From MIM Notes 180 PART I FEBRUARY 15, 1999 EVIDENCE THAT UNSCOM SPIES: IRAQIS DIE WHILE U.$. BLOWS SMOKE By MC12 The Amerikan press has documented new evidence that the United Nations weapons inspectors in Iraq, known as UNSCOM, have been acting as spies for the U.$. government and military. UNSCOM's job has really been to spy all along -- to collect information about Iraq's military operations -- but the new evidence of a direct link between Amerikan military operations and UNSCOM "monitoring" undermines the U.$. talk of "law enforcement" in Iraq and makes it clear that UNSCOM has been part of the U.$. plot to overthrow the Iraqi government. It blows the United Nations as the U.$. cover. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands if not millions of Iraqis have died as a result of the military destruction from the U.$. war in 1991 and the economic sanctions enforced ever since. In 1996, UNICEF estimated that deaths among Iraqi children were running at 3,900 more per month than they had been before the war.(1) That would be 374,000 extra children dead over eight years. The Washington Post reports that, "The United States for nearly three years intermittently monitored the coded radio communications of President Saddam Hussein's innermost security forces using equipment secretly installed in Iraq by U.N. weapons inspectors, according to U.S. and U.N. officials."(2) At first, the Post reports, UNSCOM "inspectors" used simple scanners and recorders to monitor Iraqi government transmissions, then relayed them to intelligence operations in Britain, Israel, and the U.$. Then, the UNSCOM became worried, and the U.$. replaced the equipment with automatic monitors they wouldn't have to carry around, and the data was relayed by satellite to the U.$. National Security Agency. Then, "information, including material that might be helpful to the United States in destabilizing Saddam Hussein, was retained by Washington."(2) The U.$. originally denied the reports, but then they admitted it, knowing they could count on the Amerikan press to help them make it seem low-grade and relatively innocent -- just a minor extension of the "legitimate" work of UNSCOM. And the press did their best: "U.S. officials have said the purpose of the radio intercepts was to help UNSCOM do the job assigned to it by the U.N. Security Council. To the extent the operation provided additional information was a bonus that did not deviate from UNSCOM's mandate, the officials said." In fact, the Post even admitted that it had the story for months, but "agreed last fall not to publish details about sources and methods used to gather the information after U.S. officials said the disclosure would damage national security."(2) (A great feature of Amerikan "democracy" is the secret collaboration between the government and the bourgeois media, deciding together which "free" speech will be published.) Contrary to all protestations by the U.$. over the last eight years, the Post now reports that "intelligence agents from several countries, including the United States, were assigned to work on UNSCOM inspection teams." This policy is said to have originated with Scott Ritter, the former Marine who quit UNSCOM last year in a dispute over what he called Amerikan weakness toward Iraq, but it was approved by the head of UNSCOM at the time. Now it turns out Ritter quit because he was not getting access to all the information they were stealing.(2) The U.$. has long been using the United Nations as a cover for its own self-interested machinations. In the process, they try to convince the other imperialists that what's good for the U.$. is good for the whole international bourgeoisie. Usually they have been successful. The U.N. Security Council has five "permanent" members who can veto anything -- the U.$., England, France, Russia and China. France and Russia have been agitating for lifting sanctions against Iraq because their own economic interests outweigh the threat they perceive from Iraq. When the other powers won't rubber-stamp the U.$., the press reports that they are "divided to the point of paralysis."(4) The inter-imperialist rivalry in the Middle East underlies these tense negotiations. The U.$. uses its military superiority to coerce the other imperialists to bend to the U.$. will. But France and Russia, and increasingly China, would like to increase the profits rolling in their direction from the region, and they are coming to denounce the U.$. insistence on "security" and "stability" as self- interested, which it is. Revolutionaries have at least two duties here. First, we have to expose the real atrocities going on in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. While profit-making strategy is debated at the U.N., the Iraqi people continue to suffer and die. Second, we have to take advantage of the inter- imperialist rivalries whenever we can. Splits between major powers can lead to good opportunities for revolutionaries, and we must be vigilant to this potential. Notes: 1. Associated Press, August 1, 1996. 2. Washington Post, January 8, 1999. 3. Washington Post, January 7, 1999; Page A18. 4. Washington Post January 9, 1999; Page A14.