Lies Under the Guise of Virtue

What are the charges against Moscow, Paris and Damascus?

Washington is capitalizing on the success it achieved in Iraq. Or rather, it would be better to say, it is making attempts to capitalize on it. In any case, this is a plausible explanation for the campaign launched in the Western (that is, U.S. and British) mass media to discredit Russia, France and Syria, countries that strongly protested against the war in Iraq. For the time being, Germany has not been as violently attacked on the issue as other countries, but the situation is highly likely to change in the course of time.

Of what exactly does the United States accuse Moscow, Paris and Damascus? PRAVDA.Ru has already touched upon some nuances of the United States’ foreign policy with respect to Syria. Now, a new so-called "compromising fact” has come to light.

According to British press reports, the Russian Intelligence Service gave Iraqis records of negotiations held by British Prime Minister Tony Blair (including with his Italian colleague, Silvio Berlusconi). This has allegedly been proven by documents found in the Iraqi intelligence headquarters, which is said to have been either bombed or plundered. In addition, Russia's special services were said to be cooperating with Saddam’s secret police, the Mukhabarat.

Newsweek magazine reports that U.S. soldiers came across 51 French Roland-2 missiles at an Iraqi storage facility. This seems to be connected to the accusation that Russia supplied weapons in violation of U.N. sanctions. France says that production of the missiles found by the Americans at Iraqi storage facilities has already been phased out. They say that the missiles were probably sent by some third country or countries to Iraq, not directly from France. That the Americans hardly believe the French explanations is understandable — or that they pretend that they do not believe them. In any case, they pretend they don't believe.

It is interesting that, although the war in Iraq is over, no night-vision equipment or missile-systems hampering equipment pointing at a Russian origin have as yet been found. Do the Americans mean to say that the Iraqis concealed the equipment as cleverly as they have their chemical weapons? Have they moved everything to Syria? It may turn out that the Iraqis had nothing of this kind at all, and that problem was a fantasy of Washington strategists.

There is little doubt that, if Washington needs to, it will make every possible effort to locate prohibited weapons rather quickly. The number of such weapons found will be insignificant, but, even so, they will be there. Russian and French companies exporting weapons and military technology should be more cautious now: Weapons sold may wind up in Iraq as evidence of illegal arms supplies in violation of U.N. sanctions.

It is obvious that Washington is applying great pressure upon countries that objected to the war in Iraq, and it is at present resorting to any expedient to discredit the policies of Russia and France in order to teach other countries not to act in such a manner again.

The U.S. and British authorities are ignoring information that American soldiers have come across weapons of American and British manufacture in Iraq. It is a fact that, near Basra, British marines found weapons produced by the English company Wallop Defence Systems, "Britain's leading contractor and supplier of the U.S. land forces," as several news agencies have referred to it. What was the result of the find? Were any investigations initiated and scandalous disclosures made? What will the American soldiers do who discovered a Baghdad depot where 12 U.S.-manufactured antitank missiles were stored? It is highly likely that missiles of this very sort hit U.S. Abrams tanks. Is any investigation to be started in this case as well?

It is hardly likely that any investigations and scandalous exposures will occur in connection with the above-mentioned cases. We could hope for unbiased investigation under different conditions, but not now. The question of how long the campaign to discredit Russia will last is still open.