Oil for GreedMore and more, it seems evident that despite the claims of the "No blood for oil" crowd, that only one side on this war profited from Iraq's war. It is the side of the
supposedly noble anti-war countries, Russia and France:
U.N. to Detail Kickbacks Paid for Iraq's Oil
By WARREN HOGE
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 26 - More than 4,500 companies took part in the United Nations oil-for-food program and more than half of them paid illegal surcharges and kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, according to the independent committee investigating the program.
The country with the most companies involved in the program was Russia, followed by France, the committee says in a report to be released Thursday. The inquiry was led by Paul A. Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.The report, or at least this summary from the Times is startlingly blunt about the effect of this on the Security Council:
Another investigator noted that in the years immediately preceding the program, smuggling of Iraqi oil in much larger amounts had been going on for years to the benefit of the economies of American allies, including Jordan and Turkey. In his last report, Mr. Volcker said this smuggling amounted to $10.99 billion.
This investigator suggested that this had a compromising effect on the Security Council's willingness to step in and stop the practice. "Three years, four years already, letting the oil flow into Jordan and Turkey, so now you're going to be very strict about this smaller volume of oil?" he asked. "Unlikely."Saddam's rigorous bookkeeping may be the undoing of all these people:
The committee said some companies had complained that the evidence against them was gathered in Iraq and was therefore not trustworthy. But a lead investigator said that in those cases where corroborating evidence was available, the Iraqi information turned out to be sound.
"Everybody down the line kept very meticulous records because Saddam told them, 'You get the surcharge from everybody,' " he said. "So they all wanted to document how they got the surcharge."Hat Tip:
The Astute BloggerThe Washington Post's
coverage is here:
The inquiry committee has also faulted Secretary General Kofi Annan, saying his son took advantage of his father's position to profit from the program, and it has criticized the U.N. Security Council for mismanaging the program.That's pretty mild. In fact, it's basically implied that the Security Council was corrupted.
