Is the Bush Administration Planning a Nuclear Holocaust?
Will the US launch “Mini-nukes” against Iran in Retaliation for Tehran’s “Non-compliance”?
by Michel Chossudovsky
Part I of this text was published as a separate article entitled:
The Dangers of a Middle East Nuclear War
New Pentagon Doctrine: Mini-Nukes are “Safe for the Surrounding Civilian Population”
by Michel Chossudovsky
“We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark…. This weapon is to be used against Japan … [We] will use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. … The target will be a purely military one… It seems to be the most terrible thing ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful.”
(President Harry S. Truman, Diary, July 25, 1945)
“The World will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima a military base. That was because we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the killing of civilians..” (President Harry S. Truman in a radio speech to the Nation, August 9, 1945).
[Note: the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945; the Second on Nagasaki, on August 9, on the same day as Truman’s radio speech to the Nation]
At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East.
All the safeguards of the Cold War era, which categorized the nuclear bomb as “a weapon of last resort” have been scrapped. “Offensive” military actions using nuclear warheads are now described as acts of “self-defense”.
The distinction between tactical nuclear weapons and the conventional battlefield arsenal has been blurred. America’s new nuclear doctrine is based on “a mix of strike capabilities”. The latter, which specifically applies to the Pentagon’s planned aerial bombing of Iran, envisages the use of nukes in combination with conventional weapons.
As in the case of the first atomic bomb, which in the words of President Harry Truman “was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base”, today’s “mini-nukes” are heralded as “safe for the surrounding civilian population”.
Known in official Washington, as “Joint Publication 3-12″, the new nuclear doctrine (Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations , (DJNO) (March 2005)) calls for “integrating conventional and nuclear attacks” under a unified and “integrated” Command and Control (C2).
It largely describes war planning as a management decision-making process, where military and strategic objectives are to be achieved, through a mix of instruments, with little concern for the resulting loss of human life.
Military planning focuses on “the most efficient use of force” , -i.e. an optimal arrangement of different weapons systems to achieve stated military goals. In this context, nuclear and conventional weapons are considered to be “part of the tool box”, from which military commanders can pick and choose the instruments that they require in accordance with “evolving circumstances” in the war theater. (None of these weapons in the Pentagon’s “tool box”, including conventional bunker buster bombs, cluster bombs, mini-nukes, chemical and biological weapons are described as “weapons of mass destruction” when used by the United States of America and its coalition partners).
The Palestinian Genocide: Israel invades Gaza
by Andy Martin
“…the life of every soldier is precious. A uniform should be worn with great pride. But the life of a nation is even more precious.”
Israelis invaded Gaza today, ostensibly seeking to “rescue” Corporal Gilad Shalit but in reality seeking to unleash their blood lust for vengeance against the Palestinian people. The Israeli fuhrers are outraged at the way a hapless band of Islamic extremists have demonstrated Israel’s impotence to the world.
Nothing is more central to Israelis than their constant preening about their self-proclaimed “superpower” status, their “secret” nuclear arsenal, and the idea that President Bush has promised to shed American blood to protect Israel’s conquests in the Middle East. So when a small band of Palestinians exposes Israeli impotence, punishment must be imposed on the entire Palestinian People.
Unfortunately for peace-loving Israelis, their leaders’ wrath is self-destructive and self-destroying. The Israeli government manufactures anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activism at a breakneck pace. Today’s events crystallize the counterintuitive nature of Israel’s slow death and suicidal impulses.
We begin with the basic, the obvious, the unavoidable: being a soldier puts you at risk. By the very act of putting on a uniform and being stationed in a military encampment a solider is at risk and in harm’s way. When Palestinians set up rockets, they get attacked. The Israelis bomb them. Palestinians likewise attack Israelis for occupying to their nation. There is tragic but ineluctable symmetry in all of this killing.
Americans in Iraq are attacked and killed, merely because of their uniformed status. Every general knew invading Iraq would cost lives. Only Vice president Dick Cheney thought otherwise. But, no one forces anyone anywhere to wear a uniform, not here, not there, not anywhere. Indeed, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s own son is a refusenik, someone who refuses to perform military service in the Israeli wehrmacht (he’s no fool).
Another obvious truth is that captured soldiers must be rescued. There is nothing wrong with that. It is part of the ethos of military loyalty and unit solidarity. But Israelis and their fellow travelers in the Bush Administration have been watching old tapes of the rescue at Entebbe (Uganda), long past the sell-by date of that ancient mission.
Entebbe involved the rescue of helpless civilians hijacked and held in Uganda. Israelis launched a dangerous mission and succeeded. The result was heroic status for the rescuers, and the enduring myth that rescuing people is Hollywood-style easy.
Rescues are not. Just ask former president Jimmy Carter about his rescue mission in Iran. Or the Americans who led the unsuccessful rescue at the Hanoi Hilton.
On the other hand, when North Koreans took an entire ship hostage, the U. S. S. Pueblo, the United States did not invade North Korea and launch a war, and the men were eventually released. The U. S. Military leadership realized that even in the face of an obvious act of war, the nation’s greater interests must prevail. And so the Pueblo’s crew waited.
President Bush faced the same choice when the Chinese recently took an American surveillance plane captive. He waited; and the crew came home.
Gaza and Corporal Shalit should have been no different. In Gaza and occupied Palestine there are no TV dramas or Hollywood potential to fuel the rescue of captured personnel. Fighting in Gaza is deadly, and ultimately self-defeating. Shalit knew that. He was a solider.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice properly counseled patience in the wake of Corporal Shalit’s capture. Israel rejected her wise advice. Arrogance and emotion triumphed over reason and the Israeli national interest.
Here we should consider the lessons of history. When the Turks slaughtered Armenians in World War I, there was no “genocide” because the word genocide had yet to be invented. When Nazis began slaughtering Europe’s Jews, it was not genocide. The term still had not been invented.
The term “genocide” was created by Raphael Lemkin in 1943. Genocide became an international term of law with the United Nations’ adoption of the Convention on Genocide in 1948. Retrospectively, we now realize that the concept of genocide could be applied to the Armenian slaughter or the massacre of European Jews by the Nazis.
Today the civilized world’s only practitioners of genocide are the Israelis. Golda Meir was known for her comment that Palestine was seized “by a People without a land,” because it was “a land without a people.” Actually, “people” had inhabited the land mass of Palestine since the dawn of civilization. The concept of a “land without a people” was a racist and genocidal concoction that Meir used to justify Israeli expansionism.
The insanity continues. Instead of using its overwhelming military and economic strength to make peace with its neighbors, Israel continues to make war, hoping against hope that evil methods and evil minds can triumph over the logic of history and the solidarity of the world community. It canāt happen.
In his typically understated style Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” for invading Gaza. While today’s invasion is undoubtedly a crime against humanity, the attack on Gaza is more; it is part of an orchestrated Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
And, unlike people in the time of the Armenian slaughter and Nazi massacres we cannot pretend that genocide has not yet been invented. We are all witnesses to the Palestinian Genocide.
In today’s attacks, hundreds of thousands have lost electricity; public health is endangered. Food was already perilously low. Infrastructure has been damaged beyond repair. All this for Corporal Shalit?
What did the Palestinian people do to deserve these attacks? Why arenāt they justified in retaliating against Israel and Israelis, and engaging in mutual rounds of destruction until there is truly no people and no land in the territory of these two warring groups? Hollywood has a precedent for this: War of the Roses, a divorce drama of two people intent on self-hate and self-destruction. Who destroy each other.
Whenever I write a column that compares Israelis to Nazis I get a spate of pro-Israel hate mail, castigating me for comparing the two. But I state unhesitatingly that making war against an innocent civilian population caught in the midst of a war is a Nazi-style atrocity and a crime against humanity. Genocide.
Civilians did not take Corporal Shalit prisoner, and they canāt release him. What does blowing up a Gazan bridge or power plant do to advance the corporal’s freedom? Nothing.
So there must be another explanation for the fury of the Israeli junta in Tel Aviv. There is: genocide.
When Italy attacked Ethiopia, the League of Nations stood silent. The word remained mute at the growing evidence of the Nazi holocaust. Today we watch Israeli storm troopers savage a helpless civilian population under the pretence and pretext that they are conducting a “rescue” mission. Once again the world is shamed. And once again, Israelis continue along the path to their own inevitable demise.
In war, there are prisoners, attacks, and death. Soldiers know that. They accept those risks. If Israel claims it is at war, it must act as though it is a nation at war, both respecting limits on civilian casualties and the endangerment of its troops. The fact that Israelis cannot be trusted to conduct war ultimately means that this “nation” cannot be trusted to be a nation. Israelis are in the process of conducting the eventual and inevitable genocide of their own people and their own nation.
And as the United States sits silently by and aids and abets in this suicidal calumny against a civilian population, we are as guilty as the Israelis whose blood-soaked fingers are carrying out the rape of Gaza. And we wonder why they hate us. And we wonder why we will be targeted again. And we wonder why the world looks with scorn on our own Israeli-style campaign in Iraq. Yes, we really do wonder.
In closing, I affirm that the life of every soldier is precious. A uniform should be worn with great pride. But the life of a nation is even more precious. Generals must sometimes send their troops into danger and death. But in elevating Corporal Shalit’s life to extreme proportions Israel has debased and endangered the Israeli state and taken another steps towards its demise. Unfortunately, as Israeli Abba Eban once said, “The Israelis have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Oh, Eban said that about the Palestinians. War of the Roses.
Perdana Global Peace Forum 2006
From the 20th to the 22nd of June this year, the newly-set up Perdana Global Peace Organisation and Perdana Leadership Foundation organised the Perdana Global Peace Forum 2006, where five of last year’s Forum speakers were invited for three special sessions:
View the webcast videos here.
More than 300 people attended the NGO session and more than 1,500 registered participants attended the public forum on the 22nd. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former UN Assistant Sec-Gens Dr Denis Halliday and Mr Hans Von Sponeck, Professor Dr Helen Caldicott, Professor Dr Michel Chossudovsky and Profesor Francis A. Boyle gave strong speeches imploring Malaysians and the Malaysian government to raise their voices to stop the war in Iran.
While there were doubts raised by the audience as to the effectiveness of any sort of protest, given that worldwide efforts to stop the war in Iraq proved futile, the speakers reminded the audience that the alternative - doing nothing - would almost certainly guarantee more violence in the Middle East, violence that could spread to the entire Gulf region. Dr Caldicott also gave graphic reminders of the effects of nuclear war, should nuclear weapons be used in Iran as the speakers all felt they would, with Malaysia and other countries possibly on the receiving end of a nuclear fallout.
The organisers hope that this year’s Forum will underline last year’s message - that war should be criminalised and that peace networks all over the world must work together to mobilise citizens’ awareness and the power they can exercise for peace via their political votes. In the immediate term, the organisers are counting on NGO support as well as that of the government of Malaysia to prevent a US attack on Iran.
If peace is a journey of a thousand miles and the Perdana Global Peace Forum 2005 was the first step, the hope and expectations are for subsequent strides towards peace to happen, and to happen soon, in Malaysia.
PGPF 2006: Peace under nuke threats…Facts from USA
By Jeff Ooi
The picture by TV Smith.
The reference text: Global Strike: A Chronology of the Pentagon’s New Offensive Strike Plan, March 15, 2006. (Download PDF here, 250pages, 4MB.)
According to Nukestrat.com, at the end of September 2006, the US Joint Functional Component Command for Space and Global Strike is scheduled to achieve Full Operational Capability (FOC). That event builds on Global Strike capabilities developed over many years to provide new offensive strike options to the US President against proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.
The chronology contained in the booklet lists the most important of the developments that led to the creation of the Pentagon’s newest and most offensive strike plan. Although Global Strike is primarily a non-nuclear mission, the information collected for this chronology reveal that nuclear weapons are surprisingly prominent in both the planning and command structure for Global Strike.
The roots of the nuclear option in Global Strike go back more than a decade to the early 1990s, where military planners and policy makers gradually began to broaden the scope of U.S. nuclear strategy to incorporate missions against proliferators armed with weapons of mass destruction. Yet the nuclear counterproliferation mission was controversial because it appeared to broaden rather than reduce the role of nuclear weapons.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in September 2001 removed those constraints and led to the formulation of new guidance that has spawned a highly offensive Global Strike mission with prompt or even preemptive strike planning against imminent threats anywhere on (and under) the face of the Earth.
The operational embodiment of the Global Strike mission is CONPLAN 8022, the detailed strike plan directed against proliferation targets in North Korea, Iran, and elsewhere. First operational in 2004, refinement of CONPLAN 8022 continues.
Read it. Much of the information was painstakingly obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The threat looks real.
Rocky Bru (the blogger) and Bernama have the story on this morning’s event.
Source: www.jeffooi.com
PGPF 2006: Peace… illusive and elusive
By Jeff Ooi
Peace becomes illusive when stopping war becomes a soliloquy; and it’s elusive when those willing to make peace are ridiculed and vilified — despite the falling nuclear rain outside.
LensaPress picture, copyright protected
Such was the feeling enveloping LensaPress photographer Steven Sum when he took the picture at the Perdana Peace Forum yesterday.
We know our man comes this way but once in his life-time, and his time is running out.
LensaPress picture by Steven Sum, copyright protected
Only those who understand it, however small the tribe may be, will cherish.
Source: www.jeffooi.com
Defenceless in Gaza
WITHOUT the slightest hint of irony, a spokeswoman for the Israeli armed forces which marched imperiously into Gaza on Wednesday said they had not encountered any resistance from the Palestinians. The very idea that Israeli tanks and troops would run into heavy enemy fire is bizarre. Neither Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrsā Brigades nor any armed Palestinian organisation has the firepower and the men to slow down the Israeli juggernaut, let alone roll it back.
Not that there was a complete absence of shows of force against the Israeli offensive. There were shots from snipers positioned on rooftops and the firing of anti-tank missiles. But like all previous military showdowns in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this was always going to be an unequal contest between small and uncoordinated militant groups with scanty and crude resources and one of the best trained and equipped armies in the world. Rocks and stones, assault rifles, Molotov cocktails, landmines and homemade rockets cannot be expected to make much of a dent on armoured vehicles, tanks, helicopter gunships and F-16s.
Neither have the diplomatic efforts to secure the release of the abducted Israeli soldier fared any better than the fitful attempts at Palestinian resistance. It should be a matter of much soul-searching in the major capitals of the world that Israel has been able to do pretty much what it likes in order to get its soldier back. Unfortunately, there has only been muted international objections to the heavy-handed retaliatory attacks on Gaza by Israeli forces. Regrettably, too, the continued deaths of Palestinian children from daily Israeli artillery barrages on Gaza have scarcely registered and there is no end in sight to the worsening humanitarian crisis as a result of the crippling freeze on international aid.
This speaks volumes about the feebleness of the attempts to get the Middle East peace process back on track just as much as it does about the inability of the Palestinians to garner the full support of the international community. As it is, much harm has been done to the Palestinian cause by the unresolved and sometimes violent struggle between Hamas and Fatah for control of the Palestinian Authority. There is, therefore, an urgent need by all the key players to make a genuine attempt to resolve their differences and reach an agreement. There is also a need to eschew violence as a tool because it is counter-productive and provides a convenient pretext for continued Israeli aggression.
Source: New Straits Times, Malaysia, 29 June 2006
PGPF 2006: MOSQUES TO MORGUES
By Ahirudin bin Attan
Quotes from the Perdana Global Peace Forum in Kuala Lumpur
From mosques to morgues Today in Iraq there are daily queues of women and children in front of mosques and morgues to identify mutilated bodies; to recover the bodies of their husbands, brothers or sons who had most likely been killed. Often they would find decomposing corpses which were unrecognisable. Over 6,000 corpses were found in the past five months: 1,068 in January, 1,110 in February, 1,294 in March, 1,155 in April and 1,375 in May. Most of these corpses had gunshot wounds, while others had marks of burns, electrocution and holes made by electric drills, conclusive evidence of torture. Each time I come across such reports and pictures it tears my heart out. It may be that Iraqis are killing Iraqis but it is the invasion and war by the Americans and the British which unleashed their savagery. But let us remember that often it is the work of British and American soldiers.
For nothing Americans and Brits are also victims of war. At the last count 2,500 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Thousands more have been injured, many “seriously”. The survivors will live with their physical and mental disabilities for life. What have their sacrifices been for? For nothing. So many lives wasted, so many disabled only to earn the hatred of millions. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan nor Iran will belong to America or Britain. Because of Bush and Blair, American and British life will always be in danger, insecure. The sacrifices are for nothing. The longer it lasts the more lives will be wasted for nothing. Bush and Blair will run no risk. They will be guarded by thousands of security personnel. It is the ordinary man who will pay the price of this folly. We sympathise with Cindy Sheehan and the American and British mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters who will lose their loved ones for nothing.
War Criminal Bush, War Criminal Blair Bush and Blair and any leader, present or future, who wage wars must not and should not be addressed by any honorific. We should simply call them “War Criminal Bush”, “War Criminal Blair” as casually as they would label the targets of their wars of aggression.
Source: rockybru.blogspot.com
Group Seeks Dr Mahathir’s Assistance To Reopen 9-11 Investigation
PUTRAJAYA, June 12 (Bernama) — A group of concerned Americans and their sympathisers has sought the support of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in their effort to push for an international investigation into the Sept 11 2001 (9-11) tragedy.
Representatives of the group, including a survivor of the attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York, met Dr Mahathir here Monday with a claim that the official version of what transpired on that day was far from the truth.
“We want him (Dr Mahathir who is chairman of Perdana Global Peace Organisation) to help us set up an international commission to reopen the investigation,” said Jimmy Walter, who has brought together individuals under the Reopen 911 organisation dedicated to opening a real investigation into the tragic attacks.
Joining him were American Free Press journalist Michael Collins Piper, Yvonne Ridley who is the political editor of Islam Channel United Kingdom and William Rodriguez, the last man to run out of the WTC before it collapsed.
They claimed to have evidence that the towers came down in a controlled demolition, and that a much bigger agenda lurked behind the war on terror, unleashed soon after with the attack on Afghanistan and Iraq by United States-led forces.
Convinced that was what really happened, the Reopen 911 organisation is offering US$1 million to anyone who can prove that explosives were not used in the catastrophe that killed thousands.
Recounting his ordeal, Rodriguez, a janitor of Puerto Ricon descent, said he heard a huge explosion in the basement of the North Tower seconds before an aircraft struck the building.
He single-handedly rescued 15 persons from the WTC, and as Rodriguez was the only person at the site with the master key to the North Tower stairwells, he led fire-fighters up the stairwell, unlocking doors as they ascended, thereby aiding in the successful evacuation of unknown hundreds of those who survived.
“We have access to evidence and information… that we realise that the whole thing was a scheme. The government knew it was going to happen, they needed to shock the world so that they could create an agenda and have an excuse to attack Iraq, Afghanistan and others,” said the man who was recognised as a national hero.
Rodriguez said the so-called international war on terror meant that there would be a never-ending war that would benefit entities like weapon manufacturers.
Journalist Piper said that everything in the US revolved around 9-11 with the survivors held up as heroes and Americans told that it was important to honour them as well as those who died.
“But here is the problem — although they put his (Rodriguez’s) face on magazines, they will not tell you what he really has to say. What he told you today has never been reported by major US newspapers or newsmagazines,” he said.
Piper said the fact was that in the US today there were “Jewish and Christian extremists” who used their combination of money and influence in Washington, taking command of the levers of power.
“And we are saying we do not appreciate this, they do not represent us, nor do they represent most Americans of all races.”
Piper said it was important for Malaysia and Muslims all over the world to realise that the agenda of the detractors of Islam was much bigger than events in West Asia.
“Islam is considered to be a major pillar of opposition to the establishment of a worldwide empire. The image they convey is that (former Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein (former Iraqi leader) is an evil man, so we have to eliminate him.
“Now they say we have to go after the Iranians because they are building nuclear weapons, ignoring of course the fact that it was Israel who started the arms race in West Asia,” he added.
The team is also heading for countries like Chile, Venezuela, Japan, South Africa and the UK to canvass support for the reopening of 911 investigations.
BERNAMA
We Cannot Bear that Anymore
Each week the Palestinian Center for Human Rights posts a summary of events for the preceding week. For the week of June 8-14, 28 Palestinians, including 7 children, were killed by Israeli occupation forces. Seven of the victims were members of the Ghalya family, who were picnicking at a Gaza beach once reserved for Israeli settlers only. Though the evidence points to an Israeli gunboat opening fire on the victims, Israel denies it — a theme and variation repeated countless times over the 39-year occupation — except for a new twist. Israel blamed Hamas.
During the same week, 76 Palestinian civilians, including at least 20 children, were wounded by Israeli forces. There were 40 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and 49 Palestinian civilians, including 12 children, were arrested. Israeli forces “continued to impose a total siege, to close border crossings of the Gaza Strip; the north of the West Bank has been separated from the south.” Eight Palestinian civilians, including a girl, were arrested at checkpoints in the West Bank, according to the center.
If any of these events had played out in America, European Union countries or in much of the Third World, they would have made headlines across the globe. With some notable exceptions, such as the Gaza beach killings, most of the horrors inflicted on Palestinians on a daily basis go unnoticed, except by Palestinians and the human rights groups that attempt to assist them.
Since the Jan. 25 election that brought Hamas to power, tens of thousands of shells have slammed into Palestine, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and injured, Israel continues to construct the racist Apartheid Wall, and Israeli settlers continue to attack Palestinian civilians and property in Occupied Palestine. The Palestinians are blockaded, starved, denied vitally needed medicines, denied taxes due them and salaries owed them, banks are threatened if they dare to serve them, and they are vilified throughout the world. International law has been turned on its head.
And the world demands that Palestine, and in particular Hamas, renounce violence!
Any government that participates in the Israeli-led attempted genocide of the Palestinian people should be put on notice. They are in violation of Article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting collective punishment. And along with their heads, they should have their hearts examined.
Peace Forum accuses the US of waging war against the hapless
R. Manirajan
PUTRAJAYA: The United Nations (UN) has taken to task many countries that have done wrong to or become a threat to global peace and security by imposing sanctions on these countries.
However, the United States (US), which has been accused of waging war against hapless countries, is not seen by the UN as a threat to global security and peace.
This was the view of the advisory panel of the Perdana Global Peace Forum, which met today (June 20, 2006) at the beginning of a three-day special session in Perdana Leadership Foundation here and in the Putra World Trade Centre on Thursday (June 22, 2006).
The theme of the forum and special sessions is “Criminalise War. Stop World War IV (The Coming Nuclear War).”
“We believe the UN has been baptised by the US and an urgent reform [is needed] in the world body. In the meantime, sanctions should be imposed on the US for threatening world peace,” said one of the panel members, Prof Dr Michel Chossudovsky, a professor of economics at University of Ottawa, Canada.
Among the other panel members are former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is also chairman of the Perdana Global Peace Forum, Dennis Halliday (former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq), Hans-Christof Von Sponeck (former UN assissant secretary-general and UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq), Dr Helen Caldicott (founder and president of Nuclear Policy Research Institute), Prof Francis A. Boyle (professor at the University of Illinois School of Law, US) and Datuk Mukhriz Mahahtir, the coordinator of Peace Malaysia.
Mahathir reinterated that war and the people who promoted it should be criminalised, adding that there was great danger coming and the future of humanity was at stake if the US were to attack Iran.
Chossudovsky said Malaysia, being an Asean country and the chair of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), should play an important role in promoting peace and getting other member countries to support it. He asked the Malaysian media to play a role in this as well.
Mahathir said the forum has also been trying to get the US media involved but noted that it has not been easy.
To a question, he said he had thought the US would not attack Iraq and now that they have, he thought the US would have learnt a lesson. “But they did not … They (US) are capable of convincing themselves that what they do is right. We must remember, the future of humanity is at stake and the US is a threat to global security,” he said.
Mahathir said efforts were being made to get the message across through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in other countries.
He said there were proposals at yesterday’s session to send delegations to meet leaders of NGOs of other countries.
Mahathir asked all the 23 media agencies that were present for full coverage of the three-day forum, because of its importance.
He also said he would not be taking any other questions apart from those related to the forum but added politely that he would take other questions at a different event.