NationStates Jolt Archive

Taken from the Financial Times, Tuesday November 16, 2004. Front Page

Saddam 'Reaped 21bn' by Subverting Sanctions
By Joshua Chaffin in Washington

Saddam Hussein's regime reaped $21.3bn in illegal revenues between 1991 and 2003 by subverting United Nations sanctions, a congressional panel has found.
. . .

Yesterday Norman Coleman, Republican Chairman of the Senate permanent sub-comittee on investigations expressed bewilderment that senior officials at the UN did not become aware of the scandal earlier.
. . .

"It's difficult for me to comprehend that the folks at the highest levels of the United Nations and its member nations did not know about this."
. . . .

Much of the revenue - $13.7bn - came from oil smuggled out of Iraq through Turkey, Jordan, and Syria, a practice that was well documented but largley ignored by western governments.


There you have it. What most people know - Saddam ignored UN resolutions and profited from them. And also what most people try to ignore. Saddam made most of his money by smuggling oil out of the country. The Western governments (US, UK, Western Europe) knew about it and did nothing.

Before anyone whines about how ineffectual the UN is and how the US should do whatever it wants, why don't we all indict ourselves for watching Saddam make money off oil smuggling (most likely to the US) and doing nothing about it?

Perhaps we should have stepped up and made a point that Western governments ignored Saddam's smuggling empires while he was profiting?

We went to war on the wrong premise. We needed something better than WMD's. If we could have cooked up something about human rights abuses, smuggling and something else this little war would be a lot easier to justify you know?

Perhaps we should have stepped up and made a point that Western governments ignored Saddam's smuggling empires while he was profiting?
Western governments, i.e... France.

Western governments, i.e... France.

The US, Canada, Great Britian, Germany . . .and so on. Stop trying to blame France, the US isn't exactly innocent here.

We also know that The Godfather was his favorite movie.

The US, Canada, Great Britian, Germany . . .and so on. Stop trying to blame France, the US isn't exactly innocent here.
Didn't you get the memo? The US is absolved no matter what. Cause their president talks with God. :rolleyes:

Yes, I think all of us know that Saddam was uber-corrupt. We also know that all the western governments are corrupt, so few surprises here.

We also know that The Godfather was his favorite movie.
Are you sure you're not thinking about the North Korean nutcase?

The US, Canada, Great Britian, Germany . . .and so on. Stop trying to blame France, the US isn't exactly innocent here.No... definitely France.
Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail. Wednesday’s hearing will focus on a French bank that handled most of the money for the program. An audit by a U.S. regulatory agency of a small sample of transactions out of the $60 billion U.N. escrow account managed by BNP-Paribas has raised serious questions concerning the bank’s compliance with U.S. money laundering laws, the investigators said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041116/ap_on_re_us/oil_for_food_investigation

Didn't you get the memo? The US is absolved no matter what. Cause their president talks with God. :rolleyes:

Oh whoops. Sorry, I forgot, we have divine providence. And we are protected by Jesus Magic (Manifest Dedstiny) :rolleyes:

It might have been a French bank, but the U.S. knew about it, and did nothing.

Yes, I think all of us know that Saddam was uber-corrupt. We also know that all the western governments are corrupt, so few surprises here.


Are you sure you're not thinking about the North Korean nutcase?
No. According to an in-depth MTV news special about the war in Iraq Saddam was a Godfather fan.

It might have been a French bank, but the U.S. knew about it, and did nothing. It was and the U.S. just found out about it, and they are doing something, hence the hearing. Picking you to bits isn't even fun, it's too easy - put up a bit of a fight at least.

Oh whoops. Sorry, I forgot, we have divine providence. And we are protected by Jesus Magic (Manifest Dedstiny) :rolleyes:

It might have been a French bank, but the U.S. knew about it, and did nothing.
It's weird. Anyone else who hears voices would end up in a padded cell.

No... definitely France.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041116/ap_on_re_us/oil_for_food_investigation

There were several large banks filtering money for the Nazi party in the US, including one who had Prescott Bush on the board. So what's your point?

I think the facts are clear that economic sanctions rarely work, and that our constant military strikes and weapons inspections were working.

Meh, I always knew Oil for Food was corrupt (it just screamed that out at me, for some reason)

Oh yeah there were plenty of reasons the government could've used to go into Iraq. Had they decided to say they were going in to remove saddam from power it would probably have been better, however we do kno that the wmds are there, after all it was the UK who sold them to him...

Oh yeah there were plenty of reasons the government could've used to go into Iraq. Had they decided to say they were going in to remove saddam from power it would probably have been better, however we do kno that the wmds are there, after all it was the UK who sold them to him...
only the uk?

Hmmm... US$21Bn. That's a lot of money that some company had to explain somehow. It will be interesting to know where that oil went, what companies transported it, how the money got to Saddam, how the oil companies accounted for the extra oil and the extra money movements, what banks where used to launder the money. I'm sure that in the end no one will know anything and they all were innocent bystanders, starting by the innocent US government, of course.

Same as the drug trade...

Covering it up is pretty simple. All that needs to be done is an alteration of a company's internal sources, match them up with reported goods, and, ta-da you now have extra product for sale that goes unreported into your profit margin. People have been doing it since commerce was created. For a government to do that is not much harder, the forgeries just occur on a larger level. All Saddam had to do was to alter his own records, then pay off the transport companies to do the same thing.

WHERE ARE THE WMD'S!!!
The lie far the oil war. Eat it, dirty neocons :upyours:

It was and the U.S. just found out about it, and they are doing something, hence the hearing. Picking you to bits isn't even fun, it's too easy - put up a bit of a fight at least.
Please allow me...

US for Oil Program (http://www.gulfwarvets.com/aiding.htm)
We aren't clean on this one, we just know how to use middlemen.
Of course this is from 2000, so it doesn't count in the revision of the week history of the Bush team.

The US, Canada, Great Britian, Germany . . .and so on. Stop trying to blame France, the US isn't exactly innocent here.
Actually if you had been paying attention you would know this is old news. The thing about Saddam is that he liked to keep lists. He kept lists of everyone he illegally dealed in oil with. There are very, very few US companies on that list, all of whom will be dealt with. On the other hand a great deal went to the govts. of France, China, Russia, and Germany. There were also various corporations in the UK and Germany that dealt illegally with Saddam as well. The final capstone is that there is almost a direct link to Kofi Annan, Secratary General of the UN. His name personally isn't on the papers, it's one of his cousins, but given how he's been stalling the independent investigation(not run by the US) it's almost certain he was directly involved in some way. Now remind me again why the US should give two shits about what the UN wants?

Actually if you had been paying attention you would know this is old news. The thing about Saddam is that he liked to keep lists. He kept lists of everyone he illegally dealed in oil with. There are very, very few US companies on that list, all of whom will be dealt with.

I'm sure they will be dealt with in the same manner Enron was. Do you have a link to this list? It would be nice to know exactly how many US companies are there who they are. It would alse be interesting to know who the other companies are and who sits on their board of directors and who owns them.

Yes the benefits gained by certain people throughout and after the war in Iraq can be used to say that the war was wrong. We got rid of an evil dictator, surely thats a good thing? Just becuase the government chose the wrong reasons to justify their actions, still doesnt mean that the other reasons that they chose not to use werent justified. I suppose it would help were george bush not such a tit.

Actually if you had been paying attention you would know this is old news. The thing about Saddam is that he liked to keep lists. He kept lists of everyone he illegally dealed in oil with. There are very, very few US companies on that list, all of whom will be dealt with. On the other hand a great deal went to the govts. of France, China, Russia, and Germany. There were also various corporations in the UK and Germany that dealt illegally with Saddam as well. The final capstone is that there is almost a direct link to Kofi Annan, Secratary General of the UN. His name personally isn't on the papers, it's one of his cousins, but given how he's been stalling the independent investigation(not run by the US) it's almost certain he was directly involved in some way. Now remind me again why the US should give two shits about what the UN wants?
Because, as per my previous post, the US uses the UN to do dirty business like this. The UN has always been a pawn of the US and now the spin is shrill about how the UN is anti-US.

I'm sure they will be dealt with in the same manner Enron was. Do you have a link to this list? It would be nice to know exactly how many US companies are there who they are. It would alse be interesting to know who the other companies are and who sits on their board of directors and who owns them.
A couple are listed in the Duelfer Report, there also was an Iraqi newspaper that published a big part of the list before the war. Dunno if any pics of it are floating around. Here's an older article on it. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040503-123158-1229r.htm . As for the list itself, I don't think it's been published, and if it has been I can't find it. And I was wrong before, it wasn't Kofi's cousin involved, it was his son.

Hmmm... US$21Bn. That's a lot of money that some company had to explain somehow. It will be interesting to know where that oil went, what companies transported it, how the money got to Saddam, how the oil companies accounted for the extra oil and the extra money movements, what banks where used to launder the money. I'm sure that in the end no one will know anything and they all were innocent bystanders, starting by the innocent US government, of course.

Same as the drug trade...


So far the money trail looks like much of the money went to buy influence with the UN Security council, most notably France, China and Russia. I am a bit suprized you missed that since it is a major part of the story. Willful ignorance? Saddam was trying to leverage their influence to end the sanctions against Iraq.

The US is pretty clean on this one, in fact we are the ones pushing the investigation. Kofi on the other hand is up to his elbows in this...

WHERE ARE THE WMD'S!!!
The lie far the oil war. Eat it, dirty neocons :upyours:

I advise you to stop the flaming or you may find yourself temporarily barred from this forum.



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