[Rhodes22-list] More Politics

[Wally Buck]

Steve,

I wouldn't call Bush's taking us to war over false hoods a "minor lapse". 
Talk about understatement!

I agree that the French and Russians were on the take. At least when the 
French and Russian's were on the take no Americans were getting killed. I 
have said all along this war is about oil and Paul's post supports my view 
point. WMD, human rights, freedom and so on all sound good but if there 
wasn't a drop of oil in the area the US, France, and Russia wouldn't give a 
flip.So now we are at "war " and the US controls the oil. I don't see how 
this is a big improvement.

Wally


>From: Steve <rhodes2282 at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] More Politics
>Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:25:08 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Very interesting, Paul.  You know, I figured it was
>only a matter of time before this came out.  A country
>such a French putting monetary issue before the safety
>of the world.  We should all get down on our knees &
>thank God that we have our President (and a GREAT
>President at that) & Tony Blair over in England that
>was willing to take a stand for whats right!!!!!!!!!!
>Where me a flag; I feel like saluting it:-)
>Steve
>
>
>
>--- pdgrand at nospam.wmis.net wrote:
> > Forgive me if you receive this twice.  I
> > accidentally left out the subject
> > on the first try. - Paul
> >
> >
> > April 28, 2004 -- ANYONE who pines for genuine
> > international
> > multilateralism would do well to follow the bribes
> > now being uncovered in
> > the United Nations' Oil-for- Food scandal.
> > Why did France and Russia oppose efforts to topple
> > Saddam Hussein's regime?
> > And why did they press constantly, throughout the
> > '90s, for an expansion of
> > Iraqi oil sales? Was it their empathy for the
> > starving children of that
> > impoverished nation? Their desire to stop the United
> > States from arrogantly
> > imposing its vision upon the Middle East?
> >
> > It now looks like they it was simply because they
> > were on the take. Saddam
> > was their cash cow. If President Bush has suffered
> > some discredit over his
> > apparently false - but not disingenuous - claims of
> > Iraqi weapons of mass
> > destruction, the lapse is minor compared to the
> > outright personal
> > selfishness and criminality that appears to have
> > motivated many of those
> > who opposed his efforts to rid the world of one of
> > its worst dictators.
> >
> > Throughout the '90s, France and Russia badgered the
> > United States and
> > Britain to increase Iraqi oil production. President
> > Bill Clinton and Prime
> > Minister Tony Blair fought them at each step, but
> > then reluctantly gave
> > way. First Iraq was allowed to sell 500,000 barrels
> > daily. Then, on Franco-
> > Russian insistence, it was raised to 1 million, then
> > to 2 million and,
> > finally, to 3 million barrels a day.
> >
> > Each time, America and Britain - the nations now
> > accused of coveting Iraqi
> > oil - resisted the increases in Iraqi production and
> > urged tighter controls
> > over the program. Each time, the French and the
> > Russians prattled on about
> > the rights of Iraqi sovereignty and the need to feed
> > the children.
> >
> > Now we know why the French and Russians were so
> > insistent. Iraqi government
> > documents (leaked to the Baghdad newspaper Al Mada)
> > list at least 270
> > individuals and entities who got vouchers allowing
> > them to sell Iraqi oil -
> > and to keep much of the money. These vouchers, and
> > the promise of instant
> > great wealth they carried with them, bought vital
> > support in the United
> > Nations to let Saddam stay in power.
> >
> > The list of those receiving these bribes includes
> > France's former French
> > Interior Minister Charles Pasqua (who's a leader of
> > Chirac's party) and
> > Patrick Maugein, the head of the French Oil firm
> > Soco International.
> > France's former U.N. ambassador, Jean-Bernard
> > Merimee, got vouchers to sell
> > 11 million barrels.
> >
> >
> >
> > In Russia, the payoff chain reached right into the
> > "office of the Russian
> > president." President Vladimir Putin's Peace and
> > Unity Party also got
> > vouchers, as did the Soviet-era Prime Minister
> > Nikolai Ryzhkov and the
> > Russian Orthodox Church. Nationalist leader Vladimir
> > Zhirinovsky shared in
> > the largesse.
> >
> > Not to be left behind, the Rev. Jean Marie Benjamin
> > of the Vatican got the
> > rights to sell 4.5 million barrels as recompense for
> > setting up a meeting
> > between Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and the
> > pope.
> >
> > Indeed, the list indicates that Benon Sevan, the
> > United Nations official in
> > charge of the Oil-for-Food program. received
> > vouchers. He denies the
> > charge, but has decided to retire next month anyway.
> >
> >
> > At the start of the Oil-for-Food program, America
> > and Britain proposed that
> > the money flow only to accounts entirely controlled
> > by the United Nations.
> > Soon this standard was lowered to include accounts
> > not actually controlled
> > by the United Nations, but only monitored by it.
> >
> > Then-Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned that
> > "oil is fungible" and
> > noted that once Iraq was allowed to pump and sell
> > it, Saddam could sell all
> > he wanted outside of officially sanctioned channels
> > and nobody could tell
> > which black liquid was legal and which not. But
> > nobody imagined that there
> > were actual bribes going to specific French, Russian
> > and U.N. officials as
> > part of the program.
> >
> > Now it appears that Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
> > sanctimonious posturing
> > may have concealed oil bribes which reached high up
> > in the ranks of the
> > U.N. organization itself.
> >
> > The defect of international coalitions is that they
> > include the just and
> > the unjust, the bribed and the honest, the
> > democratic and the autocratic.
> > And their members cannot be trusted equally. The
> > group that stood up and
> > backed the invasion of Iraq was nicknamed "the
> > Coalition of the Willing."
> > Now it appears it was also "the Coalition of the
> > Honest."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help?
>www.rhodes22.org/list
>
>
>
>
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
>http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover
>__________________________________________________
>Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself with the new version of MSN Messenger! Download today - 
it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/