Early Warning Not Heeded on Oil-for-Food

FoxNews.xom ^ | 9/21/2004 | Eric Shawn

[1066AD]

Early Warning Not Heeded on Oil-for-Food Tuesday, September 21, 2004 By Eric Shawn NEW YORK — For years after the first Gulf War, the United Nations battled to keep everything except humanitarian aid from reaching Iraq. But U.S. lawmakers and experts believe the world body failed. The United Nations (search) first tried a series of sanctions to make Saddam Hussein (search) bend to its will following the successful 1991 war to oust him from Kuwait. But then it attempted to find a way for Iraqi citizens to get needed medicine and other supplies through the sale of Iraqi oil

[1066AD]

Hopefully they'll do more TV specials on this too.

[ladtx]

I'm surprised FOX hasn't done a big special on Saddam's Oil for Palaces program. It would open a lot of eyes.

[mass55th]

""He was an experienced, a very experienced, sanctions buster," Conlon said, explaining that because Rich had helped South Africa evade U.N. sanctions during apartheid. Rich later became infamous when he was charged with illegally doing business with Iran."

I was surprised to hear this when I watched the show on Sunday. I'd known about Rich's evading tax payments and fines, but hadn't known about his involvement with South Africa or Iran.

After I heard this, I wondered how Nelson Mandela felt about his old friend Billy Jeff granting a pardon to a man who sought to undermine South Africa's liberation.

[1066AD]

I think it was his trading with Iran that resulted in his having to flee the US and, IIRC, being stripped of US citizenship.

[mass55th]

Here's what a Time Magazine article on Feb. 13, 2001 said:

"In 1983, Rich was indicted in federal court of evading more than $48 million in taxes. He was also charged with 51 counts of tax fraud and with running illegal oil deals with Iran during the hostage crisis."

This is what they wrote on his citizenship:

"Rich has been living in Switzerland for almost 20 years now. Is he still a U.S. citizen? That's one of the major questions connected with this case. And the answer, legally, anyway, appears to be yes. While Rich's lawyers can't seem to decide if their client is a citizen — sometimes he is, sometimes he isn't — and Rich himself reportedly considers himself a citizen of Israel and Spain, a federal appeals court ruled in 1991 that Rich had not actively renounced his U.S. citizenship, and therefore he was subject to U.S. law. "

Does anyone know if his citizenship was ever really stripped?

[watchout]

Because of the U.N AMERICAN BOYS are DEAD . What more will take to get out of the U.N?

[watchout]

New World Order Rising? - Thoughts on the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/743512/posts?page=10

[watchout]

Who created the United Nations?
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a00f5fb38b0.htm

[BenLurkin]

One of the people who wanted a slice of the pie was Marc Rich (search), the fugitive financier pardoned by former President Bill Clinton during his last hours in office in 2001.

"He was an experienced, a very experienced, sanctions buster," Conlon said, explaining that because Rich had helped South Africa evade U.N. sanctions during apartheid. Rich later became infamous when he was charged with illegally doing business with Iran.

"If Mark Rich can get on your list of approved companies, there are no standards, then anyone can," Conlon said. "When I told my director about this, he nearly collapsed."

Conlon said he was so concerned, he fired off memos telling the U.N. secretariat that it was "crooks who now make up an important part of our ultimate clientele."

Those "crooks" turned humanitarian aid into a "Trojan horse" for Saddam's regime, Conlon said. It was a case of the old bait-and-switch.

"For example, we gave them an awful lot of permits for water purification chemicals. Any kind of chemical whatsoever could have been in those drums that they were importing," Conlon said