Text 5100, 122 rader
Skriven 2004-11-17 04:45:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Oil for palaces
=======================
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138759,00.html

Probe: Oil-for-Food Money Went to Palestinian Bombers' Families
Wednesday, November 17, 2004

WASHINGTON  Money from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program (search) helped
pay the families of Palestinian homicide bombers, the House Committee on
International Relations is expected to reveal Wednesday during a hearing on
corruption in the Iraqi relief program.

Investigators working for Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the
panel, are expected to say they have traced funds from former Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein's (search)kickback scheme through a Jordanian bank and into the
hands of families of bombers who attacked Israeli citizens.

It has long been established that Saddam paid bounties of $15,000 to $25,000 to
the Palestinian families of the murderers. Hyde's committee will reveal at the
hearing that some of the reward money was deposited from illegal profits Saddam
made by demanding 10 percent kickbacks on all the contracts of companies that
did business with the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program.

Those funds were then deposited with other Iraqi money, such as Jordanian
Oil-for-Food oil payments, into the Central Bank of Iraq account in the
Rafidain Bank (search) in Amman, Jordan. The funds were then transferred to
another account in the bank controlled by Iraq's ambassador to Jordan Sabah
Yaseen (search). It was from Yaseen's account that Saddam's officials would cut
and hand out checks to the homicide bombers' families, Hyde's investigators are
expected to say.


Corruption Spreads Outward

As congressional inquiries continue into the scandal-ridden Oil-for-Food
program, more evidence has come to light revealing how Saddam was able to
funnel more than $21 billion away from the food and medicine program into the
pockets of criminals.

"In essence, the Hussein regime created a system of kickbacks, as we have heard
today, skimming schemes and smuggling operations to bilk the international
sanctions regime of all its potential value and profits," Juan Carlos Zarate,
an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, told lawmakers on Monday.

"He used the implements of the state, the Central Bank, commercial enterprises
and his diplomatic and intelligence assets to help skirt international
restrictions. In some cases, he used this system to attempt to procure weapons
and other banned goods, all in an effort to fortify his regime," Zarate said.

According to U.S. officials, the former Iraqi leader spread billions of dollars
around the globe, particularly targeting France, Russia and China, all
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (search).

While diplomats from those three nations deny they were bought off, and U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) says he doesn't believe they were,
Saddam's oil voucher scheme was aimed at ending sanctions, and a CIA report
revealed that Saddam was very generous to his friends and supporters.

According to U.S. investigators, Saddam was able to set up a system of
rewarding sympathizers and supporters with pieces of paper that entitled them
to sell allocations of Iraqi oil to real oil companies at an instant profit,
sometimes earning in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars.
Saddam allegedly even personally picked the lucky recipients as a reward for
their support.

Witnesses at the Senate Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations (search) told lawmakers Monday that Saddam got away with the
scam because the Security Council made the mistake of letting him pick the
buyers and sellers of Iraq's oil, which in effect let Saddam nearly completely
control the relief program.

Subcommittee chairman Norm Coleman of Minnesota suggested that a lot of
businesspeople wanted to play ball with Saddam, and cited the case of a
well-known multinational corporation, Weir Group (search), which sells oil
equipment. That company did $80 million worth of business under the
Oil-for-Food program but Coleman said the company inflated one big contract by
30 percent and admitted it knew the extra money was going to Saddam.

In another example, the Al Bashier Trading Company (search) was apparently run
directly by Saddam's regime, say officials. In that situation, Saddam made
money by selling items to himself. Al Bashier allegedly secretly took the
Oil-for-Food money to buy weapons.

In a different situation, Saddam also ran Corsin Financial Ltd. (search), a
front company whose money is now missing. Saddam presumably grabbed the money
and used it to pay for his palaces, bolster his corrupt regime and go on a
weapons-buying spree.

United Nations Keeps a Tight Lip

In essence, say investigators, Saddam relied on a sophisticated worldwide
financial network of both legitimate and shell companies to earn billions in
illegal profits. One official who allegedly received such a voucher was the
Oil-for-Food program's former director, Benon Sevan (search). He has denied the
allegation, but the Senate panel wants to pull him in to discuss the
accusations.

At the hearing, Charles Duelfer (search), who now heads the weapons inspections
team in Iraq, told Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the
investigations subcommittee, that he believes Sevan likely did get the
vouchers.

"The Iraqis firmly believe that," Duelfer said. "I would conclude with high
confidence from the data that the Iraqis provided, from all we saw, that that
happened."

Annan has promised Sevan will cooperate with the U.N.'s own investigation, but
it's not clear what Sevan would do if subpoenaed by the Senate, and he could
claim diplomatic immunity to avoid testifying or even meeting with senators.

Coleman's subcommittee has also wanted to meet with U.N. officials to discuss
their Oil-for-Food audits. But the U.N.'s chief in-house investigator, former
Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker (search), has refused to disclose
information to any Senate panels, saying that to do so now would hurt his
investigative efforts.

Volcker claims that "partial and premature disclosures of sensitive internal
documents or demands for congressional appearances of U.N. employees will be
damaging to the pursuit of investigative leads, chill participation of those
called upon to cooperate, and risk misleading, prejudicial and unfair
impressions on institutional, personal and member-state behavior."

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