Kerry's case for winning allies undercut by oil-for-food shenanigans

krt wire ^ | 10/14/04

[knak]

(KRT) - John Kerry has been so busy on the campaign trail spouting "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" and trying to woo voters with how he's going to "build alliances" to make Iraq all better that he probably hasn't had time to review the tape of fascinating and frustrating testimony that took place in Washington three days before the second presidential debate.

The House Committee on Government Reform's subcommittee investigating the U.N. oil-for-food program heard disturbing accounts of how our "allies" - some of the same countries that cited moral grounds for refusing to back President Bush's pre-emptive move into Iraq - did a first-class job of sabotaging a sanctions program that might have kept Saddam Hussein in check, eliminating the need to shut him down militarily.

"In terms of being a sanctions regime that stopped Saddam Hussein's attempts from busting it and cheating, and using funds to get prohibited materials, it was not a total success," testified Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, the U.S. representative to U.N. Management and Reform.

[GailA]

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