Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (44414)	5/1/2004 2:54:40 PM
From: Thomas M.	Respond to of 89467

Donald Rumsfeld tried to help Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres wrangle a $700 million bribe out of Saddam. This was during the time Saddam was committing his worst crimes. <<< ... In the public realm, these trips have always been described as peace missions, but it was never clear what Donald Rumsfeld was doing in Baghdad in December 1983 in his meeting with Saddam Hussein. But from papers that were released by the National Security Archive, and by papers I found in the government's National Archives, it is very clear in their own words that George Shultz gave Donald Rumsfeld marching orders to go to Baghdad and promote this Bechtel pipeline to Saddam. In that meeting, Saddam told Rumsfeld that he thought this was a good idea since we needed to avoid the Persian Gulf where the Iranians were attacking Iraqi ships. This would be a pipeline that would go west through Jordan to the Gulf of Aqaba, and into the Red Sea, circumventing the Persian Gulf. But Saddam told Rumsfeld that he was worried about the possibility of the Israelis attacking the pipeline. In his note back to Shultz, Rumsfeld said this is something we need to talk to the Israelis about. So for the next few years, while Saddam Hussein was unleashing thousands of chemical bombs on the Iranians, the Reagan Administration and many of the architects of this war were spending their time shuttling back and forth between Baghdad, Amman, Israel and Washington, trying to get the Israelis to guarantee that there wouldn't be an attack on the pipeline and to assuage Saddam's fears that there wouldn't be an attack. GNN: The Israelis had attacked their nuclear plant at Osirak in 1982. Jim Vallette: Exactly. It was fresh in their minds. There were all sorts of mechanisms that were put into place. Shultz's State Department pressured another U.S. agency, the U.S. Export Import Bank that loans and credits exports to overseas projects, to extend hundreds of millions of dollars to their project. Then the National Security Agency put similar pressure on another agency, the Overseas Private Investment Corp., to give insurance to the project, all designed to allay Saddam's concerns. "It got dirtier and dirtier." Bechtel hired a Swiss billionaire to bribe Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. A lot of this was being hatched out of the Bechtel offices, in cahoots with their buddies in the State Department and the National Security Council, and this went on for two years. It got dirtier and dirtier. Bechtel met with a Swiss billionaire Bruce Rappaport, who was close personal friends with the Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Rappaport and another agent E. Robert Wallace tried to make certain arrangements with the Israeli government, which included funneling off oil pipeline profits into Peres' Labor Party. GNN: Pipeline protection money. [Peres was reportedly offered $700 million over ten years. Rappaport was later investigated by the FBI for illegal oil dealing. Wallace and his former client Attorney General Edwin Meese were investigated by a special prosecutor for their role in the bribing scandal. See the National Security Archive for an extensive list of documents relating to the scandal, including a photo of Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and Reagan.] Jim Vallette: Exactly. They also looked at ways of dedicating Defense Department funds as a way of insuring against attack, and were looking at all sorts of mechanisms off the books that would set up this deal. This is what really preoccupied U.S. policy with Iraq at the same time Saddam Hussein was unleashing weapons of mass destruction ... >>> guerrillanews.com Tom