U.S. to Pay $30M for Tip on Saddam's Sons

[Kellanved]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Bush administration approved a $30 million payment Thursday to the informant who led U.S. troops to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s two sons, while two of the ousted dictator's daughters took refuge in Jordan in a sign of further pressure on remnants of the defeated regime.

Two more U.S. soldiers were killed by insurgents, meanwhile, bringing to 51 the number of Americans to die in combat since May 1, when President Bush (news - web sites) declared major combat over.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) decided that the informant whose tip led to the deaths of Odai and Qusai Hussein in a firefight July 22 in a villa in Mosul in northern Iraq (news - web sites) should get both of the $15 million rewards that had been put on the men's heads.

"It's actually for services rendered," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. "It's a lump sum payment of $30 million."
...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030731/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=514&ncid=514
strange; last week it was a suprise encounter.

[Hobarticus]

1. One of the few promises the Bush administration has kept...

[kainah]

2. Doesn't this bother anyone else?

First, I disagree with putting a bounty on someone's head. But ever since I realized they'd be paying this out, all I can think about it is how far $30 million could go in financing a guerrilla war. Think about it. You have 2 "leaders" who are, more than anything, soaking up your resources. They can't move around, one is a real gimp (I am one, too, so I can say it) & they're used to everyone bowing and scraping. I mean, really, if you're building a resistance movement in "the new Iraq," do you REALLY need/want Ouday & Qusay? Or wouldn't $30 million be a lot more valuable to you??????

I'm not saying this is what happened but it strikes me as though this is them playing the futures market in terrorism before DARPA really got the program up and running.

[Kellanved]

3. always assuming that the 30M reach their destination

And aren't used somewhere unacounted.

[Hobarticus]

4. They needed a body?

That's my only guess. They had to have a corpse of SOMEONE to prove they're making headway? I agree with you 100%.

[moondust]

5. I still have doubts they will ever pay it all.

The Repigs are old hands at making promises and then weaseling out of them, especially when it comes to money. I could see a scenario where they pay off a few million of this as a down payment, use the photo op as a major media campaign to get other Iraqis to turn in Saddam, then once they have him they find a way to squirm out of paying the rest. It would be just like them.

[Hobarticus]

6. The informant probably wants the hell outta there...

...more than anything else. They'll probably barter with him. That, or give him a tax cut.

[kainah]

8. In one of the C-SPAN events I watched earlier today

someone suggested he was in the US already.

[Hobarticus]

9. If he was smart he would've demanded it right away...

[Kellanved]

10. With his name in Newsweek...

I hope he gets a good new identity.

[Pert_UK]

7. Ever seen The Running Man, where they fake pics of the "winners"?

Hmmmmmm....what would be cheaper and easier, paying $30m to some guy who could still be anti-US or making him disappear and faking the payment?

I doubt that it will happen like this, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.....

P.

[malachi]

11. American POW's get Zip

Let me see if I get this correct. 17 former pow's of chimpys' daddies gulf war were denied receiving compensation because * would not release Iraqi $ that had been frozen in banks in the US. Fuckhead said that the money was better used to help rebuild Iraq. Somehow we can find $30 million bribe money. What a country!

[diamond14]

12. bush* is giving $30 million to saddam's COUSIN !!! we can

expect more terrorist attacks to be funded from this money....

afterall, this is exactly what happened in the year 2001...

first, bush* gave $43 million to osama bin laden and his taliban...

then, bush* went on vacation for six weeks...


KKKarl rove said he was waiting until September to roll out a new product....

then, in September, four planes were highjacked, and thousands of Americans died...it was osama and his taliban funded by bush* $43 Million in "aid"....


and bush* started TWO wars...

_________________________-

lots of people begged bush* NOT to fund the taliban...but bush* did it anyways...read this and weep....

-snips- from the Los Angeles Times, May 2001

.... the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban....

http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm

[robbedvoter]

13. Saddam's cousin gets 1/3 money cut from kids' school lunches

(remember that 1 billion the little tykes were eating away?). That seems just - I'm sure my kid will appreciate it.

[dArKeR]

14. Who would you betray for $30-million? - Poll TGM

Current poll on The Globe and Mail

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=111564&mesg_id=111564

[snooper2]

15. There's a note attached to the money..

Saying 90% must be invested in the Carlyle Group.