It's a crafty journalistic manuever sure to get the message 
out but in a way tied to the U.S. rather than just a blunt warning 
publicly declared by General/Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 

One of Israel's best known military-affairs journalists raised
the battle cry today in Israel's  most prestigious daily,
Ha'aretz. If Iraq, or anyone else for that matter, causes any
serious blows to Israel, the 'Jewish State' might, indeed in all
likelihood will, unleash it's vast arsenal of nuclear weapons,
now  thought to be the fourth largest force in the world after
the US, Russia, and China. 

That same message was sent in another way earlier this year in 
fact when the three new submarines Germany built for Israel were
leaked to now be carrying nuclear-tipped missiles and deployed
ready-to-shoot, contrary to  all the assurances given to the
Germans in years now past. 

The whole world is moving closer to potential armageddon now,
propelled by the psychological aftermath of last 11 September and
all that  led up to that historic event in past decades. From the
sub-continent, where the Kashmir crisis could erupt, to Asia,
where the Taiwan crisis  looms, to the Middle East and its vast
oilfields and immense tensions created  by Israel's military
occupation of the Palestinian people; the world may now  be on
the edge of catastrophy. 

'If Attacked, Israel Might Nuke Iraq' 

By Ze'ev Schiff Ha'aretz - August 15, 2002: 

If Iraq strikes at Israel with non-conventional weapons, causing
massive casualties among  the civilian population, Israel could
respond with a nuclear retaliation that  would eradicate Iraq as
a country. This grave assessment, from  American intelligence,
was presented last week to the U.S. Senate Foreign  Relations
Committee. During the 1991 Gulf War, then U.S. defense secretary
Richard Cheney, now vice-president, told CNN that Israel could
respond with nuclear  weapons to an Iraqi strike that included
the use of chemical weapons. This  assessment has only been
strengthened since then, because according to all the signs, Iraq
now has biological weapons that could cause mass  casualties.
According to one assessment, military-grade biological  weapons
can be almost as lethal as a nuclear bomb. The U.S. intelligence
assessments include an analysis of possible Israeli responses.

The lowest probability is that Israel would respond initially
with a conventional military retaliation if it is slightly
harmed, and  would add a warning that a non-conventional response
was possible if the Iraqi attacks on the Israeli civilian
population continued. The possibility of Israel using nuclear
weapons against Iraq  appears in a document submitted by military
expert Dr. Anthony Cordesman, a  fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, to the Senate 

Foreign Relations Committee. Presumably, the document is based, in  part,
on official administration assessments. In the worst case
scenario, writes Cordesman, Israel could face an existential
threat to important urban areas such as Tel Aviv or Haifa. Under
such conditions, it would threaten nuclear retaliation against 
Iraqi cities and military forces to cease the [Iraqi] attack. 

If the Iraqi attack were to continue, and there was a lethal 
biological strike on an Israeli city, Israel would certainly
respond with  nuclear strikes against Iraqi cities that were not
yet in the hands of  American forces, Cordesman says. Such an
Israeli reaction could destroy  Iraq as a state. Based on this
assessment and the possibility of an Israeli  retaliation in the
event of an Iraqi strike, it is presumed that the United States 
will, at the earliest stages, make a special effort to neutralize
any  possible use of Scud and El Hussein rockets that Iraq
positions in its western  regions, as it did in the Gulf War, for
a more convenient launching site for  attacks against Israel.
During discussions in Washington, Israeli  representatives asked
the United States to take action against the missiles in western
Iraq. 

The Americans know that Iraq is not depending only on  long-range
missiles in its plans for using chemical or biological weapons
against its  enemies, including Israel. 
As part of its preparations, Iraq has also been  working on
developing pilotless planes. Unlike the usual development of
drones used primarily for intelligence gathering purposes, the
Iraqis are working on normal-sized planes loaded with chemical or
biological weapons and intended to be flown by remote control.
They are working on an Eastern  European training plane and on a
version of the MiG-21. Both planes have  been tested.
--------------------------
MiD-EasT RealitieS - http://www.MiddleEast.Org 

Allies deliberately poisoned Iraq 
public water supply in Gulf War 

By Felicity Arbuthnot (9-24-2000)

[From: 'Sunday Herald' (Scotland), September 17, 2000. For fair use only]

The US-led allied forces deliberately destroyed Iraq's water supply during the Gulf War - flagrantly breaking the Geneva Convention and causing thousands of civilian deaths. 

Since the war ended in 1991 the allied nations have made sure than any attempts to make contaminated water safe have been thwarted. 

A respected American professor now intends to convene expert hearings in a bid to pursue criminal indictments under international law against those responsible. 

Professor Thomas J Nagy, Professor of Expert Systems at George Washington University with a doctoral fellowship in public health, told the Sunday Herald: "Those who saw nothing wrong in producing this plan , those who ordered its production and those who knew about it and have remained silent for 10 years would seem to be in violation of Federal Statute and perhaps have even conspired to commit genocide." 

Professor Nagy obtained a minutely detailed seven-page document prepared by the US Defence Intelligence Agency, issued the day after the war started, entitled Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities and circulated to all major allied Commands. 

It states that Iraq had gone to considerable trouble to provide a supply of pure water to its population. It had to depend on importing specialised equipment and purification chemicals, since water is ''heavily mineralised and frequently brackish". 

The report stated: "Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidents, if not epidemics, of disease and certain pure-water dependent industries becoming incapacitated " 

The report concludes: "Full degradation of the water treatment system probably will take at least another six months." 

During allied bombing campaigns on Iraq the country's eight multi-purpose dams had been repeatedly hit, simultaneously wrecking flood control, municipal and industrial water storage, irrigation and hydroelectric power. Four of seven major pumping stations were destroyed, as were 31 municipal water and sewerage facilities - 20 in Baghdad, resulting in sewage pouring into the Tigris. Water purification plants were incapacitated throughout Iraq. 

Article 54 of the Geneva Convention states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population" and includes foodstuffs, livestock and "drinking water supplies and irrigation works". 

The results of the allied bombing campaign were obvious when Dr David Levenson visited Iraq immediately after the Gulf War, on behalf of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. 

He said: "For many weeks people in Baghdad - without television, radio, or newspapers to warn them - brought their drinking water from the Tigris, in buckets. 

"Dehydrated from nausea and diarrhoea, craving liquids, they drank more of the water that made them sick in the first place." 

Water-borne diseases in Iraq today are both endemic and epidemic. They include typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, cholera and polio (which had previously been eradicated), along with a litany of others. 

A child with dysentery in 1990 had a one in 600 chance of dying - in 1999 it was one in 50. 

The then US Navy Secretary John Lehman estimated that 200,000 Iraqis died in the Gulf War. Dr Levenson estimates many thousands died from polluted water. 

Chlorine and essential equipment parts needed to repair and clear the water system have been banned from entering the country under the UN "hold"system. 

Ohio Democrat Representative Tony Hall has written to American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, saying he shares concerns expressed by Unicef about the "profound effects the deterioration of Iraq's water supply and sanitation systems on children's health". Diarrhoeal diseases he says are of "epidemic proportions" and are "the prime killer of children under five". 

"Holds on contracts for water and sanitation are a prime reason for the increase in sickness and death." Of 18 contracts, wrote Hall, all but one on hold were placed by the government in the US. 

Contracts were for purification chemicals, chlorinators, chemical dosing pumps, water tankers and other water industry related items. 

"If water remains undrinkable, diseases will continue and mortality rates will rise," said the Iraqi trade minister Muhammed Mahdi Salah. The country's health ministry said that more than 10,000 people died in July of embargo -related causes - 7457 were children, with diarrhoeal diseases one of the prime conditions. 

In July 1989, the figure was 378. Unicef does not dispute the figures. 

The problem will not be helped by plans for the giant Ilisu Dam project (to which the British government is to give £200 million in export credit guarantees), which will give Turkey entire control of the water flow to Iraq and Syria. 

Constructors Balfour Beatty write in their environmental impact report, that for the three years of construction, water flow to Iraq will be reduced by 40%. Iraq has also suffered a three year drought, with the Tigris the lowest in living memory. 

The VISIE Foundation