Former IAEA chief: Iraq war killed “a million in nocent civilians”

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Former IAEA chief: Iraq war killed “a million innocent civilians”
By Patrick Martin
3 April 2010

The former head of the UN’s chief nuclear agency, Mohammed ElBaradei,
said in an interview with the British newspaper Guardian Wednesday
that those who launched the war in Iraq were responsible for killing a
million innocent people and could be held accountable under
international law. He was clearly referring to US President George
Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and their top military and
security aides.

It was his first interview with an international publication since
ElBaradei returned to his native Egypt, after a decade heading the
International Atomic Energy Agency, where he won the Nobel Peace
Prize, in large measure because of his opposition to the efforts by
the Bush administration to use concocted charges about “weapons of
mass destruction” as an all-purpose pretext for military intervention
throughout the Middle East.

“I would hope that the lessons of Iraq, both in London and in the US
have started to sink in,” he told the Guardian. “Sure, there are
dictators, but are you ready every time you want to get rid of a
dictator to sacrifice a million innocent civilians? All the
indications coming out of [the Chilcot inquiry in Britain] are that
Iraq was not really about weapons of mass destruction but rather about
regime change, and I keep asking the same question―where do you find
this regime change in international law? And if it is a violation of
international law, who is accountable for that?”

This suggestion that Bush and Blair were guilty of war crimes, coming
from a high-ranking former UN official, would ordinarily be considered
major news. The Guardian interview was reported by the main British
and French news agencies, Reuters and AFP, but the entire American
corporate media gave it zero coverage. Not a single major American
newspaper or television network mentioned it.

The discussion of the violation of international law in launching the
Iraq war came in the course of a longer discussion of the bankruptcy
of US-British foreign policy in the Muslim world. ElBaradei criticized
the longstanding support of Washington for dictators like Mubarak.
“The idea that the only alternative to authoritarian regimes is Bin
Laden and Co. is a fake one, yet continuation of current policies will
make that prophecy come true.”

He warned of “increasing radicalization” in the Arab world: “People
feel repressed by their own governments, they feel unfairly treated by
the outside world, they wake up in the morning and who do they
see―they see people being shot and killed, all Muslims from
Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Darfur.”

“Western policy towards this part of the world has been a total
failure, in my view,” he said. “It has not been based on dialogue,
understanding, supporting civil society and empowering people, but
rather it’s been based on supporting authoritarian systems as long as
the oil keeps pumping.”

ElBaradei warned of the hypocrisy and double standard of Western
policy. “The West talks a lot about elections in Iran, for example,
but at least there were elections,” he said. “Yet where are the
elections in the Arab world? If the West doesn’t talk about that, then
how can it have any credibility?”

ElBaradei is now reportedly considering a presidential bid against
81-year-old President Hosni Mubarak, whose fifth six-year term expires
next year. He clearly hopes that Western pressure will compel Mubarak
to permit a more robust opposition campaign than during the last
presidential election, when the largest opposition party, the Muslim
Brotherhood, was barred from standing a candidate, and Ayman Nour, the
bourgeois liberal candidate who finished second, was jailed for
alleged petition fraud.

Speaking to a British newspaper, ElBaradei was in essence warning his
old patrons, the major European powers, of the counterproductive
character of Western policy, particularly that of the United States.
“When you see that the most popular people in the Middle East are
Ahmadinejad and Hassan Nasrallah [leader of Hezbollah], that should
send you a message: that your policy is not reaching out to the
people,” he said.

He also took note of the extreme social tension in Egypt, where the
vast majority of the population lives in crushing poverty. The
Guardian account reads: “In Egypt the rich live in ghettoes,” he said,
waving his hand at the beautifully manicured garden, complete with
pool. “The gap in social justice here is simply indescribable.”

In addition to the US media blackout of the interview, the Guardian
engaged in apparent self-censorship. The initial article appeared at
6:01 GMT on the Guardian web site, including the implicit reference to
Bush and Blair violating international law. It is here.

Just over two hours later, that article had been replaced by a longer
profile of ElBaradei, containing additional comments about the
political situation in Egypt. But the reference to the Chilcot inquiry
and the killing of one million innocent people had been excised. The
revised article is here.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/bara-a03.shtml

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