Saddam and the O.J. Effect

Jul 15, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

I don't agree with many of Alan Dershowitz' points in this op-ed about Saddam's trial (e.g., that America should accept even the possibility of an imperfect verdict or that "international law" should prevent us from doing as we please with Saddam), but Dershowitz does make a safe prediction:

Saddam's family has retained a small army of lawyers, which includes a nightmare team of anti-American advocates from around the Arab world and Western Europe, and features the daughter of Libya's dictator, Moammar Gadhafi. The stage is thus set for a highly politicized trial in which Saddam will try to turn the tables on his accusers by pointing fingers at "the occupying forces" and their puppet court.

Charles Johnson is keeping track of one of Saddam's lawyers, an American who gives us an idea of just how politicized the trial could become:

"I ardently oppose American and more broadly western neo-imperialism which is being imposed through the exploitation of the majority of the people of the world and the economic and military dominance of the United States. I believe that all people have a right and a duty to take all necessary measures to end the United States' inhumane dominance of the lives of billions of people."

This lawyer, Curtis F.J. Doebbler, made news today for seeking Supreme Court action on Saddam's behalf.

Doebbler, the lone American on Saddam's legal team, wants the high court to declare the detention of the ousted Iraqi president unconstitutional.

He even has more to say about the America military:

"The world's most powerful army is an army of cowards. They are soldiers who are willing to risk the lives of innocent civilians to protect their own. I don't know about my fellow Americans, but I don't feel very much protected by such cowards."

Right. I guess that makes Saddam the "hero" for surrendering to "cowards" before being dragged like a rat out of his filthy spider hole.

Moore Debunking

Jul 14, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

For a thorough, must-read debunking of the deceptions and outright lies presented in Fahrenheit 9/11, including responses from Michael Moore, see: Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11 by Dave Kopel. For an examination of Moore's irrational methods (e.g., conspiracy theories, ad-hominem attacks, maudlin appeals to emotions) and why the left embraces such tactics, see: The Left's Propagandist: Michael Moore and the Intellectual State of Today's Left by Robert W. Tracinski of TIA Daily. For a look at why Moore is willing to show graphic images of casualties in Iraq (from dead babies to dead American soldiers) yet not willing to show graphic images of 9/11 or Saddam's atrocities, see: The Cowardice of Michael Moore by Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs.

And for other critiques of Fahrenheit 9/11, see:

More Distortions From Michael Moore by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball of Newsweek;
The importance of being Michael Moore by Mark Steyn at London Telegraph; and
Unfairenheit 9/11: The lies of Michael Moore by Christopher Hitchens at Slate.com.

I recently watched Fahrenheit 9/11. Some parts were downright offensive, such as Moore's depiction of the Iraqi dictatorship as a "sovereign nation" with kite-flying kids frolicking around Baghdad like it was a socialist utopia, and (as mentioned before) Moore's refusal to depict the 9/11 attacks or Saddam's atrocities in the same manner he depicts the casualties of the Iraq war. But because of such blatant editorializing and a general lack of objectivity, Moore's "documentary" is intellectually impotent, even as propaganda. Sure, some people will buy and eagerly swallow Moore's snake oil, but such people are probably lost causes anyway.

Despite whatever valid points could have been made in Fahrenheit 9/11 (e.g., that our government may be too closely tied to the Saudi regime or that homeland security is insufficient), all is lost in the incessant smearing of President Bush and his administration with innuendoes and personal attacks.

One example stands out. As part of a montage, Moore shows Condoleezza Rice saying: "Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11." Frankly, I was shocked to hear this, because I have never heard the Bush Administration try to directly connect Iraq to 9/11. In fact, because of 9/11 Commission findings, there has been a recent round of reaffirmations by the Administration that an Iraq-9/11 connection did not exist and was not cited as a justification for the invasion. Had a prominent member of the Bush Administration slipped up, as Moore indicated? Well, no. As I learned from the Kopel article cited above, Rice was referring to a connection in relation to terrorism in general. Moore chops Rice's quote so that we don't get the full context, which is as follows:

"Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11. It's not that Saddam Hussein was somehow himself and his regime involved in 9/11, but, if you think about what caused 9/11, it is the rise of ideologies of hatred that lead people to drive airplanes into buildings in New York. This is a great terrorist, international terrorist network that is determined to defeat freedom. It has perverted Islam from a peaceful religion into one in which they call on it for violence. And they're all linked. And Iraq is a central front because, if and when, and we will, we change the nature of Iraq to a place that is peaceful and democratic and prosperous in the heart of the Middle East, you will begin to change the Middle East...." [Emphasis added]

By "a tie" Rice meant "a kind of tie." By editing out her elaboration, Moore wants the viewer to get the false impression that Rice stated there was a direct tie between Iraq and 9/11.

Such underhandedness by Moore reminded me of a scene in another movie, Timeline. (Warning: A spoiler follows.) A group of modern-day time-travelers find themselves in the middle of a feudal war in 14th-century France. They are taken as bound prisoners before an English lord who is to decide their fate. One of the time-travelers happens to be French, and the English lord accuses him of being a spy. The Frenchman protests, truthfully, that he is merely an innocent translator. As an apparent test, the Englishman asks him to translate a French phrase. The translator is reluctant, but fearing for his life he gradually translates the phrase: "I am a spy." The Englishman smiles, draws his sword and runs the Frenchman through, killing him.

If one could somehow confront the Englishman and condemn his gross injustice, it's not difficult to imagine that his justifications would be similar to Moore's: "It was a confession. You heard him yourself. That's exactly what he said. I didn't change his words." Such are the methods of a "documentary" character assassin.

By the end of the movie, Moore wants the viewer to believe that Bush is a Saudi-controlled dimwit who waged war in Iraq solely for maintaining America's "hierarchical society" in which the poor are used as cannon fodder for oil profits. No, I'm not kidding. Apparently Moore hates Bush for the fact that -- to whatever limited degree -- the President has acted militarily to protect capitalist America, Americans and our allies from foreign terrorists. In short, Moore is a socialist propagandist whose ends justify his means. "Baghdad Bob" would be proud.

We've already accused Moore of artistic fraud for selling his admittedly subjective opinion as documentary fact. We've already pointed out that Moore sided with the enemy when he stated that Iraqi terrorists and insurgents are Revolutionaries like America's Minutemen. Fahrenheit 9/11 merely demonstrates how much further Moore is willing to go to demonize America and whitewash the atrocities of our enemies.

Is it any wonder that the terrorist group Hezbollah has offered to help promote Moore's propaganda in the Middle East?

Canadian reader Chris R. Chapman informs us that Michael Moore could be in trouble for allegedly violating Canadian election laws. ChargeMoore.com is a Web site that's been established by Campus Conservatives to push the issue with a petition. They've posted a National Post article that explains what happened (I couldn't find a link for the original Post article [UPDATE: they are now linking to the original article, and our link has been updated], but here's another source with the same story, and here's a London Free Press article from today covering the story). Frankly, the Canadian law sounds like a violation of free speech to me. Kind of like America's "campaign finance reform" laws. Ironically, those laws worked in Moore's favor.

MooreWatch.com has the latest in other Moore news.

Sharon Withstands Security Breach

Jul 11, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday ordered construction continued on a barrier between Israel and the West Bank despite a nonbinding world court ruling that it was "contrary to international law." Sharon also ordered "that the struggle against the opinion of the [International Court of Justice] be continued by all diplomatic and legal means." Israel says the barrier serves to keep out terrorists, while Palestinians say it is an illegal land grab creating needless hardship for their people.

18 Tir: Iran Bans Commemorations of ’99 Unrest

Jul 7, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

This cartoon was directly inspired by a quote in this AFP article from today: Iran Bans Commemorations of '99 Unrest. (Iran Va Jahan)

Iranian authorities signaled yesterday they had banned any commemorations marking this week's fifth anniversary of violent student protests amid an effort to prevent a fresh outburst of anti-regime dissent. In comments carried in the Iranian press, the security affairs chief for Tehran, Ali Taala, said the Interior Ministry had decided to bar any gatherings and rejected a request for a student event outside Tehran University. Student representatives have also reportedly been summoned to meet Tehran police chief Gen. Morteza Talaie and Mohsen Gomi, a university representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"In recent years there have been excellent relations between police and students and today, hand in hand, we should try to forget the bad memories of the 18th of Tir," or July 9, 1999, Talaie was quoted as telling them.

In addition, the Tehran University campus will also be shut down for the anniversary. A pro-reform group, the Association of Islamic Students, told the news agency ISNA that it had been informed the measure was taken to "disinfect the campus because of cockroach infestation."

Although Deputy Interior Minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi later insisted to ISNA that "no decision" had been taken by his ministry on the event, he did assert it was "not necessary" to mark the deadly riots.

On July 9, 1999, pro-democracy students clashed with police in Tehran and other cities in unrest sparked by a heavy-handed police and vigilante raid on a smaller dormitory protest over newspaper closures. Officially, one student was killed and hundreds of others injured in the violence, which prompted a major regime crackdown on dissent in universities -- a major driving force behind the pro-democracy movement. On each anniversary of the unrest, the government has sought to prevent any gatherings from taking place.

In 2003, protesters merely took to the streets of Tehran in their cars, honking their horns, with the sidewalks and universities patrolled by huge numbers of police. Prior to the anniversary last year, some 4,000 people were arrested in the wake of other protests.

'Free Iran' News is compiling a list of anti-regime demonstrations in the U.S. and Europe.

Also: Iranians Demonstrate Their Love of Freedom, Again

UPDATE: Roger L. Simon on the Iranian freedom movement.

UPDATE July 8: Google search results for Iran today included the following:
Iran Quiet During Anniversary of Student Protests (VOA News)
Student protesters [from past protests] held in Iran (AP)
Groups Call For Release Of Iranian Protestors (RFE/RL)

And FreeRepublic.com has pics from the demonstrations in L.A. as well as other related news and articles here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More articles, some older:
Protest Outside Iranian Embassy [in Ottawa]
Analysis: Renewed Unity Among Iranian Students (RFE/RL, July 7)
Iran Police Deploy for Traffic; Students See Threat (Reuters, July 6)

UPDATE July 9: Martin Lindeskog reports on a demonstration in Sweden.

UPDATE: Pejmanesque.com has a number of Iran-related posts worth reading for today (July 9), including this BBC retrospective and an article on Iranian prison abuse (expect a "worldwide wave of revulsion" on that last one ... any minute now).

UPDATE: Bush expresses support for freedom movement by young Iranians. (VOA News -- we rewrote their bad headline). This article, dated today, quotes President Bush as saying:

"There are people inside of Iran who are watching what's happening -- young, vibrant, professional people who want to be free. And they're wondering whether or not they'll have the opportunity." [...] "The rule of free peoples will come to the Middle East," says President Bush. And Americans "will do all in our power to help them find the blessings of liberty."

Let's hope we're doing "all in our power."

Not only does it appear that all major protests were squashed in Iran, but regime jackboots are bragging about it: Tehran Police Hail Peaceful Protest Anniversary. (RFE/RL)

General Morteza Talaie, the commander of the Iranian capital's police force, said that 8 July was what he called a "totally normal" day, despite what he said had been an extensive campaign in the "counterrevolutionary media" highlighting the anniversary.

"Totally normal" day ... in a theocratic dictatorship. Here's what one Iranian student group (SMCCDI) reported about the "peaceful" day: Sporadic and brutal clashes in most Iranian cities.

The brutal intervention of the regime's official and plainclothes agents has lead, tonight, to the arrests and injuries of tens of protesters in most main Iranian cities. In Tehran alone, the clashes are wide spread and are happening in Amir Abad, Tajrish, Zarabkhane, Kargar, Guisha, Kargar, Sadeghie, Narmak, Noor, vali e Asr and Enghelab area. Other clashes have happened, so far, in Esfahan, Shiraz and Mashad were those having defied once again the Islamic State are shouting slogans for a democratic regime change in Iran.

Many have been injured or arrested and transferred by full buses to the regime's detention centers,

The presence of the regime's foreign mercenaries and their brutality is easily noticeable. The regime seems to try to isolate the demonstrators in each area and to avoid a bigger ralliement by more demonstrators who are trying to use the darkness of the night.

Many homes have shut off their lights and people are shouting slogans on their flat roofs.

UPDATE:Iranian Dissident Says Events of July, 1999 "Marked the Death of Reform" (VOA, July 8)
In Iran, repressed journalists regroup (Washington Post, July 4)

In the country that the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders calls "the Middle East's largest prison for journalists,'' those dailies still available on newsstands brim with courtroom accounts of less fortunate publications, their editors summoned to the dock by the religious government that has closed more than 100 papers in the past four years.

And finally, here is a recent editorial discussing an issue crucial to the ultimate success of the Iranian freedom movement: Secularism & Iran (Persian Journal, July 6). I know nothing of the author, Ardavan Bahrami, but he makes some insightful observations and asks some very important questions:

Secularism and democracy are like two sides of a brain. In order to have a fully functional body, both sides of the brain with their specific responsibilities are needed in order to achieve the desired being. Therefore, those who comically advocate baseless concepts such as the Islamic Democracy can never deliver the true freedom our people are fighting for when divine rules and restrictions would oversee every aspects of their daily life. The question that eventually we have to face is are we going to adhere to principles that would declare Iran a country with no official religion; hence, no advantages given to an Iranian Muslim over those Iranians from other religions? I am talking of a society that goes further than pre-1979 where an Iranian Jew, Baha'i, Christian or a Zoroastrian can become our country's prime minister or in case of a republic, its president.

Prince Reza Pahlavi if not the only Iranian political leader believing in such principles, is definitely the only one who has been brave enough to publicly state his vision for a country with no official religion. He has defended the freedom of all political beliefs/parties, guaranteeing individual rights such as; regional languages and dialects, sexual orientations, religious beliefs as well as all social freedoms that many other progressive and democratic nations in the world enjoy or may take for granted.

However, he or any other Iranian politically active cannot and will not succeed if we as individual Iranian do not participate or take steps for our future. At times in meeting other compatriots I feel we are still blurred in our understanding of secularism or that of a true democracy. Do we really understand what it is all about? If we do, how far are we prepared to go in a free, democratic and secular Iran of the future to defend its principles? Will we make concessions every now and then and therefore, undermining the principles of secularism for religious beliefs of one or two religious public figures or groups?

The Sugar-Coated, But Still Emotionalist Left

Jul 6, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Edwards eventually withdrew from the Democratic race--but the success he achieved, launching himself from relative obscurity to a prominent position on the national stage, indicates the nature of the choice Democratic voters made in this year's primary. The Democrats want a candidate who represents the morality of envy, hatred of achievement, worship of sacrifice—but they want a representative who will present that morality with an attractive, wholesome, appealing face. ["Fine Young Cannibals: How the Democratic Party Put a Nice Face on the Morality of Sacrifice", TIA, March 15, 2004]

...Dean's message was the unabashed, unrestrained voice of what some conservative columnists have dubbed the "Angry Left." This phrase, promoted over the past year by conservative commentators like James Taranto, is a non-essential description: it designates the far left by its emotions, not by its ideas. But the term has caught on because it names a prominent characteristic of today's left. The leftist establishment, under the influence of the New Left, has dispensed with the pretense that it is a movement based on intellectualism—that it seeks "scientific socialism" based on a study of the inevitable trends of history (the terms in which the Marxist Old Left presented itself). This intellectualist left has largely been replaced by an emotionalist left. Sometimes this takes the form of maudlin emotional appeals to the plight of the poor and the sick-but the dominant emotions of today's left are anger and hatred. Dean was the voice of this leftist emotionalism. [TIA]

There is a consistent theme that binds together Kerry's public statements and voting record. Waffling is not the essence of Kerry's career; instead, his dissembling is merely a smokescreen to keep voters from detecting the cause to which he has shown a lifelong ideological commitment: anti-Americanism....

...In Kerry's view, the American belief in the righteous use of force against evil--the sense of life represented by John Wayne--is the expression of a society twisted by hatred and the glorification of brutality, a society that had to be humbled by forcing an American surrender in Vietnam.

...John Kerry is the candidate who stands for American self-immolation on the altar of international collectivism.

What makes Kerry think he can get away with it? And what makes the Democrats who voted for him in this year's primaries think he is the most "electable" candidate? Kerry has known, ever since he returned from Vietnam, that he has one indispensable advantage he can exploit to keep the public from recognizing the meaning of his policies: his military service.

...Kerry is the candidate of American self-immolation, disguised as a war hero.

Defending a 2000 year old scholar…

Jul 5, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

"A very large proportion... of [Aristotle's] supposed mistakes have no other ground than the careless mode in which his writings have been studied.... [This is] the same man who had noted the heart beating in the embryonic chick... on the third day of incubation; who had distinguished the allantoidean development of birds and reptiles from the non-allantoidean development of fishes; who had unravelled with fair accuracy the arrangement of the bronchial tubes and their relation to the pulmonary blood-vessels; and who had not only given zoological and anatomical details concerning the cephalopods... but had described nine species of them 'with so much precision and happy a selection of their distinctive characters as to enable modern naturalists to identify pretty nearly all.'"

Moore Stuff From Steyn

Jul 1, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Midway through the picture, a "peace" activist provides a perfect distillation of its argument. He recalls a conversation with an acquaintance, who observed, "bin Laden's a real asshole for killing all those people". "Yeah," says the "pacifist", "but he'll never be as big an asshole as Bush." That's who Michael Moore makes films for: those sophisticates who know that, no matter how many people bin Laden kills, in the assholian stakes he'll always come a distant second to Bush.

I can understand the point of being Michael Moore: there's a lot of money in it. What's harder to figure out is the point of being a devoted follower of Michael Moore. Apparently, the sophisticated, cynical intellectual class is so naïve it'll fall for any old hooey peddled by a preening opportunist burlesque act.

Hillary Clinton On Tax Cuts

Jul 1, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Headlining an appearance with other Democratic women senators on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this year, Hillary Clinton told several hundred supporters -- some of whom had ponied up as much as $10,000 to attend -- to expect to lose some of the tax cuts passed by President Bush if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress. "Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." [San Francisco rolls out the red carpet for the Clintons]

Aid and Comfort

Jun 30, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

U.S. Returns Sovereignty to Iraq

Jun 28, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Delenda Est Fallujah: Fallujah Must Be Subdued If We Hope to Win in Iraq

Jun 28, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

In the second century BC, the Roman Senator Cato championed a simple policy toward Rome's regional rival, Carthage: "delenda est Carthago"--"Carthage must be destroyed." Those were brutal times, and overpowering a rival city, back then, meant razing it to the ground, sowing the soil with salt, killing all of the men, and selling all of the women and children into slavery. I am not recommending that as contemporary military policy. But something like the absolutism of the ancient outlook is what is needed as an antidote to the dithering modern pragmatism that is undermining the war in Iraq. It is becoming clear that if the US is to achieve victory in Iraq, it must crush the current insurgency--and if it is to crush the insurgency, it must ruthlessly subdue the city of Fallujah.

The Voice of Al-Qaida Killers: “We cut their throats, too, Allah be praised…”

Jun 28, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Al-Nashami says he and his "brothers" shot their way into an oil company compound, where, as police confirm, they killed a British worker and tied his body to their car. He says they drove on until "the infidel's clothing was torn to shreds and he was naked in the street . . . and everyone watched the infidel being dragged, praise and gratitude be to Allah." The terrorists then stormed a second compound, and found an "American infidel". "I shot him in the head, and his head exploded. We entered another office and found one infidel from South Africa, and our brother Hussein slit his throat. We asked Allah to accept (these pious acts) from us, and from him."

The terrorists then killed guards at a third compound, where al-Nashami says they found Johansson: "Brother Nimr cut off his head and put it at the gate, so that it would be seen by all . . ."

They caught other workers and checked their religion. "We found Filipino Christians. We cut their throats and dedicated them to our brothers the Mujahideen in the Philippines. We found Hindu engineers and we cut their throats, too, Allah be praised . . . "We utilised the time for (teaching) the Koran to the Muslims who remained."

No Wonder The Left Is Angry

Jun 27, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

Conservatives have drifted away from those outlets they perceive as most biased, which has contributed heavily to an overall decline in viewership. The percentage of Americans who watch the evening network news regularly has fallen to just 34% today from 60% in 1993. Among Republicans, 15% or less report watching the evening news on ABC, CBS, or NBC. [NYSun]

Non-Democratic Socialism: Benito Mussolini on Fascism

Jun 24, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

-- Benito Mussolini, The Corporate State

1) the improvement of accident insurance;
2) the improvement and extension of maternity assistance;
3) insurance against occupational diseases and tuberculosis as a step towards insurance against all forms of disease;
5) the adoption of special forms of endowment insurance for young workers"

- Benito Mussolini, The Corporate State

-- Benito Mussolini, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions

The Evidence: Chronology of Attacks on the West

Jun 24, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

The strongest evidence that the west--especially the United States--has appeased Middle Eastern governments for over five decades begins with a simple list of the major attacks made by various Islamic groups since the 1970's, and the lack of principled response to those attacks.

A list of every terrorist attack in the twentieth century would fill a volume. The chronology here is ruthlessly select; it includes a few events needed to understand the sequence, such as the formation of selected top-rank Islamic groups, formal declared wars, [and includes, in brackets, certain non-Muslim terrorist acts].

But no attempt has been made to document the hundreds of Palestinian bombings in Israel, and Israeli retaliations, unless they had international affects or involved the deaths of Americans. A series of one hijacker / one day hijackings without casualties have been omitted. This list does not adequately demonstrate the state of siege in which Israel has lived for over fifty years, nor does it convey the depths of Arab rage that has led them to prefer suicide over co-existence with Israel. This list focuses on violence against civilians by Islamic fundamentalists, for political purposes, which takes place in an international context.

Saudis to Grant Amnesty to Terrorists

Jun 23, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

CNN reports: Saudis offer terrorists month to surrender.

"We are announcing for the last time that we are opening the door to repentance and for those to return to righteousness," said Crown Prince Abdullah in a televised address. ... "To everyone who has gone out of the righteous way and has committed a crime in the name of religion and to everyone who belongs to that group that has done itself a disservice, everyone who has been captured in terror acts is given the chance to come back to God if they want to save their lives, their souls," Abdullah said. "If they give themselves up without force within one month maximum from the date of this speech, we can promise them that they are going to be safe." Abdullah said all such people would be dealt with fairly, in accordance with Islamic law." If they are wise and they accept it, then they are saved. And if they snub it, then God is not going to forbid us from hitting them with our force, which we get from our dependence on God." He added that Saudi forces would not hesitate to act.

"Not hesitate"? Almost three years after 9/11? I'm sure the terrorists are quaking in their suicide vests. As we've noted before (e.g., here and here), the Saudis didn't really care about Islamic, anit-western terrorism until their own people started getting killed and their oil business was threatened. Their amnesty offer simply demonstrates the religious sympathy they have for the terrorists' cause.

Robert Tracinski writes under "Saudi Pseudo Civil War":

The good news: the Saudis are threatening to fight a civil war that has been declared against them by the Islamic fanatics they spawned. The very bad news (for the Saudi regime and for oil prices): the prelude to this fight indicates that the Saudis don't have the nerve to attack their own offspring -- since they have begun by boldly offering to let their opponents off the hook in a general amnesty for the Kingdom's terrorists. [TIA Daily]

The Great Cash Cow: The $10 billion U.N. Oil-for-Food and Kickbacks Scandal

Jun 23, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses

"This was the biggest cash cow in the history of the world," says one of the insiders familiar with the $10 billion U.N. oil-for-food scandal. "Everybody -- traders, contractors, banks, inspectors -- was milking it. It was supposed to buy food with the money from oil that the U.N. allowed Saddam to sell, but less than half went for that. Perfume, limos, a shipment of 1,500 Ping-Pong tables, for God's sake."

...Well-connected international traders -- called "the usual suspects" by low-level U.N. staff, who knew they often fronted for sellers of luxury products -- would make their deals, including kickbacks, in Baghdad. Letters of credit, as many as 150 a day, would be issued in New York by the U.N.'s favorite bank, BNP [Banque Nationale de Paris] Paribas. But before the sellers, called "beneficiaries," could be paid (at Saddam's request, in euros, harder to trace than dollars) the bank required a C.O.A., "Confirmation of Arrival," from the U.N.'s contracted inspector, Cotecna of Switzerland. "The key was Cotecna," says my graveyard source. "Ships were lined up at the port of Umm Qasr, stacks of containers already onshore waiting for inspection. You won't believe the grease being paid. The usual suspects got preferential treatment when the U.N. bosses in New York called the BNP bank to get Cotecna to issue a C.O.A. to release the money."

Walmart: Qualified individuals need not apply

Jun 23, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses