Free Iraq

Reza Fiyouzat, What's wrong with Amy Goodman?: "If a clash of opposing ideas is an absolute (and rightful) necessity, then why not have a real, free flowing debate between a Leftist and an extreme Leftist? There are precious few places still standing, where American journalism can save its soul (meaning, seek the truth), so it becomes absolutely imperative to establish as a tenet that government officials do not represent truth, but are agents for maintaining the current system. The journalistic Left should not have any problem reflecting that tenet in the content of its professional activities.

"Robert Fisk best put it, 'When covering the Sabra and Shatila massacres, I did not give equal time to the murderers who carried out the massacres.'"
 

hello Dr. Imad,

i was going to forward a link to a story about the CIA sending family members to covertly question various Iraqi scientists before the war about whether Iraq had recontituted their nuke program. but of course are already on it. That sure is something, boy. 30 covert operations and NOT ONE came back affirming ANYTHING about Iraq having reconstituted a program. The CIA sent them, then just disregarded what they found out because it didn't fit their case for war. Of course many of us suspected stuff like this went on, but to read about the facts, about the straight lies that were presented to us...is pretty disappointing. Can we get Tenet back on the stand? (among others)
 

hello Dr Imad,

i was going to forward a link to an article regarding the CIA sending family members of Iraqi scientists to covertly question them as to whether Iraq had restarted their nuke program but i see you are already on it. That's 30 seperate "operations" and NOT ONE affirmation that Iraq had restarted their program. The CIA sent them, and then just disregarded their information because it didn't fit into their plans for war. I mean, many of us suspected that stuff like that went on but to hear about the facts, about how we were straight lied to...is just really disappointing. Can someone get Tenet back on the stand? (among others)
 

(Recommended: the entire column)
Juan Cole, Abramoff and al-Arian: Lobbyist's "Charity" a Front for Terrorism:

The guilty plea of fabulously wealthy and highly corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff raised the question of whether he would roll over on congressmen involved in illegal fundraising and other crimes with him. Some twenty Republicans on Capitol Hill are said to be in danger.

Abramoff's dense network of illicit finances and phony charities might end some political careers in the United States. But the investigation into his activities by the FBI also shed light on the ways in which rightwing American Jews have often been involved in funding what are essentially terrorist activities by armed land thieves in Palestinian territory.
[ . . . ]

Although some of my readers are under the impression that in the civilized world it is all right to take your neighbor's land by winning it in warfare, actually the United Nations Charter (to which Israel is a signatory) and the whole body of post-1945 international law frowns on that sort of thing. ...

... [T]he colonists are often aggressive, and anyway would not need to defend themselves if they weren't squatting on other people's land. And, Israel does have an army. Private militias are always an ugly thing, and have been used by Israeli colonists ethnically to cleanse nearby Palestinian villages.

The Hill reported on June 23, 2005 that some of the money Abramoff embezzled from the charity contributions of the Indian tribes "paid a monthly stipend and Jeep payments to a high-school friend of Abramoff who conducted sniper workshops . . ." The Hill suggested that the workshops were for Israeli army personnel, but the Israeli army does not need shooting lessons from Yitzhak Pindrus. The sniper lessons were for the colonists, practice for shooting Palestinians.

Illegal outposts, i.e. establishing foreign colonies on stolen land, is a way of terrorizing the indigenous inhabitants, and it requires a local militia to defend the colonists, along with sniper lessons and night-vision binoculars.

Now here's the thing. If a Palestinian-American had diverted $140,000 from a Muslim charity to "security equipment" and "sniper lessons" for Palestinians on the West Bank, that individual would be in Gitmo so fast that the sonic boom would rattle your windows.

But here's a prediction. None of the Jewish extremists, some of them violent, who are invading the West Bank and making the lives of the local Palestinians miserable will ever be branded "terrorists" by the US Government, and Abramoff's foray into providing sniper lessons will be quietly buried.

Terror isn't terror and aggression is not aggression when it has lobbyists in Congress who can provide luxury vacations and illegal campaign funding.
 

'LYING' . . . (cont'd)

Mike Whitney, Skirmishes in the information wars: There are only two weapons in the imperial tool chest: force and deception.* ...
[ . . . ]

It is only in this context that we can see that the threats made by George Bush to bomb Al Jazeera are completely consistent with the administration's overall approach. Controlling information is seen as a military necessity and those who fashion an alternate narrative are Washington's sworn enemies. In this respect, we can understand how Al Jazeera would have to be destroyed to pave the way for greater democracy.
[ . . . ]

There is nothing arbitrary about the massive cloud of secrecy that has settled on the Bush administration. The government has built an impervious wall around itself that conceals the venality of the principle characters and avoids the transparency required for a healthy democracy.
[ . . . ]

The levers of the fascist state have been carefully assembled behind a smokescreen of demagoguery provided by fellow-travelers in the corporate media. And, even though support for the war in Iraq has steadily declined, the extent of the media's success in confounding the public cannot be overstated. ...

The media are just one part of a culture of deception that permeates every part of the Bush administration. The recent revelations that the Pentagon was planting "good news" stories in foreign newspapers, shows us how tenacious the administration can be in its defense of disinformation. Rather than admit its guilt and apologize, right-wing pundits defended the action as "justifiable during wartime."

This demonstrates the level of ideological commitment to lying among members of the political establishment. It is the best example of the "end justifies the means" mentality that animates the current regime.

The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre said, "The essence of the lie implies, in fact, that the liar is actually in complete possession of the truth which he is hiding."
[ . . . ]

We should never mistake the administration's obfuscations, omissions, and propaganda as unintentional. Lying is policy and accepting that fact precedes any meaningful understanding of the Bush administration.*

* Emphasis added.
 

Mike Whitney, The Guerilla War on Iraqi Oil : “Iraqi oil…will be a legitimate and a permanent target of the armed resistance plans to liberate Iraq and defeat the invaders...

The armed resistance will use every possible means militarily and technically to prevent the occupier from stealing Iraq’s oil and use its revenues with anyone, under any circumstances, on the national and international levels...

On this basis, every one who collaborates with the occupier, such as employees, merchants, middlemen, whether Iraqis, Arabs or non-Arabs will be watched and targeted without any hesitation.”

Baath Arab Socialist Party Communiqué
Iraq May 13th 2004
[ . . . ]

"There’s simply no way that the Bush administration can prevail in its original intention of controlling Iraq’s oil if a small army of guerillas focus their energies on disrupting production. Millions of dollars of infrastructure can be destroyed in a flash by one determined fighter with a bomb or a Kalashnikov. "
 

"How can we make a difference in the face of incredible corrupt power?"
 

Robert Parry, Elusive Truth Behind the Hariri Hit
 

Noam Chomsky interviewed by Michael Hastings, Newsweek, A Tale of Two Quagmires -

Newsweek: Where do you put George W. Bush in the pantheon of American presidents?

Chomsky: He's more or less a symbol, but I think the people around him are the most dangerous administration in American history. I think they're driving the world to destruction. There are two major threats that face the world, threats of the destruction of the species, and they're not a joke. One of them is nuclear war, and the other is environmental catastrophe, and they are driving toward destruction in both domains. They're compelling competitors to escalate their own offensive military capacity—Russia, China, now Iran. That means putting their offensive nuclear missiles on hair-trigger alert.
 

New Truth Tool (Ah, so wonderfully sanitary) . . .

Al-Jazeera, Deadly Iraq war is all a game: "For military strategists, there is a mission where you can execute a military strike on Iran's nuclear facility.

"This is truly a new way to look at news, and could be a great tool for teaching children about the conflicts in the Middle East. "
 

Some lies are almost incomprehensibly huge; they can, however, be comprehended.

Questioning the 9/11 attacks ... , found here, the most stunning collection of linked documentation I've seen. A zillion kudos to the real flesh & blood human beings who have so dedicated themselves to the truth.
 

Nick Dearden, Counterpunch, The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness" ; Blair's Cynical Policy on Palestine: "As in the fight against injustice in South Africa, it will have to be ordinary activists who help bring justice for the long suffering Palestinians."
 

Insurgents burn 19 fuel tankers north of Baghdad (Reported yet on CNN?)
 

EXCLUSIVE: BILLION DOLLAR BUNKER; U.S. plans Baghdad embassy more secure than Pentagon: The grounds will include as many as 300 houses for consular and military officials.

And a large-scale barracks will be built for Marines who will protect what will be Washington's biggest and most secure overseas building.

A US source in the Middle East said last night: "Plans for the embassy building are being kept behind closed doors because of the terrorist threat.

"It will be more secure than The Pentagon because it will be under constant threat from attack." The Green Zone is the safest part of Baghdad, surrounded by concrete blast walls and checkpoints.

The US also wants to build four massive military superbases around Iraq's capital.

The plans will fuel speculation they want to keep a firm foothold in Iraq for many years.

An Iraqi security source said last night: "The plans for the embassy building will make it the largest and best protected diplomatic building overseas for the US.

"You may as well move the Pentagon to Iraq. It will be amazingly secure but it also flies in the face of claims American is preparing to leave Iraq to be policed and governed by Iraqis.
 

(Money makes abiding by one's principles so much easier.)

Al-Jazeera, Police suspect Sharon took bribe: "The money is thought to be linked to an unresolved corruption scandal in which Sharon was suspected of receiving a $1.5 million loan from South African businessman Cyril Kern that was allegedly used to refund contributions to his 1999 leadership campaign after they were deemed irregular."
 

Ghali Hassan, Torture: The Israeli Denial -- -- “After the soldiers instruct you to return home, suddenly a frightening dog, in the Oketz trained dogs unit of the IDF [the Israeli Army] enters your apartment, grabs your child, who is sitting on his bed in shock, bites him hard in his leg and drags him down the 20 steps that lead from the second-floor apartment to the street”, Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz, 15 December 2005.

As the U.S. methods of torture are exposed around the world, Israeli methods of systematic torture on the Palestinians remain unbroken taboo. Western countries – led by the U.S. – have not only failed to condemn Israel’s brutal methods of torturing Palestinians, they are complicit in Israel’s denial. The fact is that, Israel has been routinely torturing Palestinians for decades with tacit support of Western powers and without comment.
[ . . . ]

As Western governments have failed to act against Israel’s methods of torture, the taboo must be broken by the citizens and grassroots movements dedicated to peace and justice. Israel’s brutal treatments of Palestinians and the use of sadistic methods of torture on the Palestinian people must be exposed and condemned. It is the duty of every citizen with concern to democracy, International Laws, and human decency. Unless the ‘International Community’ condemns all forms of torture, including Israel’s practices of torturing Palestinians, it remains complicit in an illegal and inhumane policy of torture.
 

Wayne Madsen Report, January 4, 2006 -- More indications and warnings about Iran attack preparations: The National Intelligence Directorate has been busy hiring global positioning system (GPS) target mappers to work at its Underground Facility Analysis Center (UFAC), which is comprised of analysts from the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, NSA, National Geo-spatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Strategic Command, and US Geological Survey.


Wayne Madsen Report, January 4, 2006 -- Owner of West Virginia mine a big donor to Democratic Leadership Council-affiliated candidates: Wilbur Ross, Jr., the Chairman of the Board of International Coal Group, the operator of the safety hazard-ridden Tallmansville, West Virginia mine where 12 miners died after an explosion, has been a contributor to Democrats who are mostly associated with the anti-union, pro-business Democratic Leadership Council. Ross, described as a "vulture capitalist," is a bankruptcy expert for the Rothschild bank in New York. His Ashland, Kentucky-based International Coal Group specializes in buying up bankrupt mines like the Sago mine in Tallmansville where unions are now non-existent. For two hours, International Coal Group sat on information that the 12 miners died after it was announced to the media that they had survived. Sago had been cited on numerous occasions for safety violations, including repeat infractions, by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.
[ . . . ]


Wayne Madsen Report, January 4, 2006 -- Polish Defense Minister a neo-con protege: [ . . . ]
Sikorski operated under the cover of a journalist in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan during the mid 1980s and in Angola in the late 1980s where he liaised with pro-U.S. UNITA guerrillas backed by apartheid South Africa and noted GOP activists, including recently convicted Jack Abramoff as well as Karl Rove friend and adviser Grover Norquist. In 2002, after Angola's government killed UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi with the help of Kellogg, Brown & Root military advisers, Sikorski penned an anti-Savimbi screed in the neo-con Wall Street Journal, dismissing his old friend and the man Ronald Reagan called the "George Washington of Africa" as a pro-Mao closeted Leninist who practiced voodoo and believed in Kwame Nkrumah and Leopold Senghor-style black consciousness ("negritude").
[ . . . ]
 

Uruknet, A Terrible Crime Committed by the " Maghawir" Police Forces in the Village of Abou-Deshir - Warning to the Readers: Some Horrible Pictures Included (The article & photos serve as hideously painful testimony to the 'democracy' brought at such horrific price to Iraq)
 

Riverbend, 2006...: Here we are in the first days of 2006. What does the ‘6’ symbolize? How about- 6 hours of no electricity for every one hour of electricity? Or… 6 hours of waiting in line for gasoline that is three times as expensive as it was in 2005? Or an average of six explosions per day near our area alone?

The beginning of the new year isn’t a promising one. Prices seem to have shot up on everything from fuels like kerosene and cooking gas, to tomatoes. ...
[ . . . ]

People buy black market gasoline because for many, waiting in line five, six, seven… ten hours isn’t an option. We’ve worked out a sort of agreement amongst 4 or 5 houses in the neighborhood. According to a schedule (which is somewhat complicated and involves license plate numbers, number of children per family, etc.), one of us spends the day filling up the car and then the gasoline is distributed between the four or five involved neighbors.

The process of extracting the gasoline from the car itself once it is back at the house was a rather disgusting and unhealthy one up until nearly a year ago. A hose was inserted into the gasoline tank and one of they unlucky neighbors would suck on it until the first surge of gasoline came flowing out. Now, thanks to both local and Chinese ingenuity, we have miniature gasoline pumps to suck out the gasoline. “The man who invented these,” My cousin once declared emotionally, holding the pump up like a trophy, “deserves a Nobel Prize in… something or another.”
 

Tom Segev, Haaretz.com, The Joe Golan affair: "In early 1962, an Israeli citizen named Yosef (Joe) Golan came to Israel's consulate in New York to renew his passport. He filled out the necessary forms and paid the fee, but then the consul himself, Benjamin Eliav, came out and informed him that, unfortunately, his passport could not be renewed. Sometime later, Golan learned that Eliav had acted in accordance with instructions he received from his boss, then foreign minister Golda Meir. And so began 'the Joe Golan affair.'

"Golan, the adviser on Arab affairs for the World Jewish Congress (WJC), pursued an alternative foreign policy; he held contacts with Arab statesmen, including leaders of the National Movement in Algeria. Meir tried to ground him."
[ . . . ]
 

Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches, Open Letter From an Iraqi: I want to ask Mr. Bush…do you think that Iran is a democratic country? With freedom and liberty? Do you?

If your answer is yes, then we can understand what is going in our country.

But if your answer is no, then let me ask you again…are you insane? (pardon me)

Because now you have let those people and their followers have the power and drag us 100’s of years backwards.
[ . . . ]
 

Israel's Sharon Suffers Massive Stroke: "Doctors who have not examined Sharon but are experts in the field said his chances of a full recovery are slim."
 

Amitabh Pal, The Progressive, U.S. needs some brave ambassadors like Craig Murray: Murray has been an outspoken critic of Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov—and U.S. and U.K. indulgence of the tyrant—ever since Murray’s stint as ambassador from 2002 to 2004. He has most recently been in the news for publishing documents on his website revealing that the American and the British governments got information from the Uzbek regime that it extracted from prisoners using torture. “Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the U.S. and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror,”one of the documents up on his website says.

One of Murray’s noteworthy achievements during his tenure was to order a British Embassy report on the human rights situation in the country, which found that at least two prisoners had been boiled to death by the Uzbek government. He was so beloved by pro-democracy activists that people held signs outside the U.K. Embassy in the capital Tashkent saying, “We Love Craig Murray.” For his troubles, Tony Blair fired him, in part due to pressure from Washington, according to The Sunday Times of Scotland. ...
[ . . . ]
 

The Craig Murray Torture Telegrams (reposted)
 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research.ca, Nuclear War against Iran: No dissenting political voices have emerged from within the European Union. ... Media disinformation has been used extensively to conceal the devastating consequences of military action involving nuclear warheads against Iran. ... In an utterly twisted logic, nuclear weapons are presented as a means to building peace and preventing "collateral damage". ... Since late 2004, Israel has been stockpiling US made conventional and nuclear weapons systems in anticipation of an attack on Iran. This stockpiling which is financed by US military aid was largely completed in June 2005. Israel has taken delivery from the US of several thousand "smart air launched weapons" including some 500 'bunker-buster bombs, which can also be used to deliver tactical nuclear bombs. ... A preemptive nuclear attack using tactical nuclear weapons would be coordinated out of US Strategic Command Headquarters at the Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska, in liaison with US and coalition command units in the Persian Gulf, the Diego Garcia military base, Israel and Turkey. ... At present there are three distinct war theaters: Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. The air strikes against Iran could contribute to unleashing a war in the broader Middle East Central Asian region.

The implications are overwhelming.

The so-called international community has accepted the eventuality of a nuclear holocaust.

Ultimately what is required are extensive international sanctions directed against the United States of America and Israel.*

* Emphasis added.
 

The Independent, Anger as Britain admits it was wrong to blame Iran for deaths in Iraq: "MPs and soldiers' families have demanded an explanation from the Government after a U-turn over claims that Iran was complicit in the killing of British soldiers in southern Iraq.
[ . . . ]

"A former Labour defence minister, Peter Kilfoyle, accused the Blair government of following President George Bush's obsession with Iran. 'Is this intelligence or is it propaganda?' he asked. 'This is what happened in Iraq. I have a deep, abiding mistrust of what is put out by the Government and a deep, abiding mistrust of what is put out by the intelligence services. This is part of an almost unconscious urge to support whatever the American policy of the moment might be.'"
 

Kurt Nimmo, Patriot Act Empowers Ministry of Homeland Security Gestapo: [ . . . ]
So let’s say Bush plans to traipse through your town and you send out an email to your friends urging them to practice their one-time civil liberty under the First Amendment of the now doormat Bill of Rights and stand on a public street corner with signs protesting the neocon mass murder campaign in Iraq. Of course, that very email will be scooped up by the largest intel op in the world—the National Security Agency, now effectively Bush’s personal snoop operation—and will be forwarded to Chertoff’s Gestapo and you may very well receive a visit the day before Bush’s motorcade wings through town and due to “extraordinary protective need” you may very well be arrested “without warrant” for an “offense against the United States,” that is to say for disagreeing with our Caesar, George W. Bush.

Sounds like the Gestapo to me, especially considering Hitler’s Gestapo was created to investigate and combat “all tendencies dangerous to the State.” In addition, the Gestapo was not subject to judicial review, same as Bush considers himself not subject to judicial review (and in fact brags about snooping on Americans without going before a court and obtaining a warrant). “As long as the [Gestapo] … carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally,” Nazi jurist Dr. Werner Best stated. It appears AG Alberto Gonzales has taken a page out of Hitler’s playbook because the Bushites argue that it is “inefficient” to go before a judge and a more “agile” approach to violating and trashing the Constitution is required.
 

Sharon's Stroke...Think (I confess, the thought had occurred to me. Who knows?!)
 

"My theory is that they don't tell him anything, that's why the president keeps sounding like he doesn't know what he's talking about." (Molly Ivans)
 

Microsoft censors Chinese blogger: "Questions still remain over why a site believed to be hosted in the United States has to comply with Chinese law. Microsoft responded to requests for more information on this issue by stating that 'Microsoft is a multinational business and, as such, needs to manage the reality of operating in countries around the world.'"
 

John Pilger, The Quiet Death of Freedom: On Christmas Eve, I dropped in on Brian Haw, whose hunched, pacing figure was just visible through the freezing fog. For four and a half years, Brian has camped in Parliament Square with a graphic display of photographs that show the terror and suffering imposed on Iraqi children by British policies.The effectiveness of his action was demonstrated last April when the Blair government banned any expression of opposition within a kilometre of Parliament. The High Court subsequently ruled that, because his presence preceded the ban, Brian was an exception.

Day after day, night after night, season upon season, he remains a beacon, illuminating the great crime of Iraq and the cowardice of the House of Commons. As we talked, two women brought him a Christmas meal and mulled wine. They thanked him, shook his hand and hurried on. He had never seen them before. "That's typical of the public," he said. A man in a pin-striped suit and tie emerged from the fog, carrying a small wreath. "I intend to place this at the Cenotaph and read out the names of the dead in Iraq," he said to Brian, who cautioned him: "You'll spend the night in cells, mate." We watched him stride off and lay his wreath. His head bowed, he appeared to be whispering. Thirty years ago, I watched dissidents do something similar outside the walls of the Kremlin.

As night had covered him, he was lucky. On 7 December, Maya Evans, a vegan chef aged 25, was convicted of breaching the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act by reading aloud at the Cenotaph the names of 97 British soldiers killed in Iraq. So serious was her crime that it required 14 policemen in two vans to arrest her. She was fined and given a criminal record for the rest of her life.
[ . . . ]

Such cases compare with others that remain secret and beyond any form of justice: those of the foreign nationals held at Belmarsh prison, who have never been charged, let alone put on trial. They are held "on suspicion." Some of the "evidence" against them, whatever it is, the Blair government has now admitted, could have been extracted under torture at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib. They are political prisoners in all but name. They face the prospect of being spirited out of the country into the arms of a regime which may torture them to death. Their isolated families, including children, are quietly going mad.

And for what? From 11 September 2001 to 30 September 2005, a total of 895 people were arrested in Britain under the Terrorism Act. Only 23 have been convicted of offences covered by the Act. As for real terrorists, the identity of two of the 7 July bombers, including the suspected mastermind, was known to MI5 and nothing was done. And Blair wants to give them more power. Having helped to devastate Iraq, he is now killing freedom in his own country.

Consider parallel events in the United States. Last October, an American surgeon, loved by his patients, was punished with 22 years in prison for founding a charity, Help the Needy, which helped children in Iraq stricken by an economic and humanitarian blockade imposed by America and Britain. In raising money for infants dying from diarrhoea, Dr. Rafil Dhafir broke a siege which, according to Unicef, had caused the deaths of half a million under the age of five. The then-Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft, called Dr. Dhafir, a Muslim, a "terrorist," a description mocked by even the judge in his politically-motivated travesty of a trial.
[ . . . ]

A related, insidious tyranny is being imposed across the world. For all his troubles in Iraq, Bush has carried out the recommendations of a Messianic conspiracy theory called the "Project for a New American Century." Written by his ideological sponsors shortly before he came to power, it foresaw his administration as a military dictatorship behind a democratic façade: "the cavalry on a new American frontier," guided by a blend of paranoia and megalomania. More than 700 American bases are now placed strategically in compliant countries, notably at the gateways to the sources of fossil fuels and encircling the Middle East and Central Asia. "Pre-emptive" aggression is policy, including the use of nuclear weapons. The chemical warfare industry has been reinvigorated. Missile treaties have been torn up. Space has been militarised. Global warming has been embraced. The powers of the president have never been greater. The judicial system has been subverted, along with civil liberties. The former senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who once prepared the White House daily briefing, told me that the authors of the PNAC and those now occupying positions of executive power used to be known in Washington as "the crazies." He said, "We should now be very worried about fascism."
[ . . . ]

In 1999, while filming in Washington and Iraq, I learned the true scale of bombing in what the Americans and British then called Iraq's "no fly zones." During the 18 months to 14 January 1999, US aircraft flew 24,000 combat missions over Iraq; almost every mission was bombing or strafing. "We're down to the last outhouse," a US official protested. "There are still some things left [to bomb], but not many." That was six years ago. In recent months, the air assault on Iraq has multiplied; the effect on the ground cannot be imagined. For the BBC it has not happened.
[ . . . ]
 

Gilad Atzmon, Counterpunch, Repose in Blood; Sharon Meets His Maker: "The Lord may ask him, just as he enters the gate of heaven, 'Hey Grandpa Arik, why are your hands so red?'"
 

Imad
They already knew, and if they suspected (even just suspected) Iraq had any weapons, they would not have attacked
I believe and many others do believe this.