where are the FACTS that show us the "lucrative $$$$ contracts" the Chinese, Indians, French, Germans, Russians, Belgians and Canadians all had with Saddam's regime. Honest to God, I never realized what a veritable United Nations the Iraqi oilpatch was, till I started reading your gar - - uh, I mean, posts.
A) I never referenced ALL countries as involved. B) If you had noticed, which your ignorance appears to inhibit you from doing, I highlighted 2 of them, France & Russia, both members of the UN Security Council, both with veto power, only 1 required to torpedo any such resolution that could be pending before the council
What countries most tried to block the removal of Saddam Hussein? France and Russia. What countries got the most kickbacks from the oil-for-food scandal? France and Russia.
Knowing your affinity for books, as an be all in supposedly proving Bush manipulatied intel, Bill Gertz, defense and national security reporter for The Washington Times, in his book "Treachery" has these juicy excerpts.
- New intelligence revealing how long France continued to supply and arm Saddam Hussein's regime infuriated U.S. officials as the nation prepared for military action against Iraq. The intelligence reports showing French assistance to Saddam ongoing in the late winter of 2002
- French aid to Iraq goes back decades and includes transfers of advanced conventional arms and components for weapons of mass destruction.
The central figure in these weapons ties is French President Jacques Chirac. His relationship with Saddam dates to 1975, when, as prime minister, the French politician rolled out the red carpet when the Iraqi strongman visited Paris. By 2000, France had become Iraq's largest supplier of military and dual-use equipment, according to a senior member of Congress who declined to be identified. Saddam developed networks for illegal supplies to get around the U.N. arms embargo and achieve a military buildup in the years before U.S. forces launched a second assault on Iraq.
- As of 2003, Iraq owed France an estimated $4 billion for arms and infrastructure projects, according to French government estimates.
- In mid-March 2003, U.S. intelligence and defense officials confirmed that exporters in France had conspired with China to provide Iraq with chemicals used in making solid fuel for long-range missiles. The sanctions-busting operation occurred in August 2002, the U.S. National Security Agency discovered through electronic intercepts.
Gertz also goes on to say in an interview given in Oct '04, that "Multipolarity is this idea that you need to have several centers of power in the world, and the fact of the matter is we are it. We're the only superpower in the world today, and they don't like that, and they're (that being France, Russia, and a host of other predominat countries) working against us, and the reason that they're working against us -- that often translates into supporting our enemies, including with arms transfers, ... and it doesn't matter who's right or wrong to the multipolarity view. It's just the point is that stability requires that there be many centers of power."
- Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, 6/21/06; "I think the fact is that the Russians moved large stocks of weapons of mass destruction out of Baghdad and Iraq in the fall of 2002. We've all heard what General Sada, the Iraqi defector said. He said that they went into three locations in Syria and one location in the Bekaa Valley, and if you get in there and if you found those weapons and found the precursors, the fingerprints would go back to China and
France & Russia." Those weapons were there and they were moved out by the Russians and by the French, by the Chinese, primarily the Russians providing most of the actual manpower and equipment to do it
- China,
France & Russia -- learning this from the oil-for-food program investigation -- were all engaged in selling large stockpiles of conventional weapons to Saddam
This is just a tip of googling. And Tee wonders why they didn't act. Good gravy
<<Actually, because they're [all the intelligence agencies of all the other countries in the world] been reported in various media sources>>
Well, I don't know about you, sirs, but I find it downright heartening that all those intelligence agencies are so open and truthful that they publish their real findings in the world press.
Poor sarcasm to boot, but I was wondering how long this tactic would take to manifest itself. usually it's a ploy in implying that a lack of evidence or lack of reporting criminal acts actually validates such acts (when of course it's about the U.S. or Israel), but here, it's the overt effort to claim how since the intelligence agencies don't really tell us everything (which would then place pretty much all their undercover and intel gathering resources at risk, or worse), then what they have told us (Saddam did still posses his WMD stockpiles) can't really be accepted, since they haven't told us everything.
I realize how you'd love to see American & coalition undercover folks burned alive by Intel agencies devulging everything they know, but personally, I have no problem with them giving us what they do know, and the President everything they know, while still protecting their assets (translated = American & Coalition lives)
