Text 5135, 136 rader
Skriven 2004-11-17 23:00:46 av Ed Connell (1:379/1.6)
   Kommentar till text 5100 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Re: Oil for palaces
===========================
Hey, Jeff.

 JB> WASHINGTON  Money from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program (search)
 JB> helped pay the families of Palestinian homicide bombers, the House
 JB> Committee on International Relations is expected to reveal Wednesday
 JB> during a hearing on corruption in the Iraqi relief program.

 JB> Investigators working for Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman
 JB> of the panel, are expected to say they have traced funds from former
 JB> Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's (search)kickback scheme through a
 JB> Jordanian bank and into the hands of families of bombers who attacked
 JB> Israeli citizens.

 JB> It has long been established that Saddam paid bounties of $15,000 to
 JB> $25,000 to the Palestinian families of the murderers. Hyde's committee
 JB> will reveal at the hearing that some of the reward money was deposited
 JB> from illegal profits Saddam made by demanding 10 percent kickbacks on
 JB> all the contracts of companies that did business with the U.N.'s
 JB> Oil-for-Food program.

 JB> Those funds were then deposited with other Iraqi money, such as
 JB> Jordanian Oil-for-Food oil payments, into the Central Bank of Iraq
 JB> account in the Rafidain Bank (search) in Amman, Jordan. The funds were
 JB> then transferred to another account in the bank controlled by Iraq's
 JB> ambassador to Jordan Sabah Yaseen (search). It was from Yaseen's
 JB> account that Saddam's officials would cut and hand out checks to the
 JB> homicide bombers' families, Hyde's investigators are expected to say.

 JB> Corruption Spreads Outward

 JB> As congressional inquiries continue into the scandal-ridden
 JB> Oil-for-Food program, more evidence has come to light revealing how
 JB> Saddam was able to funnel more than $21 billion away from the food and
 JB> medicine program into the pockets of criminals.

 JB> "In essence, the Hussein regime created a system of kickbacks, as we
 JB> have heard today, skimming schemes and smuggling operations to bilk the
 JB> international sanctions regime of all its potential value and profits,"
 JB> Juan Carlos Zarate, an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department,
 JB> told lawmakers on Monday.

 JB> "He used the implements of the state, the Central Bank, commercial
 JB> enterprises and his diplomatic and intelligence assets to help skirt
 JB> international restrictions. In some cases, he used this system to
 JB> attempt to procure weapons and other banned goods, all in an effort to
 JB> fortify his regime," Zarate said.

 JB> According to U.S. officials, the former Iraqi leader spread billions of
 JB> dollars around the globe, particularly targeting France, Russia and
 JB> China, all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (search).

 JB> While diplomats from those three nations deny they were bought off, and
 JB> U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) says he doesn't believe they
 JB> were, Saddam's oil voucher scheme was aimed at ending sanctions, and a
 JB> CIA report revealed that Saddam was very generous to his friends and
 JB> supporters.

 JB> According to U.S. investigators, Saddam was able to set up a system of
 JB> rewarding sympathizers and supporters with pieces of paper that
 JB> entitled them to sell allocations of Iraqi oil to real oil companies at
 JB> an instant profit, sometimes earning in the hundreds of thousands, or
 JB> even millions of dollars. Saddam allegedly even personally picked the
 JB> lucky recipients as a reward for their support.

 JB> Witnesses at the Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on
 JB> Investigations (search) told lawmakers Monday that Saddam got away with
 JB> the scam because the Security Council made the mistake of letting him
 JB> pick the buyers and sellers of Iraq's oil, which in effect let Saddam
 JB> nearly completely control the relief program.

 JB> Subcommittee chairman Norm Coleman of Minnesota suggested that a lot of
 JB> businesspeople wanted to play ball with Saddam, and cited the case of a
 JB> well-known multinational corporation, Weir Group (search), which sells
 JB> oil equipment. That company did $80 million worth of business under the
 JB> Oil-for-Food program but Coleman said the company inflated one big
 JB> contract by 30 percent and admitted it knew the extra money was going
 JB> to Saddam.

 JB> In another example, the Al Bashier Trading Company (search) was
 JB> apparently run directly by Saddam's regime, say officials. In that
 JB> situation, Saddam made money by selling items to himself. Al Bashier
 JB> allegedly secretly took the Oil-for-Food money to buy weapons.

 JB> In a different situation, Saddam also ran Corsin Financial Ltd.
 JB> (search), a front company whose money is now missing. Saddam presumably
 JB> grabbed the money and used it to pay for his palaces, bolster his
 JB> corrupt regime and go on a weapons-buying spree.

 JB> United Nations Keeps a Tight Lip

 JB> In essence, say investigators, Saddam relied on a sophisticated
 JB> worldwide financial network of both legitimate and shell companies to
 JB> earn billions in illegal profits. One official who allegedly received
 JB> such a voucher was the Oil-for-Food program's former director, Benon
 JB> Sevan (search). He has denied the allegation, but the Senate panel
 JB> wants to pull him in to discuss the accusations.

 JB> At the hearing, Charles Duelfer (search), who now heads the weapons
 JB> inspections team in Iraq, told Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking
 JB> Democrat on the investigations subcommittee, that he believes Sevan
 JB> likely did get the vouchers.

 JB> "The Iraqis firmly believe that," Duelfer said. "I would conclude with
 JB> high confidence from the data that the Iraqis provided, from all we
 JB> saw, that that happened."

 JB> Annan has promised Sevan will cooperate with the U.N.'s own
 JB> investigation, but it's not clear what Sevan would do if subpoenaed by
 JB> the Senate, and he could claim diplomatic immunity to avoid testifying
 JB> or even meeting with senators.

 JB> Coleman's subcommittee has also wanted to meet with U.N. officials to
 JB> discuss their Oil-for-Food audits. But the U.N.'s chief in-house
 JB> investigator, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker (search),
 JB> has refused to disclose information to any Senate panels, saying that
 JB> to do so now would hurt his investigative efforts.

 JB> Volcker claims that "partial and premature disclosures of sensitive
 JB> internal documents or demands for congressional appearances of U.N.
 JB> employees will be damaging to the pursuit of investigative leads, chill
 JB> participation of those called upon to cooperate, and risk misleading,
 JB> prejudicial and unfair impressions on institutional, personal and
 JB> member-state behavior."

But to hear some Democrats tell it -

   Saddam was not so bad
   The UN is good
   Bush ruined everything for the Iraqi people
   Bush is bad
   Hating Bush is good



--- Fidolook Lite FTN stub 
 * Origin: Procrastinate NOW, don't put it off for tomorro (1:379/1.6)