Kucinich: Alarming Statements By Iraqi and U.S. Leaders Reveal Deceit, Escalation Threats and Prolonged Occupation Strategy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2004
Contact: Terre Lundy/Matt Harris: (216) 889-2004, press@kucinich.us
Ohio Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich today drew attention to published yet all-but ignored reports that reveal the continuing, possibly escalating threat facing the U.S. military, as well as the prospect of diverting even more tens of billions of dollars to continue the occupation of Iraq.
Recent statements to foreign journalists by Iraqi leaders and the former head of the U.S. civilian presence there have received little or no attention in the U.S. press, but, taken together, they paint a picture of deceit, threatened civil uprisings, and a prolonged occupation that could last for decades.
In separate interviews in recent days, Iraqi Shiite Leader Seyyid Ali Al-Sistani warned that he would call for an intifada (uprising) if American soldiers stayed in Iraq after the handover of power on June 30, 2004; and Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), said he was willing to take full responsibility for the INC's role in providing misleading intelligence to the President, Congress and the American public.
At the same time, retired Gen. Jay Garner, who was in charge of planning and administering postwar reconstruction from January through May 2003, compared U.S. goals in Iraq to U.S. military bases in the Philippines between 1898 and 1992. "Look back on the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century: they were a coaling station for the navy, and that allowed us to keep a great presence in the Pacific. That's what Iraq is for the next few decades: our coaling station that gives us great presence in the Middle East."
"At every step along the way, we have been lied to and misled," said Kucinich. "We were lied to about the reasons for going to war, the cost, the length of our occupation, and the real long-term agenda of the Bush Administration. Every American citizen should be outraged."
Statements to the London Daily Telegraph by Chalabi, whose INC received millions of dollars in taxpayer money over the past decade, strongly suggest he collaborated in providing the bad intelligence on which the U.S. invaded Iraq. "As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful," he told the newspaper. "That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important. The Bush administration is looking for a scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants."
His admission to the newspaper gives support and evidence to those who suspect that Chalabi conspired with his supporters in and around the administration to take the United States to war on pretenses they knew, or had reason to know, were false.
The Telegraph reported that Chalabi merely shrugged off accusations his group had deliberately misled the administration. "We are heroes in error," he said.
Sistani, meanwhile, spoke to the German magazine Der Spiegel and said: "The U.S. presence in Iraq should not be prolonged. The Iraqi public knows how to act. If the U.S. presence is drawn out longer than necessary, I will call for an intifada." The necessary posters reportedly have already been printed and are awaiting distribution to every corner of the country. "There's been enough deception and more than enough bloodshed," said Kucinich, "but there continues to be no end in sight."
Kucinich has said that if he is elected, he will implement a plan to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq within 90 days.
Kucinich has proposed a 10-point plan to deal with the Iraq occupation:
1. The United States must ask the United Nations to manage the oil assets of Iraq until the Iraqi people are self-governing.
2. The United Nations must handle all the contracts: No more Halliburton sweetheart deals, No contracts to Bush Administration insiders, No contracts to campaign contributors. All contracts must be awarded under transparent conditions.
3. The United States must renounce any plans to privatize Iraq. It is illegal under both the Geneva and the Hague Conventions for any nation to invade another nation, seize its assets, and sell those assets. The Iraqi people, and the Iraqi people alone must have the right to determine the future of their country's resources.
4. The United States must ask the United Nations to handle the transition to Iraqi self-governance. The U.N. must be asked to help the Iraqi people develop a Constitution. The U.N. must assist in developing free and fair elections.
5. The United States must agree to pay for what we blew up.
6. The United States must pay reparations to the families of innocent Iraqi civilian noncombatants killed and injured in the conflict.
7. The United States must contribute financially to the U.N. peacekeeping mission.
8. The United Nations, through its member nations, will commit 130,000 peacekeepers to Iraq on a temporary basis until the Iraqi people can maintain their own security.
9. U.N. troops will rotate into Iraq, and all U.S. troops will come home.
10. The United States will abandon policies of "preemption" and unilateralism and commit to strengthening the U.N.
For information about the National campaign: http://www.kucinich.us
For Congressman Kucinich's Schedule: http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm.
To schedule an interview with Kucinich or a spokesperson: jonathans@kucinich.us
Contact us:
Kucinich for President
11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111
216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)
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