(Bremer)Iraq unveils 25-million-dollar compensation fund for Saddam crimes

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US overseer in Iraq (news - web sites) unveiled a 25 million-dollar fund to compensate thousands of Iraqis victimised by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), which officials said was inadequate for the flood of likely applicants.



"I have created a special task force for compensation of victims of the previous regime. For an initial endowment, I have set aside 25 million dollars," Paul Bremer told a Baghdad news conference.


The money will come from the Development Fund for Iraq that includes oil revenue and foreign assets, and will be controlled by Baghdad's interim government after the US-led coalition relinquishes sovereignty on June 30.


The physically and mentally tortured, people who had property and money confiscated, the displaced, the exiled and relatives of those who were killed by forces loyal to Saddam, all stand to receive payouts, officials said.

~snip~
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=8&u=/afp/20040526/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_rights_040526173651

Wonder when the US will unveil it's compensation fund for the tortured in the prisons. :(

[Jacobin]

1. Well, that's about 95 cents for each Iraqi citizen

Why not just give them all a gift certificate for a Happy Meal?

[tom_paine]

4. No no no. This is Payoff Slush Fund Money

Notice how it came out after the Torture Scandal.

This money will find it's way into the pockets of Iraqis WHO NEED TO KEEP QUIET.

I mean, it's getting harder to arrest them under false pretenses and smear shit all over them nowadays.

[PragMantisT]

2. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! n/t

[maddezmom]

3. that was my gut reaction...wonder why this new fund isn't breaking news

perhaps embarrassment at the sum or having a fund for torture? :eyes:

[keithyboy]

5. Will the US set up a simliar fund for the victims of the Sharon regime?

I think we should, since just as in the case of Saddam, we supported Sharon.

[dansolo]

6. What about the American POWs from the first Gulf War?

The Bush Administration threw out their lawsuit against the Saddam government from the treatment during their capture.

[leftchick]

10. exactly!!!

In addition All veterans should be PISSED about this! Cutting their benefits yet buying off Iraqis?!?

[gratuitous]

7. 25 million?

We spend 40 times that every day on the defense budget.

By the way, where is this money coming from? It wouldn't happen to be the money awarded to Desert Storm veterans that was seized by the Bush administration, would it?

[goclark]

8. Why are WE giving $$ for something Saddam

did?
I just don't get it.

We should be paying them for invading their country when we had no real reason for doing so.

[Robbien]

9. Bush is probably going to claim at least half of that fund

to pay for those prosthetic hands and airline tickets he gave to those Iraqis in his press op yesterday.

[fizzana]

11. He took that money from the $50 million he cut from the VA

for medical and prosthetic reseach.

http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-doc.cfm?doc_name=sr-108-2-56

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. How much money have they already handed out to try to buy the peace?

This is just more of the same.

[Divernan]

13. What is this "I" have created/set aside - it's not Bremer's $s.

The quote from Bremer is unusual in that he says "I HAVE CREATED". . . .and "I HAVE SET ASIDE". The standard style of announcement of foreign aid would be that the USA has created a fund and that the USA will be allocating x amount of resources to that fund. Government bureaucrats/appointed officials NEVER take personal credit in that manner. The credit is always given to an elected official at one level or another. Even elected officials/politicians will phrase an announcement in terms of having sponsored or voted for a bill funding a program. Do you think megalomania is catching? If so, which of the numerous megalomaniacs in this administration infected Bremer.

Wait I do remember one person ranting on to his subjects and describing himself as the all powerful "I" - that was the Wizard of Oz behind his curtain.

The bottom line is that we, the American taxpayers, are funding this.

[cliss]

17. Absolutely right. I thought the same thing

when I read Paul's little speech. "How generous", I thought. He must have a little stash of cash tucked away in his little safe.

How much has he got in there? OH, YES. Now I remember. There were all those missing billions that the Christian Association said vanished mysteriously.

Silly me, to have forgotten.

[rocktivity]

14. And the chutzpah just keeps on coming!

At a time when Bush is looking particulary bad, they're trying to scare us and tug at our heartstrings at the same time. First they trot out the the guy who got a new hand to replace the one Saddam severed hand while millions of Americans go uninsured and thousands of soliders get their medical benefits delayed or cut. Then there's a terror alert that's not really a terror alert that raised awareness, but doesn't warrant a higher threat level. And now they're put up a compensation fund while there are still investigations into Iraqi prisoner abuse, the officers are getting immunity, and the U.S. is deep in debt and unemployment.

:headbang:
rocknation

[struggle4progress]

15. I thought the occupation forces ...

found $600 or $800 million in cash stowed around the country. What happened to that money?

[truthisfreedom]

16. freaky. so how long before they start coughing up compensation for those

harmed at abu ghraib and the other prisons around Iraq? or compensate the surviving members of families killed wholesale at checkpoints? or familes of fighers that were murdered rather than being taken prisoner?