There was one obstacle. Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Sure, they did at one time, but they had been destroyed and any that had been hidden away would have deteriorated. American inspectors had actually found that out. Apparently Saddam Hussein did not want to admit this "weakness." Nevertheless, the American leadership proclaimed he still had these weapons.
Back in 1987 the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had been set up with the director-general Jose Bustani, headquartered in the Hague, Netherlands. He also knew there were no chemical weapons and started to negotiate with Saddam Hussein and planned to send inspectors that would confirm. The Americans were very upset over that and asked him to resign. John Bolton, avid to attack Iraq demanded him to resign threatening Bustani saying they knew where his children lived (in New York and London). Bustani replied his children felt the same way he did and thus refused. The Americans looked for a way to force him out by lining up other nations to vote against him. They were successful in getting small countries and loyal allies that he was forced out. The vote went 47-7 with 43 abstentions.
The next year, 2003 after Colin Powell spoke at the United Nations that there were weapons of mass destruction the United States did invade resulting in deaths of about 5 million Iraqi and 5,000 American troops. Colin Powell later felt he had been misled, but he had the most international credibility of the Bush administration.
That year Bustani, still a member of the Brazilian foreign service was able to be appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom by a new Brazilian Prime Minister, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula felt they had to make a statement and decided to make him ambassador to Britain. Bustani met with the Queen and later confronted Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister who supported the Americans. He finished his career as ambassador to the United Kingdom and France retiring in 2015.
After retirement he was consulted with the Douma chemical attack in Syria. He claims that, again Americans ignored findings of the OPCW. He was blocked from testifying at the UN by America, France and Britain. Interestingly, during Donald Trump's first administration he found a way to appoint John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton was pleased to see Jair Bolsonaro, a very Trump like conservative who replaced Lula as Brazilian Prime Minister--does that sound familiar? A few times we are shown Bustani as a concert pianist with an orchestra.
The film was dedicated to the memory of Bob Rigg. He had been the senior editor at OPCW. He was from New Zealand and served on their National Consultative Committee on Disarmament. Bob died in 2021, a year before this film was released.
Consists of a few current interviews (as of 2022) and archived interviews/videos
Jose Jiffily was the director. He has 7 credits as actor, 20 as director and 6 as cinematographer.
Pedro Rossi was a writer and cinematographer. He has 14 credits for editing, 10 for cinemtography and 8 for directing.
Pedro Leal David composed some music. He has 3 composing credits and 1 for the music department.
Unlike most films I post about, this one might be hard to get. I picked up a copy at my local library. You might find it as "A Symphony for a Common Man" or its Portuguese title "Sinfonia de um Homem Comum" Its value for me is to recognize that the Americans, particularly Republicans have a history of interfering in other countries.
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