Ex-US attorney general calls Iraq threat a 'fraud'

Reuters | 9/04/02 | Laura MacInnis

[kattracks]

WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Pressing his case against an assault on Baghdad, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark said on Wednesday the United States had no legitimate reason to attack Iraq and that it would be a grave mistake to do so.

"The claim that Iraq is a threat is a complete fraud. I don't think they believe it for a minute," Clark said, referring to the Bush administration's stated grounds for seeking to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Clark, who served in the Johnson administration at the height of the Vietnam war, said it would be "the gravest mistake" of any president in his lifetime if President George W. Bush launches a war against Iraq.

The U.S. government has accused Iraq of amassing weapons of mass destruction, a charge Baghdad denies.

"What business is it of the United States to engage in regime change?," Clark asked at a news conference called to announce anti-war demonstrations expected to take place on Oct. 26 in Washington, San Francisco, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome.

Bush said on Wednesday that at the appropriate time he would ask Congress to approve any action on Iraq "necessary to deal with the threat."

Clark has been a vocal opponent of U.S. policy on Iraq and the U.N. sanctions imposed on Baghdad for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In Baghdad last week, he urged the United Nations to act to prevent a U.S. assault on Iraq, saying it would breed more violence.

Other American critics of a possible war against Iraq shared their opinions on Wednesday at a Capitol Hill forum chaired by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat.

Some participants warned that a U.S. strike without legitimate reason, could destabilize the Middle East.

"A U.S. invasion would likely be met with fury across the region" American University professor Edmund Ghareeb said.

"Most Arab states view Iraq as a country on its knees, a victim of trigger-happy U.S. policies. An invasion would only serve to galvanize anti-American feelings, and help fulfill the dreams of extremists," Ghareeb said.

© Reuters Limited.

[dighton]

Dead Dumbass Society bump.

[College Repub]

He's the founder of:

http://www.internationalactioncenter.org

[Pamlico]

Ramsey Clark is a fraud.

[Texas_Jarhead]

I say Clark is the fraud. Not to mention useful idiot.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Current U.S. Citizen calls Ramsey Clark a 'Commie-Pinko Agitator'...

[Texas_Jarhead]

That image says it all.

[Shermy]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020904/ap_on_re_us/us_iraq_protest_1

Anti-War Protesters Plan 10/26 March
Wed Sep 4,

WASHINGTON (AP) - Led by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, anti-war activists said they would march on Washington next month in opposition to an attack on Iraq.



The Washington demonstration, and a parallel protest in San Francisco, are scheduled for Oct. 26. They are being led by International Answer, a group that held a pro-Palestinian protest in Washington last April that attracted thousands of demonstrators. It was one of several protests coinciding with the spring meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The activists said they fear the United States will attack Iraq. President Bush on Wednesday pledged to seek congressional approval before taking action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Clark called Wednesday for an end to U.N. sanctions against Iraq, which have remained in place since an American-led coalition turned back Iraq's invasion of neighboring Kuwait.

"The war against Iraq has been going on for more than 12 years," Clark said. "It has been killing scores of people every day."

Clark, U.S. attorney general in the Johnson administration, has been a longtime critic of U.S. policy toward Iraq, including opposing the Persian Gulf War. Recently, he helped former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic fight war-crimes charges.

Last year, testifying on behalf of a man convicted in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, Clark said the Iraqi sanctions contributed to widespread hatred of the United States.

[Ciexyz]

Sheesh Ramsey's still around. Figure that.

[yooper]

"Clark, who served in the Johnson administration at the height of the Vietnam war, said it would be "the gravest mistake" of any president in his lifetime if President George W. Bush launches a war against Iraq."

Yeah, it's almost as bad as his former bosses acceleration of the Viet Nam war. Does Clark realize the absurdity of his statement?

[mystery-ak]

I should have known it was clark before I clicked on......he's a commie bast----.

[okie01]

Ex-US attorney general calls Iraq threat a 'fraud'

Why did I instinctively know that the headline referred to Ramsey Clark?

And why did I know it would be Reuters who would exhume him?

[07055]

http://www.shadow.autono.net/sin001/clark.htm

Another Clark client was Karl Linnas, an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard in Estonia (where he had overseen the murder of some 12,000 resistence fighters and Jews), who was being deported from the US to the USSR to face war crimes charges. Clark again lost the case, but again went to bat for his client in the public arena, questioning the need to prosecute Nazis "forty years after some god-awful crime they're alleged to have committed."

[Torie]

Somehow I knew it was Ramsey Clark even before clicking on the thread. After all, Reno is running for office. Is Clark still alive?

[SirAngus]

I find it irritating how people on this board begin bashing and throwing around personal insults towards anyone who has a differing viewpoint.

Couldn't have said it better myself...

[MJY1288]

Get used to it, Ramsey Clark deserves nothing less than a good bashing.

[dighton]

Sheesh Ramsey's still around.

Around, but judging by his appearance no longer alive.

[Skwidd]

"Saddam's an ok guy in my book!"

[marvlus]

Is this pathetic, demented-looking creature Ramsay Clark?