"LastDance" wrote:

Charles Farley wrote:

The Washington Post
October 7, 2004; Page A01

Hussein Used Oil to Dilute Sanctions
Report Says He Gave Valuable Vouchers to Those Who Helped Iraq

By Robin Wright and Colum Lynch

Saddam Hussein made $11 billion in illegal income and eroded the
world's toughest economic embargo during his final years as Iraq's
leader through shrewd schemes to secretly buy off dozens of countries,
top foreign officials and major international figures, according to a
new report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector released yesterday.

Oil "vouchers" that could be resold for large profits were given to
officials including Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, French
Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and former Russian presidential
candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky as well as governments, companies and
influential individuals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the
report said.

Another recipient was Benon Sevan, the former top U.N. official in
charge of humanitarian relief. Sevan ran the former oil-for-food
program designed to benefit the Iraqi people in the face of economic
sanctions intended to cripple Saddam's regime, the report says.

Russia, France and China -- all permanent members of the U.N. Security
Council -- were the top three countries in which individuals,
companies or entities received the lucrative vouchers. Hussein's goal,
the report said, was to provide financial incentives so that these
nations would use their influence. "At a minimum, Saddam wanted to
divide the five permanent members and foment international public
support of Iraq at the U.N. and throughout the world by a savvy public
relations campaign and an extensive diplomatic effort," the report
said.

Hussein's effort to thwart the embargo and divide the nations that
supported it has long been known, but the Duelfer report reveals the
lengths to which he went in attempting to defy the United Nations. The
details could buttress Washington's contention that important players
were preventing the U.N. program from squeezing Saddam, forcing the
United States to launch a war to topple him.

The report notes that Indonesia's president was the recipient of a
voucher that allocated her 6 million barrels. The former French
interior minister received a voucher for 11 million barrels. The
Russian foreign ministry received a voucher for 55 million, while
Zhirinovsky got one for 53 million barrels and the Russian Communist
Party's voucher totaled 110 million barrels.

An Iraqi newspaper said earlier this year that Sevan, whose activities
are now under investigation by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A.
Volcker, received vouchers to purchase millions of barrels of Iraqi
crude through several companies. The Duelfer report says that Sevan
was allocated 13 million barrels of oil, of which 7.3 million were
cashed in.

Hussein's multi-pronged strategy also included secret deals with
neighboring countries to circumvent U.N. sanctions by smuggling oil,
which reaped profits for both sides, and illicit
government-to-government trade agreements. The subsequent success in
turn "emboldened" Hussein to pursue programs related to weapons of
mass destruction as well as conventional arms, the Duelfer report
says.

"Despite U.N. sanctions, many countries and companies engaged in
prohibited procurement with the Iraqi regime throughout the 1990s,
largely because of the profitability of such trade," Duelfer reported.
In turn, Hussein sought to make the embargo a "paper tiger," the
report says.

Companies in countries closely allied with the United States,
including France, Italy, India, Turkey, Jordan and Romania, may have
sold Hussein dual-purpose equipment that could be converted for
production of weapons of mass destruction.

Hussein survived the most comprehensive embargo ever imposed by
subverting the very U.N. program introduced in 1996 to help the Iraqi
people survive it.

The humanitarian program was to provide basic necessities for the
Iraqi people. But the former Iraqi dictator ordered his regime to come
up with an array of plans to sell oil under the table so he could
spend the money as he saw fit.

The number of countries and companies involved in the schemes to
undermine or challenge U.N. sanctions increased dramatically from the
time the oil-for-food program was introduced until Hussein's removal
from power last year, the report added.

The Duelfer report concludes that Baghdad exploited the program "to
give individuals and countries an economic stake in ending sanctions."
Hussein introduced a system of rewards for illegally dealing with
Baghdad, while also playing on international sympathy and
"successfully arguing its case that the sanctions were harming the
innocent."

The success of Hussein's regime in circumventing the U.N. embargo is
"grossly obvious," the report says.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13313-2004Oct6.html

George Bush, Finally they figured this out = HE IS A FRAUD

Non sequitur much?