ZGram - 12/23/2002 - "U.S. unable to sideline Germany"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Mon, 23 Dec 2002 21:03:44 -0800


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

12/23/2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I'll let you read the English version of an article that appeared in 
the large German daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - to be 
followed by a Zundelsite comment to put that article into 
perspective.  Don't miss it - it's important!

[START]

U.S. unable to sideline Germany

U.N. Security Council refuses to kowtow to Washington over next chair 
of Iraq Sanctions Committee

By Aaron Kirchfeld

The United States failed to disqualify Germany as the next chair of 
the Iraq Sanctions Committee after France and Russia rejected 
alternative U.S. recommendations, a U.N. diplomat said on Wednesday, 
making it likely that Germany will head the committee that oversees 
the oil-for-food program that regulates Iraq's imports and exports.

=1CIn the halls of the United Nations, Chile was not really considered 
a realistic option to chair the Iraq Sanctions Committee, and Spain 
is set on leading the Counterterrorism Committee because of its own 
domestic problems,=1Cthe U.N. diplomat told F.A.Z. Weekly, referring to 
the two candidates the United States had endorsed as alternatives to 
Germany.

U.N. and U.S. diplomats said the United States would not endorse 
Germany's bid to chair the Iraq Sanctions Committee, apparently 
because of the countries' conflicting policy toward Iraq and German 
Chancellor Gerhard Schr=F6der's refusal to commit to military 
involvement in a U.S.-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

=1CU.N. Security Council members refused to back Washington's bid to 
instal Chile as the head of the Iraq Sanctions Committee,=1Cbecause 
committee chairmanship is traditionally passed to countries within 
the same region, the U.N. official told F.A.Z. Weekly. Diplomats 
expect the Security Council to replace current chairman Norway with 
Germany, which  held the same post in the mid-1990s.

Asked about possible differences between the United States and 
Germany on how sanctions are implemented against Iraq, the diplomat 
said, =1CGermany has supported Security Council efforts to fine-tune 
and reshape the sanctions to minimize collateral damage.=1C

A German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the ministry had no 
official notice that Washington opposed Germany's chairmanship. 
Germany "is prepared to assume leadership of the Iraq sanctions 
committee and will, at the very least, be involved with the 
committee," she said.

"I don't see why there would be any preprogrammed conflict between 
the United States and Germany," Green party Iraq expert Reinhard 
Weisshuhn told F.A.Z. Weekly, referring to possible conflicting views 
of the sanctions on Iraq.

Germany is Iraq's 20th-largest trade partner. German companies have 
had trade volume of $419 million with Baghdad through the sanctions 
program since the beginning of 1997, according to U.N. diplomats.

Weisshuhn also said his party, which governs in a coalition with the 
Social Democrats, is generally in favor of the oil-for-food program, 
which allows Iraq to trade oil for food, medical supplies and other 
civilian goods under the general embargo against trade with Iraq, 
imposed by the U.N. Security Council after Iraq invaded neighboring 
Kuwait in August 1990.
Both the Greens and SPD have expressed their support of the changes 
to the sanctions' criteria earlier this year by the Security Council 
because they specify more clearly which goods can and cannot be 
exported.

But U.S. and U.N. officials reported initial resistance to German 
chairmanship in Washington, since the White House fears that 
Schr=F6der's government may challenge U.S. policy on Iraq. The decision 
on who will replace Norway will be made at the beginning of next year.

This is not the first time that the United States has been opposed to 
German leadership of a U.N. committee on Iraq. Hans von Sponeck, the 
U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq between late 1998 and early 
2000, stepped down under pressure from the United States after he 
strongly criticized the sanctions as being "a true human tragedy that 
needs to be ended."
=1C
Sponeck has recently co-authored a 60-page report on the U.N. 
Security Council Sanctions, which accuses the United States and 
Britain of ignoring the consequences of the embargo, which the report 
says include death caused by poverty, malnutrition and inadequate 
medical care as well as hindering the country's inability to rebuild 
after the Gulf War.

The main problem is that some export goods needed for medical 
treatment and infrastructure repair and construction can potentially 
be used to produce weapons, the report says. These goods, which 
include mundane items such as plastic bags, are regularly knocked off 
the export list by the sanctions committee.

Meanwhile, Berlin's daily Tageszeitung has reported that Iraq's 
12,000-page report on its weapons program lists over 80 German 
companies that have delivered equipment, parts, basic materials and 
technological know-how to Iraq that could be used for the development 
of atomic, chemical and biological weapons.

Tageszeitung also reported that despite the fact that most of these 
deliveries were made before the 1990 embargo, the U.S. government was 
"very interested" in the details of German-Iraqi cooperation. The 
paper  said that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has already 
requested more information.

While the German government still says it will not commit troops to 
military action against Iraq, it did vote last month to extend German 
military participation in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom.

[END]

(Source:  Dec. 19, 2002 - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)

Zundelsite Comment:

What can possibly go on in the heads of the people in Washington, 
especially in the State Department?  Is this any way to treat an 
important ally?

The whole world - not just the Germans of this world - are 
experiencing one wake-up call after another.  They are drawing their 
conclusions, one by one. 

The rough-shot treatment described in the article above show an 
attitude of arrogance in the exercise of power not often seen in 
international affairs - NOT against an enemy state but against one of 
America's hitherto most subservient vassals:  The Allies' post-war 
German puppet regime!

And why, for heaven't sakes?  Because the Germans, with lots of 
personal memories about the ravages of war, don't seem gung-ho to 
join the stampede for cheap oil and regime changes in some 
godforsaken country? 

The way the Germans are beginning to be treated, inside and outside 
government, by the scribblers in the media makes one wonder how long 
it will be before that country will be added to the "Axis of Evil" 
list.  When is Helmut Schroeder going to get his treatment as "Hitler 
of the Day"?

Serves those German vassals right!  They needed a reality check - and 
they are getting one. 

But what is America going to get - what with another Chosenite 
putting yet more poison between two largely Gentile countries that 
should never have been enemies in a sane and sober world?  It's not 
the best Dale Carnegie Way to "... keep friends and influence people"!

These "Chews", as the Germans would say, are costing America plenty!