Watch out Sam, Kirsan might sue you. Surely this is more slanderous than
anything that has been written about Truolgar.


"Sam Sloan" wrote in message
...
A big news story is now hitting. The new Baghdad newspaper Al-Maida
reports that it has a list of prominent politicians around the world
who were essentially bribed by Saddam Hussein. Included on the list is
the Prime Minister of France, the former Prime Minister of Bulgaria
and numerous other high government officials around the world.

But what must be on the mind of every chess player is whether the name
of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation,
is on the list.

Almost everybody familiar with the situation will agree that it is
highly likely that Kirsan is on the list, for at least the following
reasons:

1. Kirsan has often said that he is a friend of Saddam Hussein.

2. Kirsan tried to organize the World Chess Championship match in
Baghdad but backed down only after the USA and several European
countries said that they could not send their players there.

3. Kirsan was in Baghdad as the head of the Russian Delegation and
took the last flight out of Baghdad just before the bombing started
when the US attack began.

4. Kisran has stated that he has paid $30 million dollars to finance
world chess since 1995 including especially his World Chess
Championship knock-out tournaments. He has never revealed where he got
the money from except that he has stated that he gets his funds from
"the oil business." His republic, Kalmykia, is one of the poorest in
the world.

The bribes paid by Saddam Hussein consist of millions of barrels of
oil. For example, 15 million barrels of oil were paid to the Prime
Minister of France. Baghdad was legally prohibited from selling the
oil because of the UN Sanctions, but it could give away the oil, and
that is exactly what Saddam is said to have done.

The Iraqi press is reporting that if these reports are true, it will
seek to have those who received the oil criminally prosecuted. This
could mean that FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov could face
extradition to Iraq.

Sam Sloan

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 03:36:23 GMT, "The Masked Bishop"
wrote:

Watch out Sam, Kirsan might sue you. Surely this is more slanderous than
anything that has been written about Truolgar.

Is Kirson litigious? I had always thought that, in the interest of
efficiency of course, he tends to proceed directly to punitive
measures.

Now wait just a minizzle. Sam is judgement proof ... or is he?

Jane

"Mike Murray" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 03:36:23 GMT, "The Masked Bishop"
wrote:

Watch out Sam, Kirsan might sue you. Surely this is more slanderous than
anything that has been written about Truolgar.

Is Kirson litigious? I had always thought that, in the interest of
efficiency of course, he tends to proceed directly to punitive
measures.

So far, Sam has yet to identify what crime would be committed. He offered up
"violation of UN sanctions" which last I checked, isn't a jailable offense, nor
is it one that would be tried on Iraqi soil.

John Fernandez

On 01 Feb 2004 11:33:42 GMT, eepmeep (John
Fernandez) wrote:

So far, Sam has yet to identify what crime would be committed. He offered up
"violation of UN sanctions" which last I checked, isn't a jailable offense, nor
is it one that would be tried on Iraqi soil.

John Fernandez

I did not offer that, and indeed I think that you are asking a valid
question.

Question is: I give a million barrels of oil to John Fernandez in
return for which he agrees to make speeches in my support.

Have I violated any law? Has he?

Sam Sloan

Sam Sloan wrote:

On 01 Feb 2004 11:33:42 GMT, eepmeep (John
Fernandez) wrote:

So far, Sam has yet to identify what crime would be committed. He offered up
"violation of UN sanctions" which last I checked, isn't a jailable offense,
nor
is it one that would be tried on Iraqi soil.

John Fernandez

I did not offer that, and indeed I think that you are asking a valid
question.

Question is: I give a million barrels of oil to John Fernandez in
return for which he agrees to make speeches in my support.

Have I violated any law? Has he?

Sam Sloan

To answer your question, there are two ways of looking at this.

One is from your end. Were you able to give the million barrels of oil to me?
Was it yours? I suppose in Saddam's case, this will be in a long list of
"things he's stolen from the Iraqi people", but come on, it's wayyyyy down the
list. $30M in oil is a pittance, I'm sure.

Okay, now from my end. Is all I did making speeches? If so, that's lobbying,
and that's legal, I believe, in most places (it is in the USA anyway). Bribes
are a bit higher than 'making speeches' - specifically in the case of
governments, it is likely for votes or something else. Why would Kirsan need to
be bribed? He's not in the UN, and only has a small vote (if that) in the
Russian political system.

A more interesting possibility is if this was part of a money laundering scheme
whereby Saddam was exporting oil for "payment later" or payment into personal
bank accounts all over the world. That's most likely where the real crimes
would be. Extradition to Iraq? HIGHLY doubtful. You'd likely see a lot of
countries like Russia be very hesitant to have its citizens get involved on
what is likely to be a very unstable and emotion-driven Iraqi legal system.
This is especially the case since executions are likely to be involved and a
great deal of countries will not extradite its citizens when they are facing
the death penalty.

John Fernandez