Saddam's Man in Niger (Christopher Hitchens)

The Weekly Standard ^ | Sept 16, 2006 | Christopher Hitchens

[AmeriBrit]

Thanks for the ping Howlin.

[Wristpin]

Exactly! And how could such a report be considered complete without considering millions of captured Iraqi documents? The Repubs got bamboozled by the Dems.

[AmeriBrit]

make certain that we get this stuff out to as many people as each of us know.

---

That will be the first order of the day after a couple of hours sleep. Got a lot of ground to cover with this info along with instructions to pass it on to everyone they know.

[piasa]

Ping - It's not as if we haven't seen this information before, but Hitchens does a good job of making it brief and readable.

[piasa]

More:

Its eavesdropping work brought to light a hotline between Niger Ambassador Adamou Chekou (today advisor to Niger President Tandja Mamadou) and Iraqi diplomats in Rome, specifically with Wissam al-Zahawiah [aka Zahawi], Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See.
----- Source [via http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_nuralcubicle_archive.html]

Holy See? As in Vatican? Where Vincent Cannistraro is the security advisor? Hmmm...
...150 posted on 11/01/2005 2:17:39 PM PST by ravingnutter | To 145

[AmeriBrit]

ANOTHER MUST READ:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/710goolj.asp?pg=1


How Bad Is the Senate Intelligence Report? .....Very bad.

by Stephen F. Hayes

09/25/2006,

[piasa]

The person whose response I most wanted is Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who has claimed to discover that Saddam was guiltless on the charge of seeking uranium from Niger, and has further claimed to be the object, along with his CIA wife, of a campaign of government persecution. On Keith Olbermann's show on April 10, Wilson was asked about my article and about Zahawie. He replied that Zahawie:

is a man that I know from my time as acting ambassador in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. ... He was ambassador to the Vatican, and he made a trip in 1999 to several West and Central African countries for the express purpose of inviting chiefs of state to violate the ban on travel to Iraq. He has said repeatedly to the press, he's now in retirement, and also to the International Atomic Energy Agency, to their satisfaction, that uranium was not on his agenda.

In other words (I am prepared to keep on repeating this until at least one cow comes home), Joseph Wilson went to Niger in 2002 to investigate whether or not the country had renewed its uranium-based relationship with Iraq, spent a few days (by his own account) sipping mint tea with officials of that country who were (by his wife's account) already friendly to him, and came back with the news that all was above-board. Again to repeat myself, this must mean either that A) he did not know that Zahawie had come calling or B) that he did know but didn't think it worth mentioning that one of Saddam's point men on nukes had been in town. --------------- Christopher Hitchen's article in Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2140058/

[piasa]

NOVEMBER 12, 1981 : (IRAQ SUCCEEDS IN GETTING THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO INSERT AN AMMENDMENT CONDEMNING ISRAEl'S DESTRUCTION OF THE IRAQI NECLEAR REACTOR OSIRAK -- See ZAHAWI) ...Zahawie won attention in the United Nations, and the IAEA, long before Saddam's invasion of Kuwait sparked conflict between Iraq and the United States. On November 12, 1981, in a surprise maneuver, Iraq won a vote in the General Assembly inserting an amendment condemning Israel's destruction of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor into a routine declaration on the IAEA. The Associated Press quoted Zahawie as saying, "The Zionist act of aggression is also an attack against the IAEA."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

1984 : (IRAQI DIPLOMAT ZAHAWI TRIES TO BLOCK ISRAELI PRESIDENT FROM SPEAKING AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY) In 1984, he tried to block Israeli President Chaim Herzog from speaking to the General Assembly. "Wissam Zahawie of Iraq objected on the ground that, according to United Nations resolutions, Israel's claim that Jerusalem was its capital was 'null and void,'" reported The New York Times.-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

1995 : (UN CONFERENCE ON EXTENDING THE NPT : IRAQI DIPLOMAT AL ZAHAWI COMMENTS) At a 1995 UN conference on extending the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Zahawie (sometimes spelled "Zahawi") argued that unless Israel was stripped of nuclear weapons, other states would need to engage in "a secret or public" arms race to "restore a certain balance."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

APRIL 24, 1995 : (UN CONFERENCE ON EXTENDING THE NPT : IRAQI DIPLOMAT AL ZAHAWI COMMENTS) In an official UN summary of the April 24, 1995, session of this [UN] conference [on extending the NPT]—provided to me by the United Nations Library—Zahawie sometimes referred to Israel as the "entity." "In that entity," the summary cites him as saying, "there was a powerful opposition party which was expected to win the forthcoming elections and which was urging that not a single inch of the occupied territories should be surrendered, and was ready, in its fanaticism, to go to any lengths, whatever the cost. It was not hard to see what that party would do with its nuclear bomb."

"[B]y exempting one State [Israel] from applying the provisions of the Treaty while expecting others to respect it forever," the UN summary cites Zahawie as saying, "there would inevitably be attempts to restore a certain balance. That meant an arms race, whether secret or public"

"Efforts must therefore be made either to establish equity and equilibrium," the UN summary reports Zahawie as saying, "or—preferably—to attain the ultimate goal sought by all mankind, namely the complete and permanent elimination of the nuclear threat."

Citing what he characterized as belligerent statements by various U.S. leaders of the Cold War era, Zahawie argued that the U.S. refrained from using nuclear weapons only out of fear of Soviet retaliation. "Apparently, the military and civilian leaders of the United States were very attached to the idea of atomic bombing designed to destroy a city or an entire country, since their experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," the UN summary reports him saying.

"If there had been any equilibrium at the beginning," it cites him as saying, "the world would not have experienced the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Zahawie's belligerence did not go unnoticed at the time. "Iraq's delegate at the conference, Wissam Al-Zahawi," reported Agence France Presse, "warned that if the international community allowed Israel to remain outside the NPT it would lead to 'inevitable attempts' to reestablish 'some kind of equilibrium' in the region, followed by a 'secret or open' arms race."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

NOVEMBER 12, 1997 : (ZAHAWI LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE) In a letter published on Nov. 12, 1997, in the International Herald Tribune, Zahawie, identified as Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, was more direct. "Iraq has shown that there are Arabs who refuse to bow to American bullying," he wrote. "It has challenged a Zionist-American diktat by trying to achieve the forbidden strategic balance that would enable Arabs to resist Israeli aggression."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

FEBRUARY 10, 1998 : (ZAHAWI LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE : ZAHAWI COMPLAINS ABOUT ARTICLES WRITTEN BY BOTH WILLIAM SAFIRE AND ALSO BY THOMAS FRIEDMAN THAT ADVOCATED USING FORCE TO DISARM SADDAM HUSSEIN'S IRAQ REGIME) In a letter published in the International Herald Tribune on Feb. 10, 1998, he objected to columns by William Safire and Thomas Friedman that advocated the use of force to disarm Saddam. "The present rabid braying and warmongering will surely serve to stiffen Iraqis' resolve, to increase their hatred of their American tormentors and to rally people around their president," he wrote.-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

DECEMBER 30, 1999 : (ZAHAWI LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE COMPLAINS ABOUT THE RESUMPTION OF UN SANCTIONS)On December 30, 1999, 10 months after his trade mission to Niger, the International Herald Tribune published a letter from Zahawie objecting to resumption of UN weapons inspections. "It should come as no surprise that Iraq should resist the return of the so-called inspectors who were relaying to the United States and Britain the information they need to choose the targets for their systematic bombing of Iraq," Zahawie wrote.-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger

[piasa]

JUNE 25, 1998 : (THE VATICAN : IRAQI DIPLOMAT WISSAM CHAWKET AL ZAHAWI LASHES OUT AGAINST THE EMBARGO ON IRAQ AT A SCREENING FOR LEFTWING ACTIVIST/FRENCH PRIEST FATHER JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN - NOTE THAT FATHER BENJAMIN APPEARED ON THE LIST OF PEOPLE AND GROUPS ACCEPTING IRAQI OIL VOUCHER BRIBES, WOULD BE ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ORGANIZED REPEATED FLIGHTS VIOLATING THE EMBARGO ON IRAQ, AND IS A PERSON WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE OF AN ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES [9/11/2001] USING HIJACKED PLANES) VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- The Vatican's envoy in Baghdad has once again lashed out against the international embargo on Iraq.
In a video message, played at the screening of a new documentary on the effects of that embargo, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto called upon Christian to show their solidarity with the people of Iraq.
The documentary film, "Iraq Solidarity Action," was produced by Father Jean-Marie Benjamin, a French-born priest serving the diocese of Rome. It was screened today in the presence of the Iraqi ambassador to the Holy See, Wissam Chawket al-Zahawie. ------Vatican envoy in Iraq denounces embargo again, June 25, 1998, http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/old_site/papalvisit2.html

APRIL 2000 : (FRENCH PRIEST FATHR BENJAMIN ORGANIZES 'HUMANITARIAN' FLIGHT TO IRAQ IN ViOLATION OF SANCTIONS)

SEPTEMBER 16, 2001 : (FRENCH PRIEST FATHER BENJAMIN CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN TIPPED OFF ABOUT 9/11 ATTACKS ON THE USA AT A WEDDING IN TODI, ITALI ON SEPT 7, 2001) ------http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=9943

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT

[Peach]

You'll want to read this little gem by Hitchens.

[Bigg Red]

Think the Demo minority will understand they have been 'exposed'?

**
Unfortunately, the Pubbie majority is going along.

[Bigg Red]

Leave it to Hitchens to tear apart that Senate Intelligence Committee report..

**
I have always been an admirer of Hitchens' intellect, even though he is a socialist, and I have faith that he will gradually come over to our side.

[Bigg Red]

We don't have time for this. I mean Ann Nicole's son keels over due to a bad batch of meth, college football players accept gifts from pro scouts, we don't know who killed JonBenet, Natalie Holloway is still dead, a slutty teacher gets a news conference, some pro baseball players and pro bicycle riders MAY have taken steroids, you could put Pink and a Hampshire hog in identical party dresses and the hog would look better......

&&&
You are so right. How easily we at FR are distrated from those important stories! Thank you for getting us back on track, but you forgot to call our attention to the story about the girl who killed herself because of Nancy Grace.

[Bigg Red]

I think we are in a death struggle in this country and it is the enemy within that is the most dangerous. If this country and government were really united we would have had our troops home a year ago and the "insurgency" in Iraq would have been a non issue. Insurgencies only grow when they see they can wait out the opposition. With the actions of McCain and company our problems are truly bipartisan now. Our enemies know that by January of next year they stand a very real chance of our defacto surrender.

&&
You summed it up very well. I pray that you are wrong, but I fear that you are right.

[Howlin]

Charles Krauthammer remarked on Fox News a while back (concerning Wilson's mission to Niger),"Niger has two commodities to export, uranium and sand. Iraq already has sand."

I remember that......I LOL'd and LOL'd.

[Txsleuth]

LOL...yes, he does have a tendency to swing WAY left on some things...but his staunch support of the Iraq war, as well as the overall war on islamofacists is good enough for me!!

I love to listen to him debate one of the anti-war idiots, also.

[griswold3]

mark for later read.

[jwalsh07]

I don't like Hitchens on a persoanl level but I give the guy his due. He is very smart, very erudite and a pit bull when it comes to his views. Here, he makes mince meat of the loons in the senate.

[cgk]

Thanks for the ping, howlin. :)

Hitchens Bump to WPtG...