I was reminded of the 2010 film Green Zone. By all accounts
it flopped in the theatres as people went expecting another Bourne movie were
surprised to find it had a different message. Actually such assessments merely
demonstrate that they never quite understood the messages being communicated in
the Bourne films.
Frustratingly as all such movies are, it played fast and
loose with the history and actual events. And yet to defend the moviemakers,
the public can't seem to digest much and so if you want to get a message across
you're almost forced to follow such a pattern. Encapsulate the story and
package it in an exciting movie and maybe some people will be prompted to
investigate.
Sadly many just get frustrated because inspired by the movie
they find it doesn't quite match up. Names are changed and characters are created
who are inspired by real life people, but there's no equivalence or
historicity. The actual narrative is compressed and oversimplified, but let's
be honest how many are going to watch 4 hours of Frontline documentaries just
to get a foundation? Not many, and that's really just to get started. Frontline
will only tell so much. A lot of reading has to be done and there are plenty of
other documentaries to watch as well. An Internet search of the lead-up to the
Iraq War is almost overwhelming.
This article by Scott Ritter caught my eye.
I don't particularly like Ritter or agree with him on his
view of the United States and international events. I felt the same when he was
frequently in the news during the lead up to the war. He and Hans Blix were the
victims of character assassination by the American propaganda machine. Called a
traitor he in fact loves and deeply cares about the United States.
He's telling the truth as he sees it, even if it means
stepping on US Establishment toes and public (mis)perceptions. No one can accuse
him of being some kind of dove or leftist. He's patriotism leads to outrage
over the lies promulgated by the Bush administration. I'm reminded of Bob
Woodward who worked to expose Nixon's deceptions and cover-ups but didn't seem
to get that the whole system is corrupt part and parcel. He still operates
within the Establishment and though not uncritical of Bush, he became something
of a court historian during the latter part of his administration. I'm also
reminded of figures like Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, former insiders who were
betrayed by the Bush administration but (beyond all belief) still believe in
the system and in US policy overall. These are interesting figures that we can
learn from but I'm afraid as a Christian who puts Truth above any other worldly
commitment these are hardly people I can respect.
In the film Green Zone there's a general called Al-Rawi who
it must be said doesn't seem to be based on the real Iraqi general A.F. al-Rawi.
Instead this fictionalized character is something of a composite. He represents
the handful of top men in the regime who prior to the war, had contacts with
Western intelligence services and were desperately trying to get the word
out... Iraq had no active WMD programmes or stockpiles.
Of course there's a great deal of evidence to suggest the
West knew this and there are very good reasons to believe the Iraq invasion was
never really about the threat of WMD. It was a convenient justification, a
selling point, a diplomatic move, a propaganda tool, a means of fear and public
manipulation.
The Bush administration figured they'd find something and
even if it proved to be less than convincing in terms of a viable threat it
would be sufficient. The US knew Saddam had the stuff in the past. As many have
said, the US had the receipts from when they sold the stuff to Saddam who
ostensibly was in a loose alliance with the US right up until the summer of
1990. The US had also collaborated with Iraq in the deployment of these
weapons.
Even if little was found, the US plan called for the
establishment of a quick puppet government under Ahmed Chalabi and a large
withdrawal of forces. As we know, the Neo-Cons had big plans. There were other
countries to invade and regimes to topple.
It was only when their own naiveté and ignorance was exposed,
when all their plans failed and the US found itself caught in a quagmire that
these questions began to be asked in earnest by more mainstream sectors of the
media. Of course those that had been paying attention since the 1990's already
knew the Iraq War plan was sure to bring about catastrophic results and risk
the whole of Middle Eastern stability.
Maybe that was the plan all along. If things worked, then
great. If not, there were billions to be made and the war parasites certainly
have done very well.
Some have speculated that Green Zone's Al-Rawi was somehow
based on the figure known as Curveball. In the film he's called Magellan. And
the movie suggests that Curveball/Al-Rawi met with a Bremer/Pentagon crony
called Poundstone and told him that Iraq had no WMD. Poundstone (a stand-in for
Bremer) simply lied and the movie doesn't clarify if he (representing the
Pentagon/Neo-Con conspiracy) lied to the White House to trick the US into
invading or if the lie was agreed upon by all top players in the administration.
And yet, it would seem Curveball was a real figure named
al-Janabi who was not a general but instead was an engineer and apparently a
bogus intelligence source. He was exposed in 2007 and went public in 2011. The
US utilized his intelligence because it was suited to their propaganda
programme. I think the movie's confusion or perhaps the confusion of some
of the interpreters of it is unfortunate.
The administration certainly lied but the movie in its
compression probably didn't help clarify things on this point.
Al-Rawi is certainly a composite based on figures like Tariq
Aziz among others. Aziz obviously had extensive contacts with the West and his
February 2003 trip to Rome is of great interest.
Who he met with on that trip aside from John Paul II is
unclear but he did seem to have ways and means of communicating with the CIA.
Did such a meeting take place in Rome? Apart from the issue of meetings, his
comment in the news conference is particularly poignant and very interesting to
consider all these years after the fact.
"The Christian
countries--if they participate in such a war of aggression, it will be
interpreted by the Arab and Muslim world as a crusade against the Arab and
against Islam. And that's going to disturb and poison the relationship between
the Arab and Islamic world on the one hand and the Christian world on the
other."
Remember Aziz was a member of the Chaldean Catholic Church.
If he was on the right side of US policy our Christian media would have been
touting him as a brother in Christ to be sure. But like the Palestinian
'Christians' who were in the PLO, Aziz doesn't count.
I find it hard to believe Aziz didn't meet with others in
Rome at that time. He later said that he'd die before becoming a US prisoner
and yet by April 2003, just weeks after the invasion he had cut a deal with the
CIA that allowed his family to escape Iraq and he surrendered himself to US
authorities. There's some suggestion that they betrayed him, a suggestion that
he wasn't supposed to end up dying in prison.
It might be that the betrayal of Aziz was a bone thrown to
the Shiite factions represented by Maliki.
Al-Rawi is also represented by two other figures that come to
mind. One is Foreign Minister Naji Sabri who met with CIA officials in Paris
and informed them that there were no WMD in Iraq. But there's some confusion
here. British sources say he reported there were no WMD, but American sources
report Sabri was DCI Tenet's inside source. The fact that he was whisked out of
Iraq in March 2003 and ended up in Mubarak's Egypt and was not included on US
'wanted' lists is particularly interesting and indicative of some sort of
arrangement.
Did he lie and cut a deal to save his own skin?
Yes, there are reports of lots of old WMD goods being found
in Iraq. It wasn't reported because these were not active units, instead old
stockpiles with rather dubious ties. I don't think the media wanted the US
connections to be made known. American sponsorship of Iraq's WMD in the 1980's
is a chapter the American Establishment would like to be forgotten. Many people
know about it but the bulk of the public is either unaware, has forgotten or
has never understood the extent of US involvement (and double-dealing) in the
Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88.
Unlike Al-Rawi in the film who is killed by a Shiite working with
the Americans, Sabri is a figure who very closely echoes the idea of an
intelligence source that may have had his initial story completely reversed by
the Americans but went along with it to survive.
If Sabri wasn't the source, then there may have been someone
else as this Guardian article suggests.
Tahir
Jalil Habbush al Takriti also resembles Green Zone's Al-Rawi as an intelligence
figure (still at large) who appears to have had contact with the Americans.
This is the guy US intelligence tried to tie in (by a supposedly discovered
letter) with 9/11 conspirator Mohammed Atta to forge the Iraq-Al Qaeda
connection. Whether the letter cited as
evidence is an American forgery or the work of someone else it is not clear.
Like Al-Rawi in the movie al Takriti apparently met with MI6 officials in Jordan
before the war and revealed there were no WMD. Here's the documentary cited by
the Guardian article. It's definitely worth watching. As usual the British
angle is often ignored in our media.
Here's another article buttressing the notion that secret
back channels were kept open. This is relevant to the cases of Aziz, al Takriti
and Sabri.
The movie Green Zone is a work of fiction but based on enough
fact to give it an 'air' of credibility. The public even in 2010 after seven
years of disaster didn't want to hear it. It was dismissed as anti-American.
Again I would appeal to figures like Ritter, Wilson, Plame
and even Woodward. These are people who have exposed lies, felt the heat and
yet still support the American project and vision. They can hardly be called
unpatriotic.
As a Christian I am of course unabashedly unpatriotic as I
believe patriotism to be completely out of bounds and a betrayal of my
allegiance to the Kingdom of God. I have no stake in any of this other than an
interest in the truth of the matter and how these things play out in the
Christian community. Lies that lead to mass death always ought to be exposed
and yet sometimes that exposure can be helped by frustrated individuals within
the circles of power and influence. Too often the conspiracy minded seem to
lack nuance and sophistication in understanding that people are complex and so
are their motivations. Not everyone is part of the conspiracy. Some are but are
unwilling participants. Not everyone is deliberately lying. People are usually
presenting a mix of truth and lies and yet often they don't realize it. Good
and well meaning people can be deceived and yet there are also people who are
deliberately surreptitious and deceptive.
These histories are fascinating but it's also another
exercise in futility. The history of the 80's and 90's was ignored in the lead
up to the 2003 invasion. Now in 2015, the history of 2003 and after will also
be ignored. ISIS is on the scene and yet it is folly to fail to try and
understand what brought this about.
US meddling in Iraq has contributed to the deaths of over 2
million people or perhaps even more depending on how you wish to reckon it.
They have decimated a country and a society in order to capture a square on the
grand chessboard and fill its coffers with resources and the political capital
of denying it to others. In 2011 they began to move on Syria and have now
contributed to fomenting another bloodbath and humanitarian disaster. The
fragile structure of the post- Cold War Middle East has been rent asunder.
There are some positive moves as of late but there's a growing cancer and the
long term implications are very disturbing. Many people will continue to suffer
and die and many fools in the West will continue to believe the propaganda.
Our media is busy covering a toupeed buffoon, sexual deviant
freaks and meaningless sporting events while the world is on fire. They are not
liberal. They are commercial and their task is to sell and gain ratings. The
public is ignorant and loves to have it so. And on this point the dividing
point between the Church and the world is an invisible line. I can't find it.
Tariq Aziz died on 5 June 2015 and no one really cared. This
man had a story to tell but for the most part we didn't get to hear it.
But I can't quite get away from that crazy period which began
on 11 September 2001 and culminated in the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. I've
written about it often. If you had your eyes open at the time it was a time of
angst and intrigue and as the years go by and more is revealed it just seems
more amazing than ever. It was a unique and very scary moment and as a
Christian who wasn't going along with the Bush narrative I remember feeling
very isolated.
