[NuovoLaboratorio] al jazeera

Autor: Giovanna Caviglione
Datum:
Betreff: [NuovoLaboratorio] al jazeera

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visto i contenuti interessanti lo traduco e mando in rete quanto prima.
saluti
giovanna caviglione

Il giorno 15-05-2003 12:35, Edoardo Magnone, magnone@??? ha
scritto:

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=3D1&item_no=3D2607&versio=
n
=3D1&template_id=3D273&parent_id=3D258
<http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=3D1&item_no=3D2607&a=
m
p;version=3D1&template_id=3D273&parent_id=3D258>

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 loyalist=
s
and possessing a cache of undisclosed weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Syria=92s official response is that the accusations are baseless. A Syrian
spokeswoman also went a step further, stating that =93there could be WMDs in
the Middle-East. But in Israel and not in Syria.=94
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, bu=
t
it hasn=92t 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 th=
e
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 fo=
r
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=92s 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.=20
The double-standards in weeding out proscribed weapons does not end here.
Israel=92s Supreme Court has recently given its army the nod to use Flechette
tank shells, which spray thousands of dards over hundreds of metres, rippin=
g
apart anyone in the killing zone.
Its set the alarm bells ringing and even the Physicians for Human Rights, a=
n
Israeli advocacy group says that the use of such shells was in contraventio=
n
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=92s 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, =93the use of cluster bombs is a gross
violation of international humanitarian law.=94
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 =93each state party undertakes not to use riot control agents as
a method of warfare.=94
But this didn=92t 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 Bulleti=
n
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 dispers=
e
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 anthra=
x
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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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: [NuovoLaboratorio] al jazeera</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
visto i contenuti interessanti lo traduco e mando in rete quanto prima. 
saluti 
giovanna caviglione 
 
Il giorno 15-05-2003 12:35, Edoardo Magnone, magnone@??? ha sc=
ritto: 
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>articolo "fresco" da al jazeera. 
Tuesday 15, April, 2003 / Last Updated: 12:16AM Doha time, 10:16AM GMT<=
BR>
 
http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=3D1&item_no=3D2607=
&version=3D1&template_id=3D273&parent_id=3D258 <http://english.alja=
zeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=3D1&item_no=3D2607&version=3D1&=
amp;amp;template_id=3D273&parent_id=3D258> 
 
allego: 
 
US charges against Syria smack of double standards 
Ruben Banerjee 
Every day at least one member of the US administration points an ac=
cusing finger at Syria. Damascus is accussed of harbouring Saddam Hussein lo=
yalists and possessing a cache of undisclosed weapons of mass destruction (W=
MD). 
Syria=92s official response is that the accusations are baseless. A Syrian sp=
okeswoman also went a step further, stating that =93there could be WMDs in the=
Middle-East. But in Israel and not in Syria.=94 
The reference to its neighbour was intended to underline what many in the r=
egion feel are the double-standards adopted by the US. 
Israel has long been suspected to have an undisclosed nuclear programme, bu=
t it hasn=92t 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 pro=
gram in the late 1950s to meet the perceived threat to the nascent state. Th=
e program allegedly is centered at the Negev Nuclear Research Centre, outsid=
e the town of Dimona. Based on estimates of the plutonium production capacit=
y 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 fo=
r cutting down its production of nuclear materials like plutonium but expert=
s 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 l=
onger produces any nuclear fissionable materials. But it need not any longer=
, given that its reactors must have over the years produced hundreds of kilo=
grams of plutonium. Worse still, since the half life of plutonium is 24,000 =
years, the stock of plutonium already produced would remain at Israel=92s disp=
osal 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 wa=
ter wells with typhoid and dysentery bacteria in Acre (near Haifa), Palestin=
e during the 1948 war. 
Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). S=
ome reports have suggested an offensive programme is located at the Israel I=
nstitute for Biological Research in Nes Ziona. In October 1992, an El Al air=
liner carrying a cargo of approximately 50 gallons of dimethyl methylphospho=
nate (a widely used simulant for defensive research but also a possible prec=
ursor 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. I=
srael=92s Supreme Court has recently given its army the nod to use Flechette t=
ank 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, a=
n Israeli advocacy group says that the use of such shells was in contraventi=
on 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. T=
he Israeli army argues that the shells are only used selectively in its figh=
t against terrorism. According to Jane=92s Defence Weekly, the British militar=
y 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 proscr=
ibed 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 Internati=
onal, the human-rights body, =93the use of cluster bombs is a gross violation =
of international humanitarian law.=94 
The war in Iraq bears testimony to more such violations by the US. The inte=
rnational chemical weapons convention, ratified by the US in 1997 insists th=
at =93each state party undertakes not to use riot control agents as a method o=
f warfare.=94 
But this didn=92t 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 pe=
rmitted 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 internationa=
l 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 dev=
eloping a new generation of weapons that undermine and possibly violate inte=
rnational treaties on biological and chemical warfare. 
The scientists, specialists in bio-warfare and chemical weapons, say the Pe=
ntagon, with the help of the British military, is also working on "non-=
lethal" weapons similar to the narcotic gas used by Russian forces to e=
nd last October's Moscow theatre siege. 
The report was based on a paper published in the scientific journal Bulleti=
n of the Atomic Scientists by Malcolm Dando, professor of international secu=
rity at the University of Bradford, and Mark Wheelis, a lecturer in microbio=
logy at the University of California, which focussed on recent US actions th=
at have served to undermine the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. 
 
In July 2002, the US blocked an attempt to give the convention some bite wi=
th 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 ow=
n research work on biological weapons. 
These include CIA efforts to copy a Soviet cluster bomb designed to dispers=
e biological weapons, a Pentagon project to build a bio-weapon plant from co=
mmercially available materials to prove that terrorists could do the same th=
ing, and Defence Intelligence Agency research into the possibility of geneti=
cally 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 hav=
e been destroyed or simply stored. -- Al Jazeera 
 
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