April Glaspie Still Under US State Dept. Gag Order?

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April Glaspie Still Under US State Dept. Gag Order?

Postby StarmanSkye » Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:04 am

Despite the atrocious state of political and historic ignorance the majority of US public are kept in by a thoroughly subverted mainstream 'news' media, I can't excuse the public's failure to diligently seek-out alternative sources of information. Of course, it's abysmal that the US 'news' industry is now dominated by only five corporate interests, most who are also major military-industrial 'defense' contractors with evident conflict-of-interest issues; <br><br>How is it possible that ANY thinking American could or would agree to such a situation compromising the citizen's critical right to be well-informed -- absolutely essential as a minimal condition for a genuine self-rule democracy. That people ARE so grossly mis-and-disinformed about basic details re: American policies and contemporay actions isn't even controversial (except for those who have been consistently lied-to and decieved but don't know it) -- and in the absence of being reasonably informed, America's 'democracy' is little more than a fraudulent myth.<br><br>That goes a long way towards explaining the incredible, indeed outrageous and fantastic, contradictions and lies, hypocrisies and downright idiocies that characterize American politics today, in the grip of a Constitutional Crisis that America's 'flocks' of slumbering mind-numbed & dumbed-down sheeple seemingly are too braindead or naive or disinterested to even be aware of.<br><br>While writing or reading on the net or here, I often have the TV on chattering in the background, often tuned to the Science or History or even (occasionally, whenever I can stand it) the MILITARY Channels (when not on IFC or Sundance) -- and so I am aware of the many, many instances when unquestionably FALSE information is presented, and when a grossly skewed version of 'reality' is put forth that affirms an entirely fake storyline propping up the myth of Free, Brave, Moral, Righteous America that hasn't murdered over 4 million Vietnamese, over a million Iraqis, and been party to genocide and horrific war crimes and brutalities and treason -- <br><br>Perhaps there's something to the notion that 911 was a sophisticated psychological ops intended to seem too incredible for most folks to accept anything BUT the 'official' version re: an Al Qaeda attack -- and for any who might be tempted to think critically, the implications provoke an overwhelming cognitive crisis that most folks are unable to deal with, let alone come to terms with what the evidence actually points to -- a massive inside-job betrayal that contradicts EVERYTHING great the public has been rigorously taught and conditioned to believe America is all about. <br><br>How ELSE to explain the apparant complicity, or cowardice, or resignation by which SO MANY people don't question or challenge the absurdities and outrages that have become too damn common, with the poseur boyo-wannabe-King Geo Boosh acting the high-and-mighty neocon Fuhrer free to order torture and indefinite detentions and international kidnappings and pre-emtove invasions, wholly above the law and unaccountable to We, The People -- with his sycophant technocrat asskissing court-supporters and Lock-n-Loaded Civil/Military Police State stormtroopers held on standby, and the out-of-sight anonymous Ruling Class clients (HIS 'BASE')arranging the facade of a facetious 'mandate' for the Prez to declare Martial Law and order a nuclear strike on his whim (triggered by a microwaved whispered 'suggestion' or order from Geo's personal *GOD* to wage war on the infidel?)<br><br>This article describing Glaspie's role in tricking Saddam into invading Kuwait with America's implied 'blessing' fits the same well-worn pattern by which America has taken advantage of opportunity and justified numerous wars and invasions and interventions -- from the convenient coal-bunker explosion of the Maine in Cuba's Havana Harbor, to the dastardly 'attack' by Mexican cowboys, to Germany's cowardly sinking of the neutral passenger-ship Lusitania, to provoking Japan's 'surprise' Pearl harbor attack, to instigating USSR's Afgan war, to taking down Noriega, to the bogus Tonkin Gulf 'incident', to Osama's 911 'terrorism', and the (tranparently) fake Iraqi WMD 'evidence'. <br><br>Ah, so it goes ...<br>Starman<br>***<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2005-daily/25-12-2005/world/w2.htm">www.jang.com.pk/thenews/d...rld/w2.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Is the US State Department still keeping April Glaspie under wraps?<br>By Kaleem Omar<br><br>It is now more than fifteen years since that fateful meeting on July 25, 1990 between then-US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie and President Saddam Hussein that the Iraqi leader interpreted as a green light from Washington for his invasion of Kuwait eight days later.<br><br>The US State Department, which is said to have placed a gag order on Glaspie in August 1990 prohibiting her from talking to the media about what had transpired at that meeting, is apparently still keeping her under wraps despite the fact that she retired from the American Foreign Service in 2002. .<br><br>In all the years since her meeting with Saddam Hussein, Glaspie has never spoken about it to the media, never appeared as a guest on a TV talk show, never written an article or a book about her time as the US’s top diplomat in Baghdad. The question is: why? What has she got to hide?<br><br>April Catherine Glaspie was born in Vancouver, Canada, on April 26, 1942 and graduated from Mills College in Oakland, California in 1963 and from Johns Hopkins University in 1965. In 1966 she entered the United States diplomatic service, where she became an expert on the Middle East. After postings in Kuwait, Syria and Egypt, Glaspie was appointed Ambassador to Iraq in 1989.<br><br>Glaspie’s appointment followed a period from 1980 to 1988 during which the United States had given substantial covert support to Iraq during its war with Iran.<br><br>Before 1918 Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman province of Basra, and thus in a sense part of Iraq, but Iraq had recognised its independence in 1961. After the end of the Iran-Iraq War (during the course of which Kuwait lent Iraq $ 14 billion), Iraq and Kuwait had a dispute over the exact demarcation of its border, access to waterways, the price at which Kuwaiti oil was being sold, and oil-drilling in border areas (NOTE: it's been pretty-reliably reported that the US encouraged Kuwait to use slant-drilling technology to exploit the contested al Rumalya oilfields, even making the sophisticated technology available -- apparently as a further provocation to Saddam. Nevertheless, Saddam tried dispute arbitration and satisfaction via the International Court -- but the court didn't cooperate -- I can guess the US exercised its not-insignificant influence on the court to make sure Saddam was deprived of legal recourse; Starman)<br><br>It was in this context that Glaspie had her first meeting with Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990. Glaspie herself had requested the meeting, saying she had an urgent message for the Iraqi president from US President George H. W. Bush (Bush Senior). In her two years as Ambassador to Iraq, it was Glaspie’s first private audience with Saddam Hussein. It was also to be her last. A partial transcript of the meeting (presumably taped by a suspicious Saddam as insurance) is as follows:<br><br>US Ambassador Glaspie:<br><br>"I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your confrontation with Kuwait. (pause) As you know, I have lived here for years and admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country (after the Iran-Iraq war). We know you need funds. We understand that, and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. (pause) We can see that you have deployed massive numbers of troops in the south. Normally that would be none of our business, but when this happens in the context of your other threats against Kuwait, then it would be reasonable for us to be concerned. For this reason, I have received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship - not confrontation - regarding your intentions. Why are your troops massed so very close to Kuwait’s borders?"<br><br>President Saddam Hussein:<br><br>"As you know, for years now I have made every effort to reach a settlement on our dispute with Kuwait. There is to be a meeting in two days; I am prepared to give negotiations only one more brief chance. (pause) When we (the Iraqis) meet (with the Kuwaitis) and we see there is hope, then nothing will happen. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it will be natural that Iraq will not accept death."<br><br>US Ambassador Glaspie:<br><br>"What solution would be acceptable?"<br><br>President Saddam Hussein:<br><br>"If we could keep the whole of the Shatt al Arab - our strategic goal in our war with Iran - we will make concessions (to the Kuwaitis). But if we are forced to choose between keeping half of the Shatt and the whole of Iraq (which, in Iraq’s view, includes Kuwait), then we will give up all of the Shatt to defend our claims on Kuwait to keep the whole of Iraq in the shape we wish it to be. (pause) What is the United States’ opinion on this?"<br><br>US Ambassador Glaspie:<br><br>"We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary (of State James) Baker has directed me to emphasise the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America."<br><br>(Saddam smiles)<br><br>At a Washington press conference called the next day (July 26, 1990), US State Department spokesperson Margaret Tutweiler was asked by journalists:<br><br>"Has the United States sent any type of diplomatic message to the Iraqis about putting 30,000 troops on the border with Kuwait? Has there been any type of protest communicated from the United States government?"<br><br>To which Tutweiler responded<br><br>"I’m entirely unaware of any such protest."<br><br>On July 31, 1990, two days before the Iraqi invasion, John Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, testified to Congress that the<br><br>"United States has no commitment to defend Kuwait and the US has no intention of defending Kuwait if it is attacked by Iraq."<br><br>The trap had been baited very cleverly by Glaspie, reinforced by Tutweiler’s and Kelly’s supporting comments. And Saddam Hussein walked right into it, believing that the US would do nothing if his troops invaded Kuwait. On August 2, 1990, eight days after Glaspie’s meeting with the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein’s massed troops invaded Kuwait.<br><br>One month later in Baghdad, British journalists obtained the tape and transcript of the Saddam Hussein-April Glaspie meeting on July 25, 1990. In order to verify this astounding information, they attempted to confront Ms Glaspie as she was leaving the US embassy in Baghdad.<br><br>Journalist 1:<br><br>"Are the transcripts (holding them up) correct, Madam Ambassador?"<br><br>(Ambassador Glaspie does not respond)<br><br>Journalist 2:<br><br>"You knew Saddam was going to invade (Kuwait), but you didn’t warn him not to. You didn’t tell him America would defend Kuwait. You told him the opposite - that America was not associated with Kuwait."<br><br>Journalist 1:<br><br>"You encouraged this aggression - his invasion. What were you thinking?"<br><br>US Ambassador Glaspie:<br><br>"Obviously, I didn’t think, and nobody else did, that the Iraqis were going to take all of Kuwait."<br><br>Journalist 1:<br><br>"You thought he was just going to take SOME of it? But how COULD YOU?! Saddam told you that, if negotiations failed, he would give up his Iran (Shatt al Arab Waterway) goal for the ‘WHOLE of Iraq, in the shape we wish it to be.’ You KNOW that includes Kuwait, which the Iraqis have always viewed as a historic part of their country!"<br><br>(Ambassador Glaspie says nothing, pushing past the two journalists to leave)<br><br>"America green-lighted the invasion. At a minimum, you admit signalling Saddam that some aggression was okay - that the US would not oppose a grab of the al-Rumalya oil field, the disputed border strip and the Gulf Islands (including Bubiyan) - territories claimed by Iraq?"<br><br>(Again, Ambassador Glaspie says nothing as a limousine door closes behind her and the car drives off.)<br><br>Two years later, during the American television network NBC News Decision ‘92s third round of the Presidential Debate, 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot was quoted as saying:<br><br>"...we told him (Saddam) he could take the northern part of Kuwait; and when he took the whole thing we went nuts. And if we didn’t tell him that, why won’t we even let the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee see the written instructions for Ambassador Glaspie?"<br><br>At this point he (Perot) was interrupted by then President George Bush Senior who yelled:<br><br>"I’ve got to reply to that. That gets to national honour!...That is absolutely absurd!"<br><br>Absurd or not, the fact of the matter is that after April Glaspie left Baghdad in late August 1990 and returned to Washington, she was kept under wraps by the State Department for eight months, not allowed to talk to the media, and did not surface until just before the official end of the Gulf war (April 11, 1991), when she was called to testify informally before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about her meeting with Saddam Hussein.<br><br>She said she was the victim of "deliberate deception on a major scale" and denounced the transcript of the meeting as "a fabrication" that distorted her position, though she admitted that it contained "a great deal" that was accurate.<br><br>The veteran diplomat awaited her next assignment, later taking a low-profile job at the United Nations in New York. She was later shunted off to Cape Town, South Africa, as US Consul General. Nothing has been heard of her since her retirement from the diplomatic service in 2002. It’s almost as if she has become a non-person.<br><br>--end--<br><br>PS question:<br>I recall seeing a reference recently that suggested --incredibly?-- that Joe Wilson was the actual official who met with Saddam pre-invasion. But I can't easily buy that -- I haven't seen ANY other reference to this claim, and wouldn't there have been savvy reporters to have ferretted this out, instead of the two reporters quoted above who tried to question Glaspie soon after Iraq invaded Kuwait?<br><br>And -- A related issue is the notorious scam by the Hill and Knowlton PR firm in which a 'news' report claimed Iraqi soldiers broke into a Kuwaiti hospital and stole preemie incubators, leaving 312 babies to die on the cold floor -- a ploy decided on as most likely to elicit strong emotions in support of UN resolution authorizing US and coalition 'defense' of Kuwait. Whoever authorized and actually pulled-off this deception should have been prosecutedto the full extent of law. But then, all those (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger, McNamara, etc.) who engaged in lies and duplicity in prosecuting or promoting conflict in Vietnam, and who subsequently were implicated in war crimes and abuse of authority and atrocities, should have been impeached and indicted and tried and held accountable -- how much DIFFERENT might the world be today, how much more cooperation, trust, honesty, mutual respect, peace and justice might there be and far less suffering (and perhaps six to ten million less war-related dead and many more suffering) if extant laws and principles were followed, instead of the cover-up, corruption, war-profiteering, lying, scheming, blackmail and posturing and priveleges that allowed key politicians, advisors, industrialists, Intelligence Agents, officers and soldiers to evade their responsibility for the horrors committed in the name of 'freedom'? We'll never know though. <br><br>The US betrayed South Vietnamese and Ho Chi Minh's fervent faith and hope that America would respect and value their anti-colonial struggle for self-autonomy following the American revolutionary ideal -- instead, US corrupt politicos painted Vietnam's Freedom Fighters as 'communists', essentially pushing Vietnamese Patriots towards accepting the nationalist compromise of a coalition with the north's Communist party -- and as a result, the US committed genocide on at least 4 million Vietnamese civilians, and untold more Laotians and Cambodians became victims of a horrible, senseless, expanding criminal war.<br>Shame.<br>-S <p></p><i></i>
StarmanSkye
 
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Starman......

Postby IMO » Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:20 am

Starman.<br><br> Ive been a long time admirer of your rationally commentary on the American way..........namely to dumb down and exploit societies industrious ( worker bees ) through a tiered system ( pyramid ) of middle men, who ultimately go further up the paycheck system by way of sale of a greater portion of their soul for some incredibly idiotic perception that this is what its truly all about .<br><br> I wonder who thrust such perceptions upon us ?<br><br> Fuck the rulers, and think about what its <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>really</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> all about. Sure , we still have to pay taxes and all that crap, but ultimately, we see these numpties that rule us for the souless sad that they truly are.<br><br> Of course we must suffer their murders and theft and lying and all the rest of it, since they hold all the aces - especially the media ace. <br><br> But that isnt to say we need to participate . Nor do we need to sit silent against their evil.<br><br> Talk to anyone who seems willing to listen, about the lie they are living. If they call you crazy rejoice , because you simply cant be. <br><br> Since If youre part of the mainstream thought these days, you surely have to be insane ? <p></p><i></i>
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