The Weekly Standard has the latest on Saddam’s payments to journalists and policitians around the world. Scott Ritter and Congressman Jim McDermott are among those who appear to be implicated. As to some, like MP George Galloway, the leader of the anti-war movement in Britain, there is no doubt whatsoever. A memo from the Iraqi Intelligence Service says:
[Galloway’s] projects and future plans for the benefit of [Iraq] need financial support to become a motive for him to do more work. And because of the sensitivity of getting money directly from Iraq, it is necessary to grant him oil contracts and special and necessary commercial opportunities to provide him with a financial income under commercial cover without being connected to him directly…[T]he name of Mr. Galloway or his wife should not be mentioned…[Galloway] needs continuous financial support from Iraq.
Confronted with reports of the Iraqi documents, Galloway proclaimed his innocence from his villa in Portugal.
What we have heard so far is only a fraction of what must eventually come out. Many documents were destroyed before or during the war; many more were destroyed during the war, or in the immediate aftermath. No doubt some of the regime’s darkest secrets were never written down at all. Nevertheless, American intelligence agencies are now in possession of the equivalent of 100 semi truck loads of Iraqi government and Baath party documents. Many more disclosures will tumble out over the next few years.
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