Now this is an interesting perspective on Richardson from Uruknet

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AN UNRETURNED GESTURE OF GOODWILL
Malcom Lagauche

March 3, 2007

In 1995, two U.S. citizens (William Barloon and David Daliberti) were captured inside Iraq. They maintained they lost their way in trying to visit a friend in Kuwait. Both worked for U.S. civilian contractors in Kuwait.

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On July 17, 1995, Bill Richardson, who is a current candidate for the U.S. presidency, and, at the time a U.S. Congressman, visited Baghdad to try to obtain the release of the pair. Saddam Hussein granted a pardon and allowed them to leave Iraq.

{snip}

During the negotiations, Richardson crossed his legs and had the bottom of one shoe pointing right at Saddam, who left the room and returned to see Richardson with both feet on the floor. Saddam’s aides explained to him that this was one of the most grave insults in the Arab world; showing the bottom of a shoe. A similar effect would occur if someone negotiating with the U.S. president held his middle finger aloft during the conversation. When Saddam returned, the negotiations continued. He was gracious enough to leave the room and allow his assistants to quickly tell Richardson of this aspect of Arab culture.

When interviewed by PBS, Richardson mentioned the incident and then said he didn’t know if they were going to imprison and torture him for the gaffe.

Over the next few years, Richardson made many a disparaging remark about Saddam:

* This allowed Iraq to starve its own people and blame the sanctions for their suffering. Under the oil-for-food program, we have taken this excuse away from Saddam. (March 1999)
* … and multilateral sanctions are central to our efforts to contain Saddam. (March 1999)
* But I also believe it is important that Iraq’s oil revenues be used to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people rather than by Saddam Hussein for his own criminal purposes. (December 2002)
* Well, Saddam Hussein, you can never predict what he is going to do, but it is obvious that he is going to put his foot forward; he is going to say, "We have no illegal weapons." (December 2002)

After 90 minutes, Saddam granted a pardon. They took pictures and Richardson joked, "This picture is going to cost me some votes." The Iraqi president retorted, "And you think I look good — posing with you?"

http://uruknet.info/?p=m31080&s1=h1