Former Aide Won't Testify Against Saddam (Aziz Plans To Write Book)

[Khephra]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Tariq Aziz, a jailed former senior aide to Saddam Hussein, wants to write a book about Saddam but rejected reports that he will testify against the former dictator, his lawyer said Friday. Aziz also denied there was any corruption in the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.

The lawyer, Badee Izzat Aref, said he met Aziz -- Iraq's former deputy prime minister and foreign minister -- for five hours Thursday in a small room in an area near Baghdad with a member of the U.S. military present.

Aref quoted Aziz as saying he denied "any wrongdoings related to the oil-for-food program" that allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy food and medicine for its people suffering under U.N. sanctions imposed in 1990.

U.N. officials have been accused of corruption in the oil-for-food program that started in 1996. A report in October by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer said Saddam was able to "subvert" the $60 billion program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997 to 2003.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-iraq-aziz,0,7117448.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Different than "US officials" were saying last week:

David Kay — a former U.S. adviser in Iraq — spent months questioning Aziz and others. He says Aziz quickly turned on Saddam and could testify at any trial.

...

U.S. officials say Aziz already has implicated the French and others, claiming payoffs were made with the understanding that recipients would support Iraq on key matters before the U.N.

...

Once Saddam's tireless defender, Aziz is now singing a very different tune, to please his new keeper.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6729467/

[Khephra]

2. Sad day isn't it?

When Aziz is more reputable as a news source than our own media and government.

[CatWoman]

3. rut roh

Poor Aziz may find himself "suicided" ...........

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Isn't Aziz a Christian? Wasn't he a diplomat?

I hope he is able to write that book -- he has a unique perspective on history.

Yes he is more believable than our own government propaganda -- and the US military.

Was he tortured? What insights will he have about the method and means of his detention and questioning.

[Khephra]

5. I believe he is Christian

But I don't have a source to back that up.

[sam sarrha]

6. Saddam will be elected president, i would vote for him to bring back the

TROOPS

[proudbluestater]

7. How could the US possibly complain?

Aziz has learned what America wanted to teach him and his countrymen so badly, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.He sits awaiting his book deal/advance.

Lesson well learned, I'd say.

[frankieT]

9. i dont't think so

i guess a bright guy like tariq aziz isn't looking for money but giving the world his precious point of view on the relashionship between saddam's iraq and the rest of the world.

[nine23]

8. Any statement attributed to a "US official"...

is completely lacking in credibility and will be taken as a bald-faced lie until proven otherwise in the eyes of any educated, informed citizen outside the US.

I look to a statement by any "US official" as a form of entertainment ("let's see what they'll come up with now...yuk yuk"), and creepy entertainment at that. One would think that these "officials" would at least be "on their game" by now, but being the abject failures they are, they can't even dish out a convincing lie.

The saddest aspect, however, is that the US military will literally KILL journos who try to get the truth out.

[bin.dare]

10. that $60 billion program pisses me off no end ...

it was iraqi oil, it was iraqi money, it was iraqi food bought with iraqi money. The fuckheads in DC (all of them, repugs and dems) don't mind when their friends in Halliberton etc make money gouging US tax payers but become so sanctimonious about the UN program (maybe because its not their citizen's money). The fucking hypocrits.

Before the oil for food program at least 1 million iraqis died because of the sanctions, at least 500,000 of them were children. What the fuck are these guys on about? "U.N. officials have been accused of corruption ...". I accuse Bill Clinton and Tony Blair of the mass murder of Iraqis during the 90's. There!

I think mass murder trumps corruption, don't you, or is that too naive for these times?