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.
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."
Spokesperson Dana Perino was asked about the transcript published this week by the Spanish newspaper El Pais. It purports to be from a meeting just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq between President Bush and the prime minister of Spain. In it, President Bush is clearly set on a path for war, although he denied so publicly at the time.
Perino was mostly non-responsive to the questions, but notably the White House did not dispute the authenticity of the transcript:
Could it be that Bush could have avoided a war with Iraq, had he just given Saddam Hussein a one way ticket out of Iraq with $1 billion dollars? Just think we have spent more with this war, not to mention the men and women of both America and Iraq, who are dead or wounded.
My dear Rep. Nancy Pelosi, what now are you waiting for? Do we need to impeached you? How can America, be it conservative or liberal, still allow this man to occupy and office which he has caused unnecessary death, when Iraq would have been handle with respect and dignity to all concerned had America had a Kerry or Gore in the White House. Just think of all the lives lost or messed up because of this mans decisions. We should not just pass this by as rhetoric, like so many other things we have just let go by because of the necons, and the Republican party siding with this president.
What say you?
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.
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."
Spokesperson Dana Perino was asked about the transcript published this week by the Spanish newspaper El Pais. It purports to be from a meeting just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq between President Bush and the prime minister of Spain. In it, President Bush is clearly set on a path for war, although he denied so publicly at the time.
Perino was mostly non-responsive to the questions, but notably the White House did not dispute the authenticity of the transcript:
Could it be that Bush could have avoided a war with Iraq, had he just given Saddam Hussein a one way ticket out of Iraq with $1 billion dollars? Just think we have spent more with this war, not to mention the men and women of both America and Iraq, who are dead or wounded.
My dear Rep. Nancy Pelosi, what now are you waiting for? Do we need to impeached you? How can America, be it conservative or liberal, still allow this man to occupy and office which he has caused unnecessary death, when Iraq would have been handle with respect and dignity to all concerned had America had a Kerry or Gore in the White House. Just think of all the lives lost or messed up because of this mans decisions. We should not just pass this by as rhetoric, like so many other things we have just let go by because of the necons, and the Republican party siding with this president.
What say you?
11 comments:
Same thing as when the Taliban offered multiple deals to Bush with regards to OBL ... all fell through because they were deemed "insufficient" by The Decider.
In both the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq, we know how it turned out.
Wanna bet something like this is happening with regards to Iran?
P.S. I dig the new looks! ;-)
Thanks Mentarch, I see you are back from fishing. I'll be over later.
And so Bush chose murder. Go figure.
Bush has never been interested in compromise or diplomacy.
I'll say one thing for him: he presided over a pereiod in American political history that is even more corrupt than was the Reconstruction Era.
As an undergraduate in the 1990s, I was taught that the Reconstruction Era was our most corrupt ever.
Some accomplishment!
Dana Perino says, in describing Saddam Hussein "Somebody who tortured his own people, killed children, tore apart families, killed a million of his own people"
Well, what has the U.S. military done? We've tortured and are torturing the Iraqis (Abu Graib and secret prisons and we're still waterboarding and other forms of interrogation that are consided torture by the Geneva Convention), we've killed and are killing children (although it's known as "collateral damage"), and we're tearing apart families. Hussein killed political enemies just as the U.S. is now killing political enemies, otherwise known as 'insurgents', but still, they are Iraqis.
The hypocrisy of this administration knows no bounds. It's sickening.
And to know that the Bush administration could have prevented this war and saved the Iraqis from having their country torn apart is just sickening.
But their mantra now is, "forget the past, let's move forward". Well, of course we have to move forward, but forget the past? Never. Bush should be impeached.
Yet another jaw-dropper. I think we're becoming numb to these. (That is not a good thing.) It's like someone said (I think it was 1138 on Tom Harper's blog), it's going to take Bush eating a baby on live TV before people wake up!
The plot thickens. "Another jaw dropper" is right. This sure puts the lie to all of Bush's alleged reasons for invading Iraq.
phil_in_ny, my question is why?
equestrian1 you are right, Bush was never interested in compromise or diplomacy.
Well helo ThanKwee-Anajo, I know you got my last comment on your site. Glead to see you're still around.
"The hypocrisy of this administration knows no bounds. It's sickening."
We really need to get this guy out of office.
Candace, another law dropper indeed.
My dear Mary Ellen, I think you are correct. Nothing would have kept this man from going into Iraq.
I seem to remember this at the time and it seems they wouldn't give a clear answer then.
If it isn't true then why not say so.
I'm with you on that Larr, if it isn't true, then say so.
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