- Most people know the names of the key officials in the
Ba'ath regime of Iraq: Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, Izaat al-Douri, etc.
But, one player who is rarely mentioned is Naji Sabri. In November 2002,
he was Iraq's Foreign Minister. Also, during that time, he, through a third
party, gave information to the CIA.
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- The CIA wanted him to publicly denounce Saddam Hussein
and take exile in the U.S. Sabri refused and stood behind the Iraqi president.
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- During the discussions, Sabri gave the CIA information.
But, it was information the CIA did not want to hear. He told the truth.
After gaining accurate information about Iraq's WMD and Sabri's refusal
to sell out Saddam, the CIA stopped corresponding.
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- In November 2002, Sabri presented the following letter
to the United Nations. At the time, it was given little attention and dismissed
by the U.S. and U.K. as a pack of lies and propaganda. To the contrary,
it was the most accurate and truthful account of the entire situation at
the time. As you read this today, it seems uncanny how precise the case
put forth by Sabri was. But, in November 2002, it was given scant publicity.
All the facts were there. Few listened.
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- Your Excellency:
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- You may recall the huge clamor fabricated by the President
of the United States administration, in the biggest and most wicked slander
against Iraq, supported in malicious intent, and spearheaded in word and
malevolence by his lackey Tony Blair, when the disseminated the claim that
Iraq had perhaps produced, or was on its way to produce, nuclear weapons
during the time when the United Nations inspectors had been absent from
Iraq since 1998. Then they returned to stress that Iraq had in fact produced
chemical and biological weapons. They both know, as well as we do, and
so can other countries, that such fabrications are baseless. But, does
the knowledge of the truth constitute elements for interaction in the politics
of our day, which has witnessed the unleashing of the American administration's
evil to its fullest extent, dashing away all hope in any good? Indeed,
is there any good to be hoped for, or expected, from the American administration
now that they have been transformed by their own greed, by Zionism as well
as by other known factors, into the tyrant of the age?
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- Let's go back to say that Iraq, having seen this fabrication
work perhaps with some countries and amongst public opinion, while others
maintained silence, confronted them with its agreement to the return of
the UN inspectors, having agreed to this first with you, as UN chief, in
New York on 16 September, 2002, and later in a press statement issued jointly
in Vienna following a meeting on 30th September-1st October between the
Iraqi technical delegation headed by Dr. Amer Al-Sa'di, Chief Inspector
Hans Blix and Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director-General of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But after Iraq's acceptance of the return
of the UN inspectors had become an established fact including the agreement
of 19 October, 2002, on the date of their return, and only a few hours
after this agreement was reached, Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State
declared that he would refuse to accept the inspectors' return to Iraq.
In the meantime, the gang of evil returned to talking about adopting a
new resolution, or new resolutions, in order to create something for the
world to talk about, other than following the work of inspectors and then
seeing the fact already stated by Iraq, which was that Iraq neither had
produced or was in the possession of any weapons of mass destruction, nuclear,
chemical or biological, throughout the time of the inspectors' absence
from Iraq.
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- However, representatives at the United Nations and its
agencies, especially those from permanent member states, instead of fellowship
on this and hence, expose those responsible for the dissemination of lies
and fabrications, were busy discussing the type and wording of the new
resolution. They were indulged in what letter to add here or omit there,
until they adopted a text under the pretext that it would be better to
take the kicks of a raging bull in a small circle than to face its horns
in an open space. The text was adopted under the American administration's
pressure and threat that it would leave the UN if it did not agree with
what America wanted, which is, to say the least, extremely evil and shameful
to every honest member of the United Nations who recalls the provisions
of its Charter, and sees that some people feel ashamed on behalf of those
who are shameless.
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- Mr. Secretary-General:
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- We have said to the members of the Security Council whom
we have contacted, or who have contacted us, when they told us about the
pretexts of the Americans and their threat to perpetrate aggression against
our country, whether unilaterally or with participation from others, if
the Security Council were not to allow them to have their way, that we
preferred, instead of seeing the American government obtaining an international
cover with which to camouflage its falsehood, partially or completely,
bringing it closer to the truth, so that it may stab the truth with the
dagger of evil and confront the United States before when it looked as
it does now, and this was one of the factors of its isolation in the human
environment on the globe at large.
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- The aggressionism of the United States of America and
its single-handed infliction of injustice and destruction on those subjected
to its inequity, in the forefront of whom are the Muslims and Arab believers,
is the basic reason why America has withdrawn its ambassadors and other
staff, closed its embassies, and restricted its interests in many parts
of the world, while reaping the hatred of the peoples of the world because
of its policies and aggressive objectives. This is a situation which no
other country in the world has experienced before, including the fathers
of old colonialism. The Security Council, however, or indeed those who
can basically play an influential role in it, have, instead of leaving
the American administration and its lackey to reap the result of their
evil, saved wrong-dong rather than halted it. We shall see when remorse
will not do any good for those who bite on their fingers.
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- Mr. Secretary-General:
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- The strength of influence of any international organization
rests on the belief of the human environment in which the organization
exists and which places its trust in it once the organization declares
that it has been founded to achieve goals important to mankind. We fear
the United Nations organization may lose the trust and attachment of peoples,
that is if it has not fallen to that place already. This is due to the
exploitation of the organization by powerful interests whenever their greedy
ambitions converge at the expense of the interests of other peoples. It
may also be due to the expediency and compromise amongst those interests
in falsehood at the expense of truth. So the United Nations and its agencies
will collapse in the same way as did its predecessor, the League of Nations.
Then, the responsibility for this will not rest with the American administration
alone, but will also be due to the weakness of the timid who allow themselves
to work for American interests, under the threat, lure or promises of the
American administration. He who remains silent in the defense of truth
is a dumb devil. Nothing seems more reprehensible than the silence maintained
by those who represented their nations in the Security Council as they
discussed the American draft resolution in the face of a question raised
by the representative of Mexico regarding the possibility of lifting the
blockade imposed on Iraq. The Mexican representative said, during consultations
at the Security Council over SCR 1441 on 8 November 2002, that he did not
find convincing the explanations presented by the American permanent representative
regarding the absence of any reference to the lifting of sanctions and
the establishment in the Middle East region of a zone free of weapons of
mass destruction, and that he would convey this to his government in order
to receive instructions. The British representative responded by saying
that he has listened to the statements made by the delegations of Syria
and Mexico regarding the inclusion in the draft text of a paragraph on
the lifting of sanctions. He went on to say that Iraq had been provided
with the opportunity to dispose of its weapons of mass destruction, but
Iraq had ignored that opportunity and decided to keep possession of those
WMDs. Hence, he added, it would be inappropriate to include a reference
to the lifting of sanctions as long as Iraq remained in possession of those
weapons, even though an indirect reference to that effect was being accommodated.
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- We ask here, why is it that none of the representatives
of Security Council member-states asked its British counterpart when, where
and how such as alleged decision was taken by Iraq to keep possession of
the weapons of mass destruction? They treated the claim made by the British
representative as if it were of no significance to them, or, rather, as
it were no concern to them to say the truth. Does this instance, along
with other things and the decline of this type of international organization
point to the possibility of the collapse of this international organization
which was founded in order to preserve world peace and security, but has
now been transformed into a kitchen-house for big-power bargaining, providing
cover for war, destruction, blockades and starvation to be inflicted upon
peoples?
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- The future will be determined in the light of the possibility
for reform, or the inability to achieve reform. The future of the United
Nations is no exception to this. Hence, all those who are truly concerned
about the well-being of this organization, in deeds, not only in words,
and about its work on the basis of the UN Charter, so that stability, justice
and fairness will prevail in the world, providing a road-map for peace,
freedom and cooperation to flourish among peoples, are called upon to be
careful and to adhere to the UN Charter and international law, and not
to the whims and incontrolable instincts of those who threaten the world
with their evil schemes and weaponry, and those who seek to achieve their
interests narrow-mindedly by resorting to the bargaining at the expense
of truth, justice and fairness.
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- Mr. Secretary-General:
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- We know that those who pressed the Security Council to
adopt resolution No. 1441 have other objectives than making sure that Iraq
had not developed mass destruction weapons in the absence of the inspectors
since 1998. You are aware of how and who stood behind their absence. We
also know that there are no true, just or fair reasons behind the adoption
of this resolution in the name of the Security Council after the well-known
understanding agreement between the representatives of Iraq and the UN
Secretary-General and the press statement issued jointly by Blix, ElBaradei,
and the Iraqi representatives.
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- We hereby inform you that we will deal with resolution
1441, despite its bad contents. If it is to be implemented according to
the premeditated evil of the parties ill-intent, the important thing in
this is trying to spare our people from any harm. But, we will not forget,
nor should others do, that safeguarding out peoples' dignity, security,
independence, and protecting our country, its sovereignty and sublime values,
is a sacred duty in our leadership's and government's agenda. Therefore,
as we said in the foresaid agreement and press statement, we are prepared
to receive the inspectors so that they can carry out their duties, and
make sure that Iraq had not developed weapons of mass destruction, during
their absence since 1998.
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- We hereby ask you to inform the Security Council that
we are prepared to receive the inspectors within the assigned timetable.
The parties concerned should bear in mind that we are in our holy month
of Ramadan which means that the people are fasting, and this holy month
will be followed by the Muslim's Eid. Nevertheless, we will cooperate with
the concerned UN bodies and officials on the background of all this, and
of the tripartite France-Russia-China statement. Dealing with the inspectors,
the government of Iraq will also take into consideration their way of conduct,
the intentions of those who are ill-intentioned amongst them and their
improper approach in showing respect to the peoples' national dignity,
their independence and security, and their country's security, independence
and sovereignty. We are eager to see them perform their duties in accordance
with the international law as soon as possible. If they do so, professional
and lawfully, without any premeditated intentions, the liars' lies will
be exposed to public opinion, and the declared objective of the Security
Council will be achieved. It will then become the lawful duty of the Security
Council to lift the blockade and all the other unjust sanctions on Iraq.
If it does not, all the peoples of good will in the world, in addition
to Iraq, will tell it to do so. The Security Council will be compelled
before the public opinion and the law to activate paragraph 14 of its resolution
No. 687, by applying it to the Zionist entity (Israel), and then, to all
the Middle East region, to make it a region void of mass destruction weapons.
The number of just people will, then, increase in the world, and Iraq's
possibility to drive away the cawing of the crows of evil that daily raid
its land and kill Iraqis and destroy their property by their bombs. This
will help the stability of the region and the world, if it is accompanied
by a resolution that will not be based on double standards, to put an end
to the Zionist occupation of Palestine and other occupied Arab territories,
and if the warmongers stop their aggressions on the Muslims and the world.
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- Therefore, through you, we reiterate the same words to
the Security Council: Send your inspectors to Iraq to make sure of this,
and everyone will be sure, if their way of conduct is supervised so that
it becomes legal and professional, that Iraq has not developed weapons
of mass destruction, whether nuclear, chemical, or biological, as claimed
by evil people. The lies and manipulations of the American administration
and British government will be exposed, while the world will see how truthful
and adequate are the Iraqis in what they say and do. But, if the whims
of the American administration, the Zionist desires, their followers, intelligence
services, threats and foul temptation, were given the chance to play and
tamper with the inspection teams or some of their members, the colors would
be then confused and the resulting commotion will distort the facts and
push the situation into dangerous directions which is something fair-minded
people do not wish for, as well as the people who, including my government,
want to bring the facts as they are. The fieldwork and the implementation
will be the decisive factors that will reveal whether the intentions were
really for the Security Council to make sure that Iraq is void of those
alleged weapons, or whether the whole thing was nothing but an evil cover
by those who were behind the resolution who have no scruples to utter debased
slander and to tell lies to the public, including their own peoples.
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- So, let the inspectors come to Baghdad to carry out their
duties in accordance with the law, and then we will hear and see, along
with those who want to hear, see and move according to each one's responsibility
and rights. The final word and reference will still be resolution No. 687
with its obligations on both the Secretary-General and Iraq, along with
the code of conduct agreed upon in the agreement signed by the Secretary-General
in New York on 16th September, 2002, and the press statement of Hans Blix
and ElBaradei in Vienna on 9/30-10/1/2002.
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- Mr. Secretary-General:
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- Please assume your responsibilities by saying and advising
the unfair people that their unfairness to Muslims, faithful Arabs, and
to all, will be of dire consequences. Tell them that the proud Iraqi people
are faithful. We hope that you, Mr. Secretary-General, will advise the
ignorants not to push things to the precipice in the implementation, because
the people of Iraq will not choose to live at the price of their dignity,
country, freedom or sanctities, and they would rather make their lives
the price if that was the only way before them to safeguard what they must
safeguard.
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- I wish to inform Your Excellency, before I conclude this
letter, that I intend to forward another letter to you on a later date,
in which I shall state our observations of the measures and procedures
contained in SCR 1441 that are contrary to international law, the UN Charter,
and the facts already established and the measures contained in previous
relevant resolutions of the Security Council.
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- Naji Saberi Ahmed
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- Minister of Foreign Affairs
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- Republic of Iraq
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