President Saddam Hussein delivers a letter to the UN and International Community
It is a good sign that the US resorts, for the first time after the end of the Cold War, to the General Assembly to put forward one of its problems, after years of disdain to the weight, effect and opinion of others. Nevertheless, the American president left nothing to the imagination of those who cannot pinpoint his purposes and intentions. He revealed his basic purpose, when he jumped to the Iraqi issue, without any premises or acceptable progression. He made it look like the most dangerous situation, not only for the life, security, and future of the US, but for the life, future, and security of the whole world. Along with his generalizations, and deliberate insinuations, he made the most slanderous statement which reflects his underestimation of the mental capacity of the representatives of the countries listening to him, when he talked about present or future Iraqi nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. This shift to the issue of Iraq, which is both blunt and unprepared for, was intentionally made in accordance with the theories of propaganda and psychological effect recommended by his advisers and those who prepared the American president’s speech. Its purpose is to make the American citizens believe the deliberate insinuation that Iraq and what the American president criticizes in it are linked to the American people’s tragedy of September 11. Hence, and in this way, he can attain the same insinuation, or something similar, by acting upon his listeners in the UN and in the world, assuming that the countries of the world do not know the American administration and its methods, nor do they know Iraq and its high sense of responsibility toward humanity, its desire for peace and stability, or that the Iraqis are a creative people in work, production, and innovation, in addition to being the heirs of the most ancient human civilizations. If it were not for the Iraqi people and their civilization, the American president may not have learnt how to write the words of his speech, nor would the legislators in his country have learnt the formulation of the law, or building their house which is called the White House.
Brothers and friends
Making an effort to raise the feelings of his listeners against Iraq, the American president wanted, or was under the illusion that he could produce an effect on the people of Iraq, so as to make them turn away from their great patriotic heritage. Hence, he recalled that the Iraqi people deserve to have a democratic government on the American way, showing diligence that he and his administration are endeavouring to help the people of Iraq to attain this. But he did not say what kind of democracy he was calling for. Is it the democracy of before September 11,2001, or the democracy of after that date?
The American president said that it is important for the rulers of Iraq be democratic. He pretended to care for the people of Iraq, after having killed, with the other presidents before him, by the use of weapons, including depleted uranium, and by the blockade which is now twelve years old, two million and seven hundred thousand innocent Iraqis out of a population of twenty five million citizens. I wonder how many other peoples of the world will he, and the coming American administrations kill, if they choose to care for other peoples after Iraq?! The number of victims can be deduced proportionally, may God spare your peoples, and ours, of such caring which brings nothing to humanity but destruction, and deformation of identity amidst a savage craving for subjugating the world to the American Zionist goals and schemes, economically, politically, and on the development level.
So, after a long time of activating the American propaganda machine, with the accompanying American officials’ statements of lies, slander, and falsehood, the focus was basically turned on inciting the American people against Iraq, and pushing them to accept the American Administration’s schemes of aggression as a fait accompli, or even as the solution or the necessary rescue that will allow the American citizens to live in security and stability, after what they had gone through in the September 11 events…
The American administration, and people of ill-intention, have missed no opportunity to kindle strong emotional feelings, or even instincts, by resorting to lies and falsehood in depicting and instigating hostility against Iraq, as if it were Iraq that brought about, or was involved in the events of September 11. The American administration and its media tried to propagate this idea, but failed to convince anyone who knows Iraq, its policy, and goals, in the world except for some specific denominations, in the forefront of which is the killing and destruction loving Zionism.
When the American administration realized that it was necessary to have an international cover for using force against Iraq, and that the world dose not believe the lies it tried to propagate to link Iraq to the September events, it changed the issue and its direct accusations against Iraq by something new. It began to shed crocodile tears on international law, and the necessity to comply with, and implement the resolutions of international legitimacy, saying that Iraq is not complying with Security Council resolutions, especially concerning the inspectors. This means that it intends, or has developed nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and it may give them to terrorist organizations that are a threat to world security. As Al-Qaeda organization did harm to American in the September 11 events, it would be capable to use the weapons it gets from Iraq, to do harm to America, if their common hostility to American, brought Iraq and Al-Qaeda together.
On the basis of this hypothesis, and the other hypotheses emanating form it, Iraq constitutes a threat to the national security of America, and to American citizens. Hence, the American administration began to deal with the issue under a new label which is not the label of a direct link between Iraq, Al-Qaeda organization, and the events of September 11, because it failed to present any convincing proof to the world, and failed to convince the public opinion of that despite long months of talking about it.
When anyone says that Iraq did not circumvent Security Council resolutions, despite their injustice and unfairness, and that it had implemented those resolutions, including what was dictated by the inspection, or rather “distortion” teams, who have destroyed everything they wanted to destroy for seven and a half years, including what could be used for civil purposes, or civil material or material said to be “of dual use”, or what was originally designed for civilian purposes, such as house-hold furniture. They wanderedabout Iraq like criminal janissary teams, violating and destroying everything for seven and a half years during the period from 15/5/1991 to 15/12/1998, and found no indication that Iraq had violated anything of essence of the relevant Security Council resolutions; America’s answer is: how do we know what Iraq has been doing since the withdrawal of the inspection teams on 15/5/1998?
Moreover, when one says that Iraq calls on the Security Council to implement its relevant resolutions in a balanced way, including inspection requisites which take into consideration Iraq’s security, sovereignty and dignity, lifting the blockade imposed its people, America’s compliance with the same resolutions that explicitly call for respecting Iraq’s sovereignty and its right in life and in independence, and stopping the daily attacks that have begun since 7/4/1991 in the north and south of Iraq; the American administration’s answer is: Iraq must accept the unconditional return of the UN inspectors.
When they are told that these are not Iraqi conditions, but rather UN resolutions, the essence of which is mentioned in resolution 687, such as paragraph 14 which stipulates that the whole Middle East region should be a zone free from mass destruction weapons; the American Administration maintains silence, while impeding compliance by the Security Council’s with any of its self-assigned obligations vis-à-vis the obligations it imposed on Iraq. America daily violates Iraq’s sovereignty, terrifies its people, kills its citizens, and destroys properties by jet fighters and missiles.
By the way, do you know that it was America, not the Security Council, nor Iraq, that told the inspection teams to leave Iraq on 15/12/1998, to make sure that no one of them would be harmed in the destructive and comprehensive aggression which it launched for four whole days starting on 16/12/1998. This was confirmed in statements by Richard Butler, the chief of the Special Commission at the time.
When the speaker of the Iraqi National Council (Parliament) sent letters to the American Senate and House of Representatives to invite them to send a delegation accompanied by nuclear, chemical and biological experts to Iraq on a three-week visit to search for the alleged weapons which American officials slanderously claim are in Iraq, the American administration refused this offer, and obstructed any attempt by the House and the Senate to accept the Iraqi invitation to see the truth.
Here we ask in all fairness: what is the explanation behind the rejection of this Iraqi invitation and challenge by which it wanted to unveil the truth as it is? Is there any explanation other than that the American administration does not want the lies to be exposed, and the truth to be unveiled? Hence, the public opinion, especially the American public opinion, who would be in a better position to know the truth if the Senate and House members visited Iraq, would see that the truth is what Iraq has been saying, and hence the liar would be exposed.
America is insisting on the return of the distortion teams which were withdrawn by it not by Iraq or the Security Council, in order to make sure that the truth is not unveiled, because it wants to distract Iraq and the Security Council by marginal details and by the problems and differences that its administration may create over viewpoints about inspection methods, what to inspect, and the required time after which the Security Council would implement its obligations according to international law, including lifting the blockade. We have a bitter experience with them in this respect. Now that Iraq has accepted the return of the inspectors, we will all be able to see how they work. In our past experience with them Iraq used to ask the inspection teams to do their job according to the declared goals of the Security Council, but some of the chiefs of these teams, and some of the members too, went on doing intelligence and espionage work that had nothing to do with the official mandate and goals of the inspection teams. Some of these chiefs have publicly admitted this, and some of them, including an American, are still publicly talking about it. Even, Rolf Ekeus, the former chief of the Special Commission, has stated that the inspectors overstepped the bounds of their defined duties by spying on the Iraqi leadership. In a statement made by Ekeus to the Swedish Radio on 28/7/2002, which was published in the Radio’s Internet site on 30/7/2002, he said: The US and other powers exploited the inspection teams for their own political ends, including monitoring President Saddam Hussein’s whereabouts.
He also said that the inspection teams deliberately created problems to prepare the ground for possible military action. No doubt, the Americans wanted to influence the inspectors to achieve some basic interests. He said that these measures were taken when he was chief of the Special Commission, but that he does not think that they were effective. Nevertheless the pressure of the inspectors gradually increased, and included attempts to make up crises in the relations with Iraq on the general political world and local levels. He confirmed that the US wants to have access to information about the organization of the security apparatus in Iraq and about Iraq’s conventional military capabilities, and that he knows that the US is trying to obtain classified information about President Saddam Hussein because this kind of information is important if they want to target him personally.
He added, “They were looking forward to make up crises by pressuring for flagrant provocations, such as inspecting the Ministry of Defense, for example”. End of Ekeus statement.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Our people, and we from our position of responsibility, have defended the principles and values that you have willingly laid down in the UN Charter, and the purposes for which the Security Council was created, i.e. to preserve security and to extablish peace. Therefore, by confronting evil and combating the evil intentions of the wrongdoers who have unilaterally and arrogantly erred against international organizations for twelve years now, Iraq has not been defending its patriotism, but it acted as if defending your patriotism. It has been acting for you without being assigned to do so. Iraq’s sacrifices are as if they are yours. If Iraq could, and it can, God willing, achieve its patriotic and humanitarian vocation by combating injustice, it would be as if it helped you to be able, inside yourselves, and in public, to reject injustice and falsehood, and even combat them for those whom God helps to combat injustice by justice, and falsehood by rightousness. Therefore, and on the basis of what Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) said: (He who sees a wrong doing must correct it with his hands, and if he couldn’t, with his tongue, and if he couldn’t, in his heart, and that would be the least of faith), we call upon you to stand by truth in the face of falsehood; not to be afraid when you are right. Now that Iraq has thwarted the pretexts of ill-intentioned people by accepting the return of the inspectors, in positive response to your desire. We also call upon you to save the people of Palestine from the lethal and destructive aggressiveness of the Zionist entity, and to work on forcing it to comply with the relevant Security Council resolutions, thus defending God’s will, mankind, your own nationhood, the security of your peoples, and the independence of your countries. In targeting Iraq, America is acting for the Zionists who are killing the heroic people of Palestine, destroying their properties, murdering their children, and working to impose their domination on the whole world, not only militarily, but also economicaly and politically. America wants to destroy Iraq to be able to control the Middle East oil, and consequently control the politics and the petroleum and economic policies of the whole world. If it succeeds in that, God forbid, it will tell you what each country needs for its economic develeopment, what quantities of oil it is allowed to buy, and at what prices, along with other conditions.
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers, and friends
By the stance we have taken, we have defended the UN Charter, and the principles by which and on which the Security Council was established. We have suffered a lot of harm from the American arrogance and aggressivity embodied in its successive administrations. These administrations have violated the principles of the UN Charter and international law. They have scorned your will in all the phases, fields, and kinds of the present administration’s continued military aggression on Iraq, that is accompanying the unjust blockade imposed on its people, and its devilish designs of large scale destruction.
America had tried to deceive the world before, and to implement its oppressive and criminal schemes on the peoples of the world. We hope that its officials will face failure from now on, so that the American administration will not be able to deceive anyone anymore even when it uses elaborated rhetoric and words under which its demons and evil intentions are hidden.
The world has become wide-awake particularly against exclusive power, arrogance, and injustice. So we hope that no one of the representatives of the countries present here (the General Assembly or the Security Council), will disappoint the world’s expectations, by being deceived by statements that lack any proof, and hence give America a moral and legal cover to the crime it intends to commit against Iraq.
In short, what Iraq wants is the respect of the principles of the UN Charter and international law, regarding its own interests and sovereignty or that of the other member states of the UN. On this basis, Iraq was, and still is, ready to cooperate with the Security Council and international organizations, but rejects any digression by whosoever at the expense of its rights, sovereignty, security, and independence, that is in contradiction with the principles of the Charter and the international law. It is for this reason that Iraq has persevered, and is still prepared to endure more for this end, strong in its faith.
From this and other facts, you see, Ladies and Gentlemen, that Iraq has not rejected the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, even though what pertains to Iraq in them is iniquitous and at odds with the UN Charter and international law. Iraq rather calls on members of the Security Council, and on America in particular, to respect their own obligations under the Charter, international law and the relevant Security Council resolutions. Iraq demands that its inalienable rights under those very resolutions, including respect of its sovereignty and security, lifting the blockade imposed on its people, and applying paragraph 14 (of Resolution 687) the Zionist entity, as worded in the text and as applied to Iraq.
Hence, we hereby declare before you that Iraq is clear of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. If there are any amongst you, Ladies and Gentlemen, who might still worry that the fabrications announced by American officials about Iraq may possibly be right, our country is ready to receive any scientific experts you choose to represent any of your countries, accompanied by politicians, to tell us which places and scientific and industrial installations they would wish to see, particularly those which the Americans specifically claim to contain materials or weapons of the kinds above mentioned, and about which American officials have made up news stories. If such experts visit Iraq, we shall provide them with every facility needed for them to reach their objective to see the true facts as they are. Then it will be up to them, indeed we shall even urge them, to inform the world, including the peoples of your countries, of what they have found in Iraq, in the light of the information which the Americans will make available to whoever may ask amongst you. When, this has been done, if any of your governments still decides to accept the American fabrications without evidence, then it will bear its responsibility before God, mankind and history. We, for our part will have done what ought to be done.
There may be those amongst you, or outside, who ask, if we are ready for all of this before you and the world, including our similar proposal to the US Senate and House of Representatives, why did we keep on refusing of the inspection teams in the past, and why have we accepted their return now after describing them in such a negative way?!
The Americans opted, even before the General Assembly’s present session, and before the American President delivered his last speech there, for unilateral action outside the framework of the Security Council, and for digressing relevant Security Council resolutions, which call for the respect of Iraq’s sovereignty and independence. The American administration was calling for, and publicly talking about unilateral preparation for launching an aggression on Iraq, about its abject designs against Iraq’s independence, sovereignty, and about interfering in its internal affairs. The American administration along with the British government have been continually launching a military aggression on Iraq, killing large numbers of citizens, and inflicting a large scale destruction on the property of the Iraqis. They have drawn parallels of latitude in Iraq to facilitate their mission of aggression and interference in contradiction with international law and the principals of the Charter, and even with the texts of the Security Council resolutions which created the inspection teams.
Unfortunately the Security Council has been powerless regarding this destructive and criminal conduct, and has not been able to stop, nor condemn the aggression and violations against Iraq. The Americans kept on their illusion that in this way they can achieve their evil goals and subjugate Iraq after breaking its national will.
After America’s failure in achieving what its miserable imagination was dreaming of, and after the development of the world public opinion including the American public opinion by becoming aware of some aspects of the truth, and knowing how much their administrations, including the present administration, have inflicted injustice on Iraq, its people, and on other peoples, and have overstepped the international law, in their quest for being the only power in the world; and after the American President’s resorting to the international community’s household, it would not be wise to let him give the wrong impression that Iraq stands on one side, and the other countries of the world, with the Security Council and the American administration, standing on the other side. As the basic thing for us is that our rights, sovereignty, and security be respected according to the international law, and as we encourage anyone who wants to make a new beginning, we have accepted the return of the inspection teams to Iraq taking into consideration the arrangements that safeguard these principles and achieve, with transparency, and without constraint, the goal of making sure that Iraq no longer possesses nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. We are waiting, with you, to see….
To this we say that if the experts designated by your countries, come in search of the truth now or in the future, and conduct their work in the manner in which we expect them to do regarding the respect of our national security and sovereignty, even if they are from the US Senate and House of Representatives, we shall then expect a positive outcome. Their work, visit, and the visit of whoever may come for this purpose, will be carried out in the media limelight and under the scrutiny of the world public opinion. Hence, they can say, after the visit, what they have seen with conviction and evidence. But if the inspection teams were to come and work without guidelines, they would often be out of the public eye; conducting their work upon instruction from outside. Indeed American instructions and orders are stored in the minds of those who come to undertake the role of American intelligence in this respect. Their basic job would not be to see and know the truth according to international law, ato respect our rights, the sovereignty and security of our country, in accordance with the principles of the Charter. They would rather achieve their designated objectives. In fact, the objectives described in the resolutions of the Security Council may not be all what they seek to achieve, for spying may be a basic objective in their activities, as well as updating their information to the smallest detail possible and the most vital segment reachable in this or that plant, production-line or activity, using special equipment, including Global Positioning Systems (GPS), so that their updated information would, according to this, make the air-strikes and missile attacks against our plants and scientific installations, more extensive in their damage, while the Americans will be more economical in the ammunition they use when they opt for aggression.
What is established beyond question now to the world, as well as to us, is the fact that members of the inspection teams were doing this. Some of them have admitted to this fact in public, and such confessions are public knowledge to the world. Now, will those who visit our country representing you do such things. We do not believe that those representing you will stoop so low; and even if any individuals amongst them were to fall to such levels, God forbid, then the spotlight under which he would be acting would mitigate the damage he might cause.
The inspection teams, as it has been established beyond doubt, used to concoct crises and devise pretexts for the American government to perpetrate actions outside the framework of the Security Council and international law. This has been going on since 1991 by way of unilateral acts of destructive aggression inflicted upon northern and southern Iraq, and sometimes against our capital Baghdad to this date. The visits made by people from outside the distortion (inspection) teams to our plants and scientific installations will make them refrain from such acts.
The blockade imposed upon Iraq has been in place for more than twelve years now, during which time our assets and oil revenues have been frozen, and we are unable to use them except through an inefficient system already proven to be unfeasible. Substantial amounts of our revenues have been illegitimately seized in a manner tantamount to looting and, therefore, contrary to the meaning of the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
Therefore, we call for a discussion of the issue of the inspection teams in accordance with international law, on a comprehensive basis with a discussion also of Iraq’s obligations, including the issues of the inspection teams and the obligations of the Security Council towards Iraq as stated in the resolutions themselves, particularly Resolution 687. These are reciprocal obligations of which the Security Council has implemented nothing, including the obligation of respecting Iraq’s sovereignty which is being violated by America and Britain on a daily basis through their ongoing aggression and the artificially drawn parallel latitude lines over northern and southern Iraq, whereby Iraqi aircraft are prohibited from approaching, or flying over, these areas, under the risk of being shot down by American and British war-planes which are free to fly fully-armed over Iraqi territory to the north of parallel 36 and to the south of parallel 33. When their war-planes are detected by Iraqi radars, they bombard our radar units together with any civilian and military installations in the area. Any Iraqi fire opened against their war-planes in our own air-space in considered an Iraqi aggression against them, as if their war-planes are flying in US or British skies. Their war-planes will immediately open fire, at orders given at the moment or previously determined by their commanding bases, against Iraqi installations and civilian population, thus inflicting death and destruction at will. At the same time, the Security Council remains silent about its own obligations to deter the aggressors who are in constant violation of the very resolutions which they drafted themselves.
The last most important which led us to show such flexibility towards those who want to see the truth, if they visit Iraq, and which makes us, on the other hand, ask for the issue of the inspectors to be addressed within the framework and perspective of the comprehensive solution. The inspection teams should conduct their work under serious arrangements that would prevent their digression from the objectives of the Security Council. Neither the inspectors nor their work should be viewed as an isolated issue. The obligations of Iraq should be counter-balanced with those of the Security Council, particularly the permanent five, including the America as the United Kingdom in the forefront. What makes Iraq seek a solution to the issue of the inspectors, as part of the comprehensive solution, is the following:
You notice, ladies and Gentlmen, how the policy of the Zionist entity, which has usurped Palestine and other Arab territories since 1948, and afterwards, has become now, together with its capabilities, at one with the policies and capabilities of the America, throughout successive US administrations for the past thirty years. This fact is particularly true with the current US administration. Indeed, you know and observe how the American and Zionist goverments have become one in their plans and capabilities, including the ability to thwart all the resolutions of the Security Council which call on the Zionist entity to withdraw from the Palestinian and Arab territories, with total disregard to the minimum level of world public opinion trends, and to the positions taken by peoples, nations and states vis-à-vis the aggressions of and aggressive nature of the Zionist entity and the massacres it perpetrates against the Palestinian people whose only guilt is their rejection of the Zionist occupation.
Because the counter obligations under the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, including Resolution 687, contain a clear paragraph demanding that the Middle East be made a zone free from weapons of mass destruction; because the American government does not want to embarrass (the Zionist entity) perpetrating evil and destruction against Palestine, the Palestinians and the Arabs, and because the Zionist entity is amongst the parties in the region covered by paragraph 14 of Security Council Resolution 687, and America does not want to see this entity deprived of the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons it actually possesses; and because America is aware that Iraq has indeed honoured all its obligations and is demanding, along with the Arab Nation, that paragraph 14 be applied to the Zionist entity, America has resorted, and may continue to resort, to concocting problems with Iraq in order to derail the application of paragraph 14 on the Zionist entity and prevent the Security Council from lifting the blockade imposed on Iraq. This is one of the reasons why the US administrations concerned, including the present administration, have resorted to creating crises with Iraq, in which they tried, whenever they felt they could, to get the Security Council involved, often using the inspection teams as a cover for inhuman criminal acts in a saga of killing and destruction.
Therefore, Iraq has been keen to see this issue discussed between the Security Council and Iraq, through the United Nations Secretary General and the representatives of Iraq, with a view to reaching a balanced formula, based on the principles of the Charter and the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, as a comprehensive solution which should bring to an end the cyclone of American accusations and manufactured crises against Iraq, and at the same time reassure Iraq over its security, sovereignty, territorial integrity and right to choose its way without interference in accordance with the rules established in the Charter of the United Nations. Thus Iraq will live in freedom as it is the right of others to live in freedom, in accordance with the Will of God and the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter as well.
H, it is our hope that this General Assembly will adopt this course of action by supporting Iraq in this respect and blocking the road before America which is trying to mix the cards in order to conceal its real agenda behind a smoke screen away from the truth and rule of law, sometimes by obscuring the facts, and often by way of defamation and distortion of the facts.
It remains to point out that the American President said in his speech that Iraq is providing financial support to the Palestinian people. My comment is that the American President is correct in what he says. Yet we feel that the support we have extended has not been as high as we would have hoped, had it not been for the circumstances which have curtailed our means. Indeed, in extending this support, we act in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the resolutions of this august Assembly in which the national struggle of peoples against occupation and colonialism is considered to be an inalienable national right. If the articles pertaining to this in the UN Charter are ever changed under American-Zionist pressure, then we shall consider what to do; for each will act according to his views and sense of responsibility.
On this basis, and in accordance with these same principles, Iraq along with others, has extended generous aid for two decades in the past thirty years. This is part of our duty towards peoples struggling to get rid of imperialism and occupation in Latin America, Africa, as well as Asia. But what grounds does America and its presidents have in supporting the Zionist entity, which occupies Palestine and other Arab territories, in its criminal Zionist policy of killing Palestinians, destroying their property, and encroaching upon and destroying the sanctities of Muslims and Christians there?! What principles and what laws does the American President rely on in killing the Iraqis, blockading their country, destroying their property and interfering in their internal affairs?
Are you ready to defend what is right?
Will you act accordingly?!
“Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one covert him; let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sinnes”.
James 5, 19-20
Friends, Brothers, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our hope is big in each one amongst you as, you represent your peoples and the conscience of humanity. If you are incapable of correcting wrong- doing and combating it directly with your hands, then combat it with your tongues; and if you still cannot do that, then it will be sufficient for us if you refuse to become swords used against us, and support us in your hearts, and pray for us each in his own way, according to his own religion and faith.
God is Great…
God is Great…
God is Great…
Al-Salamu Alaikum.
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