Indeed, it's hard to interpret the recent US bombings without a
consideration of the domestic political context. I'm not sure why Tresy is
so willing to accept the US govt line on these attacks; surely it's not
due to the long history of accuracy and honesty accompanying official
explanations of  US military strikes? 

Sure, the bombers of the African embassies were criminals and scumbags.
But I hold my government to a higher standard than I expect of its
opponents. These precipitous missile strikes, notable departures from past
responses in their haste, are hard to differentiate morally. I doubt the
embassy bombers were targeting Africans--if so, why hit US embassies?
They simply didn't worry about a little "collateral damage", to use our
term. Nor did the US. If their WERE chemical weapons at the Khartoum
factory (and there seemingly weren't; see below) imagine the consequences
for the residents of that city. Tresy's claim that a second plant was
avoided to spare civilians seems to be based on post-hoc justifications
from US policey spinners, and I see no need to take it seriously. Although
I also wonder about the source of this claim--I haven't seen it in any of
the news dispatches I've read. 

As far as the Afghanistan targets, it seems the US hit a real medley of
"terrorists", including some fighting in the Kashmir. I hardly feel safer
as a result. 

Chomsky's main point hasn't been challenged: are all the countries
victimized by US, US-sponsored, or US-based terrorist attacks entitled to
strike targets in the US?? If not, than clearly there is a double standard
at work. 

It comes down to this: in a desperate bid to change the subject, the
President launches a hasty (but devestating) attack on a country the US is
not at war with, and that (as it turns out) has no proven connection to
the East African bombings. Some are killed, more are wounded, and a
factory making medicine (!!) in one of the world's poorest countries is
destroyed by the world's most powerful country. 
   
Sudan Factory May Have Made Drugs

   By ANTHONY SHADID Associated Press Writer
   
   KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- The mystery surrounding the pharmaceutical
   plant attacked by the United States remains, perhaps hidden with the
   melted packets of pain relievers and bottles of antibiotics strewn
   among the rubble of red brick, splintered wood and white plaster.
   
   Washington says the plant was making precursors for chemical weapons.
   Sudan says no such work occurred.
   
   But interviews with Sudanese officials, doctors, lawyers and plant
   employees suggest some of Sudan's claims are true: The plant produced
   antibiotics and drugs for diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, it
   planned to export to Iraq under U.N. approval, it was privately owned
   and it was not a secret installation.
   
   The plant, El Shifa Pharmaceutical Industries Co., was in an
   industrial area near a relatively upscale neighborhood of Khartoum.
   
   Four main buildings were on the site: three one-story factories and a
   four-story administration building that is now half-standing. The
   factories were destroyed, and fires still smoldered on Sunday,
   emitting a stench of burning plastic.
   
   The plant began production in December 1996. It offered a line of 87
   products, 12 of them for veterinary use, said Adam Umbadi, a
   production engineer at the factory who helped install the machinery.
   
   El Shifa was the biggest of six pharmaceutical plants in the Sudanese
   capital, employing 306 people, according to Umbadi and Khartoum
   pharmacists.
   
   Its main products were the antibiotic amoxycilin, which can be used to
   treat malaria, and the pain reliever paracetamol, Umbadi said.
   
   All those products, packaged in El Shifa's blue and white cartons, are
   available at Khartoum pharmacies. So are other El Shifa antibiotics
   and drugs to treat ulcers and tuberculosis.
   
   ``The spectrum of drugs they produce is very wide. No other factory
   can produce all of it. There will be a loss,'' said Mona Hamid, a
   doctor at Khartoum's Radiation and Isotope Center.
   
   Among its products was Shifazole, an antibiotic to treat parasites in
   animals. In January, the factory won a $199,000 contract to ship
   100,000 cartons to Iraq under a U.N. exemption to sanctions imposed in
   1990, U.N. documents show. White cartons of the antibiotic were
   scattered in the rubble.
   
   The shipment was to be sent to Iraq by October, said Alamaddin Al
   Shibli, the factory's export manager. The company began exporting
   medicine this year to nearby Yemen and was scheduled to send a
   shipment of veterinary medicine to Chad by month's end, he said.
   
   On Sunday, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was asked on CNN's
   ``Late Edition'' why no evidence of anything but commercial
   pharmaceuticals is evident in the wreckage of the plant.
   
   To protect intelligence methods and sources, Berger refused to
   describe ``physical evidence'' the government has of a dual role but
   said, ``I have no question, the intelligence community has no
   question, that that factory was used to manufacture a chemical used in
   making nerve gas.''
   
   The plant was owned by Salah Idris, a Sudanese businessmen who has
   homes in London, Saudi Arabia and Khartoum, according to his lawyer,
   Ghazi Suleiman. He denies Idris ever met Osama bin Laden, the exiled
   Saudi millionaire the United States says is connected to the bombings
   of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
   
   Idris was in London when the attack occurred, said Suleiman, who
   himself is one of Sudan's most prominent opposition figures.
   
   ``He didn't believe it at first, and he thought the news was wrong. He
   was really taken by surprise,'' Suleiman said.
   
   Idris, described as charming and apolitical, purchased the plant in
   March 1998, Suleiman said.
   
   There are no signs of secrecy at the plant. Two prominent signs along
   the road point to the factory, and foreigners have been allowed to
   visit the site at all hours. Plant employees deny any components of
   chemical weapons were made.
   
   ``(Take) any chemical (and) you can produce poison out of it, but you
   need special utilities and specialized personnel and, (on) top of all,
   lots of secrecy,'' Shibli said. ``This factory was open to everyone.''
   
   Doctors differ on the impact of the plant's destruction.
   
   Most agreed the products could be purchased from other plants in
   Khartoum or abroad. But Honowa Hamad, a Khartoum pharmacist, said
   prices of imported medicine could be three times higher or more.
   
   AP-NY-08-23-98 1859EDT
   
   Copyright © Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
   not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
   
QUIZ

1. Is this a:
a. war crime
b. terrorist act
c. case of collateral damage (no apology necessary)
d. another  example of why we need Clinton to remain in office

2. Many Americans support this action because:
a. Sudanese are poor
b. Sudanese are black
c. Sudan poses a serious threat to our National Security
d. b and c

3. Since there is no evidence chemical weapons were made at this factory:
a. The US will apologize and pay reparations
b. the US will send Betty Currie to retrieve the evidence
c. Vernon Jordan will help find jobs for the surviving factory workers
d. Clinton will admit to a legally correct but inappropriate bombing