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Wissam al Zahawie was Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican. Note also that just after his trip to Niger, Father Benjamin, a far-left French activist priest at the Vatican, began his flights of sanctions-busting 'aid' to Iraq. Zahawie attended his movie screenings- like Scott Ritter and Michael Moore, Father Benjamin was into 'documentary' making.

SEPTEMBER 2000 : (SANCTIONS-BREAKERS : FATHER JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN, FRENCH CITIZENS TRIP TO IRAQ) A diplomatic row has blown up at the United Nations over a direct flight between Paris and Baghdad. [The flight is to] to fight against an intolerable situation which condemns an innocent population to a slow agony. Flight organiser Father Jean-Marie Benjamin
About 80 French doctors, artists and sports personalities are planning to leave for Baghdad at 0800 (0600 GMT) on Friday to provide medical assistance and take part in a cultural festival.
Britain and the United States say that the French are violating UN sanctions against Iraq by not giving enough notice of the flight. However, France maintains that it is not trying to erode sanctions, but merely interpreting UN resolutions in a more liberal way than Washington and London.
The flight has been arranged by a private French group opposed to the international sanctions imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. A second French group has announced plans for another flight on 29 September. Its organiser, Father Jean-Marie Benjamin, said it was "to fight against an intolerable situation which condemns an innocent population to a slow agony".
Last week Russia flew a passenger flight to Iraq carrying humanitarian aid and a number of oil executives. But it gave the UN sanctions committee a few day's notice, enabling other countries to decide whether they wanted to raise any objections. Objections However, this time, France gave the committee only a few hours' notice, arguing that it did not need the UN's approval as the flight is not commercial. Britain has formally objected to the flight, saying that it breaks the sanctions. "We objected. We don't think it is humanitarian," a British diplomat said.
US officials said they were still reviewing the situation, although they had raised similar concerns earlier in the day.
The Netherlands, which chairs the committee on the Iraqi sanctions, has asked France to delay the flight's departure.
Both France and Russia, close trading partners of Iraq before the invasion of Kuwait, want the sanctions eased and lifted.
The BBC's United Nations correspondent says the row over flights raises questions about the future of the sanctions now that such prominent countries appear increasingly willing to test the embargo's limits.
Iraq re-opened its international airport last month to enable it to receive international flights against, despite the sanctions.
In a separate development, Russia, France and Tunisia have proposed a reduction of the amount of compensation Iraq pays to Gulf war victims from 30% to 20% in order to allow more funds for humanitarian goods. The proposal comes as the UN Security Council discusses the latest UN report on the oil-for-food programme that allows Iraq to buy humanitarian goods to counter the effect of sanctions. - " French defiant on flight to Iraq," BBC, Friday, 22 September, 2000, 02:12 GMT 03:12 UK

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Father Benjamin is also noted for his claim that he heard about 9/11 in advance, while attending a wedding in Italy. HE claims he told authorities about what he heard, claims he knew an attack on the UK was aborted at the last minute, etc. Weddings, Iraq, al Qaeda, Italy and 9/11 seem to go together...

I wonder just what or who was on those flights in the summer of 2000?

You're doing good work on this thread today.

5.56mm

Keep up the good work. I know I'm reading it. I think I'll bookmark this thread...

For those who don't know it, Niger's uranium is trucked to Benin's capital city and port; from there it goes to France for further processing.

See :

The raw uranium is exported to France for processing via Cotonou, Benin's capital. -- http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:UTvIb0XFTzkJ:news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3065165.stm+benin+uranium&hl=en

This would explain the Navy intel mentioned earlier in the thread about an informant saying the uranium destined for Iraq being held in a warehouse in Benin.

I neglected to add one more thing about the French Father Flyboy: His name was on the list of people and entities Saddam Hussein had bribed with oil vouchers.

Was he bribed just to write songs and make documentaries or was he paid for something/someone delivered by air in the summer of 2000 or something else?

JANUARY 29, 2004 : (FATHER JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN DENIES HE TOOK IRAQI OIL-FOR-FOOD BRIBES) "...The list even included a priest who heads the nonprofit Committee for Iraq. Father Benjamin, in Assisi, Italy, ejected allegations he took 4.5 million barrels of oil. "After having dedicated a number of years to dangerous and tiring work to support the Iraqi people, ... to be denigrated in such a fashion, with such vulgar slanders, shows once more how infinite is the wickedness of those who in truth are now interested in Iraqi oil," Father Benjamin said.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_bribes_5