Ann Clwyd Iraq mass grave a staged photo-op
Tom Young | 12.12.2003 00:20 | Anti-militarism
Ann Clwyd, the British politician who most strongly pushed the humanitarian case for war is shown posing in front of what is a manufactured mass grave photo-op
Note: this article draws no conclusions about human rights in Iraq and under Saddam Hussein. Or the extent of mass killings that took place. It solely concerns the ethics of British left wing politician Ann Clwyd.
Note: this article draws no conclusions about human rights in Iraq and under Saddam Hussein. Or the extent of mass killings that took place. It solely concerns the ethics of British left wing politician Ann Clwyd.
Fresh from asserting in Parliament the truth rumours of prisoners in Iraq being fed head or feet first into plastic shredders, Ann Clwyd visited Iraq in the aftermath of the war. Returning to Parliament in tears she claimed that she personally had counted 10000 remains removed from a mass grave.
Really?
10 000 takes a while to count. In anycase it turns out that the site she visited had in fact yielded fewer than 3000 graves.
But a news photo found on the USinfo site casts doubt on Ann Clwyd's claim to have seen any bodies at all.
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/gallery/iraq-2003/0602mon1.htm
Ann Clwyd has shown standing at site, with a hillside in the background strewn with white plastic sacks. The viewer is invited to make the connection that these sacks contain human remains.
However, the sacks are both too bulky, the wrong shape and to be filled to the brim, to contain anything but sand or earth or some particulate matter. They appear to have been strewn across the hillside, quickly and at random, and have no indication of actually being excavated from anywhere.
The photo bears all signs of being a hurriedly constructed scene to provide a visiting politician with a nice photo-op. What does this say about the sincerity of Ann Clwyd and her views on the importance of human rights abuses and victims? What an utterly cynical display.
Really?
10 000 takes a while to count. In anycase it turns out that the site she visited had in fact yielded fewer than 3000 graves.
But a news photo found on the USinfo site casts doubt on Ann Clwyd's claim to have seen any bodies at all.
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/gallery/iraq-2003/0602mon1.htm Ann Clwyd has shown standing at site, with a hillside in the background strewn with white plastic sacks. The viewer is invited to make the connection that these sacks contain human remains.
However, the sacks are both too bulky, the wrong shape and to be filled to the brim, to contain anything but sand or earth or some particulate matter. They appear to have been strewn across the hillside, quickly and at random, and have no indication of actually being excavated from anywhere.
The photo bears all signs of being a hurriedly constructed scene to provide a visiting politician with a nice photo-op. What does this say about the sincerity of Ann Clwyd and her views on the importance of human rights abuses and victims? What an utterly cynical display.
Tom Young
Additions
Plastic bags
16.11.2006 02:56
Those plastic bags contain whatever was left on the dead bodies (lighters, IDs, wallets, photos) so that family members of the dead may identify the graves of their loved ones. The bags sit on top of mounds where the dead are buried.
The dead bodies are not in the plastic bags, but in the earth. Ann Clwyd could see how many were dead in that mass grave because each grave had a plastic bag on top of it, just as a grave stone would mark a grave.
The dead bodies are not in the plastic bags, but in the earth. Ann Clwyd could see how many were dead in that mass grave because each grave had a plastic bag on top of it, just as a grave stone would mark a grave.
Juliet Barbara
e-mail:
jbarbara@wellesley.edu
Comments
Hide the following 14 comments
Really...
12.12.2003 10:01
Paul Edwards
Really!
12.12.2003 13:14
And yes I know what a mass grave investigation looks like.
But, honestly, just look at some of the white plastic bags in the foreground. Yes, it is obvious to see that these bags are not filled with body parts!
Tom Young
But...
12.12.2003 13:25
Paul Edwards
of course ...
12.12.2003 19:35
But, please, Tom, can you tell us:
(a) why the bags cannot be filled with body parts;
(b) what a bag filled with body parts looks like, so we'll know for the future?
sceptic
revolting woman
13.12.2003 09:48
Jiz
Tom Young is a fool.
18.12.2003 09:42
Otto Matsch
e-mail:
omatsch@onpointlegal.com
Tom Young: Moron
03.01.2004 05:04
No proof of any of your claims whatsoever. None.
Let me ask you something, oh lordly master of the art of 'black propaganda', does any vauge inkling of how profoundly stupid you sound filter through your thick skull to disturb your sanctimony as you type this garbage? Do you morons in the loony left 'peace' movement seriously wonder why the broad mass of public opinion considers you fools and ends up supporting middle right conservative leaders like Bush and Blair by default?
What true idiots you are. And how truely blessed conservatives like me are to have such fools for enemies.
Amos
Bags
22.02.2004 19:51
It doesn't take a very large bag to hold a few bones. In some cases, this is all that is left of a family's loved ones. In other cases, nothing at all has been found or identified, and the missing stay missing.
I suspect you could find similar site in every Left ruled country - Cuba, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, especially Cambodia. There are about 300,000 confirmed bodies in Iraq alone, and a suspected 1.3 million in all.
For those interested:
DrCruel
Mas graves
23.02.2004 09:35
Cuba? Mass graves in Cuba? Care to back this up with evidence?
But yes, you can find mass graves in Vietnam and Cambodia, from where evil right-wing fuckers with views like yours carpet-bombed them from the safety of the air.
I wonder if you have a similar interest in the well-documented mass graves in Right ruled, UK-and-US-backed countries like Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, Indonesia, etc? No, I thought not.
Ian
the mass graves will return
07.06.2004 21:56
your acknowledgement of the mass graves would not amount to a defence of the war, nor a defence of Bush and Blair. many of those mass graves contain the remains of Shia rebels who rose against Saddam Hussein in 1991 and were betrayed by the Americans and the British.
The mass graves are real, and evidence for their existence is provided in many photos taken with the white bags wide open. Members of my own family have looked for our loved ones amongst the hundreds of piles of remains.
We have spoken of the plight of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein for so long, and the media had ignored us for so long. I do know that they are now using photos of Saddam's victims to promote their policies and to make their war look ethical. One American journalist has even gone as far as stating that the 400 000 dead iraqis would be screaming their support for Bush had they not been too busy decomposing. America's use of what they have found has been both disgusting and hypocritical, but do not let that overshadow the tragedy of the Iraqi people.
The Coalition is making some very dangerous moves in Iraq at the moment, which we are not following because we are too busy studying a single photo and trying to determine whether it contains human remains or not! They are employing Baathist figures in the new Iraq - something which the decomposing bodies in Iraq and their families are bound to protest against.
We must all focus our attention on what the coalition is doing in Iraq today. WE must acknowledge what saddam and his men did in Iraq, insist that they be prosecuted so that the mass graves don't return.
IF you wish to see some photographs of the mass graves, go to www.massgraves.info
I warn you that they are quite graphic
zahra
the mass graves will return
08.06.2004 15:00
acknowledging that the mass graves do truly exist and are filled with the remains of thousands of Saddam's victims does not amount to supporting the war or supporting Blair and Bush. Members of my family have personally visited a few mass graves to look for their loved ones, they have seen the white sacks wide open, and i assure you that they are not filled with sand.
Instead of wasting our time looking at a single photo and speculating whether it is fake or not, we should watch what the coalition is openly doing in Iraq. at the same time that they are using these photos for propaganda, they are betraying the very people in these graves by reappointing prominent members of the Baath party in the new iraq.
There is a danger if we ignore these mass graves, and the perpetrators go free, that the mass graves will return. We must unite our voices to call for all those involved in war crimes in Iraq to be prosecuted and for those members to be banned from political participation.
zahra
You are a fool; they are bags of bones & clothes
06.12.2004 01:29
David Gross
e-mail:
dgross@mimetic.com
Homepage:
http://www.mimetic.com
Further examples of Ms Clwyd's understanding of Iraqi life
10.12.2006 00:19
I have no idea if the others in the radio studio at the time could keep a straight face but her ability to travel feely in Iraq while press/army and everyone else moves in fear of their lives is truly miraculous. Likewise her epidemiological grasp of the health of Iraqi children today is wonderful. Whatever was said about the previous dictatorship, even his enemies said that Saddam's Iraq had a superior infant mortality and general health standard to many of its neighbours. The decline in general health and probable premature deaths of many hundreds of thousands began after the first Gulf war. UN sanctions and RAF / USAF bombing in the 1990s set Iraq back into the 3rd world.
It is a small comfort that her unwavering support for Blair and Bush has led to her recent defeat within the Parliamentary Labour party. Increasingly isolated, as the position she took on Iraq becomes less and less justified, even by her leader,she presents more and more of a sad figure in Parliament still claiming an intimate knowledge of Iraq.
b major
Bloodthirsty Clwyd
12.01.2008 13:54
maha