[LBKQ]

Pardon my ignorance, but can someone simply 'splain the Oil-For-Food scam to me?

[Common Tator]

THE UN issued tickets for amounts of oil. This documentation would allow ships to load Iraqi oil and then pass through our blockaid. With out the documentation no oil could be shipped from Iraq. The money from the oil was to be used by the UN for food and medicine for the Iraqi people.

In other words the UN was to get the money for Iraqi oil sold up to a limit (x barrels a day) and then disburse it for Humanitarian aid in Iraq.

In fact the tickets were issued at way below market value. They were supposed to be issued for market value. But by buying Iraqi oil at way below market price the ticket holder could then make a killing on the oil... Lets say buy it at $15 a barrel and sell it for the market price of $25 a barrel.

For going along with the scam, Saddam would get 5 dollars of the difference between $15 dolars paid and the $25 dollars sale price. The UN buddie would get 5 bucks for his trouble for selling the oil.

Sometimes it is believed that all the money was split between Saddam and his UN buddies. In those cases the sick and hungery in Iraq got nothing from the sale.

It was a nice big UN scam done at the expense of the Iraqi people by their good friends at the UN.