Much as it pains me to write this, it turns out that Sisyphus had one legitimate grievance. This post of mine might be interpreted to mean that the organisation formerly known as Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI) questioned the existence of “mass” “graves” in “Iraq” and the “arrest” of Saddam Hussein. I am happy to say that they did not. They merely archived a news list which they run. As CASI itself puts it on its own Website:

“CASI works primarily by distributing accurate information about the situation in Iraq. It maintains the largest electronic discussion list on the sanctions in the UK, and an informative website.”

though every collected message carries this disclaimer:

“Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq (CASI).”

So, the claims to which I referred were made by a member on (or forwarded by a member to) such a CASI list. I’m happy to clear that up and to apologise for any misunderstanding.

In doing so, I also recommend the most recent message archived by CASI (now Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq), from 22Jan05. It is entitled “Media lies” and is cut-and-pasted from this original article on the Media Monitors Network site. Although the vocabulary and style may be familiar, I think it says something fresh and relevant to us all on this, Holocaust Memorial day. Don’t let my quotes [I have removed the footnotes and corrected the formatting] from the head and tail of the piece stop you from popping over there now to read the whole thing. It is a revelation:

Proof has been obtained of massive UK and US mainstream media lying over Iraq. The startling NEW evidence has not come per se from the research of brilliant humanist writers such as John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, George Monbiot, Arundhati Roy and Tariq Ali although these great writers have long exposed the dishonesty of mainstream media. This appalling secret has not been revealed by a latter-day Deep Throat connected with the top management of Anglo-American mainstream global mass media.

No – the source of this new evidence of massive media fraud has come from readily Web-accessible archives – with a bit of unwitting help from the extremely dangerous but talkative US Administration handmaiden, prospective US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

…

It is quite natural in a tribal sense for the political, media and business leaders of societies to put the best constructions on the actions of their people. However such bias in public reportage should not extend to non-reportage of genocide or other avoidable mass mortality (e.g. the extraordinary non-reportage of horrendous famines in British India up to the forgotten World War 2 Bengal Famine that killed some 4 million). Indeed Holocaust Denial is illegal in a number of countries including France and Germany. Yet holocaust denial is exactly what is being practised unashamedly by Western media today. The neo-con democratic imperialist agenda is already being applied to Iraq and Afghanistan and there are increasing noises that Syria (an oasis of Islamic-Christian religious tolerance in the Middle East) and populous, increasingly democratic Iran will be. Indeed Condoleezza Rice in her recent interrogation by the US Foreign Relations Committee has menacingly specified Cuba, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Belarus and Zimbabwe for US attention.

According to the latest UNICEF report (UNICEF, 2005), the total under-infant mortality in 2003 was 110,000 in Coalition-occupied Iraq, 292,000 in Coalition-conquered Afghanistan and 1,000 in the invader and occupier Coalition country, White Australia. This largely-avoidable infant mortality in these war-ravaged, Coalition-violated nations thus totals over 0.4 million PER YEAR vastly in excess of the horrendous circa 0.2 million death toll from the recent Indian Ocean tsunami tragedy.

Insistent EXPOSURE of the horrendous human consequences of UK-US democratic imperialism (democratic Nazism) is crucially required to halt this carnage and prevent its further extension. Peace is the only way. Exposure, sanctions, bans and boycotts against Anglo-American democratic imperialism (democratic Nazism) is the only way forward for decent humanity. To that end it is vital that everyone recognizes the pervasive, holocaust-denying lying by commission and omission of the Anglo-American-dominated mainstream global media.