***Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - 24 APR 03/Day 36 - LIVE THREAD***

24 APR 03 | An.American.Expatriate

[Mo1]

Operation Iraqi Freedom

Link to the previous thread

Good Morning.

This is the Daily Thread of Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.

It is designed for general conversation about the events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.

[Timeout]

If MP Galloway thought he was in hot water before, I'd say the tempature is still rising:

The Christian Science Monitor

The most recent - and possibly most revealing - documents were obtained earlier this week by the Monitor. The papers include direct orders from the Hussein regime to issue Mr. Galloway six individual payments, starting in July 1992 and ending in January 2003.

[SNIP]

The three most recent payment authorizations, beginning on April 4, 2000, and ending on January 14, 2003 are for $3 million each. All three authorizations include statements that show the Iraqi leadership's strong political motivation in paying Galloway for his vociferous opposition to US and British plans to invade Iraq.

The Jan. 14, 2003, document, written on Republican Guard stationary with its Iraqi eagle and "Trust in Allah," calls for the "Manager of the security department, in the name of President Saddam Hussein, to order a gratuity to be issued to Mr. George Galloway of British nationality in the amount of three million dollars only."

The document states that the money is in return for "his courageous and daring stands against the enemies of Iraq, like Blair, the British Prime Minister, and for his opposition in the House of Commons and Lords against all outrageous lies against our patient people...."

The document is signed left to right by four people, including Gen. Saif Adeen Flaya al-Hassan, Col. Shawki Abed Ahmed, and what the Iraqi general who first discovered the documents says is the signature of Qusay.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Bad boy!

[TexKat]

Yeah RC, I check your post after I had transmitted. Disregard the 6 of Spades, but then you might want to hold on to it, they are coming in hard and heavy.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Stole this from another Tariq thread:

209 posted on 04/24/2003 6:35 PM EDT by ALS

(^;

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

At least you didn't turn a 3-star General into a Colonel, lol!

Stole this from the other thread, too. I don't think that CBB will mind. Another possible benefit of Tariq's surrender:

No one in the media, of course, have mentioned the most important use of Aziz. As Deputy Prime Minister, he's a high enough rank to sign an Unconditional Surrender document of the Hussein regime to the Coalition. This has a number of useful effects including the obvious right to run the Iraqi Interim Government, to put oil on the market (screw the UN if they object), to sign contracts for reconstruction, etc.

As for the negotiating technique to get Aziz to sign such a surrender, The Godfather offers the answer. "Your signature or your brains will go on this document." Or, if we want to be more polite, we give him a choice between a war crimes trial at Gitmo, or we cut him some slack if he sings like a canary and signs whatever we present to him. If we want his signature, we'll get it.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, now up on FR, "Who's Next?"

Latest book(let), "to Restore Trust in America."

83 posted on 04/24/2003 4:59 PM EDT by Congressman Billybob ("Saddam has left the building. Heck, the building has left the building.")

[cyncooper]

Goodness!

I only read the first paragraph of your excerpt. I CANNOT WAIT to read the rest.

He received a payment as late as January 2003, did he? And the Monitor got their hands on documents?

Off to read...

[Dolphy]

The article about Uday's present was in the NY Times today. A friend gave me a copy so I don't have a link. It would really turn your stomach to read the entire thing. It was based on interviews with some men who had been tortured, one having lost his tongue, another his ear.

[sheikdetailfeather]

My understanding is that the barbeque was a combo meeting with our troops and Iraqis to talk about important subjects as well as to socialize.

[cyncooper]

But Howard Dean thinks it is too soon to tell if the Iraqi people are better off without Saddam (and his regime) gone.

Now I'm really going to read about the Monitor's Galloway story. Thank you for the source on the story. Uday was (past tense?) as sick a psycho as can be.

[Kadric]

"Or, if we want to be more polite, we give him a choice between a war crimes trial at Gitmo, or we cut him some slack if he sings like a canary and signs whatever we present to him. If we want his signature, we'll get it."

I would think more along three offers.
Iraqis for trial and punishment as they see fit.
Gitmo for life.
Club Fed for a defined period.
His choice depending on how much he wants to cooperate.

I still think we should purchase Pitcairn Island from the British. Gitmo is going get filled up pretty soon.

[cyncooper]

My understanding is that the barbeque was a combo meeting with our troops and Iraqis to talk about important subjects as well as to socialize.

Thank you. I was hoping some Iraqis got to enjoy a nice barbecue and some Cokes. How great.

[cyncooper]

I read it and there's a thread on it:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/899717/posts

While it seemed plain before, there were word games still being played that made one wonder if he would wiggle his way out. Well, does it get any clearer than this?

---

It calls the $1 million payment a reward for Galloway's support in trying to repeal the "unjust blockade on our beloved country and for his firm stand against the prime minister of Britain, the criminal Blair."

[Timeout]

Holy cow! The rest of the Monitor article is a "corker" too! (I hadn't read the entire article before my first post.)

The most recent documents obtained by the Monitor suggest that payoffs may well have been made by checks in lump sums. The Iraqi general, who is familiar with financial dealings of Hussein's inner circle, said that checks of several million dollars could have easily been cashed in a bank on the ground floor of one of Saddam's most important palaces in Baghdad.

[Well, duh, that's what the $650 million was for! And, as an MP, he probably wouldn't have been subject to security searches while carrying all that cash.]

The two earliest payments, in July, 1992 and October, 1993, are noted down on green stationary [in Qusay's house!] as having already been delivered. For example, the October payment states, "kindly be informed of the issuing of a gratuity by the esteemed leader President Saddam Hussein (may Allah protect and guide him) to Mr. George Galloway in the amount of $600,000."

It says the money was handed over to him by the representative of the directorate of the Special Security Organization, Colonel Shawki. Thursday, the US Marines had surrounded the house of Colonel Shawki. His neighbors said he might have already fled to Syria.

[Air Force Born]

We already own a beautiful South Pacific Island. I think it is Bikini?

[sheikdetailfeather]

Cigar dude is nice. I think I recall what made him laugh. He heard Greenspan was hospitalized with an enlarged prostitute.

[Timeout]

As the Brits would say, "methinks" Mr. Galloway may be spending some hard time before long.

After the Daily Telegraph articles, he blamed the newspaper. But it's going to be impossible to take on TWO papers finding separate records in two completely separate places.

"He's dead, Jim".

[stumpy]

No need to purchase an island. We have lovely San Clemente Island off the southern Calif. Coastline. Just drop them off, tell them to eat the wild goats that have been so pesky, and to not pay attention to the "incoming", as San Clemente Island is the U.S. Navy Gunnery range. Ha.

[angelwings49]

We're ALways happy to see "Ceegar Guy" around here :)

[DollyCali]

We dont need to send prisoners to wonderful paradise islands.. we need to send them to "prison islands".. cold, barren, ........ only difficulty is that the troops in charge would also be "in jail" in a manner of speaking

[Carolina]

That's a lot of forged documents ;)

[Timeout]

Someone on the other thread said of Galloway:

"Strip him of his citizenship and exile him to France"!

LOL!

(They're also noting Scott Ridder's deadly silence lately. Hmmmmm.)