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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (161088)	2/14/2003 4:06:00 PM
From: jjayxxxx	Respond to of 1574854

No, I see the UN inspectors' job to be ongoing til Saddam dies. I don't think anyone at the UN would agree with this proposal. These materials, chemicals and components cost money.....where do you think he's getting the money to make the necessary purchases? Same way he funded his new mansions in the 90's? Besides, it doesn't cost that much to maintain something you already have (VX, Anthrax, etc., that the UN says he has but has not shown evidence of its destruction). Do you understand the difference between a local would be mafia type and an international arms racketeer? Well, Saddam is the former; OBL the latter. And they would never deal with each other? How do you know they wouldn't? Seems to me that they would deal in a heartbeat if they both thought it in their interest (on either side of your analogy). Iraq's biggest concern would be leaving any 'fingerprints' that point to them. Then again, we might think it is them no matter what WMD is used, so maybe they have nothing to lose? Just speculation of course. I guess I am having a hard time following your reasoning. You apparently don't agree that Saddam has the 1000 tons of WMD that the UN says he has, but you do agree he is hiding them. You don't think he would deal with al Qaeda. And that about sums up your argument. He probably doesn't have much WMD but even if he does he surely wouldn't deal with al Qaeda. Pretty flimsy. Especially if wrong... Have a great weekend everyone. JJ

To: tejek who wrote (161088)	2/14/2003 4:52:42 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574854

Secondly, Iraq's purchases of WMD has been limited by the food for oil program and by economic sanctions... ...Again, it costs big money.......where is he getting it from? Iraq has sold a lot of oil outside that program, or in other words oil that it was not allowed to sell by the sanctions. The border with Jordan is porous, and oil has been sent across other borders as well. It has also gotten some of its customers for its legal sales to pay an extra amount in to secret accounts. Of course instead of using this money to feed the Iraqi people Saddam has used it to build dozens of "Presidential palaces" and put it in to his WMD program. fas.org "Yet, Iraq's efforts to sell oil on the black market may increase. Even when oil prices were low, Iraq found many international traders willing to run afoul of U.N. sanctions to buy cheaper oil. The U.S. interception of a Russian tanker carrying illegal Iraqi oil earlier this year illustrates the problem. Iraq is highly motivated to rely on black-market sales because income from these sales is directly deposited in Iraqi government coffers. Revenue from legal sales, in contrast, is controlled by the United Nations, with a percentage of it going to compensate victims of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Higher oil prices will strengthen the incentives of both the Iraqi government and international traders to bypass U.N. resolutions." brook.edu Illegal oil lines Saddam’s pockets msnbc.com Turkey: Iraqi Diesel Trade Seen As Too Valuable To Stop By Charles Recknagel Turkey is set to allow diesel smuggling from Iraq to fully resume soon, reversing an earlier decision to reduce it. As RFE/RL correspondent Charles Recknagel reports in the first of a two-part series on the diesel smuggling, Ankara considers the trade too valuable to its border region to suppress for long. Ankara, 4 August 2000 (RFE/RL) -- Turkish newspapers are reporting that Turkey's diesel trade with Iraq, which violates UN sanctions, will fully resume soon. rferl.org SADDAM AND THE ECONOMIC LEVER: WHITHER SANCTIONS? iraqwatch.org Analysts Note Sharp Increase in Iraqi Oil Revenue, in Violation of Sanctions By Alan Sipress, The Washington Post The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein has dramatically boosted the amount of oil revenue it obtains outside U.N. sanctions over the last three months, primarily by pumping up to $3 million worth of petroleum a day through a newly reopened Syrian pipeline, oil industry analysts said. s-t.com Tim