Bill Richardson

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson (born November 15, 1947) is the current Governor of the State of new Mexico. He previously has served as a Congressman, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and U.S. Secretary of Energy.

In 1995 Richardson accompianed by Peter Bourne tarvelled to Baghdad for a meeting with Saddam Hussein to negotiate the release of two Americans at the request of the Clinton White House. Richardson and Bourne subsequently collaborated on a number of such efforts in Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, and North Korea.

On 11 February 11 1998 Bill Richardson told Margaret Warner of the PBS NewsHourregarding Saddam Hussein and Weapons of Mass Destruction,

"We think this man is a threat to the international community, and he threatens a lot of the neighbors in his region and future generations there with anthrax and VX....Are we going to stand back and allow Saddam Hussein to continue developing Weapons of Mass Destruction?"

Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002. In his first year, Richardson proposed a won passage of Reagan-style "tax cuts to promote growth and investment" and passed a broad personal income tax cut and won a statewide special election to transfer money from the state's Permanent Fund to meet current expenses and projects.

As governor, Richardson continued activities in foreign policy. During the summer of 2003, he met with a delegation from North Korea to discuss its nuclear program.

The Albuquerque Journal reported on June 12 2005, that a New Mexico State Auditor concluded the Governor used "Enron type accounting" after his administration "circumvented the Legislature and proper accounting procedures when it opened the office in 2004 because it used money intended for the Taxation and Revenue Department to pay for the governor's Albuquerque digs." The Governor had opened an office in Albuquerque five minutes from the airport to meet with potential out of state donors for his 2008 Presidential campaign without inconveniencing them with the two hour round trip to Sante Fe.

Sources

• Governor Bill Richardson's official website
• Richardson's Campaign Contributions
• Annals of Diplomacy Backfire, Carl Nagin, The New Yorker
• Richardson Named As Likely Source of Wen Ho Lee Leak, By Adam Rankin, Albuquerque Journal (Sunday, July 10, 2005)
• Final Report of the Attorney General's Review Team on the Handling of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Investigation ("The Bellows Report") (May 2000)