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No justification for US bombings
By Michael Pierse
http://www.irlnet.com/aprn/index.html
On Thursday 20 August a force of 23,000 soldiers, 170 aircraft and 24 warships encroaching the Red and Arabian Seas calculated their strike into the hearts of Afghanistan and Sudan. At precisely 1:30pm (Washington time), roughly 75 cruise missiles struck simultaneously more than 2,500 miles apart. Was this an attack on ``Islamic fundamentalist terrorism'', as the US claimed, or a calculated diversion from Bill Clinton's sexual improprieties? Or - more likely - it was an attack which would have happened no matter about the sex life of the President.
The people of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in which a chemical factory was razed to the ground, seem convinced. This was, in their opinion, an obvious effort to confuse a fickle American populace, so accustomed to the fictitious world of Hollywood screenplay that reality is viewed with apathy and moral indifference.
The chemical plant, Al Shifa Pharmaceuticals, had a staff of 300 and, according to manager Dr Alamaddin Shibli, was fortunate not to have been the site of a large number of human fatalities. The previous night, he claimed, 50 members of the staff had been working late on a special consignment and he had abnormally left the plant early on Thursday.
The factory had produced a wide range of antibiotics and medicines, which the staff claim filled 50% of Sudan's drug requirement. Medicines which were used in the treatment and cure of malaria, rheumatism, tuberculosis, diabetes and several other diseases, which in the `developed' world are easily cured, but in Africa are the direct cause of millions of deaths - needless deaths - were manufactured there.
America would possibly wish to characterise this country as a haven for international ``terrorism'', jam packed with surreptitious guerrillas intent on waging a religious war on all things American. This could not be further from the truth. The internal situation in Sudan is, according to Irish-based charity service Trócaire, ``critical, and is getting worse by the day. The ongoing war and recent drought have caused appalling food shortages, famine and suffering''. A possible two million people are now facing malnutrition, hunger and death. Parents are suffering the indignity of digging through ant hills for seed for their children to eat. It is estimated that 85% of the population have been displaced.
Of course, Sudan is no stranger to the ravages of war. A civil war which has long hampered any progression towards peace and exacerbated the effects of drought and poverty has left the people accustomed to the sound of exploding bombs. The 18 ft long Tomahawk Land-Attack cruise missiles launched by the Americans weigh 1,000 pounds each and fly up to 1,000 miles. At a cost of $1m a piece, it must surely be disillusioning to aid workers that such opulence be used to devastate the country rather than save its people from terrible disaster.
Beleaguered American President Bill Clinton has had a relatively good ending to a fiasco which threatened to have him ousted. Although he had conducted an ``inappropriate relationship'' with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton pointed to the ``important work to do'' and the ``real security matters to face''. To the more cynical observer, the Nairobi bombings in Kenya were a godsend to Clinton's political life. ``Wag the Dog'' came to mind; a recently released American film depicting an American President, confronted with a sex scandal, waging war in Albania. And, to put their metaphorical foot in it, the CIA justified the bombings in Sudan and Afghanistan with the information that the next ``terrorist'' attack would have targeted the American Embassy in...you guessed it, Albania. Since the bombings Clinton's opinion poll ratings have swelled, equalling his previous high, with women being the most supportive.
However, American Republican Congressmen who had originally voiced their Wag the Dog suspicions became supportive after they were given private briefings from the State Department, CIA or Pentagon. They acknowledged that although the bombings had been politically helpful to Clinton, this was unintentional. All weighed in behind Uncle Sam. According to reports, this bombing originated with intelligence which revealed that Afghan guerrillas would be meeting on 20 August in what the US called the ``University of the Holy War'', which was subsequently decimated.
The Sudanese bombing had arisen from American claims that the components manufactured in the Al Shifa plant were used in the manufacture of the deadly chemical weapon, VX gas. The components in themselves are not considered dangerous. But can we believe all the American President says simply because he is unopposed in Congress? Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam were all supported as part of the general American belligence towards the enemy. Sudanese officials have given open invitations for people to view the wrecked factory unhindered. They have asked for the UN to inspect the plant but this is being blocked by the US. Company manager, Almaddin Shibli, spoke confidently of the Sudanese case against the Americans. ``In those bottles are the reagents that will prove what we really produced here - and it wasn't chemical weapons.
The overseeing of police operations in the areas influenced by American forces is also of concern. Forty people, most of Middle Eastern extraction, have been arrested by Kenyan police, some of whom appear to have been interned on suspicion of involvement in the Nairobi bombing plot. Last Thursday police arrested Jamil Hassan Abdi, a Kenyan native. The reported reason for his detainment was that he stayed at the Hilltop Hotel in Nairobi, from 4-7 August, when it is believed the bombing team also stayed there.
On Thursday also a raid in Albania, at Myslym Shyri Street was said by local residents to have been supervised by Americans. Albanian Police Chief, Fatos Khosi described the issue of Islamic fundamentalism as ``a very delicate theme'' in Albania which has a large Muslim population.
Back home in the States there seems to be an element of jingoism emerging from the shattered ruins of Nairobi. Madelene Albright commented this week that ``this is unfortunately the war of the future'' as she contemplated the prospect of further attacks allegedly from Islamic fundamentalist Osama bin Laden.
In Gaza, Beirut, Tripoli and Khartoum chanting faces are lit by burning US flags. In Iran a 20 storey high flag on the side of an office block depicts the stars as skulls and the stripes as trails of blood.
