More info supporting Primakov's non-integrity
Vancouver Sun
vancouversun.com
Last updated: Tuesday 30 March 1999 WORLD NEWS
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Report: Iraq paid $800,000 to Russian prime minister
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NEW YORK (AP) - Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov received at least $800,000 US from the Iraqi government and hindered UN efforts to monitor Baghdad's illegal weapons programs, the New Yorker magazine reported.
The magazine, in an article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, also said the U.S. military attempted to assassinate Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during allied air strikes last December. The story was reported in the magazine's April 5 edition, which hits newsstands Monday.
According to the New Yorker, Primakov has a close friendship with Saddam dating back to the 1960s, when the Russian official was a correspondent for Pravda in the Middle East.
UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus learned how close that friendship was in 1996 when he alerted Primakov to evidence that Russia was smuggling contraband to Iraq, including materials for the Iraqi nuclear program, the New Yorker said.
Primakov, Russia's foreign minister at the time, said his government was not involved in any illegal smuggling, and promised to conduct an investigation, Ekeus was quoted as saying.
Ekeus said he never saw the results of any investigation, and that secret codes used by the Russians were subsequently changed.
Then, in November 1997, British intelligence found strong evidence of an $800,000 payment to Primakov by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the magazine said.
"A payment was made," it quotes an American source as saying. "This is rock solid." According to the report, senior CIA officials had believed for a long time that Primakov was receiving payments from Saddam.
In Moscow, Primakov's spokeswoman Tatyana Aristarkhova said she could not comment on the New Yorker article because she had not seen it.
The New Yorker also said the December 1998 bombings of Iraq ordered by U.S. President Bill Clinton included an assassination attempt on Saddam by bombing two sites where the Iraqi leader allegedly meets his mistresses. It said the official goal of the attack was to "degrade" Iraq's strategic capabilities.
U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the New Yorker report. But U.S. officials have denied similar assertions in the past. U.S. policy explicitly prohibits assassinations of foreign leaders.
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