ome speculation that Saddam is now in Russia where he will receive asylum. BUT there is also information that he may be either very severely wounded or even dead.

Tariq Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle, has voluntarily surrendered with the understanding he won't be held. Tariq was the key member of the regime and close enough to Saddam to provide targeting coordinates for the assassination attempts on his life by the U.S. military. Expect Tariq to be released soon and to have his medical needs (for a failing heart) provided for in the U.S. The U.S. had very close relations with Tariq in the Iraq - Iran war and knows him very well and Tariq has several close friends in the U.S., including some in the CIA.

Russia also has agreed to forgive Iraq's $10 billion in debt to Russia who expects the European community to return the favor by forgiving some of Russia's European debt. Russia owes about $123.5 billion in OLD Soviet Union debts to the IMF and under Gorbachev the USSR borrowed another $40 billion in newer debt. Then with the breakup of the union Gorbachev borrowed another $65 billion. This deal could be the deal-maker for the U.S. to obtain Russian support for the legitimacy of the new U.S. imposed government in Iraq. Everybody has a price in this capitalist game.

Russia also expects a benefit from arms sales to the new Iraq government. Much of the conventional weapons could have been recycled back to the new government but the U.S. insured that wouldn't happen by destroying everything which now means the new Iraq will have to buy more weapons and Russia is looking to sell it what it needs, which will be the same type of guns and ammunition just destroyed by the U.S. military. Russia is already doing this in Afghanistan for the new U.S. puppet government there, and who do you think is paying for it there? We are. Russia is also hoping that George Busy will pay for weapons for Iraq but once the sanctions are lifted Iraq's U.S. puppet government will be permitted to pay for them itself from the sale of oil through U.S. oil companies.

DOING BUSINESS IN IRAQ

The U.S. has had an interest in Iraq since oil was discovered there. The U.S. supported Iraq militarily against Iran because it has oil and it was a bulwark against Iranian Islamic fundamentalism. The U.S. considered Iraq's secularism a buffer against Khomeini's `Islamic Revolution'. The Bush administration has stated unequivocably that it wants democracy in Iraq but it is not going to be Islamic and it won't be anything resembling what they have in Iran - even if the decision is made by a majority of Iraqis to do so. Anotherwords democracy is all right as long as it is acceptable to George Bush.

That George Bush Junior can claim today that Saddam Saddam was a threat because he is partnered with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the most radical example Islamic fundamentalist extremism flys in the face of reason since the rationale for the U.S. to support Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war was because Saddam Hussein was a "secular" bulwark against an Iranian style revolution.

"Militarily, the United States not only provided to Iraq satellite data and information about Iranian military movements, but, as former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officers have recently revealed to the New York Times, preapred detailed battle planning for Iraqi forces in this period (during Iran-Iraq war)---even as Iraq drew worldwide public condemnation for its repeated use of chemical weapons against Iran. According to a senior DIA official, [Research Unit for Political Economy - "Behind the Invasion of Iraq" - 2003]:

"If Iraq had gone down it would have had a catatrophic effect on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and the whole region might have gone down--that was the backdrop of the policy." [DIA]

"One of the battles for which the United States provided battle-planning packages was the Iraqi capture of the strategic Fao peninsula in the Persion Gulf in 1988. Since Iraq eventually relied heavily on mustard gas in the battle, it is clear the United States battle plan tacitly included the use of such weapons. DIA officers undertook a tour of inspection of the Fao peninsula after Iraqi forces sucessfully retook it, and they reported to their superiors on IRaq's extensive use of chemical weapons, but their superiors were not interested. Col Walter P. Lang, senior DIA officer at the time, says that: `the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern.'....." [RUPE]

IT DIDN'T MATTER WHETHER THEY USED GAS OR BULLETS

"..The Pentagon `wasn't so horrified by Iraq's use of gas,' said one veteran of the program. `IT WAS JUST ANOTHER WAY OF KILLING PEOPLE--WHETHER WITH A BULLET OF PHOSGENE, IT DIDN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE,' he said. The recapture of the Fao peninsula was a turning point in the conflict, bringing Iran to the negotiating table." [RUPE]

Hank Roth http://pnews.org/

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