Former Labour MP Tony Benn visited Saddam before the invasion - tried to stop the war

[sabra]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=483463&in_page_id=1770


Principled, passionate and so very human, Tony Benn is a politician admired even by his enemies.

In his latest volume of diaries, he delivers his withering verdict on the Blair years and the so-called War on Terror - as well as offering a touching and often funny insight into his eccentric inner world and his personal battles with old age and loneliness...


<snip>

Sunday, February 2

AT 4.30 I was taken in the car to see the President. I waited in one room for a moment, and then I was taken into another room, and then I was taken into a third room in the palace. There was Saddam sitting.

He said: "If there is a war, Satan will have done it." It was very sort of religious and I would have liked to pursue that. He was very friendly.

He went into the room where the cameras were, I followed and the filming began. This is an edited text of the interview:

BENN: Mr President, may I ask you some questions. The first is: does Iraq have any weapons of mass destruction?

SADDAM: Every fair-minded person knows that, when Iraqi officials say something, they are trustworthy. This

is an opportunity to reach the British people and the forces of peace in the world. There is only one truth and therefore I tell you, as I have said on many occasions before, that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever.

BENN: I have another which has been raised: do you have links with AlQaeda? SADDAM: If we had a relationship with Al Qaeda and we believed in that relationship, we wouldn't be ashamed to admit it.

Therefore I would like to tell you directly, and also through you to anyone who is interested to know, that we have no relationship with AlQaeda.

The whole interview, including interpretation, took about an hour and ten minutes, and then we had a final talk. He was uncomfortably friendly! He said: "Oh, I wish you'd come more often." Thank God the cameras were off by then.

He said "Come back" and so on.

A lot of people will be absolutely disgusted to hear that he was so friendly, and disgusted that I was friendly to him, but for God's sake, it was to stop a war!

Channel 4 News had a bit about my return home. Nothing in the BBC bulletin. Josh thought Alastair Campbell has probably warned the media to keep off it.

[madokie]

1. around these parts we would say Sadam was doublecrossed

by the bushitler* crew

[Solly Mack]

2. If he wanted to stop the war he should have visited Bush instead

because that's where the threat was...

[sabra]

3. he also assumed the media would report his findings...

[Solly Mack]

4. That's sad