Wyatt talks about deals with Saddam

Houston Chronicle:

Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt, meeting with Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in December 1990 in a successful effort to secure the release of Western hostages, used the opportunity to talk a little business, according to transcripts made public Wednesday.

In evidence that could weaken defense efforts to cast the 83-year-old tycoon as an American patriot, federal prosecutors in Wyatt's fraud and conspiracy trial played portions of a tape that suggest Wyatt's heroics were not purely altruistic.

In August 1990, Saddam's troops rolled into Kuwait, seizing any Westerners they encountered. Saddam held these hostages, whom he called "guests," in his subsequent standoff with the U.S. over the invasion of Kuwait.

Wyatt, in perhaps the most celebrated moment of his career, traveled to Baghdad with former Texas Gov. John Connally to try to negotiate the hostages' release.

As the meeting was ending after Saddam assured through a translator, "your aircraft will not go empty," Wyatt asked: "Mr. President, do you have one minute more for me?"

Wyatt — who had reminded Saddam earlier in the meeting, according to the transcript, that he had been doing business with Iraq since 1972 — asked if the Iraqi leader was familiar with an old oil field known as Gyara. That field, Wyatt said, produced crude that was not "saleable ever in its current form."

But, Wyatt told Saddam: "We have perfected a process that can convert that to saleable oil as soon as we get the present problems straightened out. And we have the process running in Wichita, Kansas, of all places, in the center of the United States. And we've unveiled our first plant in Aruba."

Saddam responded: "The future, the doors to the future, are greater."

...

The "present problems," as Wyatt had described the Kuwait standoff in his meeting with Saddam, were not straightened out quickly. U.S.-led forces in the Persian Gulf War expelled Saddam's forces from Kuwait early in 1991, and Iraq remained isolated from the world, the target of economic sanctions.

But Wyatt didn't give up his contacts in Iraq, Vincent said, instead hiring Vincent to serve as a consultant on Iraq-related issues.

Vincent told the federal court jury on Wednesday that he accompanied Wyatt on seven or eight trips to Iraq between 1991 and 1997, when travel to Iraq by U.S. citizens was forbidden without special government permission.

Wyatt has not been charged with violating U.S. law by making those alleged trips to Iraq. He is, however, accused of supplying satellite equipment to Saddam's regime during one of those reputed visits.

He also is accused of funneling millions of dollars to Saddam's regime for his permission to buy Iraqi crude under the United Nations' oil-for-food program.

Charged with fraud, conspiracy and violating U.S. sanctions, Wyatt could be sentenced to 74 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

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There is more on the transactions with the despot in Iraq. Apparently Wyatt was concerned about his conversations becoming known because he instructed Vincent to use "a pay telephone and 1-800 number for fear his office phone would be monitored." Wyatt got the first contract under the oil for food program in 1996.

Update: Politico reports that Democrats continue to receive contributions from Wyatt and his wife. Suddenly the stories of the fund raising advantages of the Democrats has become scarce.