Mendocino County Today: Monday, July 27, 2015

• One Sig Short
• Alleged Dead
• Hitlerville USA
• Hippie Invasion
• Local Excellence
• Lightning Fires
• Still Guilty
• Catch of the Day
• Bee
• Whitey On The Moon
• Physician-assisted Dying
• Rainwater Catchment Class
• Garden Cup
• Biotechnology
• Iran Nuclear Myths

"FORT BRAGG BALLOT-BOX FIGHTS FAIL TO MATERIALIZE" in the PD:

pressdemocrat.com/home/4247488-181/fort-bragg-ballot-box-fights-fail

JOURNALISM SCHOOLS seem to traumatize their dimmer students, most of whom go on to become editors where they force their writers, especially the ones who show signs of independent life, into great sillinesses like beliefs in “objectivity” and “alleged” as applied to murderers who are standing over dead bodies with knives or guns in their hands when the police arrive. For a week now, Talen Barton, who wiped out Laytonville's Palmieri family in about three minutes of a frenzied knife attack, has been referred to as the “alleged” killer or the “accused” killer. Objectively, Barton did it. There's no alleged or accused about it, and constantly referring to a killer observed in the act makes a lot of reporting read even sillier and duller than it is.

BARTON will plead guilty by reason of insanity and be packed off for the rest of his life. Check that. His public defender is Linda Thompson, meaning we assume she'll plead him out as crazy, and maybe he is. But as the late DA Vroman put it, “Just because a guy is crazy are his victims less dead?”

CONTINUING our fascinating deconstruction of last week's Chron story on Fort Bragg's tainted namesake, Confederate General and slave holder Braxton Bragg, the next day the bold hed on the Chron's letters page was "Tell the Truth about Fort Bragg." The truth is that Fort Bragg is the most beguiling seaside town anywhere on the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, a place where ordinary people can still enjoy miles of sea, unpopulated beaches, nearby redwood forests, a ramshackle harbor reminiscent of Steinbeck's Cannery Row, some really good little restaurants, two excellent bookstores, and by golly, an old logging train that takes us deep into the woods. If it was called Hitlerville you couldn't keep me away.

ANYWAY, despite the dramatic hed promising the truth about Fort Bragg, only the lead letter, by some guy from the highly evolved and perfectly harmonious town of Chico, focuses on Fort Bragg. Second sentence in we read, "The truth is our country has a long history of racism and sexism." Blonk, clonk, glunk.

WHICH is where most of us stop reading anyway. Credentials please? Are you, Chico Man, qualified to deliver moral lectures? The point about American history which at least ought to be mentioned once in a while is this: Yes, great crimes have been committed here, slavery and the extermination of Native Americans being the greatest. Although things are currently falling apart every which way, it is also true to say that everywhere one looks there are genuinely loyal and affectionate cross-ethnic relationships that did not, could not, exist 50 years ago. Generally speaking, young Americans are free of racism, and most older Americans have freed themselves from that particular insanity. This far into our bloody history it's also fair and true to say that it's miraculous that we've done as well as we have, that most of us have it a hundred times easier than our grandparents had it. Everything you can possibly say about America is true, which continues to make it the greatest show on earth. Most hopeful show, too. If I read one more letter like the redundant one from that patronizing fool in Chico, I'm driving straight to WalMart and buying myself some more goldfish.

HIPPIE! THE BEAST THAT WON'T DIE! A piece in the Sunday UDJ announcing a counterculture exhibit at Mendocino's Kelley House begins, "When their VW buses brought the first flower children to the Mendocino Coast in the late 1960s, the locals — who had lived in a sort of time warp for the previous 30 years — did not know what to make of them. Mostly, they took a dim view of their abundant hair, their communal lifestyles and their use of mind-altering substances…" The show is called "Hippies Use The Back Door."

AS WHAT YOU MIGHT call a hip-symp, or hippie sympathizer, and having arrived in 1970 with the first wave of the back to the landers, I remember the tensions between the long hairs and conventional people as existing because hippies, generally speaking, made it clear they were contemptuous of so-called “straights,” meaning everyone who hadn't gone to fancy schools and didn't get money from home while they played naked grab ass in the woods prior to reclaiming their privileged positions in straight society. The above ref to locals living in "a time warp" is typical of hippie contempt for conventional people. The hippies are starting to retire and die off, but the Mendo hippies of yesteryear moved quickly into all the local public power positions, from the justice system on down through the "helping professions" and the innumerable non-profits, many of which began as hippie scams. The notion that hippies were hostile to capitalism simply isn't true. Few hippies were political radicals. The hippies were always snickering about “rednecks” and sneering at people outside their dope and naked piles, hence the initial local hostility for the pioneer longhairs. On the whole, although lots of good things emerged from the Hippie Monster — good bread, for instance, better food generally for another — here in Mendocino County the hippie influence has been mostly lamentable.

DAVID LILKER WRITES: As a regular reader of the Willits Weekly, I will second the opinion that Jennifer Poole is a fine reporter. As for the Editor’s wholly unnecessary comment about the need for excellence in Willits, what community in Mendocino County has consistently achieved excellence?

ED REPLY: Yorkville, Boonville, Philo, Navarro, Fort Bragg, and even thrice in Ukiah. Yorkville has the Yorkville Market, as fine an all-round wine, olive oil and cafe as you'll find anywhere. Boonville, of course, boasts the nationally circulated and, so long as you ask in the right circles, excellent Anderson Valley Advertiser. Philo? Libby's Restaurant for outtasight Mex food. Navarro? Dave Evans at the Navarro Store brings major musical talent to Navarro every summer. Nothing like Dave since Peter Lit at the old Caspar Inn, and the Navarro Store is muy groovy all by itself. Fort Bragg is so all-round cool its amenities don't require enumeration. Ukiah? The Sun House Museum, the Held-Poage Library, Penny and the Mendocino Book Company. Willits? There's Jennifer, natch, and another excellent reporter in Linda Williams. And Highway 20 to get outta there, plus the Skunk Depot where you can get on the train for Fort Bragg. I also like Covelo a whole lot but it's kinda an acquired taste. Point Arena has its virtues but not enough of them. Gualala? Bones Road House and Lisa Walters. Random recommendations: Sign of the Whale bar in Point Arena; Bobby Beacon's Beacon Light in Elk.

UPDATE ON THE PAST WEEK'S LIGHTNING FIRES on the Mendocino National Forest

Willows, Calif. — Over the past week the Mendocino National Forest has been locating and containing fires following receiving more than 350 lightning strikes Monday and Tuesday. A total of six fires have been located and contained. All of the fires are small — 7 acres or less. On the Grindstone Ranger District, located on the east side of the Forest, the Green Springs Fire was half an acre. The Kneecap Fire was contained this weekend at just under seven acres. On the Covelo Ranger District, located on the northwest side of the Forest, the Calamese and Blands Fires, each single-tree fires, were controlled early in the week. On the Upper Lake Ranger District, located on the southwest side of the Forest, the half-acre Windy Fire was discovered late in the week and controlled Saturday. The Monkey Rock Fire was also contained at a quarter acre. The Forest is continuing to fly daily recon looking for additional fires. As conditions continue to dry out and warm up, firefighters anticipate discovering more lightning fires in coming days. "We were able to catch all of these fires early and keep them relatively small due to the vigilance and hard work of our firefighters," said Forest Fire Management Officer Curtis Coots. "With the ongoing drought, this rapid response is important not only in preserving water resources, but also reducing impacts on already stressed natural resources out in the forest." Forest visitors are asked to be aware of their surroundings and to be prepared for changing conditions. This includes reporting visible smoke that could be from a wildfire. To report a fire, please call 911. As a reminder, the Mendocino National Forest is currently under fire restrictions. Visitors are asked to follow regulations and be careful with anything with a flame or that can throw a spark in the forest. For more information, please visit

www.preventwildfireca.org/OneLessSpark/

For more information, please contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316 or visit www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino.

Updates are also available on Twitter @MendocinoNF.

Firefighters look on as a helicopter provides suppression support on the Kneecap Fire last week on the Grindstone Ranger District of the Mendocino National Forest. Helicopters have played a key role in keeping recent lightning fires sparked on the forest small and minimizing impacts to resources.

APPELLATE UPDATE (Ukiah 21, 2015): In an "unpublished" decision filed July 13th in San Francisco, a three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District affirmed the jury verdicts returned to the Mendocino County Superior Court in October 2012 against Billy Moriah Norbury, formerly of Redwood Valley. Norbury was convicted by jury of the willful, premeditated and deliberate murder (first degree) of Jamal Andrews. The jury also found true that Norbury personally used a firearm (rifle) to cause the death of Mr. Andrews. There were no issues asserted on appeal relating to the jury's finding that Norbury was sane at the time of the murder. With the affirmation by the Court of Appeal, Norbury will continue to serve the state prison sentence imposed in November 2012 of 50 years to life. The defendant is currently housed at the California State Prison facility in Represa (Folsom area).

As used above, unpublished or 'non-citable' opinions are opinions that are not certified for publication in the Official Reports and generally may not be cited or relied on by other courts or parties in other actions (see California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115).

— District Attorney Press Release

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 26, 2015

DAVID BUSHWAY, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.

WILLIAM CLAPPER, Eureka. Drunk in public.

JONI DEARING, Albion. Under influence of controlled substance.

SOFINIAS DELORES-CHOLULA, Fresno/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

WILLIAM GATES, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance.

FERMIN HERNANDEZ-BARRANCO, Cloverdale/Ukiah. DUI, probation revocation.

JADEN LUNDY, Fort Bragg. Domestic assault, false imprisonment, removal/damage of equipment to call for help.

RAMIRO MACIAS, Ukiah. County parole violation.

FRANCISCO MENDOZA, Willits. DUI, under influence of controlled substance.

JAMES SHERWOOD, Mendocino. Domestic assault, battery with serious injury.

SCOTTY WILLIS, Ukiah. Battery of emergency responders, probation revocation.

DEZARAY WILSON, Ukiah. DUI, DUI-suspended license.

‘WHITEY ON THE MOON’

A rat done bit my sister Nell

With Whitey on the moon

Her face and arms began to swell

And Whitey's on the moon

I can't pay no doctor bills

But Whitey's on the moon

Ten years from now I'll be paying still

While Whitey's on the moon

You know, the man just upped my rent last night

Cause Whitey's on the moon

No hot water, no toilets, no lights

But Whitey's on the moon

I wonder why he's uppin' me?

Cause Whitey's on the moon?

Well i was already given him fifty a week

And now Whitey's on the moon

Taxes takin' my whole damn check

The junkies make me a nervous wreck

The price of food is goin up

And if all that crap wasn't enough

A rat done bit my sister nell

With Whitey on the moon

Her face and arms began to swell

And Whitey's on the moon

With all that money I made last year

For Whitey on the moon

How come I ain't got no money here?

Hmm, Whitey's on the moon

You know I just about had my fill

Of Whitey on the moon

I think I'll send these doctor bills

airmail special to

Whitey on the moon

— Gil Scott-Heron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4

PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DYING: Honest Choices

by Donald Abrams and Steve Heilig

‘Physician-Assisted Dying’: Church vs. Compassion

Physician-assisted dying (not "suicide" — a term that is not truly relevant here) is a complex and emotional issue. Here is a perspective done with a leading physician with much direct experience — and who has quit one of his professional medical associations due to their lack of integrity on the topic. Regarding religious opposition to the bill in question, which has now been put on hold primarily due to organized Catholic opposition and lobbying, we can only observe that there is supposed to be a "separation of church and state" in our nation, and that the California Council of Churches supports the legislation. There are lawsuits to legalize the practice pending, and a ballot initiative — expensive and even messier than legislation — might be the next step.

* * *

The California End-of-Life Options Act (SB128) which would legalize physician-assisted dying (PAD), has been front-page news and stirred much controversy.

One casualty of such emotional debates can be basic truths about the personal, clinical and policy decisions surrounding this issue. Both of us have much experience in these arenas and hope to shed some light here.

Approaching the end of their lives, patients most want two things from their doctors — that they have clinical competence and know everything that might be done to help a patient not suffer, and that they will be there for the patient no matter what.

Rarely — not often, but not never — that can include hastening the end to some degree, and always at the patient's own choice. Most of the time such requests are not carried out — but just knowing that one has some added control and choice at the end can actually extend life in some cases - ironic, but true.

The California Medical Association (CMA) opposed PAD for many decades, until this year. Their change in position came for three main reasons.

First, accumulating surveys of doctors' opinions on this topic — over 30,000 physicians in published surveys thus far — indicate that at least half, and likely more, physicians now support some legal options for PAD. Second, experience in states that have legalized PAD for years shows that the many fears about abuses have not come about, and that, again, the practice is uncommon and legalizing it can actually lead to improvements in general care at the end of life. And finally, the hallowed medical dictum "Do no harm" is now seen to include the possible harm of keeping patients alive and suffering longer than nature, their God, or first and foremost whatever they might want for themselves.

The CMA conducted a survey of its leadership and found that a substantial majority supported legalizing PAD, or at least not opposing it. While still working to ensure that all reasonable safeguards against abuse are in any PAD policy, the CMA then changed to a "neutral" position. This is how a democratic organization, which purports to represent the profession, should work.

The one vocal medical group against SB128, the Association of Northern California Oncologists, also conducted a survey of members on this topic. Their survey also came back with a majority supporting PAD legality. But the executive leadership of the Association felt otherwise and discounted the members' vote in deciding to continue to oppose SB128. We wish they would have had the integrity of the CMA in this regard and as a result, Dr. Abrams has terminated his membership in the Association.

For those who care for patients coping with end-stage malignant disease, support of PAD, or at least neutrality, increasingly seems a humane option. The PAD issue comes down to an issue of patient choice and control towards the end of life, when we are very vulnerable. Most of us will be such patients at some point, and hope that by that time, we and our doctors will be empowered to make ultimate choices without outside interference.

(Dr. Donald Abrams is chief of Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and a Professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He was a pioneer in the response to the AIDS epidemic. Steve Heilig is co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, health policy director for the San Francisco Medical Society, a former hospice worker and director, and drafted the original resolution urging the California Medical Association to be neutral on physician-assisted dying.)

RAINWATER CATCHMENT: Assessment, Design, Installation Offered By Mendocino College and Mendocino County Resource Conservation District

Date: Saturday, August 1, 2015

Time: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Location: Agriculture Building Room 6340, Mendocino College Ukiah Campus

RSVP: Classroom space is limited

Cost: Free

Learn how to access thousands of gallons of rainwater for garden and household. Rainwater harvest may have already caught your interest during this historic drought. Sign up and learn how, where, and why rainwater catchment systems are a valuable part of water security at properties around the world. This hands-on class will provide you the skills to install a basic rainwater catchment system, and the knowledge to comply with building codes. This is a perfect primer course for beginner builders. More advanced systems will be covered, along with safety and permit compliance in the upcoming Fall semester Introduction to Plumbing course through Mendocino College. As part of the Mendocino Jumpstart Integrated Water Plan at Mendocino College, this class offers the community a way to learn a specialized skill, and introduces Sustainable Tech students to the growing field of water conservation. Funding for this Water Plan is provided by the CA Department of Water Resources, which covers the cost for professional instruction, thus allowing attendance at this 1-day workshop to be free to the community. Anna Birkas, licensed engineering contractor and owner of Village Ecosystems, co-developed the curriculum and will lead the rainwater catchment class. As a designer and builder of several water conservation systems, her experience will provide insight into basic water harvesting as well as more technologically complex systems. The Sustainable Technology Program (SST) at Mendocino College provides hands on training to students interested in construction, building efficiency, plumbing and electrical installation, with a special view towards the sustainable link to the community, economy, and environment. Jennifer Riddell, the SST Director, will co-teach the class, and the rainwater catchment tank will be installed at the Sustainable Technology demonstration house. If you are a water enthusiast, builder, landscaper, facilities manager or homeowner, follow the Water Plan at the webpage shown below for updates and to learn about future classes in xeric landscaping, wetland construction, plumbing (legal greywater systems), stormwater infiltration, and irrigation efficiency. Please join us to install a tank at SST and learn to harvest, design for, and use rainwater. Be prepared for the first fall rains. A single storm can fill your tank.

Rainwater Catchment: Assessment, Design, Installation

RSVP: Call: 462-3664 ext 104

Email: joe.scriven@mcrcd.org

Funding for the workshops comes from the California Department of Water Resources — Proposition 84. For more information visit the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District drought website at mcrcd.org/drought-water-conservation-resources.

BIOTECHNOLOGY

by Ellen Taylor (1987)

“We would suggest that the problems of feeding the hungering masses have more to do with marketing and distribution systems, with ill-conceived pricing systems, with overpopulation, with war and civil strife, than with any inadequacy of the farm animals themselves.”

— Christian Science Monitor, April 1987

* * *

After clearing his head with his morning Tai Chi

Noah breakfasted grandly on overripe brie;

Then, pouring a glass of his own Pinot Noir

He kicked the door of the Ark ajar.

It was April, 1987

And he raised his glass, as always, to Heaven

To toast his God, get an inside trade

Or pick up the Word on a corporate raid.

Now the Ark had alighted that night, from the sky

On the Office of Patents and Trademarks, high

Over downtownWashington. (Law was God’s hobby

And frequently Noah would function as lobby.)

His mood was a mixture of gloom and elation:

His family had fruited beyond expectation.

He toasted his five-billionth grandchild’s birth

But he looked down worriedly at the Earth.

He found he couldn’t envy the brat

And he wished himself back on Mount Ararat

Where the born-again eyes of his children were kissed

By a rainbowed world in a caul of mist.

He turned to his keyboard. His face became grave

As his screen gave the stats on what this child would have.

Chances are that he’ll live in a land, said the screen

Where half of the people are under fifteen.

He’ll ply the streets with an empty bowl

And his belly will starve his immortal soul;

A child soldier, quite likely, taught only to shoot

With guns bought on credit, or a child prostitute.

At birth, he might owe Uncle Sam one grand net

Said the screen. If he dies, he defaults on the debt.

At the door again, Noah looked out on the city.

His lungs felt burned, and his teeth felt gritty.

If Earth’s beauty palled due to cataracts

Or a morbid sensitivity to facts

Or the pickled state of a vintner’s brain

Something in him wished for rain.

He looked up, but he knew God would hold to the deal

And the Covenant’s irony made him reel.

So, as Patron Saint of the Elite

He turned to confront his own sense of defeat.

He looked for Shem, Ham and Japeth, his sons:

Shem and Japeth were hard at work. Japeth made guns

And nuclear umbrellas, at the expense

Of one trillion, to provide for the common defense

By beating all taxable plowshares to swords.

Shem, an economist, sat on the Boards

Of the World Bank, and myriad large corporations

Who buttressed the future of indigent nations

With funds for development, so they could pay

The interest on debts they accrued yesterday.

Now, Ham bore the weight of a fatherly curse:

(See Genesis 9, twenty-second the verse)

For surprising his father once, drunk and unmasked

He was doomed to do whatever his brothers asked.

And now Noah spotted him, in Rock Creek Park

Taking care of the beasts that had come off the Ark

He’d a straw in his teeth, as he sat on the bank

And the animals just stood around looking blank.

This tableau made Japeth and Shem look constructive:

Those beasts were embarrassingly unproductive.

Noah quivered, and spilled Beaujolais on the floor.

“It’s those critters!” he cried. “Their performance is poor!

The reason the world’s in so dismal a state

Is because those beasts are inadequate!”

The cows were complacently lounging below

Making milk, much like six thousand years ago.

“You bovinities! You’re eating far too much hay

And enough with the milk! You know milk doesn’t pay!”

He intoned to their dreamily upturned faces.

“We don’t need milk! We need cosmetic bases!

And those pigs need a ribonucleic overhaul.

Too fat! Haven’t they heard of cholesterol?”

He thumbed through his battered King James for a text.

(Creationists turn to the Bible when vexed.)

He studied the Flood as he sipped on his wine

Flashed back on the animals, standing in line

Ham, herding them, anxiously studying the weather

And struggling to keep the pairs together.

Keep the pairs together! Could that be his slip?

Should he have shuffled them up a bit?

The Flood. Coup de main of evolution

Should have been a genetic revolution!

Then, later, “The lion shall lay with the Lamb”

Instructed the Book. Well, confound that Ham!

He called Shem and Japeth. (Both sons were in shock

For the Market had played some new tricks with their stock

So, to take over Ham’s they were overjoyed

And Ham joined the ranks of the unemployed).

They toasted, consulted, deliberated

Filed the patents, and incorporated.

Computers designed each new creation

Inspiration on inspiration.

Beasts even old myths would regard as queer

Sprang from the bioengineer.

Hoofs and talons, paws and claws

Fused, to adapt to the Market laws.

Designed for the Poles, or for Sahel sand

They danced to the tune of Supply and Demand

Until firms like Embryogen, scouts in the field

Were bought by G.E (for diversified yield).

Soon beasts were turned out in year models, like cars!

Were it not for the thirteenth amendment, which bars

Said the Office of Patents, in voice ministerial

The employment of human genetic material

Since it would be slavery, in their invention

Ham would have been labbed, and placed under detention:

His genes spliced with wombats, sea elephants, onagers

So creatures could serve as their own Wild Life Managers

And some spliced with helices of turkey vultures

To watchbird the Market in primitive cultures.

While Noah discoursed with the Legislature

A little nostalgic about what was once Nature:

“What is natural?” he queried, in government halls:

“We have got Mother Nature herself by the balls!”

And the five billionth grandchild? How did he fare?

Did technology make his lot easier to bear?

Fantastic tales like this would depress

If an Epilogue didn’t offer redress.

While Noah collaged chromosomes in his lab

This fellow began planetary rehab.

The original species he sprang from the Zoo

And put back in their places, in pairs, two by two.

Then, stealing a custom he found rather nice

From the Eskimos, “Time to put Grandpa on ice!

Too expensive!” he cried. “And he’s trashed the economy!

We’ve been too indulgent with this kind of anomie!”

So, once again, Noah was marched on the Ark

And with his designer beasts forced to embark.

Geep and whaluna, two by two

The pigifant and the horsaroo.

They were blasted to Epsilon Eridani

Where he orbits, and guzzles, and sits on his fanny

Cutting and pasting the animal kingdom

(Bypassing ova, sperm, yoni and lingam)

And if he gets lost in the blackness above

It’s because he spilled wine on the genes of the Dove.

IRAN NUCLEAR MYTHS DEBUNKED -- On KMEC Radio, Monday, July 27, At 1 P.M. Pacific Time

KMEC Radio brings special guest, Iraqi nuclear physicist, Amad Khadduri, to our airwaves on Monday, July 27, at 1 p.m., Pacific Time, to debunk myths about Iran's nuclear program.

BACKGROUND

President Obama stated last Tuesday: "The same politicians and pundits that are so quick to reject the possibility of a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program are the same folks who were so quick to go to war in Iraq and said it would only take a few months." [In fact, many who he has appointed to top foreign policy positions voted for the Iraq war.]

On Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will discuss the new Iran nuclear deal before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. See accuracy.org/calendar for critical upcoming events.

IMAD KHADDURI

Currently in Toronto, Khadduri is author of the books Iraq’s Nuclear Mirage: Memoirs and Delusions and Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program 1981-1991. He now runs the "Free Iraq" blog.
See: http://abutamam.blogspot.com/

He has closely followed the Iran nuclear deal and has a 30-page paper forthcoming from the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha: "The Iranian Nuclear Project: Military or Civilian?"

Khadduri can address a number of myths on these issues. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Khadduri argued that, contrary to what the Bush administration was claiming, the Iraqi nuclear weapons program had been dismantled since the 1991 attack on Iraq. In a November 21, 2002 article, a few months before the occupation, "Iraq's nuclear non-capability," he wrote: "Bush and Blair are pulling their public by the nose, covering their hollow patriotic egging on with once again shoddy intelligence. But the two parading emperors have no clothes."

Max Fisher claimed in Vox recently that if "Iran tried to block inspectors...that would blow up the deal. ... This was something that so infuriated the world when Iraq's Saddam Hussein tried it in 1998 that it ended with his country getting bombed shortly thereafter."

Said Khadduri: "This doesn't reflect what actually happened. The U.S. used inspectors as a method of espionage, not for legitimate arms inspections purposes. Scott Ritter notes in a recent article titled 'We ain’t found shit' why the Iranians shouldn’t accept ‘no notice’ inspections of its nuclear sites. The 'no notice' inspection on Iraq didn't help with the disarmament process, but they were a gold mine for illegitimate espionage. The Iranians learned from our mistakes and they were much better negotiators." See from FAIR: "It’s Simple, Face the Nation: Iran Doesn’t Trust U.S. Inspectors -- and Shouldn’t." 

The New York Times earlier this year published a piece by John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the UN from 2005 to 2006 and now with the American Enterprise Institute. In the piece, 'To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,' he claims: "The inconvenient truth is that only military action like Israel’s 1981 attack on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor in Iraq." It's a claim that's long been made by war hawks, for example, Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic has claimed: "In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iraqi reactor at Osirak, halting -- forever, as it turned out -- Saddam Hussein’s nuclear ambitions."

Khadduri said: "This is nonsense. I worked on the pre-1981 nuclear program and I was certain it would not be used for military purposes. But after the 1981 bombing, we were so angry that we were ready to work on a military program. The Israeli attack didn't end the nuclear weapons program, it began it." See IPA news release: "Myth: Israel’s Strike on Iraqi Reactor Hindered Iraqi Nukes."

Khadduri added: "The Iranian nuclear program is peaceful. Their nuclear program started in the 1950s under the U.S. government's Atoms for Peace project, which sent Iraq, Iran and other counties nuclear plans. In the case of Iraq, it was a gift from the U.S. for joining the Baghdad Pact. After the revolution in Iraq ended the monarchy, the U.S. built for Iran the plant they were going to build for us. ...

"The Iranian nuclear program really took off in the 1970s after the U.S. convinced the Shah that he could be a regional power only if he embraced the atom. But the U.S. was trying to gouge the Shah, so he had the Germans build his reactors. A main component of the Iranian program is a research reactor used for medical purposes -- even Iranian Americans frequently go back to Tehran for chemo because it's provided for free. ...

"When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, he stopped work on Iranian nuclear facilities. He had already come to the position that having nuclear weapons was religiously prohibited and the financial costs were enormous. But he eventually allowed it to be restarted for peaceful purposes since the costs of cancelling the contracts were high. During the war with Iran, Iraq attacked the Iranian nuclear facilities more than 12 times, but they were minor attacks. But after the Iranians bombed Iraqi oil refineries, Saddam ordered the destruction of two Iranian reactors in 1987, killing 14 people including one German and the Germans withdrew.

"Since then, the Iranians have been struggling to have a serious nuclear program for civilian purposes, and the U.S. has continuously put up road blocks. The recent deal compromises Iran's notion of nuclear sovereignty, but gets the Iranians what they really wanted."

KMEC RADIO

KMEC broadcasts at 105.1 FM, in Ukiah California. Our studios are located in the offices of the Mendocino Environmental Center
We stream live to a worldwide audience at www.kmecradio.org

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Please support KMEC Radio and the Mendocino Environmental Center by becoming a member at: http://kmecradio.org/donate/