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Saddam's $2m Offer To WMD Inspector

 
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shawa
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Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004

PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:45 am    Post subject: Saddam's $2m Offer To WMD Inspector Reply with quote

Hmmm. Seems there must have been WMD's if he was bribing inspectors.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/12/wsaddam12.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/12/ixworld.html

Quote:
Saddam's $2m offer to WMD inspector
By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 12/03/2005)

Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction.

Rolf Ekeus, the Swede who led the UN's efforts to track down the weapons from 1991 to 1997, said that the offer came from Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister and deputy.

Mr Ekeus told Reuters news agency that he had passed the information to the Volcker Commission. "I told the Volcker people that Tariq [Aziz] said a couple of million was there if we report right. My answer was, 'That is not the way we do business in Sweden.' "

A clean report from Mr Ekeus's inspectors would have been vital in lifting sanctions against Saddam's regime. But the inspectors never established what had happened to the regime's illicit weapons and never gave Iraq a clean bill of health.

The news that Iraq attempted to bribe a top UN official is a key piece of evidence for investigators into the scandal surrounding the oil-for-food programme. It proves that Iraq was offering huge sums of cash to influential foreigners in return for political favours.

Nile Gardiner, of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, who has followed the inquiries, said: "It's the tip of the iceberg of what the Iraqis were offering. For every official like Ekeus who turned down a bribe, there are many more who will have been tempted by it."

Saddam and his henchmen siphoned off an estimated £885 million from the humanitarian scheme, allegedly paying some of that to 270 foreign politicians, officials and journalists.

Most of those alleged to have been involved in the scandal, including the former head of the programme, Benon Sevan, have denied that they did anything wrong.

A United States Senate report said that Mr Sevan had committed criminal acts by soliciting oil contracts, while the Volcker commission said that he had failed to explain $160,000 (£83,000) paid into personal bank accounts while he was the head of the programme.

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Tom Poole
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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 3:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Isn't Scott Ritter living proof of this? Just because he stupidly worked too cheap doesn't mean he's not part of the "tip."
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GM Strong
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ritter could be had for a Big Mac and an underage bimbo. One can only wonder what Saddam offered.
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shawa
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scott Ritter was paid $400,000 to make a pro-Saddam documentary.
AND he liked young girls.
I think he should be doing prison time!!
An amazing chronicle of Ritter's treachery here:

Scott Ritter: Patriot, or Pervert?
An intensive look at the live and lies of a former UNSCOM Weapons Inspector gone bad


(It's long but here"s an exerpt:
Quote:
In 1999, Scott Ritter was approached by a Detroit area businessman with links to Saddam Hussein, to make a film about the "devasting effects" that U.N. Sanctions have had on Iraq. Ritter completed the film in July of 2000. Ritter was paid $400,000 to complete a one person, two camera, ninety-minute "documentary." Was Scott Ritter "bought and paid for" to change his story by Saddam Hussein? Scott Ritter claims he made no money on the documentary, but did he? On September 13th 2002, Scott Ritter was interviewed by CNN's Paula Zahn. In the interview, Zahn asked Ritter if he thought $400,000 was an "unusual amount" of money to film a documentary. Ritter's response was "no" he didn't think the amount was high. Ritter then went on to say that "other funding sources" had also been located to help pay the expenses of the trip. These sources include anti-war movements such as "not in our name" and the "Institute For Public Accuracy" a San Francisco based organization with ties to "The Workers Party of America" and the "Socialist Workers Party" and at the forefront of mobilizing and organizing Anti War protests. Ironic that the "Institute For Public Accuracy's" communications director is named Sam Husseini.

Perhaps the most telling parts of Scott Ritter lie in the deepest, darkest recesses of his mind. In 1990, Scott Ritter divorced his wife to marry 19 year old Marina Khatiashvili, a Russian Model recruited and used by the KGB to sexually compromise US Intelligence Sources in the 1980's during the Nuclear Disarmament Period. Remember that Ritter acknowledged himself that the KGB used young women in this fashion, but not his "Marina". Then there are his two arrests for soliciting under-age girls for sex via the Internet. Scott does seem to like 'em young. One girl solicited in April of 2001 was 15 years old. The second girl, allegedly 17 years old (but really a Colonie NY policie officer posing as an under-age girl) was solicited for sex two months later in June of 2001. Are all these indications of Scott Ritter being sexually compromised and blackmailed by the Russians or the Iraqi's who preyed on his penchant for liking young women?

It's not so far fetched when you listen to Paul Wolfowitz's comments last week, in which he said:

"In the past, Iraq did not hesitate to use pressure tactics to obtain information about the inspectors," Wolfowitz said today in a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Noting that often the pressure was "quite crude," Wolfowitz said that during the previous inspection period in the 1990s,

"one inspector was reportedly filmed in a compromising situation and blackmailed."

Scott Ritter served during this period under the auspices of UNSCOM, the United Nations Special Commission. Could Paul Wolfowitz have been referring to Ritter? In my opinion, YES.

Then there's the last lie of Scott Ritter: He's been setup by the Bush Administration to "shut him up." Ritter's claims of a "setup" and the timeline of events surrounding his being sexually compromised in Russia and Iraq, and his subsequent arrests for soliciting sex with under-age girls simply don't justify each other. Ritter's own arrests for soliciting sex with two minor girls occurred in April, and again in June of 2001. The court records of these events were sealed until last week when the FBI obtained a court order un-sealing them to pursue their own charges against Ritter. Ritter himself began speaking out against the War in Iraq and against the Bush Administration specifically in mid to late 2002. Does Ritter intend for us to believe that the Bush Administration "arranged" his arrests in 2001 for soliciting minors for under-age sex?

Perhaps the most telling part of Scott Ritter's "dark side" comes from a Time Magizine interview of last year:

Q. You've spoke about having seen the children's prisons in Iraq. Can you describe what you saw there?

Ritter: The prison in question is at the General Security Services headquarters, which was inspected by my team in Jan. 1998. It appeared to be a prison for children — toddlers up to pre-adolescents — whose only crime was to be the offspring of those who have spoken out politically against the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was a horrific scene. Actually I'm not going to describe what I saw there because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace.

So while Scott Ritter was filming a documentary showing the "affects of the U.N. Sanctions" on Iraq - a film he was paid $400,000 to film, he was covering up the horrific deaths of young children suffering at the hands of Saddam Hussein. Children who's only crime it was to be born to Iraqi Dissidents. Children, who undoubtedly, are no longer alive. Scott Ritter could've spoken up for these children - but didn't. Why? Could it be their deaths didn't suite his agenda?

Scott Ritter a "patriot?" We think not.

Complete article: http://www.ropma.net/ritter.htm
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776)
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