From: Ali Abunimah
To: atc@npr.org
Subject: Iraq's "threats"

September 14, 2000

Dear NPR News,

Mike Shuster's report on the alleged incursion of an Iraqi warplane into Saudi airspace, on All Things
Considered today, was consumed with assurances by US military officials that the US is keeping a "watchful
eye" on Iraq, but refusing to be "provoked." The US will, the Pentagon says, respond in a "time and manner of
its choosing."

Shuster also observed that the United States keeps 25,000 troops and an aircraft carrier battle group in the
Gulf region, ready to "respond" in case of any "hostile" actions by Iraq.

Entirely unmentioned was the fact that US warplanes ROUTINELY bombard Iraq, and ROUTINELY violate
Iraq's airspace without any authorization from the United Nations and without any "hostile" actions by Iraq. The
US forces in the region do not sit by waiting to "respond," but have been actively attacking Iraq since
December 1998, almost weekly. These attacks have been no less devastating and terrifying for Iraq's people,
simply because they are virtually unreported in the US media. Furthermore, US and British "protection" of the
illegally imposed "no-fly" zones does not extend to prohibiting Turkish ground and airforces from carrying out
regular incursions and attacks on Kurds in Iraq.

It is absurd for the United States to continue to maintain that Iraq represents any real threat to its neighbors. If it
did, then the US would have responded to the single Iraqi warplane going into Saudi Arabia, rather than
ignoring it, as it did. After all, if Iraq was really a threat, couldn't that lone MiG have been carrying an anthrax
bomb or some other nasty weapon? If Iraq had any military capability left at all, US, British and Turkish
warplanes would not be able to attack Iraq with total impunity.

The United States constitutes the greatest threat to peace in the Gulf, and continues to stockpile and use
weapons of mass destruction in the region. When it is not bringing its own weapons in, it is busy trying to
proliferate its deadly wares to the Gulf States. The portrayal of the opposite situation is very much an "Alice in
Wonderland" fantasy, to borrow Ms. Albright's phrase. It is a shame that NPR so faithfully and uncritically
mirrors it.

Sincerely,

Ali Abunimah
ali@abunimah.org
http://www.abunimah.org