Bush thought Saddam was prepared to flee: report (Well, now...isn't this interesting)

[Squatch]

(Keep Bush's recent request for $50B when reading this article)

MADRID (Reuters) - 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.

In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe declined to comment on the report.

"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.

WA Post Article

:banghead:

[Hosnon]

1. Somehow I doubt Saddam said: $1 billion and my notes on anthrax.

Bush said that so he wouldn't have to take the deal.

[Squatch]

3. Saddam was thinking:

Yeah, I'll take my $1B, retire to Rio de Janero, and enjoy the rest of my days. Oh, I have just the perfect spot in mind for my anthrax notes...should make a nice counterpiece to my melon and avocado arrangement.

[Cleita]

6. I agree.

I didn't keep the sources, but LinkTV was airing Al Jazeera at that time, and they were interviewing Saddam a lot before he ran. I don't ever recall him asking for money. He said he turned over everything he had and there were videos of a room filled with file folders and electronic data that he turned over to the inspectors that could have had anthrax data.

[Botany]

2. and we knew that he had no weapons too

So bush/Cheney invaded a country that had nothing to do w/ 9-11
because the person we did not like was ready to flee?

Hello Nancy Want to put "it" back on the table?

[Cleita]

4. This was all over the internet from credible sources before we raided Baghdad.

We discussed it endlessly on DU. Why are important news sources just talking about it now, after the fact, and when it doesn't do any good? I think, those military families like Cindy Sheehan et al, need to sue all MSM sources for not playing this every hour on the hour on their stations, making it the lead story on the print journals on a daily basis and in general giving it the same attention they gave to Chandra Levy and Natalie Holloway. Bush would have never gotten his war, if they had done their patriotic duty. Obviously, they knew this from their sources and didn't act on it. Sue them until they don't have a dime to be in business anymore. Make a pauper out of Ruppert Murdock. Do it.

[Poiuyt]

5. I thought I heard it in the MSM back before we invaded

I don't remember the $1 billion dollar and taking the WMD part, but I do remember that Saddam offered to go into exile. This was only a couple of days before Bush invaded, so it didn't get much traction.

[blm]

7. Kerry brought up the negotiations during the campaign and said Bush rushed to war

when weapon inspections were proving no force was needed and Saddam was so close to leaving via diplomatic means - and Richard Branson had jets waiting to go on the final word.

The newsmedia ignored it - protecting the Bushboy, as they've been paid to do for years now.

[Cleita]

8. That was the problem.

They aired it all right, just once or twice, which was long enough for some of our DUers like Khephra, who monitored the media all day, to pick it up, find online sources, and bring it here. But the media was occupied with some missing white girl at that time and that distraction got the majority of their attention hour after hour, day in and day out. It was deliberate. I think it borders on treason because the media abetted the foreign power, Saudi Arabia, who is behind the illigitimate Bush administration in starting this war with Iraq. The Saudis have many reasons for this. They were behind 9-11 and they should have been invaded not Iraq. But by getting our complicit oil barons to switch the blame for 9-11 to Saddam and Iraq, they killed two birds with one stone by deflecting the blame from them and getting Saddam too, whom they didn't like. They are behind this whole march to bomb Iran too, IMHO.