US PRO-TERRORISM POLICY
US aggressive foreign policy is threatening the legitimacy of multilateral organizations



Three facts indicating what the goals of US foreign policy might be :

José M.  Bustani , Brazilian, director of  the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
       Today  (at the Netherlands Congress Centre, The Hague), the US government is launching an international coup.
It has been planned for a month. It will be executed quietly, and most of us won't know what is happening until it's too late.
It is seeking to overthrow 60 years of multilateralism, in favour of a global regime built on force. The target is the Brazilian
diplomat Jose Mauricio Bustani, director-general of  the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
       The OPCW enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention. It inspects labs, factories and arsenals and oversees the
destruction of the weapons they contain. His inspectors have overseen the destruction of two million chemical weapons
and two-thirds of the world's chemical weapon facilities.
       Bustani has cajoled reluctant nations: the number of signatories has risen from 87 to 145 in the past five years, the
fastest growth rate of any multilateral body in recent times. In May 2000, as a tribute to his record, Bustani was re-elected
unanimously for a second five-year term, even though he had yet to complete his first one. Last year even Colin Powell
wrote to him to thank him for his "very impressive" work.
       This year, however, things changed. US is taking OPCW's  financial crisis as an opportunity to oust Bustani, a diplomat
who has sought to examine facilities in the United States with the same rigour with which it examines facilities anywhere else.
This coup is additionally aimed at shutting down the peaceful options for dealing with the chemical weapons Iraq may possess,
helping to ensure that war then becomes the only means of destroying them.
       To achieve its goal, US will use its main weapon: money. According to Jean-Nicolas Gilliquet, one of OPCW's inspectors,
the problem of the organization is the lack of funding. The institution has only 39.3% of the resources necessary for this year's
projected spendings. Only 66 countries out of 145 members payed their shares this year. US payment  (20% of total budget)
is conditional on Bustani's overthrowing.
       George Monbiot, The Guardian,  www.monbiot.com ("A War Against the Peacemaker")
           Jamil Chade, O Estado de S. Paulo (www.estado.com.br); OPCW: www.opcw.org

Robert T. Watson, American, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
       The US government managed yesterday (Friday, April 19th) to prevent  the reelection of the current chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Robert T. Watson. He was replaced by the Indian Rajendra Pachauri. 
IPCC, a multilateral organization made up of almost 2.000 scientists, is in charge of elaborating climate policies to be adopted
among the member countries.
        Watson pulished a report indicating that companies in the oil sector in the US are not adopting the necessary measures
to avoid air pollution throughout the refining process. It is argued that this report would have irritated the oil sector in the US
and prompted the government to withdraw its support for Mr. Watson.
       Jamil Chade, O Estado de S. Paulo, (www.estado.com.br); IPCC: http:www.ipcc.ch

Hans Blix, Swedish,  head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
       According to the Tuesday  (April 16th) edition of the British newspaper 'The Guardian', the vice-secretary of Defense
of the US, Paul Wolfowitz, commissioned a CIA investigation  of Mr. Hans Blix,  head of the United Nations Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), organization that, since 1991, monitors Iraq's militar program.
       Blix was director of the International Atomic Energy Agency between 1981 and 1997. During recent UN meetings,
Mr. Blix said that there were no evidences of a nuclear weapon's program in Iraq.  As the chief of the team that investigates Iraq,
Blix is seen as an obstacle for the White House policy of overthrowing  Saddam Hussein.   
       Jamil Chade, O Estado de S. Paulo (www.estado.com.br); Unmovic: www.un.org/Depts/unmovic

These reports were edited by Luciano Grudtner Buratto (Un. of Amsterdam, lburatto@student.uva.nl).
All mistakes and imprecisions should be blamed on him.

Further readings:
   Chief UN inspector hits back at US criticism, International Herald Tribune, www.iht.com/articles/55037.html
   US hawk 'tried to sully Iraq arms inspector, The Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,684984,00.html