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articolo "fresco" da al jazeera.
Tuesday 15, April, 2003 / Last Updated: 12:16AM Doha time, 10:16AM GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2607&version=1&template_id=273&parent_id=258
allego:
US charges against Syria smack of double standards
Ruben Banerjee
Every day at least one member of the US administration points an accusing
finger at Syria. Damascus is accussed of harbouring Saddam Hussein
loyalists and possessing a cache of undisclosed weapons of mass destruction
(WMD).
Syria's official response is that the accusations are baseless. A Syrian
spokeswoman also went a step further, stating that "there could be WMDs in
the Middle-East. But in Israel and not in Syria."
The reference to its neighbour was intended to underline what many in the
region feel are the double-standards adopted by the US.
Israel has long been suspected to have an undisclosed nuclear programme,
but it hasn't come under the scanner as yet.
It has the most advanced nuclear weapons program in the Middle East. David
Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, clandestinely established the
program in the late 1950s to meet the perceived threat to the nascent
state. The program allegedly is centered at the Negev Nuclear Research
Centre, outside the town of Dimona. Based on estimates of the plutonium
production capacity of the Dimona reactor, Israel has approximately 100-200
nuclear explosive devices. Officially, Tel Aviv has declared that it will
not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East; however,
it has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Israel has yet to subject itself to any kind of international inspection of
its Dimona nuclear reactor. It signed an international agreement in 1998
for cutting down its production of nuclear materials like plutonium but
experts believe that by itself is not enough to guarantee that it does not
have a nuclear capability.
The agreement it signed makes it obligatory on Israel to prove that it no
longer produces any nuclear fissionable materials. But it need not any
longer, given that its reactors must have over the years produced hundreds
of kilograms of plutonium. Worse still, since the half life of plutonium is
24,000 years, the stock of plutonium already produced would remain at
Israel's disposal for hundreds of years.
Nor is Tel Aviv a signatory to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
(BWC). Israeli specialised military units are accused of having sabotaged
water wells with typhoid and dysentery bacteria in Acre (near Haifa),
Palestine during the 1948 war.
Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Some reports have suggested an offensive programme is located at the Israel
Institute for Biological Research in Nes Ziona. In October 1992, an El Al
airliner carrying a cargo of approximately 50 gallons of dimethyl
methylphosphonate (a widely used simulant for defensive research but also a
possible precursor of sarin nerve agent) destined for the Institute crashed
in Amsterdam. Israel said this material was being imported to test gas masks.
The double-standards in weeding out proscribed weapons does not end here.
Israel's Supreme Court has recently given its army the nod to use Flechette
tank shells, which spray thousands of dards over hundreds of metres,
ripping apart anyone in the killing zone.
Its set the alarm bells ringing and even the Physicians for Human Rights,
an Israeli advocacy group says that the use of such shells was in
contravention of the Geneva convention covering the rules of warfare.
It is said that the shells have already killed 10 innocent civilians in the
Gaza Strip since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.
The Israeli army argues that the shells are only used selectively in its
fight against terrorism. According to Jane's Defence Weekly, the British
military journal, Israel acquired the Flechette shells from none other than
the US in the 1970s.
The US also has not been practising what it has been preaching about
proscribed weapons.
On April 1, it dropped cluster bombs in the Iraqi town of al-Hilla, killing
33 civilians including many children. In the words of the Amnesty
International, the human-rights body, "the use of cluster bombs is a gross
violation of international humanitarian law."
The war in Iraq bears testimony to more such violations by the US. The
international chemical weapons convention, ratified by the US in 1997
insists that "each state party undertakes not to use riot control agents as
a method of warfare."
But this didn't deter the US President from sanctioning the use of tear gas
in the war, large quantities of which were even shipped to Iraq. Bush is
permitted to give the sanction by an executive order published in 1975 by
the then US president Gerald Ford, which overrides within the US the 1925
Geneva protocol on chemical weapons. It means that Bush cannot be impeached
on the score within the US, even though his action is in violation of
international law.
Last year the British newspaper, the Guardian, carried a report saying that
scientists on both sides of the Atlantic were concerned that the US was
developing a new generation of weapons that undermine and possibly violate
international treaties on biological and chemical warfare.
The scientists, specialists in bio-warfare and chemical weapons, say the
Pentagon, with the help of the British military, is also working on
"non-lethal" weapons similar to the narcotic gas used by Russian forces to
end last October's Moscow theatre siege.
The report was based on a paper published in the scientific journal
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by Malcolm Dando, professor of
international security at the University of Bradford, and Mark Wheelis, a
lecturer in microbiology at the University of California, which focussed on
recent US actions that have served to undermine the 1972 Biological Weapons
Convention.
In July 2002, the US blocked an attempt to give the convention some bite
with inspections, so that member countries could check if others were
keeping the agreement. Dando and Wheelis claim that this was done to cover
up its own research work on biological weapons.
These include CIA efforts to copy a Soviet cluster bomb designed to
disperse biological weapons, a Pentagon project to build a bio-weapon plant
from commercially available materials to prove that terrorists could do the
same thing, and Defence Intelligence Agency research into the possibility
of genetically engineering a new strain of antibiotic-resistant anthrax.
The authors also highlighted a programme to produce dried and weaponised
anthrax spores, officially for testing US bio-defences, but far more spores
were allegedly produced than necessary for such purposes and it is unclear
whether they have been destroyed or simply stored. -- Al Jazeera
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articolo "fresco" da <b><i>al jazeera</i>. <br>
</b>Tuesday 15, April, 2003 / Last Updated: 12:16AM Doha time, 10:16AM
GMT<br><br>
<b><a href="
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2607&version=1&template_id=273&parent_id=258" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2607&version=1&template_id=273&parent_id=258</a><br><br>
</b>allego:<br><br>
<b>US charges against Syria smack of double standards <br>
<i>Ruben Banerjee<br>
</i></b>Every day at least one member of the US administration points an
accusing finger at Syria. Damascus is accussed of harbouring Saddam
Hussein loyalists and possessing a cache of undisclosed weapons of mass
destruction (WMD).<br>
<table border=0>
<tr><td width=190></td></tr>
<tr><td width=190></td></tr>
</table>
Syrias official response is that the accusations are baseless. A Syrian
spokeswoman also went a step further, stating that there could be WMDs
in the Middle-East. But in Israel and not in Syria.<br>
The reference to its neighbour was intended to underline what many in the
region feel are the double-standards adopted by the US.<br>
Israel has long been suspected to have an undisclosed nuclear programme,
but it hasnt come under the scanner as yet.<br>
It has the most advanced nuclear weapons program in the Middle East.
David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, clandestinely
established the program in the late 1950s to meet the perceived threat to
the nascent state. The program allegedly is centered at the Negev Nuclear
Research Centre, outside the town of Dimona. Based on estimates of the
plutonium production capacity of the Dimona reactor, Israel has
approximately 100-200 nuclear explosive devices. Officially, Tel Aviv has
declared that it will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in
the Middle East; however, it has not signed the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).<br>
Israel has yet to subject itself to any kind of international inspection
of its Dimona nuclear reactor. It signed an international agreement in
1998 for cutting down its production of nuclear materials like plutonium
but experts believe that by itself is not enough to guarantee that it
does not have a nuclear capability.<br>
The agreement it signed makes it obligatory on Israel to prove that it no
longer produces any nuclear fissionable materials. But it need not any
longer, given that its reactors must have over the years produced
hundreds of kilograms of plutonium. Worse still, since the half life of
plutonium is 24,000 years, the stock of plutonium already produced would
remain at Israels disposal for hundreds of years.<br>
Nor is Tel Aviv a signatory to the Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention (BWC). Israeli specialised military units are accused of
having sabotaged water wells with typhoid and dysentery bacteria in Acre
(near Haifa), Palestine during the 1948 war.<br>
Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
Some reports have suggested an offensive programme is located at the
Israel Institute for Biological Research in Nes Ziona. In October 1992,
an El Al airliner carrying a cargo of approximately 50 gallons of
dimethyl methylphosphonate (a widely used simulant for defensive research
but also a possible precursor of sarin nerve agent) destined for the
Institute crashed in Amsterdam. Israel said this material was being
imported to test gas masks. <br>
The double-standards in weeding out proscribed weapons does not end here.
Israels Supreme Court has recently given its army the nod to use
Flechette tank shells, which spray thousands of dards over hundreds of
metres, ripping apart anyone in the killing zone.<br>
Its set the alarm bells ringing and even the Physicians for Human Rights,
an Israeli advocacy group says that the use of such shells was in
contravention of the Geneva convention covering the rules of warfare.
<br>
It is said that the shells have already killed 10 innocent civilians in
the Gaza Strip since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September
2000. The Israeli army argues that the shells are only used selectively
in its fight against terrorism. According to Janes Defence Weekly, the
British military journal, Israel acquired the Flechette shells from none
other than the US in the 1970s.<br>
The US also has not been practising what it has been preaching about
proscribed weapons.<br>
On April 1, it dropped cluster bombs in the Iraqi town of al-Hilla,
killing 33 civilians including many children. In the words of the Amnesty
International, the human-rights body, the use of cluster bombs is a
gross violation of international humanitarian law.<br>
The war in Iraq bears testimony to more such violations by the US. The
international chemical weapons convention, ratified by the US in 1997
insists that each state party undertakes not to use riot control agents
as a method of warfare.<br>
But this didnt deter the US President from sanctioning the use of tear
gas in the war, large quantities of which were even shipped to Iraq. Bush
is permitted to give the sanction by an executive order published in 1975
by the then US president Gerald Ford, which overrides within the US the
1925 Geneva protocol on chemical weapons. It means that Bush cannot be
impeached on the score within the US, even though his action is in
violation of international law.<br>
Last year the British newspaper, the Guardian, carried a report saying
that scientists on both sides of the Atlantic were concerned that the US
was developing a new generation of weapons that undermine and possibly
violate international treaties on biological and chemical warfare. <br>
The scientists, specialists in bio-warfare and chemical weapons, say the
Pentagon, with the help of the British military, is also working on
"non-lethal" weapons similar to the narcotic gas used by
Russian forces to end last October's Moscow theatre siege.<br>
The report was based on a paper published in the scientific journal
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by Malcolm Dando, professor of
international security at the University of Bradford, and Mark Wheelis, a
lecturer in microbiology at the University of California, which focussed
on recent US actions that have served to undermine the 1972 Biological
Weapons Convention.<br><br>
In July 2002, the US blocked an attempt to give the convention some bite
with inspections, so that member countries could check if others were
keeping the agreement. Dando and Wheelis claim that this was done to
cover up its own research work on biological weapons. <br>
These include CIA efforts to copy a Soviet cluster bomb designed to
disperse biological weapons, a Pentagon project to build a bio-weapon
plant from commercially available materials to prove that terrorists
could do the same thing, and Defence Intelligence Agency research into
the possibility of genetically engineering a new strain of
antibiotic-resistant anthrax. The authors also highlighted a programme to
produce dried and weaponised anthrax spores, officially for testing US
bio-defences, but far more spores were allegedly produced than necessary
for such purposes and it is unclear whether they have been destroyed or
simply stored. <b>-- Al Jazeera</b> <br>
</html>
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