Rohrabacher: Putin Sees Saddam as 'Short-Timer'
Thursday Aug. 29, 2002; 10:23 p.m. EDT
newsmax.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin knows that Saddam Hussein's days as Iraqi chief of state are numbered and he's prepared to stand aside as the U.S. topples the Iraqi dictator's regime without interfering, said conservative Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., Thursday afternoon.
"The Russians know that Saddam Hussein is a short-timer," Rohrabacher told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity. "What they really wanted to impress upon us [is to] give them leverage so that once Saddam Hussein is removed they will not be excluded from the rebuilding and the team that goes into Iraq."
Rohrabacher had just come back from Moscow, where he had traveled with House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde to gauge the significance of the $40 billion trade deal Putin recently inked with Iraq.
But there was less to the Russian-Iraqi deal than meets the eye, Rohrabacher said, explaining, "They know that these agreements with Saddam Hussein aren't going to hold any water because Saddam Hussein is a gangster who has no legitimacy at all, even in Iraq."
The California Republican said he based his assessment on talks with "some of Putin's top people."
Asked whether the Russians gave any indication that they'd tap their huge oil reserves to offset any oil shortage that might result from a new war in the Mideast, Rohrabacher said, "All I'll say is (that) they are on our side now and we can be very happy."
"We can wean ourselves away from a dependency on oil that's coming from enemies to a country now, Russia, that wants to be our friend," he added. |
