AP reports on the oil-for-food scandal
There's an AP article detailing some of the oil-for-food scandal revelations (Hat tip to Joe Gandelman). The AP article describes three lists: the oil voucher list, those companies and individuals who got vouchers good for oil and exchangeable for cash, the exempt list, those companies who automatically got deals without going through the usual approval process Iraq used, and the blacklist, companies whom Saddam refused to deal with, often because they dealt with Israel. From the article:
Anyone who's been following this can tell you that the oil-for-food scandal has been covered in great detail by Claudia Rosett. The basic idea is that Saddam was allowing companies to overcharge him by 10% for what they were supplying if they kicked back a portion of their profits directly to him. Aside from this, there's the sanctioned materials that were smuggled in through this program, oil vouchers used to buy political influence, and political blackmail made possible by being on the take. From Ms. Rosett's Senate testimony:
Much of this is covered in the Duelfer Report. In short, a lot of people were benefitting from the oil-for-food program, with the exception of the Iraqi people, the only ones who were supposed to benefit from it. A lot of this money bought Saddam political influence at the UN and in France, Germany, and Russia, the allies whom John Kerry is so assiduously courting. I think it's fair to say that their opposition to the Iraq war was not from humanitarian concerns. The real coalition of the bribed and coerced is emerging.
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."
Anyone who's been following this can tell you that the oil-for-food scandal has been covered in great detail by Claudia Rosett. The basic idea is that Saddam was allowing companies to overcharge him by 10% for what they were supplying if they kicked back a portion of their profits directly to him. Aside from this, there's the sanctioned materials that were smuggled in through this program, oil vouchers used to buy political influence, and political blackmail made possible by being on the take. From Ms. Rosett's Senate testimony:
It must also be kept in mind that once Saddam had done a tainted deal, delivered a bribe, received a kickback, given a gift of those now-infamous oil vouchers; he had the goods on the other party to the deal. Along with the graft came ample opportunity for blackmail, a danger to which the U.N. was also, apparently, indifferent. Very likely, Saddam's partners in graft had more to lose than he did — especially as the program proceeded, and Saddam's regime, having tested the U.N. envelope again and again, discovered it could game the system almost any way it chose. I refer you, for example, to the establishment in 1999 of the Dubai-based trading group, El Wasel & Babel, one of the UN-approved suppliers to Oil-for-Food, designated last Thursday by Treasury as a front company — engaged in procuring arms — for Saddam's own regime.
Much of this is covered in the Duelfer Report. In short, a lot of people were benefitting from the oil-for-food program, with the exception of the Iraqi people, the only ones who were supposed to benefit from it. A lot of this money bought Saddam political influence at the UN and in France, Germany, and Russia, the allies whom John Kerry is so assiduously courting. I think it's fair to say that their opposition to the Iraq war was not from humanitarian concerns. The real coalition of the bribed and coerced is emerging.
