United Nations Headquarters Bombed, scores dead and wouned, political motivation suspected
Less than a week after the United Nations Security Council overwhelmingly approved a statement that "welcomes" the formation of the Iraqi Governing Council, a massive bomb exploded at the UN Headquarters in Baghdad.
The BBC is reporting at least 15 killed, and scores injured in the afternoon blast.
One of the casualties is Sergio Viera de Mello, the UN's envoy to Iraq, who had recently declared the Governing Council to be "broadly representative." The BBC is reporting the bomb went off "almost directly under the window" of Mello's office.
However, the assertion that the US appointed council is "broadly representative" contradicts fact. It is well known that only 3 of the council members are women, in a country that is approximately 55% women. More than half of the council members are exiles or Kurdish leaders (that have existed in Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein's control). One of the exiles is Ahmed Chalabi, convicted of embezzlement and fraud in Jordan, and a Pentagon favorite.
Further, the council is politically unrepresentative of the Iraqi people. A political science professor who was part of the process of forming the council, has noted that its "members were appointed by the Americans as a reward for aiding the occupation". In the same article Iraq Occupation Watch has reported that "while Paul Bremer has veto power over the council, he may not have to... The word 'puppet' is in the air."
In contradiction to the decades long US record of bombing, economic strangulation, and more bombing of Iraq, President Bush has responded to this latest bombing by saying it " would not intimidate the civilised world from assisting the Iraqi people to reclaim their future."