[NYTr] Bush told Aznar Saddam Could Be Chased Out of Iraq

Wed Sep 26 19:36:16 EDT 2007

[More on just how tenuous is the Half-Wit-in-Chief's grip on reality.
He apparently thought Saddam Hussein could just be chased out of Iraq 
after some threatening John Wayne words from President Simpleton and 
maybe a bribe of a billion bucks or, at worst, he could just be snuffed.
How can ANYONE (outside the USA's moronic yahoos) believe this ignorant,
mentally and morally deficient lunatic and his administration, AGAIN?
-NY Transfer]

Reuters via ABC News - Sep 26, 2007
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3654005

Bush thought Saddam was prepared to flee: report

By Jason Webb
Reuters

MADRID--Saddam Hussein was prepared to take $1 billion and go into exile
before the Iraq war, according to a transcript of talks between U.S.
President George W. Bush and an ally, Spanish newspaper El Pais
reported on Wednesday.

During a meeting at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on February 22, 2003,
Bush told former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar that Saddam
could also be assassinated, according to the transcript published in El
Pais in Spanish.

In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon
Johndroe declined to comment on the report.

"The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated
he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1
billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass
destruction," Bush was quoted as saying at the meeting one month before
the U.S.-led invasion.

Asked by Aznar whether Saddam could really leave, Bush replied: "Yes,
that possibility exists. Or he might even be assassinated."

A spokesman for Aznar's private foundation had no comment on the
transcript or its authenticity. El Pais, which was critical of the Iraq
war and of Aznar's government, did not say how it obtained the
transcript which it said was made by a Spanish diplomat who attended
the meeting.

In it, Bush spoke openly about pressuring countries who were members of
the United Nations Security Council at the time to support a resolution
authorizing force, but that, whatever happened: "We'll be in Baghdad by
the end of March."

"(Former Chilean President Ricardo) Lagos should know that the Free
Trade Agreement with Chile still has to be approved by the Senate, and
that a negative attitude on this could endanger its approval," he said,
adding aid to Angola also depended on U.N. support.

"And (Russian President Vladimir) Putin should know that his attitude
is endangering Russia's relations with the United States," he was
quoted as saying.

BAD COP

"For my part, I'll try as of now to use the most subtle rhetoric
possible, while we try to get the resolution approved."

Bush was dismissive about former French President Jacques Chirac, who
he said "thinks he's Mr. Arab" and described the United States as
playing a game of "good cop, bad cop" with former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.

"I don't mind being the bad cop if Blair is the good cop," Bush said.

The U.S. president referred optimistically to the reconstruction of
Iraq which he thought "could be organized into a federation."

In case the war endangered energy supplies, "the Saudis would help us
and put all the oil necessary into the market," said Bush, who
considered Europeans to be complacent about Saddam.

"Maybe it's because he's dark-skinned, far away and Muslim, lots of
Europeans think everything's okay with him," he said.

"Saddam Hussein won't change and he'll keep on playing games. The time
has come to get rid of him. That's the way it is," Bush said.

In March 2003, days before the war, the United Arab Emirates proposed
to a summit of Arab leaders that Saddam and his top aides should step
down and go into exile. It was the first time an Arab state had made an
official call of this kind.

In a communique issued after the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh, Arab leaders said they opposed any attack on Iraq and made
no reference to the UAE's proposal.