Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 14. februar 2005 / Time Line February 14, 2005
Version 3.513. Februar 2005, 15. Februar 2005
02/14/2005
0.4 million post-invasion Iraqi avoidable deaths
By Dr Gideon Polya
A senior biological scientist, I have been researching and writing
a book on global mortality. I would be very grateful if you would
please inform your readers of the following estimates of
post-invasion Iraqi and Afghan avoidable deaths (data that the
Anglo-American mainstream media steadfastly refuse to report).
The latest UNICEF report (February, 2005; http://www.unicef.org/)
estimates that for the year 2003 the under-5 infant mortality was
110,000 in Occupied Iraq, 292,000 in Occupied Afghanistan and 1,000
in the invading and occupying country Australia (noting that these
countries have populations of about 24, 22 and 20 million,
respectively).
It has been estimated (from data published by the UN, UNICEF and in
the top UK medical journal The Lancet) that the under-5 infant
mortality and excess mortality (avoidable mortality) have been 1.2
million and 1.5 million, respectively, for Iraq (since 1991); 0.2
million and 0.4 million, respectively, for Iraq since the 2003
invasion ; and 0.9 million and 1.2 million, respectively, for
Afghanistan (since the 2001 invasion).
According to The Lancet (October 2004) the post-invasion Iraqi
death rate was 12.3 per thousand per year as compared to the
conservative estimate of what it SHOULD BE of 4 per thousand per
year. Assuming an Iraqi population of 24.4 million, the excess
mortality (avoidable mortality) after 2 years of US occupation will
have been 8.3 x 24.4 x 2 thousand = 405,000 = 0.405 million.
Iraq and Afghanistan have been variously subject to horrendous
external First World intervention for decades. The post-1950 excess
mortality has been 5.2 million and 16.2 million for Iraq and
Afghanistan, respectively; the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality
has been 3.3 million and 11.2 million for Iraq and Afghanistan,
respectively.
The occupying ruler is responsible for the ruled (noting that
"occupation" includes military, economic and political hegemony and
rule by client indigenous regimes). Further, whether a child is
killed violently or dies non-violently from deprivation or
avoidable disease, the end result is the same and the culpability
the same.
A universal, bottom-line moral value is affection and respect for
infants. The occupying Anglo-American Coalition is responsible for
mass mortality of infants in Iraq and Afghanistan - it is guilty
not merely of war crimes but of violating a fundamental norm of
humanity.
Silence kills. Silence is complicity. We must inform everyone. Save
the children.
29 Dwyer Street, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria, 3085, Australia
e-mail: gpolya@optusnet.com.au
website: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html
Day & night telephone: +61 3 9459 3649
Credentials: Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade
scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference
text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (Taylor
& Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently
writing a book on global mortality (numerous articles on this
matter can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya"
and on his website:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html)
02/14/2005
Iraq: Media Held Guilty of Deception
by Dahr Jamail
© 2005 IPS -- Inter Press Service
http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27429
Rome, Italy -- February 14, 2005 -- (IPS) -- A peoples tribunal has
held much of Western media guilty of inciting violence and
deceiving people in its reporting of Iraq.
The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples
initiative seeking the truth about the war and occupation in Iraq
made its pronouncement Sunday after a three- day meeting. The
tribunal heard testimony from independent journalists, media
professors, activists, and member of the European Parliament
Michele Santoro.
The Rome session of the WTI followed others in Brussels, London,
Mumbai, New York, Hiroshima-Tokyo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and
Lisbon. The Rome meeting focused on the media role.
The informal panel of WTI judges accused the United States and the
British governments of impeding journalists in performing their
task, and intentionally producing lies and misinformation.
The panel accused western corporate media of filtering and
suppressing information, and of marginalising and endangering
independent journalists. More journalists were killed in a 14-month
period in Iraq than in the entire Vietnam war.
The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated
article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes)
which states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices
participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or
conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against
peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity) are responsible for
all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan."
The panel that heard testimonies included Francois Houtart,
director of the Tricontinental Centre in Belgium that has backed
several peoples movements in Latin America, and Dr. Samir Amin,
director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal. Dr. Haleh
Afshar, who teaches politics and women's studies at the University
of York in Britain, and Italian author and newspaper editor Ernesto
Pallotta witnessed the proceedings.
"This is not simply an exercise to denounce the mainstream media
for their bias and incompetence," said Dr. Tony Alessandrini, a
human rights activist who has published several articles on the
U.S. colonisation of Iraq. "These denunciations have been going on
for months. Here in Rome, we must go further."
Alessandrini, who helped organised the WTI added, "What we are
being asked to consider is not simply media bias, but rather the
active complicity of media in crimes that have been committed and
are being committed on a daily basis against the people in
Iraq."
Several experts gave strong testimony. Dr. Peter Philips, director
of 'Project Censured' at Sonoma State University in California
where he teaches media censorship, provided taped testimony. He
said that at no time since the 1930s has the United States been so
close to "institutionalised totalitarianism", and added, "U.S.
society has become the least informed, best entertained society in
the world."
The WTI Rome session also heard testimony from Dr. David Miller
from Scotland, author of 'Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media
Distortion in the Attack on Iraq'. "This is about condemning
journalistic complicity of war crimes," said Dr. Miller, who is
also co-editor of Spinwatch, a group that monitors public relations
and propaganda.
Miller said the Pentagon "does not recognise the concept of
independent journalists, because they are providers of unfriendly
information", and that mainstream media in the United States and in
Britain was "complicit in furthering the selling of the invasion,
and ongoing occupation. All studies conducted on mainstream media
show dominance by government policies, and wartime coverage of TV
news in the UK was generally sympathetic to the government's
case."...
02/14/2005
Department of Defense Announces Contract Reviews
Michael W. Wynne, acting under secretary of defense for
acquisition, technology and logistics announced today that he has
asked the DoD Inspector General to review eight contracts which
were under the decision-making purview of convicted former Air
Force acquisition manager Darlene Druyun.
The Defense Contract Management Agency reviewed all the contracts
that Ms. Druyan was directly involved with since 1993 at the
request of Wynne. They examined more than 8,000 pages of
information in 407 contracts and identified these eight contracts
that appear to have anomalies in them which warrant further review.
A list can be found at
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2005/d20050214list.pdf
The eight contracts in question are: the National Polar-orbiting
Operational Environmental Satellite System - Conical Microwave
Imager Sensor; C-5 Avionics Modernization Program; Financial
Information Resource System; C-22 Replacement Program; 60K Tunner
Program Contractor Logistics; KC-135 Programmed Depot Maintenance;
F-16 Mission Training Center; and the C-40 Lease and Purchase
Program.
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