- Author's Note: This article first appeared on
FarShores on 8/12/03. In the interest of accuracy, I have pulled that
draft and replaced it with this updated version.
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- Film will soon be made public of an Iraqi Army officer
describing how he saw a US Air Force transport fly Saddam Hussein out of
Baghdad. The explosive eyewitness testimony was shot by independent
filmmaker Patrick Dillon, who recently returned from a risky one-man
odyssey in Iraq. In the film, the officer, who told Dillon that he
commanded a special combat unit during the battle for Baghdad airport
and whose identity is temporarily being withheld, explains in detail how
he watched as the Iraqi dictator and members of his inner circle were
evacuated from Iraq's capital by what he emphatically insists were
United States Air Force cargo planes.
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- Presently, the only copies of the film (which I have
not yet seen) are in New York City. People who have viewed it describe
it to me as compelling.
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Dillon told me by phone that, prior to
the final assault on the capital by American ground
forces, the officer had been entrusted with the near impossible job
of ensuring that one of Baghdad airport's runways would remain
operational no matter what. In civilian life the officer is reportedly a highly trained civil
engineer specializing in airport operations. He states he was selected
to command this hazardous mission in part because of his expertise
in concrete surface construction. He goes on to report that there
was a ferocious battle at the airport, with losses on both
sides far worse than the mainstream news services acknowledge.
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- Then early on the morning of April 9th, as the
remnants of his unit were close to being overrun, a general cease-fire
was unexpectedly declared for 6 AM. Shortly after it went into effect,
and in broad daylight, the officer claims a motorcade of 10 Mercedes
stretch limos suddenly barreled onto the airfield, carrying Saddam and
his entourage. Almost simultaneously, a flight of what the officer
asserts were four USAF Hercules transports swooped down and landed on
the lone stretch of intact runway. All four C-130s dropped their rear
loading ramps and the limos drove up into the cargo bays of the waiting
planes, which then took off. The officer insists he has no idea where
Saddam or any of the other members of his party may have gone.
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- Dillon says his film lends major support to what many
have believed for years: that Saddam was little more than an american
tool, a stage-managed "evildoer", just one in a long line of useful
villains bought and paid for by the United States in order to better
manipulate international politics and commerce. The gutsy New York based
filmmaker, who risked his life amid the chaos of postwar Iraq, says that
much of the Iraqi populace believes Saddam is not dead and they worry he
could still exact revenge from afar. While many Iraqi civilians
initially welcomed American forces, Dillon told me most Iraqis, having
now had a bitter taste of American occupation, feel enraged with the US
and its soldiers. Dillon said living conditions in Iraq are horrible and
that little of significance is being done to relieve the
situation.
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- Based on what he saw during his travels, Dillon told
me he's convinced the war and its sweeping devastation of the Iraqi
nation is in reality a mind boggling charade. Rather than liberating
Iraq, its actual purpose is to corral Iraq's huge oil reserves and to
serve as a pretext for channeling tens of billions in largesse to
favored American corporations like Haliburton and Bechtel. As an
example, Dillon pointed to how US air strikes systematically obliterated
every last Iraqi telecommunications facility from one end of the country
to the other, a measure he maintains vastly exceeded all practical
military necessity. Then, without even the pretense of a competitive
bid, Washington gifted WorldCom, the near bankrupt US telecom giant
responsible for the greatest fraud in financial history, with a huge
multi-billion dollar contract to build Iraq a new nationwide
state-of-the-art telephone system.
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- Copyright ©2003 - Bill Dash
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- Alternate URL: http://www.farshores.filetap.com//
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