JANUARY 2002 : (BRITISH DISCOVER THAT SCUD MISSILES FROM CHINA WERE BEING SMUGGLED INTO LIBYA THROUGH BRITAIN) In July 2001, the British government restored diplomatic relations with Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, convinced that he wanted to rejoin the “international community.” Six months later, the British discovered that SCUD missiles capable of hitting targets in Europe with chemical or biological warheads were being smuggled to Libya through Britain from China. The British have now convinced President Bush that Gadhafi has changed for the better and that he is really going to give up his weapons of mass destruction, or WMD, programs. - "Libya's Propaganda Ploy," By Cliff Kincaid , Accuracy in Media, January 16, 2004
2002 : (ARAPCO IS CREATED TO BUY OIL CONCESSIONS IN AFRICA- See MOHAMMED ALAMOUDI) The Alamoudi oil empire, centered around the Saudi-based company Delta Oil, included African ventures such as Arab-African Petroleum Company (ARAPCO), created in 2002 to buy oil concessions in Africa and develop them with foreign partners. -------From Fedora (clipped from the draft of my article)| 11/05/2005 11:44:05 PM PST replied
2002 : (LIBYA IMPORTS 'URANIUM COMPOUNDS', IT WOULD BE DISCOVERED LATER) - "UN Says Libya Made Plutonium, Imported Uranium," By Louis Charbonneau, Reuters, Fri Feb 20, 2004 04:08 PM ET
2002 : (FORMER US SENATOR FROM S DAKOTA, JAMES ABOUREZK, PRAISES HEZBOLLAH - See NELSON MANDELA) The second-generation Lebanese-American seemingly has no problem exercising his first amendment rights. In 2002, Abourezk praised the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah and the "positive role it was playing in Lebanon.""[Hezbollah] was like the tool that forced the 'Israelis' to withdraw," Abourezk said.Also last year [2002], Abourezk suggested that the solution to Israel's terrorism problem would be to "get the hell out of the occupied territories." "It's not a wonder there are suicide bombers, it's a wonder there aren't many more," Abourezk said. ---- "20-Year-Old Republican Website Owner Sued by Former Democrat Senator, " By Jeff Gannon, Talon News, July 31, 2003
SEPTEMBER 2002 : (US POLITICIANS NICK RAHALL & ABOUREZK TRIP TO IRAQ COSPONSORED BY FORMER SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA) --Mandela cosponsored [Dem congressmen] Rahall and Abourezk's 9/2002 trip to Iraq -----via FR's Fedora
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Occidental Petroleum's Vice President for Middle East business Odeh Aburdene, shares a complex network of relationships with Rock Creek’s Elias Aburdene and Joseph Wilson--notably, all three contributed to Congressman Nick Rahall ----- "What Wilson Didn’t Say About Africa: Joseph Wilson's Silent Partners ," via 112 posted on 04/24/2006 2:25:40 PM PDT by Fedora | To 111
SEPTEMBER 2002 : (FORMER DEMOCRAT US SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA JAMES ABOUREZK TRAVELS TO IRAQ TO MEET WITH IRAQI DPTY PM TARIQ AZIZ ----- See CNSS, ADC) The former senator made a trip to Baghdad in September 2002 to meet Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Abourezk said that a U.S. attack on Iraq would be "immoral."---- "20-Year-Old Republican Website Owner Sued by Former Democrat Senator, " By Jeff Gannon, Talon News, July 31, 2003
SEPTEMBER 2002 : (IRAQ's "CHEMICAL ALI" ALI HUSSEIN AL MAJID aka ALI HASSAN AL MAJID TOURS SEVERAL NATIONS IN NORTH AFRICA, INCLUDING ALGERIA, LIBYA & TUNISIA - see ANFAL, HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES, CHEMICAL WEAPONS, ETC) ---- 'Chemical Ali' Found Dead in Basra [rumor] AP, Monday, April 7, 2003
SEPTEMBER 2002 : (DENNIS KUCINICH ANNOUNCES THE FORMATION OF A CONGRESSIONAL ANTIWAR DELEGATION - See ABOUREZK, LEE, MCDERMOTT, OIL VOUCHER RECIPIENT SHAKIR AL KHAFAJI) The CPC overlaps with the Iraq antiwar lobby organized in September 2002 by CPC Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich announced the formation of a Congressional antiwar coalition immediately following the return of a delegation to Baghdad co-led by former MCPL Senator James Abourezk [ ----- See CNSS, ADC].
Kucinich’s coalition initially consisted of 19 Democrats, notably CPC members Barbara Lee, who had cast the lone vote against military action in Afghanistan after 9/11, and Jim McDermott, who had also criticized military action against Afghanistan. McDermott would soon follow up Abourezk’s delegation with another trip to Baghdad.
Accompanying McDermott’s delegation was Iraqi agent Shakir Al-Khafaji, who later paid McDermott a check. Al-Khafaji had also been using Oil-for-Food vouchers to finance a film by antiwar spokesman Scott Ritter, who met Abourezk’s delegation in Baghdad. Since 2002, Kucinich’s coalition has spearheaded the movement to defund the war effort.-------------- "In Fonda’s Footsteps: Murtha, Kucinich, and the Antiwar Movement’s Economic War," Original FReeper research | 1/15/2007 | By Fedora
SEPTEMBER 29, 2002 : (IRAQ "12 WISE MEN" PROPOSAL TO STAVE OFF WAR; See ZAMBIA, SOUTH AFRICA, MANDELA, CARTER, KAUNDA, TARIQ AZIZ) Nelson Mandela has been named as part of a prospective council of 12 international statesmen to intervene in the Iraq crisis.Mandela, along with Jimmy Carter, a former United States president, will be sounded out on flying to Iraq to shadow the weapons inspections process in that country and ensure inspectors are given full access. The proposal is seen as an initiative by the Iraqi administration to stave off US military action, with the 12 "wise men" able to verify that the UN weapons inspectors were able to visit all sites under suspicion of being assembly points for weapons of mass destruction....
Zelda la Grange, a spokesperson for Mandela, said of the "wise men" proposal: "If the invitation from Iraq carries the approval of the UN then Madiba will consider it." As yet no official request had reached Mandela's office. Should Mandela be asked to act as a "juror", he would seek UN approval for this and would most likely send a special representative and make occasional personal visits to Iraq, said La Grange.
But diplomatic sources said the idea first came about during talks between Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister, and Mandela at the World Summit on Sustainable Development. "It is still an idea (which exists) in the minds of some people. We will see in the next few days how it progresses," a source said.
Aziz insisted that the issue of neutralising weapons of mass destruction was being used as a pretext by America to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.
Kenneth Kaunda, the former Zambian president, has also been pencilled in as a member of the team of international "guards".
-----"'Wise man' Madiba sought for Iraqi mission," By Beauregard Tromp, Sunday Independent On Line, Zambia, September 29 2002 at 11:01AM , http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=ct20020929110127587I6253756
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(snip) DURBAN [SOUTH AFRICA]- In an extraordinary twist to the current tensions between the United States and Iraq, former South African president (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Nelson Mandela has not only sided strongly against President George W. Bush, but appears on the point of being recruited to a stratagem by Saddam Hussein to block U.S. military intervention.
Mandela has uttered stronger and stronger statements critical of Bush. Originally he attempted to telephone the U.S. President to communicate his views, but Bush did not take his calls, so Mandela phoned ex-president George Bush Sr. to complain about his son and ask for his criticisms to be passed on. When this failed to move Bush Jr., Mandela declared the U.S. threat of pre-emptive war to bring about regime change in Iraq meant that the United States, not Iraq, was now "a danger to world peace." He followed this up by announcing that "some people" were saying that the United States was flouting the United Nations' authority because Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, was a black man.
Last week Mandela went further still, no longer putting such allegations in the mouths of "some people," but openly charging that the Bush administration was acting out of racist and white supremacist motives in not "obeying" Kofi Annan. "No country, however powerful it may be, is entitled to act outside the UN. When UN secretaries-general were white we never had the question of any country ignoring the United Nations, but now that we have got black secretaries-general like Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan certain countries that believe in white supremacy are ignoring the UN for racist reasons."
At the same time, Mandela has declared himself willing to serve on a panel of "12 wise men" proposed by Saddam Hussein to oversee the UN inspectors, provided this plan finds acceptance with the UN. The panel is quite clearly intended to create a supra-national body that will interpose itself between Iraq and possible Anglo-American intervention. Quite clearly, the idea would be to pack the panel with personalities likely to oppose U.S. action. Already Saddam has mentioned ex-president Jimmy Carter as a possible member, clearly in anticipation that Carter would share Al Gore's critical attitude towards the Bush position.
Moreover, Saddam is hoping to push onto such a panel figures whom he can covertly influence or control. One such is former president Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia. ...
Naturally, Saddam's leverage with Kaunda increased immensely after he fell from power in 1993.
Kaunda, suddenly bereft of the state patronage and funds he had relied on, needed Saddam's subventions all the more. In return he has been a frequent, albeit somewhat gloomy, attendee at state functions in Baghdad. Naturally, in putting forward Kaunda's name as one of the "wise men" Saddam makes much of his role in supporting the cause of African freedom: There is no mention of these ties which would make it extremely hard to imagine Kaunda taking any other side but Saddam's.
Mandela's case is more complex. He shares the general Third World nervousness at the new doctrine of "regime change" -- for if the United States is to start deposing Third World dictators on general principle, many of Mandela's friends and donors would be at risk. In the run-up to the 1994 election in South Africa, Mandela raised prodigious sums of money for his African National Congress -- including from such undemocratic regimes as Libya, Saudi Arabia, Suharto's Indonesia -- and Saddam's Iraq.... (/snip)------------Mandela picks Iraq over U.S. National Post ^ | October 11 2002 | R.W. Johnson
2003 : (JOURNALIST CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS REPORTS THAT IRAQI FOREIGN MINISTER TARIQ AZIZ OFFERED A HUGE BRIBE TO A SENIOR WEAPONS INSPECTOR) Rolf Ekeus. BTW, maybe the guy Christopher Hitchens mentioned in 2003: "I know of at least one incontrovertible case where a senior inspector was offered a huge bribe by Tariq Aziz himself: The man in question refused the money, but obviously not everybody did." ------http://slate.msn.com/id/2078512 15 posted on 03/11/2005 6:51:08 PM PST by Shermy
FEBRUARY 2003 : (REPORT : MOHAMMED FAROUQ ALI ROUB & PLF/IRAQI POISON PLOT : WMD, POISON PLOTS, IRAQ , PLF, IRAQ) WHILE President Bush is being urged to provide proof of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, Israel has its own proof that Iraq is ready to use deadly poison in terrorist attacks. "I was told to be ready to spread poison in the major Israeli water pipelines, the River Jordan or the Lake of Galilee," said Mohammed Farouq Abu Roub, a former junior officer in Palestinian intelligence. "I got these instructions in Iraq, where I was given thousands of dollars to carry out mega-attacks." Abu Roub, 29, was quoted by Israel's largest newspaper, Yediot Aronoth, speaking from his prison after being arrested in a botched effort to dispatch a homicide bomber to Israel. Details of the Shin Bet's lengthy investigation of Abu Roub had already been passed on to the US, sources told The Post. ----------- "IRAQ'S THUG BARES EVIL POISON PLOT," by URI DAN, New York Post, February 2, 2003
FEBRUARY 14, 2003 : (SOUTH AFRICA TO AID IRAQ IN DISMANTLING WMD IT ALLEGEDLY DOESN'T HAVE? )(snip) South Africa will send experts in dismantling weapons of mass destruction to Iraq as part of Pretoria's bid to avert war, President Thabo Mbeki said in his state of the nation address today.
The intervention follows a visit to Baghdad by Aziz Pahad, the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, and comes ahead of today's crucial report-back by United Nations weapons inspectors to the Security Council in New York. Addressing a special joint sitting of Parliament, Mbeki said it was hoped the UN report-back "will not serve as a signal to some that the time has come to unleash the fury of war".
"As we speak, a number of our citizens are preparing to travel to Iraq. These are the experts who led our country's programme to destroy our nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, as well as the missiles for the delivery of these weapons in conditions of combat."
The work they had done had resulted in South Africa becoming an international example of best practice in disarmament, he said. South Africa voluntarily disarmed its weapons of mass destruction in the 1990s. Pretoria had proposed to Iraq and to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General that these experts share South Africa's experience with Baghdad, Mbeki said.
"I am pleased to inform the Honourable Members that Iraq has accepted our offer, which we have already discussed with the leadership of the weapons inspectors. "We trust that this intervention will help to ensure the necessary proper co-operation between the United Nations' inspectors and Iraq, so that the issue of weapons of mass destruction is addressed satisfactorily, without resort to war." - "SA to send its nuclear experts to Iraq: Mbeki," http://www.sabcnews.com/politics/government/0,1009,52970,00.html., February 14, 2003, 11:15
MARCH 2003 : (BATTLE OF IRAQ BEGINS)
APRIL 25, 2003 : (RUMSFELD BRIEFING COMMENTS ON UPCOMING INTERROGATION OF IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER TARIQ AZIZ - See OIL FOR FOOD, JEAN-MARIE BENJAMIN, GEORGE GALLOWAY, JAMES ABOUREZK, NICK RAHALL, BAGHDAD TRIO, SHAKIR AL KHAFAJI, GLENCOR ETC...) [Deputy Prime Minister Tariq] Aziz, meanwhile, may know where other senior officials wanted by the United States are hiding, officials said. As a longtime associate of Saddam, he may also have details on some of the Iraqi president's long-term planning.
Aziz "clearly is a very senior person and was in that regime, and we intend to discuss with him whatever he's willing to discuss with us," Rumsfeld said. -- "Iraqi intelligence agents held,"AP via TheAge.com.au, April 26 2003
MAY 2003 : (JAMES ABOUREZK FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST PROBUSH.COM - See N.I.O.N. , CNSS, ADC, Iran, Hezbollah) In May, former Sen. James Abourezk (D-SD) filed a $5 million lawsuit against a website operator who included him among a group of "traitors." The website, www.ProBush.com, lampoons liberals from the entertainment industry and politics who have been vocal in their opposition to the war in Iraq or critical of President George W. Bush.
Some of the others on the list are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as well as actors George Clooney, Susan Sarandon, and Janeane Garafalo and the country music group, the Dixie Chicks.
While the website disclaimer states that the list is a parody and is not to be taken seriously, Abourezk claims that he has been defamed. In his lawsuit he states that ProBush.com's statement "is intended to injure" his standing in the community... asked how Abourezk came to be on the "traitor" list, Marino explained, "These are the signers of the famous 'Not in Our Name' petition against the war. He was alphabetically at the top of the list."
---- "20-Year-Old Republican Website Owner Sued by Former Democrat Senator, " By Jeff Gannon Talon News, July 31, 2003
[* I guess praising Hezbollah didn't damage Abourezk's standing in the community?]
JUNE 10, 2003 : (INTERIM UNMOVIC CHIEF NAMED, WAS THE LEADER OF THE IAEA TEAM WHICH CERTIFIED SOUTH AFRICA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM DISSOLUTION) U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed UNMOVIC Deputy Executive Chairman Demetrius Perricos to take over as acting head of the commission July 1, when Blix retires. Perricos was the commission's director of planning and operations for three years prior to his appointment in January to the body's number two post. The Greek native joined the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1972 as a safeguards inspector and led the team that certified the dissolution of South Africa's nuclear weapons program.He also worked in Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War -"Interim UNMOVIC Chief Named ," U.N. release, June 10
JUNE 2003 mid : (CAIRO, EGYPT : US UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE BOLTON WARNS EGYPT ON ITS INVOLVEMENT WITH IRAQ & NORTH KOREA ON MISSILES & WMD PROGRAMS) The United States has again launched an examination of Egypt's missile and weapons of mass destruction programs. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton held talks over the weekend in Cairo with Egyptian leaders on a range of what U.S. officials termed were sensitive subjects. They said the issues included Egypt's WMD and missile programs and Cairo's cooperation with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and North Korea.
"All of the testimony and evidence found in Iraq have shown significant Egyptian involvement in Iraq's missile and WMD programs," a U.S. official said. "The issue has become too big to ignore without undermining the credibility of the administration."
- "U.S. QUESTIONS EGYPT ON WMD, MISSILES ," by Middle East Newsline staff, Middle East Newsline, 6/17/03
JULY 2006 : (JAMES ABOUREZK'S ADC SUES THE US GOVERNMENT OVER "FAILURE TO PROTECT AMERICAN CITIZENS FROM FIGHTING IN LEBANON" ----- See DEMOCRATS, ABOUREZK, CNSS, NION, HEZBOLLAH, IRAN) WASHINGTON — A leading Arab-American advocacy group has sued the U.S. government, claiming that it failed to protect American citizens from the fighting in Lebanon. The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of about 30 American citizens by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee [ADC], alleges that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not take all possible steps to secure the safety and well being of U.S. citizens when fighting erupted between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas. The committee is asking the U.S. District Court in Detroit to order the U.S. government to request a cease fire and to stop shipments of weapons or any other military support to Israel during the evacuation of U.S. citizens from Lebanon.(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...----------Arab-American Group Sues U.S. For Slow Lebanon Evacuation Fox News ^ | July 24, 2006
JULY 28, 2003 Monday : (UN : UN EXPANDS MONUC MANDATE -- SOUTH AFRICAN, BANGLADESHI & INDIAN TROOPS IN CONGO - see COLTAN, URANIUM)The expanded force will include troops from South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. ''They have already been lined up to go to eastern DRC,'' Annan said. ... MONUC's new mandate also gives peacekeepers the authority to take all ''necessary means'' to protect U.N. personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, as well as civilians and humanitarian workers ''under imminent threat of physical violence''. One expert said Monday that a peacekeeping force in the DRC must have sufficient authority to both defend itself, and more importantly, to help disarm combatants, thereby protecting the civilian population. The 53-member African Union (AU) must step forward and play an integral role in resolving the DRC crisis, said Bill Fletcher Jr, president of Washington-based TransAfrica Forum. ''The South African government has played a critical role, but this needs to be expanded to the AU (African Union) as a whole,'' Fletcher said in an interview. ''One important step would be the use of African troops in the DRC rather than European,'' he added. ----- "U.N. Authorizes Military Force in Congo ," Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service (IPS), July 28 -- yahoo.comnews, July 29, 2003
OCTOBER 4, 2003 : (TARANTO, ITALY : FIVE CONTAINERS FROM THE SHIP BBC CHINA ARE SEIZED; THEY CONTAIN A COMPONENT USEFUL FOR MAKING CENTRIFUGES - EVIDENCE OF LIBYA'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM, QADEER KHAN NETWORK)
NOVEMBER 2003 : (REPORT : AL QAEDA REP IBRAHIM ABD BOUGHT URANIUM FROM CONGOLESE MEN AT A MEETING IN HAMBURG GERMANY BACK IN MARCH 3, 2000) An al-Qaida representative bought enriched uranium capable of being used in a so-called dirty bomb from the Congolese opposition in 2000, according to a French newspaper report.
In sworn testimony an unnamed former soldier from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has told investigators looking into the murders of two Congolese opposition figures in France in December 2000 that he attended a meeting earlier that year at which the uranium was sold, the Lyon-based Le Progres reported.
The man "described a meeting which took place on 3 March in (the German city of) Hamburg between some Congolese men and an Egyptian by the name of Ibrahim Abd," the newspaper said.
It quoted the man as saying, "I realised it was al-Qaida." According to Le Progres, the Egyptian was able to acquire two bars of enriched uranium 138. ------ "Al-Qaida 'bought uranium' in Congo; Bin Ladin's network alleged to have 'dirty bomb' capability ,"AFP via Aljazeera, Friday 14 November 2003, 19:18 Makka Time, 16:18 GMT
DECEMBER 2003 : (UN SUPRESSED REPORT THAT REVEALED THAT RWANDA & UGANDA WERE STILL ARMING TERRORIST GROUPS IN THE CONGO- See COLTAN, URANIUM, GEMSTONE TRADE) ... it emerged that the UN Security Council suppressed a chapter from a UN report revealing that Rwanda and Uganda were still arming militias in Congo. It added that senior members of both governments were continuing to loot their neighbour. Britain refuses even to consider sanctions against either country. Others are getting their slice of the action too. Senior Tanzanian ministers are said to have armed Burundian rebels who are terrorising the South Kivu region of Congo. -----------------"The agony of a traumatised nation heard in the cries of a beaten child," The Daily Telegraph ^ | 3rd January, 2004 | Adrian Blomfield
(* My note: just a bit of trivia : Iraq backed Uganda's wars on its neighbors ... couldn't have been to get access to uranium in the future, right?)
piasa - you have got to write a book. Your research is more indepth and puts together some names that previously weren't connected with each other.