Saddam Arrest Bolsters U.S. Mission on Iraq Debt

[Snazzy]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=2&u=/nm/20031215/pl_nm/iraq_usa_bush_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Buoyed by the capture of Saddam Hussein, U.S. special envoy James Baker leaves on Monday for a mission to discuss Iraq debt relief with European leaders who are signaling a new openness toward Washington.

The trusted friend of President Bush will meet heads of state of France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Britain, and maybe others, to seek relief of Iraq's $120 billion in debt.

Paris is his first stop, where he also will meet the new Iraqi government's finance minister and central bank governor. On a later trip, he is expected to visit the Gulf and Asia.

...

Bush notably left France, Germany and Russia out of congratulatory calls made to war supporters such as British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish leader Jose Maria Aznar.

....

End of the article is interesting. They want 1/2 to a third of Iraq's 120 billion debt relieved. Maybe this explains the Baker timing (or the Saddam timing) in general. First stop Paris.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

1. Uhm.. I don't get it.

The Saddam capture barely moved the polls here. I seriously doubt it's going to convince France, Russia, and Germany that the war is any more justified. (Last time I checked their populations still heavily opposed the war)

[legin]

2. The problem is that in the past

France and Germany, probably amongst many others, had a hand in arming Saddam.

This is going back a few years to a biography on Saddam I read so is very sketchy.

What i can remember:

The Matrix-Churchill company was an Iraqi arms procurment company with a few british people chucked in as window dressing. It must have been obvious what was going on to british intelligence, because one of the main Iraqi guys that set up the Matrix-Churchill company had done the same thing in France.

(post from memory so check every bloody word);-)

If there is a trial of Saddam there is a whole load of shit that bush* can let onto Fox News that France and Germany would not want there.

[htuttle]

4. I've been hearing that theory, and I don't buy it

Why the heck would Chirac care if the former Mitterrand government was discredited? They were/are his political rivals. Likewise the situation with Germany. Don't underestimate what many Europeans probably already know about their governments' actions 10-20 years ago. They have real journalists there, or so I hear.

I doubt that Saddam has any dirt that would be more damaging to France or Germany than it would be to the former Reagan/Bush regime.

Finally, I doubt that either country's leader gives a rat's ass what shows up on Faux News in the US. If this was their 'plan' to garner international support, it's lame.

[Kellanved]

5. sadly not

The press sucks in Europe as well (especially so in Germany). The rather obvious Kohl scandals (most are linked to France and Canada) and proofs of corruption were ignored and/or downplayed by most newspapers . The prosecutor's decision to cease the probe was lauded, not attacked. And that despite obvious errors in the justification.

The murder(traffic accident, but very strange) of one Bavarian prosecutor who was investigating the matter (The corruption in the conservative party that is) was hardly picked up at all.


However: I don't see how trade with preGW1 Iraq (something not forbidden, but encouraged at the time) constitutes a reason to keep the regime alive (someting neither France nor Germany wanted - the means were the problem, not the goal). And Iraq's most important trading partner was AFAIK the USA.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Matrix Churchill itself

was a genuine British machine tool company, that was bought by an Iraqi-controlled holding company. It then exported various components to Iraq, having been told, by the UK government, off the record, that it needn't worry about the rules forbidding this. Some other companies did this too.

[ze_dscherman]

9. Arming Saddam Hussein

Everyone was trying to arm Iraq in it's fight against the Iranian Ayathollas and to make a big profit on this. Saddam got big money from other Gulf States that wanted to fight the Iranian revolution. This was one of the reasons Saddam invaded Kuwait: they suddenly asked back their debt and drove down oil prices by massively exploiting and selling oil from the border region to Iraq. This didn't go well with Saddam Hussein, so when the U.S. gave a go, he invaded.

In the 60ies and 70ies, Iran got arms from mainly from western countries, Iraq was supported from the SU and it's allies.
The situation changed after the Islamic Revolution in Iran.


Arms suppliers to Iraq: Egypt, Belgium, Germany, Jordania, Yugosalvia, Kuwait, Marocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Polan, Portugal, Saudi-Arabia, Sudan, Tchechoslovakia, Hungary, UAE


Arms suppliers to Iran: Algeria, Argentine, Greece, Israel (!), Libya, Mexiko, South Korea, South Yemen, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Vietnam

Arms suppliers to both sides: Ethiopia, Brazil, Chile, China, GDR, France, Italy, North Korea, Austria, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, USSR, U.K.

Saddam Hussein also got major support (satellite intelligence) by the U.S.

On edit: Most of the debt Iraq has amassed is owed to other Arab nations, especially Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Plus billions in reparation money, most towards Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oil companies.

[hadrons]

3. right now this is much ado about nothing ....

we've seen similair articles on how France and Germany are warming up to sent troops and then nothing happens ... everyone knows France and Germany gave arms to Saddam, so did the U.S.

I hope France and Germany know that if they let themselves get blackmailed by these thugs this time they'll never stop

[peekaloo]

6. appeasing his Saudi masters?

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=300&row=0

--------------

But our President is not going to let something as trivial as international law stand in the way of a quick buck for Mr. Baker. To get around the wee issue that Bush has no legal authority to mess with Iraq's debt, the White House has crafted a neat little subterfuge. The official press release says the President has not appointed Mr. Baker. Rather Mr. Bush is "responding to a request from the Iraqi Governing Council." That is, Bush is acting on the authority of the puppet government he imposed on Iraqis at gunpoint.

--------------

[Gin]

7. Saddam could testify about what we did to help him in his massacres.

He will try to get Bush before anyone else.

[Cooley Hurd]

10. How does Saddam's capture change anything?

For the last 24 hours, the networks have all but declared the war over, despite 2 attacks happening AFTER his capture. Are they really THAT stupid to believe Saddam had much to do with the insurgency? I guess the bright side is that, if the frequency of attacks increase over the next coming weeks (which I pray is NOT the case), there will be a lot of Media Whores with egg on their face...