No SF the whole story about the meeting between Saddam Hussein and Donald Rumsfeld is contained in the minutes of the meeting. No arms deals were mentioned, the USA's concerns regarding the use of of Chemical weapons by iraq was raised with Tariq Aziz both in December in the preliminary meeting and again in March

"The meeting in late December 1983 paved the way for an official restoration of relations between Iraq and the US, which had been severed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war." - Jeremy Scahill

Hey Sugarfoot does that kill the old left wingers myth about Saddam being the USA's man, who "they" put in place in 1979.

"Rumsfeld's December 19-20, 1983 visit to Baghdad made him the highest-ranking US official to visit Iraq in 6 years." - Jeremy Scahill

Mr. Scahill is a little off base here, Donald Rumsfeld at the time was a private US citizen, he was not part of the Administration, therefore he can hardly be described as a "high-ranking US official" - TRUE??

Not being a "high-ranking US official" he had no authority to speak on behalf of the Government of the United States of America or even on behalf of the President of the United States of America - his job Sugarfoot was to hand deliver a letter.

5th March 1984 US strongly condemned Iraqi use of CW weapons.

Main topics of conversation between Rumsfeld and the Iraqis was a pipeline to Aqueba. Nothing to do with weapons - so basically Gorgeous georgw was lying to that Senate committee - criminal offence isn't it?