- "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable
atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America."
-
- "What I am condemning is that one power, with a
president who has no foresight and who cannot think properly, is now wanting
to plunge the world into a holocaust. Why does the US behave so arrogantly?
Their friend Israel has got weapons of mass destruction. But because it's
their ally they won't ask the UN to get rid of them."
-
- "It is a tragedy what Bush is doing in Iraq. All
he wants is Iraqi oil. We must expose this as much as possible. He is making
the greatest mistake of his life by trying to cause carnage."
-
- -- Nelson Mandela
-
-
- Walter Cronkite some weeks back warned that the American
President was leading the planet toward World War III. John le Carre has
called the U.S. 'mad'. The list of credible and famous persons speaking
up in unprecedented ways is considerable in fact -- though purposefully
muted and muffled by government and corporate media in the US. Some months
back now, an extremely important article written by a journalist working
at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace in downtown Washington
concluded that the U.S. has become 'a great danger to itself, and to the
world" -- but it had to be published in the London Review of Books,
not in the U.S. where it is so vitally needed.
-
- So, let's be very clear and blunt about what's going
on here. At the top of the list are the U.S. and Israel (with other Anglo
countries -- the UK and Australia -- in tow) who are the real culprits
and dangers here. It is their policies these past decades which have provoked
the multiple crises of the present. And it is their policies of the moment
which threaten, in the words of Nelson Mandela, a modern-day 'holocaust'.
The occasional crafty and soothing rhetoric from some quarters at times
is worth little when compared to the grossly dangerous acts, warmongering
jargon, and military preparations coming from these parties. And oh yes,
let's not forget that it is both the U.S. and Israel -- the two parties
who are armed to the teeth with all kinds of multiple weapons of mass destruction
-- who have quite publicly threatened to use their vast quantities of sophisticated
nuclear weapons on Arab and Muslim countries.
-
-
- Mandela In Furious Warning Over Iraq War
- By Mark Ellis
- Foreign Editor Daily Mirror UK
-
- FURIOUS. Nelson Mandela yesterday charged President Bush
with risking a holocaust for the sake of Iraqi oil.
-
- The Nobel prize winner and former South African president
also said Bush "cannot think properly", accused the US and Britain
of undermining the UN and suggested they were racist.
-
- Mr Mandela declared: "It is a tragedy what Bush
is doing in Iraq. All he wants is Iraqi oil. We must expose this as much
as possible. He is making the greatest mistake of his life by trying to
cause carnage."
-
- He was equally damning about Tony Blair, sneering: "He
is the foreign minister of the United States. He is no longer Prime Minister
of Britain."
-
- Mr Mandela's astonishing attack stung the Bush administration
and Downing Street.
-
- A spokesman for Mr Bush - who will meet Mr Blair today
- condemned "people more comfortable about doing nothing than about
a growing menace".
-
- Mr Mandela has repeatedly slammed Bush's stance over
Iraq - but never in such harsh terms.
-
- He told a conference in Johannesburg: "What I am
condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight and
who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust.
-
- "Why does the US behave so arrogantly? Their friend
Israel has got weapons of mass destruction. But because it's their ally
they won't ask the UN to get rid of them."
-
- The US has said it will, if necessary, strike Saddam
Hussein without UN support if Iraq does not disarm weapons of mass destruction.
Britain is expected to join in.
-
- Mr Mandela suggested the two leaders would not be treating
the UN with such contempt if the organisation had a white leader.
-
- He said: ''Both Bush and Tony Blair are undermining an
idea (the UN) sponsored by their predecessors.
-
- "Is this because the Secretary General (Kofi Annan,
from Ghana) is now a black man? They never did that when Secretary Generals
were white...
-
- "Are they saying this is a lesson that you should
follow. Or are they saying we are special, what we do should not be done
by anyone?''
-
- Mr Mandela said he would support without reservation
any action against Iraq agreed by the UN. But action without that support
was unacceptable and set a bad precedent.
-
- The world statesman went on to launch a withering attack
on America's human rights record.
-
- Referring to the US wartime atom bomb attacks on Hiroshima
and Nagaski, he said: "Because they decided to kill innocent people
in Japan, who are they now to pretend they're the policeman of the world?
-
- "lf there is a country which has committed unspeakable
atrocities, it is the US...they don't care for human beings.''
-
- He went on to appeal to the American people to vote Mr
Bush out of office and protest at his policies.
-
- Washington, which was needled by South Africa's close
ties with Libya and Cuba during Mandela's presidency, hit back.
-
- White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The president
understands there are going to be people who are more comfortable doing
nothing about a growing menace that could turn into a holocaust.'' Mr Blair
will ask Mr Bush today to delay a strike on Saddam until he gets fresh
UN backing.
-
- He said as he flew to the US: "I don't think it's
a question of pushing the Americans to do something they don't want to
do.
-
- "We have a strategy that lays down clear demands
on Saddam to disarm. If he breaches it, we have further discussions and
a new resolution issues."
-
- Mr Blair and Mr Bush are expected to finalise an invasion
timetable at their Camp David council of war today.
-
- They could agree to give UN weapons inspectors a few
more weeks to see if Saddam wants to disarm. If not, strikes will be launched
at the start of March. Mr Bush has been given a five-page memorandum outlining
the key risks of attacking Iraq.
-
- The risks include the use of WMD and Saddam blowing up
oil wells. US Defence chief Donald Rumsfeld said: "If he uses WMD
anybody connected with that will wish they hadn't been."
-
- Former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani also claimed
last night the US wanted to attack Iraq to secure oil supplies, as the
Mirror revealed last week.
-
- He told Newsnight: "The Americans want to eliminate
any dependence on Saudi and Gulf oil. So the best thing to do is occupy
Iraq."
-
-
- Mandela - 'US Wants Holocaust'
- CNN
1-31-3
-
- JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
(CNN) --Former South African president Nelson Mandela has slammed the U.S.
stance on Iraq, saying that "one power with a president who has no
foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world
into a holocaust."
-
- Speaking at the International Women's Forum, Mandela
said "if there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities
in the world, it is the United States of America."
-
- Mandela said U.S. President George W. Bush covets the
oil in Iraq "because Iraq produces 64 percent of the oil in the world.
What Bush wants is to get hold of that oil." In fact Iraq contributes
to only 5 percent of world oil exports.
-
- The Bush administration is threatening military action
if Iraq does not account for weapons of mass destruction and fully cooperate
with U.N. weapons inspectors.
-
- Receiving applause for his comments, Mandela said Bush
and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are "undermining" past
work of the United Nations.
-
- "They do not care. Is it because the secretary-general
of the United Nations is now a black man?" said Mandela, referring
to Kofi Annan, who is from Ghana.
-
- Blair is expected to discuss the issue of Iraq when he
meets with South African President Thabo Mbeki in London Saturday, a day
after the British leader's meeting with Bush.
-
- Mandela said he would support without reservation any
action agreed upon by the United Nations against Iraq, which Bush and Blair
say has weapons of mass destruction and is a sponsor of terror groups,
including Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
-
- Nobel Peace Laureate Mandela, 84, has spoken out many
times against Bush's stance, and South Africa's close ties with Libya and
Cuba irked Washington during Mandela's own presidency.
-
- In reaction to Mandela's comments, White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer said Bush was grateful to the many European leaders who "obviously
think differently."
-
- "The president will understand there are going to
be people who are more comfortable doing nothing about a growing menace
that could turn into a holocaust. He respects people who differ with him.
He will do what he thinks is right and necessary to protect our country,"
Fleischer said.
|
