William Safire: Follow the money

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/21/nyt.safire/index.html ^ | April 21, 2003 | William Safire

[Cultural Jihad]

Why do you suppose France and Russia

[Grampa Dave]

I hope that I get to hear you tell the left wingers, "I told you so for at least two more decades!"

[BOBTHENAILER]

hope that I get to hear you tell the left wingers, "I told you so for at least two more decades!"

You and me both.

It will be particularly sweet when they find the boxes labeled "DNC", "Clinton/Daschle/Pelosi", "Sierra Club", "Natural Resources Defense Council", and what was the group so helpful to Reno's jihad against Elian Gonzales? "World Council of Churches"?

[MizSterious]

Another oil for food ping!

[Howlin]

Why do you suppose France and Russia — nations that for years urged the lifting of sanctions on oil production of Saddam's Iraq — are now preventing an end to those U.N. sanctions on free Iraq?

Apparently this is the 64 billion dollar question!

Follow the money and discredit everybody.

[Howlin]

More for you list.

[Howlin]

Have you heard on Fox today all the stuff that Saddam and his little boys asked for with this Oil for Palaces money?

I'm still trying to find a link on Fox (but I'm not very good at finding stuff on that site!)

[InterceptPoint]

Colin Powell apparently believes that Chirac's new fondness for sanctions could tie up Iraqi oil production with litigation for years.

I can't believe he really said that.

Yes I can. Colin Powell would make such a stupid statement. He should try to get more face time with his boss, that fellow from Texas. Methinks that the advice that he will get from Condi (perhaps) and Rummy/Wolfy (for sure) will be to go for a vote in the UN and if we get a French or Russian veto then do what worked last time: Ignore it and start buying Iraqi oil and depositing the money in a bank account credited to Iraq. Just bypass the whole corrupt system. If Bush fails to do this he is fool in the same class as Colin Powell.

[Howlin]

Okay.....okay.......I lost the bookmark.

Will you post it here?

[Billthedrill]

I saw one item in another thread - a sports palace. But lest people think they were squandering Iraq's food and medicine money on a single-use facility, rest assured that thrifty Uday liked to make this sort of place do double duty as a torture chamber. What a great guy!

[Carry_Okie]

Quod erat demonstratum.

[Carry_Okie]

The clever thing to do would be for the US to get Britain, as a Party to the International Criminal Court, to bring separate actions against Chirac, Schroeder, and Putin for crimes against humanity via their malfeasance, criminal arms sales, and racketeering in the Oil for Food programme.

Tony Blair could thus get the Euro-monkey off his back vis-a-vis his own left, the Iraqis might get some of their money back, the leftist Eurotrash media would have to shut up about our greed for oil, and Iraq could go about ignoring the UN while selling the oil on the open market to anyone who is interested in buying it. Any such purchaser would of course be ignoring the UN right along with us.

Now that would be poetic justice!

[RightOnGOP]

Great article. All we need is more time for W, Rummy and friends to call the bluffs of so many world hypocrites. More time equals a higher chance to uncover the bad stuff, there's a lot of it. Hopefully, the UN will implode with some of the news that surfaces.......

[Russell Scott]

UN sanctions are as worthless as frost bitten French grapes. The only time they are paid attention to is when they can be used to take advantage of the America. My patience with our mole infested State Department is running out. Trying to salvage its new world order dream, no matter how much it hurts our national interest and security, is folly.

[Grampa Dave]

They will need big boxes to hold all of the money given to the DNC, Clinton/Daschle/Pelosi", "Sierra Club", "Natural Resources Defense Council" and the National Council of Churches.

[ccmay]

Several things occur to me as I learn more about these fascinating developments.

• This is just the tip of the iceberg.
• This story is potentially more interesting than the war itself.
• There's one hell of a book waiting to be written when this story is complete.
• And a good movie or two.
• This looks good for us at the moment, but we should keep in mind that our country and people we used to admire may suffer from some of these revelations. So be it; let the chips fall where they may.
• One wonders what is being discussed in the White House, the Kremlin, No. 10 and the Elysée Palace tonight.
• The pages of history, the wealth of nations, and the lives of millions of people are permanently altered by moments like this. The world may be rocked by a Daily Telegraph reporter, hunched over sheaves of papers in a dingy hotel room in Baghdad with only an Arabic translator for company.
• Speaking of which, if I were that reporter, knowing that I'm sitting on top of not just one blockbuster story, but potentially dozens-- I'd be looking over my shoulder at every squeak of the floorboards, wondering how many of the world's most wealthy and powerful men would like to cut my throat and walk off with my satchels of papers.
• If the reporter has any sense, he has scanned these papers into his laptop and sent copies rocketing all over cyberspace-- keeping hostages to history, as it were.
• Nonetheless, in the end, I wonder how much of the real story will make it into the public eye.

[foreshadowed at waco]

I don't think I'll ever get tired of saying I TOLD YOU SO.

To think that the left is going to be completely exposed as corrupt and greedy beneath the feigned expressions of moral piety--I LOVE IT TOO!!!!

[Mr. Mojo]

bttt

[BigSkyFreeper]

Exactly. As Bush said in his SOTU speech, "We don't need a permission slip".

[Aeronaut]

In fact, we don't need UN approval for anything.

I suggest the following ammendment:

In fact, we don't need the UN approval for anything.

[185JHP]

Bill by himself is enough reason for the Times to exist. What a mensch...