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the time? According to Samantha Power in her
brilliant book, ‘A Problem From Hell: America in
an Age of Genocide’:
“The State Department and even the Congress
largely let the Iraqi attacks slide. Reports of
Iraq’s chemical use against Iran first reached
Secretary of State Shultz in late l983. It was not
until March 5, l984, that the State Department
spokesman issue a condemnation. It took the UN
three more years to “deplore” chemical weapons
use. It was this type of response, Power argues,
that encouraged Hussein to do it again and to
think he could “get away with it.”
Even though no chemical weapons have been
used yet in this war, we keep seeing reporters in
chemical suits. News World reports: A veteran
Hong Kong journalist was severely lambasted for
his “absurd” TV reports from Kuwait City. Raymond
Wong, an assistant director at English-language
TV channel TVB, came under fire from
viewers about his pieces to camera, including a
three-minute stint in which he donned a gas
mask and protective goggles. The segment was
supposed to show how the Kuwaitis might be
subjected to chemical or biological attacks in the
advent of a war with Iraq.
Censorship on the rise
CENSORSHIP is rearing its ugly head across the
world. Globalvision News Network editor Tim
Karr reports: “Danny, Some interesting movements
for and against global independent media
and their coverage of the War in Iraq:
“Erich Marquardt, the editor of the Amsterdam-based
YellowTimes.org. (www/yellowtimes.
org) is fighting a shutdown attempt by its hosting
provider. The site was temporarily shut down
MOBILIZING OPINION
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Sunday night after it posted graphic images of
Iraqi victims of the war. YellowTimes.org also on
Sunday published images of the five captured
American soldiers and of dead GIs.
“Without any prior warning YellowTimes.org’s
hosting provider sent a letter stating: ‘Your
account has been suspended because of inappropriate
graphic material.’ Over the weekend, YellowTimes.org
acquired several pictures of Iraqi
civilian casualties. Since few to none in the mainstream
Western media had reported on the civilian
toll, Yellow Times posted the images at the
site. Marquardt also chose to publish images of
captured and killed GIs at a time, on Sunday,
when most mainstream American news outlets
were reluctant to air these images.”
No more anti-war news
MEDIA Guardian reports: “Sir Ray Tindle, the
editor-in-chief of over 100 weekly newspapers
across Britain, has informed all his editors that
they can no longer report any anti-war stories in
their newspapers. Sir Ray, who has been
knighted for his services to the newspaper
industry, wrote: “Everyone knows that Tindle family
newspapers have no political bias. Our columns
are free. When British troops come under fire,
however, as now seems probable, I ask you to
ensure that nothing appears in the columns of
your newspapers which attacks the decision to
conduct the war in which those men are involved,
nor, of course, anything which attacks the troops
themselves.”
The armchair general
MARK LAWSON writes: “We belong to a genera-