by Robert Fisk
(n.) 479 “we have been disturbed to find”: The Friend (London), 26 July 2002, also quoting Amnesty report from Gaza.
489 Some of Israel’s “targeted killing”: Vanity Fair, January 2003, “Israel’s Payback Principle,” by David Margolick.
489 “there is no language known”: Mail on Sunday (London), 23 September 2001, “You know the problem, now hear the facts,” by Stewart Steven.
489 “culture that glorifies depravity”: Irish Times, 6 October 2003, “Palestinian regime’s murky terror links,” by Mark Steyn.
490 called for the execution of family members: See Forward, 7 June 2002, “Top Lawyer Urges Death For Families of Bombers,” by Ami Eden.
(n.) 490 “it is likely the misfortune”: John Feffer, North Korea, South Korea: U.S. Policy at a Time of Crisis (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003), pp. 20–1.
496 “there were indeed wide-scale, ugly phenomena”: See Ha’aretz, 20 April 2002, “IDF admits ‘ugly vandalism’ against Palestinian property,” by Amos Harel, Ha’aretz military correspondent.
(n.) 496 Amnesty International’s statistics: 4 November 2002, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus.
497 “apparently hundreds”: See Los Angeles Times, 13 April 2002, “Controversy over Israeli Plan to Bury Camp Dead,” by Richard Boudreaux.
498 their own meticulous investigation: Independent Review, 25 April 2002, “Once upon a time in Jenin,” by Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves.
499 “Okay, so there wasn’t a massacre.”: Ha’aretz Magazine , 26 April 2002, “The power of the word,” by Arie Caspi.
499–500 Major Avner Foxman, said of the Adora killings: National Post, 29 April 2002, “Now I know what is a massacre,” by Stewart Bell.
500 “Israel needs to deliver a military blow”: See Friedman, International Herald Tribune, 1 April 2002, “Suicide Bombers Threaten Us All.”
506 who gave the order for the expulsion: See Daily Telegraph (London), 28 August 1995, “Peace process fails to obscure Rabin’s past,” by Michael Adams.
506 “We walked outside”: See Journal of Palestine Studies , Summer 1980, pp. 96–118, “The Palestinian Exodus,” by Steven Glazer, citing a portion of Rabin’s memoirs which was censored in the official edition but published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.
507 bore “personal responsibility”: The Commission of Enquiry into the Events at the Refugee Camps in Beirut 1983, Final Report (Authorized Translation) by Yitzhak Kahan, Aharon Barak, and Yona Efrat, p. 105.
507 So fearful were the Israeli authorities: See Independent, 27 July 2001, “Israel tells officials to avoid threat of arrest in Europe,” by Phil Reeves.
507 Belgian judges: Plainte avec Constitution de Partie Civile, Brussels, 18 June 2001, testimony of 52 pages on the murders, rapes, disappearances and other crimes committed in the Sabra and Chatila camps in Beirut on 16th, 17th and 18th September, 1982, signed by Chibli Mallat, Luc Walleyn and Michaël Verhaeghe; see also Ha’aretz Magazine, 10 August 2001, “A Lawsuit Sprouts in Brussels,” by Sara Leibovich-Dar, although this article erroneously claims that the author of this book had joined the plaintiffs in their suit.
507 described the Palestinians as a “cancerous manifestation”: see open letter from Israeli academics, 23 September 2002, on http://www.middleeast.org.
507 “chopping off limbs”: Playboy magazine, May 1995, “General Ariel Sharon,” interview with Ranan R. Lurie.
(n.) 507 Yaron was in Washington: Ha’aretz, 8 January 2003, “In Washington, Israel makes its case for massive U.S. aid,” by Moti Bassok.
508 “we stand together with you”: Cited by James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, 19 April 1999 on http://www.aaiusa.org/wwatch_archives/041999.htm.
508 “Sharon’s racist imagination”: Ma’ariv, 12 April 1999, “Birds of a feather (or: The starling and the raven),” by Uri Avnery.
(n.) 508 The principal Allied excuses: See Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies: How the allies responded to the news of Hitler’s Final Solution (London: Michael Joseph, 1981), pp. 299–323; also Gilbert’s Winston S. Churchill, vol. VII, Road to Victory, 1941–1945 (London: Heinemann, 1986), pp. 846–7, for Churchill’s reaction to bombing proposals.
509 Prominent American Jewish leaders: Forward, 10 May 2002, “Lobbyists Urge Bush to Ease Up on Sharon—Elie Wiesel: ‘Trust Him,’ ” by Ami Eden.
509 Only a month earlier, the Americans rolled out: Independent on Sunday , 7 April 2002.
(n.) 509 “. . . there is something to the question”: Ha’aretz , 5 April 1999, “Neither Auschwitz nor 1948,” by Dan Margalit.
510 “fighting for the spoils”: Ha’aretz, 5 May 2002.
510 Amid what the Palestinian writer Jean Makdisi: See Daily Star, Beirut, “Jean Makdisi: Our strength lies in the simplicity of truth,” by Marianne Stigset.
510 “if our job is to seize”: Ha’aretz article by Haim Hanebi, cited in Courrier International, no. 589, 14–20 February 2002.
510 trapped and desperate Jews of the Warsaw ghetto: One of the most harrowing accounts of the ghetto rising can be found in Gilbert’s The Holocaust , pp. 557–67.
510–11 B’Tselem estimated that between 1987 and May 2003: B’Tselem, http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/
511 By 1993, 232 Palestinian children: B’Tselem, The Killing of Palestinian Children and the Open-Fire Regulations, June 1993.
511 In one of its most shocking reports: Amnesty International, 1 October 2002.
(n.) 511 Yet just over two years later: Independent on Sunday, 31 October 2004, “A critical friend is not an enemy,” by Michael Williams. Readers requiring details of other human rights abuses should consult B’Tselem’s voluminous and detailed reports, including The Closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: Human Rights Violations Against Residents of the OccupiedTerritories, April 1993; House Demolition During Operations Against Wanted Persons, May 1993; Deportation of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories and the Mass Deportation of December 1992 , June 1993; Firing at Vehicles by the Security Forces in the Occupied Territories, February 1994. Amnesty International’s Israel and the Occupied Territories, Demolition and Dispossession: The destruction of Palestinian homes, December 1999, is also essential reading. For Israeli army mistreatment of Palestinian civilians, see also the work of former Israeli soldier James Ron, now Assistant Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins, especially “Rabin’s Two Legacies,” published in al-Mustaqbal al-Arabi(Beirut), 1996, shortened version in Index on Censorship (London), September 1996.
512 “I was at that time reading a terrible book”: L’Express, 27 December 2001, “C’est comme vous en Algérie, mais nous, nous resterons,” interview with Ariel Sharon by Alain Louyot. The book Sharon was referring to was, of course, Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962.
Chapter Fourteen: “Anything to Wipe Out a Devil . . .”
(n.) 515 Theories abound on the origin: Horne, A Savage War of Peace , p. 30n.
516 A magnificent photograph: See Archives de l’Algérie, pp. 28–9.
517 “Soldiers, civilised nations”: See Galibert, Algérie , p. 172.
518 its troops had asphyxiated 500: Ibid., p. 30.
518 “The country is without commerce”: le Baron Baude, Conseiller d’Etat, ex-Commissaire du Roi en Afrique, L’Algérie (Paris, 1841), cited in The Dublin Review, August 1842, p. 32.
518 “On December 24th 1832”: Galibert, pp. 554–6.
518 “Wherever there is fresh water”: Cited in Horne, p. 30.
519 “Despite the [1914] victory of the Marne”: Octave Depont, L’Algérie du Centenaire: l’oeuvre française de libération, de conquête morale et d’évolution sociale des indigènes. Les Berbères en France. La représentation parlementaire des indigènes (Paris: Recueil Sirey, 1930), p. 113.
519 “There’s no doubt that to give everyone”: Ibid., p. 186.
521 published a 320-page guide: La France en guerr
e d’Algérie .
521 Amnesty International demanded an investigation: Amnesty International, France/Algeria: France must now face up to its judicial obligations , 3 May 2001.
521 “a cowardly silence”: Rachid Mokhtari in Le Matin (Algiers), cited in Courrier International, 10–15 May 2001.
521 “Middle Eastern Islamic fanaticism”: See Daily Star (Beirut), 27 March 2004, “The public relations war: Algeria, France and imperial America,” by Arun Kapil.
523 “we really contaminated the Algerians”: L’Express, 14–20 March 2002, p. 105, interview with Annie Rey-Goldzeiguer.
527 “They will not talk about the future”: interview with Hassan Tourabi, Khartoum, 1 December 1993.
546 “we watched the bitter struggle”: See Jerusalem Post , 5 December 1995, “Rabin always calm, obstinate, in control of the facts,” by Chaim Herzog.
547 vile dossier of decapitated corpses: La barbarie du terrorisme: Victimes civiles de la barbarieterroriste catégories socio-professionelles touchées 1990–1994, Algiers 1994.
548 FIS front organisation publishes: The Atrocities in Algeria: A Photographic Testimony, 1994, published by “Human Services,” PO Box 198, Southall, Middlesex UB1 3PR, UK.
(n.) 552 By 1995, the Algerian government: Livre Blanc du Terrorisme en Algérie, Ministère de l’Intérieur, des Collectives Locales de l’Environnement et de la Réforme Administrative, Algiers 1995.
553 “In the back of the restaurant”: See Irish Times, 2 May 1998, “Killed for a column,” by Lara Marlowe. The translation of Mekbel’s last column below the chapter-head was also by Marlowe.
558 So much for conciliation: For the full interview with Meziane-Cherif, see Independent on Sunday, 12 March 1995, “Whatever you do, just don’t mention torture to the genial ‘eradicator,’ ” by Robert Fisk.
(n.) 559 “Because Islam is the religion of the Book”: Index on Censorship (London), May/June 1994, pp. 112–16, “Goodbye to the Enlightenment,” by Karim Alrawi.
565 Fatima’s crime had been her beauty: See El Watan (Algiers), 14 March 1995, “Des femmes atrocement assassinées,” by Slima Tlemcani; see also Liberté (Algiers), 14 March 1995, “Une Fille et trois femmes assassinées en 48 heures: Egorgée devant l’Ecole,” by Ilham Djanine.
575 “I was moved to Cavignac police station”: Interview with Dalilah (full name known to author), Archway, London, 15 October 1997.
577 “They gave us vaccinations”: Interview with Reda (full name known to author), Knightsbridge, London, 14 October 1997.
579 he watched suspected “Islamists” interrogated: Interview with Abdessalam (full name known to author), Knightsbridge, London, 14 October 1997.
579 “in most cases, joined the terrorist bands”: Letter from Ahmed Benyamina, Algerian ambassador in London, to The Independent, 1 November 1997.
579 “there is no credible, substantive evidence”: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Policy Statement on Algeria, May 1998.
580 forcibly returned him to Algeria: See Independent, 10 May 1997, “Refugee sent back home to his death,” by Patricia Wynn Davies.
580 When Mary Robinson: See Independent, 10 December 1996.
580 It produced a report that might have been written: UN, Report of the panel appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to gather information on the situation in Algeria in order to provide the international community with greater clarity on that situation, 16 September 1998.
580 When Amnesty International condemned: Amnesty, 16 September 1998, Algeria: UN Panel report a whitewash on human rights.
580 An earlier European Union mission: See Irish Times, 21 January 1998, “EU troika ‘treads softly’ and avoids embarrassing its hosts,” by Lara Marlowe.
580 “to stop condemning Algeria from afar”: See Irish Times , 5 January 1998, “Hand-wringing by EU over Algerian massacres will no longer be enough,” by Lara Marlowe.
(n.) 580 The Belgian authorities deported: See Independent, 10 December 1996; see also The Enlightenment: The Algerian Community in London , vol. 5, no. 31, 2 August 1996, “Communiqué on the murder by torture of a FIS member deported from Belgium to Algeria.”
581 “defend the regime by denying”: Abdelhamid Brahimi, “Algeria’s Tragedy: The Necessity for a Peaceful Commitment,” address to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Irish Parliament, Dublin, 8 April 1998.
581 Although Algeria . . . sent $20 million in arms: See The Times, 17 January 1983, “Algeria gave PLO $20m for arms to fight Israel,” by Christopher Mosey.
581 During the Cuban missile crisis: Interview with Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, Algiers, 23 March 1992.
582 “the violence appears to have generated”: Washington Post, 13 June 1997, “A Ray of Hope in Bloody Algeria: Atrocities Turning the Public Against Islamic Terrorists,” by John Lancaster.
582 “now that the White House has decided”: Agence France-Presse report from Algiers, cited in Le Monde, 14 March 1998.
582 “It’s not impossible”: Interview with General Mohamed Lamari by the Algerian Press Service, 28 October 1997.
582 “to compare a rape in a police station”: Quoted in Le Monde, 20 March 1998, “Des intellectuels français dénoncent les violations des droits de l’homme en Algérie.”
582 recent research suggests: See Aggoun and Rivoire, Francealgérie .
(n.) 582 misuse of my articles in The Independent: Letter to author from Mary Mourra Ramadan, lawyer for Anwar Haddam, “president of FIS parliamentary delegation abroad,” including U.S. Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review, Office of the Immigration Judge, Arlington, Virginia, Comprehensive Submission of Government’s Exhibits and Witness List, File No. A22 751 813 of 3 February 1997.
583 Algerian security forces were implicated: See Le Monde, 7–8 June 1998, “La sécurité algérienne pourrait être impliquée dans le drame de Tibehirine,” by Henri Tincq.
583 But international human rights groups: See Human Rights Watch, vol. 10, no. 1, February 1998, “Neither Among the Living nor the Dead: State-sponsored ‘Disappearances’ in Algeria”; also Amnesty International, 3 March 1999, Algeria: “Disappearances”: The wall of silence begins to crumble.
584 Nezzar left France when: See Le Monde, 28 April 2001, “Le départ précipité du général Nezzar provoque les protestations des défenseurs des droits de l’homme,” by Florence Beauge.
584 He wanted Algerians to forget: See Irish Times, 18 September 1999, whose correspondent Lara Marlowe cynically—and accurately—reported that “optimistic economists believe the generals have now accumulated enough sports cars and Paris apartments to be willing to share Algeria’s wealth with its people.”
584 Amnesty International appealed: Amnesty International, 30 July 2004, “Algeria: Newly discovered mass grave must be fully investigated.”
Chapter Fifteen: Planet Damnation
589 “a rough, direct-talking leader”: Richard Murphy interview, International Herald Tribune, 29 July 1990.
589 “promised not to use force”: See Independent, 21 March 1991, “U.S. warned Iraq against invasion,” by Rupert Cornwell.
(n.) 590 “Most Arabs are convinced”: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 3 October 1990, PoliticalDimensions of the Gulf Crisis, by Robert Mabro, p. 13.
595 “Sensitive areas”: See A Soldier’s Guide: Saudi Arabia (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army, Chief of Public Affairs, Command Information Division, 1990), p. 29.
596 “sense of distress”: Associated Press, 26 October 1990, “Pentagon Lists Taboo Subjects for Troops in Saudi Arabia,” by Ruth Sinai.
596 thanks to the 1988 $23 billion Al-Yamamah arms contract: see Guardian , 13 March 1992, “Report on Saudi arms deal suppressed,” by David Hencke and Richard Norton Taylor.
598 “powerful battle force”: Brig. Gen. James M. Lyle, Winning in the Desert II (Leavenworth, Kans.: Fort Leavenworth Media Support Center, September 1990).
609 “her nuclear weapons”: Sunday Telegraph, 2 December 1990, “
When war-war is better than ‘just war’ jaw,” by Edward Norman.
611 The one thing he regretted: See Independent on Sunday Magazine, 18 February 1996, “How We Met: Matthew Symonds and Andreas Whittam Smith,” interviews by Isabel Wolff.
611 “This news put me”: De la Billière, Storm Command , p. 181.
(n.) 611 The computer was returned: See Independent, 26 June 1991, “Gulf war plans returned by a ‘patriotic thief,’ ” by Tim Kelsey.
612 “Why did you not fulfil”: Saudi Press Agency, 15 January 1991, “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in reply to the message of Saddam Hussein.”
616 “I have already issued the terrible orders”: Schwarzkopf, It Doesn’t Take a Hero, p. 412.
622 “Thursday morning was one of those moments”: Philadelphia Inquirer “pool” dispatch from USS John F. Kennedy, 17 January 1991 (“Combat Pool Three,” navy carrier, ref RUFRSGG7170).
624 “except for the 100 hours of Desert Storm”: See Washington Post, 5 November 1997 (Hoagland article) and Washington Post, 6 November 1997 (Cohen article), cited in Middle East Report (Washington, D.C.), Fall 1998, no. 208: 35, “Short-Circuiting the Media-Policy Machine,” by Sam Husseini.
628 they destroyed a river bridge crowded with pedestrians: See Independent , 8 February 1991, “Allied raid on bridge kills 47 civilians,” by Patrick Cockburn; Guardian, 18 February 1991, “Death comes to a town almost forgotten by war,” by Alfonso Rojo.
(n.) 629 “The bomb, called a GBU-28”: Reuters, 4 July 1991.
632 Chinese would complain: Agence France-Presse, quoted in International Herald Tribune, 14 June 1996, “Everest Pollution Laid to Gulf War.”
(n.) 637 Arabs spent $84 billion: Arab economic report for 1992, prepared by the Arab League, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries; bin Sultan, Desert Warrior, pp. 292–3; see Middle East Reporter (Beirut), 12 September 1992, p. 17; see also Financial Times, 2 August 1991, “Arab countries still owe $7 billion for Gulf war costs,” by Peter Riddell.
638 “began to devise a plan”: de la Billière, p. 222.
