Uncle Sam Desperately Seeks Reason to Attack Iraq

Anything goes to start an attack, even a missing American pilot

UN inspectors are at a loss: no banned weapons have been detected in Iraq. However, the Americans have more trump cards to use. One of them is American Air Force pilot Michael Scott Speicher.

UN inspectors’ work in Iraq has reminded a comic sketch over recent couple of weeks. Their futile efforts to find weapons of mass destruction in such original places as a spirit factory, a deserted airbase, or two major stores of Baghdad, can only make people smile. Inspectors acknowledge that themselves. Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) Hans Blix informed UN Security Council members that the international inspectors failed to find any evidence to prove either the availability or the production of weapons of mass destruction. Hans Blix stated that the inspectors conducted investigation at 120 Iraqi objects, and found no traces of storing or producing chemical or biological weapons. Answering journalists’ questions, Blix said that the inspectors did not find a smoking gun in Iraq (chemical and biological weapons). Mohamed El Baradei, the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), set out the same conclusion regarding Baghdad’s alleged nuclear programs a couple of days before Blix’s statement.

UN sources pointed out that the USA explains the fact of no weapons in Iraq with certain gaps in the declarations of Iraqi military programs. American officials are intended to use those gaps as a pretext for the army operation against Baghdad. To be honest, the American pretext is rather a feeble one, but the United States is happy about it anyway. On the other hand, the USA might use another trump card that it has – US Air Force pilot Michael Scott Speicher. PRAVDA.Ru published a story in March of the last year entitled “The Story of the Missing American Pilot May Be the  Excuse  Needed for the US To Attack Iraq.” The article told the sad story of the American pilot Michael Scott Speicher. Here is a short excerpt from it.

“The Pentagon decided to give an idea to Hollywood to make another blockbuster: “Saving Lieutenant Speicher.” The action takes place in Iraq. The Washington Post newspaper has recently published information about the fate of a military pilot of the US Air Force who went missing in Iraq during Gulf War. According to information from the CIA, which the newspaper referred to in the article, Lieutenant Commander Michael Speicher was shot down in an F-18 Hornet fighter over Iraq in 1991 and he is still in the Iraqi captivity. The CIA notified the US Congress about of this information on February 4th.

“The American special services earlier thought that Speicher had died, but the British special services gave this new information to the CIA (which they obtained from their sources in Iraq), which said that the American pilot was alive and that he was kept in one of Baghdad's jails. As the newspaper wrote, the location of the American pilot was so secret that only two people in Iraq have the right to see the captive American pilot: the chief of the intelligence service and the elder son of the Iraqi leader, Uday Hussein.

“The break between the publication of the material and the reaction of the American government was not long. NTV.Ru informed that the American authorities had officially acknowledged that pilot Michael Speicher was not dead, but was missing, and they finally evinced interest in his fate.”

However, the interest was gone a bit later. A year after that, the Washington Times (not the Washington Post) recollected the American pilot. The USA has the evidence, which proves that missing American pilot Michael Speicher is alive, being a captive in Iraq.  This might be the reason to start the army operation in Iraq. This was particularly written in an article by American publicist Bill Gertz, known for his anti-Iraqi views.

We feel very sorry for the pilot, for the government mentions his name only when they need to. There can be one conclusion made: the Americans got into a mess with the Iraqi inspections. The USA did not find any proof of Baghdad’s ill intentions, so there was virtually no reason to launch the attack. By the way, British Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested the continuation of UN inspectors’ work in Iraq for several months more. This is not a bad idea, really. The States will both preserve its image and kowtow to the UN, like “we will not do anything without a sanction.” When they find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the world community will make a decision to start the military operation against Saddam.

Dmitry Litvinovich
PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov