[Marxism] What Israel does not want Mordechai Vanunu to tell

[glparramatta <glparramatta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ISRAEL: Washington backs Middle East’s nuclear outlaw

Norm Dixon

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/576/576p12.htm

“Every civilised nation has a stake in preventing the spread of weapons
of mass destruction... We’re determined to confront those threats at the
source”, US President George Bush declared in a February 11 speech.

“We will stop these weapons from being acquired or built. We’ll block
them from being transferred. We’ll prevent them from ever being used.
One source of these weapons is dangerous and secretive regimes that
build weapons of mass destruction to intimidate their neighbours and
force their influence upon the world.”

Arguing for combative new “arms control” measures that would further
entrench the West’s control over nuclear weapons, Bush casually repeated
the now thoroughly exposed lie that the US-led war against Iraq was
launched because Baghdad “refused to disarm or account for ... illegal
weapons and programs”.

Bush used the speech to signal that Iran remains in Washington’s
gun-sights, alleging that Tehran “is unwilling to abandon a uranium
enrichment program capable of producing material for nuclear weapons”.
Bush also demanded that North Korea “completely, verifiably and
irreversibly dismantle its nuclear programs”.

The February 11 speech marked a new high for hypocrisy and cynicism. It
was prompted by embarrassing revelations that Washington’s closet ally,
Pakistan, has been the world’s leading peddler of nuclear weapons
technology for more than a decade — and its customers have included Iran
and North Korea. Until 2003, Washington tolerated the activities of
Pakistan’s state-sponsored nuclear smuggling and spying rings.
US allies

Washington has never opposed “dangerous and secretive regimes”
developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons “to intimidate their
neighbours and force their influence upon the world” — only those that
are not US allies.

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq developed and used its chemical weapons arsenal,
and began an effort to build nuclear and biological weapons, while an
ally of the US prior to 1991. Washington began nuclear cooperation with
Iran in 1957 under its “Atoms for Peace” program and encouraged US
corporations to sell “dual use” nuclear technology to the US-backed Shah
of Iran’s dictatorship.

But the most spectacular — and under-reported — example of Washington’s
support for nuclear proliferation is its dealings with Israel.

[Full article at http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/576/576p12.htm]


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism