A newly leaked transcript from one month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq shows President Bush was aware that Saddam Hussein offered to go into exile if he was allowed to bring $1 billion and information on weapons of mass destruction. The disclosure is contained in a record of a meeting between President Bush and then-Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar in February 2003. The Middle East analyst Juan Cole speculates that Saddam likely wanted to bring with him information that showed Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush had helped fund and support his weapons program. Possessing that information, Cole says, would have protected Saddam from future retaliation out of fear of embarrassing the White House. The transcript also shows President Bush hoped the U.N. Security Council would support the war in part because “[it] would save us fifty billion dollars.” The 50 billion figure was the initial estimate of what the invasion would cost. Bush also made clear he expected U.S. forces to invade Iraq within a month of the conversation regardless of U.N. approval. Bush and Aznar met on February 22; the U.S.-led invasion began on March 19. Bush also reportedly said Europeans are opposed to the invasion because they’re indifferent to Saddam’s atrocities. He said: “Maybe it’s because he’s dark-skinned, far away and Muslim — a lot of Europeans think he’s OK.” White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe declined comment on the transcript.