http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/60minutes/main2111909.shtml...The man who doesn’t want you to know is Sudan’s dictator Omar AlBashir. Five months ago he signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement but it never took hold. AlBashir launched a new offensive, and then, last month, came to the U.N. to hear President Bush say this to his face, "To the people of Darfur, you have seen unspeakable violence and my nation has called these atrocities what they are: genocide."
Sudan’s U.N. representative looked amused during Bush's speech. AlBashir threatened war against U.N. peacekeepers.
Why do these guys mock the U.S. in public? Well, it turns out our government's relationship with Sudan is complicated. In the 1990’s AlBashir hosted Osama bin Laden for five years, so he has information on al Qaeda.
"It's been a very good deal for the government of Sudan to give little tidbits of information about suspects around the world in order to blunt United States outrage over what’s happening in Darfur," Prendergast says.
Last year, the U.S. sent a private jet to bring Sudan’s intelligence chief to CIA headquarters.
"This is the same guy who was the architect of the counter-insurgency strategy in Darfur. What kind of signal does that send to the government of Sudan?" Prendergast asks.
"Look, this is a hard thing to swallow, because what you’re saying is, the United States is in bed with the government in Khartoum on counterterrorism issues and therefore we are looking the other way on a genocide I mean, that’s tough," Pelley remarks. "I think it's a really heinous arrangement and one that history will judge very harshly," Prendergast replies.
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