GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT

Blood on the sky-blue flag (Pepe Escobar, 8/21/03, Asia Times)

During the 1990s, the UN was associated in the minds of the Saddam regime with a ruthless embargo and sanctions - but not necessarily by ordinary Iraqis, many of whom managed to survive thanks to the UN oil for food program. Snubbed and bypassed by the Bush administration's war adventure, the UN in post-Saddam Iraq was fulfilling basically a humanitarian mission. This included a concerted effort to demonstrate to long-suffering Iraqis that the UN was independent - and not part of the occupation force. But in this framework the mission of the UN special representative to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was in itself much broader and ambitious. Although without any formal power, the 55-year-old Brazilian diplomat who is arguably the UN's number one troubleshooter - he was also UN under secretary general and a UN high commissioner for human rights - was acting as a de facto privileged go-between, squeezed by the American proconsular regime under L Paul Bremer on one side and Iraqi political and religious leaders on the other. As the only player trusted by both sides, he was trying to bridge the gap between the unbridgeable - the American-imposed agenda for normalization and the Iraqi desire of "democracy now". [...]

Perhaps a clue to the UN Baghdad bombing can be found in a communique by the Abu Hafs al-Misri Brigades, posted last Friday on the Arabic online Global Islamic Media - which has already published many al-Qaeda statements - but unconfirmed by any other source. The communique claims responsibility for the recent power blackouts in eastern North America, and lists a dozen "benefits of this strike" which, according to them, cost "only US$7,000". The fifth benefit is described as "a message delivered to the United Nations against Islam, whose headquarters is in New York". The communique becomes even more interesting when cross-referenced with an audiotape broadcast by Abu Dhabi-based al-Arabiyah on Sunday and again on Monday, in which an Afghan-based, so-called al-Qaeda spokesman, Abdul Rahman al-Nadji, says that bin Laden and former Taliban supremo Mullah Omar are alive and urging all Muslims to fight a jihad against the Americans in Iraq.

Al-Nadji - who has never been identified before as an al-Qaeda spokesman - congratulates "our brothers in Iraq for their valiant struggle against the occupation, which we support and urge them to continue." If the tape is authentic, this would confirm that al-Qaeda is indeed supporting the Iraqi resistance, but not controlling it.

If the al-Misri Brigades communique is authentic, this would mean that al-Qaeda might have been involved in delivering a "message" to the UN in Iraq. Wherever lies the responsibility for what happened in Baghdad - indigenous Iraqi guerrillas, global jihad, or an alliance of both - the fact is that the US way out of the quagmire via the UN now lies under the rubble.

Despite Mr. Escobar's once again contradictory assertions about what the people of Iraq want, it seems the one group that had genuine cause to hate the UN is opponents of the Ba'athist regime.

Meanwhile, if the UN turns tail and runs after one bombing, no matter how horrible, who can take them at all seriously, especially in the bomb ridden Islamic world? If you do what the terrorists tell you to do, you're not just not an ally but may effectively be an enemy in the war on terror. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 20, 2003 8:46 AM