Free Republic

WASHINGTON: The famous African explorer Dr David Livingstone might have been impressed, even if the agenda was suspect. Pakistan’s disgraced nuclear proliferator-hero Abdul Qadeer Khan traversed the breadth of Africa in his hey day as a nuclear salesman , going to as romantic a getaway as Casablanca in Morocco and as remote an outpost as Timbuktu in Mali.   US officials might dearly like to get hold of Khan’s travel agent, or simply his itinerary, since he seems to have pretty much charted his own course during his profligate proliferating days. According to accounts now surfacing in the Pakistani media,...

Senate hearings in mid-November 2004 revealed that Iraq‘s Saddam Hussein skimmed over $21 billion from the UN “oil-for-food” program that was supposed to feed and provide medicine for the Iraqi people--and used the money to bribe UN and European officials. Oil-for-Food was authorized in 1995, for “equitable distribution of humanitarian relief” for Iraq which was under trade sanctions. Saddam was permitted to sell oil to earn funds for food, medicine, and social services. Instead, the money went to pay off politicians to get UN sanctions lifted, to buy unauthorized weapons, and to pay off journalists for favorable propaganda. France was...

A UN-ordered probe into Iraq oil-for-food corruption is being seriously hampered by an elaborate system of ghost firms set up around the world to cover the tracks of bribes to Saddam Hussein as he cheated the 60 billion dollar (£31.4 billion) program, a top investigator said. Some front companies that dealt with Saddam have been liquidated or have hidden ownership, complicating the search for evidence of financial improprieties, said Swiss criminal lawyer Mark Pieth. He’s one of three commission members leading the probe headed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Major oil trading companies and individuals – from...

British military officers have uncovered an attempt by Saddam Hussein to build a missile capable of hitting targets throughout the Middle East, including Israel, The Telegraph can reveal. Plans for the surface-to-surface missile were one of the regime's most closely-guarded secrets and were unknown to United Nations weapons inspectors. Its range of 600 miles would have been far greater than that of the al-Samoud rocket - which already breached the 93-mile limit imposed by the UN on any Iraqi missiles. Saddam's masterplan for the new missile, which was being developed by Iraq's Military Industrialisation Commission (MIC), the body responsible for...

Cleric: Reject tyrant U.S. A senior Sunni Muslim cleric urged Iraqis yesterday to reject the U.S. presence in their country and likened it to the "tyranny" of Saddam Hussain. Sheikh Moayyad Ibrahim Al Aadhami also told scores of worshippers at the Abi Hanifah Nouman mosque in Baghdad that Sunnis and Shiites should shun sectarian divisions and live in harmony. Although Sheikh Al Aadhami's sermon was milder than the fiery, anti-U.S. rhetoric of some previous homilies, his words reflected the anger many Iraqis feel at what they regard as the U.S. occupation of their country. "Let's say no to America, no...

Canada willing to send Mounties to Iraq, PM says OTTAWA (CP) — Canada is willing to send RCMP officers to help restore order in Iraq but nobody's asked for them, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said today. "We've sent RCMP officers to Haiti and elsewhere," Chrétien said during a news conference. "If it is a contribution that we can make, we will do it. If they want us to do something else, we will do something else." But Chrétien said Canada can't just send police officers without some preparation and planning. Looting continued in Baghdad for a third straight day today....

Why The USA Should Attack Iraq. And Why The Rest Of The World Should Support The USA. By Howard Galganov 10/14/2002   I have heard no shortage of reasons why the USA should NOT go to war against Iraq. 1) Iraq is not a threat to the USA.2) There is no proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.3) George Bush is making this a personal feud between himself and Saddam.4) The USA is only after Iraq's oil, and control of the world's oil market.5) If Israel were to acquiesce to its Arab neighbors, Iraq would not be a...

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein told the commander of the Iraqi air force that a soldier chooses to die in defense of his country, newspapers reported Wednesday. "Martyrdom in defense of the homeland is the soldier's choice," the papers quoted the Iraqi leader as telling General Hamed Raja Shallah, who briefed him on "the latest scientific and technological achievement" of air force pilots and engineers, they said, cited by AFP. The papers did not reveal the nature of the "achievement," reporting only that air force personnel had dedicated it to the president on the occasion of his 65th birthday on April...