French on the take. Iraqi govt. papers: Saddam bribed Chirac BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The oil ministry papers, described by the independent Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, are apparently authentic and will become the basis of an official investigation by the new Iraqi Governing Council, the Independent reported Wednesday. "I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a governing council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac sought to couch his opposition to the invasion on a moral high ground. A senior Bush administration official said Washington was aware of the reports but refused further comment. French diplomats have dismissed any suggestion their foreign policy was influenced by payments from Saddam, but some European diplomats have long suspected France's steadfast opposition to the war was less moral than monetary. "Oil runs thicker than blood," is how one former ambassador put his suspicions about the French motives for opposing action against Saddam. Al-Mada's list cites a total of 46 individuals, companies and organizations inside and outside Iraq as receiving Saddam's oil bribes, including officials in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria and France, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization. __________________________________________________ If true, it sure explains a lot.
My uncle's in the Oil bidness, and he said the reason the Iraqi war happened was because Iraq was selling black market oil all over the place, which was hurting the US because it would have changed the oil pricing from the standard US oil dollar to something else. Something like that anyway. Of course, this article did come from a paper owned by a crazy cult guy, and they have made plenty o' erroneous claims before.
Or, maybe, he bribed Bush. You see, by giving a big **** you to the UN and capturing Saddam ourselves, Saddam is free from the UN sanctions. Now, he'll "die" in prison and live on some island somewhere while Bush/Cheney/Halliburton reap the profits in Iraq. Yeah, that's it.
Nice how the headline says Chirac but the content says "top French officials". Then again this is the Washington Times we're talking about.
"Your ass belongs to me DaDakota" "Also, I see from the camera in our portrait on your wall that you haven't been following all my teachings. Do you want to burn in the eternal fires? I didn't think so. Now send me half of your paycheck. Oh, and go Redskins, thank me, errr I mean God that Joe Gibbs is back!!!"
Dude, 95% is a large number, and way exaggerated. We should not make decisions based upon what the rest of the world wants, but what is good for our country. DD
hell . . . haven't the bushes been in bed with Saddam for quite some time. . . oh wait. . .maybe it is the Bin Ladens Rocket River
"The rest" does not include Chirac, as you deceivingly put in the thread title, but you conveniently chose to ignore that someone pointed that out.
And, we should let others decide what we do as a country...to protect ourselves. Then when the rest of the world gets bullied around and they come crying for our sons and daughters to bail them out, we should just blindly go in and do what is asked. Hey, the world asked us to be the police nation, and now we are....get what you asked for I guess. DD
We heard all of this before the war, when we were telling everyone that we knew better, we knew all about the WMDs and 9-11 connections, and about how Iraqis would welcome us with open arms, and ...before we later went begging for help and money, before we were proven wrong on issue after issue. What have you learned from all of this? I'll try once again....when it involves other countries...and the threat is implied, in the future, or based on intelligence, it is not just our business. Not unless you want to go back to the way the Western world was just after the fall of Rome.
