Posted on 11/01/2001 9:55:12 AM PST by white trash redneck
November 1, 2001
DIPLOMACY
ASHINGTON, Oct. 31 The Bush administration has rejected a proposal by France to win Security Council condemnation of the anthrax attacks in the United States, senior administration and European officials said today.
The administration told the French government that a United Nations condemnation would be appropriate only if there was clear proof that the origin of the anthrax or the plot behind the outbreak was foreign, a senior administration official who opposed the move said.
"Let's assume this was the work of a bunch of right-wing nuts or a Unabomber kind of thing," the official said. "That would make it a domestic criminal matter. The Security Council just has no legitimate role in this."
The rejection came after a debate inside the State Department, with officials disagreeing on whether the anthrax attacks violate the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, administration officials said.
"The French told us this was a clear violation of the convention, but I don't know how it would be if it's a domestic nut case," said the official opposing the initiative.
But another senior administration official said, "I'm not going to deny that there were two schools of thought on this."
The Biological Weapons Convention, which 143 nations, including the United States, have ratified, prohibits the development, production and possession of biological weapons. But when that treaty was negotiated, it had no provision for verification, a major drawback since most of the nations suspected of making biological weapons have signed the accord.
The Bush administration has rejected a draft agreement supported by its European allies and a host of other countries that would have created new measures to monitor the ban. The administration argued that the agreement would have granted foreign inspectors too much access to American installations and companies, and that a nation determined to cheat would find a way to do so.
Much to the dismay of America's allies, the United States is now trying to introduce alternate ways of implementing the convention.
European officials called the administration's rejection of the French proposal condemning the anthrax outbreak shortsighted and a missed opportunity.
"This was the first time that a biological agent was used against a civilian population, and we felt that it was important at the very least that the international community say something about it," said one senior European official. "The goal was to reaffirm the value of the convention and assure solidarity. But the answer clearly was `No.' "
The resolution would have noted that the use of biological weapons under the Biological Weapons Convention was prohibited, and that the United States had the unilateral right of military self-defense against a biological weapons attack under the United Nations charter.
Experts have said that the United States, the former Soviet Union and Iraq are the only countries known to have made the dangerous, high- grade anthrax powder that was found in the office of the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle. But the techniques used in those programs are believed to be common enough that a well-trained scientist in a well- equipped private laboratory could have produced similar results.
"Whatever phraseology" does not include giving them more ammunition against American right wing nuts. They've dined out on Tim McVeigh for years as poster boy for American right-wing nuttiness. I wouldn't feed that propaganda monster without firm proof that we ourselves are guilty.
Why not say "thank you, no" without smearing our own people?
What the hell is wrong with this guy? All evidence points towards Islamic nuts, none towards right-wing nuts. Maybe we should assume this official is sending these letters? It makes about as much since? I think we have some people in the FBI and CIA who are left over from the Clintonista regime. They need a domestic threat so that they can scare congress into passing laws that allow them to keep an eye on us citizens. Time for Bush to clean house in both agencies. We have a real enemy, and it is not us.
Seriously, I read the article and thought this was the work of a left wing group, but I am sure liberals read it and thought it obviously was the work of a right wing group.
Here's what's up. If this turns out to be locals such as right-wing extremists, this is going to be a big backlash worldwide against the US "Americans" killing their own. This is going to be a huge PR disaster. So Bush is minimizing the damage as much as possible by keeping the idea out there that it could really be locals after all.
That's a clever thought, though it sounds a little too Clintonian for Bush. I hope you're wrong about it being domestic.
Well, I certainly don't want it to be locals either. But what can ya do?
"This was the first time that a biological agent was used against a civilian population, and we felt that it was important at the very least that the international community say something about it," said one senior European official.
The first time if you discount the smallpox blankets handed out to Native Americans... and by Europeans no less.
I hate to break it to the international community, but the US has a unilateral right to self-defense whether the UN agrees with it or not. And the Bush administration was absolutely correct in telling them 'No,' because we do not want the UN to send inspectors from terrorist countries to snoop around in our facilities. If they want to come to the US and look at anything, let them try to defeat us first, rather than see ourselves behave as if we have surrendered to them on the field of battle.
I would really love for it to be home-grown, because the most likely foreign supplier, Saddam Hussein, has the facilities to make weaponized anthrax by the ton, and it may be here by the ton. This stuff is worse than nuclear fallout -- much worse. When I read that the 9/11 hijackers were researching "wind patterns," it gives me the willies. We could be talking about something continental in scale. Certainly, it would be in character for the sociopath who booby-trapped all the oil wells in Kuwait to plot a grand finale on those lines. Better hope it's just some kook in a log cabin, eh?
YEA A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO GET THEIR UNITED NATIONS LOVING FOOT IN THE DOOR OF UNITED STATES POLICY
THE FU****** NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE ME JACK BOOTED STORM TROPPERS WITH A UNITED NATIONS LOGO GET THE U.S. OUT OF THE U.N. NOW....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.