Oil For Food
posted in General |OIL FOR FOOD
What could be better — a post-Gulf War UN sponsored program that would allow the sale of Iraqi oil with the proceeds going for food for the hungry and needy Iraqi people. The UN at its best, right?? But people in powerful positions can be very clever and conniving. With the help of some his UN and European buddies, Saddam came up with a voucher program for the sale of the oil. The vouchers were given to some of Saddam's close buddies at the UN and in Western Europe (say, France?). The possessors of the vouchers could buy Iraqi oil at very cheap prices and then re-sell the oil on the world narkets at a much higher price — pocketing the difference. Well, not all of the difference, since some of the illicit profits were kicked back to Saddam for deposits in banks around the world. Even beyond the kickbacks, the voucher scheme created a lot of millionaires or made current millionairs a lot richer. No small change here, big bucks. Did the Iraqi people get some of the promised food? Sure, with what was left after the voucher looting. And right in the middle of this whole mess is Slimy Jacques Chirac (France) and some of his close allies and Kofi Annan (UN) whose son is directly involved.
The guy who is investigating this mess is Paul Volcker, an American with a no-nonsense, pull-no-punches reputation. The key, of course, is getting documentary evidence beyond what our troops have recovered in Baghdad (this really scares the French and Kofi). Volcker can do 3 things. A) issue a hard nosed report that identifies how the scheme worked, the names of voucher recipients , the beneficiaries of the skimming, the amounts of oil traded and the volume of dollars skimmed off the top. Left to his own devices, Mr. Volcker will do that if he gets the needed info. Then B) he might issue a comprehensive report condemning the whole scheme but stop short of identifying the voucher recipients/beneficiaries — or the foreign governments involved. And C) issue a report based on partial information that falls short of specific identification beyond Saddam and his inner circle. And this option would be dragged out for some time while searches for records (mysteriously missing) continues.See UN.
You can just here the buzzing in the UN halls — “Hey, if you guys want our cooperation and support in post war Iraq, tell the Americans to get off this Oil for Food issue. What's past is past — leave it alone. Pull off the bloodhounds”. Now, do you think that Slimy Jacque Chirac would do something like that to save the fannies of his buddies and co-conspirators?
There were several strong reasons why France did not want to see the fall of Saddam, and the oil for food program clearly is one of them. And that goes a long way toward explaining why they sand-bagged the US in the UN 2 years ago.
When Kerry was asked if the Oil for Food investigation should continue, he said, “Yes and No”.