A House of Ghosts
Morrison, Micah
Micah Morrison A HOUSE OF GHOSTS Even if Saddam Hussein fails to get his way, Kuwait as it existed before August 2 is lost forever. Widespread torture and executions have sent as much as...
...The US...
...Two hundred thousand native-born Ku20 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1990 waitis, roughly one-third of the native-born population, escaped the country and are now in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Cairo, and London...
...Why are they doing this...
...the White House was not pleased...
...Still, a few facts may be pieced together...
...When Your Excellency pronounces the word Western, I do not know if you mean the government...
...Iraq is not a poor country...
...Children...
...Early in the occupation, the Iraqis marked the houses of foreigners with red paint and painted those of Kuwaitis black...
...19, formerly known as Kuwait...
...Independent reports from journalists and refugee officials on the Jordan-Iraq border confirm that Palestinians are flocking into Iraq and Kuwait...
...L., a Kuwaiti citizen with contacts in the resistance, told me of a teenage boy he knew well...
...Government policy...
...If this child is given a sweet in response to his desires and cries, he will continue to cry all the time...
...The Amnesty report notes, "Iraqi military and intelligence routinely torture detainees...
...Firebomb and sniper attacks also have been reported...
...She walked down the long hall and opened the door...
...There was no other checkpoint in the area...
...government, because you are isolated from the media and the press...
...But her son was missing, and the reports of children being taken to concentration camps in Iraq were torturing her, so she went to the station to inquire...
...Some observers are calling this "the Palestinian scenario...
...The boy then revealed the names of fifteen of his young allies, many of whom did no more than paint out street signs and tear down portraits of Saddam...
...But we know these media organs as you do...
...Israeli intelligence claims that roughly two-thirds of the native-born Kuwaiti population—not the one-third of Western estimates—have fled the country, and that hundreds of thousands of Jordanians and Palestinians are being brought, or invited back, to Kuwait...
...The Kuwaitis were sort of a playboy army," a State Department analyst said...
...Is this the price for the electoral campaigns and the influence of the Zionist lobby on the outcome of those elections...
...Not true, the Kuwaiti replied...
...Doctors who have fled Kuwait report Iraqi soldiers bringing in dozens of bodies of young men, many shot at close range in the head or heart...
...Women...
...Yet what resistance there is in Kuwait has exhibited a jaunty savoir-faire in the face of brutal suppression...
...Witnesses insist on anonymity to protect family and friends still in the country, but as the exiles spread out around the globe and fragmentary bulletins emerge from the resistance inside Kuwait, testimony of vast Iraqi human-rights abuses is emerging...
...He may veto them, unless something provocative Occurs...
...They are said to communicate over cellular telephones...
...Are we seeking wars and tragedies...
...The atTHE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1990 19 THE BLEATING FIVE n April 12 five US...
...That is, everyone who is left...
...He has stolen medical equipment from our hospitals, even our street lights and school desks...
...When we talk about peace in the region, we mean peace for all countries in the region...
...The point I want to make is that I can appreciate your feelings about the importance of providing a means of defense for yourselves...
...Q., a Kuwaiti exile...
...Some Mideast analysts and U.S...
...The boy was seized by the Iraqi military and tortured, not breaking until both his ears were cut off...
...Both the Amnesty document and my interviews contain allegations that people have been arrested and even murdered for failing to reMicah Morrison, TAS's roving correspondent, will report next month from Saudi Arabia...
...My favorite resistance story, perhaps apocryphal, concerns a young Kuwaiti with a trunk full of machine guns...
...L. has firsthand knowledge of a young Kuwaiti who was stopped at a checkpoint...
...Special Forces teams working with Kuwaitis in Saudi Arabia support this line of thinking, as does the lack of much direct evidence of resistance activities—photographs, videotapes, eyewitness reports—beyond the first few weeks of the occupation...
...Having driven out the majority of Kuwaitis and looted the country, Saddam would repopulate it with Iraqis and Palestinians, declare Kuwait a "temporary homeland" for the Palestinians—driving a wedge between America and its Arab allies—and call for a "democratic election" to consolidate his gains...
...But still he destroys—the zoo, our Islamic Cultural Museum with its priceless artifacts, even our children's Entertainment Garden—like your Disneyland...
...Executions seem widespread...
...Senator Simpson: I believe your problem is with the Western media, not with the U.S...
...I assume Bush will object to the sanctions...
...C ome of the ghosts are fighting 1...3 back...
...The resistance appears to be protecting foreigners hiding in Kuwait...
...All the journalists consider themselves brilliant political scientists...
...Dole: The media have a role to play, and I don't think the media are wrong all the time...
...We believe, as leaders in the U.S...
...However, the world is viewing the development of mass destruction weapons with the feeling they mean an increased threat to mankind...
...If Baghdad succeeds in patching relations with Tehran, the new refugees, as well as the half-million refugees from the Iran-Iraq war, including 90,000 Iraqi Kurds, may be forcibly repatriated...
...Her back straightens and her eyes glitter with pride and sorrow...
...The Palestinian factor adds another element of uncertainty to the standoff over Kuwait...
...The Iraqi soldiers there knew nothing of him...
...Challenge them to prove you are not speaking the truth...
...Such actions are not without cost...
...Dole: We also understand Iraq's importance in the peace process, although you are not the main party...
...The press is spoiled and conceited...
...The doctors were forced to issue death certificates saying the boys had died after being admitted to the hospital...
...The U.S...
...If this is the case, then we—not trying to boast about anything, but to express our responsibility—believe Arabs have an extra task, not only to liberate themselves, but also to liberate certain dark corners from the extortion of the Zionist lobby...
...It seems there is a golden opportunity now...
...Largely made up of scattered bands of teenagers, and led by a few individuals with military training, the resistance initially drove around running over lone Iraqi soldiers and removing street signs to confuse the occupying army...
...Why don't you ask them to go to the place where they claim 'The Voice of America had recently broadcast a commentary critical of Saddam Hussein, among other dictators...
...The Kuwaiti army buckled before the initial Iraqi surge across the border on August 2, but made a stand around Kuwait City...
...My advice is that you allow those bastards to come here and see things for themselves...
...The speech says, in light of perception and conviction, that this campaign is intended to create the psychological, media, and political cover for Israel to attack us in the way it did in 1981, though this one is harsher...
...We do not have the desire or intention of attacking anyone...
...Ambassador: As an American ambassador, I can confirm that this is the U.S...
...Saddam Hussein is stripping our country...
...House of Representatives began to debate sanctions against Iraq...
...My interviews with Kuwaiti exiles, U.S...
...Senator McClure: We have fairly reached the conclusion that an opportunity exists for a peaceful solution and a settlement of the Middle East problem, that the realization of the settlement is possible, and that your assurances today increase our commitment to conveying these things to Israel...
...The Iraqi invasion has displaced over 800,000 people, creating a massive and complex refugee problem...
...There was one person who was not authorized to say anything about the government...
...Public buildings have been turned into detention centers...
...The Iranian situation is of particular concern to refugee organizations...
...biological weapons are produced...
...None of the three boys were hers but they belonged to somebody, and now they were hanging from a beam, their testicles cut off...
...Others have had limbs broken, their hair plucked out with pincers, their finger- and toenails pulled out, and were threatened with sexual assault or execution...
...MM tacks usually come at night and are directed at Iraqi outposts in former police stations...
...Other refugees say the resistance is led by civilians, and that the bands are not in contact with each other...
...In other words, there are only about 200,000 Kuwaitis left in Kuwait...
...senators—k../ Republicans Robert Dole of Kansas, Alan Simpson of Wyoming, James McClure of Idahq Frank Murkowski of Alaska, and Democrat Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio—met with Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi city of Mosul...
...All inquiries should be forwarded to Baghdad, she was told...
...Within a week, all fifteen had been captured and executed...
...Don't I know the meaning of wars and their atrocities...
...The rumors of people never returning from the building frightened her...
...Please let me tell you, only twelve hours ago, President Bush declared to me that he wants better relations and that the U.S...
...That night, the resistance painted over all the red paint with black...
...Dole There is something I would like to say, since you have invited reporters to come here...
...Stopped at an Iraqi checkpoint, he began to complain bitterly about "being stopped again" so soon...
...Saddam was particularly incensed about media reports concerning the above topics and the sanctions threat...
...Less fortunate are the roughly 150,000 Asian refugees—from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, and elsewhere—who worked as domestic servants and laborers in Kuwait...
...The Iraqi dictator is a blood-soaked Big Brother...
...In Iraq, Saddam had recently executed a British journalist on espionage charges threatened to "scorch half of Israel" with poison gas and was embroiled in international controversy over his attempts to develop chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons...
...Repatriation efforts are proceeding at a snail's pace...
...Saddam: It is said that Iraq has threatened Israel, although the speech is clear and is translated into English...
...I am not the right person to be your public relations man...
...Senator Murkowski: An attempt is now being made in Israel to form a new government...
...To counter the attacks, the Iraqis arrest a hundred people each night, place them in jails as shields, and release them in the morning...
...Like many of the stories emerging from Kuwait these days, this one is difficult to corroborate, though it has a tragic ring of truth...
...The entire conversation was recorded in the April 17, 1990, Middle East log of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service...
...He was shot on the spot and his body was dumped in his parents' front yard...
...I am very pleased...
...When Saddam Hussein announced that anyone sheltering a foreigner would be executed, the resistance spread the word that anyone turning in a foreigner would be shot...
...After listening to you for about an hour, I realized you are a strong and intelligent man, and that you want peace...
...Some have been given electric shocks or suffered prolonged beatings to sensitive parts of their bodies...
...Dole: Once more, I want to assert the U.S...
...They never had a reputation for toughness, like the Iraqis and the Syrians, or for professionalism, like the Israelis and Jordanians...
...Widespread torture and executions have sent as much as two-thirds of its population fleeing abroad, and a disorganized resistance leaves Saddam some interesting options...
...That person was fired...
...They are like a spoiled child...
...The rape of Kuwait would be complete...
...What, asked the Iraqi officer, was he talking about...
...The Zionist Conspiracy Saddam: Arabs hear affronts and insults directed against them every day...
...Prior to the Iraqi invasionabout 300,000 Palestinians worked in Kuwait, and many are thought to have decamped for other parts of the Arab world...
...President, we condemned the Israeli attack in 1981...
...L., as the city fell all military planes were ordered out of the country and the army was told to go underground...
...In October, after interviewing scores of refugees in the region, Amnesty International charged that "a horrifying picture of widespread arrests, torture under interrogation, summary executions and mass extrajudicial killings" is now the reality in Province No...
...Your Excellency the President, we might better understand if we saw people...
...Saddam: They are welcome...
...Saddam would retain his army, along with its chemical, biological, and fast-developing nuclear weaponry...
...The deep pockets of the exiled Kuwaiti government will ensure that these people will not suffer harsh deprivation...
...It is all destroyed and taken away...
...They say that Kuwait now, it is a house of ghosts...
...Following are excerpts of the conversation between the Iraqi dictator and the US...
...In the early days of the invasion, the Iraqis behaved "politely" in Kuwait City, said Mr...
...officials are skeptical about reports of widespread resistance, however...
...place photographs of the Emir of Kuwait with those of Saddam Hussein...
...Washington's Mideast efforts at the time were focused on a complex set of maneuvers designed to pressure an unwilling Israel into negotiations with the Palestinians and the PLO...
...I t seems everyone in Kuwait is wait- ' ing for the Americans...
...Saddam: Neither are they always right...
...According to Mr...
...Committee for Refugees reported that two months after the invasion there were still more than 75,000 non-native Kuwaiti refugees, most of them Asians, in ill-staffed camps in Jordan...
...Approximately 60,000 refugees crossed into Syria, 40,000 into Turkey, and 20,000 into Iran...
...senators...
...L. But as the resistance disrupted the occupation, the army began to take out its wrath on the people, chiefly by street executions, looting, and raping the Egyptian, Bangladeshi, and Filipino women still working in Kuwait as domestic servants...
...Driven from their homes with no money and few possessions, fleeing mainly to barren camps in Jordan, they became "hostages of the desert," as one relief official put it...
...In our discussions with all the heads of state in the region, they expressed their firm conviction there is a favorable opportunity...
...Most of them probably headed for Saudi Arabia and are attempting to regroup there...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1990 21...
...Fighting was fierce, though brief...
...The rape stories frightened her...
...Senator Metzenbaum: Your Excellency the President, you are portrayed in the Western media in a very negative way...
...Therefore, we are aware that a large-scale campaign is being launched against us from the United States and Europe...
...Saddam: Anyway, it is taking place in the United States...
...The Iraqis are attempting to erase Kuwait's identity, carrying off public records and renaming streets, hospitals, police stations, schools, museums...
...Dole: I always say they are wrong all the time, especially given that they attack me...
...Government wants better relations with Iraq...
...Possession of opposition literature or the Kuwaiti flag is treated as a capital offense...
...Yesterday he told me he does not support this...
...Congress, that Congress does not represent Bush or the government...
...Has patriotism in those countries become so weak that they are no longer able to say what is right and what is wrong...
...In one story making the rounds, the resistance bought a tank from an Iraqi deserter for about $500...
...I assure you we will lose nothing if we ask them where the biological weapons are and also ask them to lead us to them...
...The Arab Nation " and the Sanctions Campaign Saddam Hussein: The Arabs are composed of states, but they are one nation and one Arab mind affects another Arab mind, not only because they speak the same language, but because they have the same soul...
...The size of the resistance is not known and probably exaggerated by the Cairo-based Kuwaiti media—the source of much Western information—in the interest of keeping up morale...
...He kills and kills...
...I wish you success...
...Peace in Our Time Saddam...
...Those Pesky Reporters Dole: There are basic differences between our two countries...
...They do not want to see anything succeeding or achieving its objectives...
...She pauses and her mind goes back to those she left behind in Kuwait...
...Dole: Mr...
...We have a free media in the United States...
...Unable to drive the thing off and hide it, they blew it up...
...Almost as an afterthought, the soldier at the desk waved her on to a room at the end of the hall...
...The US...
...He was a commentator for the VOA,' which represents only the government...
...Government is not the cause of the campaign...
...Although the Israelis have been asked by Washington to keep a low profile in the crisis, and generally have complied, in October they gave an unusual briefing on the Kuwaiti refugee dilemma and the Palestinian aspect...
...This should be taken into account, not in order to be destroyed and to be worked against, but to be understood with the aim of building firm bridges in ties between the Arab nation and the states and nations that seek good relations with the Arabs...
...Unconfirmed reports of U.S...
...Has the control of the Zionist trend over you reached the extent that it deprives you of your humanity...
...We want peace...
...Only half a mile down the road he had just been stopped by an American patrol...
...government officials, and Mideast analysts confirm Amnesty's charges...
...A can of black spray paint was found in his car...
...The Iraqi barked out some orders and the entire checkpoint jumped into their jeeps and drove off in the opposite direction...
...Half a million Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Palestinians, Yemenis, and Syrians fled Iraq and Kuwait in the early weeks of the invasion, putting new pressure on already-strained local economies (except for the Saudi economy, which can handle the burden...
...Senator Dole: Not from President Bush...
...They destroy everything, everything," said Mrs...
...After a few days, she summoned up her courage and went to the Iraqi military post, Kuwait City's former Salymah Police Station, looking for her son...
...Refugees who have survived Iraqi torture and made it out of the country report that their inquisitors demand the names of Kuwaiti police officers, military personnel, and diplomats, believing them to be the leaders of the resistance...
Vol. 23 • December 1990 • No. 12
