Anti-war nations 'took bribes' before war began

[Kilgor]

Anti-war nations 'took bribes' before war began
Investigation launched into claims that Saddam Hussein used oil to win support around the world
By Anne Penketh
28 January 2004



Claims that dozens of politicians, including some from prominent anti-war countries such as France, had taken bribes to support Saddam Hussein are to be investigated by the Iraqi authorities. The US-backed Iraqi Governing Council decided to check after an independent Baghdad newspaper, al-Mada, published a list which it said was based on oil ministry documents.

The 46 individuals, companies and organisations inside and outside Iraq were given millions of barrels of oil, the documents show. Thousands of papers were looted from the State Oil Marketing Organisation after Baghdad fell to US forces on 9 April.

"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a Governing Council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." Rumours had circulated for months that documents implicating senior French individuals were about to surface. Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac staked out the moral high ground in opposing the invasion.

A senior Bush administration official said Washington was aware of the reports but refused further comment. Another US source said that incriminating oil ministry documents allegedly implicating France concerned the two-year period before the war, when the UN sanctions were in danger of collapse.

French diplomats have dismissed any suggestion that their foreign policy was influenced by payments from Saddam. The French have always insisted their anti-war stance did not mean support for Saddam. But British diplomats suspected France's steadfast opposition to the war was driven by something other than the reasons stated by President Chirac. "Oil runs thicker than blood," is how one former ambassador put his suspicions about the French motives for opposing action against Saddam.

The list quoted by al-Mada included members of Arab ruling families, religious organisations, politicians and political parties from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria, France and other countries. But no names were available last night.

Organisations named include the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The United States and Britain launched the war on Iraq on 19 March, 2003 without UN approval after tense negotiations in the Security Council collapsed in the face of a veto threat from France. France's relations with Britain and the US deteriorated to their worst point in decades over the Iraq rift, and have yet to heal.

China, another Security Council permanent member with veto power which is named by al-Mada, was also opposed to the Iraq invasion. Arab countries, in addition to France, had warned of the risk of instability spreading throughout the Middle East as a result of the war. Turkey, a Nato member, was a crucial player because of the opposition to the war among its Muslim majority population. There is the possibility that the documents in al-Mada are forgeries. At present there is almost a war of documents under way as Iraqis come to the realisation that they could be used as blackmail or as a settling of scores. And the leak of the documents could be a manipulation by the US-backed authorities in Iraq to discredit France.

The Iraqi authorities will be keen to interview prominent Iraqi officials held by the Coalition Provisional Authority who could shed light on illegal payments. Those officials include the former oil minister, Amer Mohammed Rashid. Assem Jihad, an oil ministry spokesman, said the documents stolen from his ministry may prove Saddam used bribery to gain support. "Anyone stealing Iraqi wealth will be prosecuted," he said.

Although under sanctions from the 1990 invasion of Kuwait until after the second Gulf War, the Iraqi government could sell oil under a UN agreement that proceeds from the oil sales be used to buy food, medicine and basic supplies.

Some international companies selling goods to Iraq may have paid commissions to Iraqi officials that were deposited in Arab banks in exchange for contracts under the oil for food deal. A paper trail should exist.

Saddam smuggled out billions of dollars worth of oil through Turkey, a Syrian pipeline and Iranian coastal waters. The Americans turned a blind eye to the smuggling via Turkey, because they needed to keep their Nato ally on board.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=485407


Oh france.. how could you... im so so shocked ! :bash:

[usa320]

Chirac's face is probably redder than an apple right now.

Jerkoffs. I wish bush took his "with us or with them" doctrine more seriously.

:lol:

[AFG]

well thats a suprise [directed at France] :roll:

[Kilgor]

I think there will be more to come too !

Digusting hypocracy.

:fork:

[Haiw]

'and other countries'.

I remember reading this article on some Dutch site yesterday and in that version the US was listed as well....so I wouldn't start ripping on the French just yet.

[Haiw]

Ah found it. Here's the interesting snippets:

De lijst van mensen die door Saddam werden betaald vanwege hun loyaliteit telt zeker twee premiers en twee ministers van Buitenlandse Zaken. Daarnaast zouden hooggeplaatste politici, journalisten, zonen van ministers en hoofden van staten vaten olie hebben ontvangen

De krant Al-Mada publiceerde een lijst met oliecontracten die in 1998 door de staatsorganisatie voor oliehandel zijn afgesloten. Daarop staan 200 mensen uit veertig landen, waaronder Groot-Brittannië, de Verenigde Staten, Spanje, Zuid-Afrika, Frankrijk en China.

Translation:
The list of people on Saddam's payroll for they loyalty contains at least two prime ministers and two Foreign Affairs ministers. Also high-placed politicians, journalists, sons of ministers and heads of state were supposed to have received barrels of oil.

The paper Al-Mada published a list of oil contracts that were signed in 1998 by the state organisation for oil export. On the list are 200 people from 40 countries, some of them being Great-Britain, the U.S., Spain, South-Africa, France and China.

[cut]

hehe look at them now :D

[soma]

Maybe propaganda?

[Kilgor]

Ive done a bit of researching and havent seen the US being involved. (yet anyway)

``We have thousands of pages of Iraqi intelligence documentation which back up those lists. What you are seeing in those lists is only the iceberg of what you are going to see in the future,'' he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlate...3676654,00.html

More than just properganda Id say

[German_American]

Even if the United States were listed Bush still never took bribes or high ranking officals in the republican party so that doesnt even matter. It had no influence in Tony Blair or Bush so I don't see what the big deal is. The point of that report is saying high ranking influences such as a commie party and officals took bribes so that they would disagree with the United States and England on the issue of going to war. Now thats the issue, wrong reasons for not supporting the war. Not having the moral obligation of no war but simply getting a bribe. I'm just one dumb cowboy so I might be wrong. Yeeeehaaaaaaaaaa!

[Dave the Dawg]

Of course, likely none of them could ever get convicted of bribery. At least under American law, and I believe a similar principle operates in several other countries, you can convict the person making the bribe because they intended to influence the bribe-taker to act in a certain way, but you can only convict the bribe-taker if you prove he acted that way because of the bribe. Since Joe Galloway was opposing the war anyway, for example, whatever payoffs he's alleged to have taken wouldn't result in a conviction. Even if you prove he took the money, you can't prove he did anything different than what he would have because of the money.

[Argyll]

And what about those countries who took "bribes" and back handers from the USA........such as Turkey?
What about the countries who were "leaned on" with "We'll not let you join the EC if you don't side with us"?
These stories cut both ways!

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Even if the United States were listed Bush still never took bribes or high ranking officials in the republican party so that doesn't even matter.
We do not really know how much "juice" the Republicans or any other western political party, institution or representative has taken from the Arab states over the years but you can be sure of one thing and that is they do take it. Saudi Arabia the leading Jihadist terrorist sponsor in the world has been very generous to western politicians over the years and at the same time western companies wanting to do lots of business with the Saudi's were encouraged to make contributions to Islamic charities and institutions and no doubt some sort of widows and orphans of Jihadists fund. Considering Bush, Cheney and other of our illustrious leaders were former captains of industry it would be hard to believe that they were somehow never involved in this directly or indirectly at some time in their career.
I doubt that these documents are real and are nothing more than misinformation for who in their right mind anywhere in the west would receive a direct payment from Saddam and what idiot would list the names of those taking the bribes I think we all know that this is not the way it works, escrow and numbered accounts anyone?

[Kriz]

Never heard of innocent until proven guilty ? Jeez guys this is kinda silly and pathetic at the same time.

And besides Argyll has a point too if you ask me...

[stephane from Paris]

Again a poor and biased article!
We know the french names in this list! Only one is a political: Charles Pasqua!! A old guy who had in the past several judges on him due to suspected sad business!
Here Pasqua is view as a mafia man by most of leftists.
He was the leader of a party that we can compare to neoconservatives in the US, and he NEVER spoke about the OIF.
So if Sadam wanted a good allies here, he had certainly choose another guy!

Other names are workings for Irak/France friendship associations!

So pathetics comments on this forums!
Regards
st
ps: nice put Bacillus, the real ennemies were Saudi and pakistan!

[Loco]

I don´t like when premises of different arguments are mixed. First of all, after IGWar, Irak was submited to an embargo by UN, who proved itself few useful for punishing Saddam´s regime, but useful for punishing iraqis civilians(few medicines, food, etc), so was planned the programm "Oil by food", by which Irak could export a limited quantity of oil in order to which with the received incomes Iraq could buy food and other goods that were covering the basic needs of the population, for what all the private companies, of everwhere, were doing it under the cover of the program of the UN it does not have anything illegal.
From here, I believe that some things are forgotten: The inspectors of the UN were already taking many years investigating the armament programs of Saddam and they didn´t manage to find anything, and at the end of the 90´s decade international public opinion was favorable after the oil´s embargo was raised gradually simultaneously to increasing political pressure on Saddam to promote a regimen´s change in Iraq in a pacific way. 11/Sep changed all that, though I believe that at this point we all know/knew that Saddam had not anything to do with it, even he was a bl..bastard.

[Seoulstriker]

* cracks the whip *

[Loco]

* cracks the whip *
I´m ready to grasp it!
http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:_Kp7NsgWmGAJ:www.babaloons.com/nocalcharacters/images/zorro.gif

[cut]

Ive done a bit of researching and havent seen the US being involved. (yet anyway)

``We have thousands of pages of Iraqi intelligence documentation which back up those lists. What you are seeing in those lists is only the iceberg of what you are going to see in the future,'' he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlate...3676654,00.html

More than just properganda Id say

the guardian is left wing, most of the articles people put on here from the guardian get gunned down instantly as propaganda, now that it is against france it suddenly gospel? BOLLOCKS! :D

[2Sheds_Jackson]

I don´t like when premises of different arguments are mixed. First of all, after IGWar, Irak was submited to an embargo by UN, who proved itself few useful for punishing Saddam´s regime, but useful for punishing iraqis civilians(few medicines, food, etc), so was planned the programm "Oil by food", by which Irak could export a limited quantity of oil in order to which with the received incomes Iraq could buy food and other goods that were covering the basic needs of the population, for what all the private companies, of everwhere, were doing it under the cover of the program of the UN it does not have anything illegal.
From here, I believe that some things are forgotten: The inspectors of the UN were already taking many years investigating the armament programs of Saddam and they didn´t manage to find anything, and at the end of the 90´s decade international public opinion was favorable after the oil´s embargo was raised gradually simultaneously to increasing political pressure on Saddam to promote a regimen´s change in Iraq in a pacific way. 11/Sep changed all that, though I believe that at this point we all know/knew that Saddam had not anything to do with it, even he was a bl..bastard.

Hey this is just proof that even the "oil for food" program was a bad idea, since it was more like "oil for bribes". Thus blaming the UN for starving Iraq is misplaced - it was clearly Saddam who was redirecting this money.

You also can't say that the UN inspectors didn't find anything. They were not sent in to simply scrounge around and see what they could happen to find. They UN had been given a list by Saddam as to what he admitted had. The inspector's job was to go find & destroy it. It was after they arrived and Saddam couldn not/would not produce it that they had to turn to searching as we now associate with them.

And in fact they did find & destroy a good deal of material, prior to them being forcibly ejected by Saddam. In addition to being a first class dictator, Saddam is an idiot. He lied about having all that WMD to look like the big dawg in the neighborhood. All it got him was the orange jumpsuit.

[WARPIG]

Nothing would make my day more than some good solid “ in yer face Frenchie” evidence about Frances Eurotrash posturing against the US. This.. however is not it. The best this article does is opens more questions about the credibility France seems to think it has when criticizing US actions. Even if the doc’s are forged.. do we assume the actions were completely fabricated? I mean if on one end of the spectrum Chirac was in this alleged secret alliance with Saddam and on the other end their relationship was completely within the precepts of the UN laws… isn’t the truth somewhere in the middle? It still looks supect. I wouldn’t take too much of this article seriously. It does manage to drag quite a few or our biggest critics through the mud though

[EvanL]

The United States was friendly with Iraq back in the 80's when they were doing all the terrible stuff to the kurds and iranians. How is what the french done any different?
http://www.andrewhoog.com/justice/media/rumsfeld-saddam.jpg

[Vance]

OH MY GOD....NOT..F**ING..AGAIN...

[EvanL]

OH MY GOD....NOT..F**ING..AGAIN...
If its been posted before i havent seen it. And its only meant to show that the U.S. has had relations with Iraq way before either of the wars. Not as "Anti-American" sentiment as you guys seem to spastically jump at all the time.

[Dave the Dawg]

I would certainly hope that the US had relations with Iraq, just as we do with every country on earth. The issue is not the existence of relations, but the context and content of them. That picture alone tells us nothing (nor frankly, do context-less pictures of Chirac with Saddam).

If you have an argument to make in that regard, have the integrity to actually make it and demonstrate the intelligence to actually frame it as an argument, which requires a little more than putting [img] tags around a link you saw somewhere, or copying and pasting an article you saw. Too many of you are gutless keyboard commandos, hiding behind your computer screens. In physical age, some of you are just teenagers and some are old enough to have teenage grandchildren, but too many of you by your sophomoric posts demonstrate that you have the mental age of six-year olds.

[Seoulstriker]

I SUMMON FORTH THE UNHOLY LOGIC OF BUDANSKI!!, if he is not taking care of his baby right now. ;)




Budanski wrote before:


We still have a video with Rumsfeldt shaking hands with the same man.

Compliments of He219:

Just to clarify the repeated reference......


Note the formality in this picture


http://www.random-abstract.com/archives-gm/rumsfeld-sadam-bigger.jpg
CNN.com - Interview With Donald Rumsfeld (http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/21/cst.01.html)
MCINTYRE: Well, let me take you back about 20 years ago.
The date, I believe, was December 20th, 1983, you were meeting with Saddam Hussein.
I think we have some video of that, of that meeting. Tell me what was going on during this meeting.
RUMSFELD: Where did you get this video? From the Iraqi television...
MCINTYRE: This is from Iraqi television.
RUMSFELD: When did they give it to you? Recently or back then?
MCINTYRE: No, we've dug this out of the CNN library.
RUMSFELD: I see. Isn't that interesting? There I am.
MCINTYRE: So what was going on here? What were you thinking at the time?
RUMSFELD: Well, Iraq was in a battle, war with Iran. And the United States had just had 241 Marines killed. And President Reagan asked me to take a leave of absence from my company and serve as a temporary special envoy, and I traveled throughout the Middle East for a period of months. And we were trying to get the Syrians to get out of Lebanon and stop killings Americans at the Marine barracks. And among other things, we believed that it would be helpful if Saddam Hussein's Iraq would behave in a way in that region that would be helpful to our goals with respect to Syria and the terrorist threat that existed. And we decided it was worth having me go in and meet with him. In that visit, I cautioned him about the use of chemical weapons, as a matter or fact, and discussed a host of other things.




On the other hand......


France, however, was also a major supplier. When he was prime minister in 1974, Jacques Chirac went to Baghdad to see Saddam Hussein, then the power in Iraq, though not yet the president.

The following year, Saddam Hussein went to France and Prime Minister Chirac showed him round a nuclear plant.

They negotiated the sale to Iraq of two French nuclear reactors. One of them was destroyed in an air raid by the Israelis in 1981 amid fears that Iraq was developing a nuclear weapon.

France also agreed to provide Iraq with 133 Mirage F1 jet fighters over a 10-year period. It is reckoned that during the 1980s, 40% of France's arms exports went to Iraq.

'My dear friend'

In 1987, a French paper published a letter written to Saddam Hussein by Jacques Chirac a few months previously. It began: " My dear friend."

It refers obliquely to "the negotiation which you know about" and to the "co-operation launched more than 12 years ago under our personal joint initiative, in this capital district for the sovereignty, independence and security of your country."

Mr Chirac denied that the "negotiation" meant a discussion about repairing Iraq's nuclear reactors.

The French president has since said that, at the time, many governments supported Iraq in its war against Iran and that Iraq was seen as "progressive".

Indeed many other Western countries - including the United States, Britain, West Germany and Italy - also helped Iraq with equipment and expertise, both civilian and military, and with finance.

Iraq's Arab neighbours in the Gulf, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia among them saw revolutionary Iran as a threat and poured money into Baghdad.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3324053.stm



excerpt from The Sun

1 The French President first met Saddam in 1972 when the pair struck a lucrative oil deal. Chirac described Saddam then as a “personal friend” and little appears to have changed. Chirac is the only Western head of state to know Saddam personally.

2 France has sold the tyrant arms worth £15billion, more than even the Soviets at the height of the Cold War.

3 They have also built two nuclear reactors near Baghdad.

4 Saddam was close to getting an A-bomb before Israeli jets blitzed his facilities in 1981 in a raid condemned by Chirac as “unacceptable”. Without Israel’s hardline act, Saddam could have held the world to ransom with nuclear arms.

5 Chirac is so keen to build on relations with Saddam he has his own special envoy in Baghdad who is so trusted he is even allowed to sit in on Iraqi Cabinet meetings.

6 Despite world opinion, the men have continued to cut deals. Chirac encouraged French firms to help re-arm Iraq after its war with Iran in the 1980s. French companies sold Baghdad warplanes armed with Exocet missiles.

7 Chirac was so keen to help his old pal he even extended him credit when Iraq failed to meet the repayments. France also sold Iraq equipment to improve the accuracy and range of Scud missiles.

8 Despite tough UN trade sanctions, French firms hold massive oil contracts with Iraq. And there are many more in the pipeline — even in the aftermath of a second Gulf War, Chirac has told energy bosses.

9 Time and time again France has turned a blind eye to Iraq’s abuses when they have been exposed by the UN Security Council. It comes as no surprise to diplomats that French firms keep on landing lucrative deals.

10 World leaders were horrified after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 but France again helped Saddam. Under pressure from Chirac, then President Francois Mitterrand sent emissaries to 24 countries assuring them France would only participate in the war as a “defensive” measure.


Or did you mean these?

http://www.all-natural.com/images/chiracandsaddam.jpghttp://a1636.g.akamai.net/7/1636/797/b81725404756e3/graphics.boston.com/news/packages/iraq/images/ideas_0302.jpg




* cracks the whip *

[Haiw]

Just curious, what would you throw at me when I as a Dutch guy would bring up the old Rummy pic? :P

[Fox2]

Saddam Hussein shooting up while wearing wooden shoes.

[budanski]

... if he is not taking care of his baby right now. ;)
She's getting fed right now. (Dare I say "breasts") ;)


Iraqi govt. papers: Saddam bribed Chirac
Washington Times / UPI Breaking News (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040128-094014-7323r.htm)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The oil ministry papers, described by the independent Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, are apparently authentic and will become the basis of an official investigation by the new Iraqi Governing Council, the Independent reported Wednesday.

"I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a governing council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted."

Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac sought to couch his opposition to the invasion on a moral high ground.

A senior Bush administration official said Washington was aware of the reports but refused further comment.

French diplomats have dismissed any suggestion their foreign policy was influenced by payments from Saddam, but some European diplomats have long suspected France's steadfast opposition to the war was less moral than monetary.

"Oil runs thicker than blood," is how one former ambassador put his suspicions about the French motives for opposing action against Saddam.

Al-Mada's list cites a total of 46 individuals, companies and organizations inside and outside Iraq as receiving Saddam's oil bribes, including officials in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria and France, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization.


Saddam Hussein rewarded his/her "friends" out of barrels for oil
LeMonde.fr (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemonde.fr%2Fweb%2Farticle%2F0%2C1-0@2-3218%2C36-350628%2C0.html&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)

Iraqi newspaper "Al-Mada" published a list of the profit people of generosities of the raïs. Eleven French are quoted, of which Charles Pasqua. A person in charge for the ministry for oil affirms that "law-suits" will be committed to recover "the money of the Iraqi people". Baghdad of our special correspondent

Saddam Hussein rewarded his/her foreign friends, in particular all those who were the zealoies of its mode and were made the ambassadors of them. That was known. More than ten months after the fall of the Iraqi dictatorship, of the elements of proof were published for the first time, Sunday January 25, by an independent newspaper Al-Mada ( the Horizon ).

On a full page, this new slack daily newspaper in its 45 E number, the list of more than 270 known or unknown personalities, companies, members of Parliament, associations, the journalists, the political parties which benefitted from generosities of the deposed raïs. Facsimiled with the support, this newspaper denounces "the greatest operation of corruption" of Ancien Régime. And it affirms that "million oil barrels was offered to individuals who have nothing to do with the oil activities" . On the whole, 16 Arab countries, 17 Europeans, 9 Asian and 4 of North and Africa and South America are concerned with this operation of reward.

Abdel Saheb Salmane Qotob, under-secretary with the ministry for oil, assure us this information specifying that among the implied personalities two Prime Ministers appear, two Foreign Ministers as well as wire of ministers and heads of State. "the ministry will reveal all the names and to prosecute them to recover the money of the Iraqi people" , he indicated, adding that "information necessary was collected to subject them to Interpol and to continue them bus Saddam Hussein bought the consciences and wasted the oil richness of Iraq" .

For France, not less than eleven names are published with the quantity of oil barrels which were allocated to them. Among them, written with a sometimes approximate orthography and including/understanding some uncertainties on the first names or headings of companies and associations, appear the company Adax, Patrick Maugein de Traficor or Travicor, Michel Grimard, the association of friendship arabo-Frenchwoman, Charles Pasqua, Elias El-Ferzeli or Ghazarli of Lebanese origin, Claude Kaspereit, Bernard Mérimée (former ambassador from France to Rome and UNO), Bernard Desmaret and De Souza.

12 million barrels would in particular have been allocated to Charles Pasqua, four other Mr. Kaspereit and three with Mr. Mérimée while Patrick Maugein would have profited from 25 million barrels. No other precision is given. The documents come from the SOMO (State Oil Marketing Organization), company of marketing of oil attached to the ministry for oil.

A LETTER OF THE SOMO

George Gallaway, former Labour deputy with the Communes, appears in good place in the list. Its name is mentioned in six contracts and the newspaper publishes a letter of the SOMO on December 31, 1999, signed by Saddam Zbin, cousin of Saddam Hussein which managed this company and in which it asks for the ministry for oil of grant contracts to him. Apparently, this British member of Parliament was particularly well treated. But it is not only.

In this very long list appears also Khaled, the son of Egyptian president Nasser, the son of the Syrian Minister for defense, the son of the president of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud, the girl of the president indonésien Sukarno, Megawati, today Prime Minister, the Russian orthodoxe church and the Russian Communist Party.

The Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Jirinovski, it, particularly are also well parcelled out (79,2 million barrels). Swiss companies, Italian nationals, Jordanian deputies, Egyptian politicians, the Popular Front of release of Palestine (FPLP), the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) are quoted. The list is not exhaustive.

Among the quoted countries appear inter alia: South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bahreïn, Bielorussia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Spain, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, the Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Yemen and Yugoslavia.

These disclosures caused in the close countries, either of the made indignant reactions, the ones calling upon slandering or the political plot, or of the justifications according to which they were legal businesses carried out in due form. As far as the knowledge can, the selected people received attributions for a certain volume of barrels which were then resold at companies. The interested parties touched in the passing a commission of which the percentage is not known.

THAT the YEAR 1999

With the seat of the newspaper, Abdul Zahra Zeki, deputy manager of the drafting, confirm the authenticity of the documents and affirm that those relate to only the year 1999 and that others exist for the later years. How did they arrive in possession of the newspaper? No the answer.

What is sure is that the head office of the SOMO, contrary to the ministry for oil, had been plundered after the fall of Baghdad and that enormous quantities of files had been flights. All the question is from now on to know if the enormous profits that generated the Pétrole program against food, under the aegis of the United Nations, from now on will leave at the great day.

The oil quotas were allocated with private individuals only starting from the third phase. The two first were reserved exclusively for the companies making trade of oil officially.

It was the door open to the abuses. "Saddam Hussein transformed our country into a copier counts open on which all the obeying and servile servants were useful themselves" , written Al-Mada .

Michel Bôle-Richard

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patrick Maugein: "It is delirious!"

Patrick Maugein, businessman French to the head of the oil firm International, famous Soco near to Jacques Chirac, lunatic Iraqi information categorically. "I never received 25 million oil barrels offered by the Iraqis, it is delirious and absolutely impossible , it in the World explains . In 1999, the oil sales were monitorées by UNO. With the loading of the ships, there were inspectors. Not a refinery in the world would not have accepted a clandestine cargo. At the time, I had simply a participation in an Italian refinery, which had bought, legally, of the oil cargoes."

Mr. Maugein affirms moreover never not to have met Saddam Hussein: "I had simply relations with Tarek Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister, whom I often saw in Paris, and the successive Ministers for oil. I know well Iraq, I always was in oil over there. And it is not in their practices to offer cargoes. The Iraqis, contrary to the Africans, did not leave any margin on the table."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charles Pasqua: "One tries to splash me"

Questioned by the World , Tuesday January 27, Charles Pasqua stated "not to have never received anything Saddam Hussein, neither oil nor money" . "I am not, and never was, a friend of Saddam Hussein" , added the European deputy (RPF), recalling that "at the time of the war of the Gulf, in 1991, group RPR which I chaired had given an opinion for the intervention against the Iraqi mode" . "I am astonished that once again, at one time when I starts again itself politically, one tries to splash me" , Mr. Pasqua specified.

According to the former Minister of Interior Department, it is however "completely possible that people, in particular of the policies, touched funds of the mode baassist. But do not look at in my direction, rather see side of those which were catalogued, it there has a long time, like supports for Saddam Hussein ", added Mr. Pasqua. Evoking a "possible handling of the American services" , Mr. Pasqua concluded: "If I had touched money of Saddam, with all the investigations which were carried out by examining magistrates French, that would be known!" .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A list, already, in the Elf business

The revelations of newspaper Al-Mada point out a precedent, appeared in the Elf business. A list of 44 paid - of which some appeared under code names - of international Elf Aquitaine (EAI), the Swiss subsidiary company of the oil group, had been addressed anonymously to French justice, at the end of 1997. In addition to the mistress of Roland Dumas, Christine Deviers-Joncour, political personalities, close to Charles Pasqua and François Mitterrand, were suspectées there to have profited from fictitious employment, which would have been exempted by Alfred Sirven, director of the "general affairs" of the group. The list of the "agents" of EAI included foreign companies and decision makers - in particular an English preserving deputy. The judges had to make tri between the collaborators who provided at Elf true services, those which worked with the personal service of Mr. Sirven and those which did not carry on any activity.

[2Sheds_Jackson]

Saddam Hussein shooting up while wearing wooden shoes.

rofl nice.

[cut]

Budanski against the world again? Tut Tut ;)

[rom2]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

[Loco]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )
Excuse, but where are you from? I´m not scandalized about american newspapers, perhaps the readers, in my country there are propaganda newspapers and others they aren´t, and I´m sure in your country too.

[WARPIG]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

First....This wasn't run in a US newspaper.
Second.... You should read a US newspaper. There are all sorts of aricles that portray our leaders, government, even our soldiers in a negative light. Our media is just as provocative as any Eurotrash source.

[Cael]

rom2 wrote:
First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

Haha... man that is funny.

[budanski]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

What do you suppose? The BBC ? Isnt there a scandal of late? (http://media.guardian.co.uk/huttoninquiry/story/0,13812,1134388,00.html) I don't recall a panel of govenors running our press...

[Seiyuuki]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

Can you spell I-G-N-O-R-A-N-T?

[cut]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

What do you suppose? The BBC ? Isnt there a scandal of late? (http://media.guardian.co.uk/huttoninquiry/story/0,13812,1134388,00.html) I don't recall a panel of govenors running our press...

nor do I. by board of governors you are insinuating that the BBC is controlled by the government, well I think what has happen clearly prooves otherwise.

The BBC is still the best at what they do, one slip up by a reporter at 6am one day in may does not make the BBC unreliable, in america no-one would have noticed.

And even the questions that got the BBC in trouble are now being asked in the US.

[Jack Mehoff]

First , i think you shouldnt read US newspapers since its bunch of lies .
We european are scandalized that the papers in the US are always following gvt . US is becoming a BIG PROPAGANDA ZONE , exactly like the USSR in it time . you should try to read other newspapers (i know it's boring )

Bush bashed the U.S. media/news a couple months ago right on national television because all they did was bring bad news instead of good news. US media/news are just as garbage as your Eurotrash. Please STFU if you don't know anything.