Posted on 06/23/2004 3:33:53 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate subcommittee has begun an investigation into alleged corruption in the multibillion-dollar U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, including whether American companies profited from it.
The Senate Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has subpoenaed documents from BNP Paribas, a French bank that the United Nations used for the food-for-oil program.
The panel has also written letters to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the State Department, the Government Accounting Office, and Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, requesting documents in the probe.
"We're going to follow the money," said the subcommittee chairman, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman. "It's clear that the regime of Saddam Hussein profited. We want to find out who else benefited. How was it able to occur?"
The oil-for-food program, which ended last November, was aimed at helping ordinary Iraqis cope with the hardship of sanctions by allowing the former Iraqi regime to sell oil to buy humanitarian goods.
In January, the Iraqi newspaper Al-Mada published a list of about 270 former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials from more than 46 countries suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales under the program.
And in March, the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, estimated that Saddam's government pocketed $5.7 billion by smuggling oil to its neighbors and another $4.4 billion by extracting kickbacks on otherwise legitimate contracts.
Coleman declined to say what he requested from the various agencies, citing the ongoing investigation. He said he has about 10 staff people working on the probe, including employees from the GAO, the FBI, the Treasury Department, and the Internal Revenue Service.
The United Nations is doing its own internal investigation, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
"His investigation doesn't obviate the need for the U.S. Congress to do its own investigation," said Coleman, adding that several lawmakers have expressed an interest in looking into the program.
Volcker did not return phone messages left Wednesday, but he told Fox News: "There's a danger of too many cooks in this particular broth."
A U.N. spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, declined to comment on the Senate investigation.
AP-ES-06-23-04 1819EDT
fyi
ping
Well, I can think of 2 people off the top of my head...
Jean Chretien, & Paul Martin...
One of the primary reasons Canada did not enter into the Iraqi freedom coalition...The guys running the show in Canada were making some hefty coinage and didn't want to loose out on contracts with the program...
Just my $0.02
Dare I say about time?
Weeeelllll...we'll see what happens.
Nice to see. This could get really interesting...
To prevent the Republicans from politicisng this matter, the dem crapweasels will have to block every effort. Fortunately, Senator Frist and the other chicken RINOs will see the wisdom in moving on just as they did with all the criminal Judiciary memos that the found on the dem computer.
FYI.
I think Norm Coleman is an excellent Senator. He is a smart, eloquent, honest man and more conservative than I ever thought.
You've been paying attention....;)
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