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July 16 - 20, 2001 - Global Policy Forum - Email 'Listserv' News
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July 16 - 20, 2001Welcome from Global Policy Forum!
Former UNSCOM Chief Slams US and Former Boss
Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, claims that the US used the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to spy on the Iraqi government and to provide political cover for a US bombing campaign. Ritter made these allegations in his documentary, "In Shifting Sands.The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq," which was shown to journalists at the UN this past Wednesday.
Ritter recounted a meeting between himself, former UNSCOM Chair Richard Butler, and then US Ambassador Bill Richardson. Butler, who had just returned from a meeting with US officials, allegedly drew a line on a blackboard to show when inspections would occur and when bombing would begin. He told Ritter to provoke a confrontation with Baghdad, so that the US would have an excuse to initiate and complete a bombing campaign by 15 March 1998--before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
After Baghdad blocked UNSCOM from carrying out intrusive inspections in December 1998, Butler withdrew the inspectors and the US and Britain bombed suspected weapons sites and other military targets in Iraq. No weapons inspectors have been in Iraq since 1998, but the Security Council maintains that sanctions against Iraq will not be lifted until UN weapons inspectors can complete their job.
Ritter said that the UNSCOM team believed that Iraq was "fundamentally disarmed" as early as 1995, but that UNSCOM continued inspections at the behest of the CIA, which constantly declared that it had new information about the whereabouts of hidden missiles.
Asked whether he believed Iraq was a threat today, Ritter replied that "Iraq is a de-fanged tiger," and that it would take at least 20 years for Iraq to rebuild its weapons program.
Ritter has had a turbulent relationship with US authorities. Once accused of being a spy for the CIA, the ex-US marine officer is currently under investigation by the FBI.
Butler has denied all of Ritter's allegations, claiming that the now-infamous meeting never took place and that he was "completely stunned" when US and UK planes bombed Baghdad in 1998. He also called into question Ritter's credibility: "Why did he sit in front of me in 1997 and bang his fist on the table saying, 'they're lying, they have weapons'? Has some new information emerged? If so, where is it?"
Like Ritter, Butler eventually resigned from UNSCOM. He said he was protesting againstUS interference with UNSCOM's mission, but most observers believed he was forced out of his post because he was too closely identified with US influence over UNSCOM.. While Ritter has been campaigning against US policy on Iraq, Butler has been enjoying a prestigious position at the Washington-friendly Council on Foreign Relations.
NGOs in the "Theatre of Politics"
This week, in an article in Die Zeit, Thomas E. Schmidt analyzes the dilemma of NGOs and their role in international politics. The demonstrators in Genoa formally protest against the G8's globalization politics, but in fact, he says, the G8 governments themselves have lost power as a result of globalization. The broken link between politics and economics has led to international institutions that are no longer accountable to democratic control, such as WTO, IMF, and the World Bank. Citizens feel that they are too far removed from the agents of power to have any control over the global decision-making process - for example, no parliament exercises veto power over WTO decisions. NGOs have begun to fill this gap and have enabled civil society to voice its concerns directly through protests and other forms of action.
But NGOs themselves are facing a problem of legitimacy. On the one hand, they have become empowered, enabling them to take part in decision-making and exert influence on politicians. On the other hand, power can corrupt. Have NGOs started to become puppets in the "theatre of politics," just like the politicians they have set out to control, he asks. According to Schmidt, NGOs' moral orientation cannot suffice as legitimation. The problem lies not with NGOs themselves, though, but with the nature of international politics. As long as governments focus on economic rather than human rights on the international level, they will not address the real demands of civil society, such as social and environmental standards and the right to work. The 'dialogue' between governments and NGOs cannot work because they deal with entirely different issues. It is now the governments' turn to focus on those problems that are truly global and that NGOs have been addressing for years. (see Die Zeit, July 19, 2001: Harlekine im Politik-Theater, http://www.zeit.de/2001/30/Kultur/200130_ngo.html)
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