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 ...
Chappaquiddick Fats probably has the boys scrubbing hard at this one.
In all fairness, Iraq was hardly a clandestine operation. I talked with friends in Army logistics, at Christmas time 6-18 months in advance, who knew the whole thing was coming. And posting 100,000 soldiers in Kuwait by February '03 may have tipped off some of the sharper observers of the situation.
Kennedy and others being implicit in phsy-ops to undermine the effort is one thing, but I find the claims of leaked operational details very dubious. The whole buildup wasn't much of a secret - and the rough invasion plan was easy to infer.
The issue is much larger than troop size, it’s about an oilman asking a Senator to stop a war because it affects his bank account and that liberal Senator not asking any questions about any legality of such request.
LOL! There was an old story that went around southern political circles for years. A pro-business candidate was running against a Huey Long style “populist” who promised to tax the hell out of business if elected. The businessmen all gave a big donation to the pro-business candidate. Days later, that candidate learned that the businessmen had all donated to the anti-business candidate as well. When he asked them why, they said, “Of course we hope you win, but we bought protection in case you don’t”.
The law and patriotism are for us peons, not the Kennedys.
“What’s next, his driving?”
Well, we sure can’t question his swimming, since HE made it out alive.
Ping.
ping to me!
hey, there are some people
in this country that have a free ride to do
anything they want—
murder, treason, theft, lying ...
and ted kennedy’s one of these.
Sounds like something he'd do. Magnificent bastard.
Remember seeing anything in relation to this in the PreWarDocs?
I have not seen this name in any of the Iraqi documents that I read.
Can’t wait to see if he has more details about this in his book he has coming out.
About any files or entries from Mubdir Al-Khudhair?
This is not a familiar name either.
Kennedy should resign for no other reason than the "seriousness of the charges."
Thanks
Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1882935/posts
In NY Court, Oil Exec Admits to Conspiracy in Iraq Oil Scheme
Why such a narrowly focus investigation ? Lets expand it to where the oil tankers had to travel. The shipping lanes and the waterways in and out of Iraq. Whose little known sister had her fingers in these shipping waters ?
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