Tom Nagy Public Meeting 29th March 2004
Newcastle Emlyn Secondary School

Professor Thomas Nagy

Professor of Expert Systems at the School of Business and Public Management at George Washington University. in Washington DC

In the course of his earlier research Prof. Nagy discovered some shocking facts concerning US military actions and about the origins and intent of the US sanctions against Iraq and published his findings in a report, "The Secret Behind the Sanctions: How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply," September 2001 issue of The Progressive. Prof. Nagy's article shows that there were extremely serious and still-deadly U.S. violations of international law and human rights in US Defense Department planning for the 1991 US war against Iraq and in the implementation of the sanctions against Iraq.

Nagy is first and foremost a pacifist committed to mobilizing people into transforming the on-going crime against children of Iraq into the basis for providing all the children of the world with safe water. He is a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Presenter at the 1999 and 2001 DOD's Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics. Nagy is a scholar and knowledgeable peace advocate who speaks out on the issues related to war with Iraq as a parent, ex-refugee and college professor who did his postdoctoral work in public health and as former research director with the American Bar Association.

In his publication "Secret Behind the Sanctions" Prof. Nagy reported that the Pentagon and DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) documents he had discovered demonstrate that "...the United States knew it had the capacity to devastate the water treatment system of Iraq. It knew what the consequences would be: increased outbreaks of disease and high rates of child mortality. And it was more concerned about the public relations nightmare for Washington than the actual nightmare that the sanctions created for innocent Iraqis..."

In assembling his 2001 report Nagy relied on documents obtained from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and paints a chilling picture of US military planners at best indifferent and at worst complicant in using sanctions to spread disease and death among civilians in Iraq. Nagy showed that these US military actions during the 1991 Persian Gulf War violated international law concerning warfare and should be considered war crimes. Subsequently, according to UN (World Health Organization and UNICEF) reports, as a result of UN and US sanctions (not the actions of the Iraqi government ) more than 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 died due to water borne diseases, a situation that continues to this very moment to harm extremely vulnerable segments of Iraq's civilian population, primarily babies and the elderly, for whom unclean water is a major contributor to their deaths.

Some Tom Nagy web references

Note: The displayed hyperlink references have been shortened but lead to specific pages within the relevant site. The list of references is largely based on that on the Montana Peaceseekers website here

1) Thomas J. Nagy, "The Secret Behind the Sanctions: How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq's Water Supply," www.commondreams.org and www.progressive.org

2) Larry Johnson, "In Baghdad, US Activists Roll Up Sleeves to Give Blood, Not Shed It,"e; Thursday, October 10, 2002,Seattle Post-Intelligencer. (...re Nagy's September-October trip to Iraq) www.commondreams.org/

3) Sean Gonsalves (Cape Cod Times), Bombing Dual-Use Targets? Tuesday, November 12, 2002, www.commondreams.org/

4) Project Censored at Sonora State University (news release regarding their choice of Nagy's article "The Secret Behind the Sanctions" as #5 on the 2001-2002 most censored story list by Project Censored) www.commondreams.org/

5) Thomas J. Nagy, "Taboo, War Crime or Genocide Denial, and Economic Sanctions on Iraq: Moving from Bystander to Rescuer." Audiotape of Nagy's talk at the McMaster University Conference on The Effects of Sanctions on Health: A Case Study of the Gulf, Hamilton, ON - Canada, February 9th, 2002 home.gwu.edu/~nagy/

6) Thomas J. Nagy, "Health Impact of Economic Sanctions: Taboos and Willed Ignorance- Moving From Guilty Bystander to Active Rescuer," Nagy's paper presented at the 15th World Congress International Physicians for the prevention of Nuclear War & Physicians for Social Responsibility: Summit for Survival, Washington, D.C., May 4, 2002. home.gwu.edu/~nagy/

7) Thomas J. Nagy, "The Role of 'Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities' in Halting One Genocide and Preventing Others." Paper presented at Association of Genocide Scholars, Fourth Biennial Conference, June, 2001. home.gwu.edu/~nagy/

8) Greg Barrett (Gannett News Service), "Report: Sanctions imperil Iraqis. Civilians fear being caught in crossfire" (Detroit News) detnews.com "Prof. Thomas Nagy came across a document in 1998 which warned about increased incidence of diseases in Iraq due to degradation of normal preventive medicine, waste disposal, water purification-distribution and electricity... Nagy said if the document were about the U.S., "it would be called terrorism. Or worse. Genocide."

9) Thomas J. Nagy, "Pamphlet to adapt for Appearances of [former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline] Albright or other instigators/apologists for U.S. Foreign Policy — especially SANCTIONS" home.gwu.edu/~nagy/

10) John Nichols: "U.S. Sanctions Against Iraq are a Crime," Capital Times (Madison, WI) www.commondreams.org/

11) Norbert Payne/Coil'n ”hAiseadha: "Nagy Visit on Iraq Sanctions Takes Denmark by Storm" www.commondreams.org

12) Lynda Hurst: "Caught in the Crossfire"...The young people of Iraq have known nothing other than hunger, disease, poverty and isolation www.commondreams.org

13) A specific search at www.google.com shows that Nagy's research has gotten published and reference in the alternative press and reveals some very interesting commentaries on the implications of Nagy's work, and is very worth spending some time on.

14) Thomas J. Nagy, Safeguarding "Our" American Children by Saving "Their" Iraqi Children: Gandhian Transformation of the DIA'S Genocide Planning, Assessment, and Cover-up Documents>, in Tariq Ismael (Ed.) Sanctioning Iraq: The Iraq Question in World Politics. (Pluto Press, January 2004) Chapter available on his GWU page.

15) Thomas Nagy's current research has been focused on a legal and ethical analysis of U.S. Air Force Doctrine Document 2-1.2, "Strategic Attack" and the implications of this document concerning US war crimes (those already committed and about to be committed in the next war against Iraq if the policies in this document are followed now as they were in 1991). The "Strategic Attack" document (20 may 1998) is posted on the U. S. Air Force Doctrines documents site (about #7 on the list):
www.e-publishing.af.mil

16) August 13, 2001 Interview of Nagy by Amy Goodman on Democracy NOW! Story: THE SECRET BEHIND THE SANCTIONS: HOW THE US INTENTIONALLY DESTROYED IRAQ'S WATER SUPPLY www.webactive.com "

17) www.flyte.net Tom Nagy bio - for a conference: The Effects of Sanctions on Health: A Case Study on the Gulf, February 9th, 2002, McMasteer University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

18) "Total control, not self-defense, behind US plans to topple Saddam" By Stephen Gowans www3.sympatico.ca

19) Excerpts from the book "The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting" by David Barsamian,South End Press, 2001 www.thirdworldtraveler.com

20) How Many Dead Children from Sanctions? www.iraqwar.org/

21] "Saving the Army of Peace" - This is the text of a speech that Thomas J. Nagy gave on Oct. 4, 2003 at the Gandhi Peace Festival in Hamilton, Ontario.

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