Regards, Ivan
Posted on 10/15/2004 12:37:35 AM PDT by MadIvan
THE Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, was yesterday forced to agree a £17 million budget to investigate widespread allegations that UN officials were bribed by Saddam Hussein through the agency’s discredited oil-for-food programme in Iraq. This follows the recent publication of the Iraq Survey Group report which produced detailed new evidence that UN staff and French and Russian diplomats were corrupted by Saddam, using special allocations of oil, to help him break UN sanctions. But now other disturbing findings are emerging from the ISG investigations - that Saddam, with the connivance of UN officials, used the oil-for-food programme to finance foreign terrorist groups, including the notorious Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In the Seventies, the Marxist PFLP literally invented the terror tactic of hijacking civilian airliners, resulting in the death of at least 20 innocent passengers. In recent times, fearing competition from Islamic terror groups, the PFLP launched a new offensive inside Israel, with bomb attacks on civilians and the assassination of the Israeli tourism minister in October 2001. There is now proof that Saddam Hussein helped fund this new offensive, confirming British and American allegations that Iraq was a base for international terrorism. The failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has tended to belittle the original strategic reasons for deposing Saddam. But in the era of mass terror attacks on western civilian targets ushered in by the 9/11 massacres, it is now more necessary than ever to ensure that rogue states do not serve as bases for terrorist organisations.
That is the reason why the Taleban regime was deposed (with UN support). That is the reason why the UN has just ordered Syria to reduce its military presence in occupied Lebanon, which serves as protection for numerous terror groups. And that is one reason why Saddam had to be removed, though in his case the UN faltered in taking action, not least because of the oil-for-bribes scandal.
Now we have the evidence that Saddam gave aid to the PFLP. He also provided a haven for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian responsible for the murder of Kenneth Bigley, as well as yesterday’s attacks on the Green Zone in Baghdad.
Much has gone wrong since Saddam was deposed. But equally, those who favoured a continuation of sanctions as an alternative to regime change must explain how they would have stopped Saddam funding the PFLP, or giving al-Zarqawi free rein to plot bombings in Western Europe. Or how they would have stopped him bribing UN officials to get his murderous way.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Unfortunately our msm is keeping this quiet because,as you point out, it will show the big crack in Kerry's anti Iraq argument. The terrorists are salivating over the possibility of a Kerry win. If he does get elected, Blair will not be able to trust him. He will say one thing and the minute it gets him in political trouble he will change.
bttt
Blair already doesn't trust Kerry - he instructed the Labour Party to keep their distance from the Democrats. Our Liberal party sent a bigger delegation to the Democrat National Convention than Labour did.
Blair is too shrewd to ignore Kerry's faults.
Regards, Ivan
That's good news.
Bump.
btt
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