[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Fwd: Interview with Noam Chomsky by Radio B92, Belgrade

[Jim Buell]

I'd also like to know more about this. I did just hear on CNN that the the 
US dropped 2 bombs on Red Cross warehouses filled with wheat in Kabul 
today, according to Red Cross sources. Ghastly. And I think it's likely 
enough - inevitable denials aside - to have been intentional, as food is as 
likely to be considered a "dual-use military-civilian target" by the 
Pentagon as the electric plants and international phone exchange that have 
already been intentionally destroyed.

I just phoned someone at the Institute for Public Accuracy 
(www.accuracy.org) in Washington, D.C. to see if they knew any more about 
this. They don't, they but suspect that as the quote's a few weeks old, 
Chomsky was probably referring to the well-known US demands to seal borders 
and pull out aid workers. (IPA's superb, by the way - their exec director, 
Norman Solomon, is a syndicated columnist who's written recently of the 
hypocrisy of snack drops from 30,000 feet and GW's call for kids to send 
him a dollar for the Red Cross. He was also a guest on CSPAN's call-in show 
yesterday morning for about a half hour, where he succeeded in advertising 
Democracy Now and commondreams.org, among other things. A national treasure.)

Ironies abound - today is UN World Food Day, according to the guy at IPA.

BTW, an atrocious op-ed piece in the N-G yesterday (what other kind do they 
print?) by David Broder was an enthusiastic gush for the propaganda food 
drops - they're earning "bipartisan" support from such staunch defenders of 
democracy as Joe Lieberman, ahem. Anybody care to write a letter? (They've 
already declined to print one of mine - which makes me think it'd be fun 
for AWARE to publicize an essay contest for pro-peace letters the Gazoo 
refuses to publish.)

peace,
Jim

Here's a Reuters story on the Red Cross bombing:

>KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two U.S. bombs hit a
>                                 warehouse of operated by the 
> International Committee of the
>                                 Red Cross (ICRC) in the center of the 
> Afghan capital Tuesday,
>                                 prompting a furious reaction from 
> officials who said it was
>                                 clearly a civilian facility.
>
>                                 Rescue workers and Afghan ICRC employees 
> raced to try to
>                                 put out the blaze with fire 
> extinguishers, but at least 35
>                                 percent of the food and other equipment 
> stored at the facility
>                                 were destroyed, witnesses and officials 
> said.
>
>                                 An ICRC worker was slightly wounded by 
> flying glass in the
>                                 raid, witnesses said.
>
>                                 "It is definitely a civilian target. In 
> addition to that, it is a
>                                 clearly marked ICRC warehouse," said 
> Robert Moni, head of
>                                 the ICRC delegation in Kabul and now 
> evacuated to Pakistan.
>
>                                 "It is marked on the top with a red 
> cross. People should take
>                                 all necessary measures to avoid such 
> things," he said.
>
>                                 All aid agencies withdrew their 
> international staff after the
>                                 ruling Taliban said they could no longer 
> guarantee their
>                                 security in the face of attacks by U.S. 
> warplanes.
>
>                                 The ICRC had already complained to U.S. 
> embassy in
>                                 Islamabad and the Geneva headquarters had 
> complained
>                                 formally to the U.S. mission there, he said.
>
>                                 "We have to evaluate the damage and how 
> it will affect our
>                                 work," said Macarena Aguilar, an ICRC 
> spokeswoman in
>                                 Geneva.
>
>                                 "Of course we regret what has happened. 
> This was not a
>                                 legitimate target."
>
>                                 Another ICRC's representative told 
> Reuters that two bombs
>                                 landed on the complex.
>
>                                 "We have a warehouse compound with five 
> buildings," said
>                                 Pascal Duport, deputy head of the ICRC 
> mission in Kabul until
>                                 the organization pulled out all its 
> foreign staff.
>
>                                 "One was hit by two bombs. A fire started 
> and apparently the
>                                 fire brigade got control of the fire but 
> I can't tell you if it was
>                                 stopped.
>
>                                 "Another building was touched by the fire 
> but it was saved. It
>                                 (the building hit) contained humanitarian 
> assistance -- wheat,
>                                 oil, blankets and so on. We think it is 
> only partially affected."
>                                 REUTERS





At 02:54 PM 10/15/01 -0500, Margaret E. Kosal wrote:
>afterrnoon' all -
>
>The following snippet is from an interview transcript which was shared on 
>the peace-list a couple weeks ago.
>
>i would like more information w/r/t the US demand he mentions, 
>specifically the US demand that "Pakistan terminate the food and other 
>supplies that are keeping at least some of the starving and suffering
>people of Afghanistan alive."
>
>Does anyone know in what form this demand came?  and from 
>who?  Military?  State Department?  G.W.?
>And the context in which the demand was made?
>
>Trying to get all evidence in order.
>
>Warm regards,
>Margaret
>kosal at s.scs.uiuc.edu
>
>It is better to live for one day as a tiger
>than for a thousand years as a sheep.
>       (Tibetan Buddhist proverb)
>
>At 10:44 9/28/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>>>Q: After the first shock, came fear of what the U.S. answer is going to
>>>be. Are you afraid, too?
>>>
>>>Every sane person should be afraid of the likely reaction -- the one that
>>>has already been announced, the one that probably answers Bin Laden's
>>>prayers. It is highly likely to escalate the cycle of violence, in the
>>>familiar way, but in this case on a far greater scale.
>>>
>>>The U.S. has already demanded that Pakistan terminate the food and other
>>>supplies that are keeping at least some of the starving and suffering
>>>people of Afghanistan alive. If that demand is implemented, unknown
>>>numbers of people who have not the remotest connection to terrorism will
>>>die, possibly millions.  Let me repeat: the U.S. has demanded that
>>>Pakistan kill possibly millions of people who are themselves victims of
>>>the Taliban.  This has nothing to do even with revenge. It is at a far
>>>lower moral level even than that. The significance is heightened by the
>>>fact that this is mentioned in passing, with no comment, and probably
>>>will hardly be noticed.
>
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