Saddam's Old Friend

Saddam Hussein allegedly told Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt in 1995, that the ranks of Iraq's friends had dwindled so much during the years of economic sanctions he could count them on one hand.

Iraqi-American consultant Samir Vincent told the federal court, trying Wyatt for paying kickbacks to Saddam:

"You are one of them."

Wyatt allegedly replied:

"I appreciate the gesture, Mr. President. I feel the same way about Iraq."

Vincent, appearing for the prosecution, said that he accompanied Wyatt on seven or eight trips to Iraq between 1991 and 1997.

Vincent identified a photograph he said showed Saddam sitting with Wyatt, Vincent and Tariq Aziz, Iraq's former deputy prime minister.

At that time Iraq was under international sanctions, and Americans were barred from spending any money to travel to Iraq without the U.S. government's permission.

Blackwater Given The Boot

The Telegraph reports that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has called the Iraqi prime minister to express her regret over a shootout involving a private American security firm (Blackwater) in which at least eight people were killed and 13 wounded.

The Iraqi government has withdrawn the licence from Blackwater, one of the largest foreign security firms working in the country, and says it intends to prosecute the guards after they "opened fire randomly at citizens".

The article notes that Blackwater has more than 1000 staff in Iraq, this figure is a tad misleading.

Balckwater has in fact, according to this article, over 100,000 personnel operating in Iraq.

Why so many?

• The body count figures, reported by the media and Pentagon, exclude the 770 mercenary deaths.



• The mercenaries are unaccountable to public oversight by Congress, re their actions and their costs.



• When Bush announces in the future with great flourish that the US is pulling out of Iraq, the mercenaries will be left there continuing the war.

Has anyone told the Iraqi's exactly how many Blackwater operatives there are in Iraq?

The Elephant in The Room

Alan Greenspan, the ex head of the US Federal Reserve, has clearly identified the elephant in the room wrt the Iraq war; namely that the primary motive for the war was oil.

Greenspan is quited as saying:

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

This view is of course at variance with the official line, proffered by President Bush, namely that the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam's regime.