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From: MR JAVIER BERNAL <988005350@98.lincoln.ac.uk>
To: <stopnato@listbot.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2000 11:53 AM
Subject: [STOPNATO] (Fwd) Pentagon War Crimes Exposed

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Organization:   Demokritos University of Thrace
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Subject:        Pentagon War Crimes Exposed

-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

PENTAGON WAR CRIMES EXPOSED: REPORT SAYS U.S. GEN.
MCCAFFERY ORDERED MASSACRE OF IRAQI SOLDIERS

By Sarah Sloan

A new report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
confirms that U.S. troops massacred Iraqi soldiers on March
2, 1991, after the cease-fire that ended the Gulf War.
Hersh's report is carried in the May 22 New Yorker
magazine.

The massacre was cited in war crimes hearings held by
anti-war groups shortly after the war.

According to the transcript of the May 11, 1991,
Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes
Tribunal:

"A division of the Republican Guard withdrawing on a long,
unprotected causeway, high above a swamp, on Highway 8, was
attacked. . The footage tells us what happened: the U.S.
assembled attack helicopters, tanks, artillery, and opened
fire with laser-guided weapons. The footage shows, and the
commander describes: `We went right up the column like a
turkey shoot, we really waxed them.' That's on tape!
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers were killed; not one U.S.
soldier died."

This was part of the summary of charges presented by Sara
Flounders, now co-director of the International Action
Center.

The massacre was ordered by Gen. Barry McCaffrey, now the
"drug control officer" for the Clinton administration, a
cabinet-level position. That means that the "retired" four-
star general is part of the White House's inner circle. So
much for the claim of civilian control over the U.S.
military; it appears that it is the generals who are
setting policy.

McCaffrey is also the architect of the current U.S.
military buildup in Colombia. McCaffrey's plan, including
the $1.7-billion "aid" package recently passed by Congress,
is widely described as setting the stage for the next
Vietnam-like war by the Pentagon.

Hersh's report adds details to what was cited in the 1991
war crimes hearings, particularly on the role played by
Gen. McCaffrey. According to Hersh, McCaffrey's operations
officer, Patrick Lamar, said that the alleged firing by
Iraqi troops used by Gen. McCaffrey to justify the attack
was "a giant hoax. The Iraqis were doing absolutely
nothing. I told McCaffrey I was having trouble confirming
the incoming'' fire.

Retired Lt. Gen. John J. Yeosock said, "what Barry
[McCaffrey] ended up doing was fighting sand dunes and
moving rapidly.'' He said that McCaffrey was "looking for a
battle.''

Maj. Gen. Ronald Griffith said McCaffrey "made it a battle
when it was never one.''

Since the beginning, the Pentagon has had documentary
evidence, including hours of videotape, of the deadly
assault on a defenseless unit. The May 8, 1991, New York
Newsday carried a report on the massacre based on this Army
footage.

The Army opened an investigation in August 1991 into
charges of war crimes, including the massacre of retreating
soldiers and an earlier incident involving the murder of
unarmed Iraqi prisoners.  According to Hersh, McCaffrey's
unit fired high-powered machine guns into a group of more
than 350 disarmed Iraqi prisoners. The official
investigation confirmed that McCaffrey had ordered the
killing of the retreating Iraqi troops, but concluded that
it was justified and not a war crime. It was a decision
that can be compared to the official justification of four
New York cops shooting 41 bullets and killing unarmed
Amadou Diallo last year.

The May 15 New York Times reports that "allegations about
the March 2 attack did not apparently cloud General
McCaffrey's career."

IT WAS ALL WAR CRIMES

The massacre of retreating Iraqi soldiers was also
described in the 1992 book "The Fire This Time," written by
Ramsey Clark, former attorney general and founder of the
International Action Center. In it, Clark also describes
other crimes committed by the U.S. military during the
ground war, including the slaughter of unarmed Iraqi
soldiers as they walked towards U.S. soldiers with their
arms raised in an attempt to surrender. Clark also writes
about Iraqi troops who were buried alive during the first
two days of the ground offensive. Plows were mounted onto
tanks to carry this out.

The book, however, focuses on another war crime that has
become a mainstay of U.S. imperialism since the Iraq war:
the systematic destruction of the civilian infrastructure
of the country. "The Fire This Time" quotes a June 23,
1991, Washington Post article based on interviews with some
of the Gulf War's top planners.

Reporter Barton Gellman wrote: "Many of the targets were
chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military
defeat of [Iraq]. . Military planners hoped the bombing
would amplify the economic and psychological impact of
international sanctions on Iraqi society. . Because of
these goals, damage to civilian structures and interests,
invariably described by briefers during the war as
`collateral' and unintended, was sometimes neither. . They
deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support
itself as an industrial society."

This same strategy was used again eight years later in the
U.S.-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. A new war crimes hearing
into this war has been initiated by the International
Action Center. A Commission of Inquiry into U.S.-NATO War
Crimes in Yugoslavia opened on July 31, 1999. Ramsey Clark
brought 19 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity
and crimes against peace against the leaders of the U.S.
and NATO countries.

On June 10 in New York City, the International Action
Center will hold a World Tribunal on U.S./NATO War Crimes
Against the People of Yugoslavia. Sara Flounders, a co-
coordinator of this Commission of Inquiry, said: "While we
are not now holding the named criminals under lock and key,
we see the tribunal process as a challenge to arrogant and
arbitrary power. We are confident that it is the first step
in a process that will continue to resonate throughout the
NATO countries and among all the peoples targeted by the
New World Order.

"The IAC initiated a movement that has encouraged
thousands to expose NATO crimes and show solidarity with
Yugoslavia. From Oslo to Berlin to Belgrade to Kiev to
Athens to Sydney, in 24 cities in 14 countries, there have
been tribunal hearings."

Readers wanting more information on these war crimes
hearings can contact the International Action Center at
(212) 633-6646, email iacenter@iacenter.org on the Web at
www.iacenter.org.

                         - END -

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