http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040219-090341-4308r.htm

Consumer countries have to strive to turn oil suppliers into what they
should be: commodity providers, not power peddlers corrupting global

systems, media and academia.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040219-090341-4308r.htm

Saddam's fan club

By Ariel Cohen

The latest revelations that the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used
oil sales under the U.N. oil-for-food program to buy friends and influence
policy around the world should turn on an alarm in Washington, New York, Paris
and other capitals. Saddam's influence buying is only a part of a broader
phenomenon. Other oil-producing countries are engaged in similar activities on
an even larger scale.
Several important lessons arise from discovery of Saddam's buddy list.
First, this is just the beginning: There are thousands of documents in Baghdad
that American and Iraqi intelligence officers need to catalog, translate,
analyze and investigate. The precedent — the Eastern German intelligence
service STASI archives, which exposed hundreds of spies in Europe and America.
Second, the U.N. may have done more damage than good in Iraq — and may do
so again. The U.N. oil-for-food officials knew about the global bribery effort
and did nothing to stop it. Moreover, it is possible the officials in that
august body facilitated and benefited from at least some of the transactions.
SNIP
Ariel Cohen is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. His expertise
is in international energy security.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040219-090341-4308r.htm

Saddam's fan club

By Ariel Cohen

The latest revelations that the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

oil sales under the U.N. oil-for-food program to buy friends and influence
policy around the world should turn on an alarm in Washington, New York,

and other capitals. Saddam's influence buying is only a part of a broader
phenomenon. Other oil-producing countries are engaged in similar

an even larger scale.
Several important lessons arise from discovery of Saddam's buddy list.
First, this is just the beginning: There are thousands of documents in

that American and Iraqi intelligence officers need to catalog, translate,
analyze and investigate. The precedent - the Eastern German intelligence
service STASI archives, which exposed hundreds of spies in Europe and

Second, the U.N. may have done more damage than good in Iraq - and may

so again. The U.N. oil-for-food officials knew about the global bribery

and did nothing to stop it. Moreover, it is possible the officials in that
august body facilitated and benefited from at least some of the

A key question is whether a "Mr. Sevan" who allegedly received oil

vouchers in Panama is the same person as the U.N. Assistant Secretary

Benon V. Sevan, who ran the oil-for-food program. So far, U.N. Secretary
General Koffi Annan has refused an internal investigation, and the U.N.
bureaucracy has stonewalled and resisted an external investigation of the
oil-for-food program.
This is not the first time the U.N. has bungled major policy

The U.N. aid effort in the West Bank and Gaza called United Nations Relief

Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) only

the refugee problem and has been thoroughly penetrated by Hamas and other
terrorist organizations.
Third, persistent rumors are worth checking. Stories about Saddam's

payola have been in circulation for years, with nobody investigating.

stories are in circulation about Saudi and Chinese influence-buying. It is

time the law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in the U.S. and Europe
cooperated in investigating.
The documents uncovered in Baghdad by the Iraqi Oil Ministry and

in Al Mada, an independent Iraqi newspaper, are a jackpot of embarrassing
information. Their veracity is confirmed by Naseer al-Chaderji, a senior

of the Iraqi Governing Counsel (IGC), and by Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the
British chairman of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and an adviser to

IGC.
The documents list dozens of organizations and individuals in more

countries who were instrumental in orchestrating pro-Saddam policies, and

to a spider web of allies, from the pro-Saddam British back-bencher Member

Parliament George Gallaway to President Jaques Chirac's friend Patrick

an oil trader, and to highly influential former French Interior Minister
Charles Pasqua, who has denied any connection to Iraq. While Bernarde

- France's ambassador to the United Nations - who is on Saddam's buddy
list, denied accusations, can banking details available in Baghdad

the French diplomat?
The list includes Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the

Socialist Party, the highly influential Russian Orthodox Church, Yasser
Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization and Jordanian Islamic radical

Layth Shbeilat. Some of those fingered have denied the accusations.

like Mr. Maugein, have announced they "did nothing wrong."
There are a few surprises on the list. The extent to which Russia

from doing business with Saddam is mind-boggling. While others received

millions of barrels, Russia got the lion's share of 1.3 billion barrels.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky's "Liberal Democratic Party" is listed as

whopping 80 million barrels. A senior official in that extremist party
complained to the author in a 2002 meeting at the Duma that Washington's
military action against Saddam would "destroy the most lucrative business"

ever had.
President Putin's United Russia party was equally well-oiled. Russian
politically influential oil companies received close to a billion barrels

market value of more than $20 billion. "Our Foreign Ministry is for sale

as the Russian oil companies are concerned. A department chief receives

$200 a month - you do the math," a Moscow-based Russian Middle Eastern

told me.
Many names and positions on the list require further investigation and
clarification: Who is the anonymous "director" of the Russian Presidential
Administration? The recently retired Alexander Voloshin, Mr. Putin's chief

staff, or a lower-level official, possibly still in place? Undeniably,

resistance to the war against Saddam was as implacable as it was shrill.
Did the millions of barrels earmarked for the "Ukrainian Social

Party" benefit President Leonid Kuchma's Chief of Staff Alexander

the leader of that party or go directly the president who allegedly sold

to Baghdad?
Just as Saddam's oily revenues corrupted presidential chancelleries

newsrooms, funds from other major Middle Eastern oil suppliers with

religious and political agendas may wreak even more havoc.
At stake is the integrity of the foreign policy process, which is

to, but often does not, reflect national interests - not the size of

in ministers' bank accounts. However, an ugly reality is emerging, one

should be investigated by U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.
Consumer countries have to strive to turn oil suppliers into what they
should be: commodity providers, not power peddlers corrupting global

systems, media and academia. National agendas should be set at the ballot

and in legislatures, not in desert tents. Global bribery may be as

the West as global terrorism. Saddam's buddy list is just the tip of the
iceberg.

Ariel Cohen is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. His

is in international energy security.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20040219-090341-4308r.htm

Saddam's fan club