Jolie Rouge

by Gary D. Halbert
May 25, 2004

This week, we look into the United Nations’ (UN) “Oil-for-Food” program in Iraq, which was established after the Gulf War in 1991 and was designed to allow Iraq to sell enough oil to meet the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people, such as food, medical supplies, essential services, etc. The program was never intended to line the pockets of Saddam or benefit his cronies around the world, which sadly is exactly what it did for many years.

As with many UN programs, Oil-For-Food was poorly structured, thus allowing for massive abuses. The nature and scope of these abuses were so grievous and so widespread that the Oil-For-Food program may well have been the greatest financial scandal of the last 100 years. This incredibly huge scam crosses borders, religions and political ideologies, uniting those involved in plain and simple greed.

What’s most stunning are recent revelations exposing those at the UN and elsewhere who were primarily responsible for the abuses, and who participated in this massive fraud. In short, many in the UN administrative infrastructure and many of its members have been blatantly corrupt, as have some of our so-called “allies” around the world.

This scandal also brings to light the UN’s outrageous hypocrisy and duplicity as they loudly criticized our efforts in the War on Terror as inhumane, yet at the same time they were skimming millions from the Oil-for-Food program and thereby depriving the Iraqi people of needed food and medicine.

Is it any wonder there was such opposition to the US invasion of Iraq?

No, it was simply bad for business!


Why do you need to know about this?

First, because there is a massive cover-up underway at the UN.

Second, the liberal media is cooperating as always. What have you heard from them about the Oil-For-Food scandal recently?

Third, it is also worth mentioning that John Kerry has featured the UN in many of his foreign policy proposals, including his desire to have the UN put in charge of the administration of Iraq.

As more and more evidence comes to light, that would be like allowing the fox to guard the hen house. Finally, if all the facts in this scandal actually see the light of day, the UN will emerge discredited, weakened, and very possibly, broken. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.


The U.N. Exposed

A recent Rasmussen survey showed that only 38% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the UN, while 44% have an unfavorable opinion. Actually, these favorable/unfavorable numbers were quite surprising to the media, but probably not to most of you reading this. The unfavorable numbers are almost certain to rise in the near future as the scathing details of the Oil-For-Food scandal are exposed.

If you are surprised by the recent revelations about Oil-For-Food, you really shouldn’t be. After all, the UN is comprised in large part of representatives of small, poor Third World nations, many of which are inherently corrupt and anti-American. The fact that their ingrained dishonesty and corruption would spill over into the UN really shouldn’t surprise anyone. Nor should it surprise us that the UN has had a history of anti-American activity.

In 2001, for example, the United States was removed from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) for the first time since 1947 in favor of Sudan, one of the world’s absolute worst human rights violators. By the way, Sudan was recently granted another term on that commission! This is only one of many such examples, so it’s not a stretch to see how a UN organization could be so corrupt.

When it was conceived in April of 1995, the Oil-For-Food program was intended to be a humanitarian mechanism. Prior to its full implementation in 1997, Iraq was subject to extremely stiff trade sanctions resulting from Saddam’s defiance of UN weapons inspectors. The Oil-For-Food program provided basic relief in the form of limited crude sales. In the beginning, the program was well intentioned, seeking to bring relief in the form of food and medical supplies to the Iraqi people. After all, it didn’t seem fair to punish the citizens of Iraq for the crimes of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime.

Unfortunately, this program rapidly turned into a complicated kickback scam that allowed Saddam to bribe political figures and institutions around the world, as well as fuel his notoriously evil rule. From information discovered to-date, it appears that the tangled web of deceit extended beyond the UN and the governing body of the Oil-For-Food program itself, but also may include several of our so-called “allies,” as you will read below.


[b]How This Information Came to Light

The corruption in the Oil-For-Food program had long been suspected. A June 20, 2003 article by Marc Perelman on The Forward Internet website discussed doubts about the Oil-For-Food program and suggested that some of the money was being used to fund terrorism (more about this later). In part, Perelman said:
Concrete evidence came to light in December of 2003. While advising the Iraqi Governing Council, Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the UK Chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, sent an urgent fax to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Mr. Hankes-Drielsma was shown various documents at the Iraqi Oil Ministry that strongly indicated major abuses in the Oil-For-Food program. These documents reflected both individuals and institutions that Saddam rewarded with allocations of Iraqi oil. The names were compiled into a spreadsheet at the request of the Iraqi Governing Council. Some of the names have been published in Al Mada, an Iraqi daily paper, and will likely appear soon in more mainstream sources.


How The Scam Worked

From its inception, the Oil-for-Food program was riddled with flaws and loopholes, opening the door for the grievous abuses that followed. One of the major flaws was that Saddam Hussein was given the right to 1) select the parties who would buy the Iraqi oil, and 2) select the suppliers of the humanitarian aid. Hussein was also allowed to set the price at which Iraqi oil would be sold.

All the seeds for a giant scandal were put into place. Hussein had the ability to determine with whom to deal and set the official price of Iraqi oil. Furthermore, the rules did not force Hussein to deal directly with the end-users; instead, he was allowed to sell oil through middlemen. For political purposes, Hussein would sell the oil at a discount to the middlemen and they, in turn, sold it to the end-users at market prices. Nice work if you can get it!

Another flaw in the program was that all deals were confidential between Hussein and the UN. Under this arrangement, the UN was not to examine the contracts for Iraqi oil except between the Iraqi Oil Ministry and the first purchaser. The story is that the UN had no idea the middlemen were adding surcharges to the contracts awarded them by Saddam, and therefore they went totally unnoticed by the UN. Yeah, right!

In one alleged example, UN Oil-For-Food administrator Benon Sevan was granted an allocation of 7.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil, on which he could expect to make a $3.5 million profit. Not a bad take for an international bureaucrat!


The US General Accounting Office estimates Hussein skimmed as much as $10 billion from a total of $67 billion that flowed through the program. It all went either directly to Hussein personally, or to supporters of the regime. By bribing UN officials and foreign dignitaries, Hussein also guaranteed their silence as he used money for purposes other than the humanitarian aid for which it was designed. The UN also looked the other way when Hussein sold oil to other countries in excess of the amounts allowed by the Oil-For-Food program.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Who’s On The List?

The names and institutions on this list – that benefited greatly from the Oil-For-Food program - are so numerous and shocking that when they are all confirmed, this could be the greatest financial scandal in history – if in fact it is fully reported. The documents are still being translated from Arabic, a slow and difficult process. What we know now is that the list spans at least 50 countries.

When the list is taken in total, three obvious favorites emerge. At the top of the list is RUSSIA, which is not really a surprise. The Russians have had a vested interest in Iraqi oil production for nearly 15 years. There are four pages of entries detailing voucher recipients in Russia that total over one BILLION barrels of crude. On the Russian side, the notable recipients include the 'Director' of the Russian President’s office, other prominent Russian politicians and even the Russian Orthodox Church (why, how?).

Admittedly, Hussein owed the Russians tens of billions of dollars in loans, so it is not hard to see why the Russians would try to get some of their money back, even if through questionable or illegal means. Yet as the scandal is sorted out, it looks like much of the Oil-For-Food money may have simply lined the pockets of key Russian politicos to a great degree. This, of course, explains why the Russians opposed the war in Iraq from the very beginning.

Finishing strong in second place behind the Russians in the Oil-For-Food scandal is none other than our long-time “ally” FRANCE! France’s oil vouchers account for 150.8 million barrels of crude and notable recipients include French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Patrick Maughien, who is a close friend of Jacques Chirac and head of Soco International oil company, and former French Ambassador to the UN, Jean-Bernard Merimee.

Surprised? This clearly played heavily into French opposition to the War. For all their moral and diplomatic objections, this exposes the French as the smarmy and back-biting erstwhile allies they really are.



SYRIA comes in third in the voucher sweepstakes, again not a surprise, as they have long been allied with the Hussein regime. There are 14 names in the Syrian column accounting for 116.9 million barrels of crude. Syria’s motivations are plain, having been a hotbed of terror and anti-Americanism for years.


Outraged yet?

Wait, it gets better.

As noted above, Benon Sevan, the director of the Oil-for-Food program, is on the list. Yet even more notable is Kojo Annan, the son of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The internal audit conducted by the UN revealed that millions of dollars are unaccounted for. It devotes nearly 20 pages to the UN’s dealings with Cotecna, a Swiss firm awarded a $4.8 million contract for the Oil-for-Food program. Cotecna employed Kojo Annan as a consultant prior to making its bid for the contract. Sevan has so far denied all wrongdoing. He has refused to be interviewed and will not comment. Ditto for Kofi Annan and his son.

The names go on and on: the President of Indonesia, the PLO, a member of the British Parliament, and even rogue American ex-patriot financier Marc Rich. Needless to say this is a powder keg with global ramifications.


Oil For Food For Terrorism?

There has been, thus far, modest media attention on this scandal, with the exception of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. That’s not unusual at all considering that the media in general adore the UN and will be hesitant to report any negative news until the evidence becomes overwhelming.

Claudia Rosett of the Wall Street Journal quotes financial investigators as saying there are possible “terrorist connections” in the list of companies that did business under the Oil-for-Food program. She writes:

Quote:

"Included are a remnant of the defunct global criminal bank, BCCI, while another was close to the Taliban while bin Laden was on the rise in Afghanistan, and a third was linked to a bank in the Bahamas involved in Al Qaeda’s financial network; a fourth had a close connection to one of Saddam’s would-be nuclear bomb makers.”

Fred Gedrich, a Senior UN and Foreign Policy Analyst at Freedom Alliance, believes that
Could this be the clinching connection between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein? Quite possibly. Many conservatives already believe that there is sufficient evidence of a tie between the two. However, I’m sure that the liberals and mainstream press won’t believe there is a tie until they see a picture of Hussein handing a Publisher’s Clearinghouse-sized check to bin Laden.

Conclusion

Think about this for a minute. There was very little UN opposition to US military action in Afghanistan. But as we set our sights on Iraq, the protests began in earnest, even though Iraq had been openly defying UN resolutions for over a decade. Afghanistan was not bad for business, but Iraq was. Not only that, but US action in Iraq also carried the threat that the Oil-For-Food program would be discovered to be a sham.

I find it scarcely comprehensible that a world organization whose chief mandate is one of peace and humanitarian assistance has, through the actions of many of its membership and key administrators propped up a tyrant, oppressed an already poor people, defrauded the world and in the process, lined their pockets while either directly or indirectly suborning anti-Americanism and terrorism across the globe.

The UN has had anti-American tendencies for decades, but this blatant display is alarming. The UN has become a misguided echo chamber of bitter and corrupt Third World countries whose only chance at global influence is through the UN. It will hopefully be discovered that the UN is largely a criminal entity whose petty agendas are at odds on a global basis with freedom and democracy, and certainly anti-American.

We can only hope that as this scandal grows in intensity and visibility, the US can use this as an impetus to finally remove itself from the UN, and maybe even insist the UN relocate to somewhere else beyond our shores. But maybe that is just wishful thinking on my part and that of other conservatives. In lieu of that, it would be nice to see a suspension of US payments to the UN and at least an indefinite US ‘abstention’ from UN sponsored programs and activities. Maybe that, too, is just wishful thinking.

At the very least, there should be a massive shake-up at the UN with indictments, arrests, convictions, increased scrutiny and a great deal of public shame.



Very best regards,

Gary D. Halbert

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

Since this has a direct bearing on the character of those some of our "representatives" would like to oversee our Presidential elections


Funny -- I didn't hear about this on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX .....

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

Jolie Rouge

http://www.theunionleader.com/articl...?article=44204



things that make you go .."HMMMMMM"...

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

stresseater

I had a friend messenger me the link to this the last night and yes how terrible is it that this hasn't had any press time to speak of and yet it connects so many dots. Why did our typical allies not act on the many many years of sanctions? Because they were lining their pockets maybe. They sure didn't want us going in there and finding records. NOW maybe these people won't be forced to starve so that others get rich.

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**** The views and opinions stated by kids=stress are simply that. Views and opinions. They are not meant to slam anyone else or their views.To anyone whom I may have offended by this expression of my humble opinion, I hereby recognized and appologized to you publically.

Jolie Rouge

Report accuses officials of profiting from illicit Iraq oil sales

NEW YORK (AP) — Vivid allegations of widespread corruption at the U.N. oil-for-food program by the top U.S. arms inspector have added credibility to accusations the United Nations looked the other way while Saddam Hussein's government skimmed billions of dollars and offered kickbacks to European and Arab countries and officials.
The inspector's report implicates the top U.N. official overseeing the $60 billion program, accusing him of accepting bribes in the form of vouchers for Iraqi oil sales, and details Iraqi manipulation to illegally enrich Saddam's government and influence Security Council members.

The alleged schemes included an Iraqi system for allocating lucrative oil vouchers, which permitted recipients to purchase certain amounts of oil at a profit, according to the report issued Wednesday by Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group.

He said 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 parts for missile systems. The report estimates Saddam generated $10.9 billion in hard currency through illicit means from 1990 to 2003 during the entire sanctions period.

It also said the vouchers "provided Saddam with a useful method of rewarding countries, organizations and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq to subvert U.N. sanctions."

Responding to the report, a high-ranking Republican congressman demanded the United Nation's independent inquiry speed up its timetable and release documents to Congressional investigators.

"The world cannot wait years for answers to the growing body of evidence implicating senior U.N. officials in outright corruption," said Rep. Henry Hyde, who chairs the House International Relations Committee. "Immediate public access to U.N. internal audits and other documents — thus far denied to members of the Security Council — is imperative if the world body is to escape further damage to its credibility as a result of this grossly mismanaged program."

Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April appointed former Fed chairman Paul Volcker to lead an independent investigation and he has said his committee will not deliver a report before mid-2005. Volcker has refused to share with Congress documents for their probes, including 55 internal audits of the oil-for-food program produced by the United Nations.

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

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said refused comment on "any specific allegation against Mr. Sevan or anyone else."

"This is in the hands of Paul Volcker," he added. "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."

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

Zhirinovsky denied the allegations. "I never took a drop (of oil), or a single dollar from Iraq or from any other country. I have never dealt with oil," Russia's Interfax news agency cited Zhirinovsky as saying Thursday. "I do not care what (bribes) someone might have received. I personally gained nothing."

Zhirinovsky has visited Iraq frequently and called for increased trade between the two countries. The oil companies mentioned included top Russian producers Yukos and Lukoil. Company officials could not immediately be reached to comment on the allegations.

In France, Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous counseled caution. "It is important to assure oneself very precisely on the veracity of this information," he said. "We understand that these accusations against companies and individuals were not verified either with the people themselves or with the authorities of the countries concerned."

Marty Natalegawa, a spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry said: "There is no credence to these allegations. It's a fact that we took part in the oil for food program, but this notion of vouchers is far fetched. There were no dealings other than the oil for food."

The names of American companies and individuals who may have been involved in oil deals weren't released because of U.S. privacy laws, the report said.

The program was designed to allow limited oil sales to pay for humanitarian goods.

The governments of Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt also did a brisk illicit oil trade with Iraq — more than $8 billion from 1991 until 2003, the report said: "These governments were full parties to all aspects of Iraq's unauthorized oil exports and imports."

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.


http://yahoo.usatoday.com/news/world...od_x.htm?csp=1

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

kvmj

American companies are involved in this too. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6194795/

I think the fact that most of our allies to join the invasion of Iraq is that they did not find the "evidence" credible. And, what do you know? They were absolutely right!

LuvBigRip

WASHINGTON - Enriched with billions of dollars raised by exploiting the U.N. oil-for-food program, Saddam Hussein spent heavily on arms imports starting in 1999, finding six governments and private companies from a dozen other nations that were willing to ignore sanctions prohibiting arms sales, the report by the top American arms inspector for Iraq has found.

The purchases, which included components of long-range missiles, spare parts for tanks and night-vision equipment, were not enough to allow Iraq to significantly rebuild its conventional military or create a viable chemical, biological or nuclear weapons program, according to the report by the inspector, Charles A. Duelfer, which was released Wednesday.

But the relative ease with which Saddam was able to buy weapons-working directly with governments in Syria, Belarus, Yemen, North Korea, the former Yugoslavia and possibly Russia, as well as with private companies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East - is documented in extraordinary detail, including repeated visits by government officials and arms merchants to Iraq and complicated schemes to disguise illegal shipments to Iraq.

"Prohibited goods and weapons were being shipped into Iraq with virtually no problem," says the report. "Indeed, Iraq was designing missile systems with the assumption that sanctioned material would be readily available."

The report suggests that Saddam was justified when, speaking at a gathering of leaders of the Iraqi armed forces in January 2000, he boasted that despite efforts by the United States and the United Nations to isolate Iraq, he would still be able to buy just about whatever he wanted.

"We have said with certainly that the embargo will not be lifted by a Security Council resolution, but will corrode by itself," Saddam said in the speech, a remark that is quoted on the cover of the chapter in Duelfer's report that details the ineffectiveness of the embargo.

The report is replete with names, dates and documents detailing negotiations over arms purchases and technical advice, which continued until just days before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

One Iraqi memo from 2000 informed military officials in Baghdad that the deputy general manager of the French company Sofema, a military-component marketer, would be visiting and bringing a company catalog so that they can "discuss your needs with him."

President Bush, speaking to reporters Thursday on the South Lawn of the White House, said the report demonstrated that Iraq had been determined to illegally rebuild its military.

"Saddam was systematically gaming the system, using the U.N. oil-for-food program to try to influence countries and companies in an effort to undermine sanctions," he said.

The report raises fundamental questions about the effectiveness of sanctions, a tool the United States has frequently used as a foreign-policy tool short of military action.

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The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

Jolie Rouge

Oil-for-Food Probe Includes Annan's Son
Thursday, October 14, 2004


NEW YORK — The Justice Department criminal probe into the U.N. Oil-for-Food program is focusing on several individuals, among them U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son, FOX News has learned.

Kojo Annan, the secretary-general’s son, was employed by a U.N. contractor that monitored food and medicine shipments that were flowing into Iraq as part of the multibillion-dollar program created in late 1996.

The Oil-for-Food program is now being probed by the Justice Department and Congress as a boondoggle that enriched Saddam Hussein and others. A report delivered last week by Charles Duelfer found that Saddam was able to "subvert" the $60 billion U.N. Oil-for-Food program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003.


The Justice Department investigation is looking into Kojo Annan’s conduct and determining whether Annan and others can be prosecuted for any crimes in the United States, according to law enforcement sources.

Kojo Annan was a consultant for Cotecna, a Swiss-based company, and helped manage the firm’s operations in Nigeria. He ended his assignment with the firm just months after it got a $4.8 million U.N. contract to monitor goods coming into Iraq.

At congressional hearings last week, Cotecna officials said they were unable to do their job properly because of Saddam's relentless manipulation of the U.N. system that let him bilk an estimated $11 billion from the program.

Cotecna issued a statement that in part states “at no time did Kojo Annan have anything to do with Cotecna’s operations relating to the United Nations or Iraq.” The company noted that Kojo Annan was hired a year before the Oil-for-Food program began and before his father was elected secretary-general.

FOX News was unable to locate Kojo Annan for comment but his father told reporters at the United Nations earlier this year that there was no connection. "Neither he nor I had anything to do with contracts for Cotecna. That was done in strict accordance with U.N. rules and financial regulations and these are also part of the issues that the panel investigating this issue will look into,” Annan said April 28.

Another person under investigation is Samir Vincent, an American citizen who was born in Iraq. Vincent's name was listed in the CIA report released last week that cited the Oil-for-Food scandal extensively in its discussion of Saddam's ambitions as one of three U.S. citizens who were allowed to profit by selling Iraqi oil or the right to trade it.

The Duelfer report said that Vincent, a Virginia-based businessman, received about $4 million worth of Oil-for-Food vouchers over four years. In a faxed statement to FOX News, Vincent said it was his company, Phoenix International, which received oil vouchers legally under the program.

In 2000, Vincent led Iraqi religious leaders on a tour of the United States to push for an end to sanctions against Saddam. Among the people who the group met with was former President Jimmy Carter.

The Justice probe, centered in the Southern District of New York, is considered a full investigation, in other words it has gone on far beyond an initial inquiry. It has been going on for several months, sources said, but there is no indication whether prosecutors plan to seek any indictments.

Besides the Justice Department investigation, committees in the House and the Senate are also examining what happened with Oil-for-Food. Plus, the United Nations has appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to lead its own independent investigation.

The scandal also is spilling over the campaign trail. Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney began to cite Oil-for-Food last week as another reason why the decision to go to war with Iraq was the right move.


FOX News' Eric Shawn, Jonathan Wachtel, Anna Persky and Per Carlson contributed to this report.



www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135503,00.html

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

kvmj

The French Ambassador has responded:

To the Editor:

Re "Duelfer to France: J'accuse!" (column, Oct. 13): William Safire reports that I and my colleague, the French ambassador to the United Nations, have reacted strongly to allegations in the Duelfer report on relations between French companies or individuals and the former Iraqi regime. But Mr. Safire seems not to understand the reasons for our reactions and, to the contrary, appears to be taking for granted unverified accusations and preposterous conclusions.

The allegations in the report have not been verified, and individuals and companies that were named were not given a chance to have their denials mentioned in the report. Their rights were therefore not protected, contrary to those of American individuals and companies, whose names were not made public until they were later leaked to the press.

Furthermore, I cannot accept innuendo implying that France's vote in the Security Council was "bought off." The reasons for my country's opposition to the invasion of Iraq are well known: there was no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11; and questions and doubts about Iraqi stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction could be clarified through United Nations inspections and didn't constitute an imminent threat to the security of the West.

To that extent, the other conclusions of Charles A. Duelfer's report support France's position. I wonder why Mr. Safire chose to remain silent on this part of the report.

Jean-David Levitte
Ambassador of France
Washington, Oct. 13, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/op...l15france.html

Jolie Rouge

Saddam Abused Oil-For-Food Program
[i]By DESMOND BUTLER [/ii]]

NEW YORK (AP) - Interviews with dozens of former and current Iraqi officials by congressional investigators have produced new evidence that Saddam Hussein micromanaged business deals under the U.N. oil-for-food program to maximize political influence with important foreign governments like Russia and neighboring Arab states.

The Iraqi officials, who were flown outside of Iraq for their own safety during the interviews, provided a list of foreign companies favored by Saddam and his top lieutenants for import contracts under the U.N. program. They also revealed a parallel blacklist of companies that the then-Iraq leader disqualified from getting deals, investigators told The Associated Press.


The precaution of redoubled secrecy comes after an Iraqi official involved in the oil-for-food investigation of corruption died in a car bombing in late June after speaking with investigators from the House International Relations Committee. The official, Ehsan Karim, who headed the Iraqi Finance Ministry's audit board, was interviewed in Amman, Jordan, on May 21.

The Iraqi officials also helped investigators identify Iraqi front companies, which operated abroad to solicit and process alleged bribes from foreign companies and to help facilitate imports for the Iraqi government, including dual-use military goods such as vehicles.

The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to permit the former Iraqi government to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exception to U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

One of the documents, known as ``the exempt list'' and obtained by AP from congressional investigators at the House International Relations Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., catalogues companies personally approved by Saddam and top lieutenants to circumvent Iraqi regulations to sign deals. The list contains hundreds of names of companies from more than two dozen countries.

No French, Chinese or American companies are on the list, but more than 280 Russian and 100 Saudi companies account for well over half of the list. The investigator who provided the document to AP said Congress might not have the full list.

Earlier this month, the top U.S. arms inspector, Charles Duelfer, published a report that listed foreign companies and individuals who had received vouchers for oil contracts under the U.N. program from the former Iraqi government. The report said Saddam himself approved companies.

Duelfer's report alleged that Saddam's government had used the oil vouchers to both solicit kickbacks and to reward countries and individuals willing to cooperate with Iraq's political goals. Companies and individuals from Russia, France and China dominated the list.

Saddam was able to ``subvert'' the $60 billion U.N. oil-for-food program to generate an estimated $1.7 billion in revenue outside U.N. control from 1997-2003, the Duelfer report said. In addition to oil-for-food schemes, Iraq brought in over $8 billion in illicit oil deals with Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Egypt through smuggling or illegal pumping through pipelines during the full period that sanctions were in place, the report added.

But the new lists obtained by AP of both companies favored and spurned by the Iraqi government are a more overt illustration of Saddam's manipulation of the program. One investigator described the exempt list as the equivalent of the list in Duelfer's report of oil voucher recipients, but in this case for goods imported under the U.N. program. ``Until now, it had been thought that only vouchers for oil were handed out, but due to disclosures by Iraqi officials from the Ministry of Trade, we now understand that the practice was spread even further,'' said the investigator, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Companies on Saddam's special lists got vouchers giving them priority for deals in humanitarian goods under oil-for-food, or to act as middlemen for companies providing goods. Some Iraqi officials confirmed the lists were crafted to reward companies from countries supporting Iraqi political goals, especially the lifting of U.N. sanctions, investigators said. ``These lists illustrate how Saddam Hussein cynically manipulated and corrupted the oil-for-food program,'' said Hyde. ``The fact, disclosed in the Duelfer report, that some countries based their Iraq policies on these corrupt practices is shameful.''

The exempt list came from an official at the Iraqi Ministry of Trade and was authenticated separately by over a dozen current and former Iraqi officials, investigators said. The official told investigators in Amman that names could be placed on this list by Saddam through his secretary, Abdel Hamoud, by Iraqi Vice-President Taha Ramadan, or Hussein's sons Oday and Qusay, according to notes of the interviews obtained by AP. ``Many foreign delegations were coming to Baghdad by plane with businessmen and sometimes even artists,'' the official told investigators, according to other notes that were read to AP. ``They broke sanctions laws and spread propaganda then they would go to the ministry of trade. Anyone who could agree to a contract for any item at a set price would get a voucher.''


Another official explained that Saddam and others sometimes asked that foreign delegations bring favorite artists with them for entertainment. He alleged that Saddam granted vouchers to a prominent Egyptian actress, called Raghda, whose picture he kept in his bedroom.

Iraqi officials said that as many as 3,000 to 4,500 contracts or about 10 to 15 percent of all deals for importing goods through the U.N. program were granted to companies on the exempt list. The list includes numerous large Russian oil companies - whose names also appear on the oil vouchers list published in Duelfer's report - including Gazprom, Lukoil and Tatneft. In the past, Russian companies have denied any wrongdoing in the oil-for-food program.


A handful of obscure companies from Western countries including Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Italy and Switzerland appear on the list. Over 250 companies appear on Saddam's blacklist, obtained from an Iraqi Health Ministry official, according to congressional investigators. The document also details reasons the companies lost favor with the Iraqi government. Dozens of the companies are blasted for ``dealing with the Zionist entity,'' apparently referring to Israel.

One contract in English obtained by AP from investigators required companies given deals with the Iraqi government to sign a pledge that says, ``We hereby confirm our commitment and pledge not to deal with Israel.''

American companies Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett-Packard Co., and Eli Lilly and Co., make the list for this reason and Agilent Technologies Inc. - which was spun off from Hewlett-Packard - is accused by Vice President Ramadan of changing its name from Hewlett-Packard to ``enter into Israel,'' according to the document.

Lukoil, which reportedly clashed with Baghdad after refusing to break sanctions to begin development of an Iraqi oil field, is the only company to make the oil voucher list, the exempt list and the blacklist. Its entry onto the blacklist is dated October 2002. In December 2002, Iraq announced the cancelation of a $3.7 billion contract with Lukoil to develop the oil field.


10/23/04 21:39


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...66.htm&sc=1333

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