As the reviled leader of a country crippled by sanctions and open to invasion, Saddam Hussein does not automatically spring to mind as a good business prospect. But yesterday it emerged that the Iraqi president’s email in-box contains not only thousands of eulogies but a surprising number of offers from western companies seeking work.
Among the thousands of missives discovered by the American website Wired when one of its enterprising journalists unlocked the mother of all in-boxes was an email from the chairman of a London-based company offering to broker deals on behalf of the Iraqi government. ”Please consider this letter as secret… I ensure you absolute secrecy,” the unnamed executive assured President Saddam.
Similarly, on August 16, the chief executive of Gaiacomm, a California-based wireless technology company, sent an email to the Iraqi leader’s address requesting a meeting to discuss ”technology improvements and exporting of rich technology abroad”. In press releases and public statements, the company has claimed to have developed technology capable of being used as a ”weapon to ignite large sections of the atmosphere and incinerate all living creatures within its pre-selected coordinates”.
The company has subsequently insisted that it had contacted President Saddam to obtain permission to install a communications antenna inside his borders. ”No way would we ever give the weapon of mass destruction technology to Hussein,” a Gaiacomm executive told Wired.
Other messages were downright abusive. A former Gulf war veteran took the opportunity of informing the Iraqi president how sorry he was that a ”political solution decision was made before my friends and I had a chance to completely wipe your cartoon character of a leader off the face of the earth”.
This message is unlikely to have troubled Iraq’s leader; like every other email Wired found in the in-box, it was unread. – Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001