Arms Report Targets Oil-For-Food Program (UN CRIME UPDATE)

AP WIRE via kansas.com ^ | Wed, Oct. 06, 2004 | DESMOND BUTLER

[11th_VA]

NEW YORK - The top U.S. arms inspector accused the former head of the $60 billion U.N. oil-for-food program of accepting bribes in the form of vouchers for Iraqi oil sales from Saddam Hussein's government while running the program, according to a report released Wednesday.

The report by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, alleges the Iraqi government manipulated the U.N. program from 1996 to 2003 in order to acquire billions of dollars in illicit gains and to import illegal goods, including acquiring parts for missile systems.

The alleged schemes included an Iraqi system for allocating lucrative oil vouchers, which permitted recipients to purchase certain amounts of oil at a profit.

Benon Sevan, the former chief of the U.N. program, is among dozens of people who allegedly received the vouchers, according to the report, which said Saddam personally approved the list. The secret voucher program was dominated by Russian, French and Chinese recipients, in that order, with Saddam spreading the wealth widely to prominent business men, politicians, foreign government ministries and political parties, the report said.

The report names former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, and the Russian radical political figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky, for example, and other foreign governments range from Yemen to Namibia.

Previously, those officials and others whose names have emerged in the face of multiple ongoing investigations of corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have denied wrongdoing. The program was designed to allow limited oil sales to pay for humanitarian goods.

Asked about the fresh allegations against Sevan, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said the organization wouldn't talk about specifics and noted that Paul Volcker, the former chief of the Federal Reserve Bank, was conducting an independent investigation at the U.N.'s request.

"We are not going to comment on any specific allegation against Mr. Sevan or anyone else," Eckhard said. "This is in the hands of Paul Volcker. We are cooperating with him fully. Benon Sevan is cooperating with him fully, and we will wait for Volcker's judgment. Benon, meanwhile, stands by his statement that he's done nothing wrong."

According to the Duelfer report, which got its information from the former Iraqi oil ministry, Sevan allegedly received vouchers for 7.3 million barrels of oil through various companies and representatives recommended to Iraqi ministries by Sevan. The financial take would have been in the range of $700,000 to $2 million, depending on oil prices then.

Critics of the oil-for-food program and U.S. congressional investigators have long alleged that administration of the program was rife with corruption and failed to prevent illicit business deals and massive kickbacks to the Iraqi government.

The report said, "Saddam was able to subvert the UN OFF (oil-for-food) program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003." And it said the voucher program, "provided Saddam with a useful method of rewarding countries, organizations and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq to subvert U.N. sanctions."

Reports that Sevan had received oil vouchers first emerged in January when the Iraqi daily Al-Mada newspaper published a list of alleged recipients including Sevan. But Duelfer's report details the allegations and provides a new degree of credibility.

In April, the United Nations appointed Volcker to head the independent investigation of the growing scandal. Four congressional panels have also been investigating the corruption and accusations that Saddam used leverage from the program to influence foreign governments and particularly members of the Security Council, who would vote whether to maintain sanctions.

"Once the oil for food program began, it provided all kind of levers for him (Saddam) to manipulate his way out of sanctions," Duelfer told Congress on Wednesday.

The new report details how the Iraqi government filled its coffers with billions of dollars in illegal revenue from smuggled oil and illegal kickbacks while the U.N. program was running.

"The Regime quickly came to see that OFF (oil-for-food) could be corrupted to acquire foreign exchange both to further undermine sanctions and to provide the means to enhance dual-use infrastructure and potential WMD-related development," the report said, referring to weapons of mass destruction - though none were found in Iraq after the U.S. invasion.

[11th_VA]

Will this make the MSM ?

[Cornpone]

I can't post the article because of copyright restrictions but my newsletter from The Economist today contains a story that Israel has alledged that UN ambulances are being used to transport Qassam rockets by Palestinians attacking the Sderot settlement outside of the Gaza strip. Sounds like UN programs and property are being used for all sorts of nefarious purposes. Of course, there will be a UN investigation.

[11th_VA]

17.09.2004 - 08:38 CET | By Richard Carter

The house of veteran French eurosceptic, Charles Pasqua, was searched yesterday (16 September) in connection with bribery allegations.

Mr Pasqua is under investigation for a loan of 450,000 euro, given to him by the Banque Populaire de Chypre (Cyprus) to finance his 2002 Presidential campaign. Noulis Pavlopoulos, Secretary-General of Mr Pasqua's party - the Rassemblement pour la France (RPF) is under investigation for money laundering in connection with this case, according to French daily Liberation.

During the last Parliamentary term (1999-2004), Mr Pasqua was the President of the UEN political group (Union for a Europe of Nations) but he lost his seat in the 2004 elections, also losing his immunity from prosecution.

But he is a candidate for election to the French senate, which takes place on 26 September. If he is successful, he will have a renewed immunity.

Mr Pasqua insists there is nothing irregular about the loans.

[11th_VA]

AFP - 27 Sept 2004

Among the victors was the former interior minister and veteran Gaullist Charles Pasqua, who won a Senate seat in the Hauts-de-Seine department west of Paris.

[Pikamax]

bttt

[MizSterious]

Ping!

[11th_VA]

Mr Pasqua, known as France's number one policeman during his days as a tough, no-nonsense interior minister, is at the centre of various judicial investigations.

These involve allegations of illicit arms sales to Angola, the improper granting of casino licences to associates, a housing project fraud and irregularities in the funding of his former party, the RPF.

Your UN tax dollars at work ...

[cake_crumb]

"Will this make the MSM ?"

**SNORT** have any of the leggy news bombshells revealed about the UN blood for oil vouchers scam ever gotten so much as a 30 second nod from the MSM?

[cake_crumb]

"I can't post the article because of copyright restrictions but my newsletter from The Economist today contains a story that Israel has alledged that UN ambulances are being used to transport Qassam rockets by Palestinians attacking the Sderot settlement outside of the Gaza strip."

Yesterday, the Israeli government said a bunch of UN emplyees had been arrested for aiding Pali terrorists.

[cake_crumb]

If Chirac ever loses an election, he'll lose HIS immunity from prosecution too. Gotta love the French. Everyone thinks politicians are generally crooks, but in France, the only way for a crook to protect himself from prosecution is to become a politician.

[backhoe]

Click this picture:

[Darksheare]

They should call it the oil for weapons program..

[yonif]

Palestinians attacking the Sderot settlement

Sderot is not a "settlement," it is a city.

[Cornpone]

I stand corrected...it was dinner time and I was in a hurry..

[M. Peach]

Can anyone tell me why the White House never brings this up as the reason why we were not able to get coalition help? Even Cheney didn't mention it the other night.

[Maigret]

Will this make the MSM?

No, you don't understand there are no liberal leftist scandals, so the UN can do whatever it wants to whomever it wants and only FOX news will do a story on it. And then they'll be decried as biased.

From Sandy Berger stuffing classified docs down his drawers or in his socks, to the UN pillaging and plundering, to the Clintons crimes, just remember, pass on by folks, there is nothing to be seen here.

[Cornpone]

"The (UN, added) agency’s chief, Peter Hansen, insists that the object was in fact a stretcher and has accused Israel of putting his staff at risk by spreading “falsehoods”. However, he has admitted that some of the UNRWA’s staff (most of whom are Palestinians) belong to Hamas. Mr Hansen argues that Hamas is a political group and that not all its members are active militants." Excerpt from The Economist Global Agenda Alert newsletter (email), 6 Oct 04.

[GailA]

MASTER LIST UN OIL/SEX FOOD SCANDALS

[TeleStraightShooter]

Will this make the MSM ?

It has.
1,070 Google news hits as of this posting

Click on the link below ..
... and see that number grow

Google News {"Oil for Food" cia OR Iraq OR UN}

The question is: What will the left-justified press make of it?
{probably merit it a placing on page a16.}

[True Capitalist]

bump