Western European News Digest
Italian Senators file parliamentary inquiry on Cheney's Role in WMD Fraud
Sen. Oskar Peterlini and nine other Italian senators, two of whom belong to the government majority, have filed a written inquiry with the ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defense, asking, among other things, that the Italian government distance itself from the Cheney-manipulated Iraq war policy and promote an international clarification on the issue. The action was taken during this last week.
The text of the inquiry begins by mentioning the "international debate on the truthfulness of information regarding possession and possible imminent use by Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and of nuclear material, which, during the weeks preceding the Iraq war, have been of decisive importance for the USA, Great Britain, and the other nations in rejecting the UN mediating role and justifying the war against Iraq."
It proceeds: "The American press mainly, but also representatives of American and other countries' institutions, are raising questions about the primary role played by US Vice President Dick Cheney in using dubious information, eventually leading to a justification of the war against Iraq."
The text then mentions Joseph Wilson's mission and statements that Cheney received his reports; Sen. Byrd's June 24 intervention in the Senate; Henry Waxman's letters to government and Congress on Cheney and the Wilson mission; and Robin Cook's Guardian interview.
It comes then to a conclusion preceded by the usual stretto: "Considering that ... a war has been fought as a consequence of such information which many insist to be dubious or even false; around these facts the new strategy of preventive war was initiated, and those same representatives of the so-called neo-con group around Cheney in the current US administration, who had advocated a war against Iraq, have presented plans to make more wars against so-called 'rogue states'; this information has been used to neutralize and exclude the United Nations from its international mediating role in situations of severe crises.
"We therefore ask: whether the Italian government is informed of such developments; whether it has initiated an analysis of these facts; whether it intends to reflect on the strategic and military consequences of the abovementioned facts; whether it has already drawn conclusions which could even lead to a review of Italy's strategic-military decisions, such as Italy's participation in military or other kinds of operations; whether it intends to propose in the appropriate international fora such as the EU, NATO and the UNO initiatives aimed at bringing more clarity on the case; and whether, above all, it intends to undertake an effort to give back to the UNO its historic and proper role of mediation and war prevention, whose authority has been badly hurt?"
The inquiry has been signed by Senators Peterlini, Cortiana, Fabris, Di Siena, Gubert, Malabarba, Baio Dossi, Betta, Boco, and Forlani.
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