CIA Discloses Who's Who of Saddam's Alleged Bribes

Reuters ^ | 6 Oct, 2004 | Evelyn Leopold

[jpw01]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) on Wednesday released a list of firms and people from dozens of countries allegedly given oil vouchers by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government that could be turned into cash.

The charts, compiled from 13 secret lists by Iraq (news - web sites)'s former vice president and oil minister, enumerates legitimate contracts to oil companies. But it is also a veritable who's who of political groups and individuals from whom the former Iraqi government wanted to buy influence while under U.N. sanctions.

The list was issued as part of a report on Iraq's unconventional weapons by CIA (news - web sites) advisor Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. inspector in Iraq. But Duelfer did not say whether anyone had tried to verify the names on the list.

Among the alleged recipients of oil vouchers were Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Russian ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his Liberal Democratic Party, the Russian presidential office, the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ukraine Community Party, the Ukraine Socialist Party, the son of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and the Peoples Liberation Front of Palestine. There are also many others.

The only U.N. official on the list is Benon Sevan, the head of the humanitarian program for Iraq, who has been accused previously of receiving an oil voucher and has denied it several times. He is list as a Mr. Sifan, a U.N. official.

The United Nations (news - web sites) has given its documents to Paul Volcker, former head of the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) for an independent probe.

"We are not going to comment on any specific allegation against Mr. Sevan or anyone else," said U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard. "This is in the hands of Paul Volcker. We are cooperating with him fully. Benon Sevan is cooperating with him fully, and we will wait for Volcker's judgment."

All names of Americans and British companies and individuals, whether suspected of wrongdoing or not, were deleted from the list, part of which had been published by an Iraqi newspaper in Baghdad after the war in March 2003.

Iraq was under a sweeping U.N. trade embargo in August 1990 after it invaded Kuwait. The sanctions were tightened after the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) and not lifted until last year.

At the end of 1996, the United Nations and Iraq began the oil-for-food program that allowed Baghdad to buy civilian goods and sell oil to pay for them under U.N. monitoring. But since 1990, Iraq, with the knowledge of the United States and Britain, freely shipped oil by truck to Jordan and Turkey, before and during the U.N. program.

Deals with governments generated over $7.5 billion for Saddam from the early 1990s until the start of the 2003 war, the report said.

Iraq earned an additional $2 billion from kickbacks or surcharges associated with the oil-for-food program, $990 million from oil "cash sales" or smuggling, and $230 million from other surcharge imposition, the report said.

Companies in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen helped Saddam acquire prohibited items through deceptive trade practices, the report added.

"Saddam personally approved and removed all names of voucher recipients. He made all modifications to the list, adding or deleting names at will," the report said.

Oil companies were forced to pay surcharges, which by late 2,000 amounted to 25 to 50 cents per barrel.

But Russia blocked U.N. efforts to force oil buyers not to pay it. Britain, followed by the United States, later forced the United Nations to set oil prices retroactively to cut the surcharge.

U.S. oil companies purchased Iraqi crude from middlemen rather than directly from Baghdad. By early 2003, the United States was consuming 67 percent of Iraqi crude, by far the largest buyer. (Bernie Woodall contributed to this report)

[Publius6961]

All names of Americans and British companies and individuals, whether suspected of wrongdoing or not, were deleted from the list, part of which had been published by an Iraqi newspaper in Baghdad after the war in March 2003.

Why should that be? We don't get even a bad explanation. I want those names. We should be sanctioning both foreign and domestic cockroaches of whatever party.

Perhaps france will provide the American names out of spite. Works for me!

[ko_kyi]

named or not, the people on the take are squirming as they wait for the other shoe to drop.

As they should be.

[cohokie]

check out captains they have this interesting quote from the scotsman : SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France, according to devastating documents released last night. Memos from Iraqi intelligence officials, recovered by American and British inspectors, show the dictator was told as early as May 2002 that France - having been granted oil contracts - would veto any American plans for war.

[Publius6961]

All those links are a bewildering jumble of words. How hard would it be to simply have a list by country or official?

You Know, France, Soviet Union, Germany, Great Britain, U.S.A., etc., followed by the names found on all documents captured from Iraq?

[Freee-dame]

SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac, the President of France,

ally ?

[Fred Nerks]

Here's a link to the original list as published on Healing Iraq (blog) as provided by the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/oillcoupons.html

[kcvl]

I want NAMES!

They starved people to death for their own benefit and that makes me furious!

[MizSterious]

Thanks for the ping--and I sure hope it's starting to break. It's well past time for it!

[jokar]

Bump

[alrea]

SADDAM HUSSEIN believed he could avoid the Iraq war with a bribery strategy targeting Jacques Chirac

TERRY MCAULIFFE, DNC CHAIRMAN believes they can avoid a Bush second term with a strategy of depending on the media ignoring the danger of bribed UN bureaucrats making decisions about US security.

[Fred Nerks]

See link provided to Healing Iraq blog for names and organisations listed in order of countries. (Germany is NOT on this list.)

[alrea]

That's who I want to know about.

as the chair of the Sandy Berger Dan Rather Society of Contributions to the Bill Clinton Lewinski Library may I ask for a nomination to block this list from becoming public

[Fred Nerks]

NAMES OF INDIVIDUALS & VARIOUS ORGANISATIONS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF COUNTRIES;

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/oillcoupons.html

[GailA]

Sure isn't we've known about it for more than 6 months.

[mathluv]

2 names were listed from the US. google provided the following: t a c i t u s || Jim McDermott's Tainted Money
... Jim McDermott (D-Seattle), received $5,000 from Shakir al-Khafaji--the legal maximum--for his legal defense fund ... Who is Shakir al-Khafaji? He is embroiled in the UN oil ...
www.tacitus.org/story/2004/4/18/ 122952/684 - 39k - Cached - More pages from this site

[GOPJ]

If you're right, it'll be front page above the fold.

For instance . . . a certain benefactor of democrat 527s?

[Fred Nerks]

The two names on the US list are mentioned in this blog:

http://www.blogsforbush.com/mt/archives/000532/html

One was an 'acquaintance' of Jimmy Carter, the other gave $400.000 to Scott Ritter to make a movie...see comment from 'George Turner'

[lwd]

McDermott was one of three Congressmen who went on Saddam’s propaganda tour of Iraq in Fall 2002. The trip was funded by Life for Relief and Development (LRD), a “charity” which laundered money to terrorist group Hamas’ Jordanian operation. LRD is funded in part by Shakir Al-Khafaji, a man who did about $70 million in business with Saddam through his Falcon Trading Group company (based in South Africa). LRD’s Iraqi offices were raided by US troops last week, and the Detroit-area “charity” is suspected of funding uprisings, such as the one in Fallujah. Its officials bragged of doing so at a recent private US fundraiser.

Mr. Alkhafaji, one of two Americans named in Iraqi newspapers as a participant in Saddam’s “Oil for Food” scam, gave Congressman McDermott $5,000 in October 2002 for McDermott’s legal defense fund in a lawsuit against him….

http://www.bowlingfortruth.com/fahrenheit911/terrorists.htm

[lwd]

I wonder if either of these individuals shorted airline stocks prior to 9-11?

[WVNan]

Wasn't Scot Ritter the guy who suddenly did a 180 on Saddam's WMD?