Posted on 03/11/2005 6:36:52 PM PST by Stars&StripesNE
Saddam's $2m offer to WMD inspector By Francis Harris in Washington (Filed: 12/03/2005)
Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction
Ritter already has spent half that on his porn collection......
Some Swedish guy. but they suspect others took the money. My question is, why would saddamn pay two mill to get a clean bill of health for weapons he didn't have?
This is big news, I think.
Hans Blix?
I would love to see Scott Ritter locked up in some Saudi jail. One can dream.
Short on details, but what's here is interesting...
No the report is from some swedish guy. but they suspect he was not the only one to offered bribes. They think some may have taken the money. Makes one wonder about the U.N. reports of NO WMD's huh.
Mr Ekeus told Reuters news agency that he had passed the information to the Volcker Commission. "I told the Volcker people that Tariq [Aziz] said a couple of million was there if we report right. My answer was, 'That is not the way we do business in Sweden.' "
Not Blix.
ummm,.... if Saddam didn't have any, wasn't hiding any, and wasn't trying to make more; why did Saddam feel it necessary to bribe an inspector to "not find any?"
This makes absolutely no sense since we now know that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs whatsoever. Therefore, I refuse to think any further about this.
It's some Swede who headed the program between 1991-1997 (Eukers?). To answer another posters question, however...Saddam did have weapons during this time that were discovered. Interestingly, this was when Scott Ritter was telling the truth about the danger that Saddam posed to the world.
Remember...Saddam did have weapons that we discovered at this time (1991-1997). Part of the problem with this whole ordeal is that the inspectors admitted that they didn't destroy them all before they were kicked out. But they were there, at this time.
Rolf Ekeus.
BTW, maybe the guy Christopher Hitchens mentioned in 2003:
"I know of at least one incontrovertible case where a senior inspector was offered a huge bribe by Tariq Aziz himself: The man in question refused the money, but obviously not everybody did."
http://slate.msn.com/id/2078512
This guy left in '97 and says it was offered and he didn't accept it. But it establishes a precedent. If they offered it once, they offered it many times. And some probably accepted. (surprise!)
Which begs the question...if there were no WMD, why the attempt at bribes (if not outright bribes)? I know you guys have thought of that, but I just raise the point again.
$2 million? I'm surprised the UN could be bought off so cheap.
I don't know where Mr Aziz is right now BUT, if this report is accurate, Mr Aziz should be hung in the public square in memory of the 1500+ brave US soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of Iraq!
He wasn't. (Thank Gawd)
FYI, here is the latest on Aziz:
Tariq Aziz refuses to testify against Saddam: lawyer
excerpt:
The lawyer said that Aziz, who has been in US custody since his surrender in the immediate aftermath of last year's US-led invasion,
~snip~
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