Analysis
Did GMA Conspire with Bush on the Biggest Lie of the Century?

Almost three months after Iraq was invaded, no evidence has been found by U.S. occupying forces about the existence of "weapons of mass destruction" - the main objective of the invasion. It is now time to conduct an investigation into this big lie considering recent reports that George W. Bush deceived the American people and the rest of the world as he prepared his forces for the most barbaric attack against a defenseless country in recent years.

By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat.com

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, left, shakes hands with President Bush before cameramen at the White House oval office during  her recent state visit in Washington.

Was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo part of the conspiracy led by U.S. President George W. Bush to fabricate lies that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was hiding "weapons of mass destruction" such as bio-chemical weapons to justify another armed attack against his country?

This question has now to be raised considering recent revelations - and admissions by high Washington officials - that the supposed WMDs of Hussein were just a hoax and were used as a "diplomatic" instrument in order to remove a "military dictator" and pave the way for a Middle East "peace."

This question is also being raised in the light of the recent status bestowed on the Philippines in the recent state visit in Washington of Macapagal-Arroyo as a reliable "major non-NATO ally."

The US president rewarded his Philippine counterpart with about $30 million in initial military aid for her uncompromising support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Washington claimed that the Philippines joined the U.S.-led coalition of some "40 members" that fought Hussein although some of the alleged members either denied going on board or protested that their participation should have been kept in secrecy.

But Bush's favored ally - Macapagal-Arroyo - has also been accused in the House by Rep. Satur Ocampo of having forged secret pacts with her host allowing U.S. armed forces' greater access in the country and granting American troops "immunity" from prosecution before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and in violation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

After nearly three months of the invasion of Iraq, no WMD has been found. Hundreds of "independent" American scientists and weapons experts had been dispatched to Iraq to dig for evidence and so far, the two or three sites alleged to have stored lethal weapons turned out to be some dud.

Wolfowitz

In a recent interview with U.S. magazine Vanity Fair, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz revealed that WMDs were the "diplomatic" reason for the invasion of Iraq. The comment suggested that the Bush administration was well aware of the fact that Hussein never had any WMDs at all and that if any, these had been destroyed during 12 years of sanctions following the 1991 Gulf War. It also suggested the WMD allegation was concocted anyway to manipulate U.S. and world opinion as Pentagon geared for the unilateral attack on Baghdad.

The revelation by Wolfowitz, who is one of Washington's super-hawks, followed an earlier statement by his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that it's possible no WMDs would be found in Iraq - or that, speculatively, the WMDs might have been hidden elsewhere at the height of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Months before the invasion, the New York Times - a leading U.S. daily - was one of the first newspapers to report allegations of WMDs in Iraq. It now faces the prospect of repairing its claimed credibility following recent revelations that those reports may have been fed by biased sources.

In an angry exchange of emails with the Times' Baghdad bureau chief John Burns, Judith Miller, "bio-terrorism specialist" for the same paper, finally admitted last week that her main source of "scoops" about the alleged WMDs was Ahmed Chalabi. Chalabi, the head of the anti-Hussein Iraqi National Congress (INC) and who had been in exile in Europe for 40 years, is now Bush's hand-picked transition president for Iraq. His appointment was made despite being convicted to a life-term imprisonment for swindling by a Jordanian court.

Hussein Kamel, the highest-ranking Iraqi official to defect from Baghdad and Saddam's own son-in-law, had told U.S. and British officials in 1995 that Iraq had destroyed all its WMDs after the first Gulf War. He also warned that Kidhir Hamza, a nuclear scientist who defected in 1994, was a "professional liar."

The British paper, The Independent, last week said that like other defectors used by the INC, Hamza played a key role in persuading Bush officials that Saddam was revving up his nuclear program, for which no proof has been found. The defector is now in Baghdad working with the U.S. colonial occupation.

"This could conceivably be the greatest intelligence hoax of all time," noted Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee last week.

Inquiries are now being held in the U.S. Congress over the revelations involving what one newspaper called the biggest "State Lie" in decades. Most eyes are focused however on the Pentagon, state department, CIA and other intelligence agencies over their role in hatching and then spreading the disinformation about the WMDs. A group of former U.S. intelligence agents has also accused the White House of using "intelligence" for political propaganda.

But in London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair stands pat on his allegations about the WMDs amid calls by Robin Cook, who had earlier resigned as foreign minister in protest of the British role in the war, that the Blair government should be investigated. Bush, on the other hand, has remained evasive.

Macapagal-Arroyo

In the Philippines, President Macapagal-Arroyo adopted "hook, line and sinker" the big lie saying that her country's support for the war on Iraq was crucial in the bigger "war against terrorism." At first, Macapagal-Arroyo pretended to support UN-initiated multilateral efforts in resolving the conflict over Iraq saying that whatever decision is made by her government on the matter would have to be based on a UN resolution.

Like a true marionette, she hopped and skipped to Bush's warning that whether the UN like it or not, U.S. forces would invade Iraq and that no international law or public opinion would prevent him from doing so. She made the decision despite protests particularly by migrant groups that the invasion would uproot thousands of overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East.

Macapagal-Arroyo's own generals contrived their own lies that Hussein was supporting the Moro secessionist activities in southern Philippines and that Iraq should be bombed in order to prevent its WMDs from going into the arms of the rebels. At the same time, Foreign Secretary Blas Ople - in a move that was applauded in Washington - sent two ranking Iraqi diplomats packing over allegations that they were engaged in political and intelligence activities in the country. Asked by some senators to show proof of his allegation, the aging foreign secretary and former Marcos dictatorship minister said he could not because of security reasons.

Macapagal-Arroyo's support for Bush also led to the tagging of leftist guerrillas, their suspected front organizations and Jose Maria Sison, senior political consultant to the National Democratic Front (NDF), as "terrorist." In her Washington visit, the president agreed to increase the deployment of U.S. forces and military arsenal in the Philippines in the guise of "war exercises" - a move that will lead not only to the escalation of U.S. intervention in counter-insurgency operations against both Moro and leftist guerrillas but for using the country as a base for staging U.S. operations in Southeast Asia.

More U.S. special forces are expected to arrive in southern Mindanao as the U.S.-backed Philippine military steps up armed offensives that have already displaced some 300,000 civilians. The war against the Moro rebels - and the NPA guerrillas - has intensified as Macapagal-Arroyo reiterated her support for the U.S. war on terror - a war that considers the Philippines as its "second front." "We are with you in your leadership against terrorism, wherever it may be found," she told Bush during a White House state dinner.

Toeing Bush's line that the U.S. will disregard any international law that restricts its campaign against terrorism, including the sovereign rights of states to be left alone and to live in peace, Macapagal-Arroyo is doing the same in her own backyard. U.S. claim to unilateralist power against any international constraint is the same template the Philippine president is now duplicating in her military's offensives against guerrillas and civilian communities in disregard of constitutionally-enshrined bill of rights and against international humanitarian law.

All these were taking place as Macapagal-Arroyo officials, particularly Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, were shuttling back and forth between Manila and Washington over the past two years, forging one secret deal after the other. It was also evident that as the Bush government tried to make its case for the invasion of Iraq in the UN and other venues, the Macapagal-Arroyo government was also on a media hype echoing the same line of Washington as it supported the U.S. military campaign. An alleged Iraqi scientist who had defected was even hosted in the Philippines for a series of TV interviews about the WMDs. Nothing has been heard of him after that.

Meantime, U.S. forces are in occupation of Iraq indefinitely like a modern-day colonial power. Baghdad's previously-state-managed oil industry is being taken over by U.S. oil firms and several military bases have either been taken over or are being built. And Macapagal-Arroyo has been promised some crumbs in the massive privatization of Iraq for her unabashed support to Bush.

Whether that is another big lie however remains to be seen. Bulatlat.com

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