Saddam's oil contracts

[Undertoad]

ABCNEWS has obtained an extraordinary list that contains the names of prominent people around the world who supported Saddam Hussein's regime and were given oil contracts as a result.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/I..._040129-1.html

One of the premier anti-war politicians in Britain got a contract for 19 million barrels of oil. And denied every last drop of it... he was in Hussein's pocket.

Russian political parties were huge, huge benefactors of this plan... as were French officials and businessmen.

Two Americans got contracts.

Bloggers are busy googling the names for more details.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Saddam was taking care of his friends. What a nice guy.

[be-bop]

[quote]Originally posted by Undertoad
One of the premier anti-war politicians in Britain got a contract for 19 million barrels of oil. And denied every last drop of it... he was in Hussein's pocket.

This quote relates to George Galloway a well known odious little twerp who I an embarrassed to say is a fellow Scot.However although I disagree with his politics and his views on the Iraq war I must defend him in this article.
There has been several attempts to fit this guy up since his views hit the headlines over here and many many so called pieces of paper evidence has turned up linking Galloway with various Saddam scams which have been proved as fake.
MI6 bungles no doubt.And since he was booted out of the labour party because of has anti-war views he has been discredited in the press,tv etc and his opinions don't have much weight any longer.
"Gorgeous George"may be an opinionated fool that gets up many peoples noses but he knows how to play the politics game and is famous for controversy but even he's not that stupid.

If he wasn't a serving MP he would be another candidate for a tragic accident in the "woods".

[Beestie]

And confirming what we all already knew, France is but a nation of whores to sale to the highest bidder.

And I am a native Frenchman having been borne in Fountainbleau(20 miles outside of Paris). But, I grew up in Georgia (the US version) and know how things work here.

Fucking French. And John Kerry is pissed that we didn't side with them in deciding to not to enforce 1441. What the hell kind of American is pissed that we didn't side with the French?

Bush might be a dumbass (I rather suspect he is) but at least he isn't afraid to stand up to those who need to be "stood up to" and that's what those of us who like Bush over Kerry think. I don't see Kerry standing up to anyone. He's a brave man at heart but, diplomatically speaking, he's a final candidate for the vagina monologues.

[Undertoad]

Bop, you Scots make up for it in my life today because I downloaded an old Billy Connolly HBO special, and even though it was pretty old, it was still totally hilarious. I reckon Billy Connolly is the most Scottish Scot ever to break into the US culture.

[richlevy]

Originally posted by Beestie
Bush might be a dumbass (I rather suspect he is) but at least he isn't afraid to stand up to those who need to be "stood up to" and that's what those of us who like Bush over Kerry think. I don't see Kerry standing up to anyone. He's a brave man at heart but, diplomatically speaking, he's a final candidate for the vagina monologues.

So a stupid president who is more likely to use force is preferable to someone who can think their way out of a conflict and save 500 US lives and $100 billion (and counting).

Good choice.

[Undertoad]

I was not aware that the conflict was over.

This approach to it may be the least violent possible.

[quzah]

Originally posted by Beestie
And confirming what we all already knew, France is but a nation of whores to sale to the highest bidder.

What a joke. You want to know who else sells out to the highest bidder? The US is still #1 in arms sales. I mean sure, it's fine for US to sell them, but if anyone "evil" wants to buy arms, then we invade them.

Quzah.

[elSicomoro]

That's simply not true, Quzah. We've given arms to lots of "evil" places, but we haven't invaded all of them...yet.

[quzah]

Originally posted by sycamore
That's simply not true, Quzah. We've given arms to lots of "evil" places, but we haven't invaded all of them...yet.

I stand corrected.

Quzah.

[Undertoad]

Following up the original post, it turns out that one of Saddam's benefactors was a guy named Shakir Alkhalaji, who financed an anti-war film produced by former WMD inspector and anti-war activist Scott Ritter.

http://windsofchange.net/archives/004539.html

Ritter if you recall is the one former WMD inspector who claimed that Saddam did not have any WMDs and that the US would lose the war and that it wasn't really that big of a deal that there was a children's prison in Baghdad.

One out of three ain't bad, but now we know for sure that his film was paid for out of Saddam's Oil-for-Food program.

If nothing else, I hope that the oil contract money list puts Madeline Albright's old comments about the sanctions in a fine perspective. Her comments were that the sanctions led to the death of 500,000 Iraqi children and many leftists have taken that claim to mean that the US is indirectly responsible (as many leftists seek to believe that the US is indirectly responsible for everything bad that happens in the world).

Well no. Against the will of the UN, and right out from under their noses, some of the oil-for-food program for those kids went to financing pro-Saddam films made in America. And a ton more of it went to international blackmail to keep the regime in power.

Do any leftists, or tw, now want to hold the UN or Scott Ritter, or at least Hussein himself, responsible for at least some those deaths?

[xoxoxoBruce]

It makes me warm and fuzzy to think that Saddams money was going to excercise Ritter's constitutional rights.
The right to dissent. Freedom of speech. The right to be wrong (children's prisons) and even profit from it.
What a country!