March 12, 2005
HOW MUCH TO IGNORE THE YELLOWCAKE:
Saddam's $2m offer to WMD inspector (Francis Harris, 12/03/2005, Daily Telegraph)
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.
Geez, Scott Ritter only cost them a few young girls. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 12, 2005 2:58 PM
!?
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at March 12, 2005 4:28 PMI'd like to second that. A little less cryptic if you please, Orrin.
Posted by: Governor Breck at March 12, 2005 6:16 PMRitter's been busted several times trying to meet little girls he hooked up with in Chat Rooms.
Posted by: oj at March 12, 2005 7:42 PMi think the deal with ritter was for the money to get bait-burgers, not for the girls themself.
"give a man a fish..."
OJ:
Hell of a lot of money to pay an inspector to ignore nonexistent weapons, huh?
Posted by: Matt Murphy at March 13, 2005 2:56 AMThey had a lot left over from the Oil-for-Food deals.
Posted by: oj at March 13, 2005 8:40 AMThey were just planning ahead to when they could restart their WMD programs. Much better and cheaper to have the guys already bought and stockpiled.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at March 13, 2005 2:36 PM