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Round Table: February 10.012

Round Table: February 10.012 . Preliminary analysis of the Saddam Hussein project. Who is Saddam Hussein?. Saddam Hussein. Having a whole generation of Iraqi and Americans grow up without understanding each other (can have) negative implications and could lead to mix-ups (Saddam Hussein,1983)

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Round Table: February 10.012

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  1. Round Table: February 10.012 Preliminary analysis of the Saddam Hussein project

  2. Who is Saddam Hussein?

  3. Saddam Hussein • Having a whole generation of Iraqi and Americans grow up without understanding each other (can have) negative implications and could lead to mix-ups (Saddam Hussein,1983) • (Saddam borrowed the quotation from Rumsfeld in a statement delivered during his discussion with the Iraqi minister 1983)

  4. Who is Saddam Hussein? • Time Line: • 1980-attacked Hussein • 1988-War with Iran ends • 1990-War with Kuwait • 2003-Iran attacked by the US • 2006-Hussein is executed

  5. Context of data collection • ‘Why do you think we trusted the Prophets? It is because they recorded every incident’ • (Saddam Hussein, circa 1991) • Important meetings with army generals recorded. • Meetings with political leaders • Meetings with foreign dignitaries

  6. Types of data collected • Extensive collection of ‘state records’ • Videos

  7. History of such type of data collection • Records collected at the end of World War 11 • Records were collected at the end of the Cold War after the collapse of the Communist Regimes • Hours of audio tape • Limited number of videos

  8. Open sources • A total of eleven thousand records were lodged on the internet • In 2006 some of the tapes removed when it was reported that some of the files on the internet contained information on the formation of nuclear weapons !

  9. Ethics • Advantages: Eavesdropping • Ability to follow the same individual over time on the same topic e.g. Saddam analyzing recordings about military intelligence over a long period of let's say a decade

  10. Comparison with other dictators • ‘Historic, Secret Recording of Hitler’s 1942 visit to Finland Aired on Radio’ (Matti Huuhtanen) • Unlike Saddam’s recordings, Hitler was unaware of the eleven minute conversation.

  11. Vernacular Speech • Not obtainable by other means’ unguarded speech • ‘…being almost unfiltered.. give eavesdroppers the experience of high level decision probable not obtainable by other means’ • Letters, diaries, and memoirs

  12. Examples of topics covered • Articles by Islamic Sheiks and preachers on the legality of martyrdom operations such as suicide bombings in Islamic jurisprudence • 5-Nov-91 Dossier regarding the role of the first Iraqi Force in the 1991 Gulf War, including planning, preparation, and management of the war.

  13. Topics • 9-Jan-01 to 31-March-01 Minutes of a meeting between 1st Military Intelligence Division discussing Saddam’s previous speeches and meetings • July-02 to Octobers-02 Reports of daily events within the Iraqi Army Corps and schedules showing detailed information regarding the damage to Tammuz and Ali Air Bases

  14. Topics • 2001-2002 Study and correspondence regarding expected U.S attack on Iraq, including best practices for fighting United State • 22 October-00 Correspondence within Iraqi Intelligence Service regarding scientific ideas to produce viruses and germs to pollute the water tanks for the United States camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabs

  15. Theoretical Framework • Systemic Functional Analysis • (Transitivity) • Critical Discourse Analysis

  16. Systemic Functional Linguistics • Systemic Functional Linguistics • Field, Tenor and Mode • (Halliday,1994;Matthiesen 1995;Martin,1992) • Content=topic=what=field=ideational=war, ‘people who can collect information’ • Tenor=interpersonal relations=relationships with other soldiers=enemy=relationship=martyrs

  17. INCLUDE TEXT • Translations • Transcriptions • Identifying the voices of participants (in each instance) • Summation of merits • Ecological approach to linguistics and history • ‘ How components interact to become systems whose nature can’t be defined merely by calculating the sum of the part’ (John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How historians Map the Past’. New York: Oxford University Press (2004).

  18. International Law • State records, moveable property • (International Law) • The US returned the state records to Germany but kept some which were handed to scholars • Will the ‘state records’ be returned ! The issue here is that they are regarded as ‘state records’ and not ‘data’

  19. Limitations of the data • Conversations were short versions of longer conversation • In his interrogation of his speech with Brian Piro. • Tape is the official document • Transcripts are an interpretation of that document • Transcriptions may not capture nuances of meaning

  20. Transcriptions • Transcriptions are ‘treacherous’ and ‘inevitable (David Greenberg 2003).

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