The Great War for Civilisation (224 page)

Chapter Six: “The Whirlwind War”

198 “knew something was happening”: Author's conversation at home of U.S. ambassador to Jordan Richard Viets with former U.S. chargé in Tehran Bruce Laingen (then head of U.S. War College), Amman, 17 April 1983.

199 “Suppose you were an inveterate enemy”: Ayatollah Khomeini, 1 July 1981, quoted in full in
Mahjoubah: The Magazine for Muslim Women
, Tehran: Ministry of Islamic Guidance, July 1981.

199 One estimate—that 10,000 suspects were hanged or shot: Bullock & Morris,
Gulf War
, p. 67, quoting Iranian sociologist Ehsan Naraghi.

206 An official history of the Guard Corps: Although carrying no publisher's imprint, the 8-page brochure was distributed by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance in Tehran around 1984 under the title
Islamic Revolution Guard Corps; A Brief Analysis
.

207 “ . . . doors suddenly opened”: Frederic Manning (Private 19022),
Her Privates We
, introduction by Edmund Blunden (London: Peter Davies, 1964), p. 154.

207 Egyptian-made heavy artillery shells: Author's interview with retired General Mohamed Abdul Moneim, military affairs correspondent of
Al-Ahram,
Cairo, 2 June 1982.

207 the Iraqis held an arms fair: Author's interview with Mohamed Salam, Sidon, Lebanon, 1 November 2003.

207 a U.S. military delegation: Author's interview with Mohamed Salam, Baghdad, 21 July 1985.

208 “There had been a major battle”: Salam interview, 1 November 2003.

209 Iran's own official history:
The Imposed War
(Tehran: War Information Headquarters), vol. 2, pp. 163–94. A misprint on p. 164 gives the date of the first gas attack as 1980 rather than 1981.

210 “United States intelligence analysts”:
New York Times
, 27 March 1985, quoted in
The
Times
of London of the same date, “Iraq's use of mustard gas confirmed.”

211 “I was invited”: Salam interview, 1 November 2003.

213 More than sixty officers:
International Herald Tribune
, 19 August 2002, quoting
The New
York Times, report by Patrick Tyler, “U.S. aided Iraq in '80s despite gas use, officials say.”

214 “By any measure, the American record”:
International Herald Tribune
, 17 January 2003, “America didn't seem to mind poison gas,” by Joost R. Hilterman.

214 Halabja was mentioned in 188 news stories: Rampton and Stauber,
Weapons of Mass
Deception
, p. 76.

214 “is a person who has gassed”: George W. Bush address, Denver, Colorado, 28 October 2002.

214 “We have had such a malicious”: Rafsanjani press conference, Tehran, 25 May 1997 (author's notes).

Chapter Seven: “War against War” and the Fast Train to Paradise

219 the first Exocet spewed 120 pounds:
Navy Times
, 26 October 1987, “Inferno The Like of Which Had Never Been Experienced,” by William Matthews.

220 “Rest assured”: Associated Press report from Washington, 22 May 1987.

(n.) 220 “we never before had reason”: Author's interview with Ambassador Zakhem, U.S. embassy, Bahrain, 26 May 1987.

221 “this barbarous country”: Reagan press conference, 27 May 1987.

222 227 ships had been attacked: Gulf shipping agents could never agree on exact figures, but these statistics, which appear the most accurate, are from Intertanko of Oslo.

222 Between May 1981: Lloyd's Intelligence, London, May 1987.

222 “The incident provided”: Dispatch to
The Times
from Bahrain, sent 28 May 1987.

228 By 1986 alone, a million: Associated Press, 12 March 1986, “Up to a Million Dead, No End in Sight,” by G. G. Labelle.

230 In July, Iraq began:
Washington Post
, 13 September 1985, quoted in Reuters Washington datelined report of the same date.

(n.) 234 James Cameron, one of my great: Cameron,
Point of Departure
, p. 139.

Chapter Eight: Drinking the Poisoned Chalice

264 “marked the horrifying climax”: See Proceedings, journal of the U.S. Naval Institute, August 1993, vol. 119/8/1,086, pp. 49–56, “Vincennes: A Case Study,” by Lieutenant Colonel David Evans.

264 “Why do you want an Aegis cruiser”: Evans in
Proceedings
, op. cit., p. 52, quoting a personal interview with Captain David Carlson on 23 June 1992.

264 “was on a normal commercial”:
Formal Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding
the Downing of a Commercial Airliner by the USS Vincennes
by Rear Admiral William M. Fogarty, USN, 28 July 1988.

264
Newsweek
magazine would carry out:
Newsweek
, 13 July 1992, “Sea of Lies,” by John Barry and Roger Charles.

267 “He was turned into the powder”: Will and Sharon Rogers,
Storm Center: The USS
Vincennes
and Iran Air Flight 655
(Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1992), pp. 184–6.

271 Half the next issue:
Sunday Tribune
(Dublin), 10 July 1988.

272 Captain Rogers saw the film again: Rogers,
Storm Center
, op. cit., p. 188.

274 “As to your order to execute the hypocrites”: Quoted in
Iran Bulletin
(London),Winter 1996, pp. 26–9, “The Great Massacre,” by Naser Mohajer.

274 “When [they] are taken to the Hosseinieh”: Quoted in
Iran Bulletin
, Winter 1996, op. cit., p. 28.

274 A former female prisoner:
Iran Bulletin
, Autumn/Winter 1998, interview with Monireh Baradaran, “Witness to Massacre.” Baradaran's account of her nine years in the regime's prisons was published in Farsi as
Haghighat-e sadeh
—“Simple truth”—and in German as
Erwachen aus dem Alptraum
(Unionsverlag, 1998).

274 This was Fariba's description:
Iran Bulletin
, Summer 2000, p. 62, from an abridged translation of
Here Virgins Do Not Die
by “Shahrzad” (Paris: Khavaran, 1998).

275 Of 1,533 Iranian female prisoners:
Iran Bulletin
, Spring/Summer 1999, pp. 40–3, “The life and death of women in Islamic prisons,” by Dr. Rehza Ghaffari. His
Khaterateh Yek ZendaniAs Zendanhaye Jumhouriye Islam
—“Memories of a prisoner of prisons of the Islamic Republic”—was published in Farsi (Stockholm: Arshag Forlag, 1998).

275 Amnesty was able to list: Amnesty International report on Iraqi executions, 25 February 1988.

276 at least 700 prisoners: Committee against Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq (CARDRI), press release, 2 March 1988.

276 When Khadum Fadel returned: Agence France-Presse report by Tanya Wilmer, published in
Jordan Times
, 6 February 1999.

281 “I doubt whether I would be inaccurate”: Letter from Zainab Kazim, 1996 (otherwise undated), following the author's article in the
Independent on Sunday Review
, 25 June 1995, “Oh What a Lovely Holy War.”

289 “Some magnificent men”: Letter to author from Robert Parry, 4 October 2004.

290 “One of our soldiers”: Interview with Haidar al-Safi, Baghdad, 28 July 2004.

291 “We would go to the headquarters”: Mouffak interview, Baghdad, 30 July 2004.

Chapter Nine: “Sentenced to Suffer Death”

300 the war diaries: National Archives, Kew, WO95/2126.

304 I had spent more than two years: See Fisk,
Pity the Nation
, pp. 632–49.

(n.) 307 The politics of partition: These statistics come from Henry Harris,
The Irish Regiments of
the First World War
(Cork: Mercier, 1968), pp. 219–21. In all: see “
The Irish Times
, An Irishman's Diary,” by Oliver Fannon,
Irish Times
, 6 September 2004.

308 “He was like one of those revolving lighthouses”:
War Memoirs of David Lloyd George
(London: Odhams, 1936), vol. I, p. 450.

Chapter Ten: The First Holocaust

320 “it may well be that the British attack”: Winston Churchill,
The World Crisis: The Aftermath
(London: Thornton Butterworth, 1927), p. 405.

322 “Reports from widely scattered districts”: Cipher telegram from Morgenthau to the U.S. State Department, 10 July 1915, reprinted in
United States Official Records on the ArmenianGenocide 1915–1917
(compiled with introduction by Ara Sarafian, Princeton: Gomidas Institute, 2004), p. 51.

324 Armenian scholars have compiled: See, for example, the Armenian National Institute's annual report for 1998, pp. 9–10.

325 “machinery of violence”: Mark Mazower in the
London Review of Books
, 8 February 2001, p. 20, “The G-Word.”

325 700 pages of eyewitness accounts:
The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire:
Documents Presented to Viscount Grey of Fallodon by Viscount Bryce
(London: House of Lords, 2004). This new edition contains names and other identifying details that were omitted from the original publication to protect eyewitnesses from Turkish reprisals.

325 Leslie Davis, the thirty-eight-year-old former lawyer: Balakian,
Burning Tigris
, pp. 241–9.

326 The Germans were also involved in building: Ibid., p. 191.

326 From the start, the
New York Times
: See
The Armenian Genocide: News Accounts from the
American Press 1915–1922
, ed. Richard D. Kloian (American Genocide Resource Center of Northern California, 2000).

327 Even in the Canadian city of Halifax: See
Heralding of the Armenian Genocide: Reports in
The Halifax Herald 1894–1922
, compiled by Katia Minas Pettekian (Armenian Cultural Association of the Atlantic Provinces, 2000).

327 In the former Ottoman city of Basra: H. V. F. Winstone, Gertrude Bell (London: Barzon Publishing, 2004), pp. 276–7.

327 a group of more than 1,000 women:
United States Official Records of the Armenian Genocide
, p. 587.

328 a long account written by Cyril Barter: Barter's “account of experiences during the war, written from Baghdad in 1919” was sent to me by his son Antony, 23 June 2004.

328 “The butchery had taken place”: E. H. Jones,
The Road to En-Dor
(London: White Lion Publishers, 1973; originally published London: Bodley Head, 1920), p. 83.

328 “My father, Sarkis”: Letter to the author from Ellen Sarkisian Chesnut of San Francisco, 23 February 2000.

329 The first writer to call the Armenian genocide: Churchill,
The World Crisis: The Aftermath
, op. cit., p. 157.

329 “Acknowledging that British and American”: Churchill,
Great War
, vol. 4, p. 1570.

329 Franz von Papen, for example: See Vahakn Dadrian, “The Historical and Legal Interconnections Between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust: From Impunity to Retributive Justice,” in
The Yale Journal of International Law
, Summer 1998, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 504–59. Dadrian erroneously refers to Rudolf Hoess as “Rudolf Hess.”

330 And there came another fateful reference: Gilbert,
Holocaust
, p. 556, quoting German notes of Hitler's discussion with Horthy on 17 April 1943 (document D-736 in the files of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal).

330 Some Armenian slave labourers: See Mark Levene's
The Experience of Genocide
in
Light
ning Strikes Twice: The World War 1914–1945 (London: HarperCollins, 2000). Levene's note on the Baghdad railway appears on p. 16 of his original manuscript.

(n.) 330 At a conference in Beirut: A series of talks on
The First World War as Remembered in the
Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean
was held in the Lebanese capital from 27 April to 1 May 2001; see
Daily Star
, Beirut, 4 May 2001.

331 A Turkish military tribunal: See
AIM: Armenian International Magazine,
January/February 2001, pp. 26–33, “A Century of Genocide,” by Matthew Karanian.

331 He lectured across Germany in 1933: See Dadrian,
History of the Armenian Genocide
, p. 410.

331 In 1933, the same year: Churchill,
Great War
, vol. 4, p. 1570.

332 Of the Treaty of Lausanne: Ibid., p. 1571.

333 Lord Bryce, whose report: James Bryce,
International Relations: Eight lectures delivered
in the United States in August, 1921
(London: Macmillan, 1922), pp. 65–71.

336 Mark Levene has written extensively: See Levene's “A Moving Target, the Usual Suspects and (Maybe) a Smoking Gun: The Problem of Pinning Blame in Modern Genocide,” in Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 33, no. 4, 1999, citing R. S. Stafford, The Tragedy of the Assyri
ans
(London: Allen and Unwin, 1935), pp. 168–77.

336 After writing about the Armenian Holocaust: Letter to the author from A. V. Ozolinš, 2 February 2000.

336 “part of Europe's own forgotten past”: Mazower in
London Review of Books
, op. cit.

336 When the historian Norman Davis: Letter to the author from Davis, 12 April 1998.

336 But sure enough, there was a book: Author anonymous,
The Dark Side of the Moon
(London: Faber, 1946).

337 Armenians “had defected
en masse
”: Koknar email letter to the editor, 5 February 2000.

338 “purely fabricated”: Cakir letter to the author, 15 April 1992.

338 The Hitler quotation was “fabricated”: Tat email letter to the editor, 3 February 2000.

338 “100-year-old unfortunate victims”: Zorba letter to editor, 1 February 2001.

338 “many members of my family”: Haktanir letter to editor, 21 March 2001.

338 “The myth of ‘Armenian Holocaust'”: Letter from Ozener to the
Jerusalem Post Magazine
, 18 June 1999, citing “A Genocide Denied” by Marilyn Henry, 28 May 1999.