Posted on 09/26/2007 9:36:52 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Bush thought Saddam was prepared to flee: report
By Jason Webb 29 minutes ago
Saddam Hussein was prepared to take $1 billion and go into exile before the Iraq war, according to a transcript of talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and an ally, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Wednesday.
During a meeting at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on February 22, 2003, Bush told former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar that Saddam could also be assassinated, according to the transcript published in El Pais in Spanish.
In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to comment on the report.
"The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1 billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction," Bush was quoted as saying at the meeting one month before the U.S.-led invasion.
Asked by Aznar whether Saddam could really leave, Bush replied: "Yes, that possibility exists. Or he might even be assassinated."
A spokesman for Aznar's private foundation had no comment on the transcript or its authenticity. El Pais, which was critical of the Iraq war and of Aznar's government, did not say how it obtained the transcript which it said was made by a Spanish diplomat who attended the meeting.
In it, Bush spoke openly about pressuring countries who were members of the United Nations Security Council at the time to support a resolution authorizing force, but that, whatever happened: "We'll be in Baghdad by the end of March."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Okay, didn’t Bush give Saddam 48 hours to leave??
Turned out better for us. We got the rat. Katie Couric of course was hoping he escaped to Syria timely.
Dear Jason Webb of Reuters:
Google is your friend.
Sincerely.
AMERICAN MORNING
Aired December 5, 2003 - 08:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT
JUAN ZARATE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, TREASURY DEPARTMENT: Thanks for having me.
Good morning.
COOPER: Let me ask, before the war began, Saddam Hussein is said to have removed $1 billion in cash from the central bank in Baghdad.
Where is that money now and — or how much of it has been recovered — and is some of it still being used, do you think, to fund terror?
ZARATE: That’s right. Saddam Hussein actually ordered his central bank to transfer over close to a billion dollars in U.S. currency as well as in euros. We’ve been able, with the good work of the Department of Defense and with our investigators on the ground to capture most of that, over $800 million, as well as close to 90 million euros. So we’ve captured most of that.
Yes! This story isn't exactly news. The 48 hours to leave is in the National Geographic special "Inside Shock-n-Awe."
Now, the Iraq invasion is beginning to make more sense. We invaded Iraq to keep Saddam from being assassinated so we could hang him. Makes perfect sense to me.
This conversation was almost a month before military operations started. Everyone knew the US was trying to get Saddam to leave Iraq. So what’s new?
We rarely take the easy or cheap way... ;)
March 2003 Document: Saddam Orders Iraq Central Bank to Give his Son 1 Billion Dollars http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1697062/posts
"The Eqyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein," said Mr Bush. "It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction." Asked by the Spanish premier whether Saddam - who was executed in December last year - could really leave, the President replied: "Yes, that possibility exists. Or he might even be assassinated." But he added that whatever happened: "We'll be in Baghdad by the end of March." Mr Bush went on to refer optimistically to the rebuilding or Iraq. The transcript - which was published yesterday in the Spanish newspaper El Pais - was said to have been recorded by a diplomat at the meeting in Crawford, Texas, on February 22, 2003.
So Saddam was basically trying to extort money from the US government. Maybe that was the last straw for Bush.
And I wonder if Saddam would cause more problems in the Middle East if he lived in exile?
Did any country want him and his crazy sons?
“go into exile if he’s allowed to take $1 billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction,”
Wuzzthat?
WMDs?
Take all WMD info with him?
How can he have info on what he did not have right?
More proof of Iraqi WMD.
Well sorry, but I don't read it that way, I wonder what jveritas sees.
There are some other stories floating around about the U.S. troops who found several hundred million in the facility where Ousay trained and tortured his soccer team.
March 2003 Document: Saddam Orders Iraq Central Bank to Give his Son 1 Billion Dollars http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1697062/posts
Just to be a light-hearted on this, I believe we gave him six months to leave. (He refused of course).
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