Saddam and the French Connection

• Saddam bribery revealed • WMD said to have been destroyed • Blair accepts mistake over WMD

Key quote "Just as I have had to accept that the evidence now is that there were not stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed, I hope others have the honesty to accept that the report also shows that sanctions weren’t working" - Tony Blair

SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.

Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.

But the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), which returned its full report last night, said Saddam was telling the truth when he denied on the eve of war that he had any weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He had not built any since 1992.

The ISG, who confirmed last autumn that they had found no WMD, last night presented detailed findings from interviews with Iraqi officials and documents laying out his plans to bribe foreign businessmen and politicians.

Although they found no evidence that Saddam had made any WMD since 1992, they found documents which showed the "guiding theme" of his regime was to be able to start making them again with as short a lead time as possible."

Saddam was convinced that the UN sanctions - which stopped him acquiring weapons - were on the brink of collapse and he bankrolled several foreign activists who were campaigning for their abolition. He personally approved every one.

To keep America at bay, he focusing on Russia, France and China - three of the five UN Security Council members with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.

Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.

Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counsellors" and spokesman for his re-election campaign.

They even assessed the chances for "supporting one of the candidates in an upcoming French presidential election." Chirac is not mentioned by name.

A memo sent to Saddam dated in May last year from his intelligence corps said they met with a "French parliamentarian" who "assured Iraq that France would use its veto in the UN Security Council against any American decision to attack Iraq."

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, last night said again that he was wrong to suggest Saddam had WMD - but asked the British public to accept that Iraq would probably have acquired such weapons if he had not acted.

However, the ISG uncovered millions of pages of documents and, after interviewing scores of captured Iraqis - including Mr Aziz - the report lays out what it says is were plans to end the United Nations sanctions then start to acquire weapons.

Saddam, it says, even fooled his own military chiefs into believing that he had WMD. This was designed to deter uprising from rebel Iraqis, on whom he deployed mustard gas in 1988, and aggressors in the Middle East.

Speaking during his trip to Ethiopia last night, the Prime Minister referred to his speech last week where he admitted being "wrong" in the main part of his case for war but right to see a gathering threat in Iraq.

"Just as I have had to accept that the evidence now is that there were not stockpiles of actual weapons ready to be deployed, I hope others have the honesty to accept that the report also shows that sanctions weren’t working," he said.

He couldn't permit inspections because his missile development program- which was very much active even as late as 2003 was a violation of UN resolutions. [Remember they built that large test stand for long range missile engines just before the war, the test stand we caught on satellite imagery?]It turned out his program was much further along than anyone suspected.

His drone development program was a violation of UN resolutions. He wouldn't want inspectors finding those or all the plans.

Having inspectors running about at will would mean those chiildren's prisons would eventually come to light no matter if Ritter mentioned them or not.

The Iraqi testing of biochem weapons on prisoners would be exposed.

The world would have found out about the murder of all those missing Kuwaitis that the UN resolutions demanded an accounting for. Since Iraq had murdered them and tested things on them it was hardly possible for Iraq to ever fufill those resolutions of which the return of the prisoners was an integral part.

The new facilities he was preparing underground at al Tawaitha would have been found.

He knew we would find out that he had sought uranium - yes, even in Niger just as Libya did- in order to begin the enrichment process as soon as backs were turned- and his French buddies sure as heck didn't want real inspections to resume because their role would be exposed.

Hussein knew that there was no legitimate means of satisfying the resolutions.

Now, what is sarin a WMD or not? And wasn't a binary shell full of Sarin found in Iraq when the "insurgents" tried to rig it as a conventional bomb? And wasn't that shell circa 1996? do people seriously believe there was only one such shell in all of Iraq?

And where exactly was the origin of the VX, etc, smuggled into Jordan that no one wants to talk about?

How to explain the ricin found in terrorist hands in Europe that matched what was found in Iraq?

How to explain the vials in the scientists' freezer?

And can there be a single bug left in Iraq with all that well-guarded pesticide lying about military bases and contaminating rivers?

What was the South African WMD cleanup team there in Iraq to do?

What was Castro talking about when he advised Hussein to destroy his WMD?

And what was the Iraqi in the tape Powell played talking about when he called a junior officer to inquire whether or not they had gotten rid of something so the UN inspectors wouldn't find it?

What could he say to the US to placate us about Capt. Speicher and the two American civilians he held captive and tortured that would make it OK for a President to just walk away?

You see, the UN resolutions and America's interest in them were about a great deal more than what was being stored in ready to use, off the shelf form. It was about precursors and accountability, about missing prisoners of war both civilian and military, Kuwaiti, Iranian, and even American, about unaccounted for scientists and materials, illegal purchases, networks of front companies, hidden laboratories, precious lab and production equipment that had to be accounted for and destroyed to be made "OK." and more...

Coming clean would have opened up a can of worms for Saddam-but more than that, it was too troublesome for the UN to even let him come clean if he wanted to. Their hands were soiled, as was most of the other nations in the world. The only hope of the UN was the balancing act of keeping Iraq from ever having to endure serious inspections with unhindered inspectors, while simultaneously preventing the US and UK and the Aussies and others from going to war and finding out the truth- that Saddam may have been an evil beast but Old Europe managed the fighting pit and let him kill and breed for the prize money he would win.

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