Tim Blair

How do you spell "France" in Arabic?

Please let George Galloway be on that list...

Bloody fantastic news....cannot wait to hear more! Go the Iraqi's!!!!!!!!!!

A pity that the MEMRI news ticker (aside from this blog) will be the furthest penetration into the western media that this story will make.

Too many lefty journalists have too much investing in fallating the UN, France, Germany and Russia.

Great Britain: George Galloway received 1 million barrels. Fawwaz Zreiqat received 1 million barrels. Zreiqat also appears in the Jordanian section as having received 6 million barrels. The Mujahideen Khalq(3) in Britain received 1 million barrels.

France: The French-Arab Friendship Association received 15.1 million barrels. Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua received 12 million barrels.(4) Patrick Maugein of the Trafigura company received 25 million barrels. Michel Grimard, founder of the French-Iraqi Export Club, received 17.1 million barrels.

This is going to be very interesting.

Two important questions.

1)Which beer is is made from?

My guess is Victoria Bitter.

2)Can we return the alcohol to the product?

I'd think so, but I hope no one tries.

Whoops, wrong thread for the last post, my bad.

I doubt we'll see much about this in the media here, as Mike has stated.

It sounds very conspiracy theory, but the information about the oil-for-fraud investigation does seem to be getting very little media attention.

I don't like conspiracy theories so I'm left wondering why this is so.

I ask people whenever I can if they have heard of the oil-for-food scandal. I have yet to find one. Seriously, I've probably asked dozens and not a hint of recognition. The media is more powerful than the government in many regards.

That's one of the problems of reading blogs a lot, you really start to assume that people have heard about major events, at least in passing. People who watch CNN and read the paper think that they are on top of things, I used to be one of them a few years back. It's scary to wonder what I am still missing. But damn, I am stunned every time I ask an intelligent about oil-for-food scandal and nothing...

It is kind of satisfying when my uber-liberal friends go on a tirade about how the UN should be in charge of Iraq. I ask them "how many Iraqi children do you think have been killed by the UN over the last decade?". They give me the blank stare and I get to rip into them about the scandal, it's a total blind side that leaves them speechless.

It would be nifty if Tam Dayell MP found his way on there as well. Might take a bit of shimmer of his new Parlimentarian Lifestyle Achievement Award.

Bring it on! I can't wait.

Go, Iraq! Publish!

After the release of the documents: "Those petulant Iraqis missed a good chance to shut up."

/Chirac

(No, I actually expect his reaction to be even more entertaining.)

Rob: I don't like conspiracy theories so I'm left wondering why this is so.

That's an easy one. The press has their "narrative" that goes "Bush unilateralism bad" and "UN good". A story which contradicts either of those (or any of their many other themes) will be underplayed.

This wouldn't be as bad a problem if different press outlets had different themes they were pushing. But 90% of them are in lock-step uniformity of viewpoint. The wire services and European outlets are even worse, in my opinion.

Just discovered that the text of the MEMRI ticker is preserved at http://www.memri.org/ticker.html

I am writing a research paper on the oil-for-food scandal paper for my English class, under the guise of "business ethics" because there is more to this issue than meets the eye. Yes, we all know about Kofi, Kojo, and Cotecna, and Saddam and the $10 billion he made off of smuggling oil out of Iraq through this process, but what about he rest?
Exxon, Valero, and Chevon have all received subpoenas, as they were the main recipients of the oil. I doubt that a company as big as Exxon could be unsuspicious of oil from Iraq, bought in large supply, when very limited amounts were allowed out. The UK and the US deliberately stopped the humanitarian supplies from returing to Iraq in order to weaken it.
The Secretary General of the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs would take a huge risk in releasing the documents. The Iraqi official in charge of the investigation into Saddam's involvement in the scandal was mysteriously killed in car bomb on July 1st.
I hope that the papers do come out very soon (for Justice, for the new Iraqi government, and for my English paper which is due next Tuesday).

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