Posted on 06/15/2005 5:34:17 AM PDT by TaxachusettsMan
TWENTY-MINUTE VIDEO CLIP available for viewing at website.
News that Ahmed Chalabi helped compile the oil for food kickback list has led to questions about its reliability. Now, a high profile anti-war protestor has admitted he was offered oil vouchers by Tariq Aziz.
When the oil for food programme was established, it was meant to help the Iraqi people. But the main benefactors seem to have been friends of Saddam’s regime. “The Iraqi Government wanted to curry favour with those individuals and gave them oil at advantageous prices,” claims Claude Hankes-Drielsam, advisor to the Iraqi Governing Council. They were then able to sell the oil on at market prices, reaping millions in profit.
Like many of Tariq Aziz’s friends, Father Jean Marie Benjamin is accused of accepting these paybacks.
“He benefited from Saddam Hussein’s regime,” alleges Hankes-Drielsam.
But while Father Benjamin proclaims his innocence, he does admit he was offered oil vouchers: “I told Tariq Aziz I couldn’t accept on ethical grounds.” He fears the payback list is little more than a means of punishing those who opposed the war. There are also concerns the scandal is being used to divert attention from the real story.
Most of the oil exported from Iraq during the embargo years had nothing to do with the UN’s programme. It was smuggled into Turkey. As Paul Volcker, Head of the UN Independent Inquiry, explains: “it’s a matter of public record” that America knew about this.
Whether Father Benjamin is feeding his "attack dogs" (they guard the chicken coop) contemptuously named "after two of my most unfavorite people: DONALD (Rumsfeld) and CONDOLEEZA (Rice)," or recording his latest anti-USA, anti-George W. Bush rap CD in his sound studio (doesn't EVERY monastery have one of those?), or meeting with the leftist Italian lawyers he's drafted to organize Tariq Azziz's legal defense ("When a friend is attacked, I defend my friend," says Father Benjamin, granting himself a right he denies to the United States), or bragging about his "CORDIAL BLESSINGS ON YOU AND YOUR COLLABORATORS" letter from the Pope (hopefully, the late Pope) and the Secretary of State, Cardinal Sodano (whose travel companion, Father Benjamin neglects to mention, he was for years after having been brought into the Secretariat through Cardinal Sodano's predecessor, Cardinal Casaroli),
Father Benjamin continues his "peace work" from Assisi.
Which is fine, except for this: is there any way conservative Catholics in the United States can make sure that NOT ONE PENNY of whatever we contribute to Peter's Pence (the Papal Charities), or FIDES, or CARITAS, or the gazillion other international agencies of our Church goes to this arrogant, anti-American sacerdotal creep who has duped his Superiors into seeing in his political jihad the equivalent of Mother Teresa's work in the slums of Calcutta?
At the very least, pull the plug on his recording studio and GIVE HIM A JOB!
I thought there was a shortage of priests?
This is one priestly nutcase too many.
I can't imagine that recording anti-American rap CDs and spending all your time and money organizing Tariq Azziz's legal defense are things that the new Pope would consider worthy exercises of the priestly apostolate!
And would someone call Jonathan Hunt or Eric Shawn at FOX and get them on this fraud's case?
As he continues to earn the money they gave him.
He's got a great ally in Aziz. Or at least he did; Aziz is dead. But he was also the highest ranking Christian in the Iraqi government, which somewhat would have legitimized what was going on.
Birds of a feather -- Benjamin, Aziz, Galloway, Annan
Petition for the Release of Mr Tariq Aziz
May 12, 2005George Galloway MP has launched this petition today for the RELEASE OF TARIQ AZIZ and ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS in Iraq.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1417229/posts
Saddam's Aides: Singing 'Like a Canary'(Newsweak)
msnbc - newsweek ^ | June 13 2005 | -Mark Hosenball
Posted on 06/05/2005 9:40:25 PM PDT by Deetes
June 13 issue - Some of Saddam Hussein's most notorious former lieutenants have been dishing dirt. Senate investigators looking into prewar U.N. Oil-for-Food deals have named Saddam's former personal secretary and security chief, Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and former foreign minister Tariq Aziz as key witnesses who have provided inside info about Saddam's regime.
Senate staffers traveled to Baghdad earlier this year to interview Iraqi officials, and their reports are among the first official accounts of what captured Iraqi leaders are saying. "In interview after interview, the officials were generally forthcoming and quite proud—even boastful—of their creativity in undermining U.N. sanctions," says Sen. Norm Coleman, who leads one of several congressional probes into Saddam-era oil deals. According to Senate documents, Ramadan is one of the most talkative captives, supplying pithy quotes about how Saddam allegedly manipulated the prewar oil program to buy support from influential foreigners. Senate investigators quote Ramadan saying that Saddam's regime gave foreigners oil allocations—which could be cashed in for lucrative brokerage fees—as "compensation for support." Al-Tikriti told investigators the former Iraqi leader and his aides "were all extremists" on the issue of oil sales to Israel. If they found an Iraqi oil buyer was selling to Israel, they would "not allow it," al-Tikriti said
You believe the cover up if you want. I was stationed on the post where it happened.
We'd have heard about it if Tariq Aziz had been killed.
You're confused.
Oh, I see how it is.
Oooh, boy.
He never touched the money or those lying boys either.
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