OIL FOR PALACES

By ANDREW APOSTOLOU Email Archives April 2, 2004 -- Saddam Hussein stole billions from the Iraqi people. What is now emerging is that the United Nations was his partner in crime - aiding and abetting him during the eight-year Oil-for-Food program. The status of any funds remaining in those accounts is in dispute - and the U.N. is balking at efforts to clarify things. It won't let anyone examine its books

After Saddam and his cronies, Russian and French contractors, and the French Bank Paribas in Paris, the main beneficiary of Oil-for-Food was the U.N. payroll. To make the program self-financing, the United Nations took its cut off the top - 2.2 percent of Iraqi oil sales for its administrative costs, plus 0.8 percent to pay for weapons inspections (in four of Oil-for-Food's eight years), allowing the United Nations to walk away with $1.9 billion of Iraqi oil money. U.N. staff employed by the Oil-for-Food program ballooned to 3,000, the largest single U.N. program in the world.

When Kofi Annan met Saddam Hussein in February 1998, he said that the Iraqi dictator was a man that "I can do business with." Although the United Nations supposedly kept an eye on the price at which Saddam sold Iraqi oil, in reality the Iraqi strongman set the prices and forced his customers to pay him kickbacks. The Iraqi regime then used this money to bribe and buy influence abroad.

Initially an attempt to alleviate the hardship of U.N. sanctions on Iraqis, Oil-for-Food raises troubling questions not only about the United Nations' competence, but its role in propping up Saddam's tyrannical regime. The program was theoretically designed to take Iraq's oil revenues out of Saddam's hands and use them for the benefit of the Iraqi people. The United Nations was to supervise the sale of Iraqi oil and then ensure that the oil money went for food and medicine, not tanks and mustard gas. But Saddam - with U.N. compliance, if not connivance - subverted all of those aims. His grip on Iraq was tightened, not loosened, while his monstrous sons rolled in U.N.-provided riches. Saddam built new palaces throughout the eight years of the program.........


Andrew Apostolou is director of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He has just returned from Iraq.

WHAT??? You mean there was actually corruption going on in Iraq? And other countries, too?? OH MY GAWD!! Who would ever thought such a thing? That's gotta be the biggest news since learning the moon isn't really made of cheese.

By the way, the article doesn't happen to mention what steps John Negroponty (American Ambassaduer to the UN) took to stop or prevent such despicable acts. Surely we must have taken some action since we're on such higher moral ground (the Executive Branch excluded, of course) than the rest of the world.

GH,

The point being the Libs wanted us to follow the UN re Iraq. Not much motivation on their part or the Russians and French to make things happen other than deals that benefit them.

Ahhh, I see. And I'm guessin' the entire Security Council was in on the charade, save the UK of course. And they did it all the while with no one suspecting a thing. Brilliant.

Pretty big leap there, don't ya think?

But considering the source is The National Review and The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, I'm not surprised. The FDD alone is a virtual Who's-Who of conservative war hawks.

GH,

Who had the biggest fit over taking action on the UN resolution to force Iraq to disarm? Russia and France followed by Germany then Kofi. This report is proving to be true and clearly helps in pointing to the fact that the libs do not get ,that the UN, Russia, France ,Germany and China do not have our best interest in mind when making global decisions. Therefore removing the unilateral objection you liberals have against the war in Iraq. We were in it all along and never would have gotton any of their support .

KK,

We call the shots as a free economy and they know it. The only way that will change is if we fall they know this as well. They would support anything that would slow us down. Much like the other major league teams see the Yankees. One would be nieve to belive they have golbalizations interest at heart in their moves.