With Kerry's widely unreported and ignored
admission that he would not be able to convince France or Germany join the United States in Iraq -- despite his campaign promises-- we now have the famous 1,000 page report from the
Iraq Survey Group which contains the following
conclusions:
Saddam Hussein believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night.
Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.
...
To keep America at bay, he focusing [sic] on Russia, France and China - three of the five UN Security Council members with the power to veto war. Politicians, journalists and diplomats were all given lavish gifts and oil-for-food vouchers.
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, told the ISG that the "primary motive for French co-operation" was to secure lucrative oil deals when UN sanctions were lifted. Total, the French oil giant, had been promised exploration rights.
Iraqi intelligence officials then "targeted a number of French individuals that Iraq thought had a close relationship to French President Chirac," it said, including two of his "counsellors" for his re-election campaign. [Emphsis added]
May I agree with
Glenn Reynolds (aka "Instapundit")?
It's hard to pass the "Global Test" when the people grading it are being bribed to administer a failing grade. Perhaps Kerry should change his stance, and promise that a Kerry Administration would "outbid the bad guys." That approach is more likely to succeed than the one he's been touting, which even he has admitted is doomed.
Claudia Rosett , seemingly the only journalist interested in the UN Oil-for-Fraud scandal, had this to say:
As Duelfer documents, Oil-for-Food allowed Saddam to replenish his empty coffers, firm up his networks for hiding money and buying arms, corrupt the U.N.'s own debates over Iraq, greatly erode sanctions and deliberately prep the ground for further rearming, including the acquisition of nuclear weapons. As set up and run by the U.N., Oil-for-Food devolved into a depraved and increasingly dangerous mockery of what was advertised by the U.N. as a relief program for sick and starving Iraqis.
So here we have Saddam Hussein, murderer of 500,000 Kurds, working with UN Security Council members to undermine the United States so that he could later resume production, acquisition, and eventual use of biological, chemical, and, yes,
nuclear weapons. But naturally, the decision to remove Saddam was, according to Kerry, "wrong."
