Bush's Courting of Saddam

[RedEarth]

Sarkis Soghanalian, the international arms dealer who bought billions in weapons for Saddam Hussein, says he was approached at a Newark airport luncheon meeting in the early '80s by a representative of then Texas oil entrepreneur George W. Bush, who was seeking to do business in Iraq.

Featured in lengthy interviews on 60 Minutes, 20/20, and PBS's Frontline over the years, the twice-convicted Soghanalian was dubbed the "Merchant of Death." He was released from prison at the request of federal prosecutors who, as recently as 2001, cited his "substantial assistance to law enforcement." Justice Department officials questioned him in Washington this year about an ongoing case in Peru involving the sale of 10,000 assault rifles to Colombian guerrillas, but they did not extradite him though he is facing a possible 15-year jail sentence there for brokering the deal.

Soghanalian recalled in half a dozen phone interviews with the Voice that he met with a business associate of W's whose full name he cannot recall but who, like Soghanalian, was Armenian. The meeting was arranged, he says, by a friend who was a leader in Armenian charity circles. Soghanalian recalls that the business associate told him: "George W. Bush wants to do business in Iraq."

"Unfortunately, I was pretty high-profile at the time," says Soghanalian, "and everyone was trying to get close to me. Why would I want their business? I knew his father. What did I need him for?" Soghanalian, who had a stopover in Newark on his way to Baghdad, says he can't remember any specifics about the suggested business. The businessman, he said, "was sent on behalf of Bush" and "said to me, 'This is an important man.' " Soghanalian claims that the man told him that W had "a lot of contacts overseas" and that Soghanalian replied: "I have contacts too. I don't need more contacts." Soghanalian says he has known the senior Bush since at least 1976, when Bush was CIA director. Soghanalian has had such a long-standing CIA relationship that David Armstrong of the National Security News Service calls him the agency's "arms dealer of choice

http://www.villagevoice.com/print/issues/0443/barrett.php

[rogerashton]

1. Well, Saddam was an ally

of the Bush-Reagan administration at that time. Be fair to W*.