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February 21, 2004
Scott Ritter: Bribed?

Scott Ritter, the former weapons inspector who took on the Clinton Administration's lack of action against Iraq and then mysteriously started singing a different tune in 2002, may have had good reasons for his change of heart -- 400,000 of them, approximately, as Jon at QandO notes:

MEMRI is reporting on the alleged documents revealing who was in the pay of Saddam Hussein. ... It's well-known that Iraq was actively subverting the Food-for-Oil sanctions by exporting oil to to tune of 200-400,000b/day to neighboring nations like Syria. However, if his end-arounds included political pay-offs, it will require diplomatic consequences....and possibly legal consequences. Case in point:

Shaker Al-Khaffaji (7 million barrels) advanced $400,000 to Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq. Ritter produced a documentary purporting to tell the true story of the weapons inspections, which in his telling were corrupted by sinister U.S. manipulation. [47]

Again, let me state: this list is far from confirmed, and may represent a Chalabi-like attempt to blacken the names of enemies. On the other hand, this seems to come as no suprise to some Iraqi's who say "Many Iraqis and particularly those involved in the oil trade business were aware that the regime was selling quantities of its oil to oil companies and individuals with which it was associated or had good relations to circumvent the UN sanctions which controlled Iraq for 13 years. The policy of the old regime was to support anyone who stood by it or was trying to export goods to Iraq outside the sanctions."

Very interesting how all of that Iraqi oil-for-food money got out to all of the usual suspects of appeasement, isn't it? Make sure you read the rest of the post at QandO.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at February 21, 2004 5:31 PM

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