Pavan Sohal
24th December 2002, 23:23
What you missed in Iraqs water crisis
Following the Persian Gulf War of 1991, numerous U.S. promoted trade sanctions were imposed on Iraq under the United Nations stamp of approval with the stated intent of preventing the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, from continuing the expansion of his military forces including the development or acquisition of chemical and biological weapons. Since the application of these sanctions, the civilian population of Iraq has been recognized throughout the world, including the United States, to have suffered immensely as a direct result, although many in favour of the restrictions also argue that it is the corrupt militaristic regime that is imposing such pain on Iraqis, and not international pressure. The ultimate result of the sanctions is that following implementation after the war the civilian death rate within Iraq has risen astronomically, in 1997 a United Nations report stated that 1.2 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children under the age of 5 had died as a result of severe infrastructure collapse, especially in relation to water purification and availability. In 1999 a UNICEF report indicated that child death rates had doubled following the introduction of sanctions to more than 5000 deaths per month, attributed solely to preventable illnesses derived from poor water sanitation. In the year 2000 a WHO report stated that potable water levels in Iraq had dropped to 5% of their original levels prior to the introduction of economic sanctions. The regular response from high-ranking American government officials to the terrific statistics is to place responsibility solely upon Husseins devotion to military expansion. However, evidence that was brought to light prior to the September 11th attacks points a damning finger directly at American strategic foreign policyagain.
American regulations state that the public has the right to access information held by the government after a reasonable period of time (defined by the government, but attended by watch-dog agencies), this is known as a freedom-to-information, a central principal of western democracy. In 1995 a series of six documents from the American Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) were partially declassified, and although massive quantities of the texts were censored from public view, even the remainder paints a sadistic picture of an illegal American war on Iraqi civilians. All six declassified documents relate specifically to Iraqs capacity to provide clean water to its citizenry including the need to import specific equipment and substances, while one dated January 22, 1991, entitled Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities outlines Americas capacity to terminate the flow of clean water to civilians in a calculated plan to cripple Iraqi civilian infrastructure contrary to international law. Iraq, like most middle eastern nations is heavily dependant on imported technologies to sustain its civilian population, it relies almost entirely on the export of oil for this end; the declassified information indicates that the American intelligence community closely scrutinized the capabilities of the Iraqi water treatment system, and then proceeded to cause the most damage possible to Iraqs civilian population through the targeted bombing of this system and a brick-wall economic sanction to prevent the people from ever obtaining the equipment necessary to disinfect the water supply. The American targeting of facilities crucial to the sustenance of the civilian population in Iraq is well reported, approximately 62,000 imperial tons were allocated by coalition forces during the gulf war to targets defined by the United Nations as Civilian Infrastructure including, electrical grids, key industries, transportation arteries, and water systems. Although the worlds attention was primarily focused at the time of the Gulf War upon a diplomatic conclusion, human rights groups throughout the world referred to the Geneva Convention agreements on the rules of war, specifically section 54 referring to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts which America was clearly violating.
"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."
The selective bombing of the water treatment facilities and pipelines within Iraq indicates a clear disregard for agreed upon terms guaranteeing specific standards of living for living human beings on the part of the United States and confirms the fact that the declassified DIA papers were a carefully formulated plan to conduct germ warfare on a massive scale against a civilian population, far beyond Saddam Husseins use of chemical weapons on the Kurdish population.
Once the initial military destruction of civilian facilities within Iraq was conducted, the American government ensured that the U.N. sanctions included all relevant materials useable in rebuilding the crucial infrastructure that had been illegally destroyed. Even water facilities that were not directly targeted by bombing became useless for lack of resources within six months of the implementation of sanctions; section 5 of the key DIA paper states UNLESS WATER TREATMENT SUPPLIES ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE UNSANCTIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS, NO ADEQUATE SOLUTION EXISTS FOR IRAQ'S WATER PURIFICATION DILEMMA, clearly indicating that American intelligence was fully aware of the conditions facing Iraqi civilians as a result of bombing and sanctions. The paper also provides suggestions to government public relations organizations in deflecting criticism for U.S. actions in Iraq, but never refers to any possible amendments of the U.N. sanctions. The documents outline a clear malicious intent on the part of the United States to force large portions of the Iraqi civilian population through starvation as a result of food contamination and disease epidemics from lack of water treatment resources acknowledged below.
IRAQ WILL SUFFER INCREASING SHORTAGES OF PURIFIED
WATER BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF REOUIRED CHEMICALS AND
DESALINIZATION MEMBRANES. INCIDENCES OF DISEASE, INCLUDING
EPIDEMICS OF TYPHOID, HEPATITIS, AND CHOLERA WILL BECOME PROBABLE PARTICULARLY SINCE THE SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM, NEVER A HIGH PRIORITY, WILL SUFFER THE SAME LOSS OF CAPABILITY WITH THE LACK OF CHLORINE.
LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD AND MEDICINE WILL BE CONTAMINATED. LACK
OF COAGULATION CHEMICALS WILL CAUSE PERIODIC SHUTDOWNS OF
TREATMENT PLANTS FOR UNCLOGGING AND CLEANING FILTERS, CAUSING
INTERRUPTIONS OF WATER SUPPLIES. AS DESALINIZATION EQUIPMENT
BECOMES INOPERABLE, SALINE WATER SOURCES WILL BECOME
INCREASINGLY UNUSABLE. TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT SHUT DOWNS OF
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS THAT RELY ON TREATED WATER WILL
MULTIPLY. CANNIBALIZING LOWER PRIORITY OPERATIONS WILL
ACCELERATE THE TRENDTHE ENTIRE IRAQI WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WILL NOT
COLLAPSE PRECIPITOUSLY, BUT ITS CAPABILITIES WILL DECLINE
STEADILY AS DWINDLING SUPPLIES INCREASINGLY ARE DIVERTED TO
HIGHER PRIORITY SITES WITH COMPATIBLE EQUIPMENT. (Sections #27&28 of Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities)
The U.S. program of indirect germ warfare on Iraqi civilians has not been entirely ignored by the American civilian population, on June 7th, 2000 during a House meeting, Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia stated Attacking the Iraqi public drinking water supply flagrantly targets civilians and is a violation of the Geneva Convention and of the fundamental laws of civilized nations while referring to the DIAs paper Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities. Democratic Representative Tony Hall of Ohio sent a letter to the Secretary of State at the time, Madeline Albright, wherein he wrote The prime killer of children under five years of age--diarrhoeal diseases--has reached epidemic proportionsholds on contracts for the water and sanitation sector are a prime reason for the increases in sickness and death. Of the eighteen contracts, all but one hold was placed by the U.S. government. The contracts are for purification chemicals, chlorinators, chemical dosing pumps, water tankers, and other equipment. Civilian humanitarian contract requests made by Iraq for the replacement of water treatment facilities at $2.25billionUSD have been repeatedly blocked by the U.S. in a continuation of its strangling of the ordinary Iraqi citizen.
Although the US Defense Intelligence Agency documents in question have been declassified to the same extent since 1995, western media has largely ignored them with the exception of the Sunday Herald of Scotland and the Orlando Sentinel. The most widely read newspaper in the world, the The Times of India, has included extensive reporting of Americas civilian targeting in Iraq while North Americans remain largely uninformed. Until the ordinary American citizen is privy to such unfiltered news sources, the world can expect to see many repeats of the situation in Iraq.
Following the Persian Gulf War of 1991, numerous U.S. promoted trade sanctions were imposed on Iraq under the United Nations stamp of approval with the stated intent of preventing the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, from continuing the expansion of his military forces including the development or acquisition of chemical and biological weapons. Since the application of these sanctions, the civilian population of Iraq has been recognized throughout the world, including the United States, to have suffered immensely as a direct result, although many in favour of the restrictions also argue that it is the corrupt militaristic regime that is imposing such pain on Iraqis, and not international pressure. The ultimate result of the sanctions is that following implementation after the war the civilian death rate within Iraq has risen astronomically, in 1997 a United Nations report stated that 1.2 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children under the age of 5 had died as a result of severe infrastructure collapse, especially in relation to water purification and availability. In 1999 a UNICEF report indicated that child death rates had doubled following the introduction of sanctions to more than 5000 deaths per month, attributed solely to preventable illnesses derived from poor water sanitation. In the year 2000 a WHO report stated that potable water levels in Iraq had dropped to 5% of their original levels prior to the introduction of economic sanctions. The regular response from high-ranking American government officials to the terrific statistics is to place responsibility solely upon Husseins devotion to military expansion. However, evidence that was brought to light prior to the September 11th attacks points a damning finger directly at American strategic foreign policyagain.
American regulations state that the public has the right to access information held by the government after a reasonable period of time (defined by the government, but attended by watch-dog agencies), this is known as a freedom-to-information, a central principal of western democracy. In 1995 a series of six documents from the American Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) were partially declassified, and although massive quantities of the texts were censored from public view, even the remainder paints a sadistic picture of an illegal American war on Iraqi civilians. All six declassified documents relate specifically to Iraqs capacity to provide clean water to its citizenry including the need to import specific equipment and substances, while one dated January 22, 1991, entitled Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities outlines Americas capacity to terminate the flow of clean water to civilians in a calculated plan to cripple Iraqi civilian infrastructure contrary to international law. Iraq, like most middle eastern nations is heavily dependant on imported technologies to sustain its civilian population, it relies almost entirely on the export of oil for this end; the declassified information indicates that the American intelligence community closely scrutinized the capabilities of the Iraqi water treatment system, and then proceeded to cause the most damage possible to Iraqs civilian population through the targeted bombing of this system and a brick-wall economic sanction to prevent the people from ever obtaining the equipment necessary to disinfect the water supply. The American targeting of facilities crucial to the sustenance of the civilian population in Iraq is well reported, approximately 62,000 imperial tons were allocated by coalition forces during the gulf war to targets defined by the United Nations as Civilian Infrastructure including, electrical grids, key industries, transportation arteries, and water systems. Although the worlds attention was primarily focused at the time of the Gulf War upon a diplomatic conclusion, human rights groups throughout the world referred to the Geneva Convention agreements on the rules of war, specifically section 54 referring to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts which America was clearly violating.
"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies, and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move away, or for any other motive."
The selective bombing of the water treatment facilities and pipelines within Iraq indicates a clear disregard for agreed upon terms guaranteeing specific standards of living for living human beings on the part of the United States and confirms the fact that the declassified DIA papers were a carefully formulated plan to conduct germ warfare on a massive scale against a civilian population, far beyond Saddam Husseins use of chemical weapons on the Kurdish population.
Once the initial military destruction of civilian facilities within Iraq was conducted, the American government ensured that the U.N. sanctions included all relevant materials useable in rebuilding the crucial infrastructure that had been illegally destroyed. Even water facilities that were not directly targeted by bombing became useless for lack of resources within six months of the implementation of sanctions; section 5 of the key DIA paper states UNLESS WATER TREATMENT SUPPLIES ARE EXEMPTED FROM THE UNSANCTIONS FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS, NO ADEQUATE SOLUTION EXISTS FOR IRAQ'S WATER PURIFICATION DILEMMA, clearly indicating that American intelligence was fully aware of the conditions facing Iraqi civilians as a result of bombing and sanctions. The paper also provides suggestions to government public relations organizations in deflecting criticism for U.S. actions in Iraq, but never refers to any possible amendments of the U.N. sanctions. The documents outline a clear malicious intent on the part of the United States to force large portions of the Iraqi civilian population through starvation as a result of food contamination and disease epidemics from lack of water treatment resources acknowledged below.
IRAQ WILL SUFFER INCREASING SHORTAGES OF PURIFIED
WATER BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF REOUIRED CHEMICALS AND
DESALINIZATION MEMBRANES. INCIDENCES OF DISEASE, INCLUDING
EPIDEMICS OF TYPHOID, HEPATITIS, AND CHOLERA WILL BECOME PROBABLE PARTICULARLY SINCE THE SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM, NEVER A HIGH PRIORITY, WILL SUFFER THE SAME LOSS OF CAPABILITY WITH THE LACK OF CHLORINE.
LOCALLY PRODUCED FOOD AND MEDICINE WILL BE CONTAMINATED. LACK
OF COAGULATION CHEMICALS WILL CAUSE PERIODIC SHUTDOWNS OF
TREATMENT PLANTS FOR UNCLOGGING AND CLEANING FILTERS, CAUSING
INTERRUPTIONS OF WATER SUPPLIES. AS DESALINIZATION EQUIPMENT
BECOMES INOPERABLE, SALINE WATER SOURCES WILL BECOME
INCREASINGLY UNUSABLE. TEMPORARY OR PERMANENT SHUT DOWNS OF
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS THAT RELY ON TREATED WATER WILL
MULTIPLY. CANNIBALIZING LOWER PRIORITY OPERATIONS WILL
ACCELERATE THE TRENDTHE ENTIRE IRAQI WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WILL NOT
COLLAPSE PRECIPITOUSLY, BUT ITS CAPABILITIES WILL DECLINE
STEADILY AS DWINDLING SUPPLIES INCREASINGLY ARE DIVERTED TO
HIGHER PRIORITY SITES WITH COMPATIBLE EQUIPMENT. (Sections #27&28 of Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities)
The U.S. program of indirect germ warfare on Iraqi civilians has not been entirely ignored by the American civilian population, on June 7th, 2000 during a House meeting, Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia stated Attacking the Iraqi public drinking water supply flagrantly targets civilians and is a violation of the Geneva Convention and of the fundamental laws of civilized nations while referring to the DIAs paper Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities. Democratic Representative Tony Hall of Ohio sent a letter to the Secretary of State at the time, Madeline Albright, wherein he wrote The prime killer of children under five years of age--diarrhoeal diseases--has reached epidemic proportionsholds on contracts for the water and sanitation sector are a prime reason for the increases in sickness and death. Of the eighteen contracts, all but one hold was placed by the U.S. government. The contracts are for purification chemicals, chlorinators, chemical dosing pumps, water tankers, and other equipment. Civilian humanitarian contract requests made by Iraq for the replacement of water treatment facilities at $2.25billionUSD have been repeatedly blocked by the U.S. in a continuation of its strangling of the ordinary Iraqi citizen.
Although the US Defense Intelligence Agency documents in question have been declassified to the same extent since 1995, western media has largely ignored them with the exception of the Sunday Herald of Scotland and the Orlando Sentinel. The most widely read newspaper in the world, the The Times of India, has included extensive reporting of Americas civilian targeting in Iraq while North Americans remain largely uninformed. Until the ordinary American citizen is privy to such unfiltered news sources, the world can expect to see many repeats of the situation in Iraq.