To: Road Walker who wrote (233228 ) 5/18/2005 1:56:10 AM From: tejek Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 1571685 re: In fact, the Senate report found that US oil purchases accounted for 52% of the kickbacks paid to the regime in return for sales of cheap oil - more than the rest of the world put together. "The United States was not only aware of Iraqi oil sales which violated UN sanctions and provided the bulk of the illicit money Saddam Hussein obtained from circumventing UN sanctions," the report said. "On occasion, the United States actually facilitated the illicit oil sales. Why was that sooo predictable? I had to read that passage over three times before I could accept it as real. After all the condemnation this same group of people, and I use that term loosely, have directed at the UN and the oil for food program, it turns out they were active participants. I think part of the reason Americans don't get who these people are is that its hard to follow the serious contradictions that they project. One the one hand, they profess to be liberators bringing the torch of freedom to the peoples of the world while on the other hand, they are playing down and dirty under the cloak of darkness. Is this what the US is really about? Are we a democratic nation made up of mostly good people, or we a country that pretends to be good but really is made up of people of questionable character? Is this country about a Reagan and a Bush, or about a Hillary or a Bill Clinton? All I know is that I am having a hard time holding on to what I was taught growing up. And how come I haven't seen it in the "liberal" US press? The US press is so screwed. I never realized how afraid they are. Maybe that's a sham too.......that we have a free press. Maybe they were never free............that that has just been an allusion. Clearly, the internet suggests the latter esp. when compared to the press in other parts of the world. ted