Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/21/2003 4:53:09 PM PDT by MadIvan
For years, Saddam Hussein abused the United Nations oil-for-food programme to fund Iraq's own illegal activities and reward the regime's favoured friends.
The embargo may have been designed to "contain" Saddam, but several loopholes allowed him to earn billions of pounds in illegal revenues through oil sales.
The papers found in Baghdad suggest that George Galloway, through his associates, was granted two kinds of deal.
The first was the right to buy Iraq's oil, under the oil-for-food programme, at concessionary prices and sell it on at a profit. The second was to sell food and perhaps other civilian supplies to Iraq.
Under the oil-for-food terms, the Iraqi regime had to sell its oil under international supervision, but could choose the middlemen it dealt with. Those intermediaries paid into a UN account for the oil at prices agreed by Baghdad, retaining their profits or secretly returning part of them to the regime.
The money in the UN account funded Iraqi imports, scrutinised by a UN committee. British and American officials tried to stop Baghdad from importing military and "dual-use" items.
The purpose of the system was to deny Saddam control of his finances - roughly £7 billion a year in oil exports - to stop him re-equipping his military or developing weapons of mass destruction.
However, according to Western estimates, gaps in the system allowed him to rake in nearly £3 billion last year alone in illegal revenues. About £500 million of this is said to have been raised through intermediaries - mostly Russian traders.
The second major loophole was the smuggling of oil through neighbouring countries outside UN supervision - to Turkey, Jordan and Iran and, latterly, the "testing" of an oil pipeline to Syria. This amounted to about 400,000 barrels per day, raising about £2.3 billion a year.
Even where the deals were legal, Saddam used the system to win support. The choice of contractors to supply anything from spare parts for the oil industry to wheat under the oil-for-food programme - and the prices set - was entirely up to the Iraqi regime. Favoured countries or traders could make handsome profits.
The 12-year-old embargo was widely blamed for causing the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of people through disease and malnutrition.
The oil-for-food programme, set up in 1995, was an attempt to alleviate the suffering. Under it, the Iraqi regime had access to only 59 per cent of its oil revenues.
Thirteen per cent was used by the UN to distribute humanitarian supplies to the northern Kurdish enclaves.
Three per cent was taken to pay for the administration of the oil-for-food programme and the UN weapons inspectors. The biggest deduction - 25 per cent - was paid to compensate Kuwait for Iraq's invasion in 1990.
Regards, Ivan
Oil, Food and a Whole Lot of Questions
Kofi Annandersen: Enron-style accounting at the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program
In fact, now that I think about it, I brought up this matter with our representative, J.D. Hayworth, at a public meeting. He didn't want to talk about the U.N. His final(and short for a change)say was that he believed "the U.N. had a place..."
Those were the Clinton years, & I'd bet ol' J.D. has changed his tune this year.
I dread the thought of that guy ever becoming governor of Arizona. He should go back to sports casting where blowhards are appreciated.
Oh what fun the US will have with the documentation that resides within its walls. :)
Personally I believe the UN has been operating a massive and illegal multi-billion dollar slush fund. Tell the UN to shove it.
This report listed the food "items" which indluded an Olympic Stadium. Bus and training facility for the Olympic atheletes (including a torturetorium I bet!). Then there was the TV Studio with a complete Cartoon production facility.
Yeah! UN uber alles!
Was there ever a doubt in any of our minds?
Here's the best part: The money is all in French banks.
The oil for palaces fund was under the supervision of Coffee Anal with accounting handled by the French.
W. has shut down the cash cow and to their horrow others in the neighborhood fear for their plush living.
Hopefully Gen. Franks will let the people of Iraq tour the opulent palaces of their former dictator.
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