Associated Press
Posted on 10/24/2004 3:50:33 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
NEW YORK - Interviews with dozens of former and current Iraqi officials by congressional investigators have produced new evidence that Saddam Hussein micromanaged business deals under the United Nations oil-for-food program to maximize political influence with important foreign governments like Russia and neighboring Arab states.
The Iraqi officials, who were flown outside of Iraq for their own safety during the interviews, provided a list of foreign companies favored by Saddam and his top lieutenants for import contracts under the U.N. program. They also revealed a parallel blacklist of companies that the then-Iraq leader disqualified from getting deals, investigators said.
The precaution of redoubled secrecy comes after an Iraqi official involved in the oil-for-food investigation of corruption died in a car bombing in late June after speaking with investigators from the House International Relations Committee.
The Iraqi officials also helped investigators identify Iraqi front companies, which operated abroad to solicit and process alleged bribes from foreign companies and to help facilitate imports for the Iraqi government, including dual-use military goods such as vehicles.
The oil-for-food program, which ran from 1996 to 2003, was created to permit the former Iraqi government to sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods.
One of the documents, known as "the exempt list," catalogs companies personally approved by Saddam and top lieutenants to circumvent Iraqi regulations to sign deals. The list contains hundreds of names of companies from more than two dozen countries.
No French, Chinese or American companies are on the list, but more than 280 Russian and 100 Saudi companies account for well over half of the list. The investigator who provided the document said Congress might not have the full list.
LOL. AP. A few hundred days late, and a few billion dollars short in terms of their O For F scandal coverage.
Sun Rises in East
Pope Is Catholic
Democrats Plan Vote Fraud
You left out bears and what they do in the forest.
Oldeeconomybuyer, I took the liberty of adding "oil for food" to the key words so that those of us who are refuting arguments from the left will have an easy way to find information.
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