More Oil-Food Deception Detailed
Iraq took in twice as much as previously thought by
working the
system, investigators say.
From Times Wire Services
November 16, 2004
WASHINGTON — Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime reaped more
than $21 billion from kickbacks and smuggling before and during the
U.N. "oil-for-food" program, twice as much as previous estimates,
Senate investigators said Monday.
The revenue, taken in between 1991 and 2003, was obtained by imposing
surcharges on oil, taking kickbacks on civilian goods and smuggling oil
directly to willing governments, Senate investigators said at a
hearing.
"The magnitude of fraud perpetrated by Saddam
Hussein in contravention of U.N. sanctions and the oil-for-food program
is staggering," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), chairman of the
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "This is like an onion
— we just keep uncovering more layers and more layers."
The
new figures on Iraq's alleged surcharges, kickbacks and smuggling are
based on documents obtained by the subcommittee. The documents
illustrate how Iraqi officials and foreign companies and politicians
apparently contrived to bring vast illicit gains to Hussein's
government and how he tried to buy support abroad for a move to get the
United Nations to lift sanctions, officials said.
The new
Senate figure is about double the amount estimated by the U.S.
Government Accountability Office, which had pegged the gains at $10.1
billion.
The oil-for-food program began in December 1996 to
alleviate the impact of U.N. sanctions, imposed after Iraq invaded
Kuwait in 1990, on the Iraqi people. The Security Council allowed Iraq
to sell oil and buy food, medicine and other goods and let Baghdad draw
up its own contracts.
This left room for abuse in the
$64-billion program, administered by the United Nations and monitored
by a Security Council panel, including the United States, investigators
say.
Oil smuggling netted Hussein's regime about $9.7
billion, with other funds flowing from switching substandard goods for
top-grade ones, as well as exploiting food and medicine shipments to
Kurds in Iraq's north.
Coleman said the investigation was just beginning and criticized the
United Nations for not providing documents.
