ZGram - 12/23/2002 - "U.S. unable to sideline Germany"
irimland@zundelsite.org
irimland@zundelsite.org
Mon, 23 Dec 2002 21:03:44 -0800
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
12/23/2002
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
I'll let you read the English version of an article that appeared in
the large German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - to be
followed by a Zundelsite comment to put that article into
perspective. Don't miss it - it's important!
[START]
U.S. unable to sideline Germany
U.N. Security Council refuses to kowtow to Washington over next chair
of Iraq Sanctions Committee
By Aaron Kirchfeld
The United States failed to disqualify Germany as the next chair of
the Iraq Sanctions Committee after France and Russia rejected
alternative U.S. recommendations, a U.N. diplomat said on Wednesday,
making it likely that Germany will head the committee that oversees
the oil-for-food program that regulates Iraq's imports and exports.
=1CIn the halls of the United Nations, Chile was not really considered
a realistic option to chair the Iraq Sanctions Committee, and Spain
is set on leading the Counterterrorism Committee because of its own
domestic problems,=1Cthe U.N. diplomat told F.A.Z. Weekly, referring to
the two candidates the United States had endorsed as alternatives to
Germany.
U.N. and U.S. diplomats said the United States would not endorse
Germany's bid to chair the Iraq Sanctions Committee, apparently
because of the countries' conflicting policy toward Iraq and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schr=F6der's refusal to commit to military
involvement in a U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
=1CU.N. Security Council members refused to back Washington's bid to
instal Chile as the head of the Iraq Sanctions Committee,=1Cbecause
committee chairmanship is traditionally passed to countries within
the same region, the U.N. official told F.A.Z. Weekly. Diplomats
expect the Security Council to replace current chairman Norway with
Germany, which held the same post in the mid-1990s.
Asked about possible differences between the United States and
Germany on how sanctions are implemented against Iraq, the diplomat
said, =1CGermany has supported Security Council efforts to fine-tune
and reshape the sanctions to minimize collateral damage.=1C
A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the ministry had no
official notice that Washington opposed Germany's chairmanship.
Germany "is prepared to assume leadership of the Iraq sanctions
committee and will, at the very least, be involved with the
committee," she said.
"I don't see why there would be any preprogrammed conflict between
the United States and Germany," Green party Iraq expert Reinhard
Weisshuhn told F.A.Z. Weekly, referring to possible conflicting views
of the sanctions on Iraq.
Germany is Iraq's 20th-largest trade partner. German companies have
had trade volume of $419 million with Baghdad through the sanctions
program since the beginning of 1997, according to U.N. diplomats.
Weisshuhn also said his party, which governs in a coalition with the
Social Democrats, is generally in favor of the oil-for-food program,
which allows Iraq to trade oil for food, medical supplies and other
civilian goods under the general embargo against trade with Iraq,
imposed by the U.N. Security Council after Iraq invaded neighboring
Kuwait in August 1990.
Both the Greens and SPD have expressed their support of the changes
to the sanctions' criteria earlier this year by the Security Council
because they specify more clearly which goods can and cannot be
exported.
But U.S. and U.N. officials reported initial resistance to German
chairmanship in Washington, since the White House fears that
Schr=F6der's government may challenge U.S. policy on Iraq. The decision
on who will replace Norway will be made at the beginning of next year.
This is not the first time that the United States has been opposed to
German leadership of a U.N. committee on Iraq. Hans von Sponeck, the
U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq between late 1998 and early
2000, stepped down under pressure from the United States after he
strongly criticized the sanctions as being "a true human tragedy that
needs to be ended."
=1C
Sponeck has recently co-authored a 60-page report on the U.N.
Security Council Sanctions, which accuses the United States and
Britain of ignoring the consequences of the embargo, which the report
says include death caused by poverty, malnutrition and inadequate
medical care as well as hindering the country's inability to rebuild
after the Gulf War.
The main problem is that some export goods needed for medical
treatment and infrastructure repair and construction can potentially
be used to produce weapons, the report says. These goods, which
include mundane items such as plastic bags, are regularly knocked off
the export list by the sanctions committee.
Meanwhile, Berlin's daily Tageszeitung has reported that Iraq's
12,000-page report on its weapons program lists over 80 German
companies that have delivered equipment, parts, basic materials and
technological know-how to Iraq that could be used for the development
of atomic, chemical and biological weapons.
Tageszeitung also reported that despite the fact that most of these
deliveries were made before the 1990 embargo, the U.S. government was
"very interested" in the details of German-Iraqi cooperation. The
paper said that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has already
requested more information.
While the German government still says it will not commit troops to
military action against Iraq, it did vote last month to extend German
military participation in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom.
[END]
(Source: Dec. 19, 2002 - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Zundelsite Comment:
What can possibly go on in the heads of the people in Washington,
especially in the State Department? Is this any way to treat an
important ally?
The whole world - not just the Germans of this world - are
experiencing one wake-up call after another. They are drawing their
conclusions, one by one.
The rough-shot treatment described in the article above show an
attitude of arrogance in the exercise of power not often seen in
international affairs - NOT against an enemy state but against one of
America's hitherto most subservient vassals: The Allies' post-war
German puppet regime!
And why, for heaven't sakes? Because the Germans, with lots of
personal memories about the ravages of war, don't seem gung-ho to
join the stampede for cheap oil and regime changes in some
godforsaken country?
The way the Germans are beginning to be treated, inside and outside
government, by the scribblers in the media makes one wonder how long
it will be before that country will be added to the "Axis of Evil"
list. When is Helmut Schroeder going to get his treatment as "Hitler
of the Day"?
Serves those German vassals right! They needed a reality check - and
they are getting one.
But what is America going to get - what with another Chosenite
putting yet more poison between two largely Gentile countries that
should never have been enemies in a sane and sober world? It's not
the best Dale Carnegie Way to "... keep friends and influence people"!
These "Chews", as the Germans would say, are costing America plenty!