The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers: The List of 270

The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers ^

[rotstan]

The following report from MEMRI's Baghdad office is a translation of an article which appeared in the Iraqi daily Al-Mada,(1) which obtained lists of 270 companies, organizations, and individuals awarded allocations (vouchers) of crude oil by Saddam Hussein's regime. The beneficiaries reside in 50 countries: 16 Arab, 17 European, 9 Asian, and the rest from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Only a portion of the 270 recipients are listed and identified.

[Dog]

Brazil: The 8th of October Movement, a Brazilian Communist group, received 4.5 million barrels.

Is this a terror group?

[Dog]

Brazil: The 8th of October Movement, a Brazilian Communist group, received 4.5 million barrels.

Is this a terror group?

[Dog]

Uh OH.....

[arasina]

The Galloway one intrigues me since he so adamantly declared it was all a smear campaign:

April 23, 2003 (AP story)
A British lawmaker who vehemently opposed the US-led war on Iraq today denied a newspaper's claim he received money from Saddam Hussein's regime through the oil-for-food program.

George Galloway, an outspoken member of the governing Labour Party, said the London Telegraph's report was part of a "smear campaign" against opponents of the war.

"I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions," Galloway said in a statement issued in response to the story.

He later said he had started legal proceedings against the newspaper.

The chairman of the Labour Party said the party would investigate the "extremely serious" allegations.

The Daily Telegraph said its correspondent in Baghdad, David Blair, had seen a memo to Saddam from the Iraqi intelligence service saying Galloway had asked an Iraqi agent for a larger cut of Iraq's exports under the oil-for-food program.

The January 2000 memo said Galloway received between 10 and 15 cents from each of 3 million barrels of Iraqi oil a year, the newspaper said.

Under United Nations sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq was allowed to sell some oil to buy humanitarian supplies.

The newspaper reported that the memo said Galloway had asked for a bigger share of the oil income and for "exceptional" commercial contracts, and had entered into partnership with an Iraqi broker to sell oil on the international market.

The Telegraph, which devoted five pages to the story, said the memo was signed by the intelligence chief, but that the signature was illegible.

The newspaper said its reporter found the document and other files in Baghdad's looted Foreign Ministry.

In its Wednesday edition, the newspaper reproduced a memo allegedly written in response to the request by a senior aide to Saddam. It said Galloway had asked for "exceptional support which we cannot afford".

Galloway said the documents were forgeries or had been doctored and were part of a "smear campaign against those who stood against the illegal and bloody war on Iraq and against its occupation by foreign forces".

"I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one," Galloway's statement said.

[woodyinscc]

Where is the NYT's on this? I only mention them, because we all know the rest of them follow suit. This should be front page above the fold. Oh! I forgot this story is bad for the left.

[Shermy]

Shakir Al-Khafaji accompanied Bonior and McDermott to Baghdad. He is also the person who gave Scott Ritter at least $400,000 to make a documentary.

[Smogger]

I mean you gotta love this:

"However, the regime itself tarnished the moral and humane ethics of the international campaign to lift the unjust sanctions, because by the end of the day the sanctions did not harm it [the regime], but harmed our poor people and the middle class. We saw that whenever the international campaign to lift the sanctions got closer to its goals, the regime - by its behavior and insolence - shoved it again into a dark tunnel, and at the same time turned our country into a free-for-all richly loaded dining table, awaiting a stream of hearty eaters and obedient servants.

"One of the traits of our country's fascist regime is that it lacked decency and was always in need to use others in order to feel superior. Therefore, it corrupted even those who had good intentions and noble goals when defending the Iraqi people and trying to lift the siege imposed on it. The regime was versed only in the politics of the 'open wallet,' and therefore surrounded itself with people that it could co-opt and people who would panhandle for it, so that it could feel moral superiority over them.

and this...

"And if one happened to know some of the official Ba'athists, who did not hesitate - because of their rural values - to boast and to [assume] moral superiority, one would have heard a lot from them about the ever-increasing number of visitors to Iraq in recent years, and would have understood from them that those visitors who came to defend us also came to cash in the price for that. We can confirm this information because the Ba'athists themselves, in a moment of 'rural pompousness,' propagated the rumors about the Arab and foreign visitors. They mentioned some of the names listed here, among them George Galloway, member of the [British] Labor party.

"The case of Mr. Galloway is truly distressing. This man, who defended just Arab causes, became a loser as he got closer to the Iraqi regime. Galloway, who was banished from the party for this reason and who defended himself vehemently, and even attacked Tony Blair's and Bush's policies, will not be able - in my opinion - to refute Iraqi documents that incriminate him conclusively.

"In addition to the lists mentioned above, Al-Mada also obtained six requests from the executive director and the associate executive director of the Oil Marketing Company to the Oil Minister 'to approve the crude oil agreements.' All of them mentioned the name of Mr. Galloway, not as a party in the agreement, but as a recipient, since Mr. Galloway hides behind a company that does not carry his name nor his nationality.

Best Post on FR in weeks...

[arasina]

Well, well...what do we have here? Senator Kerry. Hmmm...

[muawiyah]

The bribe directed toward the Russian Orthodox church is rather easily explained ~ since no one can "get to" the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, you have to "get to" someone with whom he is engaged in a rather serious dialogue ~ AND ~ Lo and Behold, the Pope has been thrashing out issues with the Russian Orthodox (usually over ownership of buildings, mission rights, usual church stuff) ever since the fall of the USSR.

I do recall the Pope advising us all against a war in Iraq. Many chalked that up to misadvice from folks in Rome. Obviously we must add to that misadvice from negotiators in Moscow.

[Dog]

Now I remember that name...

[nopardons]

Holy cow! Great find.

[Shermy]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/605fgcob.asp?pg=2

".....Al-Khafaji first came to public notice after revelations that he gave former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter $400,000 to produce a film that criticized the United States for its role in the inspection process. Al-Khafaji, who is listed as a "senior executive producer" of the film, arranged meetings for Ritter with high-level officials in Saddam's government, a feat New York Times magazine writer Barry Bearak found "impressive." Ritter had previously been an outspoken critic of Saddam Hussein, and issued dire warnings about the status of the Iraqi dictator's weapons of mass destruction. His sudden flip--he is now a leading apologist for Saddam's regime--and revelations about Ritter's 2001 arrest for soliciting sex with minors have fueled speculation about the nature of his relationship with al-Khafaji.

Al-Khafaji has long claimed that he cares only about the Iraqi people, an assertion too preposterous even for Ritter, who told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in 2001 that his patron was "openly sympathetic with the regime in Baghdad." That stands to reason. The Falcon Trading Group, a company that al-Khafaji founded in 1993 in Johannesburg, South Africa, has done nearly $70 million of business with Saddam's regime.

Al-Khafaji told Baghdad Radio on June 14, 2000, that he hoped to arrange a delegation so that members of the U.S. Congress could "get acquainted with the Iraqi people's suffering as a result of the unjust embargo clamped on it." He got his wish two years later, when he accompanied Reps. Jim McDermott, Jim Thompson, and David Bonior to Baghdad last fall.

McDermott, in particular, caused quite a fuss when in a September 29 appearance on ABC's "This Week" from Baghdad, he claimed, "The president of the United States will lie to the American people in order to get us into this war." Moments later, despite 12 years of evidence that the Iraqi regime had lied about its weapons program, McDermott said, "I think you have to take the Iraqis on their face value." ...

[Dog]

"And if one happened to know some of the official Ba'athists, who did not hesitate - because of their rural values - to boast and to [assume] moral superiority

What do you want to bet they are bragging even now to their American captors..

[Hun in the sun]

We are not on this list which is in question. Punkt.

Herr Rumsfeld`s pic, shaking hands with Saddam,
is still existing.

So what?

Wanna discuss moral in politics?

GO ON no prob

[DeepDish]

No mention of Dick Chaney and Halliburton means that there is no need to search the New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, and NPR for any stories about this. The story will be spiked as it comes down the birth canal.

[eyespysomething]

Good golly! Good job!

[Dog]

Things are going to mighty warm for Mr. Ritter..

[blackdog]

Pow! The Ritter link is just discovered. Laundered oil money.

This whole ugly disaster had better not be swept under the rug. For it's disclosure, prosecution,(especially tax fraud), and use in illustrating that the moral "No War" crowd were really just putting the rest of the world at risk in order to enrich themselves in cash and influence.

[blackdog]

I hope justice has prepared arrest warrants for every individual or front group on that list if they are on American soil.

[Dog]

You both need to start at the beginning and read this thread and follow the links and look at the excellent freeper research.