Posted on 04/04/2003 3:06:59 PM PST by Sally II
Scripps Howard News Service
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(March 27, 2003 4:10 p.m. EST) - You might think the United Nations leads the mealy-mouthed parade, but the U.N. is a beacon of moral courage next to the International Olympic Committee.
Institutional neutrality is generally a good thing for the IOC - its mission is to bring the world together, and it overlooks all sorts of grumbling, grievances and grudges to do it.
But neutrality is not far from indifference, and the IOC is straddling this distinction as it continues to permit its most precious asset - the Olympic name - to be attached to torture and murder in Iraq.
The testimony of athletes is now too substantial to ignore. And yet, the IOC seems content to ignore it.
It appears to be counting on the United States to bail it out by bringing down Saddam Hussein - and with him, his eldest son, Uday, head of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee - thereby making the point moot.
But it is a stain on the Olympic movement, this passing of the buck.
"An account of atrocities committed by Uday in the world of Iraqi sports will fill the pages of a voluminous book," former Iraqi Olympic soccer player Saad Qeis writes on the Web site of London-based Iraq Press.
"Because no one dares oppose the son of Saddam Hussein, he even maintains his own private prisons in the building of the Olympic Committee, in the Republican Palace and at his farm in Radhwaniya, 30 kilometers west of Baghdad. Tales abound in Iraq of how he had football players, other athletes and journalists humiliated, beaten and tortured."
Qeis is one of a number of Iraqi athletes to defect and tell their stories. Taken together, they reflect not merely outrage at Uday's well-publicized sadism but almost equal regret at his destruction of what was once a proud national sports program.
"Before leaving Iraq, I played in most international tournaments in the 1990s, including the 1988 Seoul Olympics," writes Qeis, who defected in 2001. "I am a witness to the accounts of humiliation and torture Uday subjected footballers to. I was also one of his victims.
"I had my head shaved and was beaten on my back with a heavy cane and spent a month in jail because Uday was not happy with my performance. I was sent to Radhwaniya detention center, a secretive jail, where Saddam, his sons and close associates imprison those they are unhappy with. You end up there without seeing a lawyer or judge."
It has been six years since FIFA, soccer's world governing body, sent officials to Baghdad to investigate reports that members of the Iraqi soccer team were imprisoned and tortured after losing a World Cup qualifying game. FIFA exonerated Iraq. Its interviews with athletes produced no confirmation of the charges, it explained.
"I was there when the FIFA investigators came to Baghdad," Qeis writes. "They asked athletes questions about whether they were tortured or not. Not one of us could have admitted to torture and stayed alive. Nobody dares to tell the truth of what happens while he is still in Iraq.
"I was tortured in 1997. Uday was furious with me because the referee sent (me) off after an argument during a match against Turkmenistan, which we lost 4-0.
"Upon arrival in Iraq, I was immediately driven to the headquarters of the Olympic Commission and after warnings, threats and censure I was sent to Radhwaniya. There they put me in a room with an array of canes mounted on shelves on the wall. They ordered me to strip to the waist and lie on the ground. They flogged me. I bled profusely and fainted."
Sharar Haydar, an Iraqi soccer player who defected in 1998, told of being dragged on his back through gravel, then dropped into a tank of raw sewage to promote infection. A number of expatriate athletes refer to players who simply disappeared.
If U.N. inspectors cannot get Iraqi scientists to speak freely, it should come as no surprise sports officials cannot get athletes to do so inside Iraq. But it is hard to tell if it is naivete or cynicism that persuades sports governing bodies to dismiss or ignore horrific allegations because the very tyranny and intimidation that give rise to them also make them difficult to corroborate.
The IOC now claims to be investigating a complaint filed with its Ethics Commission by INDICT, a London-based human-rights organization funded by the U.S. government. But there have been few signs of active investigation.
In fact, the only high-ranking Olympic official to show any interest in the subject, Canadian straight talker Dick Pound, seems to have gotten much of his information from ESPN.
If and when coalition forces succeed in ousting Saddam, the IOC will be off the hook, and no doubt relieved, having escaped again the necessity to do something.
But it reminds you that good intentions often do not produce good deeds. Those who espouse world unity often end up the unwitting accomplices of its most sadistic tyrants.
If that is the price of neutrality, it is too high.
If the Olympic movement does not stand against what Uday Hussein has done with the Olympic name, it stands for nothing.
Contact Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver at http://www.rockymountainnews.com.
"I had my head shaved and was beaten on my back with a heavy cane and spent a month in jail because Uday was not happy with my performance. I was sent to Radhwaniya detention center, a secretive jail, where Saddam, his sons and close associates imprison those they are unhappy with. You end up there without seeing a lawyer or judge."
It has been six years since FIFA, soccer's world governing body, sent officials to Baghdad to investigate reports that members of the Iraqi soccer team were imprisoned and tortured after losing a World Cup qualifying game. FIFA exonerated Iraq. Its interviews with athletes produced no confirmation of the charges, it explained.
The MAJOR reasons that Eurinal bureaucrats love these large international organizations that provide governance is that they encourage bribery and bribes. That what Eurinals do, give and take bribes, payoffs, kickbacks, or money under the table.
Saddam knew that if he gave Chiraq or the IOC or Ritter or Canadians or the UN agencies lots of money, the individuals making the administrative rulings would ALWAYS go his way. The Eurinals don't care what is right or what is wrong so long as there is tax free money involved.
Huh?
It's known for example, that the antitank missles used to kill 3 of our M1A1 tanks have been Russian-made Kornets, developed AFTER the end of Desert Storm.
That is but ONE small example of weapons trade with Iraq.
It has been pointed out the Iraqis could have easily come by these weapons via third-party channels and simply from the highest bidder for the best profit on the weapons sales.
Germany and France no doubt are scared $hitle$$ and bracing for the reams of documentation and weapons finds that will be traced back to those worms.
The next six month's worth of weapons, bodies, and human atrocities finds will be historic - and catastrophic for the following organizations who defended Saddam and absolutely insisted there was no reason for this war:
#1. The American Democratic National Party
#2. Germany - Schroeder and his neonazi clowns.
#3. France - Chirac and the throngs of French contractors weeing over lost Iraqi/Saddam hidden contract.
#4. Russia - God only knows.
#5. Hollywood and all the pitiful pukes that bought into the lies of the Ununited Nations.
#6. Last, but surely the most corrupt - the Ununited Nations. Thanks to them and their attempts to protect, conceal, and defend the monstrous regime of Saddam Hussein, the world could have easily erupted into WWIII.
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