Saddam asked Bush for $1bn to go into exile

[BradLohaus]

This is certainly interesting, if it turns out to be true. The White House hasn't commented yet.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...icle_id=484162

Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq, it was claimed last night.

Fearing defeat, Saddam was prepared to go peacefully in return for £500million ($1billion).

The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President's Texas ranch...

...Mr Bush appeared convinced that Saddam was serious about going into exile.

"The Eqyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein," said Mr Bush.

"It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction."

Asked by the Spanish premier whether Saddam - who was executed in December last year - could really leave, the President replied: "Yes, that possibility exists. Or he might even be assassinated."

But he added that whatever happened: "We'll be in Baghdad by the end of March."

Mr Bush went on to refer optimistically to the rebuilding or Iraq.

The transcript - which was published yesterday in the Spanish newspaper El Pais - was said to have been recorded by a diplomat at the meeting in Crawford, Texas, on February 22, 2003.

Mr Bush was dismissive of the then French President Jacques Chirac, saying he "thinks he's Mr Arab".

Referring to his relationship with Downing Street, he said: "I don't mind being the bad cop if Blair is the good cop."

The President added: "Saddam won't change and he'll keep on playing games.

"The time has come to get rid of him. That's the way it is."

[boutons_]

If this is true, then it's more proof that the neo- s' "regime change" wasn't really just about getting rid of Saddam (the means), but really about installing the US military long term to grab the oil (the real end of those means) and protect the US/UK oilcos.

The construction of 5 US military bases, including an AF base which will rival the AF's "flagship" at Langley, proves head never intended only regime change, but long-term, decades-long occupation and oppression of Iraq. Of course, head lied by keeping the long-term occupation a secret before the invasion, like head has lied about everything at least since becoming veep.

[ChumpDumper]

"It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction."

Too bad Bush's English can't be trusted enough to decipher whether Saddam wanted a bribe or just to take a billion from his or Iraq's funds.

[boutons_]

Saddam taking $1B?

Saddam had more right to it, as an Iraqi, than the criminal dubya does.

If $1B could have prevented the Iraq war, it's was a no brainer (like dubya).

[ChumpDumper]

Either way does seem like a bargain.

[clambake]

Saddam taking $1B?

Saddam had more right to it, as an Iraqi, than the criminal dubya does.

If $1B could have prevented the Iraq war, it's was a no brainer (like dubya).

and what, miss out on the chance to misplace 9 billion?

[exstatic]

$1B is a lot cheaper than Dubyah's latest $180B request to keep us in Iraqi quicksand until he can beat his personal retreat to Crawford.

[BushDynasty]

Now, now, it wouldn't have been prudent to offer Saddam a billion, because there are more Bushes that have to get into the White House and have something to do. I figger this Iraq struggle oughta last long enough to get not only Jeb but at least one of my daughters into the big chair.

[George Gervin's Afro]

1 billion dollars..or an unecessary war with no end in sight..hmmm... 3,800 dead GIs, 20,000 + wounded, vs 1 billion dollars... hmm... 100,000+ dead Iraqi civilains , al-qaeda now in Iraq , Middle east destabilized vs 1 billion dollars... if this is true I'm glad Bush thought this through..

disgusting..

and no neocons I am not saying saddam is a guy that i'd let your sisters date

[George Gervin's Afro]

come now -- you can't bribe a dictator $1 billion to hope he goes away

let's assume this is a true story..

if saddam told bush he'd leave if bush paid him wouldn't that have been a better alternative than the cost we have incurred? i guess your implying that saddam was just going to keep the money and not leave. well i guess then we would have gone to war... and gotten our money back..

so i ask again, if this story is true would 1 billion dollars compared to the war's cost today be worth it?

[101A]

Were the Baath's just going to step down. What about his boys? Was this just Saddam walking away and leaving a country with another dictator? Saddam leave, and open a vacuum for civil war to settle it?

With the nation building premise that the WH went into the war assuming it could attain, just the removal of Saddam wouldn't have gotten it there (as it turns out, so far neither is what they DID do, but this was a decision made BEFORE the war).

[DarkReign]

Were the Baath's just going to step down. What about his boys? Was this just Saddam walking away and leaving a country with another dictator? Saddam leave, and open a vacuum for civil war to settle it?

I am quite willing to listen to the "other side of the coin" so to speak. But dont trot out "power vacuums" and "civil war" as talking points when Iraq, as we speak, is experiencing every single one fo those ailments because of our invasion and subsequent de-Baathification.

With the nation building premise that the WH went into the war assuming it could attain, just the removal of Saddam wouldn't have gotten it there (as it turns out, so far neither is what they DID do, but this was a decision made BEFORE the war).

Fair enough.

[smeagol]

1 billion dollars..or an unecessary war with no end in sight..hmmm... 3,800 dead GIs, 20,000 + wounded, vs 1 billion dollars... hmm... 100,000+ dead Iraqi civilains , al-qaeda now in Iraq , Middle east destabilized vs 1 billion dollars... if this is true I'm glad Bush thought this through..

disgusting..

and no neocons I am not saying saddam is a guy that i'd let your sisters date

Not to mention the love for Americans that this war has developed outside the US.

[DarkReign]

Not to mention the love for Americans that this war has developed outside the US.

Indisputable truth. Irreparable damage.

[MannyIsGod]

Man, I hate decisions Bush makes, but this is pretty ridiculous. You can't pay a ing dictator to leave. You just can't.

[boutons_]

"You can't pay a ing dictator to leave"

So what would have been or was your recommendation for removing Saddam?

dubya wasn't going to pay him with US tax dollars. Saddam apparently asked to be permitted to steal (another) $1B from Iraqi oil treasurey and leave the country with it and be permitted to keep it (rather than be pursued by Iraqis the way Marcos and others dictators were). BFD

Perfection is the enemy of the good (enough)

dubya suckers are OK with dubya is wasting $1000B in Iraq.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Man, I hate decisions Bush makes, but this is pretty ridiculous. You can't pay a ing dictator to leave. You just can't.

I agree BUT at the cost we have incurred because we didn't? I wouldn't give it a second thought..

[MannyIsGod]

"You can't pay a ing dictator to leave"

So what would have been or was your recommendation for removing Saddam?

dubya wasn't going to pay him with US tax dollars. Saddam apparently asked to be permitted to steal (another) $1B from Iraqi oil treasurey and leave the country with it and be permitted to keep it (rather than be pursued by Iraqis the way Marcos and others dictators were). BFD

Perfection is the enemy of the good (enough)

dubya suckers are OK with dubya is wasting $1000B in Iraq.

You've gotten to the point to where I can't even understand what the you're saying. Try again, this time in English.

[MannyIsGod]

I agree BUT at the cost we have incurred because we didn't? I wouldn't give it a second thought..

Its not an either/or situation for me.

[PixelPusher]

Man, I hate decisions Bush makes, but this is pretty ridiculous. You can't pay a ing dictator to leave. You just can't.

True, we typically pay dictators to stay.

[xrayzebra]

Oh, crap, when I first read this I said I am going to stay out of it.
But, it was well publized that they offered Saddam the opportunity
to go into exile and he refused. No I am not going to look up the
link, do it yourself. The cat, Saddam, has BILLIONS stashed
all over the world. He could have lived like a what he was a top
notch king. And he refused.

[BradLohaus]

True, we typically pay dictators to stay.

[Nbadan]

Saddam didn't want to be paid $1 billion dollars, he simply wanted $1 billion of his own money to go into exile, but the NeoCons who supported him while he gassed his own people could never let him stand trial in anything but a kangaroo court that they controlled....

[Nbadan]

Juan Cole is on top of this:

Saddam purportedly had do ents that showed both both Reagan and Bush SR. had secretly authorized the chemical and biological weapons programs. There must have been names, dates, order forms, and smuggling links in these do ents.

The second claim that I made was that Bush was aware of, and rejected, an offer by Saddam Hussein to flee Iraq, probably for Saudi Arabia, presuming he could take out with him a billion dollars and some do ents on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. Both provisions were intended by Saddam to protect him from later retaliation. The money would buy him protection from extradition, and the do ents presumably showed that the Reagan and Bush senior administrations had secretly authorized his chemical and biological weapons programs. With these do ents in his possession, it was unlikely that Bush would come after him, since he could ruin the reputation of the Bush family if he did. The destruction of these do ents was presumably Bush's goal when he had Rumsfeld order US military personnel not to interfere with the looting and burning of government offices after the fall of Saddam. The looting, which set off the guerrilla war, also functioned as a vast shredding party, destroying incriminating evidence about the complicity of the Bushes and Rumsfeld in Iraq's war crimes.

On that one reason alone, Cole shows us an underlying motive for the invasion of Iraq and the complete destruction of Saddam and what must have been a "blackmail" scheme.

Juan Cole

[anakha]

True, we typically pay dictators to stay.

Ferdinand Marcos heartily endorses this statement.