NationStates Jolt Archive

I seem to recall people blaming the US for starving the Iraqi people under this program.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051027/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_oil_for_food

UNITED NATIONS - About 2,200 companies in the U.N. oil-for-food program, including corporations in France, Germany and Russia, paid a total of $1.8 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam Hussein's government, a U.N.-backed investigation said in a report released Thursday.

The report from the committee probing claims of wrongdoing in the $64 billion program said prominent politicians also made money from extensive manipulation of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.

The investigators reported that companies and individuals from 66 countries paid illegal kickbacks using a variety of ways, and those paying illegal oil surcharges came from, or were registered in, 40 countries.

Germany-based automaker DaimlerChrysler, meanwhile, appears to have paid just $7,000 on a contract worth $70,000. DaimlerChrysler AG didn't immediately return a call seeking comment from its offices in Stuttgart, Germany.

In July, DaimlerChrysler said it had been asked for a statement and documents regarding its role in the oil-for-food program, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The report also found that individuals and companies in the United States accounted for 52% of all oil-voucher kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_for_food#Duelfer_Investigation

The final official version of the report cites only France, Russia and Canada as violators who paid kickbacks (countries who were also heavily anti-war) while at the same time specifically censoring out companies from the US originially included by Deulfer by CIA order. [11] However, the full version of the report, before the U.S. names were removed, was sent to congressional committees and some of it made publicly available. The U.S. companies implicated include Exxon Mobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp. and El Paso Corp

This is a copy cat thread and is against NS rules.