- More Bombings in Iraq as U.S.-British Warplanes Hit Mosul
and Suburb of Baghdad on Tuesday*
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- A U.S. anti-war delegation traveling through Iraq has
visited areas that have been targeted by this week's U.S. bombing campaign.
The delegation -- stationed at Baghdad's Al-Rasheed hotel until the end
of the week -- was in Basra on Tuesday. Basra is Iraq's second largest
city and suffered a major bomb attack on Sunday morning August 25th. Eight
people died and many civilians were injured, some seriously.
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- The U.S. delegation, which is led by Ramsey Clark, former
U.S. attorney general will be inspecting Mosul airport in Northern Iraq
tomorrow August 29. The airport and its radar tower that guides civilian
air traffic were hit by U.S. missiles on August 27.
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- On behalf of the delegation, Ramsey Clark issued the
following statement: "We came to Basra to visit the hospitals and
interview doctors and patients about the state of health care in Basra.
We had planned to come to Basra because the region is suffering stunning
cancer rates. This area in Iraq was the site of the greatest use of depleted
uranium weapons by U.S. air force in the Gulf War eleven years ago."
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- "Two days before we arrived in Basra U.S. war planes
struck again killing and wounding more than twenty people. We visited one
of the wounded at the Basra Training Hospital and we interviewed workers
in the area who saw and heard the gigantic explosion at approximately 11:00
am Sunday morning August 25. While we were in Basra, U.S. war planes carried
out two more major bombing attacks against the airport in Mosul and against
civil and service installations in Al-Nukhayb, located south of Baghdad.
We will inspect the airport at Mosul tomorrow.
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- "People in the United States must recognize that
the war against Iraq goes on every day as the Bush administration prepares
for a major land and ground war. The economic sanctions are a central part
of the decade-long war waged against Iraq by the United States. Bombing
and sanctions constitute an integrated strategy designed to overthrow the
government in Iraq and replace it with a proxy regime similar to what exists
in Afghanistan. The U.S. government falsely declares that its campaign
against Iraq is motivated by a concern over Iraq's potential possession
of non-conventional weapons. The real goal is to dominate this strategic
and oil-rich region and to destroy any government and people that desire
to maintain their independence."
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- "We witnessed in Basra the care provided to the
large number of adults and children who are suffering high rates of cancer.
Certain childhood cancers, for instance, have increased by a huge factor
in the last few years. While they can be treated by combination drug therapy
protocols, Iraqi hospitals are unable to effectively import all of the
medicines needed for the protocol. As a consequence, almost all the children
with these cancers perish. It is the U.S. imposed sanctions that makes
access to the full protocol impossible. Deliberately obstructing sick people's
access to medicines that would keep them alive otherwise must be understood
as murder."
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- "It is urgent that this country be allowed to trade,
buy and sell all the products necessary to sustain and improve life. U.S.
imposed sanctions have killed more than a million Iraqis. The near-daily
bombing since 1998 has killed hundreds if not thousands of people. The
U.S. government is guilty of violating the basic tenets of international
law as a wages aggression against Iraq. We are urging all progressive people
in the United States and elsewhere to take immediate action to end the
criminal campaign against Iraq." -end Ramsey Clark
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- The delegation also includes Mara Verheyden-Hilliard,
an attorney and co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice-LDEF and
member of the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition steering committee; Johnnie Stevens,
co-director of the People's Video Network; Kadouri al-Kaysi, coordinator
of the Committee in Solidarity with the Iraqi People; and Brian Becker,
co-director of the International Action Center and member of the A.N.S.W.E.R.
coalition steering committee.
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- International Action Center
- 39 W. 14th Street #206
- New York, NY 10011
- http://www.iacenter.org
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