Annan Says 'Concessions' Made to Saddam

[Rose Siding]

LONDON (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview broadcast Sunday that ``concessions'' were made to Saddam Hussein to win his agreement to the oil-for-food program because there were concerns the Iraqi people would starve without it.

Annan told British Broadcasting Corp. television's ``Breakfast With Frost'' program he has no plans to resign over the allegations of kickbacks and bribes in the oil-for-food program.

``It was a political arrangement, it was a transaction that was intended to force Saddam Hussein to comply with the inspection requirements, disarmament requirements, and, in the process, concessions were also made to him,'' Annan said.

``Saddam had resisted the scheme for several years and there was concern that if something is not done the Iraqi population will starve. And some of these concessions were the price they had to pay to get the scheme off the ground,'' he added. ``In retrospect, one may criticize it. But at the time, because of the urgency and the need to help the Iraqi people, some concessions were made.''

http://nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Britain-UN-Annan.html

[angstlessk]

1. Okay, so Saddam made extra money from the oil-for-food program

the truth is that he did not spend it on WMD. Are we now saying we invaded Iraq because Saddam built himself palaces while the people in the country were suffering? Is this the newest incarnation of why we invaded Iraq?

Look at Halliburton. I am shocked that there is no outrage that they put men at risk driving empty trucks in order to collect money from US taxpayers. This is proof that what Halliburton did was not just bookkeeping errors, but an intention to defraud the USA government.

[jjtss]

2. We don't know what he did ....

with that money. His restoration of Babylon was a real money pit that cost a couple billion (The US and Poland subsequently destroyed it)or it could have built the best zoo in the southern hemisphere(which the US destroyed) Anyway it can't be as much as the 8 Billion dollars that is still missing from the Iraq Treasury since the US led invasion.Hmmmmmmmmmmm..

[FreedomToons]

3. Nothing was more profitable for Saddam than his relation with the US govt

The manner in which history can seemingly be re-written by the corporate-controlled press never ceases to amaze. Yet one fact about Iraq remains constant: whether the US government was supporting and arming Saddam Hussein, or whether it was putting sanctions on him, or whether it was waging war against him, it was the Iraqi people who lost out in every instance.





Read the accompanying essay at http://www.freedomtoons.org/show_toon.php?id=000046