November 30
More Catch 22 Crap with Iraq
The Iraqi government said it wants the UN weapons inspections monitored by international journalists. Well, no problem with that, right? The western democracies, in their valiant effort to free the Iraqi people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, are of course free societies, whose governments respect freedom of information, free press. Of course it would be a good thing if the eyes of the world were upon these procedures, which could have such a grave impact on the future of the world, on whether or not war breaks out in the middle east which could lead to world war.But NOOOOOOOO! According to The Toronto Star, the UN doesn't want journalists around.
According to the Star, "UN officials appeared concerned that reporters, lacking the inspectors' technical and scientific expertise, might be too quick to report that no banned materials had been found before the experts had time to draw their own conclusions."
Wow. Just think that one over. The UN officials are afraid the journalists might be too quick to report that no banned materials had been found... Well, right now, no weapons have been found, right? That's the situation right now. How can a journalist be "too quick to report" that? That's the status quo. There is nothing to report unless some weapons are found. Or if "the experts ... draw their own conclusions," that would be the news.
As so often is the case with official statements, this makes no sense and its lack of logical integrity betrays its ill intent. Obviously they are not afraid of a journalist being too quick to report the acknowledged status quo. So what are they trying to avoid? Obviously they do not want it to be widely known what is going to happen next. They do not want the inspections -- or whatever they are -- to be transparent. They don't want it to be an open process.
What are they trying to hide?
If I were to take a wild guess, I would guess that they don't want people of the world to realize that they are not finding weapons, and that they are not carrying out the inspections in good faith because the conclusion is foreordained. The war must go forward, so the justification must be fixed.