetary Fund estimated in 1996 that it would cost $232 billion to rebuild the civilian infrastructure of Iraq; at least $7 billion would be required for the electrical grid alone. It will take until the year 2070 for Iraq to pay all compensation claims.

"The outlook for Iraq is pretty awful. It will take virtually all of the 21st century for Iraq to re-emerge as a regional power. You can rebuild the infrastructure in 20 years or so, but not the people."
- Professor Anoush Ehteshami, Director of Middle East Studies, Durham University, Agence France Press, 25th July 2000

"No, not war, but something more tremendous than war. [...] A nation that is boycotted is a nation that is in sight of surrender. Apply this economic, peaceful, silent, deadly remedy and there will be no need for force. It is a terrible remedy. It does not cost a life outside the nation boycotted, but it brings pressure upon the nation which, in my judgement, no modern nation could resist."
- Former US President Woodrow Wilson, speaking on economic sanctions in Versailles, 1919

"Our effort to improve the effectiveness of sanctions on behalf of peace and respect for human rights remains a work in progress. [...] We cannot be satisfied as long as innocent populations are suffering as a result of repressive or lawless leaders. [...] Saddam Hussein has repeatedly failed to take advantage of the UN ‘Oil-For-Food’ programme designed to provide income to purchase humanitarian supplies. [...] The case for continued sanctions against Saddam Hussein is overwhelming. There is no greater enemy to public health in Iraq than he."
- US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, article in ‘Annals of International Medicine’, published by the American College of Physicians, 16th January 2000


The "deadly" remedy of sanctions are clearly intended to kill civilians. The US has imposed sanctions on over 100 countries since 1917. Sanctions against Iraq violate the United States’ own legal code and are illegal under international law:

ADDITIONAL PROTOCOLS TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS, 1977
(Specifically PROTOCOL 1, PART IV, SECTION 1, CHAPTER III, ARTICLE 54)
THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1948
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, 19th December 1966
CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN, 18th December 1979
CONVENTION ON THE PREVENTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE, 12th January 1951
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (Specifically Article 1)

They additionally violate the following:

CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, 20th November 1989
International Conference on Nutrition / World Declaration on Nutrition, Food and Agricultural Organization/World Health Organization, 1992
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 44/215 [22nd December 1989] - 'Economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries'
The Constitution of the World Health Organization, 1946

US legal code, Title 18-2331 on the definition of terrorism: ‘Acts dangerous to human life...that appear intended to coerce a civilian population or to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.’

TELL THEM WHAT YOU THINK

THE FIRE THIS TIME

Conceived, produced, directed and edited by Grant Wakefield
Written by Grant Wakefield and Miriam Ryle
Pre-mix by Grant Wakefield and Matthew Williams
Final mix at Strongroom by Dave Pemberton, assisted by Patrick McGovern
Mastered at Serendipity by Chris Thorpe

Field recordings and samples from the film ‘Voices From Iraq’
used with kind permission of Miriam Ryle; recorded by Karen Boswall
Additional field recordings by Grant Wakefield
Additional studio recording by Roger Bolton // BespokeAudio Studios
Additional narration performed by Alison Sterling

Original booklet written and researched by Grant Wakefield
Cover artwork by Matthew Williams
Original design by Steve Lee - ZeitArtwork
Photos by Karen Robinson, Professor Siegwart-Horst Gunther,
Chris Kornkven, Dr. Bearice Boctor, Deryk Houston, Felicity Arbuthnott
used with kind permission

Research assistance:
Sabah Muhktar, Gerri Haynes, Bert Sacks - The Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation, Kathy Kelly,
Milan Rai and Gabriel Carlisle - Voices in the Wilderness US//UK,
Felicity Arbuthnott, The International Action Centre, Ismail Taylor-Karrant, Michael Dolan, Tony Murphy

Enormous thanks for their generosity and sponsorship:
Denis Halliday, Iain Banks, Dr. Burhan Al-Chalibi, Maggie Bowden

Thanks for their support and inspiration:
Professor Noam Chomsky, Edward Hermann, Professor Eric Herring,
Colin Rowat, Professor Margaret Ryle, Ramsey Clark, Geoff Simons,
Tony Benn MP, Hans Von Sponeck, David Sefton and Liz

Gratitude beyond measure to all the artists who contributed to this project:
Michael Stearns, Manuel Gottsching and Lutz Ulbrich (ASHRA), Bobby Bird (HIA),
David Thrussell and Pieter Bourke (SOMA), Paul and Phil Hartnoll (ORBITAL), Bump ‘n’ Grind,
Mika Vianio (PAN SONIC), Alex McKechnie and Alex Burrow (BARBED), Jochem Paap (SPEEDY J),
Kate Gray, Richard D. James (APHEX TWIN), Francois Tetaz, Steven Wilson (BASS COMMUNION),
Naseer Shamma, Darrell Fitton (BOLA), Tom Middleton (AMBA), Alison Sterling,
the late Bill Hicks, Dave Pemberton, Patrick McGovern and all at the Strongroom.

Thanks also to…
Laurie Anderson and all at Difficult Music, Toby Marks (BANCO DE GAIA), Johannes Schmoelling and Andreas Hedler, Geir Jenssen (BIOSPHERE), Lisa Gerrard and Jacek Tuschowski, Mark Hosler and Don Joyce (NEGATIVLAND), Ed Handley and Andy Stanton (PLAID), Sheila Chandra, Jane Siberry, Ken Nordine, Mimi Goese and David Whitehead, Diamanda Galas and Garth and Jason, Steve Roach, Patrick O’Hearn, Natacha Atlas and Lisa Richards, Luke Losey, and especially to Micky Mann, and Rob and Al at Voiceprint.

….and to:
Alan Phillips and Mrs. Hicks, Chris Norton and Bernadette at Mondo, Bruce Wooley, Tony Nunn, Maf at Rephlex, Andy and Jed at Skam, Janet and Pepe at Mute, Paul Smith at BlastFirst, Rob Holden, Saranne Reid and Damien Harris at Skint, Bill Smith and Angi Mariani, Michael Dog, Robert Heller, Larry Johnson and Dan De Long at The Seattle Post Intelligencer, Stuart Halford at The Mariam Appeal, Seymour Hersh at The New Yorker, Dorigen Hammond, Ilona Ziok, Richard Stott at Alternative Tentacles, Francoise Soavi, Charles Brown, Kevin Booth, Tom Osborne, Scott Ritter, Bonnie Hurran, Mike at BespokeAudio Studios, the members of the WPSR April 1999 delegation to Iraq, Elaine and Adrian, Jason and Di, Myriam and Jaqueline and the Islington crowd, John and Wil, Lynette and Tom and Marnie, and all the good folks in the Vale.

My eternal gratitude to:
MIRIAM RYLE, KAREN BOSWALL, SABAH AL-MUHKTAR, MATTHEW WILLIAMS, DENIS HALLIDAY, NASRA AL-SADOUN and GHAZWAN AL-MUHKTAR, without whom this album simply could not have happened

Dedicated to the memory of:
KLARA HABER
BILL HICKS
THE ESTIMATED 250,000 IRAQIS KILLED UNDER BA’ATHIST RULE in the years 1968 - 2001
and
THE ESTIMATED 1.5 MILLION IRAQIS KILLED BY THE US LED COALITION AND SANCTIONS in the years 1990 - 2001

 ARTIST CONTACT

The producer feels that the price being paid by Iraqi civilians is NOT worth it.

All profits from the proceeds of this album will be donated to non governmental agencies working in Iraq to provide humanitarian assistance, reconstruction of essential civilian facilities, radioactive de-comtamination, and the promotion of human rights. They will include many of the organisations listed below.

PLEASE SUPPORT THESE ORGANISATIONS

Links to other non-violence sites can be found at: www.nonviolence.org/full

INDEX