Die Russland-Irak-Connection

--- Die New York Times ergeht sich mal wieder im Regierungsjournalismus (erkennbar an den zitierten "American government officials" als Hauptquelle eines Artikels) und berichtet darüber, dass Russland angeblich Saddam Hussein bei seinem alten Programm zur Produktion von Massenvernichtungswaffen unterstützt hat. Dabei werden in der Zeitung auch wieder Behauptungen laut, dass Hussein bis kurz vor dem Bush-Krieg intensiv an der A-Bombe gebastelt hat: raqis who were involved in the missile work told American investigators that the technicians had not been working for the Russian government, but for a private company. But any such work on Iraq's banned missiles would have violated United Nations sanctions, even as the Security Council sought to enforce them. Although Iraq ultimately failed to develop and produce long-range ballistic missiles and though even its permitted short-range missile projects were fraught with problems, its missile program is now seen as the main prohibited weapons effort that Iraq continued right up until the war was imminent. Man merkt halt, dass Wahlkampf ist. Besonders hübsch aber, dass das Weiße Haus die Nachricht von den angeblichen russischen Verstrickungen genauso angeblich geheim halten wollte: The Bush administration's reluctance to raise publicly the issue of Russian support for Iraq's missile program appears to stem from the White House's effort to cultivate better diplomatic relations with Moscow, particularly in the wake of last year's tensions over the war in Iraq.

russland-irak.html