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To: NOW who wrote (36501)	1/28/2004 2:40:55 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 89467

that is his role Speaking of roles, I'd thought in the upcoming election, Cheney's role was to solidify the base. Will that be enough? Will Dubya dump Dick? While Democratic rivals battle for the presidential nomination in a succession of grueling primary elections, Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be fighting to secure his spot on the Republican ticket behind President George W Bush. The vice president, whose apparent moderation and 35-year Washington experience reassured voters worried about the callowness and inexperience of Bush during the 2000 campaign, is seen more and more by Republican Party politicos as a drag on the president's re-election chances in what is expected to be an extremely close race. The reasons are simple: instead of the moderate voice of wisdom and caution that voters thought they were getting in the vice president, ongoing disclosures about his role in the drive to war in Iraq and other controversial administration plans depict him as an extremist who constantly pushed for the most radical measures. He is seen as not just an extremist, but also a kind of eminence grise who exercises undue influence over Bush to further a radical agenda, a notion that was backed by the publication of a recent book about former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill, who described Cheney as creating a "kind of praetorian guard around the president" that blocked out contrary views. In addition, Cheney's association with Halliburton, the giant construction and oil company he headed for much of the 1990s and that gobbled up billions of dollars in contracts for Iraq's postwar reconstruction, is growing steadily as a major political liability. Indeed, Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail are already using Halliburton's rhythmic, four-syllable name (HAL-li-bur-ton, HAL-li-bur-ton) as a mantra that neatly taps into the public's growing concerns overn Iraq and disgust with crony capitalism and corporate greed all at the same time. Reports were already surfacing two months ago that a discreet "dump Cheney" movement had been launched by intimate associates of Bush's father (former president George H W Bush) - his national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former secretary of state James Baker, who now has a White House appointment as Bush Jr's personal envoy to persuade official creditors to reduce substantially Iraq's US$110 billion foreign debt. In addition to their perception that Cheney's presence would harm Bush's re-election chances, Scowcroft and Baker, who battled frequently with the vice president when he was defense secretary in the first Bush administration, have privately expressed great concern over Cheney's unparalleled influence over the younger Bush and the damage that has done to US relations with longtime allies, particularly in Europe and the Arab world. Cheney's unprecedented rounds of press interviews this month, as well as his trip this week to Switzerland and Italy - only the second time the vice president has traveled abroad in three years - should be seen in this context. "I think he knows that he's in trouble," one prominent Republican activist who thinks Cheney should be dropped said this week. "I don't think there's any other way to explain why he would sit for a puerile interview for the [Washington Post's] Style section. You know he despises that sort of thing." Cheney's travel and sudden and abundant press availability was noted in Tuesday's New York Times, which described his behavior as "a calculated election-year makeover to temper his hardline image at home and abroad". But what was remarkable is that he might only have confirmed the growing impression that he remains a zealot, a notion that was especially pronounced in an interview he gave National Public Radio (NPR) last week. Cheney not only insisted that major stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) might still be found in Iraq, he also asserted that two semi-trailer trucks found in that country during last year's US-led war constituted "conclusive evidence" of WMD programs. Both assertions were almost instantly refuted by none other than the administration's outgoing chief weapons inspector, David Kay. In a series of statements published after Cheney's NPR broadcast, Kay said he had concluded that the WMD stockpiles were destroyed in the early 1990s, and that the two trailers were intended to produce hydrogen for weather balloons or possibly rocket fuel, but had nothing to do with WMD. In the same NPR interview Cheney also insisted there was "overwhelming evidence" of an "established relationship" between former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaeda terrorist group, citing as one clue Saddam's alleged harboring of a suspect in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. But the notion of such an "established relationship" in any operational sense has now been virtually totally discarded by the intelligence community, and Bush and other senior officials have largely dropped the issue. Moreover, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other intelligence agencies that investigated the 1993 bombing and the subsequent residence in Iraq of Abdul Rahman Yasin, a low-level suspect, found no evidence that Baghdad was actively protecting him or that he was linked to Iraqi intelligence in any way. In a second interview, Cheney told USA Today he was not worried about his image as the administration's Machiavelli, skilled in the quiet arts of persuading his "Prince" to pursue questionable policies, adding, surprisingly un-self-consciously, "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually." But whether Cheney likes it or not, he is increasingly seen that way, by Democrats, by Republican internationalists such as Baker and Scowcroft, and, perhaps most significantly for purposes of Bush's re-election prospects, by a growing number of traditionally Republican right-wingers and libertarians worried about the impact of the exploding costs of the "war on terror" on the country's fiscal health, individual liberties and armed forces. They also blame Cheney for being the administration's key backer and enabler of the neo-conservative vision of a never-ending war against radical Islam, which they believe will only accelerate current trends. "So Dick Cheney turns out to be a true radical - not a moderate Republican," noted Georgie Anne Geyer, a nationally syndicated columnist, who compared the vice president to Cardinal Richelieu of 17th-century France in a cover article for this week's edition of American Conservative magazine. "While there is little mystery about what he has actually done, there remains the mystery of how a man from Wyoming should be the epicenter of a scheme so strange, so Machiavellian, so profoundly disaggregated from the American context," she wrote. "But no one should expect Dick Cheney and his group [of neo-conservatives] to change. They will not." In a case of particularly bad timing, Cheney's image as a manipulative schemer was furthered again this week, just as he was trying to reassure Europeans about his moderation and commitment to multilateralism. In a new book on Tony Blair, author and Financial Times correspondent Philip Stephens depicts Cheney as the surprise guest at key meetings between Bush and the British prime minister. He quotes one Blair aide complaining that Cheney "waged a guerrilla war" against London's efforts to seek United Nations approval before the war. The book concludes that Cheney constantly "sought to undermine the prime minister privately", and quotes him telling another senior official more than six months before the war, "Once we have victory in Baghdad, all the critics will look like fools." But despite Saddam's capture, that "victory" still looks rather tenuous, and with recent polls showing Cheney's favorability rating at less than one-half of Bush's - a mere 20 percent and falling - so might the vice president's claim to the No 2 spot on the Republican ticket. atimes.com lurqer

To: NOW who wrote (36501)	1/28/2004 4:46:34 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 89467

Saddam compensated his "friends" in barrels of oil Le journal irakien "Al-Mada" a publié une liste des personnes bénéficiaires des largesses du raïs. Onze Français sont cités, dont Charles Pasqua. Un responsable du ministère du pétrole affirme que des "poursuites en justice" seront engagées pour récupérer "l'argent du peuple irakien". <font size=4> The Iraqi journal "Al- Mada" published a list of beneficiaries of the regime. Eleven French citizens are cited, among them Charles Pasqua. An official of the ministery of petroleum affirmed that some judicial investigations will be engaged in to recoup money for the people of Iraq. <font size=3> Bagdad de notre envoyé spécial Baghdad, from our special envoy Saddam Hussein récompensait ses amis étrangers, notamment tous ceux qui étaient les zélateurs de son régime et s'en faisaient les ambassadeurs. Cela était connu. Plus de dix mois après la chute de la dictature irakienne, des éléments de preuve ont été publiés pour la première fois, dimanche 25 janvier, par un journal indépendant Al-Mada (L'Horizon). <font size=4> Saddam Hussein compensated his foreign friends, notably those who were partisans of his regime and acted as its ambassadors. They were well-known. More than ten months after the fall of the Iraqi dictator, some elements of proof have been published for the first time, Sunday the 25th of January, by an independent newspaper "Al-Mada" (The Horizon). <font size=3> Sur une pleine page, ce nouveau quotidien étale dans son 45e numéro, la liste de plus de 270 personnalités connues ou inconnues, de sociétés, de parlementaires, d'associations, des journalistes, des partis politiques qui ont profité des largesses du raïs déchu. <font size=4> On a full page, the new daily lays out in its 45th number the list of more than 270 personalities known or unknown, the societies, the parlementarians, the associations, the journalists, the political parties which profited from the largess of the fallen regime. <font size=3> Facsimilé à l'appui, ce journal dénonce "la plus grande opération de corruption" de l'ancien régime. Et il affirme que "des millions de barils de pétrole ont été offerts à des individus qui n'ont rien à voir avec les activités pétrolières". Au total, 16 pays arabes, 17 européens, 9 asiatiques et 4 d'Afrique et d'Amérique du Sud et du Nord sont concernés par cette opération de récompense. <font size=4> With a facsimile to support it, the journal denounces "the great operation of corruption" of the former regime. And it affirms that "millions of barrels of oil were offered to individuals who overlooked the oil activities of the regime." In total, 16 Arab countries, 17 European, 9 Asian, and 4 African and South and North America were involved in this operation of compensation. <font size=3> Abdel Saheb Salmane Qotob, sous-secrétaire au ministère du pétrole, nous a confirmé ces informations précisant que parmi les personnalités impliquées figurent deux premiers ministres, deux ministres des affaires étrangères ainsi que des fils de ministres et de chefs d'Etat. <font size=4> Abdel Saheb Salmane Qotob, under- secretary of the ministery petroleum, confirmed to us this information precisely that among the persons implicated figured two prime ministers, two ministers of foreign affairs, as well as the sons of ministers and chiefs of State. <font size=3> "Le ministère va dévoiler tous les noms et les poursuivre en justice pour récupérer l'argent du peuple irakien", a-t-il indiqué, ajoutant que "les informations nécessaires étaient recueillies pour les soumettre à Interpol et les poursuivre car Saddam Hussein a acheté les consciences et dilapidé la richesse pétrolière de l'Irak". <font size=4> The ministery was going to unveil all the names and pursue them judicially in order to recoup the money of the Iraq people:, he indicated, adding that "the necessary information was gathered to submit to Interpol and to pursue them because Saddam Hussein bought their consciences and despoiled the oil riches of Iraq." <font size=3> Pour la France, pas moins de onze noms sont publiés avec la quantité de barils de pétrole qui leur a été allouée. <font size=4> For France, no less than eleven names are published with the quantity of barrels of oil that they were allocated. <font size=3> Parmi eux, écrits avec une orthographe parfois approximative et comprenant quelques incertitudes sur les prénoms ou intitulés de sociétés et associations, figurent la société Adax, Patrick Maugein de Traficor ou Travicor, Michel Grimard, l'association d'amitié arabo-française, Charles Pasqua, Elias El-Ferzeli ou Ghazarli d'origine libanaise, Claude Kaspereit, Bernard Mérimée (ancien ambassadeur de France à Rome et à l'ONU), Bernard Desmaret et De Souza. <font size=4> Among them, written with an orthography sometimes approximate and containing some uncertainties on the surnames or titles of the societies and associations, figure the society Adax, Patrick Maugein of Traficor or Travicor, Michel Grimard (the Association of Arab- french Friendship), Charles Pasqua, Elias El- Ferzeli or Gharzarli (of Lebanese origin), Claude Kaspereit, Bernard Merimee (former ambassador of France to Rome and the UN), Bernard Desmaret and De Souza. <font size=3> 12 millions de barils auraient notamment été alloués à Charles Pasqua, quatre autres M. Kaspereit et trois à M. Mérimée tandis que Patrick Maugein aurait bénéficié de 25 millions de barils. Aucune autre précision n'est donnée. Les documents proviennent de la SOMO (State Oil Marketing Organisation), société de commercialisation du pétrole rattachée au ministère du pétrole.Twelve million barrels have, notably, been allocated to Charles Pasqua, four others to Mr. Kaspereit, and three to Mr. Merimee as well as Patrick Maugein, who benefited from 25 million barrels. Nothing more precise is given. The documents were provided by the State Oil Marketing Organization, the commercial society of oil attached to the ministery of petroleum. UNE LETTRE DE LA SOMO A letter to the SOMO Georges Gallaway, ancien député travailliste aux Communes, figure en bonne place dans la liste. Son nom est mentionné dans six contrats et le journal publie une lettre de la SOMO en date du 31 décembre 1999, signée par Saddam Zbin, cousin de Saddam Hussein qui gérait cette société et dans laquelle il demande au ministère du pétrole de lui accorder des contrats. Apparemment, ce parlementaire britannique a été particulièrement bien traité. Mais il n'est pas le seul. <font size=4> George Gallaway, former Labour deputy in the House of Commons, figures highly on the list. His name is mentioned in six contracts and the journal published a letter of the SOMO dated the 31 of December, 1999, signed by Saddam Zbin, cousin of Saddam Hussein who managed oil contracts for him. Apparently, the British parlementarian was well treated. But he is not alone. <font size=3> Dans cette très longue liste figure aussi Khaled, le fils du président égyptien Nasser, le fils du ministre syrien de la défense, le fils du président du Liban, Emile Lahoud, la fille du président indonésien Sukarno, Megawati, aujourd'hui premier ministre, l'église orthodoxe russe et le Parti communiste russe. <font size=4> In this very long list figures also Khaled, the son of the Egyptian president Nasser, the son of the Syrian minister of defense, the son of the president of Lebanon (Emile Lahoud), the daughter of Indonesian president Sukarno (Megawati), the current prime minister, the orthodox church of Russia, and the Russian Commmunist Party. <font size=3> L'ultranationaliste russe Vladimir Jirinovski, lui aussi, est particulièrement bien loti (79,2 millions de barils). Des sociétés suisses, des ressortissants italiens, des députés jordaniens, des hommes politiques égyptiens, le Front populaire de libération de la Palestine (FPLP), l'organisation de libération de la Palestine (OLP) sont cités. La liste n'est pas exhaustive. <font size=4> Ultranationalist Russian Vladimir Jirinovski, he also, is particularly well-off (79.2 million barrels). Some Swiss societies, some Italian nationalists, some Jordanian deputies, some Egyptian politicians, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PLO are cited. The list is not exhaustive. <font size=3> Parmi les pays cités figurent entre autres : l'Afrique du Sud, l'Algérie, l'Arabie saoudite, l'Australie, Bahreïn, la Biélorussie, le Brésil, la Bulgarie, le Canada, la Chine, Chypre, l'Espagne, la Libye, la Malaisie, le Maroc, le Nigeria, Oman, le Panama, les Philippines, le Qatar, la Roumanie, la Turquie, l'Ukraine, le Yémen et la Yougoslavie. <font size=4> Among the countries cited figure: South Africa, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Bahrein, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Spain, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, the Phillippines, Qatar, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Yemen, and Yugoslavia....... <font size=3> lemonde.fr@2-3218,36-350628,0.html