Electric Dirt Farmer » iraq http://ditto.ca/weblog A conglomeration of foolishness. Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:10:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1 Saddam Hussein: Iraqi President and PS2 Fan? http://ditto.ca/weblog/2000/12/saddam-hussein-iraqi-president-and-ps2-fan/ http://ditto.ca/weblog/2000/12/saddam-hussein-iraqi-president-and-ps2-fan/#comments Wed, 20 Dec 2000 06:15:12 +0000 This item, I think, says something important about sanctions and about technology, but I’m not sure what that is (and on the other hand the story probably isn’t even true). Anyway, the Iraqi Government has apparently discovered a loophole in the UN sanctions against it. According to WorldNetDaily.com the US Federal Government thinks that several thousand of the hard to find Sony PlayStation 2 game machines have been shipped to Iraq. The loophole is that computer machinery in general, but not video game machines in particular, are tightly restricted by the sanctions. And, the punchline is that the significant computing power inside the latest breed of game machines could support a relatively inexpensive “supercomputer” (according to WND.com sources anyway).

The details seem a little bit thin (WND.com cites a “secret Defense Intelligence Agency report” and indicates that there is a joint FBI/US Customs Service investigation), but it could be true I suppose; eventually someone finds the holes in any given set of sanctions. Particularly, when that someone is under the Great American Thumb, so to speak. On the other hand, maybe President Hussein is tired of trying to sell oil and has decided that PS2 speculating offers a better profit margin? A possibility hinted at (tongue in cheeck, I think) by the UpsideToday article where I saw this originally.

Hat tip to Salon.com

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