Posted on 08/15/2007 7:06:09 AM PDT by tobyhill
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lawyer for Oscar Wyatt has asked a judge to exclude evidence from his upcoming trial that suggests a link between the Texas oil tycoon and Saddam Hussein and a tip to Iraq about the U.S. invasion.
The motion, filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, comes three weeks before Wyatt, former chairman and founder of Coastal Corp., goes on trial accused of paying secret kickbacks to Iraq and corrupting the U.N. oil-for-food program.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to pay several million dollars in kickbacks to Iraq in relation to the corrupted $67 billion program.
The motion seeks to remove prosecutors' evidence that suggests payments made by Wyatt to Iraq's state oil marketing organization were passed straight on to Saddam, arguing it would prejudice the jury.
"Prior to his execution, Hussein was considered one of the world's best known and most hated Arab leaders," according to the motion, which says prosecutors do not have to prove any connection to Saddam to convict Wyatt of the charges.
Wyatt is also asking to have portions of a diary of a former Iraqi state oil agency employee, Mubdir Al-Khudhair, omitted. It suggests Wyatt provided the Iraq government with information about when the United States would invade and bomb Iraq and how many soldiers would be sent, according to the motion.
"Such actions would likely be considered repugnant by most Americans and could potentially bias," said the papers, arguing the diary was irrelevant to Wyatt's case.
One diary entry also states that "Wyatt allegedly convinced Senator Edward Kennedy to deliver a speech against the war with Iraq," according to the motion. A spokesperson for Senator Kennedy did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
‘Well, Kennedy committed treason back in the 1980s by helping the Soviets against Reagan, so why should helping Saddam be any different?’
Its a family tradition going back to WWII and Joe Kennedy’s sympathizing with the Nazi’s.
“Er ah, that could’ve been any bloated senatah!” — Diamond Ted Kennedy
Thanks!
>>He certainly believes in covering all the bases.
Unfortunately, that’s a reflection of the power of government in our times.
If the government weren’t so powerful, it wouldn’t be worth donating so much money to all those political campaigns.
The best way to achieve “campaign finance reform”, is to take power away from government.
There’s only one way to find out, call Sen. Kennedy to testify about what he knew and what he told a person he should have known was violating the law.
it could but it won’t as the criminal liberal media won’t go near it....
[How did Wyatt know that?
Jay Rockefeller comes to mind...]
Good guess. Rockefeller is the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee...
Defense attorney, "Hey Judge this is they way the trail should go. The prosecutor tells the jury what he thinks my client did but he does NOT get to present evidence. Then I get up and tell the jury my defendant's side of the story AND point out that there is NO EVIDENCE that he did any thing wrong! Open and shut case."
LOL. It’s amazing that even 13% of Americans approve of congress.
The creep.
Outstanding post! It’s too bad we can’t waterboard Wyatt. I guess the “rule of law” will have to do. /sarcasm
Rockefeller was the first one I thought of too.
I suppose a john could be convicted of soliciting a prostitute without mentioning that the john’s money was passed directly to her or her pimp but that would kind of be pertinent wouldn’t one think?
bfl
Enough to tide him over when the deep-dig payola money ran out.
The only details missing from the Houston article is the mention of Senator Kennedy. I wonder why?
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