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| Europe |
| Austria’s Haider Praises Saddam as Arab Visionary |
| 2003-03-19 |
| Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider chose the eve of a U.S.-led war on Iraq to praise President Saddam Hussein as a man with an open mind and a vision of a unified Arab world. "Meeting Saddam was quite interesting, because he spent more than two hours explaining his philosophy of the unification of Arab nations," Haider told reporters on Wednesday at the launch of his new book about his 2002 meeting with the Iraqi leader. "And (Saddam) explained the danger Israel poses for the Arab world, especially for the Palestinians," said Haider, who once praised Nazi employment polices and Hitler's Waffen SS — comments for which he later apologized. Not that he has changed his mind, he just apologized for saying it. I'm sure he and Sammy have a lot in common. "I had the impression that (Saddam) is well-educated, he knows a lot about the history of his country and the region, and he's open to different arguments," Haider said. Haider's trip to Iraq in February 2002 and show of support for Saddam met with such fierce criticism at home and abroad that Europe's most successful far-right leader was forced to abandon his last position in Austrian national politics. In his book, "A Guest of Saddam in the 'Realm of Evil,"' Haider describes how he praised Saddam's intelligence in a meeting with two Israeli secret police agents, who asked to interview Haider in Vienna after his return from Baghdad. "I described my impression of the man Saddam Hussein as best I could after our single meeting," writes Haider. "I also told them of his obvious intelligence, which had impressed me during our discussions, and of his clear thought-processes." He also said that the Israeli agents asked him if he would be prepared to take on a "role as a negotiator between Israel and Iraq." Haider told the agents he would gladly do his part to bring peace to the Middle East, though he said he had the "same view of the Palestinian question as Saddam Hussein." And has the same view of the Jewish question as Hitler. See, I told he and Sammy were buddies. At the news conference, Haider said nothing critical of the man President Bush accused of developing weapons of mass destruction, wants ousted and his government toppled. Last year, a German forensic pathologist said the man Haider had been photographed with was not the real Saddam Hussein, but one of at least three doubles who had undergone plastic surgery to look like the Iraqi leader. Haider dismissed the idea that the man he shakes hands with on the cover of his book is a fake Saddam, though he joked that the existence of doubles could help prevent war. "I'm curious which of the Saddams the United States wants to send into exile," he said. "If it's true that there are five or six Saddams, them it shouldn't be hard to send one or two of them into exile." Won't be hard to kill all of them either. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 Saddam well educated? He's about to have a real life physics lesson today... |
| Posted by: Brian 2003-03-19 13:07:29 |
| #2 It was on BBC's "Profiles" show on Saddam that John Simpson (the fat,pompous guy) made.The BBC had hired a German expert (of something) to compare pictures of Saddam and he found that Mr. Haider had met one of his doubles. |
| Posted by: El Id 2003-03-19 12:32:55 |
| #1 Haider actually met one of his doubles, according to this german guy who spotted them. Saddam doesn't bother with small-time politicians... Haider has the same attraction toward Saddam than his french counterpart, the old fashioned fascist Le Pen, an another dictators groupie. Could anyone (harshly) correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC (49%) Haider has converted to islam in 2001-2002, his witness being Islam Ghaddaffi, the son of Muhammar; Joerg is a friend of this charming family, as well. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-03-19 11:31:11 |