NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-oil-for-food,0,5933202.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

Looks like there really is something to anti-corruption investigation in Sweden.

Anders Kruse, head of the Foreign Ministry's legal division, said Sweden had forwarded the information to the U.N. committee in charge of sanctions and was told the extra fees were widely known.

"This was something that was more or less commonly known, that was the picture we received," Kruse said. "We could not do anything about it. There were no possibilities for us here in Stockholm to do something."

A U.N. report last year said more than 2,200 companies had colluded with Saddam's government, paying kickbacks on lucrative contracts in the 1996-2003 program.

Sweden's anti-corruption prosecutor, Nils-Erik Schultz, who is investigating whether 14 Swedish companies named in the probe had violated any Swedish laws in making the deals, criticized the government Tuesday.

"I think a simple measure would have been to talk to the companies, or even make them sign a pledge not to pay any money on the side to Iraq," Schultz told Swedish Radio. "But we have not seen any measures taken to stop this."

Recently, there was a conviction along similar lines in the US. Are there any similar anti-corruption investigations or trials in other nations that were involved in the Oil For Food scandal?

I would be just as concerned about the current "reconstruction". Now that's a gold mine. Companies have made billions providing concrete cubes in the desert.

Now we just have to wait for the French, US, British etc. to do someting similar.

Now we just have to wait for the French, US, British etc. to do someting similar.
But that would make them look bad. (Sweden doesn't care as much about that, as it doesn't go around arrogantly claiming to be the best country in the world ever.)

But that would make them look bad. (Sweden doesn't care as much about that, as it doesn't go around arrogantly claiming to be the best country in the world ever.)

True. Although the British govt. is in such a f*cking mess right now they might welcome the attention on something that isn't of the now.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-oil-for-food,0,5933202.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

Looks like there really is something to anti-corruption investigation in Sweden.

Riksrevisionen and Riksenheten mot korruption ftw!

A CPI (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781359.html) score above 9 comes from somewhere...

Now we just have to wait for the French, US, British etc. to do someting similar.
The US already has its first conviction.

Of course, it wasn't covered by the mainstream media.

The conviction of Tongsun Park, itinerant wheeler-dealer and professional briber.

Riksrevisionen and Riksenheten mot korruption ftw!

A CPI (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781359.html) score above 9 comes from somewhere...
How the hell did Britain get 8.6? We must have offered peerages to the survey's sources.

The US already has its first conviction.

Of course, it wasn't covered by the mainstream media.

The conviction of Tongsun Park, itinerant wheeler-dealer and professional briber.

Call me when they prosecute themselves for supplying the chemical weapons used against the Kurds, then I might give a shit.

Call me when they prosecute themselves for supplying the chemical weapons used against the Kurds, then I might give a shit.

Umm... the US didn't give Iraq the chemical weapons to use against the Kurds.

The US has never manufactured that particular variety of nerve gas.

How the hell did Britain get 8.6? We must have offered peerages to the survey's sources.

We're remarkable honest about international stuff, it's just the internal stuff that gets us.

I still can't sleep with the image of John Prescott getting jiggy floating around my head.

Umm... the US didn't give Iraq the chemical weapons to use against the Kurds.

The US has never manufactured that particular variety of nerve gas.

I apologise, it was the Iranians then.

I get so confused between all the despotic regiems the US supports and their various wars.

I apologise, it was the Iranians then.

I get so confused between all the despotic regiems the US supports and their various wars.

Umm... the nerve gas used against the Kurds was GB - Sarin.

The second six samples, including pieces of metal, contained "unequivocal" residues of methylphosphonic acid (MPA) and isipropyl methylphosphonic acid (iPMPA), according to analytical chemists at Porton Down. MPA is a product of the hydrolysis of any of several chemical weapons nerve agents. iPMPA is a product of the hydrolysis of the nerve agent GB.

And...

1956: Regular production of sarin ceased in the United States, though existing stocks of bulk Sarin were re-distilled until 1970.

and...

The massacre at Halabja did not raise protests by the international community in March 1988. At the time, it was admitted that the civilians had been killed "collaterally" due to an error in handling the combat gas. Two years later, when the Iran-Iraq War was finished and the Western powers stopped supporting Saddam Hussein, the massacre of Halabja was attributed to the Iraqi government.

While the United States did not supply full-fledged chemical weapons to Iraq, it did approve private business sales of biological weapon precursors to Iraq, according to a 1994 report issued by the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs (aka the Riegle Report.) It should be noted that the report does not provide proof of U.S. involvement in Iraqi chemical weapons and that the gas attack was carried out by Mustard gas and not a biological weapon. In addition, there is no evidence that Iraq ever used biological weapons in combat during the war with Iran.

The US also provided satellite photographs and battlefield intelligence to Iraq which it knew was to be used in "calibrating" Iraqi chemical weapons attacks against Iran Furthermore, the US provided dual use helicopters, ostensibly for crop spraying, which intelligence sources believe were used to deploy the chemical weapons in Halabja

Several European nations also participated in arming Iraq, specifically Germany. German chemical companies and German Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) protective gear manufacturers also supplied the Iraqi Army and Rustimiya Officers Academy. Stores of German chemicals and training materials were found in June 2003 by U.S. soldiers in east Baghdad. Details of the findings were described by a U.S. Army corporal in the book American, Interrupted. The soldier also recorded video footage of protective gear and chemicals in store rooms. See Video of German chemicals and NBC gear

Looks like we provided something, but not the chemicals.

Maybe you should ask the Germans about the nerve gas.