Backstabbing for Beginners Page #2

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wheat, milk, diesel fuel

to the benefit of Tikrit,

who are getting seemingly

more than their fair share.

Saddam's hometown, what a surprise.

Yeah.

There are also all these

after service fees, in the contracts.

I'm pretty sure they're kickbacks.

If you wanna take a look,

I highlighted and aggregated them

on page 26 to 29.

It's a lot of money, sir.

In some places it's as much as 30 percent.

Sit.

Kid.

Sit down!

The first rule of diplomacy

is that the truth is not a matter of fact,

it's a matter of consensus.

The consensus right now

is that the sanctions are here to stay.

The Americans and the British

will never lift them,

which means... that if you want

the people of Iraq to survive,

we have to keep Oil-for-Food running.

- Even with all its warts and flaws.

- Sir, you do not need to...

The second rule

is to keep your mouth shut and listen.

Then if it suits, you can talk.

With discretion.

Otherwise, keeping your cards

close to your vest.

Yeah.

Your father was a good man.

You should be so lucky

as to have his heart.

Yeah, so I've been told.

We crossed paths a couple of times.

Must have been '79, '80.

What a tragedy.

Beirut.

F***. I'm sorry.

That must have been hard,

a boy growing up without a father.

It was my normal.

I had my cry.

Good.

Fix your summary.

Go home and pack.

We leave for Baghdad on the red-eye.

What? You have other plans?

No, I don't.

Of course not.

Thank you.

I was swept up

in the romance of it.

I mean, this is what I wanted:

high adventure and a worthy cause.

It's like Baghdad was my Casablanca.

More or less sketchy, crazy,

dangerous and stranger

than I could've ever imagined.

The country lived in a state

of permanent self-occupation.

Our Baghdad office

is going to present a problem.

Okay.

We can't let this director

sabotage the report.

Why... Why would he sabotage

his own report?

She.

So the Security Council

will be forced to lift the sanctions,

and everybody can cash in

on the deals they made with Saddam

back before he rolled into Kuwait

and pissed off the world.

Jesus H. Christ, kid.

Gonna have to f***ing teach you

everything from scratch.

Every six months we have to justify

our continued existence.

Our job right now is to write a report

for the Security Council

emphasizing all the good

in the Oil-for-Food program

whilst minimizing the challenges.

Not to lie.

No, never lie,

but to choose our facts,

our truths, with the utmost care.

Right.

Can I trust you to do that?

Yes. Absolutely.

There she is.

Madame Dupre.

Trying to backstab us.

Christina.

Hassan Ghazarian.

- Hey, Michael Sullivan. Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

Did you get the documents

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