Friday, September 28, 2007

Saddam Risked His Life for WMD Secrets

The Washington Post reports on a story leaked to Spain's El Pais about a meeting between President Bush and the former Spanish president Jose Maria Aznar weeks ahead of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It's interesting to note how Bush discusses Saddam's signals that he might accept exile from Iraq.

El Pais provides the Spanish language transcript here. And here's Bush on the chances that Saddam Hussein might choose exile instead of war [translation mine]:

...The Egyptians are talking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated that he'd be ready to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1 billion dollars and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction. Gaddafi has told Berlusconi that Saddam Hussein wants to leave. Mubarak tells us that in that case, there's a strong possibility that he'd be assassinated.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

We are not trying to win the elections, we are trying to have elections

The main goal of Russian foreign policy is to raise the oil price, no matter what - that's why the tensions in the Middle East are so important to Putin Read More

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Hungary issues entrepreneurial permits to prostitutes

In an effort to bring prostitutes into the legal economy, officials said Monday that Hungary will allow sex workers to apply for an entrepreneur's permit - a move that could generate government revenues from an industry worth an estimated $1 billion annually.Read More

Acupuncture helps back pain, don't ask how

Acupuncture provided twice as many patients relief from lower back pain as did conventional drug and exercise therapy, which German researchers said on Monday might point to a "superplacebo" effect. Read More