(May 1, 2003) If those who lend money to dictators or authoritarian leaders were threatened systematically by debt repudiation, the project of worldwide democratisation and pacification would be much quicker.

(April 30, 2003) Does the next Iraqi government really have an obligation to negotiate its way out of this mess? Perhaps not, according to a doctrine known as "odious debt."

(April 29, 2003) The idea to declare the hundreds of billions of dollars owed to foreign creditors as "odious debt" is being promoted by some conservatives in the Bush administration.

(April 29, 2003) Russia’s finance minister said that Moscow may be willing to consider a restructuring of Iraqi debts contracted by Saddam Hussein’s regime but stressed that the government opposed a complete write-off.

(April 29, 2003) If a country’s debt burden is exceptionally high, it is possible to declare what Americans call Chapter XI bankruptcy. Another is the old concept of odious debt that says that states should not be bound to repay odious debts run up by repressive regimes.

(April 28, 2003) The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) suggested Monday that the most likely result of negotiations on Iraq’s massive foreign debts will be a substantial write-off.

(April 27, 2003) Should Iraq become the first country to benefit from the doctrine of "odious debt"? Edmin Truman says "No" and gives four reasons for his decision.

(April 23, 2003) The best thing the French could do for the new Iraq would be to forgive its people their odious debts to French companies.

(April 22, 2003) Some critics worry that, based on their track record, the World Bank, IMF might do little good.

(April 22, 2003) The legal and moral basis of those sanctions, debts and contracts [that were imposed upon and executed by the odious and now defunct Baathist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein] went the way of the Hussein regime – they are moot, null and void.

(May 21, 2003) Russia is ready to discuss the issue of Iraq’s debts at the Paris Club of creditors, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said. The question is, "Will the debts be reflected in the draft resolution of the UN Security Council on Iraq?"

(April 21, 2003) As the last remnants of Saddam regime crumbled, the US treasury secretary, John Snow declared Iraq’s citizens should not have to pay back the debts racked up by their former dictator.

(April 21, 2003)Americans will probably be torn by our natural inclination to support the sanctity of contract, and the contradictory feeling that the Iraqi people should not have their futures blighted by debts incurred by a bloody tyrant.

(April 21, 2003) Few doubt that vast Iraqi assets have been secretly transferred out of the country for years, and especially in the prewar months…Taken together, Saddam’s huge haul is now terrorism’s central bank account.