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July 25, 2006
Oil-for-food: It just keeps getting worse
During the seven years of the United Nation's oil-for-food debacle, $64.2 billion of Iraqi oil was exported while Saddam Hussein skimmed billions. He circumvented sanctions by smuggling oil to neighbors, including Turkey, Jordan and Syria and used the program to "buy influence" by rewarding supporters around the world with contracts to buy cheap Iraqi oil or supply Iraq with goods at inflated prices.
A (HT: CaptainsQuarters) shows that the UN had full knowledge and evidence of the Oil-For-Food program's corruption, but chose to do nothing about it:
An unidentified Swedish company informed the country's embassy in Amman, Jordan, in 2000 that Iraq was demanding 10 percent "fees" on all deals as a way to circumvent U.N. sanctions on Saddam's regime, according to a Swedish Foreign Ministry document published on the Web site of Swedish Radio.Why would the UN choose to overlook the well known and widespread corruption? The obvious and most likely answer is related to the benefit certain nations and individuals received as a result of an illicit parternership with the former Iraqi regime. Russia, France and Anon's son, to name a few.The document was sent from the embassy in Amman to the Foreign Ministry and Swedish delegation at the United Nations in December 2000, Swedish Radio said.
The document stated clearly that the extra fees violated U.N. sanctions. But it was "clear that an open Swedish engagement in this issue would negatively affect other Swedish business opportunities" in Iraq, it said.
Now the same organization that claimed to keep Saddam in check wants to push Israel aside and keep Hezbollah in check in Lebanon. Does anyone wonder why the Israelis show such great reluctance to accept that proposition?And he's right. The UN's problems are systemic and this latest evidence reveals a gross inability to keep member countries from exploiting corrupt governments for their own benefit.
Posted by tim at July 25, 2006 12:58 PM
