Rummy and his old friend, Saddam, great pic. Interesting article.

[madfloridian]

This was sent by a friend overseas from the Asia Times.


Article:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EL17Ak01.html

SNIP..."It was presumably realpolitik that also persuaded Rumsfeld not to bring up Iraq's use of chemical weapons with Saddam in their first meeting of December 20, 1983, even though the administration knew about it. (After long insisting that he did raise the issue with Saddam, the recent release of State Department memoranda obtained by the National Security Archive has forced Rumsfeld to change his story. He did mention the issue, among many others, when he met with then-foreign minister Tariq Aziz separately.)

For the next five years, Washington would quietly ensure that Saddam received all the military equipment he needed to stave off defeat, even precursor chemicals that could be used against Iranian soldiers and Kurdish civilians. Not that Washington supported the use of chemical weapons, particularly against civilians. It was more that the Reagan administration was very reluctant to condemn their use by Iraq back then.

How much more of this intimate relationship Saddam will recall when he gets a public forum is undoubtedly a concern of many current and past administration figures. The situation echoes the worries of former US president George H W Bush over what Panamanian strongman General Manuel Antonio Noriega might say in open court about his long and intimate connections to US intelligence agencies when he surrendered to the US military after Washington's invasion of Panama in 1989. Of course, Noriega was recruited while he was still in the military academy, and his rise to power was facilitated tremendously by those ties.END SNIP

[Cleita]

1. Heh, loved the picture even though it made me itch.

Great article too. Thanks.