At what point does conferring with regimes that support terrorists make you a collaborator?
Posted on 07/06/2002 1:10:12 AM PDT by HAL9000
BAGHDAD, July 6 (AFP) - US black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan arrived in Iraq Saturday for a trip he says is aimed at preventing a possible US military strike on the sanctions-hit country."We will see what we can do to avoid the escalation of a possible war," Farrakhan, currently on a tour of Islamic countries, told reporters on his arrival in Baghdad overnight.
He was referring to repeated threats by the US administration to launch a strike to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, accused by Washington of developing weapons of mass destruction.
Farrakhan, the head of Nation of Islam who once called Adolf Hitler a great man, will hold talks with Iraqi officials and "do all in his capacity" to prevent war.
His visit to Baghdad follows the breakdown in talks in Vienna between the United Nations and Iraq on the return of UN weapons inspectors after a three-year hiatus.
Drop the daisy cutter now!!! Get 2 dirt balls with one bomb, save the taxpayers some money.
Which isn't much. Farrakhan is a bad joke at best.
Farrakhan visits Baghdad
July 5, 2002 Posted: 8:46 PM EDT (0046 GMT)
From Rym Brahimi - CNNBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan arrived in Baghdad on Friday on a mission "to see what we can do to possibly stop a war."
Farrakhan was greeted at Saddam International Airport by Abdelrazzaq Al-Hashemi, the head of the government's Iraqi Friendship and Peace Organization.
"We're very grateful to Allah that he blessed us with a safe flight to Baghdad," Farrakhan said. "Our purpose here is to see the people of Iraq -- hopefully the leadership -- and to see what we can do to possibly stop a war."
Asked if he was bringing a message to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from U.S. President George W. Bush, he said, "No. I bring a message from the people that I represent, and I hope it will be a message from the government."
Farrakhan said he would be in Baghdad for just two days, and he hopes to meet with Hussein while there.
"I don't know that I will meet with President Saddam Hussein. It is my hope to do so," he said.
The controversial and outspoken leader of the Nation of Islam, an African-American Islamic ministry, has traveled to Iraq three or four times over the last decade.
His current visit comes at a time of heightened tensions among Baghdad and Washington, which along with the United Nations has been pressing Iraq to allow weapons inspectors back into the country. Baghdad wants sanctions removed.
The New York Times reported Friday that U.S. military planners have put together a preliminary planning document that calls for air, land and sea-based forces to attack Iraq. The assault would involve tens of thousands of U.S. Marines and soldiers, the newspaper reported. (Full story)
Farrakhan has been touring the region in recent weeks, including a stop in Qatar. He arrived in Baghdad after a stop in the Syrian capital Damascus.
His comments at the Baghdad airport Friday were tempered compared to those he made in mid-June before leaving the United States.
During that news conference, Farrakhan lambasted the United States for what he charged is a plan to overthrow and possibly kill Hussein. Calling the U.S. Congress a "lynch mob," and President Bush the "leader of a lynch mob," Farrakhan claimed that reports Hussein had developed weapons of mass destruction and gassed his own people are unsubstantiated.
Such allegations have been reported by United Nations weapons inspectors, as well as many international journalists.
At what point does conferring with regimes that support terrorists make you a collaborator?
"Achmed,..Send in my Nubian Prince and lets make peace!"
great, we get to kill two birds with one stone.
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